I am finishing this off in the midst of packing for my trip... toothbrushes, folded clothes and the ever-elusive wallet are scattered all about. I will be updating this blog again on Sept 16th, when I return to Victoria... tah!
Sept 1st - Labour Day
Got in a good afternoon of COD4 with a half-dozen of my friends, and I have to say I did pretty well in a few of the games, much better than my usual 1:1 balance of kills/deaths. Good for a reflex game, though the insane 3-second-average lifespan of players in Unreal Tournament still gives me the willies - that's just too frenetic to enjoy. What's the point of getting blasted a hundred times in a few minutes - the score means little when your head feels like exploding from the motion sickness. Blech.
Few people think much about the origins of Labour Day - to most, it is simply 'that holiday before school starts for the year' ... which is sad, as it celebrates the toil and hard work of generations of Canadians.
Sept 2nd - Mona Lisa and Bananas
Caught up on some reading today, including a book I picked up while visiting Nanaimo on the weekend: The Annotated Mona Lisa. I have always had an interest in Art History, especially poignant now that I live just down the street from a top-tier gallery here in Victoria... and I just missed the Andy Warhol exhibit due to being sick this month.
Got in a good afternoon of COD4 with a half-dozen of my friends, and I have to say I did pretty well in a few of the games, much better than my usual 1:1 balance of kills/deaths. Good for a reflex game, though the insane 3-second-average lifespan of players in Unreal Tournament still gives me the willies - that's just too frenetic to enjoy. What's the point of getting blasted a hundred times in a few minutes - the score means little when your head feels like exploding from the motion sickness. Blech.
Few people think much about the origins of Labour Day - to most, it is simply 'that holiday before school starts for the year' ... which is sad, as it celebrates the toil and hard work of generations of Canadians.
Sept 2nd - Mona Lisa and Bananas
Caught up on some reading today, including a book I picked up while visiting Nanaimo on the weekend: The Annotated Mona Lisa. I have always had an interest in Art History, especially poignant now that I live just down the street from a top-tier gallery here in Victoria... and I just missed the Andy Warhol exhibit due to being sick this month.
On the topic of art: it seems a website I had a hand in creating as a joke is actually generating some traffic - LOTS of traffic! The Church of the Banana was a site created as a joke amongst Brian, Mike and myself... though it does not use Drupal, it still looks damn decent to my eyes. Somehow though, people have been finding it on the web, and the numbers skyrocketed in August.
Sept 3rd - Spiders
Sept 3rd - Spiders
I really need to get some custom screens made for my apartment windows... most places here in Victoria do not have screens, as the bug count is amazingly low all year round. Yet there are other things that like to explore nice, warm apartments on cold nights...
For the second time in two weeks, I've found a large spider crawling through my apartment. For those of you that do not know, I am not fond of spiders. Not screaming-insane scared mind you, but I do take pains( hah )to catch them / kleenex-kill them. Ironically, I was humming 'itsty-bitsy-spider' this morning as I stepped into the shower, a childhood memory of my mom telling me that spiders were dancing on the shower head... and what do I find clinging to the shower curtain? A whopping big spider, of course. Irony. Hate it.
For those of you who might laugh: see my blog on July 2nd to see how much I enjoy the thought of a spider bite. Especially given the possibility of other complications, like Arachnogenic Necrosis, that may occur from bites., along with other symptoms, some of which I have personally experienced. Before you ask: yes, I can still watch Arachnophobia easily, and do not run from spiders... and I let these two( or the same one? )go free outside - FAR away outside. So: bite me.
Anyway, as you can see from the pictures, they're bigger than a loonie, with legs than spanned about 3 inches across. For a spider, that's large, and seeing one of these crawling across your floor is an experience - it's large enough to cast a shadow!
For the second time in two weeks, I've found a large spider crawling through my apartment. For those of you that do not know, I am not fond of spiders. Not screaming-insane scared mind you, but I do take pains( hah )to catch them / kleenex-kill them. Ironically, I was humming 'itsty-bitsy-spider' this morning as I stepped into the shower, a childhood memory of my mom telling me that spiders were dancing on the shower head... and what do I find clinging to the shower curtain? A whopping big spider, of course. Irony. Hate it.
For those of you who might laugh: see my blog on July 2nd to see how much I enjoy the thought of a spider bite. Especially given the possibility of other complications, like Arachnogenic Necrosis, that may occur from bites., along with other symptoms, some of which I have personally experienced. Before you ask: yes, I can still watch Arachnophobia easily, and do not run from spiders... and I let these two( or the same one? )go free outside - FAR away outside. So: bite me.
Anyway, as you can see from the pictures, they're bigger than a loonie, with legs than spanned about 3 inches across. For a spider, that's large, and seeing one of these crawling across your floor is an experience - it's large enough to cast a shadow!
Yes folks, that's right: they grow them BIG out here. Not tarantula size, but I KNOW what tarantulas look like, and behave like. Each time, after detaining, photographing and releasing the spiders, I tried to look them up online. They're not Brown Recluses, native to the southeastern USA, and they're not the deadly Hobo Spider - that's about the size of your pinky fingernail, about 0.5 inches across.
No, whatever these were, they are going to be on my mind awhile, at least until I manage to get them identified to put my mind at ease. Wrestling with one for control of my TV remote is NOT my idea of late-summer fun in B.C.
No, whatever these were, they are going to be on my mind awhile, at least until I manage to get them identified to put my mind at ease. Wrestling with one for control of my TV remote is NOT my idea of late-summer fun in B.C.
Sept 4th - Monkeys?
I was thinking over the old saw, that if monkeys had seen what civilization would develop into, they would never have come down out of the trees in the first place( Gangsta Rap and Roseanne come to mind ). I hereby dub our natural reaction to such things the 'Screaming Monkey Reflex'. You can see how some monkeys have adapted to the human world here... in Costa Rica, where my sister is considering moving. Her friends have told her NOT to bring her cats though, as the monkeys get in though windows and do not like domestic pets much.
So the urge to climb into a tree to fling feces and fruit is perhaps understandable, but impractical in today's society. Sad what we have lost... though I do not miss the nits, or the lack of television. Funny, since I recently stopped my cable TV service. A vestigial monkey reflex at work, mayhaps?
So the urge to climb into a tree to fling feces and fruit is perhaps understandable, but impractical in today's society. Sad what we have lost... though I do not miss the nits, or the lack of television. Funny, since I recently stopped my cable TV service. A vestigial monkey reflex at work, mayhaps?
Sept 5th - Silverfish and Sleep
For the last few months, my smoke alarm has been beeping. Not continuously, but on and off, usually at night. I've lost a fair deal of sleep, as it goes off just long enough to wake me, then stops. Only just the other( early )morning, I blasted it with some compressed air... and a silverfish fell out and scuttled away. I nearly smacked my forehead in frustration as I recalled the same thing happening a few years ago at The Prince - but a herd of the little critters had made a home in the ceiling space there, into which the smoke alarm had a large hole cut for its A/C power. Cue Fire Department at 4am, and an annoyed Superintendent... and a lot of foam spray to seal it all up.
Finally, after one particularly annoying episode here in Victoria, I'd had enough. This morning I pulled it out of its ceiling cradle and had a good look to see what I could do. A creative application of duct tape and foam trim substituted nicely for a lack of expanding foam spray, to seal off the inside of the smoke alarm from the ceiling cavity. They should really make these things with some kind of seal for the wires, so that this kind of problem doesn't happen. Many people would sleep better - I can attest.
For the last few months, my smoke alarm has been beeping. Not continuously, but on and off, usually at night. I've lost a fair deal of sleep, as it goes off just long enough to wake me, then stops. Only just the other( early )morning, I blasted it with some compressed air... and a silverfish fell out and scuttled away. I nearly smacked my forehead in frustration as I recalled the same thing happening a few years ago at The Prince - but a herd of the little critters had made a home in the ceiling space there, into which the smoke alarm had a large hole cut for its A/C power. Cue Fire Department at 4am, and an annoyed Superintendent... and a lot of foam spray to seal it all up.
Finally, after one particularly annoying episode here in Victoria, I'd had enough. This morning I pulled it out of its ceiling cradle and had a good look to see what I could do. A creative application of duct tape and foam trim substituted nicely for a lack of expanding foam spray, to seal off the inside of the smoke alarm from the ceiling cavity. They should really make these things with some kind of seal for the wires, so that this kind of problem doesn't happen. Many people would sleep better - I can attest.
Sept 6th - Mocking Sunshine
Stuck working on the weekend, with the sun shining mockingly just out of reach beyond armoured glass and big, bright windows. It is weekends like this that I ( only sometimes )wish I had a job outside... though not pumping gas.
At least working the later shifts on the weekends means I can sleep in and make a decent breakfast - cold cereal cannot compare to fresh pancakes, eggs and turkey bacon to put a good spin on the rest of your day
I was tired tonight, but had trouble falling asleep - with the windows closed, this place gets HOT. It registered 31 degrees in the main room at midnight, but started falling after I relented and opened the windows - briefly - to blast in some cooler air.
Sept 7th - Bison Balls
I have mentioned before how much I despise people who walk into a place where the staff are stuck inside all day, and the first words out of their mouth are "Gosh, it's SO beautiful outside!" - makes my hand scrabble for the Tiger Pit button... *sigh*
It figures that weather-wise, Victoria is now going to have PERFECT 100% Sunny Skies ALL WEEK while I am on vacation in ANOTHER province... likely getting rained on while sitting in a Tim Horton's. Somewhere, the weather gods are ROTFL at me. Fair, life ain't.
I had dinner at my parent's after work, along with my Aunt & Uncle who were visiting from Niagara - the first people to do so, family or friends, so we were all thrilled they could make it. We had spaghetti and bison balls for dinner... well, meatballs made from bison meat, which is so low in fat that I can have more than a few with no bad reaction. They provided much amusement at the table!
My relatives flew IN using Sunwing Airlines, the same people I got such a great deal from for my own flight tomorrow. They said that the only thing they did not like was the in-flight movie; otherwise it was as pleasant a trip as they have ever had, and being world travelers I found that most comforting a statement. Ironically, they will be flying OUT on the same flight I will be flying IN on when I return to Victoria, so we may pass by each other in the airport at some point.
That's it - more in a week and a day after I return from Niagara. And Welcome to the Silver Spider of the Sea, our newest Commentator - have they taken over from the Comment Christ, who has not spoken in some weeks? Only Time will Tell!
