A year ago … … I had never cut down a tree. … I had yet to light a fire using the embers of the previous day’s blaze. … I had never owed a pool. … I had never hung my clothes on my clothesline. … my youngest uncle was still alive. … I lived in Freya’s house. … I was… (more…)
Back in January I decided that my resolution would be to read the entirety of the Bible. Wait? Did you hear that correctly? Yes. The entirety. I wasn’t convinced I had read all of the minor prophets let alone all of Isaiah and there was a nagging suspicion that I never really did finish Hebrews. So I grabbed a Bible… (more…)
One of those odd professional moments happened yesterday when I worked on a job from start to finish. I have been there for the opening and the closing but never for both on the same job. This particular job took five months, a bit longer than the eight to ten weeks I was originally told. The last few weeks were rough.… (more…)
Snow days for work are similar to snow days in school: you go to bed at your regular time and wake up at dark o’clock as you normally would. Then you live in stasis. I’m out of town so it’s not like I can just putter around the house doing the miscellaneous chores that pile up. Hell, I’ve only been here… (more…)
I’m staying out of town for a spell, a camp job close to home. It is a 3 hour drive home each night, crossing all of Toronto and then some. I’m staying in a hotel. The boredom inherent in seeing the same bland walls is starting to creep in. I had a nightmare about someone else’s pain filled life which… (more…)
Over the past 5 weeks I have been travelling to Markham in the afternoons for my final round of trade school. The class is, thankfully, idiot free and made up of learning interesting bits of geometry that allow me to turn a flat piece of metal into a sculpture-like creation of three dimensions. The course also includes supervisor training and… (more…)
I just saw an old guy fill a paper cup with pink bathroom soap to wash his clothes. Only in a place where you live for free, with food, can men be so cheap.
So far there are only a couple of things that I’m missing and most of them are just annoyances. Milk — lactose free milk does not exist here and neither do personal refrigerators My water bottle — while there is no shortage of water dispensers and paper cones I do not feel like paying $2.50 for a plastic bottle that… (more…)
I am not an experienced air traveler by any stretch of the imagination. I have flown twice, a round trip from Ottawa to Hamilton. Two regional airports, one a little classier than the other. I’m used to rail. I’m used to the rolling gait of the rails under my seat whether on a long distance journey or a daily commute. I am… (more…)
Five years ago, June 5 2008 to be exact, I sat on my friend Joe’s porch in the middle of a rainy night and made a choice. I was presenting at the Archives Association of Ontario conference, the highpoint of my career thus far, and couldn’t afford to buy a beer. I chose to change my world. I joined the International… (more…)