July 31 – Last day of July – lead into to a long weekend and I decide to take a day off and stretch out the weekend. So what happens. Markets flutter, crude bounces and rack goes up 4.2 cpl on the Friday before the long weekend – media didn’t jump on that one – right1. Put that in context with some other stuff going on and my day off turned into a fair whack of log-on time. At least it was outside on the deck in some fresh albeit getting very warm air.

Game progress – I figured out how to save the West Virginia and advance to the actual shoot’em up in the game. I have managed to get killed on a fairly regular basis but am making progress. My marksmanship sucks! The current problem is that Jane has returned from her jaunt to North Bay and I am getting yelled at for noise pollution. I guess sustained machine gun fire in surround sound can get annoying after a while. It does not seem to bother me.

Super Suits – In my opinion the current “controversy” over the so called “super” suits is stupid. Short of having everyone swim nude (which might be less interesting than you think) why should swimming be any different than just about every other sport where athletes / teams / countries etc., are always looking for opportunities to improve. It is not drugs or steroids it is simply equipment.

• Should hockey players have to use wooden sticks?

• Should golf clubs have wooden shafts?

• Should pole vaulters use steel poles (I had to)/

• Should football have leather helmets?

• Should ballplayers be bare handed with baggy pants?

And on and on and on!

The suits are available to all – give it a rest. Besides, sometimes they rip and that does get a reaction!

LCBO – Thank You – I now have a new and exciting challenge. The LCBO had a great sales piece in last week’s paper – “We’ve Goy Your Beer”. Renamed by me as “You’ve Got My Beer”. As a direct attack on The Beer Store or as I still remember them “Brewers’ Retail, this lovely brochure lists (maybe all – or at least the brewers that paid) brands carried by the LCBO. My mission, should I choose to accept it (and I will) is to work my way through a sampling of their wares. I believe there were 101 beers illustrated. It is a dirty job but someone has to do it!

A couple of caveats.

•   Canadian brands masquerading as “imported” are excluded.

•   “Imported” brands – “made in Canada” are probably toast.

•   U.S 3.2 type stuff – gone

•   “Bargain” rip-offs – disqualified.

•   I will continue to allocate a significant portion of my volume to the tried and true favourites – aka Guinness

•   It was actually a surprise to me both how many in the brochure I have tried and how many prime trial candidates are just sitting there waiting for me.

If anyone has a suggestion let me know.

A great LCBO plus is creating your mix and match packs. You don’t get stuck with a dud.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

A couple of early candidates – possibly – Schneider Weisse (130 year old German), Kronnenbourg 1664 (French?) and Smithwick’s Premium (an old favourite pub ale).

Garcon, Oh Garcon!

So with an Ein Prosit and a sign-off for who knows how long as it is a long weekend after all, enjoy, stay safe and feel some sympathy for Jimmy B. who got dumped 29 – 0 by his buds on the NHL Board of Governors. Was there a “message” there!

Back to top

July 29 – You get what you vote pay for, or more importantly you often don’t get what you think you voted paid for. Settled into the PC War Room last night with great anticipation. Loaded up the software for my super duper new thingie game pad, tested all of the buttons, and pads and triggers and joysticks and loaded up “Medal of Honour” Pacific theatre to do battle and mindlessly blast everything in sight. Oh the soothing balm for repressed stress.

Guess what ? - Mouse and Keyboard only no Game pad support. Guess I should have read the fine print or maybe I can reprogram my gamepad buttons to emulate keyboard commands but I doubt it. Anyway, not to be deterred, I figured the old skills would return so I fired it up anyway. Found out it really means you need to learn the keys so you have to go through Boot Camp training to get into the game. FINE! Then I find out I start at Pearl Harbour on Dec. 7 and have to work through that scenario. So, instead of some mindless blasting away at endless bad guys to relieve my latent hostility, I find myself trapped in the West Virginia looking for a valve I have to open to keep from capsizing. If you don’t find it in time you “die”. After “dying” three times, I decided that I was not releasing my latent hostilities but rather increasing my frustrations. This may not have been such a good idea as an “alternate outlet”.

Enough of that so I decided to cap off the evening with an  episode of NYPD Blues – Season One on DVD.

Speaking of DVDs – the “Season” sets are a huge rip-off. While “bait and switch” is an illegal marketing tactic (unless well disguised by such clever ploys as OOS or Sold Out), unfortunately “bait and rip-off” is perfectly legal and simply relies on human gullibility which is in seemingly endless supply.. The next time you are shopping in a DVD environment check the prices on “Season One” of just about any show. Then look at the price of Season Two and subsequent years. Season One is almost invariably at least half price or less than subsequent versions. Get those lemmings to buy one “cheap” and hook them into coming back again and again to get screwed at full pop.

Do the math. Season one of NYPD Blues cost me $15 for 22 episodes or $0.68 per episode (plus tax). Not a bad rate for an hour’s entertainment. I think the retail on Season Two is $40. Or $1.82 per episode – not bad in absolute terms but enough to annoy me and NYPD Blues is one of the less expensive series.

Given that the “package” costs very little, there is a huge margin on this stuff compared to a lot of other items and people wonder why downloads of “illegal” copies is so popular!

Estimate – 6 disc (product / burn and graphics @ $0.50 each) =$3.00. three disc double cases and a slip cover call it $5, shipping and handling for $1 and cost is around $9 (and I suspect that is high). Remember the cost at $15 retail is the same as at $40. Figure your own margin or mark-up.

Scott Downs – words that send fear into the hearts of every “Jays fan”! As the old commercial goes for Jays opponents – “How do you spell Relief  - D O W N S . Harsh as it may be, in his last six appearances the arm picked to replace B.J. Ryan has 2 blown saves, three loses and given up 6 earned runs. Not a confidence builder for a “fireman” who isn’t fooling anyone. The “bad luck” spin only works for a while. BJ must be rolling on the floor (in his bags of money) laughing – you dumped me for this?

Back to top

July 28 – While the garbage strike may be settled, I think they settled it or a chunk of their sewage on my GO Train car this morning. When I got on the one end, I was surprised to see a good selection of empty seats in the mid tier by the washroom. As I sat down it became clear as to why. It reeked! It was so bad that even I was contemplating getting up and moving to SRO in another part of the car or better yet another car. Fortunately, or not, I managed to hang in there until Union Station (twenty minutes) but it seemed forever. What a way to start the day.

Triple Zap – As if Tasers are not under enough heat these days, Taser International has just introduced the X3 model – the equivalent of a semi-auto weapon. Now you can zap three targets independently without reloading (or guess what – you can drill one target three times. Lieutenant Hunter on Hill Street Blues would have loved this one to add to his arsenal. However, you will be pleased to know that the advanced design is intended to make their use safer??  Watch the promo . does anyone at Taser International read the paper or watch the news? Maybe I should apply to run either their PR or customer service departments.

War Games – Staying with the aggressive weapons theme, I have been advised by a number of folks that I need to develop alternative uses for my time and energy other than lampooning hapless “volunteers” and kicking the cat. I am not sure why I need to as both are very gratifying, but being the open-minded kind of guy that I am, I will give it a try (I think they are just concerned they may be my next target – Zap with the old X3).

This need for a new activity or “outlet” as they say, is despite “I told you so” opportunities that keep coming my way that I just have not bothered with even though I am sure they will surface in the not too distant future as things are circulating on “the Network”. However, I am beginning to suspect “nobody really knows the impact of what is going on, or if they do, they apparently don’t care. It seems there are a very limited number of people willing to point out that “the Emperor (and his court) have no clothes”.

So having considered options like more home renovation or digging deeper into the “Honey Do” jar, I have eliminated those as clearly not of interest and decided to check out the world of PC Games. I am not worthy of progressing yet to the game consoles (translation – make a fool of myself in public) but I am a former “Doom” aficionado having graduated from Wolfenstein (great old game) and Duke Nuke’em. I played those games with the keyboard and a mouse and likely killed three or four rodents with cursor abuse. I have therefore gone out and splurged on a Logitech Dual Action Controller that after looking at all the buttons and triggers and dials I figure will take me at least six months to decipher, let alone develop any type of competence. I also grabbed one of those $9.99 specials from the game bin to practice on while I scope out the “Good Games”. Any suggestions are welcome.

By the way this “outlet” will not replace, but rather will supplement my other activities.

You are sooo dumb . . . -  While murder trials are not funny and no one wants to run afoul of the biker gangs you have to at least chuckle at this one. As a punch line to the old – You are so dumb jokes, this one takes the prize:

You are so dumb that - You think pickles grow on trees!

Yup – he did – read it here, but remember, he is part of a biker “hit squad” on trial for the shooting massacre of eight other bikers. By the way, he has a number of attractive “pet” names too.

Back to top

July 27 – “the grass is always greener . . . “, no longer holds true at the Moorehead hacienda. After the sustained downpours and the ministrations of Student Care Lawn Care, I am not sure it is possible to be any greener anywhere else. While it cut into my weekend deck time, the rain and no scorching temperatures has sure helped the foliage.

Media Intrusion – it seems that taking shots at the media has become a popular pastime for me, as well as others. I was browsing through The Sun on Sunday as no one really reads it and came across a picture that I really thought was in poor taste and bad editorial judgement. While there was (and should be) extensive coverage of Felipe Massa's unfortunate FI accident, I do not think it was necessary of appropriate to publish a close-up head shop of Massa being taken out of the car to an ambulance. At that point no one knew if he would “survive” and friends and family members do not need that kind of “in your face” shot – at least in my opinion. What are you catering to, news coverage or gore voyeurism?

Understatement – “A massive sinkhole – big enough to hold a fleet of cars and deep enough to swallow a four-storey building – may affect your commute along Finch Ave. W. today.” – a quote from The Star. I think “may affect” is somewhat of an understatement. The fortunate part is that apparently no one was driving over the spot when it went “poof”. Without being an alarmist, how many more of these are out there just waiting to happen based on being undermined by water and erosion? Would make some folks fell a little uncomfortable in playing the Laneway Lottery game. It isn’t that this was just a minor pothole you can shrug off – 5 metres (16 feet) wide and 14 metres (44feet deep) would be quite the drop if you hit that one.

35 and out – or at least the garbage strike is supposedly over after 35 days. The Union says they fought back all the concessions the city wanted. At least one councillor suggests that is not possible or else! Unless there is heavy duty “spin” going on here from one or both sides then there promises to be more fireworks yet. This could still be very interesting!

Open – not only do they struggle over five days to get the 72 holes in, but then they have to play two more. While he did not “really” have a chance in the fourth round it was too bad Mike Weir worked his way down the leader board with two consecutive bogies after looking to have a strong finish.

In the end it was an international event without the dreaded Yanks grabbing the win as Nathan Green (Australia) beat Retief Goosen (South Africa) for the win. Looks like we found the obligatory Queen’s Cowboys (and Cowgirl) for the presentation, but where’s the Eskimo carving? When did we stop giving that out and go with the boring silverware (or do they still get one?).

It was Green’s first PGA Tour win so he won’t care about the logistics horror of the event but I bet a lot of others will. Anyway, off To St. George’s Golfand Country Club course in Toronto for 2010. They are already recruiting for volunteers. Send in your $60. Now if you want to be considered. Info Here

Music Day - It's Monday - need a new tune - to move from the "mouldy oldies" to something a little more ballad style we pick to one of my "Irish favourites" - Danny Boy. - written by Frederick Weatherly in 1910. Posted version sung by our local Irish Tenor - John McDermott who I met at my brother-in-law's birthday party where john sang it for him (brother-in-law's name - Danny).

Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.

And when you come, and all the flowers are dying
If I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.
And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be
For you will bend and tell me that you love me
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.

Back to top

July 24 – Another TGIF and true to form I hear the week-end weather is not a highlight.

Worth watching – YouTube has become an insidious beast with a whole whack of truly awful  dreck getting posted from wannabe feature film producers. However occasionally there are gems hidden in the trash and this is one.

Watch the clip

Presuming the ‘facts” are correct, which is always an interesting assumption on any internet material, this video is a variety of things – interesting, informative, provocative and “scary”. Take your pick.

Canadian Open – I understand that the marshal’s kit for the event came with water wings this year.  While the leader board will likely have changed by the time I post this the day one nominal leader was Kevin Na with a 9 under 63 including a 28 on the front 9. That reads like my score after 3. Na - What a handle – Do you want to go for a coffee? – “Na”.

Regardless of scores or partial scores, this looks to be a logistical nightmare if the weather does not cooperate as you will never know who is where with complete and partial rounds potentially spread over the whole event. Let’s hope not, as the Canadian Open needs a good boost to work back towards its former glory as the “Fifth Major” that was almost a must event for all the big name tour players.

“Doc” U Drama – Or “What’s up Doc”? We now have a popular new media theme every four days or so – Is this Halladay’s last start as a blue Jay.  Tonight is round two. Will there be three and four before we hit the no waiver trade deadline at the end of the month. The club is now in full damage control mode with the “let’s spin the initiative back to Doc” approach. The old “he did it first” kids defence. Nice try, but if you were Doc, would you not express at least an interest in dipping your toe (or in this case arm) into the free agency world when you get a chance? Why not? There is nothing that says you have to go, it may just be nice to get an idea of what others think you are worth. I too would be curious as to what numbers the Yankees and Boston would float if Doc were at the top of his game and shopping? He could buy a country!

Perfect Game – Perfect Catch – it is good to see that DeWayne Wise’s catch of the “home run” ball is receiving almost as much press as Mark Buehrle is getting for pitching the perfect game – only the 18th in recorded major league history (I presume counting Don Larsen’s perfect World Series game for the Yankees), Sounds easy, 27 up 27 down but clearly it is not. I can’t say that I have been at a major league perfect game, but growing up in South Western Ontario (softball capital of the world),. We had a number of unbelievable pitchers, all of them windmill style and I remember watching at least two. One of which I was on the bench for (as bat boy).Even at that level in amateur ball they are quite the accomplishment, with the dependence on the other 8 team members often forgotten or downplayed. I know with the one pitcher, he was so dominant that it was almost a pitcher / catcher defence, but in the other situation, there were a number of nice fielding plays made to protect the “outs”.

Back to top

July 23 – Hot water is a wonderful thing (unless you are in it metaphorically speaking). The “gas guy” showed up yesterday and as soon as he heard our unit was 21 years young, he did not even look at it, but just went back to the truck to haul in a new one. Slam, bam an hour later it is installed and he leaves saying “wait an hour and hot water will be fine”. Nice try – I think the “wait an hour” message was just to give him time to get away. I get home – no hot water – no pilot light – no work. So, we got it relit but still no joy as it flamed out again – service call – guy comes back at 10:00 PM  (different guy) with a “Oh Yeah – these new units are sometimes tough to get going as the cold water creates condensation that drips and extinguishes the pilot light – doh. It is 2009, you would think they could solve a minor design issue like this – it isn’t something that should be a surprise.

Good news – up and running – hot water in the shower. Don’t think I would have made a good pioneer.

Hot rocks – no not stolen diamonds – stolen curling stones! Story from down under that thieves have made off with 58 curling stones from a refrigerated truck in Melbourne Australia. These 58 rocks represent over one third of all the curling stones in Australia as it is estimated that they only have a total of about 150. So far there is no indication if the thieves intend to hold them for ransom, smuggle them out of the country or start their own curling club. Needless to say the Australian curling world is traumatized.

Fan Expo? – For all you nerd type junkies, your big chance is coming in Toronto with the Fan Expo Canada ( event web site). Five expos under one roof at one time for all those lunatic fringes:

             Comic Book Expo

             SFX Scince fiction 2009 Expo

             Festival of Fear Horror Expo 2009

             2009 CNAnime anime Expo (Whatever the heck that is) and

             GX2009 Gaming Expo

All of these events are on the go simultaneously August 28 – 30 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. How could anyone stay away? Especially with all the promised live appearances – e.g., Leonard Nemoy – “Spock”.

Back to top

July 22 – just one of those days!

Omens – do my usual energetic sprint out of bed, into the shower, turn on the water, check the “toe tester” – COLD!! This is not good. Turn to full hot and get a suggestion of “not freezing” (from water left in the hot water tank) but I am already committed so take the hit – shampoo and shower in about 30 seconds flat and get out before I turn into Popsicle Pete. Hot water heater – Kaput!  Damn thing was brand new just 21 years ago. You would think they would make them to last or give you the standard two weeks notice  if they were going to quit. I left that opportunity for Jane to deal with the gas guy and left for work.

Omen 32 - Paper boxes – I get to Clarkson GO and go to the boxes to pick up my morning 24 and Metro and “they’re gone – or more correctly “trashed”. It looks like someone or thing invaded the bus loop and treated the row of boxes like the Argos O line on their way to the quarterback. They were smashed, trashed and flattened with pieces scattered in a number of places. Not sure if a bus forgot to turn or whatever, but there will likely be a senate commission on this one also. Fortunately, there is a back-up paper supply in a secret location for us regulars so I was able to get my morning Sudokus.

Then I get to work for one of those days where what can’t happen does and what should happen does not. However, before I ended up feeling too sorry for myself I saw a couple of newspaper articles to cheer me up.

Lottery winner – buddy in Brampton wins 4+ large and goes to collect. Big happy face smile until the lottery corp. runs him, discover a couple of outstanding warrants and the fuzz show up and bust him. At least he can now afford a good lawyer. Article

IPhone proto Article – buddy in a factory in China that makes the dreaded IPhone commits suicide after one of the prototypes goes “missing”. As part of his job he sent prototypes to Apple. When one of the 16 protos under his watch went AWOL things went from there and a number of stories are circulating. Understandably there are major security nets thrown over this stuff for commercial espionage reasons and these were 4G IPhone protos – but really! I hear Daniel Craig is being touted for the lead role in the movie version Whodunit.

Palin Article – Sara just can’t buy a break – literally. The ethics folks have been hounding her and the latest escapade is that she can’t/shouldn’t be allowed to use money raised for her to defend herself  from ethics investigations for ethics reasons! I have slammed her repeatedly and have not changed my opinion of her leadership qualities in terms of 1600 Pennsylvania aspirations, but give it a rest folks. On a nowhere near comparable level I have seen some of this stuff go on, and if you are going to witch hunt every public servant to a level of pristine judgement, they will not be endangered species, they will be extinct!

“24” Fans – (myself included) can relax as Kiefer Sutherland Gets NYC Assault Charge Dropped. Article He will not be going back to the slammer off-screen – as least not related to this event. Given that they are off shooting next season’s episodes it seems that “Jack” will (not surprisingly) make a miracle recovery from the deadly toxin that was killing him off in last season’s finale (yawn). What world threatening catastrophe will Jack stumble on and save us from this fall? Who knows – It’s like “Die Hard” on steroids.

Back to top

July 20 – It is now two days and counting and my site is still “up”. Even getter, I have been reassured by my ISP that I have not been the problem and that my site is operating properly. Apparently my conspiracy theory was groundless.

The Moon – I have to comment on the landing 40 years ago today and add my vote to the “it really did happen” camp as compared to the bunch of nutbars who continue to claim it was all a hoax put on by the U.S. government to fool those commie bas&*$%#ds and win the lunar race. It is also good to note that there is finally some Canadian content publicity as a number of great engineers punted off of the defunct Avro Arrow project (killed because Canada could not have the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft) , were scooped up by NASA and tossed into the space program. There is some debate as to whether the original lunar module design was a Canadian engineer’s brainchild and not the U.S. What is clear is that without Canada, the lunar program would not have had a leg to stand on as the honeycombed aluminum lander legs were “made in Canada”.

Watching live from beautiful Orange County, California, it was clear that this was a watershed event for the U.S. as a culmination of a nation’s dreams and a re-establishment of national pride that had been threatened by the Soviet menace. It is all that anyone talked about and, or watched for days. Maybe not funny, but typical (and unconfirmed) but it seems that NASA has “lost” some of their original “tapes” of this event – not sure which ones.

Finally, kudos to Q107 for a quip this morning that put things in perspective. Referring to the moon landing and how it was a historical event in the distant past where a lot of people weren’t born yet, the point was made that it was two years AFTER the Leafs won their last Cup!!

Visa Visionaries – The “surprise” move for visa requirements for visitors from a number of foreign countries has really lit a fuse under a number of folks and arguably justifiably so. With lead times associated with getting these documents approved, a lot of people have made plans that are now either at risk or kaboshed at great expense – financial and emotional. A story in today’s Star is a classic example where a bridegroom’s parents (Mexican) will now not be able to attend their son’s wedding in August as they cannot get visas in time and the $4,500 “honeymoon” is up for cancellation (nice hit) as the groom (Mexican) would need a visa to get back into the country and apparently can’t get one in time as it is not an “emergency” situation as determined by “Visa Central”.  Read it here.

With all due respect to the policy makers and autocrats, a) this is wrong, b) won’t win a lot of friends / votes and c) they are lucky it is not me they are screwing!

The “Almost” Open – I can’t play a lick, but I enjoy the game and actually like watching “some” golf on TV. Sunday was “some” that I really enjoyed watching. As a Golden Bear fan for years I “hated” Watson because he was always a threat to my guy. However, on Sunday I was a big fan and hoped to see the old guy “stick it to” the young bucks. Alas poor Yorick – it was not to be. A bit of bad luck on his approach shot that would not stop setup the missed put and the playoff that I think everyone knew was not going to end well for Tom and it did not! Regardless, his play for the week was exceptional for anyone, let alone a 59 year old as all the big young guns stumbled and fell or went home early – aka Tiger et al.  Watson also showed himself as a true gentleman and good sport in “defeat” as it was as he said “gut-wrenching” to lose but he made a point of congratulating and complementing the winner and came up with some self-deprecating humour for the media hounds.  Congrats to Watson who was not a loser and who really put on what I think is so far the athletic achievement of the year.

A couple of other Open comments:

Did you catch the politically incorrect, way off base comment about Tom and Mrs. Tom?

Penthouse to Outhouse better known as “what happened” when Fisher took the quad and dropped from a moving away leader to an also ran on one hole as the result of one missed shot and a subsequent series of adventures in the fescue! First to finish 13^th!

Explain me Dis! – Take the straw pool and see how many people support the idea of the Jays trading Doc? View it as either a sports, or financial move – who cares. Simplistically, it says to me that the Jays are throwing in the towel for the next few years – i.e., have no expectation of winning anything. Shades of creating the perpetual “rebuilding” mindset as demonstrated by their cold weather colleagues at the ACC. The most common comment I hear is that “we don’t know how good this team is if they can get everyone healthy and on track”. Dump your cornerstone and what are you looking to get back to replace him.

Even as a baseball neophyte, I know it is easier to get a bat than an arm so why trade the best arm in the game? Enquiring minds want to know. I think a better move is Bye Bye J.P.

A new theme – In this age of lists of this, top 10 of that, the best of whatever, I have decided to get on the promo bandwagon. Some folks are fixed on who and how neckties are worn. I on the other hand am mired in the past and enjoy “oldie” music. So today we will try out a potential new weekly feature called something brilliant and descriptive – Favourite Songs.

Week 1 features “A Whiter Shade of Pale” – very apropos pour mois.   MP3

A surprise hit in the summer of 67 for Procol Harem. This was a case where the title was created before the song as the lyrics came out of a comment when 'Some guy looked at a chick and said to her, 'You've gone a whiter shade of pale”. Keith Reid heard and remembered the comment and the group turned it into a song. For whatever reason there are a lot of real or perceived literary references built into the lyrics which drive people crazy. Essentially this is a song about someone being “wrecked” in a number of ways but it is one that I have always enjoyed as one of my favs.

Lyrics

We skipped the light fandango

turned cartwheels 'cross the floor

I was feeling kinda seasick

but the crowd called out for more

The room was humming harder

as the ceiling flew away

When we called out for another drink

the waiter brought a tray

 

And so it was that later

as the miller told his tale

that her face, at first just ghostly,

turned a whiter shade of pale

 

She said, 'There is no reason

and the truth is plain to see.'

But I wandered through my playing cards

and would not let her be

one of sixteen vestal virgins

who were leaving for the coast

and although my eyes were open

they might have just as well've been closed

These last two verses exist but are not BOTH on any official record, but have been played in concert – which do you prefer (the mp3 I posted has neither of them as the original 45).

 

She said, 'I'm home on shore leave,'

though in truth we were at sea

so I took her by the looking glass

and forced her to agree

saying, 'You must be the mermaid

who took Neptune for a ride.'

But she smiled at me so sadly

that my anger straightway died

 

If music be the food of love

then laughter is its queen

and likewise if behind is in front

then dirt in truth is clean

My mouth by then like cardboard

seemed to slip straight through my head

So we crash-dived straightway quickly

and attacked the ocean bed 

Back to top

July 17 – Some habits can be easy to break – like blogging (if words are not your life). Take a few warm pleasant evenings on the deck, some family visits for “games” night, ISP DNS attacks combined with a busy work schedule and inherent laziness and it is amazing how quickly you can get away from “the habit”. Especially when there is no earth shaking scandals to report, at least none you want to bother with or waste a lot of energy commenting on. Cases in point:

MJ – Go away! He has but not the hype and post event hijinks.

Halladay – No way. How to kill any interest or enthusiasm in the Jays.

Garbage Strike – let it and them rot – love the tear jerker striker ads. By the way, the strike is now forcing the cancellation of a lot of kids outdoor summer programs as the parks become dumps. Way to go guys!

Phoenix Saga – soon to be the next TV reality drama. Too bad they can’t be like the sagebrush and dry up and blow away . There sure seems to be a full court press on: No Hammer, No Hammer, No Hammer.

Chris Nilan – Shoplifting a bathing suit to “save a few bucks” – does he need a tag day?

Toilet Seat Syndrome – i.e., Up and Down like a . . . Something is clearly wrong on the techie front. Site was up when I got home from the office this evening but when I sat down to post after dinner, down was the operative word. While ye olde blog is not mission critical, it is a paid for service with performance expectations that are currently not being met. Humour is being replaced by annoyance which will hopefully not have to progress to anger!!

Lighter side – While we tend to think a number of “Oakville” folks are moneybags snobs, they don’t hold a candle to their colleagues south of the border. Today’s comment on conspicuous consumption has to go to Candy Spelling (widow of Aaron) and apparently completely out of touch with reality.

Under the: Home Is Where the Money Is byline, is a picture (from 1993) of the small family home that is being placed on the market for around $150 Million. You have to wonder, how does someone named “Candy” end up with these digs versus a deserving individual like “moi”? Let me guess! Love the quote – weren’t we focused.

In this Sept. 1993 file photo, the home of Aaron and Candy Spelling is seen in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. Candy Spelling is placing the 56,000 square-foot house on the market for $150 million, making it the most expensive home for sale in the U.S. When Candy and her late husband Aaron Spelling were building their Bel Air, Calif., mansion, she says she didn't understand just how big it would be.

"This house started getting bigger and bigger," she said. "Nobody said, 'Well, look how much square footage you're building.'"
(Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo)

Golf Stories – With “The Open” in progress, and the ghost of Tom Watson making a brief appearance from the annals of history, I too have a Jack Nicklaus story, that reinforces the values and consideration of the “gentlemen” of the game. It had to be about 17-18 years ago during the Canadian open when the Bear was in Town, desperately trying to win the Canadian open title which eluded him throughout his career. I was coaching a gang of mosquito misfits in the OMBA and against my better judgement my assistant and I had decided to throw and end of season party for the team – primarily I think to make sure we were rid of them. We booked into the hotel on Argus Road – I think it was a HoJo’s then – for the event and we got a box of baseballs to sign for the kids and that they could get the others to sign as souvenirs.

Little did we know that a number of the tour players were booked in there including Jack. We had just got the festivities really riled up and passed out the balls for our autograph session when Jack and entourage came tootling in after a less than successful tour of the links (Saturday). We no sooner recognized him and pointed him out than he was besieged by a motley crew of mad munchkins looking for him to autograph their baseballs. To his credit, he had a smile and comment for every kid and signed every baseball (clearly taking precedence over Bob and my signatures with OUR players). So somewhere in boxes, basement, garages and, or garbage dumps are fourteen baseballs autographed by Jack Nicklaus and Coach Wayne – I can’t even imagine the price they would go for with those two signatures!

Try to get by the security cordon for one signature from a no name today!

Open note – Mike Weir 67 – 78 – Good-bye! Even more exciting – Tiger 71 – 74 – missed the cut!!! Both Weir and tiger ended up at 144, +5 and missed by Maxwell Smart’s “Thaaaat much” – one stoke cut line of 144. Let’s see how the media excuses their idol this time and what they will have to talk about / cover as the 400 cameras dedicated to every Tiger Tick will need to be deployed elsewhere. If he wants an “Open” maybe he had better come back to Canada.

Web Hosting – As we speak – I type – there is still no explanation being offered regarding my service outage outages. I suspect there is extensive cover-up activity underway that will force me to demand a Senate enquiry or Commission. We seem to get those full blown boondoggle looks into other issues (like who the former PM had dinner with 15 years ago and what did they talk about). This issue is much more current and important than that. Maybe I can consult for $1,800 per day plus my Tim Hortons expenses.

Repeats – I now have to watch myself in talking about history as apparently it does not change. A year ago I commented on my “pleasant memories” of Disneyland and the summer of ’69 so I can’t do it again – even though Disneyland (Anaheim version) opened today in 1955.

Back to top

July 16 - Something "fishy" going on - I was up, then down, then up, then down again and now back up. Stay tuned - don't have much to report other than the ISP stress. If I am having this with my square root of nothing site, I can imagine the real fun they are having with "real" accounts.

July 15 - Apparently, I spoke too soon. No sooner do I think I have avoided the grim cyber reaper than my site goes down - "suspended by the system". The "reason is being investigated, but I am back up and running.

Sabotage has not been ruled out, neither has conspiracy, but we will see what response I get from the sleuths. I don't have much else to report on anyway.

July 12 – Catastrophic failure – words to send shivers down your spine. That's the message I received from Cirrus hosting on Friday. Apparently, they had had a catastrophic failure of their online servers, a failure on their backups, and challenges in running recovery software. Clearly a nightmare for an ISP who is supposed to be the professional to protect companies from this type of problem. The good news is that I was able to quickly restore my site (some folks may disagree about that being good news). However, I understand that the cabal may have had some difficulties with the MOHA site. Since years ago, I selected and established the site with this provider, that will provide another critique.

While my site has been up, I am not sure whether it has impacted my e-mail connectivity. If you have sent me anything on my Wayne@minorhockeyfan.com e-mail and are not sure whether I have received it either resend or use my Cogeco alternative minorhockeyfan@cogeco.ca.

I know that the US and others have been speculating that the North Koreans have mounted cyber attacks on key US Internet sites. However, I don't think I have done anything to annoy the North Koreans so that I don't think the recent Cirrus outage has any international linkage.

Weather - other than a little damp spot yesterday, the weather has been conducive to sitting outside enjoying it, as opposed to plugging away on a PC. That makes it easy to skip blogging and in the scheme of things there's not a lot going on anyway. I suspect things are going to stay pretty spotty on the blogging front.

Back to top

July 9 – An intermittent post.

Turtle Pie - It probably is not a state secret that I have a “sweet tooth” – especially for ice cream treats (and popsicles). With both boys having worked for Dairy Queen in the past, I have been a regular devotee of their products with blizzards being a diet staple. While their ice cream cakes and pizzas are good, I had somewhat forgotten about one of my old favourites from Baskin & Robbins – “Turtle Pie”! To celebrate a family event yesterday, Andrew and I went “shopping” and picked up both a Turtle Pie and a Chocolate Chip ice-cream cake from B&R.  While the cake was good – the Turtle Pie was even better than I remembered. This does not bode well for the future for either diet plans or sales volume at DQ.

Bye Bye B.J. – that has to hurt (everyone but B.J. that is). In what is being referred to as a $15 million mistake, the Blue Jays (B.J.#1) have released their “star” closer B.J.#2 at a sunk salary cost if $15 M over this year and next. I not sure I can even start to comprehend what it would feel like to get paid $27,397 a day (week-ends included) to sit around and do nothing, for a year and a half. Left-handed closer – what a gig! I am left-handed – missed again.

Ice Costs – it looks like Hamilton is feeling generous in its ice costs for minor hickey. Article. Hamilton “plans” a 50-50 split in cost (which sould pretty generous compared to some other percents I could mention). In reviewing their “costs” Hamilton found they were undercharging but have agreed to a gradual catch-up. Do the math – this year they are going to pay a 57% subsidy with ice at $110 / hour to minor hockey). A 9% increase over last year (suggests they paid $101 last year – bargoon!). Using their math, $110 is 43% of cost – therefore, Hamilton is saying their “full” cost is $256 an hour. Just for fun, compare that to Oakville and if the same “gross rate applied, and the same convoluted tax agjusted subsidy of 22% was applied the rate to minor sports groups would be around $202 / hour. I don’t have the current adjusted rate but it was less tan that but significantly more than Hamilton’s $110. By the way, the article says Hamilton’s subsidy cost is nearly $5,000,000! Here is a link to a second article that was a lead in talking about maybe this is too much of a subsidy / burden on the taxpayers. It quotes it as being more than a number of other ID’d centres, but does not mention Oakville?

Wimbledon – while not being a fan of tennis and therefore indifferent to who wins what, it is interesting to note and a bit of sports history to note that it was on this day in 1877 that Wimbledon started its first tournament that included a men’s singles only event. It was not until 1884 that a lady’s singles appeared. Still the tournament is 122 years old which is quite an accomplishment.

Back to top

July 7 – It seems that hockey is now the scapegoat for a lot of things. The young man convicted of manslaughter in the rugby death of Manny Castillo two years ago did not receive jail time, but rather probation and community service. Manny’s father when reading from a victim’s impact statement said "My personal view on how this happened is there are some hockey coaches who don't teach kids to respect their opponents,"  article  The young offender is apparently also a good hockey player and played last year for a major junior team. While the death of young Mr. Castillo is a tragic event, it is unfair to brand “hockey” as the problem unless there is something going on here that is “outside the lines”.

Where are they going – In today’s Star there were a couple of articles about the Leafs that seem to be setting the tone. One was titled “Leafs draft pick impresses with mean streak” and talked about the on-ice performance of their number 1 draft pick Nazim Kadri. Another talks about the addition of François Beauchemin on D  “Leafs add blue-line beef”, but the article was led in with an interesting picture:

COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR

 Leafs general manager Brian Burke, left, talks with Dave Hanson as they watch Hanson's son Christian work out with other prospects at Lakeshore Lions Arena (July 6, 2009).

For those who are not movie savvy, Dave Hanson was one of the infamous “Hanson Brothers” in Slapshot. Interesting visual to sum up an approach. If anyone has not got the message yet, they must be hiding under a rock.

Monster – I guess, in fairness, I have to comment on the other Leaf story as BB has landed the Monster in a 1 year $900,000 US deal. I suppose this means Bye, Bye Pogge – but the writing was on the wall there anyway. They say you build a team from the net out and BB has been focused on the net out so maybe he is smarter than all of us – but I doubt it. Regardless, his next move has to be peddling Kaberle for some offensive punch – no pun intended.

MJ – Is it over yet? Get over it and get on with it!

Back to top

July 6 -- clearly a ho-hum Monday following a weekend of few surprises. Roger Federer and Serena Williams win Wimbledon, Tiger Woods wins his own golf tournament, the Leafs do nothing worth reporting on and most people had no interest in being back at work after having in many cases taken several days off last week. In my case, I didn't take any days off last week and still had no interest in being back at work. I had too much fun just sitting around on the deck Sunday seeing how good my wireless connection was to get enthused about going to work today.

Shake your head -- while the story is not a pleasant one, you have to just be amazed at the type of inane comments that surface. The tragic case of Steve McNair is a classic example. While it's another case of celebrity athletes in the news for all the wrong reasons I'm surprised the recent coverage has not raised a few more eyebrows. The statement, that the police have ruled McNair's death as a homicide is unbelievable. With two in the chest and two in the head, do they think it was accidental or self-inflicted. Of course, in the first amendment supporting USA, why am I not surprised to find out that his "friend" by the gun less than two days before the incident (so far not ruled a murder suicide). I think it's a pretty safe bet how this will play out.

1957 -- when it's commonplace today, Althea Gibson became the first black player (male or female) to ever win a championship at Wimbledon. She was presented with her award by very much younger Queen Elizabeth.

Summer doldrums -- like certain other people, it looks like I'm heading into the "I've got lots to do and there doesn't seem to be much to talk about" season. So other than reporting on events like me winning the $14 million lottery Wednesday night, I suspect this "column" is going to be somewhat hit and miss. So, get out in the fresh air, do something, enjoy the summer, stay away from the boob tube and don't burn out your computer hunting for meaningless drivel.

Back to top

July 4 – U.S. Independence Day but who cares. If they had not tossed out Geogie’s Red Coats think of the consequences. They would have been part of Canada and Harper would be the PM of North American. Then again, probably not as we would not have the Louisianna Purchase to get the West and Seward would not have been in power to exercise his folly and buy Alaska. However, 70 years ago today was an important event in the sporting world.

Lou Gehrig’s disease – (ALS) - 70 years ago today, Lou gave his “historic” “luckiest man alive” speech at Yankee stadium. Not because he was going to have a disease become synonymous with him but because he celebrated his life, not what was happening to him. Here is the text of that speech – some thoughts we should all consider:

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for 17 years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honour to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.

"When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies – that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body – it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that's the finest I know.

"So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."

I have a bit of the audio – just the lead and tail end.

Gehrig died just two years later from ALS that is still without a cure today. Here’s the article.

Next – The free agents are dropping like flies – Nash, Ryan . . . Yo Brian – What’s up? Still looking for grinders instead of hockey players. Maybe the old Broad Street Bullies uniforms are available as the Leafs’ new gear. I notice the Fifth Estate is now jumping on the “didn’t you say that . . ” bandwagon.

MOHA – love to keep hearing the stories. Maybe it is petty, but it is fun. I see that folks have tried to edit my Coach and Convenor Guidelines for 2009/10. Search and replace is a wonderful thing, but you still need to read and understand the content. By the way, 20% of $9.000 is NOT $1,500. I know complex math is a challenge for some folks. When you fix that, you may want to take some “format” lessons as things are sliding. I am pleased that the address was finally corrected on the Sponsorship form and as a reward, here’s another hint. When you put a date as part of a document footer it should not auto update to allow version control.

West Hill Wins – If you caught the story on West Hill fighting with the Scarborough Hockey Assoc. to avoid being gobbled up and going to court, the battle is over. West Hill won an injunction and it looks like they will be able to affiliate directly with the GTHL (SHA is an affiliate) and West Hill’s 800 House League players will be able to maintain their own league. Somehow, I don’t think this is really over yet. Read the article here.

Part of the impetus for this little skirmish may be that 15 years ago, Scarborough had 10,000 hockey players, now, including the West Hill folks they were trying to shanghai, the number is 2,800! No wonder the GTHL focuses on raiding.

Bulletin – Looks like Orillia Council has approved construction of a new Twin Pad in West Ridge. Orillia was in deep doo doo after the community centre rink was closed, cutting their ice availability in half. This will likely cheer up the scheduler, not to mention the kids. No details on time line were posted.

Happy Independence Day - This could be it for the week-end – I am planning on relaxing with more Hill Street Blues – I did find them entertaining (I watched 4 episodes – Disk 1 last night).

Back to top

July 3 – Seems I was either wrong or premature. Mikey is now or was at 9 of the top 10 albums for the Billboard top 10. This is unbelievable in so many ways as with all due respect he was not that good. How can he be compared to the likes of Buddy Holly and the likes of “True Love Ways”. Just goes ta show ys – there is no accounting for taste. Enough already – let’s plant him and move on. I am sick and tired of the media frenzy but I know it is not over.

Be careful out there! – So ended roll call on Hill Street Blues. We will see if you can “go home again” as this was one of my favourite shows back in the time tunnel. While I was out for my noon constitutional (walk) I wandered into future Shop and found Season 1 of “The Hill” and NYPD Blues – another show I liked on for $14.99 each. With 17 and 22 episodes respectively, that works out to less than $1 an hour for reusable entertainment (provided the offspring don’t steal them). – Such a deal! Let’s see how well they stand the test of time and my jaded nature.

All out – I don’t know if anyone has seen this or cares but they don’t do this on my flights. Air New Zealand has taped their safety chant using crew that are wearing body paint – and that’s it. If you watch the videos, they have done a good and “creative” job and will I am sure get the full attention of their prurient passengers. I know I watched it (and the out take bloopers. The body paint job is fantastic. If the link does not work, just search it on YouTube.

Palin packs it in – in an announcement characterized as “a surprise”, one of America’s favourite political whipping “persons” announced she is resigning as Alaskan governor. One side of the coin speculates that she is stepping down to focus on a run for the Presidency in 2012. I don’t know how anyone could support that thought as, in my opinion, she has “9” credibility on any topic other than how to look like an idiot. Perhaps a more accurate assessment would be the impact of her recent win of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists “Sitting Duck” award. An award directed towards the most ridiculed newsmakers in the U.S., or as indicated on the NSNC site:

Sarah Palin won the Sitting Duck Award for “showing it's hard to put your best foot forward when it's in your mouth.”

Further stating Palin’s qualifications, “this is the person to whom columnists have turned in the last twelve months when he or she is desperate for a topic and has to meet a deadline.”

Of course, it is only fair to point out that Bill Clinton is also a “Sitting Duck” award recipient.

Regardless - time to do the obligatory crank up the Barbie (Q that is) and since I have been abandoned this evening it looks like I can do my hot sausages, with a couple of wobbly pops and sit down for some Sarge and "Roll Call". Not a bad way to spend a Friday night.

Back to top

July 2 – a very quiet day in the office. It seems that a mid-week July 1 holiday is an excuse for a lot of people to stretch it out through to the week-end and “five” days off.  Dummy me –I was working.

Platform 27 – sounds like a horror movie title but it is not. It simply is the horror movie experience – the contentious “new” track access point at Union Station for GO Transit. Taking a later train downtown on Monday to head to Whitby / Ottawa, I got my first chance to experience it. Limited cover, limited access and egress points, narrow doors and disgruntled passengers who know they are dealing with it leads to a wonderful experience. Even after negotiating the platform, doors and stairs, you have to wend your way through Union Station to get to the GO Concourse (in my case only to find I had to turn around and head back through Union to track 13. My first thought is “what pinhead” designed this one – clearly not a system user. Wait for the fist fights, casualties or lawsuits on this one! I will stick with my track 4 and 5 , thank you very much.

Karl Malden – joined the cast of entertainment industry names who have “punched-out” lately. However, he made it to 97, which is much more reasonable and accepted than 50. Probably best remembered for two things – the crusty cop (along with Michael Douglas) on the Streets of San Francisco, and flogging AMEX – don’t leave home without it – hope he didn’t. either there have not been many competing stories or the recent hit list has seemed longer over the last two weeks.

Chart Toppers - in what can only be termed as a quirk of fate, it appears that being a dead celebrity does have a monetary value. Indications are that of the top 10 Billboard albums this week eight of them will be Michael Jackson related. Seven of them as a solo artist and one with the Jackson Five. If that is the case, I think it has to be a record that one artist has eight of the top 10 slots (for albums). It is even harder to fathom for someone like myself who would have a hard time identifying even one of his songs that I liked. Thriller, probably comes the closest.

Burke -- it would seem that Brian Burke has truly bitten off more than he can chew. I also love being a prophet in that I still contend he has not got a hope of turning around the Leafs to be any type of a competitive team in the near future. His current maneuvers to "add toughness" are not likely to add much to the hockey playing ability of the team. While they may be have more on people in their defensive zone, I haven't seen a lot of scoring punch added to the agenda and goaltending is still a question mark. While a number of other teams have entered the free-agent derby to pad their rosters, some of them for a long long time, the leafs appeared to be following their normal strategy of waiting till all the key free agents are gone before making their move. In any event, they're likely aren't very many that would want to come to Toronto and even if they did, what could they really add to the balance of the team. I would have to suggest that the upcoming season is not going to be much better than the last. It seems that more and more people are starting to come around to this view.

Hossa - signs with the Blackhawks for 12 years -- based on his experience with Detroit does that mean the Hawks are doomed?

Development fees -- glad to see that Oakville is now big news in the Toronto Star. The online lead for the GTA section profiles the battle shaping up over development fees. The current regime in both Oakville and Halton based a large part of their election campaign on making developers pay their fair share. Now that it's time to pony up, developers (as represented by Peter Gilgan of Mattamy Homes). Read the article here. I'm sure we'll hear a lot more about this one. Read the responses following the article as the developer side of the argument is not receiving a lot of support.

Olympic tryouts orientation -- the invite list has been published for Canada's 2010 Olympic hockey team orientation camp (I think that orientation is simply a euphemism for tryouts as no NHL player wants to consider himself having to try out for a team). The really good news is on the list of five goalies Oakville's own Steve Mason has been invited. While there are no guarantees, let's all hope he has a great "orientation" for a good shot at a berth with the team.

I think everybody will be looking at the list trying to figure out who they think should be on it. Oftentimes an easy way to start is to identify who you think clearly should not be there and see how many are left. I will have to work at that. I already have a couple in mind.

Invitees:

Goaltenders (5)	Forwards (25)
Martin Brodeur (New Jersey)	Jeff Carter (Philadelphia)
Marc-André Fleury (Pittsburgh)	Dan Cleary (Detroit)
Roberto Luongo (Vancouver)	Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh)
Steve Mason (Columbus)	Shane Doan (Phoenix)
Cam Ward (Carolina)	Simon Gagné (Philadelphia)
Defencemen (16)	Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim)
François Beauchemin (Anaheim)	Dany Heatley (Calgary, Alta./Ottawa)
Jay Bouwmeester (Edmonton)	Jarome Iginla (St. Albert, Alta./Calgary)
Dan Boyle (San Jose)	Vincent Lecavalier (Tampa Bay)
Brent Burns (Minnesota)	Milan Lucic (Boston)
Drew Doughty (Los Angeles)	Patrick Marleau (San Jose)
Mike Green (Washington)	Andy McDonald (St. Louis)
Dan Hamhuis (Nashville)	Brenden Morrow (Dallas)
Duncan Keith (Chicago)	Rick Nash (Columbus)
Scott Niedermayer (Anaheim)	Corey Perry (Anaheim)
Dion Phaneuf (Calgary)	Michael Richards (Philadelphia)
Chris Pronger (Philadelphia)	Derek Roy (Buffalo)
Robyn Regehr (Calgary)	Joe Sakic (Colorado)
Stéphane Robidas (Dallas)	Patrick Sharp (Chicago)
Brent Seabrook (Chicago)	Ryan Smyth (Colorado)
Marc Staal (N.Y. Rangers)	Martin St-Louis (Tampa Bay)
Shea Weber (Nashville)	Eric Staal (Carolina)
	Jordan Staal (Pittsburgh)
	Joe Thornton (San Jose)
	Jonathan Toews (Chicago)

 Earhart disappears - with the recent aircraft tragedies, it is an odd coincidence that this is the day in 1937 when Amelia Earhart’s aircraft disappeared. No trace was ever found to solve exactly what happened.

Back to top

July 1 -- Happy Canada Day. Despite the scurrilous rumor that today was a holiday I got home from Ottawa at 7:15 p.m., just in time to get pointed to the barbecue with instructions to start cooking. That being the case there won't be much posted this evening. I am too busy checking labour laws to determine what recourse I have.

No juice -- while in Ottawa, I indicated that I would try to post on my Microsoft MySpace site. Minor problem, in addition to being my usual busy self, in packing my notebook (office version), I somehow neglected to include the power cable. With only what ever battery life I had, important items like blogging had to drop down the priority list so that I could use what juice I had to supplement my Crackberry. There is nothing like that feeling when you reach into the bag for your power cable and realize it's not there.

No traffic -- traffic through Ottawa from Kanata to Rockland is typically brutal based on limited route options, road construction and a lot of traffic. It was amazing today how bare the roads were for July 1. Regardless, it was still a 4 hour drive. on the way back to Whitby where the adventure had started.

No energy -- call it a day as it back to the office tomorrow to catch up on my trip notes and all the exciting things that have stacked up over the last few days. A typical comment still is -- it's hard to believe the year is already half over. I will deal with a calendar update later.