Hard To Get Motivated

It has been awhile since I last actually sat down and played with the keys. There have been a few things going on in my small world that have caused me a bit of grief of late. Nothing major, just a few disagreements with the way others feel our life should be lived to what we feel our life should be. Hey, it's our life, we should be able to live it how we want to so 'take a hike'!

Of course I always find the month of February to be a dull month. I've had enough of winter by now and we were not lucky enough to take a holiday to the sunny south or anything like that. I just want it to get over with so we can get onto March and hopefully the start of some warmer weather and the start of some new 'green' surroundings. As I sit typing on Feb 29th the weather is not really that bad. The temperature is -2.2 C according to my weather station. However, I just returned from walking down town to check the mail and let me tell you the wind makes the temperature feel a lot cooler than it is.

Even this morning when I did the papers it was only -14.5 C but it just felt cooler. There was very little wind, but it seems the humidity is high which makes the air feel cooler as far as I'm concerned. This morning my papers were delivered late, so I was doing the route in double time to try to make up some time. Maybe that is why it felt cooler on my face than the temperature indicated it should be :)

Another reason to look forward to the end of February is that the T4 slips must be out by March 1st. That means that I can get my income tax sent away. I was looking forward to viewing the tax programs this year due to the new pension splitting capability that is new for 2007. This does seem to help Sam and I as the way it looks now we should be getting a refund a little larger than normal.

With the refund on the horizon, we felt we could splurge and buy ourselves a new 50" Samsung HD plasma TV. While we were at it, we went whole hog and got a 1200 watt Samsung home theatre system to go with the new new TV. Definitely a larger picture than the old 27" we had. It did take a few days to get used to the larger size, but now I/we really like it. I guess our next project will be to upgrade our satellite dish and PVR to HD but I thought I'd leave that until the weather was a bit warmer. It will be so much easier when the temps are warmer to run new wiring and install the new dish.

I'm still curling every Monday and doing a little better than I was last year. This year I moved up to play 3rd which was a bit more than I wanted to do but so far it seems to be okay. I've learned quite a bit. Thankfully the players that are skips are really good at explaining the 'why fors' and the 'how comes' to a new person. I have actually won a few games this year which is a lot better than last year at about this time. I think we only have about 3 more weeks to go and the curling will be done for another year. In one way that makes it sad as you just know fewer people will be out next year. The good thing is that this normally means the weather is getting too warm for the ice, so that means the snow should be melting soon outdoors. :)

Otherwise, it is just same old same old. Just taking life easy and looking forward to the spring/summer to be able to spend a lot more time outdoors in the flower bed or with the bbq. Don't even get me started about going north to the lake country. That's too early to even think about!

Rocks In My Head ?

As I was sitting here reading a few blogs, I got to thinking that it was nice to have a nice quiet sit down behind my own keyboard for awhile. It seems like I've been just going flat out for the last while. So then I got to thinking what I've actually been doing of late... Curling, Legion, fixing computers, more fixing computers, more curling, and on and on and on . . .

My term as the Treasurer of the local Royal Canadian Legion is up this month after a two year term. I thought that it would be nice to sit back and just help out when needed. So then we had our monthly meeting last Wednesday and after it was all said and done, I end up as the friggin President for the next year. Our previous President is moving away so we needed someone to sit in for a year to finish up his 'tour of duty'. I know for a fact I did not put my hand up (I just don't do that any more), but it didn't matter, in the end I got elected to fill the shoes for the next year. I think I have to invest in some good tape to put over my mouth in the future so I don't get to reply to some requests. But as normal, I'll do my best and try my hardest to do a good job.

Then last night I came home after putting in another strenuous curling game after I had been out all afternoon fixing a couple computers and remarked to Sandra that I felt like I was running up and down the ice all night long and I was tired. Getting old? I really don't know, but I do know that I had my daily workout during that game. But heck in the end we won the game and this old guy got some exercise.

I did get to thinking 'was it time to slow down a bit' and take life a bit easier? Yah, good thought. Then I walked down to the local hall and submitted my application to take over as the caretaker for the building which entails a hall, club room, washrooms, work offices, and a few other odds and ends. It doesn't really entail a lot of time (somewhere around 10 hours or so a week). Just mainly keeping the joint in semi clean state, making sure the snow doesn't plug up the entrances, etc. It only takes a few minutes walk from the house and I'm there, so I thought 'why not'. Then I sat back and thought, 'This is taking it easier?' I've got to be nuts.

One small consolation, maybe, just maybe they won't accept my application (too old, too young, not enough hair, not enough anything) and then I can get on with my plan to slow down some in my retirement time.

Naw this isn't going to work. I just get bored too easily :)

Brass Monkeys ?

The weather this past week has certainly been a challenge for everyone. Myself is no exception. Last Monday when I got up to do the papers the weather guage was showing a nice -51 C with the wind. Needless to say I dressed appropriately (or so I thought) for the weather.

To make matters worse we had the snow overnight. That meant that I was plowing through snow drifts trying to get to everyone's mailbox to deliver their morning paper. A normal one hour walk took me almost an hour and forty-five minutes. The weather had not really improved much throughout my walk either.

While I was walking I noticed the cold on my face so I pulled down my balaclava to cover my face. The only problem with this is as soon as I breathed out my glasses were instantly covered in an icy fog. I didn't want to take my glasses off as I had no place to put them while I finished my route. I figured they were so cold it would only take a bit of a bend and the plastic would snap in half. So I left them on and tryed to see over top, underneath or around the lenses. I also had to pull down my face mask a bit to try and help with the fogging effect.

Once I got home I knew that I had a bit of frost bite as my right cheek was tingling a bit. I took a peak in the mirror and could see a toonie sized spot was definitely frozen up. It was fairly red and tender to the touch, but not too terribly bad.

On Tuesday morning the temperature sure had not improved very much. I once again pulled the face mask down and struggled trying to see through my fogged up glasses. But seeing as the cheek had frozen up the day before, I knew it would be more likely to freeze quite easily. It sure is not very nice walking with your head cocked to the side.

Wednesday morning came with the the temperatures still in the deep freeze. Today I decided I'd try to do my route without my glasses on. I don't think I've been without my glasses other than when sleeping for about 40 years. I just don't have great vision without the cheaters. At 5:30 a.m. I headed out without my specs on. Other than the extra coldness on my eyes, it wasn't too bad. I could see well enough to get the papers to the correct addresses. The nice part was that I was able to keep the face mask firmly in place and was actually quite toasty throughout my walk. Thursday and Friday I again went without my glasses with no problem. Finally on Saturday the temps warmed up a bit and I could once again wear my glasses.

However, getting back to the heading. On Monday and Tuesday I certainly learned to appreciate the old saying 'it's so cold it would freeze a brass monkeys balls off'.

I'm not a monkey, nor am I made of brass, but damn did a certain part of the old anatomy get damn chilly :) Thankfully I did not end up with any frozen appendages so that is a good thing to my thinking!