Friday, August 25, 2023

Take Me Back Home

It's been a very long time since I've been on here but I really wanted to make sure that this post would be here. I did post it in a Facebook group Willowdale in the 70's.
As strange as this sounds, after watching the Riverdale series finales the other night I was so affected by the feelings of endings and saying goodbye and wishing that I could go back to places in my past.
There are a couple of things that contributed to my emotions which I have not mentioned on here.
My father, Doug Scammell passed away a few months ago. It was unexpected and I never got to say goodbye. When I got to the hospital he was already gone. My son Tyler was the one who found him.
My step-mother was in Florida at the time and messaged me to check on Dad who was at their house. He did not go to Florida. I was in the middle of something so I asked Tyler to drop over and see how Dad was.
He found him on the ground. He had fallen and hit his head. We're not sure of why or any other details.
Damn, I should have been the one to go over there. I haven't really talked about that day with Tyler or Braydon who rushed over when Tyler called.
So now my nuclear first family of Mom, Hayley, Dad and me is now just me.
Something about my dad is that he took many, many photos. His cousin worked at Kodak and got them processed for free. So Dad had slides. More slides than I realized.
When my stepmother sold the house we trucked over 7 large totes and 1 wooden box of slides.
When dad got the slides developed he would show them once or twice and then put them away. So there are many photos in there that I have never seen.
It's a but of a gut punch when I run into these pics of us that I didn't know exist. For the past few months I have been going through these thousands of slides and digitizing the important ones.
I've been posting them to my Facebook as well as the Willowdale page. I'm happy to say that people are really enjoying them. The page administrator really appreciates my contributions as well as the page members. It's a very emotional task but worthy.

Many of the photos I have found are from multiple birthday parties when we were very young. It looks like a wild time with kids everywhere loading up on junk and sweets. A perfect time.
In several of the photos there is a cute little blonde girl named Robyn. She and I were great friends for many years until her mother remarried and the family moved away. I think I was 8 or 9.
When she was moving I took a box of chocolates over to her. We were at her front door. I handed her the chocolates and then we kissed.
It was the first ever romantic-ish kiss for me and I found out years later for her too.
Several years ago we connected on Facebook and became friends again.
I found out last week from a post from her son that Robyn had just passed away a few days prior.

I felt a shadow cross my heart.

So you see, It's been am emotional time of late and last night I decided to say it to my Willowdale friends.

So here it is:


I don’t know how many of the people on here watched the series finale of Riverdale last night and felt what I did. First, the similarity of the name with Willowdale isn’t lost on me.
It was so sad and bittersweet. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone but it hit home hard.
We were like last night’s Riverdale.
To be nearing the end of a long life and ache to get back when it was so much to be with our friends and family.
I think it’s a combination of turning 60 and losing friends and family as we are.
Add this to all of the slides of my father’s that I’ve been going through since his passing.
I’ve spent hours going through memories that I had long forgotten. So many times I’m feeling “God, I wish I could go back to that.”
All the scout camps, weeks spent in summers with guys (and girls), on northern Ontario islands. Jamborees across the country with guys who were the brothers I never had. Hockey teams of guys who were wild on the ice and off but we were a team. And that was family.
Family trips across the globe and spending time with friends and family that we never thought would end. And they would always be there for the next time we visited. Until they weren’t anymore. The warm feelings of the first kiss, that made me smile when she jokingly mentioned it to me a few years ago when we reconnected on Facebook, and the sadness of finding out from her son last week that she had passed away. I had just found several slides of her just recently at my old birthday parties.

And my baby sister Hayley.
The best little sister I could ever have asked for. She did a pretty great job of stopping me from doing stupid things. She advised me on the smart things to do. I protected her when I could. I feel badly for the occasional boy who may have expressed an interest in her and decided not to pursue it after meeting me. Going through these slides has knocked me for a loop many times. Yes, we were close.

Pictures of my family that I haven’t seen in years. Some that I never have seen until now.
Great pets that we have had in our lives and remember them like it was yesterday, even if it was many yesterdays ago now.
When we look at group and family photos now and count how many are no longer with us, and end up with more people gone than still with us.
I hope that I will meet all of you again and get a hug.

I wish that I could have had a chance to say goodbye to my father but I take some satisfaction in the knowledge that I ended all of our conversations with “I love you”. I was there when mom passed and I got to say goodbye. I had a chance to be with Hayley and talk to her while she slept before she passed.

My point is this.

Tell the people you love that you love them.
Tell the people that you like that you like them.
Enjoy every moment with your friends and when someone wants to take a photo then smile and make the photo wonderful. If you don’t like having your picture taken just suck it up!
There is a good chance that one day many years from now someone is going to browse through those photos and admire that person with the warm sincere smile.

Even if we are gone our smiles will still be around.


Take good care,

Tim


Thursday, November 25, 2021

A Hero and His Army of Kindness


Photo from Wikipedia

Last Christmas I received a Mr. Rogers quote a day daily calendar from Cheryl. Every page is a different quote for every weekday. For the weekends there are only 1 quote for Saturday and Sunday.
It’s a fantastic calendar and I love it.

Now, I’m quite certain that anyone reading this will know who Fred Rogers was.

When I was young I would always watch Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood when it was on.
As I got older I didn’t watch him as much but would often sit down and watch or stop for a few minutes as my sister Hayley watched him.

Of course in later years kids would goof on Mr. Rogers and joke about his style.
National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live even did spoofs of him which he took in stride. He was always a good sport as long as there was no cursing or adult themes involved.

There are so many things that Mr. Rogers did and so many messages that he passed along.
It is impossible to measure the lasting impact that he had on so many lives, big and small, young and old.
He wouldn’t hesitate to address serious topics such as war, death, divorce.
He respected the children enough to not insult their intelligence and talk to them about real or scary things.
But he did it in such a way that didn’t blast them and shock or traumatize their souls.

I’ve often wondered if there has been anyone quite like him. There are many that I think have come close to him such as Canadian legends Mr. Dressup and The Friendly Giant but in my opinion he stood alone above all.

I was not really surprised to learn that Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister. However, I am still surprised and impressed at how little he brought religion into his show.
Even my calendar only has references to religion a couple of times.
Photo from misterrogers.org

He was able to teach love and decency to all and remain inclusive of anyone and everyone on the planet.

I remember the day that he passed away. I felt sad. I had not really been following news of his life and didn’t even know that he was sick.

This may seem a bit strange but since his passing I have come to idolize Fred Rogers. This gets deeper with every article, movie or documentary about him.
I’ve actually shed more tears about his passing in the last few years than any time in the past.

I’m not certain why but I decided that every day in 2021 I would take the daily quotes and post them to my Facebook and Twitter timelines.
Just for fun I also message them to Cheryl, Tyler and Braydon.

I regret that my sons never had a chance to watch him but I hope that with every quote of his that they get from me they realize what a wonderful man he was.

Fred Rogers did something that very few have ever done in history.
He created an army of love one television episode at a time.

The quote today is one of my absolute favourites.

“We parents are the holders of a priceless gift, a gift we received from countless generations we never knew, a gift that only we now possess and only we can give to our children.” - Mr. Rogers quote of the day

One of my good friends didn’t quite understand what this was about.
I tried to explain as best as I could what this message meant to me.

“The makeup of all of us is the result of the many generations before us going all the way back to star stuff and the origins of life. There are people going back hundreds of years in our family lines that we will likely never have a clue about, yet physical and mental traits of them have come down to us. We pass them down to our children and the line will continue on into people that will probably never even know our names. Some of these traits are not so great. However, in true Mr. Roger's style, he has chosen to look on the positive side and sees all of them as "gifts".”

I hope that I got it right.

Stay well,
Tim

“You are special. You’re special to me. There’s only one in this wonderful world.”

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Not Too Bad if I Do Say

Look at this!
Now I know that all of my handyman/woman friends are going to say Pffftt and roll their eyes but this is huge for me.

I’ll start this off by mentioning that I am not handy at all and projects don’t often end well for me. For example, when Cheryl and I lived in a condo in Mississauga I tried to install a ceiling fan in the dining room. I went to the panel and turned the power off. I swear I did. And then went over to deal with the fan. Long story short, electricity found its way through somehow and I fried the wall switch, ceiling fan, and myself.

So when I’m at the gym this morning and Cheryl texts me that the front doorknob has come off again I felt that twinge of anxiety in my stomach and did a couple of extra sets on the weights to burn off a bit of steam before the fun starts.
I thought “it’s no big deal, I’ve fixed that before.” It’s just a matter of sliding the knob back onto the screws and tightening them. I’ve got this.
I put the knob on the screws and tightened them.
It didn’t work. The flappy button on the front of the door won’t go down. Great.

This is going into new territory. I’m going to take the front handle and flappy thing off. I carefully unscrewed it and took it off. Some pieces and a screw fell off into my hand. Oh oh. I figured that the pieces can go back and I’ll just put that screw back. Except I have to take the other screw off before I could put the pieces back.

When I loosened the other screw a spring thing and 2 pieces that go with it popped out!
Oh no. I didn’t see how and where they fit together!

Suddenly the flappy thing falls onto the floor and a little pin looking thing that goes with it!
That’s not fair! The flappy thing was okay until now!
I put them on the floor to worry about them later.

Inside the handle part there was a gear thing and other stuff. For some reason the springy thing and its other parts would not go back onto the gear thing. So I pried off the gear and the other things and put them on the floor with my fresh pile of springs and gears and stuff.

Every single part of this mechanism was now sitting on the floor disconnected to all of the other parts.

I can’t describe the feeling of despair that I felt now realizing that I have ruined the whole thing.

That’s why I call people to help me with these things.

“Maybe your father can help?” Cheryl said.

I sat on the floor with greasy hands and my pile of stuff and thought “No way! I’m going to try this again!”

I looked really hard at these things and started from the last piece that fell out of my hands onto the floor.
The gear thing and its parts went in pretty well.
I was happy.

Fortunately it appeared that nothing was broken. The pieces had just fell apart when a screw fell out.

The springy thing and its friends went in easily.
I tightened the handle and flappy part screws.
It looked good.
Now, I slowly slid the handle and flappy thing back into place.
It didn’t go nicely. It was wrong somehow.

I wiggled it and pushed and it eventually clicked into place. Nice.
When I tried to push the flappy thing it didn’t budge.
The springy thing and parts were in backwards. What the heck.

Anyway, a while later when I had switched the gear thing and everything the other way I tried again.

It worked!

The knob wasn’t on though and I still needed to tighten the handle.
When I turned the screw the whole thing started to pop out.
With Cheryl’s help I held the parts and she tightened the screws.
The final thing was putting that stupid knob on and tightening it.
I did that.

The moment of truth.

I pushed the flappy thing. It worked!

Now, I turned the knob very slowly and watched for parts to fly.

It worked!

“Holy crap!” I exclaimed.
Cheryl rushed over to see what was wrong.
I told her to push that and turn that.

She smiled when she realized that I had fixed it and gave me a hug.

A good way to start my day.

As long as I stay away from the front door and don’t try to fix anything else today. 🙂

Monday, August 31, 2020

Summer is Ending

As summer is ending and the world is getting ready to change again, this song is stuck in my head today. And that's not a bad thing...

Time Stand Still - Rush

I turn my back to the wind
To catch my breath
Before I start off again
Driven on
Without a moment to spend
To pass an evening
With a drink and a friend

I let my skin get too thin
I'd like to pause,
No matter what I pretend
Like some pilgrim
Who learns to transcend
Learns to live
As if each step was the end

Time stand still
I'm not looking back
But I want to look around me now
Time stands still
See more of the people
And the places that surround me now

Time stands still

Freeze this moment
A little bit longer
Make each sensation
A little bit stronger

Experience slips away
Experience slips away

Time stands still

I turn my face to the sun
Close my eyes
Let my defenses down
All those wounds
That I can't get unwound

I let my past go too fast
No time to pause
If I could slow it all down
Like some captain
Whose ship runs aground
I can wait until the tide comes around

Time stand still
I'm not looking back
But I want to look around me now
Time stands still
See more of the people
And the places that surround me now

Freeze this moment
A little bit longer
Make each sensation
A little bit stronger

Make each impression
A little bit stronger
Freeze this motion
A little bit longer

The innocence slips away The innocence slips away

Time stands still
Time stands still

I'm not looking back
But I want to look around me now
See more of the people
And the places that surround me now

Time stands still

Summer's going fast
Nights growing colder
Children growing up
Old friends growing older

Freeze this moment
A little bit longer
Make each sensation
A little bit stronger

Experience slips away
Experience slips away
The innocence slips away


Stay well,

Tim

Sunday, August 23, 2020

40 Years Ago Already!

Please try to make it to the end of this. I’m sorry it’s so long.
This is another of my end of August, end of summer memories, from 40 years ago, August 23, 1980 when I was 17 years old. This is one of my fondest memories of the time.
I mentioned the other day that my cousins had been visiting from England but had to return home when my uncle was killed in an airline tragedy in Saudi Arabia.
We had bought tickets and were very excited to be going to Heatwave Festival at Mosport Park in Bowmanville.

So I ended up going with my friends Mark Downing and Winston Medford.
Heatwave was labelled to be the "Punk Woodstock ", the “New Wave Woodstock", or "The 1980s Big Beat Rock and Roll Party". We headed out the evening prior to the festival to the site and planned to sleep in the car. I had borrowed my mother’s Mustang. When we arrived at the parking area there were thousands of people and cars everywhere.
It soon became clear that there would not be much sleeping going on that night with the huge wild party going on.
We met a couple of guys who had come over from the US and were mainly there to see The Clash play at the festival. Unfortunately, no one had told them that The Clash had some problems at the border and had to back out of the show. They were not happy to hear that.

At the time the price of gas was considerably lower in Canada and the US dollar was doing much better than ours. I asked them if they often zipped across the border for the cheap gas since they lived so close. He said “Man, I would but I can’t go anywhere without at least an ounce of grass on me!”

The parking area was just a huge farmer’s field.
At some point in the night someone decided to set fire to the big barn in the field several hundred metres away. The orange glow lasted for a little while until it burned out. I don’t remember if fire trucks came or not.
I think we did end up sleeping for an hour or so. All we had with us was some warm beer and baloney sandwiches that I had thought to bring along. What a healthy nutritious breakfast.

A couple of weeks prior to the show I was working on a road construction crew in the Queen/Spadina area in Toronto. I spotted the bass player from Teenage Head coming out of a bar just after lunch time. I recognized him because they had played at my high school AY Jackson.
He was a little drunk but gave me an autograph he signed Steve Head. His name is Steve Marshall. Lol.
He told me that they were set to play at Heatwave. I had no information stating this thought perhaps it was the alcohol talking.
I was pleasantly surprised when sure enough, Teenage Head came blasting out to wake up the sleepy folks still trying to get focused after the night before. Their set was great.

When we entered the concert area the security had set up huge dumpsters for people that hoped to bring in bottles or other undesirable things. They were filled to the brim.
I remember one guy with a large watermelon in a plastic bag. It looked innocent enough to me. The security guy pulled the watermelon out of the bag, jiggled the top of the watermelon and opened it to take a large bottle of booze out. They had hollowed it out to try and hide the bottle. It was brilliant but didn’t work.
We were smart enough to leave things back at the car.

Now, I don’t personally remember all of the sets these bands did but Wikipedia is kind enough to refresh my memory. Thanks very much Wikipedia! Look at this lineup!
Don’t get me wrong. I always have and always will love RUSH as the greatest band in the world.
However, when the B-52s call themselves “The World’s Greatest Party Band” there is a reason for it and when I was 17, I wanted to be a part of it. I was a huge fan of almost every one of these acts.
In some cases this was the last time I would see some of them play live.
There are many people in this list who are no longer with us.
Who would have known that on this day the Talking Heads had Adrian Belew playing with them who would go on to join another of my favourite bands of all time King Crimson!

I took this information from Wikipedia.

The groups that played were:

• Vladymir Rogov (opening artist) with his band ARKITEX
• Teenage Head
• BB Gabor
• Holly and the Italians
• Rockpile featuring Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe
• The Rumour without Graham Parker (just after he had gone solo)
• The B-52's
• Talking Heads (at sundown)
• The Pretenders
• Elvis Costello and the Attractions
• The Kings

Teenage Head set list

The reviewer saw "two scraggly guys playing guitar and bass, and a crop-haired singer in long-tailed livery coat and eyeliner. ... good ol' head-banging ramalama punk rock. A large and vocal following cheers them on, and they play with confidence, as if they belong up front of all those people." A year or so later, Teenage Head's live album had a picture from their Heatwave set on the cover. Their set included "Wild One" (from the Frantic City album).

1. Top Down
2. Wild One
3. Picture My Face
4. Some Kinda Fun
5. Little Boxes (Alimony)
6. Fist to Face (Everybody's Growin' Old)
7. Let's Shake
8. Lucy Potato
9. Brand New Cadillac
10. You're Tearing Me Apart
11. Somethin' Else
12. Kissin' The Carpet
13. Disgusteen
14. C'mon Everybody

The Pretenders set list

1. Precious
2. The Adultress
3. Kid
4. Space Invader
5. Private Life
6. Brass in Pocket
7. Stop Your Sobbing
8. The Wait
9. Louie Louie
10. Porcelain
11. Tattooed Love Boys
12. Up the Neck
13. Audience
14. Mystery Achievement

The B-52's set list

Performing the strongest material from their first album and debuting much of the Wild Planet material before the largest live audience they had experienced up to this point.

1. Planet Claire
2. 6060-842
3. Devil In My Car
4. 52 Girls
5. Quiche Lorraine
6. Dirty Back Road
7. Lava
8. Give Me Back My Man
9. Strobe Light
10. Private Idaho
11. Runnin' Around
12. Rock Lobster
13. Dance This Mess Around
14. Party Out of Bounds

Talking Heads set list

The band that toured for the Remain in Light album, including Adrian Belew, performed for the first time at Heatwave as the sun was setting. Their segment began with the four original members and then as the songs progressed, they added musicians and vocalists, including Nona Hendryx (vocals), Busta Jones, Steve Scales, Dolette McDonald, and Bernie Worrell (keyboards).

1. Take Me to the River
2. Psycho Killer
3. Warning Sign
4. Stay Hungry
5. Cities
6. I Zimbra
7. Once in a Lifetime
8. Houses in Motion
9. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
10. Crosseyed and Painless
11. Life During Wartime

Elvis Costello set list

The Heatwave festival was the only 1980 live concert in North America by Elvis Costello and the Attractions.

1. Shot With His Own Gun (sometimes listed as "How does it Feel"), accompanied only by Steve on piano *
2. Accidents Will Happen
3. The Beat
4. Temptation
5. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding
6. Mystery Dance
7. Green Shirt
8. You'll Never Be a Man
9. (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea
10. Secondary Modern
11. Pump It Up
12. Lover's Walk
13. Less Than Zero
14. Big Tears
15. High Fidelity *
16. Lipstick Vogue *
17. Radio Radio
18. I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down
19. Alison
20. Clubland
21. Oliver's Army
22. Watching the Detectives
23. You Belong to Me *

The Kings

Their set started about midnight, and they played for an hour.

1. Borrowing Time
2. Don't Let Me Know
3. Run Shoes Running
4. My Habit
5. This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide
6. Partyitis
7. California Girls
8. One Day Off
9. Go Away

From what I remember the acts that I was most looking forward to seeing live for the first time were the B-52s, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello and Rockpile.
I liked the other bands of course but I had already seen some of them.
I recall that the B-52s and Talking Heads were the best acts of the day and did not disappoint.

Teenage Head did pretty dang well playing for thousands when they were mainly playing high schools and bars at the time.

When the show finally ended we dragged ourselves back to the car and made our way out. I’m sure it must have taken a while to get out but I really don’t recall.

I DO recall though that I tried to drive home but was so dang tired I had to pull over and let Mark drive. He was in better shape than I was.

This has always been one of the fondest memories of this period in my life.


**Of highly particular note, this day would be the last time that I would drink alcohol or consume/smoke any substances such as weed, hash etc.

40 years ago.

True story.

Check these fantastic links. Great videos here.

New Music coverage of the festival. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCOuaHEGXYc

Talking Heads - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL228SiyUTw

https://www.festivival.com/history/heatwave-festival-1980

B-52's! https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=194&v=3o7MZWs-fT0&feature=emb_logo

Take care, Tim

Monday, July 8, 2019

Teammates For Life



I wrote a post on Facebook the other day about the loss of Cameron.

Cameron was a pleasant young man who was a friend and teammate of our son Braydon.
We will likely never know the reason why but Cam took his own life about a week and a half ago.

Every year we have a day called Bell Let's Talk day where Canadians take to social media en masse and deluge the internet with messages telling anyone and everyone who may be experiencing difficulties to TALK TO US. We want to help! Not just for one day but every day, any time.
Are we winning? I would like to believe so but I'm not certain.
But we must keep trying to reach them. These must stop. The loss of one troubled soul is too many. We must keep trying.

Here is my Facebook post;

There are a few things that we all experience in life that we really don’t want to but we have to. We have no control over.
We especially hope that our kids won’t have to deal with them. A parent would try to move heaven and earth to protect our kids from experiencing this pain.

But they will, and they do.

Today, Braydon and his teammates will be saying goodbye to their friend and teammate Cameron. A young man who left us far too soon.
They’ll go through this as they have been since the day it happened. Together.

I hesitate to use the word “positive” anywhere near this tragedy but one positive thing from Cam’s passing is that these young men have discovered that they have far more in common than just their love of baseball.

Their love of humanity.

This day is going to be very hard on them. Of this I am certain.
But, when we reach the other side of this these young men will be stronger, wiser, and more sensitive to the feelings of others.
When they need us, we are there for them.
When someone in pain needs them, they will be there to do what they can to help.
No matter how much we plead for someone to please talk to us these things happen.
We must still try to do everything possible to stop them.

One day at a time.

Let’s get through today...

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Oh Toy Story, Here We Go Again...



Hello there. I realize that it's been a while since I've composed a decent blog entry here. I guess it's not for lack of content. Heck, life has been very busy for quite a while now. I can't say exactly what has kept me from here. I think it could have something to do with too much content and being overwhelmed with how to properly compile it to make it readable by others.

At one time I was posting everything from the boy's sports news to what was going on in their education. One thing I do want to mention is that a couple of years ago, Braydon had "retired" from baseball when he completed his final season with the Fredericton AA Midget Royals.
As far as we were concerned he had completed his last season of organized ball. (This was the same season that both guys finished up hockey so you can imagine how rotten Cheryl and I felt.)
I've mentioned before that the Fredericton Senior Royals are the best show in town in these parts. The game is top notch ball and we've always enjoyed attending the games. The next best ball in town (in my humble opinion) are the Fredericton Junior Royals.
We had not gone out to see them very much over the years. Perhaps two or three times.
Last year a whole bunch of guys that used to play with Tyler and Braydon joined the Junior Royals and looked like they were having a great time. Braydon started to feel the pangs of missing playing ball so this season he went out and joined the team.
One thing about players this age is that most of them have jobs and school so the coaches don't expect the guys to be at every game. So far B has played 3 or 4 games. Their record isn't great but the guys all get along very well and have a great time. That's what counts.
Needless to say, Cheryl and I get out whenever we can to the games. I'm the team pitch counter and she sells 50/50 draw tickets when we are at home games. We love it. :)
They play games all over New Brunswick and even in Prince Edward Island so we go when we can.

So, the main reason for this post...

If you've been around my blog for a while you will recall this post from 9 years ago. I'm sorry that I don't know how to get the link clickable but if you copy and paste this you can read it. http://tim4nm.blogspot.com/2010/06/no-toy-gets-left-behind.html

You know that Pixar and Toy Story hold a very special place in my heart with my sister Hayley, my mother, my wife Cheryl and of course my sons.
After posting that post in 2010 we did go to the theatre as a family to see Toy Story 3.
Wow, was it emotional. I still tear up just thinking about it.
Toy Story 3 was the perfect and very emotional conclusion of the perfect movie adventure story.
In our minds Woody, Buzz and the gang had come full circle in our hearts. As much as we would love to see them again we were resigned to the fact that the story was done and the book was closed. We were okay with that. Pixar had carried us along and gently placed us somewhat tearfully at the end.

Or so we thought.
Toy Story 4 opens tomorrow. On my birthday.
Seriously.
So Cheryl, Tyler, Braydon and I are heading off to the movies again this weekend. One of the big differences from year's past is that both of the guys have jobs so we couldn't arrange to go tomorrow on my birthday.
That would have been pretty cool but it will probably be packed to the rafters anyway so it's just as well.
I have heard that this one is the most emotional of them all. That's hard to imagine after the last one. One thing that I know is that I will most certainly be a weepy mess.
I heard that Tom Hanks became so emotional when doing his lines that he had to turn around and not face anyone while he did them.

Okay Tom, thank-you for the warning

Bring it on Toy Story. I can take it. You've done it to me for almost 25 years now. What's one more time? :)

Stay well,
Tim