Sprung

The air smells like spring.  The temperatures have teased us so far, but the smell is really there now.  Little nubs of grass are starting to poke through flat yellow lawns everywhere.

Everyone I talk to seems to be getting super excited about barbecue as well.  I don't have the heart to tell most of them that I've barbecued weekly on average all winter long, with only January really hurting my grill patterns.  But I appreciate all their enthusiasm.

The sunny, warm forecast this week has me almost even believing that work near the core of Toronto this week will be a delight, and go off without issue.  No budget for hotels, or food really, but still, will be sunshine and rainbows (except for the commute, which will suck no matter what).

The Jays lost on home opener day, again.  That also seems like a sure sign of spring.  Of course, many Jays fans lost before the game had even begun, standing in massive lines in the rain awaiting 'security' scans which likely were about as effective as the 'scared to offend' courtesy patdowns of yesteryear, and only really effective in backing up large crowds of people outside the venue.  Anyone really wanting to attack wouldn't even need to pay for admission.

A friend posted an interesting link this week on death statistics.  Note in particular the comparison chart near the bottom of the article.  While it seems to miss a lot of non-cancer disease, it still manages to highlight the absurdity of the emphasis we place on 'security'.  I'm curious to see what, if any backlash will come out of this, or if we can just expect cavity searches next year to gain entry to ball parks.  Hell, maybe if they train the staff well enough, you can build in your yearly exams at the same time.  You know, bring health care and policing together in one happy place.  Huge tax savings.

Right, back to spring.  Breath of fresh air.  Baseball.  Record Store Day.  Game of Thrones.  There's just enough there to distract oneself.

Row Over a Row

Early in the winter, I decided that a rowing machine would probably get a lot more use than our failing treadmill, and offer more of a full body workout, all while allowing me to watch a couple shows, or some sports.

In March, true to form, I finally pulled the trigger on buying a machine, well rated all across the interwebs, but a little more expensive than I might have opted for, had I not screwed up my first rough run through of my tax return.  In the end though, I'm glad I paid the premium.  Despite a technical issue still keeping me from logging my workouts to a flash drive properly, the company has a well organized website, a great community of users on the workout log portal, and has been very prompt and engaging in trying to work out the USB drive issue, though through an increasing e-mail chain.

Maybe its still the newness of it, but I've also managed to log my target average of 20km per week, except for the week I had the flu, despite an accelerating field work schedule.  And now baseball is starting for real, which should mean easy, distracted workouts while watching games on the 'off' days.

If I keep up the pace, the machine will have paid off the equivalent of a gym membership by the time the Jays baseball season is done (in early November...instead of early September this year) and hopefully will still be whooshing right along.  Hell, I might even be fit by then!

Number 9, Number 9, Number 9

Forecast high of 9 degrees metric tomorrow. 282 SI.  All positive daytime highs in the 7 day forecast.  The deck has been partially shoveled clear to facilitate barbecuing, which has occurred infrequently all winter, but will definitely be increased during this glimpse at the spring.

Went out to one of the local restaurants whose focus is a large selection of delicious beers with some friends tonight.  One of my cousins is also a server there.  Laughs were had, delicious venison burgers were consumed.  And after a couple pints, and a meal, after a full day in the office, the sun was still up.

Daylight savings time.  I know its antiquated, and mostly unjustified, so, lets just switch to it full time and have light  later into the evening all the time.  I'd put money on it helping SADs too, with people actually able to experience daylight  after a workday indoors, shift work aside.

Alas, I should be thinking about sleep, but I'm an hour behind.  Luckily, I escape the office tomorrow and can let sunshine and 9 degrees carry me through.  ...9.  Good Night.

Well, I'm Still Here

I grew up here.

I grew up loving here.

I even grew up loving winters here.

I still love here.

But the winters are killing me.

Mentally and physically.

No drive to go outside after the work day's done.

Too sore and tired to follow any exercise regimen to get myself back in shape.

And guilty that my problems are much less than many others', but still I bitch.

Is it time to find an escape from here?


There goes the optimistic light I wanted to cast around here.

Stay Frosty

And I thought last winter was about as bad as it could get.  Granted, we've been spared the longer duration deep freezes we had last winter, but this week was one of the deepest ones in Southern Ontario recorded records.  And some of the meteorological models are predicting more below average temps well into March.

This winter has already been long enough for working outdoors.  With field schedules taking off in March, I'm less than enthused.  Hell, I had a near meltdown in the field the first week back from the x-mas holidays already.

But, I got our hotel booked for the Boston excursion in the summer, nearly $50 'occupancy tax' and all (I'm sorry, taxing someone for visiting your city and staying in one of your hotels?).  And I also secured tickets to Jose Bautista bobblehead day in April.  Which reminds me, I still need to make plans with a certain blogger to meet up for some drinks and collect the ceramic Buerhuehuele bobbler she so graciously picked up for me last summer.

Pitchers and catchers report, officially, to spring training on Monday, and my fantasy baseball leagues are up and running, with the perennial search for replacement managers begun.  That means there's light at the end of this polar express.  Lets just hope its not the train coming the other way.

Winter Bitters

As tiresome, miserable, and uncharacteristically busy, for the winter, as my schedule has been at work, its already the end of January.  The schedule is finally seeing some relief, just in time for the start of my first credited course in...7 years??  Speaking of time flying.

Anyway, Superbowl has rushed up already, and while I haven't cared this little about the game in a while (maybe its Tom Brady's soft balls turning me off?), I'll actually be able to relax and enjoy it this year, without angst about my team, or being a good host.  Those two things tend not to go hand in hand anyway.  The angst, and the hosting; not Tom Brady's balls.

I also finally got around to watching the Sonic Highways specials, which were pretty good, though sometimes all over the place in the story-telling, which Sound City did a much better job with.  There's been somewhat of a Foo Fighters/all things Dave Grohl binge around here since Carolyn trumped my birthday gift idea for her, Foo Fighters in Toronto tickets, with, obviously superior,  Foo Fighters at Fenway Park tickets for my own birthday.

Unfortunately the All Star Game is the week of the concert (likely the reason Fenway is free in July for a show), and the Red Sox only play the weekend before and the weekend after, so we won't get to see any actual baseball.  But I'm still hoping we can take a tour and have some fried chicken and beer in the clubhouse.  We may also work in a half day stop at Cooperstown either on the drive there or back, which surely atones for not seeing a game at Fenway.  Right?

There also seem to be more than a few craft breweries through upstate New York and Massachewsits.   Needless to say, it should be a great trip.  And the planning is welcome positive distraction to get me through my winter bitterness, along with some timely winter bitters releases from the local craft breweries.

Now I just need to find a new birthday gift idea in the next month.

When You Have Nothing Good to Say...

And We're Back, Again.

I was at my best when I was regularly reading other people's contributions to this series of tubes. Whimsical, topical, funny, snarky, it didn't matter. I was exploring and reading new things. Reading. Not reacting to 140 character snippets. I'll still do that. It will take time for me to grow out of short, snippy statements. Clearly.

If nothing else, posting again will serve as distraction. There will be added impetus for photography to fill this intentionally minimal theme, unmolested by my wanting to tweak scripts and colour codes. At best, I'll be using all of my letters and words again, and feeling less of an idiot in all its synonymous forms.

When I was minimally creative before, I was looking for new stories, unique experience. I've been hijacked into the same old story, and unchanging experience. At some point, I started living to work, despite my lifelong admonition for 'those kind' of people.

But now, an application in to start taking some courses again, if only to a minimal certificate program, and forcing myself to become re-engaged. I intend to get back to as many of the things as I can when I was still sarcastic and pessimistic, but, un-jaded. We'll see how long this lasts.

Post script
For former or continuing followers, you might notice there are about 5 years of posts missing. Believe me, its not self censorship of any kind. Those posts suffered from my ego, and my thinking I could host a site better than a Wordpress or Blogger. Cloud computing? Redundancy? For the birds.  At least I stayed mostly faithful to Flickr in the interim.
/Post script