You either pay attention or pay through the nose. I would rather pay attention.
Today, as many Canadians did, I went to work. But after returning home our family had a good old American style barbecue and enjoyed our burgers, baked beans, freshly baked cookies and potato chips.
Happy 230th Birthday America!! Some of us Canadians really appreciate what a great nation you really are.
Today was a fun day in the sun (and sometimes very light showers) but mostly sun.
I started off watching a bit of world cup soccer, then went out front and shot some hoops with my son. Then as I mentioned earlier I shot downtown to hang out with the thousands of other people in downtown Ottawa.
The first picture below is of some of the musicians/buskers that dot the streets on Canada Day. This was a small drum circle. (Nothing like the 30 or 40 drum circles I have seen at Grateful Dead concerts but they were pretty hot nonetheless.).
We hooked up with some friends and enjoyed walking around near the Hill until we got to the War Memorial. I walked around the memorial holding Cookies hand and explained to her (for the second time in her short life) what it was for and what the different years meant. Cookie still isn’t quite sure what it is about but I still explain it to her so one day she will know. Below is a picture of her (on the left) and a teammate from gymnastics (giving the peace sign).
We then made our way up the road to have dinner at Dunn’s Deli. Mr. Dunn himself was out working the floor. I had a pretty decent smoked meat sandwich. Not Schwartz’s mind you, but not bad.
After that, T-Bone and I took off back to the car. On the way I got a nice pic of the world’s longest melted skating rink. a.k.a. The Rideau Canal.
We beat the traffic out and made it back to Kanata in time to shoot a few more hoops in the driveway before heading out to park near Walter Baker park where the local fireworks were on and 54-40 was playing. The fireworks started a bit early but we got to enjoy the 20 minute show and could hear 54-40 playing a tune or two. But we were doing it all from my truck because the rain was starting.
A short trip home, and a fill up at 100.2/litre (9 cents cheaper than this morning) and here I am enjoying my first (and second) beer of the weekend.
I hope everyone else out there had a great Canada Day with family and friends.
On that note, I wish to make one final statement. Something that I have not seen anywhere online today. A grand omission on the part of many. Despite our well wishes to each other on Canada Day, we all forget to wish the grand dame her just dues.
Happy 139th Birthday Canada!!!
You are holding up well after 139 years. And might I add that you are looking way better than you did last year and I am willing to wager you look even better on your 140th birthday.
ADDENDUM For those who have never been to Ottawa, the building in the far background of the top picture, i.e. behind the drummers, is the famous Chateau Laurier.
Well, I was planning on getting over to the celebrations in Kanata to see 54-40 tonight, but an emergency has had me called downtown where Cookie is taking part in Canadian Gymnaestrada. This means instead of an easy drive, easy free parking situation, I will be heading out shortly to trek down to Parliament Hill.
Alas, 54-40 will have to wait for me. But these people will not.
The plus is that Cookie, T-Bone, the better half and I will be together Canada Day instead of being scattered across Ottawa.
For those with eagle eyes and a very boring personal life, you can click here to view what Parliament Hill looks like through out the day and try to spot me. I will be wearing red and white. HAHAHA!!
I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday.
I don’t normally talk about my physical ailments on this blog, but this one is aimed at the Yellow Bellied McShifty who cut chiropractic subsidies when he took over as our premier. It also may help some of you who notice symptoms that may pertain to a pinched nerve.
About three weeks ago, I started having problems with both of my hands tingling depending on how I positioned them. Whether it was my left hand resting easily on my car door with the window rolled down or my right arm folded with my hand resting under my pillow at night. It happened to both hands while sitting at my desk sometimes and other countless ways.
I discounted the idea that my hands were falling asleep because as soon as I moved them and gave them a shake the tingling went away without the usual pins and needles that someone gets when an appendage falls asleep.
On Wednesday night I woke up with REALLY bad tingling in both hands and a feeling of pressure that made my hands feel like they were going to explode.
So Thursday afternoon I was off to my chiropractor. I described my symptoms to him and he held my neck at a specific angle while he twisted my arm inward with my hand held backwards like I was taking money from behind me. (Being a Conservative, he joked “like you’re a Liberal taking a payoff” which had me in stitches). Lo and behold the numbness was there right away.
He had me assume the “Liberal position” with my other hand and the tingling was the same.
He performed a quick adjustment on my neck and I have slept peacefully for the past two nights. I have also noticed that the tingling is pretty much gone. I think one or two more trips to my chiropractor over the next two weeks and I should be good as new.
The only problem is that the hit to my wallet is more than it used to be thanks to yellow-belly. But a small price considering the dramatic effects chiropractic has given me.
Thanks Dr. Jeff!!
P.S. A few years ago I dislocated a rib golfing over the weekend. A problem which would have taken a month or more on muscle relaxants and bedrest to correct. This same chiropractor adjusted my back on the following Monday and Thursday and I was golfing the next weekend. Being a golfer himself, he knew what caused my dislocation, told me to keep my forward arm straight in the backswing to prevent it happening again. Not only did he fix my back but he fixed my golf game. I shot several strokes better that following weekend with the tip.
Please tell us about your chiropractic story in the comments below!!
Saturday the wife and I made it through handling the sleepover birthday party of our (now) 10 year old daughter and 7 of her friends. (My ears haven’t heard this much squeaking and squealing since a Hillary Duff concert a couple of years back)
Sunday morning I managed french toast and bacon breakfast for them all and we got our son to his band trip to Kingston on time.
I managed to help pick up all the food/soft drinks and ice (along with setting up all the chairs) for a very large BBQ at the Carp Fair grounds.
With the help of my friend Craig I managed to get my fathers day gift of a roll out Basketball net together (and only had to undo something once which is amazing unto itself).
I managed to get my first podcast working. (give it a listen here).
And this morning I wake up to find out I am the BBS Blogging Tories Site of the Week!!
Now, if I can win the Tri-Riding Golf Tournament today, I KNOW I will be buying myself a few lottery tickets for Wednesday’s draw in the 6/49. I think the only downside was finding out our Minister of Defence, Gordon O’Connor won’t be giving a speech tonight at the post golf dinner as he was slated to. But in light of the fact that he and our Prime Minister will be in Halifax to kick off a week of spending announcements to bolster our much needed military refit, I think I can live with that. Especially since I ran into him yesterday.
Thanks for the honour BBS. It means a lot to me!!
Yesterday the public schools in Ottawa had their annual competition in various events like sprints, jumping, throwing, etc. The events are broken out by grade and Cookie happened to qualify as one of the two sent from her school to compete in the Ball Throw. All 60 lbs of her 4th grade self.
I have seen her hit baseballs with ease, win provincial cheerleading championships, compete for ovre 5 years at rhythmic gymnastics and continually she impresses me with how she simply excels at sports.
So what does she manage to do? Throw the ball further than any fourth grader in the city of Ottawa. I couldn’t believe it when she showed me her first place ribbon. It was as red as the sunburn she got standing in the sun all day.
Nice job cookie.
A week ago, T-Bone took part in two categories of competition at the Ottawa Tae E. Lee Tae Kwon Do Cup held at Algonquin College.
In his patterns he was both crisp and fluid, and barely missed out on a medal. His shyness, (the reason we got him into Tae Kwon Do), still showed through his body language, but was leaps and bounds better than it was last year where he finished dead last in his belt/age group.
It was a similar result but a completely different story in the sparring. He came out incredibly strong out attacking his opponent who put up some feeble blocks. But in a non contact sparring competition, they did count as countermoves which left T-Bone on the short end of the scoring stick.
The better half was right in assessing his skill when she said “He would have kicked the other guy’s ass in a street fight!” Knowing T-Bone, he wouldn’t get into a street fight, but if he ever had to defend himself, I have to whole-heartedly agree.
The shyness in him is fading as he enters his teen years and if he keeps up the hard work, I know I am going to have a tough time saying no when he asks me for the car keys in a few years!!
For those out there who have a shy, quiet child, with self-confidence issues, I highly urge you to take advantage of the Conservative tax break on sports registrations and get your kid into Tae Kwon Do. Not only will it give them self defence they may one day need, but it will bring out the best qualities in your child. It has done wonders with T-Bone and he has a couple of very proud parents.
The Da Vinci Code By Dan Brown
By now, half the freaking world knows about this book/movie.
I just hope half the world feels about it the way I, and Opus Dei, do. It truly sucked. I found myself painfully forcing my way through it each time I sat down to lay some cable. Dan Brown really didn’t do anyone any justice with this one.
It follows the daughter of the curator of the Louvre and an American historian through a pretty unimaginative set of riddles to find the secret of the Holy Grail (which isn’t a chalice but the true writings that would blow Christianity out of the water if revealed).
I feel the best quality the book had was that the chapters were brief enough to make it worthwhile reading on the john, and long enough to provide enough paper to wipe with.
As I mentioned in my last post, I got the opportunity to drive by the Brookstreet Hotel (shown above) to see what kind of hoopla was going on. Not as an activist mind you, but as an observer. I managed to snap the above photo of the hotel and noticed the parking lot was blocked off with small metal fence baricades. Nothing overly secure, but enough to tell drivers not to enter the long driveway.I noticed a bunch of youngsters standing in the rain eating Pizza Pizza under a couple of umbrellas.
I knew right away they weren’t from Ottawa because no self respecting resident of Ottawa would eat Pizza Pizza. It’s solely for those transplanted Torontonians who haven’t experienced the good stuff Ottawa has to offer.
But I had to ask. So I pulled over, tossed on my blinkers and got out with my cell phone/camera. I asked them if they were there to see what the hullabaloo was about and they said yes and asked me if I was with Alex Jones. I almost died laughing when they asked me if I was with him.
For those who don’t know, Alex Jones is a whack job who thinks past U.S. President’s and U.S. government officials get together for some crazy ritual worshiping a giant stone owl and burning a human in effigy to represent the death of bohemian culture. *clutching side in laughter*
Obviously the nutbar is planning on crashing the Bilderberg. I proceded to say “no” and asked them if they were local guys from Ottawa. They admitted to being from a few different places … Toronto, Vancouver and even a carload from Spain huddling in from the rain.
As you can see from the photo below, the event has cop cars all over. I hope they aren’t needed and if the rain keeps up the way it is expected to, there will be no golfing for the elite, and no fun in the sun for the protesters.
For those who do not know who he is, Gerald “Jerry” Bull was a Canadian born astrophysisist who had developed the capability to launch projectiles into the thermosphere. After working on projects funded by the US Military, Canadian Department of Defence, and McGill University, the funding he received was eventually pulled so Bull took his technology to the open market where nations such as Iraq and China wanted him to develop similar technology for them.
Bull ran his show out of the Barbados and was eventually found dead of drowning after falling overboard from his boat. Many believe his death was not an accident, but that he was killed to prevent his technology from being expanded and used by the Iraqis to launch artillery 1000s of miles without rocket propulsion. To put things into perspective, some of his tests had him launch projectiles in excess of 100 lbs over 180km into the atmosphere.
So why am I telling you about Jerry Bull? Well you see, I am an electronics technologist. When I was studying, my communications professeur was an engineer that had worked with Bull. He was the most fidgety, nervous man I had seen and rumour (amongst students) was that he had had a couple of nervous breakdowns. He took the time in one class to tell us about the danger of what we were learning and how the technologies we were learning could pose serious danger to us and to those around us, and that we should always use caution when making decisions on how to use this knowledge.
Many of us had a rough inkling of what he was talking about, but until I saw the pictures in today’s Ottawa Sun of the items seized in the terror suspect arrests in Toronto this weekend, I didn’t realize the full extent of what this professeur was trying to tell us.
There was a red Nokia cellphone wired to a circuit board sitting in a tackle box that appeared to be a jury-rigged triggering device.
…
There was camouflage hunting and camping gear, a pair of Sorel boots, a soldering iron and a battery case with eight D batteries inside.
…
Several large hunting knives and Exacto blades were in the bag, along with less ominous looking flashlights, a rusted BBQ gate, a 6-volt battery and a recharging unit for the walkie-talkies.
The bolded items can pretty easily be used to create a crude, yet effective, remote detonator. When it took me all of 5 seconds to piece together how the components could be used, I think I finally understood what this professeur was trying to tell us that day. The lesson was learned Professeur, the lesson was learned.