Fun and Games Dept

113.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

I have been really bad at taking daily photos for my 365 days project. It has been 13 days since my last photo. I’m thinking of renaming the project “smattering of days with 365 days”. I blame the two weeks of on-call within three weeks. On-call messes with my head. After nearly five years of doing on-call you think I’d be used to it by now. Perhaps I should just stop bitching about it and go with the flow. Maybe that will be my new theme in life: “just stop bitching about it.”

I am sitting on the back patio enjoying the glorious sunshine. Earl and I are back from running a few errands, Cubster held down the fort whilst the two of us ran out. I had to pick up some Muscle Milk – the large jug was marked down from $48.99 to $27.99 and the expiration date isn’t until 2010. Sometimes it’s the little things that count, and yes, I’ll pick up another jug if you ask.

We also fixed the push mower. I destroyed the old blade when I hit a rock about a week ago. I’ve been hitting a lot of things lately. It was just a five minute job to swap out the blade for a new one. I even mowed a bit (even though the lawn didn’t really need it) to make sure everything held itself together and nothing came flying out. There was no drama.

There is a very confused wasp on the loveseat here on the patio, it seems the owner of the house wiped out all the nests in the umbrella. His GPS still shows there should be filling stations in the area. I’m a mean Daddy.

I’m feeling much better today than I did yesterday. I’m already scheming for next weekend: I have a three day weekend and I have an adventure in mind. Combined with a really short work week (I have Wednesday off as well) and one can understand why I’m chomping at the bit to get this on-call week over with.

‘Tis good.

Grillmaster, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Earl cooked the Cubster and I a wonderful picnic supper tonight. I took this photo right before the back of the grill fell completely off. It might be time for a new grill, this one has been beaten up pretty bad by storms over the last couple of years.

Bam., originally uploaded by iMachias.

After doing on-call stuff until nearly 11 p.m. last night, I decided to head to the local bar to put up posters for our upcoming “bear night”. The bar was populated by people half my age but it was good to see the bar at least busy. I have to admit I don’t miss DJing on Fridays though.

After putting up the posters and a few NA beers, I decided to head home. I wasn’t really tired so I decided to go for a little drive before heading back to The Manor. I was moving down the expressway along a particularly dark section of roadway around 72 MPH when I saw movement to the very left of my car. In a few split seconds, I made a quick dash to the right onto the shoulder and tried to slow down, skidding in the process. I remembered yelling “Jesus Christ!”, which was quickly followed by “no air bag! no air bag! no air bag!” as I dread the idea of the air bag exploding in my face. I heard a “bam” near the front left tire followed by another bang near the back of the car. I pulled over, got out of the car and looked around. The deer was gone from what I could tell. I couldn’t see much of the car in the darkness, so I decided to drive to the next interchange where there were streetlights.

I examined the entire car as I walked the perimeter. Apart from a few stray deer hairs, there was not a scratch or dent on the car. Nothing.

My Acura is tougher than I thought!

This morning I drove back through the area and there’s some skid marks but no sign of a dead deer. He’s probably in the trees waiting to try again.

Action., originally uploaded by iMachias.

I did some messing around with the camera today. I took a bunch of photos in the back lawn of various things that I found interesting. While I was doing this, Tom watched me from the other side of the lawn as he basked in the sun. Then he saw me squat down to take a photo of a buttercup and decided to join me. I heard him running and quickly took a photo. It’s blurry but it’s fun.

This song has been stuck in my head for a couple of days. I had to jam out at lunch time. I didn’t spin around on the floor though. I’ll save that for the last hour of work.

Lilacs., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Our lilac bush in the front lawn is coming to full bloom today. It looks beautiful and smells wonderful. Lilacs are my favourite flower and one of my favourite scents. I believe this can be attributed to Grandma City, for she had numerous lilacs in her backyard and there was always a vase of fresh cut lilacs on the kitchen table at this time of year.

Lilacs always remind me of Grandma City. I miss her.

096.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Tom and I like to romp on the kitchen floor. He says I smell better than catnip.

Blasphemy., originally uploaded by iMachias.

So Microsoft released the Windows 7 Release Candidate today. This is the last version of Windows 7 to be tested before it becomes official, presumably sometime near the end of the year (the exact release date of Windows 7 has not been announced as of yet.)

I have had an interest of Windows 7 for a couple of reasons, including the fact that I am going to have to support it for work and quite honestly I’m always interested and excited about new versions of the operating system, so I downloaded both the 32- and 64-bit versions today. Tonight I installed the 64-bit version on MacBook Pro.

So far it is quite impressive.

I am putting Windows 7 through it’s paces as we speak. I installed it on my Mac using Boot Camp and quite frankly it’s running faster than Leopard usually does.

I’m going to putter around for a few days to see how it performs. So far it looks good, installation was easy and it’s cooperating quite well with my network. Let’s see if the bliss continues.

091.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Sometimes you just need a lazy day on the weekend.

I must be getting old. There are many moments that I long for the simpler times of days gone by¹. To reminisce, I offer this little giggle.

¹ Yes, I know that I would not enjoy the same freedoms as a gay man then as I do today, no need to remind me. I still long for the ‘good ol’ days’.