Where Does The Time Go?
Time Keeps On Slippings...slipping...slipping...into the future
It's been an incredibly busy half a year, and unfortunately many of the
things that I'd hoped to complete (another magazine article, some software projects,
and the beginning of a technical book) are far from completion. My time has been
filled with the anticipation, fear, joy, exhileration and hard work that
having a child brings to your life. My gorgeous daughter Elizabeth, born in the
middle of February, has been an absolutely amazing experience, and I love every
minute of it. Indeed, as I write this in the clammy confines of my dimly-lit
basement office, I'm mentally preparing myself (and perhaps pseudo-delaying by
failing to head to bed) for my first "Daddy and Me" class that I'll be
bringing Elizabeth to tomorrow morning. I feel an onus to carry through
with this frightening social event (a bunch of guys with their babies...joy!)
given that my wife has been going to quite a few of these sorts of things. It's
even more fearsome as Elizabeth is not like most babies who silently watch and
calmly ponder in a Buddhist state of zen-- Elizabeth is an extraordinarily
active and curious little baby, with an overwhelming desire to move around and
touch toys and other babies, to chatter aloud, to roar*, etc. It
should be interesting.
*- This is a special skill that I taught Elizabeth to the dismay of my wife
-- If you roar at her, as a lion roars, she roars back with a huge grin.
Watching the development of a child is an absolutely amazing process. My
daughter, now standing on her own, crawling with gusto (with an ability to scale
small mountains, such as daddy), showing skills like controlling her perception
and spatial orientation, really gives me yet another reason to be absolutely
amazed by nature -- We are so caught up in our own minor advances that the, for
lack of a better word, miracles around us everyday go unnoticed.
About Cats
On Tuesday, August 19th, my 8 year old cat Grayson passed away. We
had realized that something was up (a few days prior she'd gone AWOL, and even
though she was a vampire cat that often only came out in darkness, the lack of
her distinctive bell caught my attention. After getting her out and monitoring
her for a while, I believed that she was just really stressed out about our
impending move which she was very aware of as several piece of furniture had
disappeared, and other objects had been packed in boxes, and it didn't seem like
it was worth stressing her out even more by a visit to the vet. As a bit of
context, Grayson joined the family after my wife found her hiding under a
dumpster as a kitten, and since then she'd had a general distrust of people or
changing circumstances, and a visit to the vet would always leave me amazed that
she didn't die of cardiac arrest her heart rate started going so rapidly and
incredibly strongly), however my wife returned home that night while I was
at our new home installing laminate flooring, and discovered her comatose on the
floor. We rushed her to the animal hospital, however she didn't last
much longer, passing away during rususcitation attempts. Grayson was a very
valued part of our family who we miss very much, and her life was cut far too
short. We didn't opt for an autopsy (the "why" doesn't change anything), though
we did get her cremated and she made the move with us, currently sitting atop
the hutch that she loved to use as her pedastal.
This brings me to the the general topic of cats. Being a guy and
professing to being a fan of cats is a bit of a rarity, however one thing that
I've noticed is that there's a lot of cat opponents who are ready and willing to
give anyone and everyone their opinion on why cats are subpar (including to
someone who just told them that they had cats). They have no reservations
regardless of being clueless and misinformed. Let me give you an example: One
such mental midget claimed that they couldn't stand cats because cats have "no
loyalty", and they "couldn't care less about you". Contrast this with my cat
Mercedes who every day is sitting on the front entrance awaiting our return, and
wherever you are in the house you can generally look around and you'll find that
she silently has followed you to hang out (indeed I just took a look, thinking
that now would be the exception, and there she is huddled in the corner). She of
course knows her name, along with all other verbal communications that one would
expect in such a relationship. Grayson wouldn't meet us at the front door as she
was too fearful that we might be someone else, or someone may have come in with
us, however when you went to bed at night she'd slink out, little bell tingling
away with its distinctive sound, and hop up on the bed for goodnight pets and to
nuzzle against your face. If I had one comment, it's that people who don't like
cats should just shut their clueless claptrap because it just betrays their
gross ignorance.
About Driving
On an average day I commute around 35 km / way here in the GTA, with many
trips taking me through the gorgeous escarpment country (heading up through the
northern Halton Region). This is absolutely gorgeous area, with twisting fun
little roads, and beautiful vistas. If you want to take some drives, drive around in Northern Halton (which is the Oakville, Milton, Burlington area):
Up in the escarpment it's like driving the hills around
Sorrento. At some point I plan on mounting a video camera on the dash just to
archive several routes for personal historical purposes. It'd be neat going back
there in 20 years and seeing the changes.
Of course whenever I'm in a bit of a hurry I take the 407, however that
brings up a few comments about driving on the 407, with some being more about
highways in general:
- It really, seriously irks me that I'm paying 44% of
the price of gas for taxes, supposedly for road maintenance, and then when I
get on the 407, which many days comprises >90% of my drive, I'm paying 12.9
cents per kilometer. I have no problem with the toll road idea presuming that
I'm not paying taxes for it, but it really irritates me when I'm paying for
something twice. In reality the only reason that the 407 is accepted at all is
because it introduces a "two-tier" road system: It is expensive enough that a
lot of people avoid it at all costs, leaving it as a nice quick drive for the
financially capable (of which the 905 has plenty) who've bought themselves
highway exclusivity. Our government coughed up a massive asset to a private
consortium, and now we're being double charged.
- Most days I'm driving a little 1998 Dodge Neon (it
still drives great, and given that I'm putting in a lot of kilometers it makes
sense), however it's not the most powerful car on the planet (only Chrysler
can use "132 hp!" in ads and portray it as powerful), and its little piece of
crap 3 speed automatic makes the already minimal amount of horsepower even
less capable (it accelerates like an 18 wheeler). As such I generally quite
casually drive around 110 km/h (the speed "limit" is 100kmh, however going 110
I virtually never pass anyone, though I'm passed constantly), _always_ in the
rightmost lane. What drives me homicidally insane is when idiots tailgate me
at a car length or less. Generally the suspects are assclowns who either
shouldn't have a driver's license because they can't handle something as
frightening as a lane change, or mortards that have an offramp coming 60km up
the road and they're too fearful to switch lanes lest the highway suddenly
close in around them and they're unable to return for their crucial exit.
Another prime culprit that I see about every other day is "guy driving SUV and
chatting on the cell phone". These idiots almost universally drive right up on
the ass of the car in front of them and then stick on like a remorrah. Here's
the problem though: Any of the prior actions yells out that they are
absolutely horrible drivers, so the idea of me putting my life in their hands
is not something I'll accept. Do they think I'll speed up? No, my friend, I
will _always_ slow down. When someone rides up on my ass in the slow lane when
the two other lanes are clear for passing, they're in Dennis' house and there
is no way I will cede to their pathetic attempts at highway bullying.
- While seemingly contrasting with the previous point, could someone explain
why most people seem to think that cars can only handle turns at 3km/h? I take
a couple of left turns daily, and it amazes me how mind numbingly slow people
execute turns (we're not talking about safety here unless the roads were made
of teflon covered ice that has a liberal application of WD40). It's
fascinating how people are so willing to push the gas pedal, riding the ass of
people around them to make up a couple of seconds, but the minute a turn comes
they spend 35 seconds executing a turn that could have been completed in about
6. When you're in a long line turning left, and all you have is an advance
light, it is pretty frustrating to watch people slowly meandering around the
turn, with maybe 6 cars getting through in the alloted time when 20 cars could
have gotten through with absolutely ease.
The New House
So we moved this month into a new place, moving from one part
of the city to another (this is a fabulous town). The move, as moves generally
are, absolutely sucked. Given Elizabeth's high supervision needs, and the fact that
I was busy remodeling several rooms and rebuilding several windows, the
packing job was subpar. Couple that with the fact that we've quite simply acquired
way too much stuff and you have the makings of a not so fun day. Well the
day eventually ended (though it was a late, late night), and we got all
the major furniture setup here and everything is good, despite the fact that
probably 2/3 of our stuff of a box size or smaller is packed away somewhere who
knows where. In general the most noteworthy aspect of the move is that we
moved from a less desirable neighbourhood to a much more desirable
neighbourhood....at least in theory.
The thing is that our old neighbourhood was extremely quiet, despite a
highway being nearby, and the risk of crime was virtually unheard of. The
reasons were because it was a little street off of a main street that didn't
lead anywhere (nor was it a short little court allowing you to easily eye ball
all of the houses): Most criminals and miscreants simply didn't know that it
existed, and the racer boyz didn't have any reason to cruise down it with their
pimpmobiles. Here in the fabulous Headon Forest area, though, there are quite a
few differences. For one the economic affluence of the area means that there are
quite a few families supporting their still-living-at-home son's racer boy
habit, so there is a virtually endless stream of thumping, sputtering
econo-boxes-with-pinstripes. Aren't there noise laws? Why is it that someone
driving a junker car missing a muffler gets fined (hint: A muffler isn't an
air-quality environmental device -- that's the catalytic converter -- its whole
purpose is as a noise suppression device), yet racer boyz can drive around
making obnoxious noises heard blocks away, yet they remain unscathed? Speaking
of racer boyz, we've noticed that several of the Honda vehicles in the
neighbourhood have had their Honda decal stolen--This really disturbs me. It
disturbs me no so much because we own a Honda, but because it boggles the mind
to think of how misguided the youth is today: Honda? They're stealing _Honda_
logos? Do they realize that Hondas are environmentally sound, practical,
unbelievably common, generally economical, family vehicles, right? That stealing
or displaying a Honda logo is like sewing a McDonalds logo onto your clothing? Don't get
me wrong: We have a Honda minivan and it is absolutely fabulous...as a family
vehicle...but if they're going to commit senseless little crimes (sidenote: The law
should allow for justifiable homicide if you awaken to some little punk prying a
logo off your car) then couldn't they go for something at least remotely
exclusive like a BMW?
Another difference in this area is that virtually every home has some sort of
home security device prominently displayed, and from some discussions with
neighbours it is apparent that burglaries are much more common up here (whereas
our old area it was absolutely unheard of). As a do-it-yourselfer I've taken my
security needs into my own hands, and have rigged up something surprizing and
delightful if someone were to attempt to do something they shouldn't. It's yet
another fun side project.
All in all I'm extremely pleased with the new house,
with my only complaint being one that's pretty common in resale homes: If you're
going to do something, do it right. I've come across some pretty shoddy craftsmanship in
the construction of several of the add-on elements of this home (i.e. the original
building is of a very good quality, but little additions done since
then by occupants are rather subpar), such as a dishwasher where they ran
copper piping right into the unit rather than using a braided flex pipe (in
other words replacing it, which I planned on doing and my kitchen is currently occupied
by a big new GE dishwasher in its crate, went from being trivial to
being a major plumbing job). Several of the bedrooms were painted with paint so
thick it reduced the cubic footage by a measureable amount I'm sure. Just minor
complaints that I'm alleviating as I redo each room. The fun! Oh, and there's also The Tree,
but that's a whole other rant.