Positivity

I've decided to adopt a word for the new year.  It was actually my wife's idea, but I've taken it and made it better by actually making up the word too!  Admittedly, I tend towards the negative and the pessimistic.  So, I've decided to make a conscious effort to focus on the positives in my life.  I was recently smudged by an Aboriginal Education Worker at my school.  The ceremony is all about taking out the negative thoughts and energy in you and committing to see, hear, speak and think the positive in the future.  I decided right there, that this was going to be my new project.

I've been trying to be positive for a few weeks now and it is REALLY hard!  The largest problem is my habit of falling into the negative.  That is turning out to be a very tough habit to break, but I'm still plugging away at it.  The other problem is other people.  It turns out that when you start noticing it, lots of people are very negative.  Those negative people can easily lead you down the path of darkness if you are not paying attention.  The final problem is people that really piss me off.  There are some people, especially at work, that really piss me off.  It turns out that being pissed off is a really good way to turn negative.  You have to admit that being angry or annoyed with someone is a perfect excuse to think negative thoughts.  So, I've had to modify the positivity principle.  Not only will I try to think positive thoughts, if it becomes impossible to think positively about a person or situation I will try to keep my thoughts neutral on the matter.  Hey, it's the best I can do sometimes.

An Unexpected Holiday

What happened to Jen and I today is a bit embarrassing, but also pretty humorous.  Jen and I got up for work as normal today.  We had our breakfast and packed up the car.  On our way to work I commented on the fact that there were not very many vehicles on the road this morning.  Usually, there is a pretty steady stream of traffic heading into town in the morning.  This morning we saw only two other cars on the road. 

When we got to school, we were very surprised to find we were the first ones there.  I figured that nobody else wanted to go back to work today either.  When it was about 30 minutes before school was about to start and there was not a single staff member at the school, I knew that something was up.  I decided to check school email account.  I had studiously avoided checking work email for the past two weeks.  Jen had checked hers last night and told me about the week ahead email that our principal had sent to us.  When I opened the same email, I saw that the first line said "Tuesday, January 4, return to school".  Jen had clearly not read her email very carefully.  At the same time, that unspoken hope that lingers in the back of your mind when you see nobody else at work that maybe you didn't have to be at work suddenly burst to the fore.  We both laughed pretty hard, but felt pretty damn good at the same time.

So, there we were at school on the last day of our holidays.  We decided to stay and get some work done.  We ended up leaving at noon and enjoying our unexpected afternoon off.

The Day The Music Died

I made a gut wrenching decision today.  I bought an iPod.  I really tried to avoid it.  I asked for a Sony Walkman for Christmas and got one.  However, my last Walkman was doomed because I couldn't get a protective case for it.  I was also bummed, because I couldn't get a sports armband for it.  That makes it hard to use at the gym.  I was having the same problem with the most recent iteration of the Walkman, so I had to go with the iPod Nano that has a built in clip.  Of course, there are also reams of after market cases, etcetera to go with it.

I don't specifically dislike iPods.  They are the most useful and innovative music product out there.  My problem is with the Apple business model.  Apple seeks to control digital content from start to finish.  When you become an iSheep, you are imprisoning yourself within the Apple world.  If you have an iPod, you MUST use iTunes.  If you use iTunes, you must have everything in the AAC format which is proprietary to Apple.  No matter what they say, iTunes really only likes downloads from the iTunes store.  Others seem to mysteriously disappear when you conduct an update of the software.  How convenient.  Since so many worldwide own iPods and therefore use iTunes, the iTunes store is the most convenient way to acquire media.  Thus, Apple is gaining a de facto control over the digital media industry.  While this business model is unquestionably brilliant and is working to perfection.  I think that the iSheep are so enamored of all of the iBling and iCoolness, that they do not see themselves being led to the slaughter.  If things go unabated, all the Windows haters will have to take a long look at the new monopoly on the block.  I am now in iPrison.

By the way, does anyone else think this whole "i" thing is getting a bit ridiculous?  I mean honestly, does every new product have to have a lower case i at the beginning?

Oh, and my wife is annoyed because I dislike iStuff and still end up with a newer, flashier Nano than she does.  I just can't win.

Drama and Christmas Go Together Like Peanut Butter and Jam

What is Christmas without drama?  Why, it is like Easter without chocolate.  So far, the furnace conked out for the morning dipping the temperatures inside the house to an invigorating 13 degrees Celsius.  Admittedly it could have been worse since the temperature outside was around -18.  We spent the morning wearing toques, long johns and hoodies with the hoods up.  That was just enough to keep the worst of the chill off.

Then, after running down to Canadian Tire twice to get a new burner for the oven and hookups for it, the thermostat seems to have gone on the oven.  This just happens to be the same oven the we were going to cook the 24 lb turkey thawing in the washbasin downstairs in tomorrow.  Of course we did not come to this conclusion until every store that may have carried a replacement part for the oven was closed.  All of the appliance repair stores seem to be closed for the next four days.  Meanwhile, Jen can't seem to find info on our stove and has become convinced that we will need to purchase a new oven because it is too old to be fixed.  I do not subscribe to this theory, but I have to live with one who does.  And this is all just on Christmas Eve.  I shudder to think what Christmas day will bring.  If I believed in God, I'd be praying for strength.

The Case of the Disappearing Presents and Other Christmas Happenings

So, here's the deal.  A certain batch of on sale scrapbooking supplies had been pointed out to me in Michael's about a month ago by my wife. Jen indicated that these supplies would make excellent gifts. Being the dutiful (and smart) husband, I bought them.  I quickly stuck them under the seat of the car to avoid prying eyes.  After that I pretty much forgot about them.   A couple of weeks later I actually decided to bring in the presents and "hide" them in my man cave. 

This week I decided to wrap those gifts.  Only one thing stood in my way and that is the lack of gifts to wrap.  I could not find those gifts for a king's ransom.  I looked everywhere in our not overly large house.  No gifts were to be found, so I looked again.  Still nothing.  Things were becoming desperate as Christmas quickly approached.  Desperate times called for desperate measures, so I had to enlist the help of my wife (I told you I was desperate) and my in-laws (yes, that desperate).  Success was still elusive.

Today, I decided to make one last effort.  I figured that it would at least get me back into the basement and away from the throng of relatives upstairs.  I looked around in the cave one more time without a satisfactory result.  I was so damned frustrated, I decided to clean.  Things were clearly descending into madness.  I did some shredding that I had to date avoided.  I even started shuffling through all of the filing that was waiting for me to feel like doing.  That was when I got out the new file boxes I had bought a while back.  I pulled them apart and lo and behold, what is gazing back at me but my missing gifts.  I had not thought about taking apart the boxes.  I had only looked in the top one.  Mystery solved.  I am an idiot.  Though I think many had already solved that particular mystery.

I was going to write more, but my in-laws have informed they are ready to go out NOW.  Funny how you have to hop to with some people when they are ready and wait for them when you are ready.  I love Christmas time!

The Abnormal Becomes Normal

As I was plugging in my car the other morning I looked up the line of cars all plugged in and realized that I hadn't noticed how weird that scene was.  Once upon a time that scene would have had me shaking my head at the fact that the school and many other buildings have rails of outlets for plugging in cars. 

Over the course of the day, I was noticing other things that used to bewilder me or annoy me when we first moved up here.  The first was the fact that until well after 9:00 am in the morning it is still pitch black.  I have to wait to ask my students what the weather is like, because they can't see if it's sunny or cloudy outside (they sure know the temperature though - COLD).  I don't notice that too much anymore, I've just adapted.  The next would be the condition of the roads.  For some reason they don't plow down to the road up here.  When we first moved here, we kept waiting for them to finish plowing the roads because they were leaving about an inch of snow on the road.  In addition, in town, they leave about 2 or more inches of snow on the roads and all of the traffic pushes it around and makes it very lumpy and bumpy on the town roads.  A consequence of all of the snow on the road is that it gets compacted at intersections and becomes ice.  Ice is not good when you're trying to drive.

The ice and snow on the road led me to think about another thing I don't think about much and that is the web of cracks on my windshield.  Actually, almost everyone in this town has at least one chip or crack in their windshield.  Why, you may ask?  Well, when you leave that much snow on the road, you have to find some way to add some grip.  The answer they have come up with is to put tons of gravel on the roads.  If you take tons of gravel and add lots of large trucks, you get flying gravel that smashes windshields on a regular basis.  Our windshield was ruined just over a month after being replaced this year.

One thing I still notice however, is the bitter cold.  I don't think I'll ever not notice that one.

Christmas Concert Sucks

Don't get me wrong.  I like Christmas.  But I really do not like Christmas concert.  Christmas concert at an elementary school involves practicing a lame song or poem for weeks prior during time you should be teaching the kids something like, well math or reading.  Then when the day comes, everyone marches down to the gym to watch the whole thing.  In previous years at Prespatou this could be up to 3 hours long!  Then, to sweeten the deal for the teachers, you get to come back to school that evening.  To watch it again you ask?  Why no, but to provide free babysitting for the kids you usually get paid to take care of all day.  So, we sit in a room with 20 kids that are completely hyped for the concert and sometimes hopped up on sugar for an hour or more.  Then, after the deal is over, hopefully the parents come by in a timely manner to pick up their kids instead of chatting with their friends for an hour.  So, when you get home at 10:00 at night, you're pretty tired from that day.  That is when you realize the some bone head at your school has cited some lame ass reason why the concert had to be held on a Wednesday night, so you still have two days of work left.  Don't forget that the kids were up late too, so they are going to be a treat for the next two days as well.

What a magical time of year.