I am the Burgerfan!

We have been battling the light fixture in our room. It is a ceiling fan with three lights, which never work. For the greater part of a year, we got it to a happy medium where one light bulb was on, but recently it keeps trying to flicker out. After a few days of unscrewing it a little and re-screwing it back in until it lights up, we decided to try new light bulbs. It turns out those other light bulbs were too fat for the light fixture and weren’t able to go all the way in to the socket! So much for thinking a bulb is a bulb is a bulb. Now that we have three lights on in our room (instead of one) its supernova bright in there. But at least they aren’t going to flicker off anymore.

Everyone has their sub/conscious list of things that make them smile. These things differ from person to person. The truly spectacular moments in life are the “simple things” that happen to make you smile when you least expected it.

There’s this old man that walks down the side of the road every morning. No sidewalk, no place to easily walk at all, nothing but farmland on one side, and a large subdivision on the other — generally not a stretch that you’d think to walk down. Judging by the random mornings that I’ve seen him walking, I would guess that his walk is at least two kilometres (which is impressive in my books). The first morning that I ever noticed him walking down the road, he had the biggest smile on his face. Every time I saw him thereafter, he always had the same smile, as if he was offering a personal greeting to every vehicle driving past. If it was me, I’d be scowling at all the traffic for not slowing down or giving me a little more pedestrian space. I wonder how many of the drivers that pass by even notice him.

And yet its this constant wonder/delight that brings a smile to my face some mornings. Those chance mornings that he’s on his smiling mission to get somewhere when I drive by.

Brad and I went for a walk along the Anthony Henday, and down by the North Saskatchewan river this weekend to take some photos. We found some good nature shots as well as some interesting structural targets. Without realizing it, we walked several kilometers, which makes taking pictures a great reason to be outside and traverse larger distances than one normally would.

You can see my photos [here] in the gallery called ‘Walk along Anthony Henday’, and you can see Brad’s photos, taken with a far superior camera (and better talent for the art of photography) [here].

The good folks at Readers Digest mailed to inform me that I am a finalist in their sweepstakes! Isn’t that nice of them to go through all the work, and all I ever had to do was exist, reside at the address where they mailed me, and open the mail. Since they are so accommodating, I am more than sure that they gave me good odds to win also.

I’m sure that junior hopes I win, because thats how much a starter home will cost in about twenty years.

I hate Impark. Yesterday at lunch, I spent time on the patio at work booing the Impark guy issuing a ticket and patrolling the lot. Tom and Ryan joined me. The Impark guy heard us and looked up at us for a few seconds, and unphased, we continued to boo. Not loudly, barely above a talking level even, but it was enough to get noticed.

This guy is presumably doing his job, and I probably don’t dislike him specifically. But as a representative of the evil Impark company, he is eligible to receive my opinions about the company he works for. It wasn’t the first time I have booed him, and won’t be the last. And it makes me feel better too!