So I'm cheating, just this once - Part 2

Hello again. Here is the last two postings from that other blog I told you about yesterday.
I seem a little surly in sections but I can see why I wasn't really in a good mood when I wrote them.
What's really interesting is that in the March 11, 2007 post I talk about flu shots and how they affect me.
Years ago I was convinced that flu shots absolutely worked for me. Then for a while I felt that the shots were hokey and didn't bother getting them. I usually get sick anyway a few times over the course of a year. Although I can't tell you if it's flu or just a cold.
To tell you the truth I honestly don't remember if the shots work for me or not. I really should keep track of these things.
Last year I had my flu shot at the Village office along with the other members of Council and the Village staff.
It was mentioned that in the event of a pandemic the Village office becomes an emergency center and the staff and Council are called upon to man and co-ordinate.
I guess it's sort of mandatory that we get shots. That's fine with me.
Of course recently the big news is the H1N1 strain which could potentially immobilize millions of people worldwide.
I'm getting my shot next Thursday at my workplace so I don't need to get it at the Village office this year.
The boys have never had flu shots in their lives but we are pretty certain that we want them to have them this year. Just in case.
Their new school is pretty darn big and there are far more germs flying around than there were at little New Maryland Elementary School.
I think most families are having shots this year as a precaution.
We shall see how it goes.

Anyway, enough of this jibber jabber. Let's have a look at my vintage jibber jabber shall we?

March 7, 2007
Try Honeywell, heater, fire hazard, melt

I was wondering how to get other people who have almost had fires due to a obviously faulty electric Honeywell heater to find me to relate their similar incidents?
Perhaps if they Google words like: Honeywell, fire hazard, faulty, melt, melted, melting, plastic, burning smell, kaz, surround, recall, smoke, hot, electrical, flame, flames, detector, wiring, company, customer service, feedback, emergency, they will find this page and know to add a comment.
I will reply.
I'll put these words in the tags.
Honeywell has not replied to my e-mail with photos of my melted heater yet.
I hope they do soon. I'm not too happy about this.
Good thing I was here before it went up in flames and took the house with it.


Hmm. I remember that fun very well.
In case you couldn't tell we had a Honeywell electric space heater that decided to commit suicide and melt into itself.
Fortunately we were home and in the same room at the time. It could have been catastrophic for us if we were out.
I remember that Honeywell DID get back to me eventually. I sent them back the charred husk of the fried heater and they sent me a sparkly new heater which turned out to be a newer model.
I never heard anything further from them so I hope that their extensive testing didn’t reveal a major technical flaw in the heaters. (Extensive testing… Did you like that part?)
So far the new heater has worked well. So far. (I am knocking on wood in between key strokes.)

Here is the last of my inaugural blogs:


March 11, 2007
I am so smart, S M R T!

The first step in solving a problem is admitting that I have it. Hello there, my name is Tim and I am a dope.
Welcome Tim, all the rest of us are too.
The "rest" that I refer to are all of these other dopes here on a Sunday afternoon waiting to see a doctor at the after-hours clinic on Regent Street in Fredericton.
There's about 50 or 60 of us and we range in age from 1 to 75. Different colours and shapes and sizes from different backgrounds and walks of life.
What we all have in common is that we are coughing and sneezing from what I will bet is the same damn flu virus.
I will exclude the babies and children from the "dope" category and slap it on their parents instead. This isn't the kid's fault that their parents didn't take them for a flu shot.
I have personally known for years that the flu shots work for me and if I get sick it's usually just a cold. Did I get a flu shot this year? Nope, and I'm a dope.
My dopiness runs deeper though. Lemme tell you why.
This started last weekend when the family went to Saint John to see a hockey game. We stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn Express. I went into the hot tub for a few minutes.
I was still feeling cruddy on Wednesday when the kids went to a movie with a friend. Did I go home and rest? No way. I went for a 4 km. walk in the UNB woodlot for over an hour. It was minus 13 Celsius out there!
For some reason this dope thought that the icy blasting air would help me feel better. I was sweating like crazy too!
Then, to wrap up a brilliant week I took the boys on Friday to the public cesspool, sorry, I meant swimming pool.
It was packed with thousands of drooling, germ ridden, urinating, kids. I was in there for an hour and a half.
I should have figured when the chills started that something was going wrong and my body really didn't want to swim in the germ broth anymore.
Late at night I was awakened by the comforting sensation of an inability to breathe without convulsive coughing.
The debilitating pain in my head was lovely too!
Yessiree. I felt like I was going to die there.
I almost asked Cheryl to call 911 but decided not to.
How embarassing would it be if this is just a silly sinus infection and I went by ambulance?
I rolled around in pain all night. It would have helped to get some Advil but moving around was agony.
In the morning I chucked down some Ibruprofen and ended up sleeping a while.
Probably a good idea to get checked out at the clinic today, right?
Naw, it's not so bad now. Won't bother.
I'll be right as rain tomorrow I'm sure.
Now is that tomorrow.
Last night was another voyage into the bowels of hell. Today Cheryl told me to go to the walk in clinic.
I AM a dope but I'm getting better. I did listen to Sweety after all and here I am.
Number 25 in the line. I can't say for certain that all these other folks are as dopey as me but they sound like me so I'm betting dollars to donuts that many of them are.
We are so smart! S M R T!

**Added 8:40 p.m. same day. I waited 2 hours and 45 minutes and found out that I don't have the flu. I don't have an infection. No antibiotics prescribed. I DO have a problem with my breathing. (REALLY?!) I was prescribed a puffer like almost everyone else there today. Now, I sleep!


Wow. Not much I can say about that blog except that the boys and I haven’t been to that public pool in a very long time. Just a coincidence.
And, knocking on wood again, I haven’t had one of those sinus infections in a while.
They’re nasty so I’m not going to talk about that anymore. It could curse me.

Another thing I should mention is that I was going through my Blackberry emails the other day to see the treasures buried in there before I get rid of the thing very soon.
I can’t believe how many blogs I started composing and didn’t finish! Some of them aren’t even relevant anymore but I think I’ll look for some that are and post them.
That’s not really laziness since it is so much work.

I had better get on it.

Stay well,
Tim

I know this is cheating but it's interesting

I was just looking for a bookmark for a web site on my Blackberry and ran across one for a blog and personal site that I started a couple of years ago.
Obviously I forgot about it and didn't feel up to really getting into blogging further.
There are four blogs on there dated January 18, 2007, January 29, 2007, March 7, 2009 and March 11, 2007 and I'm going to post them here just for fun.
I guess that the January 18th blog is officially my very first blog ever. I don't THINK that I have any other orphan blogs out there but I'm not positive.
I mentioned cheating in the title since I don't really have to get creative for this. I just have to repost some ramblings from back then.
Forgive me for adding ramblings between them. I guess it's just trying to explain myself. :)
Let's do this.



January 18, 2007

Wow, my first blog entry ever

I apologize for not making this a sizzler of excitement and social commentary but it's the end of the day and frankly I'm tired. I didn't want to leave this blank today.
I'm in bed typing this on my Blackberry.
I'll finish it and watch more of "What Happened on the Moon pt 1" on my mp4 player until I can't keep my eyes open. It's a bunch of folks with some very interesting points who are claiming that the Apollo space program was not all we believe it was. Not sure how precise it all is but they make it sound convincing.
Why are the main folks in this thing British? Are they all jealous of the U.S.?
Why do people even look for all these things to shoot great achievements down? It was a great point in human history that we should all be proud of as humans, not Americans or Britons or Canadians. Leave it alone!
Maggie our little old girl cat is in her spot between my legs so that I can't roll over or even move while I type this.
Oh, I finally found that dang "Triple Play" multicache today after starting months ago. The lid was frozen shut.
Dang cold today but at least there was no wind. Only about -10 or so. It was much colder yesterday.
Boo has his first drum lesson finally tomorrow with the drummer with one arm. Should be interesting indeed. I'll be there.
Tiny had his first piano lesson the other night. So far so good.
Goodnight for now.



Wow. The guys were just beginning their music lessons back then.
How far they've come since then.
It was nice to read the part about Maggie the cat. I miss that little lady...


Here's the next one:


January 29, 2007

Too long between posts

It's amazing how easy it is for time to go zipping by as we get older.
I really had intentions of doing this more often but we get busy. Before you know it a week goes by.
The lads are both doing very well in their music lessons now.
Drummer lad surprised the instructor with how good he is. We already knew he can solo with ease but how is he with tempo?
Last Wednesday the teacher dude started into the whole 4 beats to a measure, 1/4 notes, 1/2 notes, 1/8 notes etc. and stressed the drummer is the band's clock and keeps time.
The lad got it and now solos with a rhythm. Amazing.
The piano man lad is also doing great. I've watched his hand and finger styles and it looks pretty darn good to me.
He is playing tunes and has a very good ear for it.
If a note is off he corrects it immediately.
I was sitting in the living room listening to him play in his room the other day and he was just playing around making up cool little tunes of his own.
A lot of talent in these guys.
It must have something to do with the headphones on mommy's tummy when she was pregnant and the classical music all night in their room when they were babies.
And also the constant Rush and Johnny Cash in the car with me.
Anyhoo, this weekend - Feb 2, is the launch of all the new geocaches planted for the 2007 Maritime Challenge.
We did really well around here but it looks like Nova Scotia has also gone nuts so we may get beaten again. Maybe. We'll see.
Sportsman has offered to take me out Saturday at 7:00 a.m. on his snowmobile to be first to find on his new series between here and Hanwell Road.
He knew I wouldn't be able to do them myself without a sled. What a guy.
His new hides are the only ones I don't know in advance. Almost every other local cacher was sending me their hide info so I could warn them of possible conflicts.
I took myself out of the FTF running for all of those.
However, I didn't get Sporty's cache info and his are fair game. Saturday should be good.
Zeeya



I have to tell you about that drumming teacher I mentioned in there, Boo's first teacher.
I felt bad for the guy because Boo continually practices and learns things on his own. He always has. He has a natural talent for that. The teacher had to stop teaching Boo. He said that Boo was developing faster than he could really teach him.
That teacher used to come to our home for the lessons. I think it was last lesson he did that he came down the stairs as Boo was grooving and said to us "Oh wow man, I was going to teach him that." He had already taught himself!
Occasionally I hear the TV in the basement with a DVD with Rush and the drummer Neil Peart or another drum related DVD playing.
I hear the TV play, then nothing as he walks to the drum room, then I hear Boo playing away on his drum kit trying to play what he's just watched.
Then back to the TV to watch again. And on he goes.
He does that with Youtube videos as well.
It's very cool to listen to.
Tiny has a knack for making little tunes up. He amazes me. Not all are instant classics but some are really good!
One thing that I love is how he changes the sound of the piano to suit the song he is playing.
For example, he knows to use a harpsichord sound for a medieval piece. Or a tinnier sound for something Spanish sounding. Do you know what I mean?
Both guys still go for lessons and they are doing very well.
Both have incredible teachers.
We can talk more about that another time.


There is also a lot of my jabbering about geocaching in there. Someone who doesn't follow or care about it would really have a boring time. Sorry about that.
I see that I intended that blog to be more of a personal diary than a column style as this one often is.


Are you still with me?
I know that if Charles has made it this far he's going nuts!
He hates when I carry on. Actually I could probably say all kinds of stuff about him right here and he'll never even know about it! :)


I think I'll do another blog post for the last two posts of that old blog.
You're welcome.

Stay well,
Tim

Not much to say today

I'm not really in the mood to write a big blog today.
I'm feeling a little out of sorts really. Perhaps the change in the weather has something to do with it.
Maybe I haven't recovered from all the driving on the weekend yet?
Not to worry. I'll be okay.
I do want to tell that I drove by the York Street station today and there were a bunch of guys about. A couple were dressed in work clothes.
I was on my way somewhere and didn't have time to stop and research what they were doing.
So I blasted a quick email off to Charles telling him about it. He replied that he was going over so I expect he will have it blogged soon.
I did however get back down there around lunchtime.
Everyone was gone and I noticed to my surprise that all of the little trees and weeds that had grown madly all around the building were also gone!
I took this picture with my Blackberry so I'm sorry about the poor quality.
I did get some real pictures too which I will try to post on my Facebook soon.
Oh, I had a message from Mary Keith at J. D. Irving the other day pointing out that the Friends of the Railway Geocities website was very outdated.
I was on my way to Ontario but send Steve Boyko a note asking if he could go in and change things around and put the new picture of the proposed building up.
Steve tried to do it but was unable to make any changes.
He reminded me that geocities is closing down forever and we can't do anything with the page anymore.
So after all these years we're losing that old thing.
I think we are going to get a new site up and running to keep folks updated as frequently as possible.
Stay tuned.
That's all for now.

Stay well,
Tim


Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Wrapping it up

All righty then.
Tonight we head to Ontario for what will likely be the last time for quite a while. For me anyway.
It's going to be a very long night. I have a Council meeting beforehand which I can't miss then we start driving right after that and don't stop until we get there.
I mentioned previously that my mother's house has been sold.
The closing date is in November but we decided to take advantage of the long Thanksgiving weekend to head out and pick up the last of any items that are mine or that we would like to have.
The remainder of Mom's things will go to charity or to auction and the proceeds distributed accordingly.
I'm feeling a lot of anxiety over this trip. It will not be enjoyable in the slightest.
The good thing is that I won't be alone this time as I was in May. That was very difficult and in hindsight a bad idea.
We have a trailer reserved at UHaul in Ontario. The truck had a trailer hitch and the wiring installed 2 days ago.
We will visit with one or two friends but otherwise are just on a mission to get in and get out.
Just as well I don't see too many friends while we are there since I really don't think I will be very good company anyway.
This will be the last time I go to the house. I'm positive of that.
I have no desire to go near it after this trip.
It usually doesn't take long for new owners of a home to begin modifying and changing a house to suit their personal tastes. I think it would be pretty painful to go by there and see things changed from what Mom and Tom had spent so long doing to make the house their home.
Maybe 20 years from now if I happen to be in the area I may pass by out of curiousity but I will steer clear for many years.
I actually questioned even doing this trip but there is an old wooden desk that used to be my grandfather's that Mom had designated to go to me. It was far too costly to have it shipped so this turned out to be the way we decided to do it.
I know that there are other things of mine that we will bring back as well but truthfully I was ready to just leave them and not even bother.
One thing I realize is that what we bring back has to actually go somewhere in our home, which won't be easy! We're pretty full as it is!
Ah well.
Just get this done and move on. That's what I will focus on for the next few days.
It's kind of funny but I used to love any opportunity to go back to Ontario.
I'm afraid I am just looking forward to seeing it in the rear-view mirror right now.
I really hate to say that since most of my dearest and oldest friends are there.
But they'll understand. That's why they are my oldest and dearest friends.
Don't worry, I'll be back.
Just not for a little while.

Stay well, and I mean that.
Tim