Category: life

I had to work at 6:30 this morning. Right as I was leaving work I discovered my fly had been down all morning. That’s me, the lifeguard with his fly down. Sheesh.

It’s raining now. That is all.

It was another incredible day at Production Management. Weird things happen in that class, its like entering the Twilight Zone. Anyway despite the tension and insanity, I think I at least learned a couple of important lessons.

1. There is a time and a place for criticism directed at an instructor. This time and place is not in class even though in this case he specifically asked each student for their opinion. I don’t know why I didn’t just button up.
2. Since I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, I wish I would have at least made a comment about something that mattered.
3. Since I felt the dire need to speak up, and since I picked something that didn’t mean anything anyway, I could have at least bowed out a little more gracefully when he started to yell.

I did my best and realize my mistake. Well after everything is said and done I can at least say I learned something in Production Management today.

Update: It looks like my prof, Mathew Kabatoff, took the concerns I shared to heart. He updated his web page outline, and in doing so rectified my concerns. That seems so weird given his hostile reaction in class.

Bored with the everyday — and seeing that it was really nice out in Lethbridge today, I decided it would be a good idea to trim the apple tree in my back yard. Let me just summarize: Trimming is not fun, my tree looks much better, the ground is covered in branches and I still have more work to do. Also I love apples, so hopefully my tree will grow some big ones next fall. My next-door neighbor, Steve, came out and helped me. Mostly he let me use his saw and clippers but he also held the ladder which was just leaned precariously up to the tree. He actually was a lot of help. His wife Eira offered me dinner — cabbage rolls, mashed potatoes, and corn. It was the highlight of the day, it makes me happy just thinking about it. I’ll finish pruning my tree tomorrow, or else never.

Last year I accepted the call to solicit donations on behalf of the Heart and Stroke Foundation. While on my route I met a nice elderly couple that live just down the street on the other side of the back alley from my house — the Gordons. I felt guilty for making her get out of her chair (she looked so comforable), but once she was up and answered the door both she and her husband were very kind. Nice people I thought and then moved on.

The collection process as a whole wasn’t that bad but the donations were slow and I was worried that I wouldn’t have much to show for the effort. Besides it was cold and meanwhile I couldn’t help but think that I had better things to do in my nice warm house. I swore I would not be doing this again next year.

I’m not sure what happened, I thought to myself as I knocked on another door about three weeks ago. Well I suppose I don’t really have anything better to do and the donations seem to be coming along nicely – plus it’s not nearly as cold as last year. I again knocked on the same houses in the vicinity of my block and again was greeted by Mrs. Gordon. She looked old and tired. I again felt guilty for making her get out of her chair. Her husband was not around and she looked much more frail than I remembered. She gladly donated ten dollars to the fund and made small talk. Her husband had died about a month after the last time I was there, which was exactly one year ago. Wow, I thought, he looked fine. I didn’t know what to say, I just thanked her for the donation and wished her a good evening. Thank you, she said. I kind of felt like I should do something more for her. She seemed so lonely, but what would I do? It’s not like I can just pop over there and say hi, I mean I’m 24 and have nothing in common with her. As it turns out I’ll never have a chance to talk to her again. I was told that her name was in today’s obituary section of the paper.

“Really? Ruby Gordon that lives right over there?” I asked my next-door neighbour.

“Yes, it was in the paper this morning.” she explained.

I scratched at the dried remnants of duct tape on my porch. The previous owner of the house let his son Stewart live here. Stew was an activist. He had taped up ropes around the back yard to use as drying lines for paper machie masks. The masks were for protesting at the G8 conference in Calgary a few years ago. For their protest they wanted to strip down to illuminate the evils of The Gap but I guess they didn’t want to do so while showing their faces.

“You know who else died?” asked my neighbour, Ira, “Stewart’s father, Hugh.”

“Really? Hugh Crawford?” I repeated back. It was kind of a shock. The man I bought this house from? Dead? Well I guess he won’t be coming for that box of receipts that I saved for him for over a year. It was garbage anyway — I don’t why he had me save it.

“He passed away about 6 or so weeks ago,” she explained, “heart problems of some sort. He was in his early 50’s.”

It got me thinking about life and death and how it’s all so fleeting. Apparently it doesn’t take much for the old ticker to quit ticking, so I suppose this just shows that it’s in my own best interest to keep canvassing again next year because you never know, you know?

No I didn’t watch the big game yesterday. I didn’t even watch the Simpsons. Mostly I worked on my 3D animation project and after my repetitive strain injury started to flare up, I watched a bit of Malcalm in the Middle and talked to Anna on the phone. I think this project is cool, but I wish I knew more about 3D Studio Max. I did find this great resource though — 3dcafe.com. I found what I was looking for under the free stuff button.

Tomorrow is my swim meet at the University of Calgary. Gary and I are still not speaking so I doubt he’ll show up to watch, even though I imagine he needs photos of the meet for the Gauntlet. Maybe he will send one of his assistants to do it.

Anyway I’m hoping for a best time tomorrow. We’ll see what happens.

Most likely Friday night we will go to see Doug’s play, “Not About Heros” at the Pumphouse Theatres. Anna is leaving for Edmonton to go on tour for three weeks and then down to Utah for another two. It will be a long month.

I finished my 3D animation project and boy am I happy. Anna-Maria and I are eating pizza tonight even though it’s not two for one night but pretty much everything else is going my way — except of course for this freak snowstorm. That’s life though and I for one can’t wait for the pizza — err.. I mean I for one am happy. ;)