Tonight, I ordered my first tavern meal from the senior's menu.  It cost me three bucks less than the regular menu -- plus, I got unlimited soup/salad/ tea or coffee/ and pie for dessert.  Okay... the senior portions are a bit smaller, but only for the entree.  (Did I mention the unlimited stuff and free pie?)  Next week, I'm gonna have me a steak for twelve bucks.  I figure that in a couple of years, with all the money I save, I'll be able to put a good down payment on a new set of choppers.

* * *

My basement is full.  Of stuff.  Fuck me, I could be one of those guys on Hoarders.  I started cleaning it up today and ought to be able to swing a cat around down there by Christmas... 2015.  Which reminds me, I haven't seen one of my cats lately.  (That could explain the weird smell behind the furnace.)  I'll keep you posted.

* * *

Don't know why, exactly, but the beer tastes extra wunderbar tonight.

* * *

I found myself singing a Rick Nelson song today.  'Travelin' Man'.  Later, it was 'The Wanderer' by Dion.  And right now, I'm going to cue up some Four Seasons.  Yes, gentlemen: in days gone by, I rocked a bit harder than those tunes would suggest.  But never underestimate the power of simpler times.  

They did exist, didn't they, those 'simpler times'?

This post needs a picture of some sort.  Maybe an old guy with no teeth.  Or a dead cat at the very least.  Ah, screw it.  Have a nice weekend.

It is very windy tonight.  Leaves are seething on the trees, hissing like hell.  Different than the sound of poplars near the beach.  That is more plaintive.  Elemental and lonely. 
Perfect for candlelight and
Night verse.

Llewellen: more beer and ink pots.

TODAY AT SCHOOL

There were some kids on the hill at recess today, little kids, huddled around... something. That's seldom a good sign.  At the very least, what they're concerned about is a steaming pile of dog shit (that might end up anywhere). Almost as bad, someone's likely got their pants down and there will be a lot of splainin' to do.  One time -- years ago now -- it was a girl whose blood sugar monitor, it turned out, had been hellishly innacurate.  Her sugar level had dropped so low and so fast at recess that she was in the early throes of convulsion.  She might have died. Quick thinking by those on duty saved the day.  (The child is fine, by the way.  I ran into her several months ago.  She is eighteen, maybe nineteen now and wants to be a veterinarian. Which is kind of the segue to the rest of the story.)

Today, what the kids thought they'd found was a mouse.  It was moving about in the freshly cut grass.  Not running like a mouse, just... moving.  Willy nilly.  Slowly.  The little dude was black; a bit bigger than a mouse but with a different body structure.  And with a tell-tale snout.  They'd stumbled upon a mole.  A young one.

Well, that was my day.  (Aside from washing the car, installing new door knobs and lock sets at home, printing off some stuff for the chess club, and reading in the park.  Life is hard.)

Oh, and the mole is fine.  We left it to go on its way; we all washed our hands; and I headed for the nearest Tim Horton's for a coffee.  Did I mention that I only work a couple of hours a day?

P.S. Our mole was not the one pictured.  The guy in the picture has slightly bigger feet.

Watching U.S. Politics Is Making Me Cringe

What fucking year is this?  1930?  1840?  Those whack-job Tea Buggers (Paladino and O'Donnell in particular) and their supporters are bloody frightening.  Maybe I'm reading too much into this but the road ahead appears to be littered with Bibles (the only text book you'll get for science class), empty shell casings and dried skulls, concentration camps for the remnants of the educated middle class and one TV station with a Jeebus test pattern on Sunday.

Then again, perhaps I'm a tad paranoid.

How Many Jelly Beans Do I Have In The Jar?

I have a birthday coming up.  See if you can figure out the year I was born.

The preceding year, the Canadian mint struck only 422,741 ten-cent pieces.  (A very low total.)

King George VI of England was on the throne.  (Probably all that chili and beer.)

Hurricane Hazel was still a few years in the future.  (Ripped our roof pretty good.)

The Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup.  (Yeah, it was a good decade.)

And the giveaway question...

Newfoundland becomes Canada's 10th province. (You gotta love Joey.)

Prizes?  Certainly.  The first correct respondent receives dinner for six at The Lunch Counter.  Guest chef: Bear Grylls, the guy from Man vs Wild.  (He eats shit raw -- like snakes, scorpions, bugs. I hope he at least brings a fondu pot.)
Subsequent correct answers will be rewarded with a cited quotation of their choice on the Lunch Counter sidebar.  (If I can figure out how to use those design/settings things again.)

Contest closes around about the cocktail hour on the 19th.

Later.

WHAT THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE

Gearing up for a hectic day at school tomorrow... like, maybe an hour or two. Yee-haw! Semi-retirement rocks.

Of course, the hours will increase as the weeks progress... different programs, different lengths, depending on funding.  So, I'm basically still out there... but enjoying the best of two worlds. 

Later this week, I'll head over to the Senior's Centre and sign up.  Gonna play me some badminton, grab some cheap lunches, and maybe take in a few weekend bus tours. 

I might even finish my novel.  Or just read.  And drink beer.

ANOTHER RITE OF PASSAGE

Over the past couple of days, we drove 1200 kilometres (round-trip) to stay in an Ottawa hotel and deliver our baby boy into the hands of complete strangers at Carleton University.

He's nineteen.  It seems like last week I took him to Junior Kindergarten for the first time.

He's moved in; we're back home; and I feel even more ancient than ever.  (The hotel was quite nice, though.  And the Heineken's were cold.)

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes.

And man, it rained like a son of a bitch all the way there.