My 300th Blog Post!

The word of the week is SPARTA!

Aug 12 - Three Hundred Posts!

This week's post sort of snuck up on me.

To be honest, I knew it was coming but given how busy I've been for the last little while, hitting this milestone came as a pleasant surprise to me this week.

I won't repeat what I wrote in my 250th post, but instead comment on the near future: it looks pretty decent. My sister is employed for at least the next three months, my work is going well( when I'm not sick ) and I've managed to succeed in bringing the second draft of my novel into physical form to share with a fair number of people. I'm looking at completing two major writing projects by the end of the year, one of them being the third draft of my novel and I really have nothing else of import on my plate. Which is great, because it means my stress levels won't be climbing sky-high about any of the above things.

300 posts: I'm pretty proud about that number. It shows that not only can I keep myself to a weekly deadline while being pleased with what I've written, but also that I've improved with every blog post. Being able to speak clearly while keeping the reader's interest is critical to being a writer and I firmly believe that my weekly blog has sharpened my writing skills immeasurably since I first began B.C. Beginnings in November of 2007.

Not bad for someone who doesn't live the life of a rockstar, I'd say.

I also stayed home from work today, as I was just too sick. It was a midshift, so easier to cover, but I still felt bad about feeling bad, as it's the first shift I've missed there in over six months. No helping it though; I'm killing Kleenexes at an alarming rate and have NO energy. I can only hope that by the end of this week that I'll be over this cold and nothing could please me more this point. 

One thing I'm very concerned about is keeping the cold from moving to my lungs, as I have no wish to repeat my serious bout with pneumonia from late last year. Not one bit.

Aug 13 - Icky Misery

While the number thirteen's been good to me lately, today was not on that lucky list.

There was no one who could cover me today at work for my closing shift, so I went in an hour later by mutual agreement with the manager and did my best. My head feels like I've been swimming underwater, which is never a good thing when you're trying to pay attention to detailed work. Fortunately I'm not working with heavy machinery or power tools, but it's still taking all that I've got to ensure that each order is accurate and that I'm doing my job properly. As it is, a couple things snuck by me today but fortunately they weren't big things and my coworkers noticed before anything got out of hand.

The hardest part today was not blowing my nose while out on the floor. Through sheer force of will, I kept everything on the inside for a few hours at a time until I at last had to relent and go upstairs to clean house, so to speak. It wasn't fun but it meant I could work today and since I had no choice, things went all right. It was a slow ride for me though, as I felt totally beat, mentally and physically. I don't remember what time I fell asleep because I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow, which is unusual as my thoughts are usually slow to settle at the end of the day.

Aug 14 - My novel comes home in spades!

Today I did what I wanted to do yesterday, but couldn't: pick up my books!

It was my day off and as I was still feeling very woozy, I persuaded my parents to meet me at the printer' s to load the two boxes of books, as I had no idea how heavy they'd be. As it turns out, they were fairly compact and were filled to the brim with copies of my book! I ponied up my carefully-saved money and walked out of Island Blue with dozens of copies of my novel's second draft in physical form.

Once I was home, I took a few pictures:

Don't they look GREAT ? 

Next, I quality-checked each book( while wearing gloves )to ensure that they were all in perfect shape. I then sorted the books into piles according to their final destinations, with the largest piles being the ones destined for Niagara and to be distributed locally here in Victoria. Then I numbered and signed each book carefully, taking my time as I don't have the greatest signature skills in the world.

After that, I weighed and measured a copy and worked out the costs for various methods of shipping within Canada and outside of the country to. That took a while to figure out but I had some final numbers by late afternoon which were very encouraging as they were much lower than I'd hoped for initially. Again he should be mentioned that I'm not making any money off these copies that I'm distributing, as their solely for the purpose of people reading my work as it stood as of the second draft. This distribution of drafts came about because I have no idea when my third draft may make it to store shelves; it may be years before the process gets that far and I'd like people to have a peek beforehand.

I know I wouldn't like to wait that long.

Aug 15 - Humidity

I had a surprise waiting for me after I got home today from a very busy day.

It wasn't a good one: with all the rain in damp from the last 24 hours, the humidity levels around Victoria and in my apartment in general had risen sharply. I noticed that some of my novels had developed a slight curve and I freaked out slightly, as I hadn't expected the humidity to be so high that I needed to take precautions before leaving for work early this morning.

Thinking quickly, I rushed down the road to purchase two large bags of rice and raced back home again. There I broke out my supply of large Ziploc bags and distributed all of the novels among them, along with generous scoops of dry rice. I sealed them all up and ensured that they were airtight, so that any humidity within the bags would quickly be absorbed by the dry rice. It was something I'd learned as a kid, when we kept bits of rice in our salt shakers to ensure Niagara's humidity didn't affect the salt.

I also placed many heavy books atop the carefully-laid-out novels to encourage them to stay flat inside the Ziploc bags. Once I'd completed all of this, I felt a lot less worried; I've never had books printed before and this sort of thing is new to me, but I feel I've done the best I can and time will tell if it's, worked. I don't own a dehumidifier and quite honestly the Victoria area doesn't usually see spikes in humidity like this, so I'll just have to keep the books in their bags until I ship them out in the coming week.

I went to bed even more tired than usual tonight; this cold is really kicking my butt instead of the other way around.

Aug 16 - Flat Tired

This morning, I had a flat tire.

It was my first one since I started cycling in Victoria, so that's almost six years of biking without any punctures - a good record, I think. Unfortunately, it happened on my way to work and though I arrived on time despite the occurrence, the tire was totally flat and the tube inside needed replacing. Meaning I was stuck here until I figured a way to fix the tire and get myself home again. Seeing as it was the rear tire that was flat, it's a rather involved process to remove the tire from all the chain gearing and I didn't have those tools with me today. I've stopped carrying anything other than the basic tools when I cycle as I normally carry quite a lot of weight with my other gear as it is.

Hard to tell from this angle, but it's VERY flat - click to zoom

Fortunately, later in the day a coworker told me that SportCheck could fix my tire and they were just across the parking lot. So when I finished work today, I wheeled my bike over and arranged to have it taken care of for tomorrow on Saturday. All it would cost me would be the price of a new tube, for the grand total of $5.24 - a pretty good price considering the time and effort it would take me to change it myself.

Once I dropped off the bike, I figured out which bus to take and was home around dinnertime. Not bad for having started at 7:30 this morning, I thought, given the circumstances. I was pretty tired as I'd still been battling this blasted cold all day, trying to keep my thoughts focused and not to make any mistakes while taking orders. I thought I did all right overall and went to bed early very, very tired indeed.

Aug 17 - Rest Day

It was breakfast on the patio for me this morning, to start my day right.

Nothing special really, just the A&W downtown, but as it was my first day off in over a week I wanted to start the day out right. I went straight back home and got busy with some domestic chores that had been languishing for the week for lack of energy. Not that I had a whole lot to around today, but I could take my time to do things instead of prioritizing here and there for what I could get done with my limited energy levels. Chicken soup has been my saving grace and for the last few days I've consumed quite a few bowls of it; the combination of the hot liquid and its soothing properties have slowly pushed back the veil of cotton that I've been thinking through and today I felt the first signs of the cold giving up its knotted grip on my sinuses.

Three hours of my afternoon were wasted though, as retrieving my bike from SportChek proved an exercise in futility. After busing up there, I got my bike back and locked it up outside my workplace, where I proceeded to do some novel-related work for an hour and then started cycling home. I only got as far as the next block before I felt a familiar sensation run through the bike and, looking down, I could see the rear tire had run flat again. 

I wheeled my bicycle back to SportChek, where I was told that the tech had left hours earlier and the soonest I could have the problem sorted out would be Monday - which I was working. Having no other choice, I left the bicycle in their care again with the admonishment to remove whatever hazard was in the tire before putting the new tube in . Then I started walking home as I'd managed to just miss my bus and as the next one would be along for half an hour, it was as fast by foot and I arrived well after dinner time.

Needless to say, I didn't do much for the rest of the evening and it was another early night for me. The good news was that the fresh air and the decent temperatures seem to have reduced my cold symptoms and I hope that I'll wake with a clearer head in the morning.

Aug 18 - All Day On A Patio!

Today I was at a book signing: mine!

Actually, I'd already signed all the books and I was just there to hand them out to people. From noon until well past five o'clock today, I sat on the patio at Moka House with a dozen copies of my novel. I was there to meet people from here in Victoria, my friends and co-workers, to hand them their copies and personalize the books if they so wished.

This is how I felt, despite the cold's sniffles!

It was a gorgeous day, temperature-wise; though the sun hid behind clouds for half the time I was there it came out for a while around tea-time. I was kept company by one of my co-workers for the entirety of the time, as it was his day off and we had some great wide-ranging discussions as people came and went. About half a dozen folks showed up over the course of the afternoon to get their books, each of them excited to take home their copies and leaving myself excited to hear their feedback in turn, in time. It was a great feeling to sit there and hand out each book, to pass my imaginative work on into other's hands to see how they liked it. I'm itching to hear back from them already!

After I called it a day, the evening passed fairly quickly. I felt relaxed and fulfilled, having handed out around a dozen copies to date. I'll be mailing out the rest early this coming week on my next day off, as I have to haul the large box down the road and I'll need some energy AND my bike to do so. Very exciting!

As a bonus, spending all that time outside in the fresh air seems to have socked it to my cold, as I've had nary a sniffle here and there all evening. I'm hopeful that I've seen the last of this bug and I'll be sure to redouble my efforts NOT to get sick again this winter.

It just takes too much out of me, and I need that energy to write this fall season!

That's about all I've got this week; beating this cold has really beaten me up. It's the first summer cold I've ever had and I can't say I'd EVER want to repeat the experience; at least in the winter you can turn up the heat without swimming too much in your own sweat.

Summer Sickness, Silicon Support and Skystrikers

The word of the week is commitment.

Aug 5 - Tech Support

Today I finally got a tech support call.

Not the kind you would think however; it was a call from somebody in the building looking for me to help them with their computer. For 10 months now I've had several posters up in this building the one next-door and this is the first call I received. Which means that either people around here have really reliable computers or they fix things themselves - either way, they haven't called me. Until now.

It was a fairly easy fix that just took some time to effect. Her laptop had been infected by the RCMP virus, which had locked it up totally with a form of ransomware: a screen was displayed telling her that she had violated various laws( false ) and that she needed to pay a 'fine' via electronic methods in order to have her computer back. This virus is used by organized crime groups to generate funds for their activities that is an excellent example of criminal scum using sophisticated methods to dupe the unwary into parting with their money. I personally can't stand this sort of thing or criminal activity in general.

Some variants take a pic of you with your laptop's webcam for added scare value

What perhaps was the most interesting thing about today's tech support visit was the apartment itself: it was utterly disgusting. I've been in some weird places over the years, including student dorms and people with too many pets, yet this place just had her and a complete lack of housekeeping. Dozens of empty pizza boxes stacked on the back of the couch competed with as many dirty dishes and scattered wrappers all around the main room for the attention of various flies. The floors were covered with various layers of food and other things that I tried not to identify, though there was little odour overall. Revolting.

I don't know what else to say. She was obviously happy living in these conditions and working on her quilting hobby full-time. She paid me well for my time after I'd finished restoring her laptop to her and I headed back to my place, seeing it with new eyes from a fresh perspective of how others choose to live.

Aug 6 - Back to work, you!

You should be careful for what you wish for.

Turns out, I got what I wanted: a full week at work! I'm working 5 full shifts this week, eight days in a row altogether, which will be great for the paycheque. I will have to get back into the swing of things after 10 days off.

Working in the Copy Centre at this point of the year is actually a great choice, as back-to-school is ramping up for the last few weeks of August. It's the busiest time of the year for the company, as well as the most crowded as thousands of students of all ages with their families pile into the store. I'm quite lucky to be in the department I am, as I don't have to worry about running around too much. I'll just be doing a lot of directing, which I can handle, or so I think; I've never done a back-to-school before so we'll see how it goes.

At least I get to work with a great bunch of people as part of the solid team that set the store. Everyone knows what they're doing and is more than willing to help out wherever and whenever they are needed. It's that positive attitude and the knowledge that your coworkers have your back no matter what that means going into this busy season isn't as stressful as it could be. Definitely a good thing.

Aug 7 - Framing

Lots of wall space, not so much in the wallet.

I need to get quite a few things framed, but I don't have the funds right now. Which is odd, as I haven't had a lot of things I want to hang on my wall that aren't already up there.

But, at Phoenix ComiCon, I picked up a set of three of these beauties by the artist Ant Lucia:

I got a set of all 3 for a SWEET deal! They're ALL I bought.

And just before I left for Ontario last week, I put in three images to be turned into 3x4' posters. One of my novel's Second Draft cover by Brian T. Woods, one of a set of dozens of sci-fi spacecraft… and a cutaway of the Milennium Falcon - just because. As well, I have my recent diploma from Brock and there's even a poster of Star Trek Continues, signed by the whole cast, from Phoenix!

So yes, I have a LOT of posters to frame and hang over the next while, as I can. I will keep them as safe as possible, but they're meant to be seen, not stored. Right?

Really, I just want some more cool stuff on my walls: they've been fairly bare for far too many years!

Aug 8 - Recharge Me

What do you do when your battery is low?

In my case, this applies to both myself and my Samsung phone this week.

With the phone, my battery doesn't last the day and in fact usually lasts only about six hours. Something in the list of programs I have is draining it and I have to discover what it is. From my initial scan, it looks like the Samsung Link is the culprit, but I have no way to uninstall that as it's part of the manufacturers software that comes with the phone. Even the battery life extension software app I've installed isn't helping.

Which means I'll probably have to root the phone, which I've been meaning to do anyway once the one-year warranty runs out in September. Rooting the phone will mean I have complete control over everything that goes on and I can get rid of whatever extra stuff is taking up space or causing problems for me in daily use. I really don't want to buy a spare battery, as the one that comes with the phone should be more than adequate to let it last a day, at a minimum, once I have it rooted. My previous phone was rooted and although the battery life wasn't great, it definitely lasted a whole day.

The funny part is I don't do all that much with the phone that would be the battery. I don't watch YouTube videos or Netflix or surf the Internet endlessly. If I did, I just have to keep the thing plugged in 24/7 given the current battery drain and that would just be silly, I think.

Aug 9 - Jetfire SkyStriker? Cool !!!

When I was a kid, one of my favorite toys was a G.I. Joe airplane called the SkyStriker. I also coveted a particular Transformers toy jet aircraft called JetFire, which was copied from a Robotech toy.

Imagine the grin and delight on my face when I saw this picture of what was being given away at this year's San Diego ComicCon:

 

Pure. Awesome.

  

That's one really cool crossover and shows how a love of all things g33ky can sometimes combine several nostalgic memories into one really cool collectible. Not that I could justify dropping several hundred dollars for such a thing, but it's nice to know that people are still being creative in coming up with unique items like that. Perhaps if I end up with more room in the future, I'll be able to display some of my collectibles in some stylish glass cases instead of hiding them in cardboard boxes in storage.

Because cool collectibles aren't meant to live in darkness, but to be seen in the light of g33kiness.

Aug 10 - Talking about my novel! In a bar!

It was a full shift for me today at work, tired as I was.

Back-to-school is starting and today was a preview, with a solid stream of people flowing into the store together supplies for their kids on top of the regular weekend crowd. Copy wasn't overly busy, which was good as I spent a fair amount of time assisting people elsewhere to help take the pressure off my coworkers whenever I could. It was definitely wearing as I'm feeling under the weather with a throat tickle that's turned into a sore throat as of this morning. But I got through anyway without losing my voice.

In the evening I met up with a couple of guys from work for a few drinks downtown, at a pub I'd walk by many times but never been in. Turns out the Yates Street Taphouse is quite a nice place and I enjoyed finding that out.

Most of the conversation was between myself and one of my coworkers who had just recently finished reading the second draft of my novel - I'd given him a printout some months back at his request. It was absolutely fantastic to sit there and toss questions back and forth about my work with someone who had really paid attention to the details while reading it. It's that sort of feedback that I really need in order to take my work to the next level and several half-formed ideas I had already became much clearer after tonight's conversation.

I was also just plain thrilled that someone liked my work so much that they wanted to reread it again after talking to me in order to catch the details they missed the first time. That's the sort of thing that writers live on and I found myself energized anew to write more about the world I'd created.

Aug 11 - Blarg Bug

I woke up to find my cold was in full swing. Congestion, headache, the whole works plus a lack of sleep means it was going to be a bad day for me.

Unfortunately, I was working today at 10 AM.

I managed to make it through four hours with several fairly busy periods before I headed home, feeling quite tired and definitely intent on destroying a full box of Kleenex by the time the day was out. I'd also managed to tweak my right arm somehow today, probably when I was helping out a few times on the sales floor getting several chairs down for customers. One more thing to add to my sick list.

After napping briefly and drinking a lot of fluids, I was back at work for 6 PM for the annual mandatory back-to-school meeting. I sat myself well away from everyone in the back with a box of Kleenex next to me and did my best to pay attention. It worked for the most part but by the end of the meeting I was feeling much worse and at that point I pulled one of the managers I wouldn't be coming in on Monday. Good call, that.

It's worth noting that I have to be more careful now about getting sick, as I've had a severe case of pneumonia last winter. Which means that I'm more prone to a cold moving into my lungs and setting up shop, which would not be good. So I'm being aggressive about combating this one, with lots of fluids, chicken soup, cold medicines and rest whenever needed. I definitely don't want things to worsen by not paying close enough attention, that's for sure.

That's all I have. It took me most of the day on Monday the 12th to put this together, and here it is. Any ramblings or errors I blame on the battle with the bug that's got me. G'night!

A Week in Niagara 2013

The word of the week is magical.
 

July 29 - Arrival back in Niagara!
 

It was definitely not an early rise for me today.
 

I was feeling the weekend today, no question. With all that I'd had to eat and drink, it was impossibly difficult for me to get going. Period. I ended up outside, where the cool air refreshed me a bit and I soon tottered went back to stay inside the covered porch while the rest of guys tided up - sorry. I simply didn't have the energy and nibbled on some granola with water, which seemed to help. Movement however, didn't, but I was grateful that only my stomach was giving me trouble, not my head.
 

We started the trip home well before noon, with good weather all the way. I wasn't feeling all that great on the move, I confess, and at one point we had to stop while I unburdened myself on short notice. In a construction zone on the wrong side of the road - not fun. However, I felt fairly decent after that. It's strange that even after decades of moderating my intake, it's still so simple for me to make myself feel awful a day after feeling very fine. I also suspect that the large quantities of food I wasn't used to( any more )got my digestive system in a tizzy, which I added abuse to and well, that was it.

Writing the blog in the evening was a chore, but I put my nose to the grindstone and had it done by the time midnight rolled around. I was determined to get it done no matter what I felt like, as I've yet to miss an entry in the nearly 6 years I've been writing it… and I'm certainly not going to miss one because of any excesses of my own doing. Nosirree! For a wonder, it was coherent and while lacking pictures( due to my tablet not being the greatest for doing blogs )it was a solid entry, I think. 

I was worn out enough to fall immediately asleep, with my stomach settled at last into a semblance of normalcy for the night, at least.

 

July 30 - Niagara, here I am!

Today was a much better day.
 

I was up fairly early, well before 8am, with a decently settled stomach. I headed over to the Pen Centre to get some breakfast and some minimal groceries for the week, for the occasional lunch or snack when I wasn't going to be out.
 

It was a lovely half-hour walk down Pelham Ave and onto Glenridge, with perfect weather on the sunny morning.  The walk reminded me of all the beauty that Niagara possesses, especially the forested parts, like the ravines where I played as a boy. The cool breeze in the trees, the quiet that settles over you in the shade of the woods; these things and more played on my mind as I walked. The road was lightly trafficked and I found my way fairly quickly to the Pen, where I discovered a brand-new A&W had been built and I decided to eat there:
 

Don't mind the thumb; it's a thing I do with my phone. A lot.

To my delight, I found they had a breakfast special: bacon, eggs and toast for a mere $2.99 - sweet deal! Once I had eaten, I got a few groceries and headed back to where I was staying, feeling better than I had when first waking a few hours ago.
 

Later in the day I went to visit my grandad at his home near the lake. He and I visited for the afternoon, where I caught up with him on things and just enjoyed his company. He's in good health; at 92, he looks like he's 65 and moves with a slower but spry step - definitely a good sign for my own passage into seniority when the time comes!

I break out the dimples whenever I'm at the Kilt!

The evening saw me end up at the Kilt, with my stomach still unsettled but I was determined to enjoy myself. A few people came by to keep me company, which made for a lovely night on the patio. However, I'd managed to forget a message I'd sent over the weekend about getting together with several friends tonight - it would have worked MUCH better for their schedules if I'd remembered, but I didn't. I found this out the next day, so this evening wasn't one spent wracked by guilt. 

Which I don't do much of anymore, thank goodness. So the evening was a good, laid-back time, with some reminiscing and not all that much in the way of drinks.

July 31 - Co-Working!
 

Sleeping in doesn't seem to be in the cards this week.
 

Waking is taking place at dawn, as I don't have blackout blinds where I'm staying and the light is enough to trip my internal alarm. I can go back to sleep, but it's not the same and I'm still tired from the weekend, not to mention still feeling a tad touchy in the stomach - but it's nothing I can't manage sensibly.
 

A leisurely breakfast at A&W again set a good tone for the day, as did the walk there and back. Soon after, I was picked up by my friend Trevor to be taken to the Mahtay Café downtown. We joined some other folk there for a co-working session, which is kind of like a networking lunch only with no pressure and you can come or go as you please. I met quite a few cool people with all sorts of talents, including another writer who's completing work on her own book this summer!

I spent the afternoon at the café, with a break to go to the Merchant Ale House for lunch with Dan and Trevor. I had the opportunity to talk about my book with quite a few people, which had me espousing its strengths with passion and enthusiasm and lots of smiles! Everyone seemed quite taken with the fact I'd written a book, especially when they leafed through it and got lost a little in whatever passage of words their eyes fell upon. That made me feel… incredible.

After a little time spent with Dan at the Lake St Steebs, we met up with Lucas and Matt at the Wildfire Grillhouse on Ontario St for dinner. The weather was cloudy, but the rain held off as we sat outside for tapas on the patio. I'd never had tapas before and the concept of being able to order a whole bunch of cool stuff for dinner was very tempting. However, my stomach was still not very happy with me and the shrimp in particular didn't sit well, so I ended up eating in a very birdlike manner and just tried to enjoy the patio with my friends. Also, this was the first time in many years that I was sitting next to people who were allowed to smoke and the shifting wind often brought their exhalations into the same space I was using for breathing, which wasn't pleasant. But hey, it was only for one night and they were enjoying themselves, so who was I to say anything? I was out with my friends and that was enough to ignore any other distractions.

I'm nursing this drink back to my health. Yep.

Afterwards, we all headed down to the Kilt first few hours to relax and watch what the weather was going to do. As it turns out: nothing, which was nice. I again caught a ride home with a friend and again marveled at the fact that so far I've been able to do just fine without a vehicle while visiting Niagara. It was also ironic that although I didn't have to drive myself anywhere up to this point, I had no desire whatsoever to have more than one or two drinks of an evening after the weekend I've had. So really, being chauffeured around was wonderful and quite funny in that I could've drank a lot more but simply didn't have the stomach for it, which was fine.

Aug 1 - First day, BUSY day!

WOW, what a day today! Family and friends galore!

Another breakfast with friends today was a wonderful way to start the day. My good friend Josh picked me up and we headed over to Cora's at the Pen Centre to meet Matt L. and Dan. It's funny that in all the years I was in Niagara, I wished that a Cora's would open in the region, as I really liked their breakfast variety which includes a lot of fresh fruit. Naturally they opened the location we ate at only a few years after I left Niagara, but that's the way it goes. It was a fantastic few hours spent with my friends, where the discussion ranged widely across a variety of topics and never had a dull moment. We had to break up eventually before things carried over into lunch time and Josh was feeling quite tired as he was on nights this week.

Also, I had somewhere to be at noon! My Aunt Connie picked me up from Matt's place and we met my Aunt Carolyn and my cousin Paula at Perkins for lunch. I was quite tickled that my family had made me a belated birthday cake from my grandmother's recipe! It was splendid seeing them all again and I spent quite some time catching them up on how things were going in Victoria for myself, my sister and my parents. They were all quite thrilled to see the proof copy of my novel and I spent a fair bit of time talking about that unashamedly. I also talked a bit about the things that have led up to my choice to move to BC with my parents and how that had influenced the person that I am today. It was fantastic to see how supportive my aunts and my cousin were about the decisions that were made back then and how I had chosen to leave my life up until the present. I truly miss them all as well is the rest of my extended family here in Ontario and I determined once again to make it back here sooner rather than later to see them all as much as possible.

We had to head out eventually, as I was visiting other family in the afternoon down in Port Dalhousie. I was dropped off at my grandfather's house by Aunt Connie, where I visited for a wonderful hour outside in the garden that he's lovingly cared for for over a quarter century. We then headed to dinner with my mom's sister, her husband, her daughter and her husband along with their two young little girls. It had probably been at least 15 years since we'd all sat down at the same table together at my grandparent's house over in Port Dalhousie and it was a very pleasant time that we had together. Everyone enjoyed each other's company and I got to catch up on their lives, something I hadn't been able to do much of at all for closing in on a decade now. The side of the family has been somewhat estranged from mine and I was extremely grateful to be able to close that gap tonight on my own personal recognizance and with the willing participation of everyone at the table as well.

After a great couple of hours, it was time to head out yet again!

My friend Pierre picked me up and we headed to the Steebs( Starbucks )on Lake Street to meet some more friends. Dan was there, as was Trevor and my friend Mike, who had driven down from Burlington - he would have been down on Tuesday, as would have Pierre, if it not been for my error that night which in retrospect neither of them called me out for, so I was grateful for that. Soon we were joined by Shiloh and her new fiancé, as well as Lucas and Matt, which made for a great gathering. I talked about my book as much as everyone could stand and I was quite happy that everyone seemed to take in what I had to say about the process with very few questions. The most surprising part of the evening was discovering that Pierre was no longer a staunch supporter of Apple and was actually leaning towards getting a few android devices the next time he needed to.

The cake was declared to be delicious by all!

As with all things, people had to leave to get on with their other responsibilities and a few of us headed down to the Kilt - naturally - to spend a few more hours together. It was just like old times( if you'll forgive the cliché ) with us sitting around at the bar catching up with each other. Unlike old times, I made a point of speaking my mind about where I've been, what I've done and where I am now with my friends. I was grateful to find that most everyone was very pleased with where I was now personally and wanted to see me succeed in becoming an author and generally enjoying life instead of watching me being ground away underneath a huge burden of responsibility for my family.

Unsurprisingly, I want the same thing!

Aug 2 - Last Day in Niagara!

As it turns out, a breakfast appointment didn't happen this morning, so I ended up going to A&W again - this time with Matt and Josh. You really can't beat a $2.99 special, which is laughably inexpensive when you realize that a large orange juice from the same menu will cost you just as much!

Things came together yet again for lunch: I met friends at The Feathery, most of whom I hadn't expected to see due to their schedules and mine not mixing well. Turns out I was wrong on that count, at least for today - and I'm so very glad I was! Simon, Dave, Bill, Lucas, Rene and his new lady Simone all turned out for a lovely lunch, where again I passed around my novel( see a trend here? )and got some great feedback about it. I made sure to catch up with everyone as best I could given that most of them had to work that day - I was very touched that they'd all gone to such effort to see me. I know some of them hadn't seen each other since I was last out to Niagara, which made the gathering all the more special to me.

All former HALO buddies, now retired from the game!

After we parted ways, I was at loose ends a bit as it turned out to be the only day this week were I didn't have anything planned for the afternoon or even dinner. I'd posted as much on Fbook as soon as I'd woken up today but nobody was able to do much on a Friday afternoon on shorter notice, which was fine as I soon received a txt from Lucas wondering if I'd like to have a drink at noon down at the Kilt.

I immediately accepted - it was perfect timing!

I have to say that Lucas in particular has been fantastic this week, taking multiple days off to spend time with me and ferry me when needed here and there - friends like him make the decades seem like days and make me wish that I could hop back to Ontario every few weeks instead of every few years.

We spent a good part of the afternoon on the patio at the Kilt, enjoying the sunshine and the warm weather. That was also part of my good luck this week: the incredible heat of the previous few weeks had waned and all this week here in Niagara the weather was - for the most part - perfect. Not too hot and not too cool with little humidity, just right for relaxing outside, as everyone I talked to agreed.

In the mid-afternoon, I was hijacked to a party!

 

Ring-tossing: aim for the ankles!

It was a birthday party for one of the Kilt regulars, down in Port Dalhousie. There were a fair number of people there at a lovely little home set back from the road enough to leave a lawn which was the perfect size for ring tossing - the same game as we'd played at the cottage. We played until it was time to eat and the clouds have rolled in by then, with a little rain keeping us under the front porch eaves. The pulled pork dinner was fantastic along with some potato salad and it was finished perfectly with a very filling chocolate trifle brought along by one of the Kilt staff( thanks, Krystal! ). I stayed and talked with folk for a bit, making some new friends and enjoying myself immensely with an ease I've always had when just being myself. It seems to work wonders in meeting new people, I find.

A little before the rain had started, it was 9 PM and I found myself back at the Kilt - I was waiting to meet up with around a dozen of the old MMart staff from Niagara. As it turns out, only one person showed up despite my messages, but I was still happy to see her as we'd had a ton of fun working together in the years I was here in the region. I guess travelling across the country still couldn't induce any of my MMArt pals to pull something together, as I had to foot all the communications... well, that's their loss. We were soon joined by Lucas, Matt and Dan, then my good friend Al and his pal David who I'd not met before. Even Honest Frankie was there and wonder of wonders, we discovered that we had a mutual interest in science fiction - something I'd not known in all the years I've heard him play at the Kilt!

That's Frankie, being attacked by the mic. He doesn't look worried.

By this time, the rain was really coming down in buckets and the table I was sitting at, being at one end of the patio, was flooding like Calgary last month. The humidity was actually good, as I had my book with me and I wanted to test how well the proof copy stood up to the moisture; turns out it was pretty good, with only a little cover curl. I ended up talking quite a bit about the book - again - discovering that I really can't wait until I can dig back into the creative process to finish up the third draft by the end of this year. 

Coming back to Niagara has really crystallized in my mind why I left: to pursue my dreams and to make them a reality, just as I put the words in my head and onto paper to create the book that I held in my hands t to show my friends and family.

Sleep came easily to me tonight.

Aug 3 - Departing Northward, Again

It was an early morning today, meeting friends for a final breakfast in Niagara.

My friend Shawna - whose wedding I had attended the last time I was here - picked me up and we met Lucas and Katie at a breakfast place over in the west end of the city by the new hospital called Gratzi. It was the same place that Matt, Lucas, Aaron and I ate at last week before heading to the cottage. Surprisingly, my stomach was misbehaving and I didn't finish my meal, though I did polished off some unwanted bacon from a few other people - how often does THAT happen, I ask you? ( the bacon thing, not the stomach ). It was great to see everyone again one more time before I had to call it quits for Niagara and despite everyone being tired from the early hour necessitated by my departure schedule, it was a very fine time that we had.

Shawna dropped me off at Josh's place( where I'd stayed last time I was down ) and I had the chance to catch up with him and his wife for a little while. On a technical note, he'd purchased a tablet from the same ASUS line as my own TF101 Transformer, which had been a trooper this whole week in keeping me connected with my friends and family. It was great to see Mandy, albeit briefly, and I hope to spend more time with them both next time I'm down here.

I did get to spend almost 2 hours with Josh on the ride up to Georgetown however, as he kindly gave me a ride on his way to pick up his daughter from his parents place in nearby Whitby. I was very grateful for the opportunity to catch up with him and I was again reminded of how little the years have changed most of the people I know; Josh especially made it seem like we were both still in university and just heading out to do things for the day. I really enjoyed the trip, though he ran into quite the traffic jam near our destination which I later found out was due to the opening of a new outlet mall like no other in Canada - more on that later.

My drop-point was a church, of all things, where my friend Jay was running a gaming day for the Georgetown Geeks and Gamers group. I spent a good portion of the afternoon happily lost in geeky things like HeroQuest and Munchkin, which I hadn't played in many many years. To wit:

Sweet, sweet victory! That's Fabio the wizard by the door, by the by...

We packed up and headed out into downtown Georgetown, where Jay and I had dinner at the Shepherd's Crook. Over the course of the meal we chatted about where our lives and let us and what we were doing now compared to what we had been doing when we first met a couple of decades ago. Back then, the Amiga computer that I have been so fond of was brand-new and Jay was already an expert in creating CGI graphics with its then cutting-edge technology. We didn't reminisce about the Amiga much but instead tended to linger on things more weighty, but that didn't last too long as we were just glad to see each other.

In the evening I visited briefly with his wife Ruth-Ann and their daughter Anya before it was bedtime for the ladies both. Jay and I g33ked out playing a boardgame version of X-Wing, with a miniature titular ship and two tie fighters. The setup was simple and we were using the basic rules so the fight didn't take the rest of the night. Here's where I turned the tables on the TIE's, finally: 

Stay on target... stay on target!

It was quite a battle and lasted far longer than either of us expected, culminating in a nail-biting series of shootouts and maneuvers that saw me triumph with a last roll of the dice. By then I was quite worn out by battle fatigue and retired to bed with visions of laser blasts in my head.

Aug 4 - Family and Returning Home

My last day in Ontario was very relaxed, under sunny skies and perfect temperatures.

I had a lovely pancake breakfast with Jay and Ruth-Ann and their daughter Anya. It was necessarily brief, as Ruth-Ann and Anya had to head out to swim lessons while Jay was driving me over to Milton, twenty minutes away.

Why Milton, you ask? Because that's where my cousin Tina and her family live - coincidentally also where my good friend Rob lives too, who was at the cottage last weekend with us. So I was tickled that we could arrange to see Tina today, albeit only for an hour as she was working today. But we still managed to happily catch up on many things before her husband Doug drove us over to her new place of work across town. I've seen her too little in the last half-decade and it was fantastic to be able to spend even that little time with her. She was enthused about my novel and loved the passage she read at random, which made my heart swell that my family thought my work was well-worth reading. It really did.

Back to their home, to a brunch with Doug that Tina had prepared in part for us to enjoy. I was really thrilled to be able to spend time with Doug, as over the years we'd never really connected time-wise. Turns out that as I spent more time with him today than I had in the last ten years, give or take, that we really enjoyed each other's company. He also showed me quite a few family photos to catch me up on things, as they're just about to become empty-nesters and to embark on a new section of their lives. I wish them all the best; it's amazing to have family like them!

Doug drove me to the airport in plenty of time to get checked in. 

I even had enough time to visit the Hamilton Warplane Heritage Museum, a place I'd wanted to go for years but never managed to get to due to the schedule of my visits. Today though, I made a point of walking from the airport doors over to the museum, only ten minutes away. I wanted to see if I could find my grandfather's model aircraft in there, which he'd been working on for most of my life and had donated to the museum after recently completing them.

Wandering the displays brought me to the hangar, a place of wonder.

'F' is for 'Firey Fem' ...

Parked in their places of honour were dozens of planes, deadly still in their silence. I wandered among the planes, able to run a hand along their metal, to feel in their riveted sleekness some of the deadly grace that had roamed the skies in their day. I took quite a few pictures, like these:

It was magical.

The long first leg of my flight home was a noisy one, with a little girl named Veronica being vocally moody for the entire trip in the row in front of me. Earplugs helped, as did earphones, but every passenger in the rear of the plane was quite glad to see her family deplane at Calgary. She was quite the little princess and I hope her parents use today's flight as a catalyst to rein in her behaviour - whew! I'd given up trying to read or write my blog and spent most of those five hours watching an Income Property marathon on the in-flight TV, along with some of the newest Mission Impossible movie - ironic, given the situation.

 

The Vancouver coastline - almost home!

After that, it was quite nice to relax on the hour-long remaining leg of my journey by reading some ebooks on my tablet. The plane debarked at the airport to a glorious sunset and lovely temperatures, which I only caught the last of as my bag was the very last one off the plane. Nice. By the time I got home it was almost 9pm locally, which was 12am according to my body clock. I managed to unpack and get things started on my blog, but I fell asleep at the keyboard and dragged myself to bed well before midnight, dead tired.

But happy! So very, very happy, that I'd been able to see so many of my family and friends on my trip. I'm truly, humbly grateful at how it all worked out! For not having planned ahead intentionally, each day seemed to work itself out perfectly.

Magic. *grin*

There you have it, my trip to Niagara, entire. It was a wonderful, magical time that let me connect with SO MANY friends and family; I feel extremely lucky that things worked out as well as they did without too much planning aforethought. I'm still staggered by how fantastic it was that so many people were able to make time to see me during my too-brief visit and also how little they've changed - in all the right ways - since I saw many of them last. It truly was an amazing week and I'll add some pics to FBook ASAP!