Disobedient Dog

Maggi isn't allowed up on the couch but Mark and I came home to her flaked out there. This picture was taken a moment before she realized that a) I was home b) She was on the couch.  After staring at her for a couple of seconds, she wagged her tail a bit, looked the other way, and tried to pretend everything was cool.

Christmas 2007

So Christmas 2007 has come and gone. It was an odd one for me. I enjoyed it and Wendy blogged about it here (and she blogged about Boxing Day here). This is Mark's seventh Christmas and he was the same age I was when my dad walked out a couple weeks after Christmas. I remember a lot about that Christmas, including what an ass he was that holiday and thinking how much better life would be without him. Those thoughts came to haunt me within a couple of weeks and he was gone and life was changed. I may not be the perfect dad but I made it this far. It's an odd milestone to celebrate but it feels pretty good. As a friend of mine said, "You have to experienced it to really understand what this feels like." I think the rest of you will think I am going crazy but that is okay too.

Christmas was a simple affair as it often is around here. I woke up early, went down to the Centre with Maggi to haul some televisions out for the guys and wish a Merry Christmas to the staff that was working. I was home by around 8:15 a.m. and everyone was just getting out of bed to open gifts. The big gift of the day was for Mark. A couple of months ago Lee said he wanted to get Mark a Nintendo Wii for Christmas. We phoned and phoned and no one had one (well done Nintendo. I wonder how many PS3's were sold by people who could not get a Wii?). Somewhere along the way, Mark started to say that he wanted a Sony Playstation 2 like his Uncle Lee. We realized a) you could find them b) it was cheaper c) there were a lot of games to play for it. So Lee got him a PS2 and Wendy and I bought him the Guitar Hero I & II combo and the guitar controller. One thing we learned while opening the gifts is that Sony's marketing hasn't gotten to Mark. As he was opening the gift he said, "I see a P and part of a S. I wonder what this is?"

We played The Simpsons game for a bit before we took out the guitar and then the competition started. For the last two days Guitar Hero has been played by at least one of us and a lot of smack has been talked around here. I hate to admit it but both Wendy and Lee are better than I am and Lee is the reigning Guitar Hero of the household.

From the family, Wendy gave me Warren Kinsella's book, The War Room. Mark gave me Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. Mark and I have been watching Poker After Dark on Sportsnet and I am fascinated by it although I am embarrassed to say that I have no idea what is happening during the show. To help remedy that, he gave me No Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament Edition 2006 (with some help from Wendy). Maggi gave me Kanye West's CD, Graduation while Santa Claus dropped off Shadow by Bob Woodward and The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. Lee gave me one of the new Star Wars themed PSP's. Until I was playing around with it, I had no idea it also had a RSS reader in it. Expect to see a PSP feed reader checking out your feed stats in the near future. Until I get a memory stick for it this week, I will have to remain content with fighting the Empire.

After we established I was horrible at Guitar Hero, we stopped in and saw the Pederson clan and then was off to the Reimers were we had a great supper with a large group of friends. Today was more Guitar Hero (Wendy and Lee were battling it out) and we managed to take Mark to the park to test out a used GT Sno Racer I got for him just before Christmas and his snowboard.

The only bad part of the holiday season is I have had a fever, chills and cold for most of it. Thursday I am back at work and hopefully this gets better than worse.

Technorati tags: PSP, Sony, PS2, Guitar Hero

Happy Holidays

Well as I post this I am ready for Christmas.  Every fall I start a spreadsheet and over the following months it gets refined and items picked up.  We were done the bulk of the shopping well before the craziness of Christmas shopping hits and I actually made two trips to the 24 hour Wal-Mart to do some shopping.  Last night Wendy and I set our alarm for 3:00 a.m. and went to the Stonegate Wal-Mart and wandered around a bit.  It is amazing how the shopping experience gets better when there are only 20 other shoppers in the largest Wal-Mart in western Canada.  The really odd thing is that on both trips to Wal-Mart I saw someone shopping in what was clearly pajamas.  If I could be dressed to shop, surely they could be as well.   Wendy and I only had a couple of things to look at but the problem with shopping at 3:00 a.m. is that you can't really call anyone up and casually ask, "So do you have a deep fryer?".  I guess you could but Wendy wouldn't let me.

Wendy struggled a bit with her shopping for me and blogged a bit about it.  Her depression, self-imposed pressure, and firm deadlines don't always go together.  After reminding her that the perfect Christmas generally isn't purchased, a lot of stress went away and the four of us are relaxing while listening to some Christmas tunes.  Well actually Lee and Mark are having a Karate duel right now, Maggi is barking, and Wendy is officiating.  It isn't looking good for Mark or Lee while Maggi is holding her own.

Lee is off work as Case New Holland shuts down for a week over the holidays.  While I am sure he has some skills working on the paint line, he just brought up some presents that look like they were wrapped by a man.  Wendy is working at Safeway on Christmas Eve but for only the second time since we have been married gets Boxing Day off of work.  The big question on Christmas Eve is how many married men will come in at 4:00 p.m. or later and ask Wendy where Safeway keeps the jewelry.  They look so worried when she says they don't sell it.  I am putting in a half day at the Centre tomorrow and then am out of there at noon.  I am spending the morning sorting out the stuff that we are giving to the guys on Christmas morning.  Some churches have made gift bags for the guys as well as a lot of individual donations to be sorted.  The photo to the right is just some of the stuff taking up every single square inch in my office.  On top of that I have stuff stored all over the Centre.  Last week I actually created a spreadsheet to keep track of it all.  We are renting some DVDs and offering up a lot of food as well, it should be a pretty nice day.  If the weather improves Mark and I will take his GT Sno Racer out for a run.  I had one as a kid and some of the most painful things I have ever endured came as a result of that thing so it should be fun.  I just hope his injuries don't affect his Christmas.

On Christmas morning, I am getting up early and helping set up things down at the shelter.  Once shift change happens, I am heading back home to open gifts with the family.  Sometime tomorrow we are heading to the Reimer's to eat and argue.  Today Gloria and I had a conversation where we both decided that we would rather just talk about the faith rather than live it out so all we have to do is argue :-)

I have a growing photo set on Flickr of Christmas 2007 photographs.  I am sure more will be uploaded over the next couple of days but don't expect anything here until I head back to work on the 27th. 

Enjoy Christmas!

Technorati tags: Christmas, Wal-Mart, GT Sno Racer

Maggi while the Blue Jays played the Yankees

She wasn't as into the game as I was.

Crime and No Punishment

When I was about four, I picked up one of those hangers that socks hang on the rack with while at The Bay in Calgary. I thought it was cool, had no intention of swiping it (street value $0) but my parents made a big deal about how wrong shop lifting was (even if it is garbage) and I how I was on the fast lane to a life of crime. It must have made an impact since I haven't shoplifted anything ever, I don't steal cable and I don't use Napster, Kazaa or even rip other people's CD's. I am legal.

In the last year however, I have done a pretty good job of having stuff stolen from me and last night our car was broken into. They took my backpack, a copy of Will Sampson's book, Justice in the Burbs, a couple of pens and most sadly, my beloved iPod Nano. The value wasn't that great. My iPod battery was slowly dying and I had already thought of replacing it with a new shuffle (I like Wendy's Shuffle battery life) but it is frustrating to have a bunch of stuff stolen. The weirdest part is that last night I was feeling exhausted. The West Nile is lingering and is complicated by the fact that I am a diabetic. Dave King was in town and I decided to have a nap before going into work at midnight. I woke up at 10:00 p.m. with a fever and phoned my co-worker and asked if he had any post-midnight plans or if he wanted my shift as well. He did and I went back to sleep. If I had been feeling better, my car would have been parked in sight of me and the security camera all night at work.

This afternoon I was really angry over it. I have lost three nice mountain bikes in the last 8 years, while Wendy and Lee have had one taken each. We lost a GT Snowracer, had the inside of the van trashed and have had about 20 solar powered lights ripped off, one by one a couple summers ago (we just installed new ones this week but they are low wattage instead so we will see if that works). Wendy was almost assaulted when a drunk barged in weeks after Mark was born (our passive agressive dog Elway decided to take a stand and earned his keep for the rest of his life) and the house has been broken into. My co-worker was beaten up and robbed in broad daylight a couple of months ago and it seems to be a part of life too often on the west side of Saskatoon.

Our neighbor has lost $5000,00 in tools over one year from his house. Our other neighbor nonchalantly asked me if I had seen his car and snowmobile another day a couple of years ago. Our neighbor across the street has lamented making his yard more and more like a fortress to stop the theft. I agree with both his sentiment and his actions. Wendy and I have wanted to close in around our driveway with some shrubs and cedars but right now a 6 foot fence with barbed wire feels a little more appropriate.

Of course it begs the question of why don't the police do something about it. The answer is that they do. There are a lot of police on Saskatoon streets but as John Gormley said on the radio this morning, "It's hard to get sent to jail in Saskatchewan". A friend of mine's daughter was assaulted by an older girl a couple of years ago for no reason. She had over 50 probation violations and was still at large and still committing crimes. It begs the question, how many crimes does one have to commit to be put into jail? According to Statscan, crime is down in Saskatchewan and that is a good thing but the problem is that it takes so few people to commit crimes to make it miserable for everyone else in the neighborhood and for some, they grew up with crime and crime is normal.

It isn't the dollar value on my stuff that bothers me. Like I said, I was already thinking of replacing the Nano with a Shuffle or a cheap one gig expandable MP3 player, my bag was showing some age, and Justice in the Burbs can be replaced but the thing that really bugs me is that according to the laws of the land, what happened to us, isn't even worth punishing someone for.

Umm, it also means that my review of Justice in the Burbs won't be posted here this week either. It's a good book though I am hoping the person who stole it gets something out of it.

Update: At 9:00 p.m. while out replacing some of the stuff. Somebody tried to break in to the house. Lee was at home and Maggi was standing guard and they ran off.

The whole thing makes me want to move to the burbs, find a gated community or a safe small town and live there. Wendy and I debated on and off all summer about whether we wanted to re-enroll Mark into Mayfair School. His reading skills are farther behind then what mine were at the end of the first grade and the teachers have to spend a lot of time on "behaviour modification" rather than teaching. It is also frustrating to see kids moving past simple bullying and seeing kids get hurt in front of the school on many days with no intervention from parents or staff. So is the answer to bail out on the school and neighborhood? Of course not but at the same it will mean some changes for Wendy and I.

Pray for my quick healing

Tonight one of the guys around work had some Harley Davidson dog gear for sale for cheap. I bought Maggi a Harley Davidson denim jacket which means that tonight when I get off of work I get to try to get her to wear it. Considering I was lucky to survive putting socks on her one night, this may be going too far.

Contextless Links

• Bush the Neo-Liberal :: Read it yourself :: via
  
• Mark Cuban on the future of music :: I would say the music industry has put itself in the position of being incredibly stupid. They are dependent on a format, the CD, that few people listen to. Although this is a guess, my guess is that the majority of CD purchases are then put in a PC and imported into an MP3 or other format for consumption on a mobile device. Few people buy a CD and just listen to it. Which means you can say goodbye to impulse buying of CDs. We are in a market where, whether we like it or not, the music industry has tethered us to our PCs. The easiest way to buy, the easiest way to get the greatest utillity of their products is via the PC. Thats a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE mistake. Did i say that it was a huge mistake to make the PC an inevitable part of the music buying process. Our ability to consume music has gotten incredibly easy over the past 25 years. From the walkman to the CD Walkman to the IPod, we have ditched the album (to the chagrin of milk crate manufacturers everywhere) and evolved to the point where an 80gb IPod has the capacity to carry every song we might imagine listening to over the course of our lifetime. So easy that it revived Apple and catapulted the company from an innovative niche PC marketer to a technology leader. So easy that we consume more music than ever before, yet total sales are in a tailspin.
• Why I don't like or respect Kobe Bryant :: Kobe has to turn on everyone at some point, cut people and ties in almost every relationship in his life," a former Bryant associate said Monday. "He turns on people because he believes he's not getting what he deserves. He has a one-track mind that thinks the world revolves around him and doesn't take a second to consider the costs, or what's the best way to handle something. "This is the same stuff he did with (Shaquille O'Neal). He would leak the story, instigate it and then not understand why it never worked. Shaq is still more beloved than Kobe, and he will always be in L.A. People have seen this all before with Kobe. This never turns out right for him." Bryant has stayed true to character in this embarrassing episode, going back and forth on his demands over the weekend. First, he ripped Kupchak, insisting that he had been, more or less, incompetent on the job. Then he told ESPN the Magazine that, unless West was brought back to run the Lakers, he wanted a trade. Once that got out, Bryant must have understood he had far overplayed his hand, done devastating damage to the mythical rehabilitation of his image.
• Maggi has her own website now on Dogster
• CEOs vs. Slaves
• Once you lose your professional sports team, you lose it for at least a generation.
• Tips for taking the train :: via
  

Talking about living life

Over the last 10 months people have commented over the decreasing amount of fresh content on the site and the reliance on links around here. Someone one criticised me as being a link blogger like kottke.org which I took as quite a compliment as I am a big fan of his blog but they are right in that the amount of original content around here is becoming as rare as a fair and balanced news report on Fox News.

So where did all the content go? Looking back 10 months or so, we started the process of planting Church of the Exiles and I started working full time at the Salvation Army. While I do have internet access at work, I don't have a lot of time to surf the web although if our office. My bookmarks are Flickr (for wallpapers), Saskatoon weather (helps me make decisions on housing for people), Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! and Google News (self explanatory), and some links to frequently asked questions (what time buses run, library hours, job search stuff), that sort of thing. The reason I don't surf that much is that for most of my shifts, there is a steady stream of people that need something or the other and that is what I am paid to take care of. Like most jobs, there is also some paperwork to be done, databases to input stuff into, and some chatting with co-workers. That is 40 hours of my week spent at work.

Other than that, the Church of the Exiles is a labour of love and there is stuff that needs to be done by myself and as a group. That takes up time. Many of the things that I have blogged and written about will hopefully come to life in Exiles but it takes time and a lot of small steps. A friend of mine keeps saying, "I always overestimate how much stuff I can accomplish in the short run but am amazed by how much stuff I get done over the longhaul." Despite that, a lot of steps need to be taken in the short run for Exiles and more hours taken up.

As I write this post, I am reminded of the underground seminary some of us are trying to start and the work that it needs to keep it moving.

When I have time at home, there are the joys of home maintenance on a 80 year old home, a dog with a compulsive fetching disorder and slobbery tennis balls, frisbees, and sticks to toss.

A couple of weeks ago when I started shopping for Mark's birthday presents, I felt sick to my stomach. When I turned seven my relationship with my father got a lot worse and he was gone by the time I was eight. By Christmas his last year around, I remember thinking he hated me and when he left, I blamed myself. While those feelings are from the past, I want Mark's next trip around the earth to be better than mine was so I find myself spending more time with him. By the time he is eight, he will probably be sick and tired of having me around but for now I am reminded of my past and the desire to make sure his future is different. Plus, we have a slingshot to master and some knives to carve things with.

So what does that mean for the blog? It means that I am spending a lot more time living life then doing it. I enjoy being a pundit but I much rather enjoy starting things and living life.

RIP Lawnmower: 1991-2007

In 1988 my mom and I drove over to CO-OP and bought our a lawnmower. It outlived my mom but couldn't outlive the One Tonne Challenge which mortally wounded it as I tried to be more environmentally caring and installed a universal mulching blade on it. I never knew that you should actually replace the whole hub (it never said that on the package) which tossed out the balance for the mower, cracking the gas tank. Epoxy worked for a while but the crack spread to the point where I couldn't fix it and it was time to replace it (the engine still purrs) after 16 years of abuse (Maggi hates it and actually bites it whenever it is started and actually has to be chained up for her and the mowers safety). After looking at a push mower (good for the environment but bad for cutting really large lawns), I went to Wal-Mart and bought a mulching rear bag mower they had for cheap. I know some of you are going to hate me for shopping at Wal-Mart but it was over $100 (or a third) cheaper which is crazy and I am not sure how anyone competes with that on the low end mowers. They were cheaper than most other places electric mowers let alone side discharge ones.

Before you assault me for getting a gas mower instead of a push mower, we did take a long look at them and talked to some friends of ours who have smaller lawns than ours who all said not to bother with one on our lawn. While everyone is advertising electric mowers as eco-friendly, some of what I read pointed out that if your province or state used a lot of dirty coal plants to produce electricity and you have a big yard, you undermine a lot of what you have done by switching to low wattage bulbs. Also, in the proud Canadian tradition of talking about the environment but taking no action, we are naming my new mower, Kyoto.

In the long run I think it may just be easier to keep a herd of sheep.

Australia mulls kangeroo cull

I have no problems with a cull but I have long said that I will take one. Someone to instill some fear and respect into Maggi.

Speaking of Maggi, she knows how to lob a slobbery tennis ball pretty effectively. Thursday night I was trying to watch sports highlights on TheScore and the ball kept getting tossed on my face which was pretty gross. Finally I tossed it behind the sofa where she could not get to it and went to bed. After sulking and plotting how to kill me, she came to bed and the next day we awoke to her with her tennis ball and a broken lamp, some depotted plants, and a knocked over stereo. I was chatting with a co-worker about it and she said, "At least she didn't eat her way through a couch to get her ball." My response was, "Tell me more" as if I didn't get the picture. So put into perspective, what Maggi did wasn't that bad. It is kind of the Jack Nicholson defense I try with Wendy when she is mad with me, "At least I am not as bad as Jack Nicholson!".

Our new Saturday

Wendy generally works Saturday evenings at Safeway and I work Saturday and Sunday during the day at the Salvation Army, we don't have a lot of days to get away as a family. Yesterday we woke up and instead of sending Mark to school, we got in the car and drove north to Prince Albert National Park for a day of driving around, taking some photographs, hiking, and relaxing.

Generally we take the main highway into Waskesiu but yesterday we took Highway 263 by Christopher and Emma Lakes and stopped to explore an abandoned Sandy Lake. We took Maggi along and she had a romp around chasing gophers and barked at a deer. After that we drove into a still asleep town of Waskesiu where the only life were some cabin owners and Parks Canada employees and the grocery store. Wendy posted some of the photos we took yesterday.

Because it was at the last minute we decided to go, we didn't have our iPods charged. We grabbed both of ours. Thinking back to a decade ago, it is a lot easier to grab an iPod than it is to get mix tapes, CDs or even being stuck with bad small town radio stations.

Since it is likely that Wendy and I mine schedules will be keep us from enjoying the weekend during the summer, it will be some Monday trips starting when Mark is out of school. The nice thing is that we should be expecting some empty highways and open roads.

This and that

It has been a busy couple of weeks for me and I am both sick and tired. The sick part I think is related to alergies that I get every spring. I am 33 years old and I just took an antihistamine for the first time ever and I feel a little better. The tired part comes from too many things on my plate demanding too much extroversion and not enough time to think, read, and reflect.

I hadn't slept much in the last week and by the weekend, I was hurting. I drove to Arlington Beach and back on Saturday, worked Sunday, came home, did last minute Freehouse stuff, went to the Freehouse, went out after the Freehouse and came home Sunday night and slept like a baby. I woke up and didn't log on for most of the day although I did watch some hockey. This morning I awoke on our couch. Apparently Wendy came home last night and tried to wake me up but I told her I was already in bed. I awoke to a slobbery stuffed goose and Maggi letting me know it was time to wake up and play with her now. How was the Freehouse? The first three we are doing this spring are to help us figure out what we want to do in the fall and there was some things I liked, some I did not and was frustrated with myself and some I don't understand. Tomorrow we are talking them over.

Today was spent running around which is okay but I find I really want to get away and just read and listen and relax. That will come a little easier as the summer starts and I can enjoy the backyard. (speaking of backyards, Jonny Baker's garden renovation looks great) The plan is to start on my backyard bar and grill sometime next week.

Spring also means that work gets a little quieter as well. The shelter empties out with the warmer weather although we deal with more drunk and high people as it is easier to find your dealer when it is nicer. Despite the quietness, there is also stuff like this to deal with. She was around a lot and the circumstances of her going missing and dying make little sense right now, especially with her missing for so long. At work I have looked at her name on a Saskatoon Police business card for a couple of months so it never has left my mind.

A former co-worker asked me if I was cynical yet and joked that I was born cynical but as much as I hate to admit it, I am an idealist and I carry some of the conflict at work home with me. I do want to help and make a difference but the problem is a lot bigger than what I can do which grates on me too. It is such a complicated topic. Tonight I had a comment by a local real estate agent on my blog, Norm Fisher about a blog post I made a couple of weeks ago. Here is what he said,

Jordan, it's amazing to me how much things have changed in such a short period of time. Believe it or not, small condos which could be purchased last December for $90,000 are now commanding prices of $160,000. It's mind boggling to me but there seems to be no sign of relief.

A bunch of us have asked each other, "Could you afford your house now?" and the answer has been, "Not a chance". While the real estate market has been hot, wages don't seem to have caught up yet.

Of course the government guidelines for people on Social Assistance hasn't increased which means people are getting forced out over rising rent. Of course raising funding levels means more people want to be on Social Assistance which is never good either. Some friends of mine have been hurt by rising rental prices. While their wages have not gone up that much, their rent has increased steadily. I drove through a couple of new neighborhoods and expected to find the usual collection of McMansions but instead I found a lot of Saskatchewan style row houses which I imagine are all being built for first time buyers but I was stunned at the asking prices for homes not a lot larger than my own. Of course high rent brings instability in housing which affects things like truancy and money available for food and groceries for the poor. If you want to find out more, here is some information .

Of course you factor in things like cuts to mental health leaves people without help, over crowded prisons sent people back on the streets without needed programming, illiteracy rates which may or may not be linked to drug use or FAS or just a lack of education because you couldn't afford to pay your rent to the rant that Wendy has nightly when she picks me up at work of seeing kids playing on the streets at midnight who are younger than Mark and should be at home in bed. It isn't an easy solution and I am not sure where to begin. The problem is a complex one and I am not sure where one begins.

Technorati Tags : Saskatoon, housing

It's that time of year again

I turned 33 today and like previous years, I thought I would live blog the day as it happens.

6:45 a.m. :: Alarms started going off all over my house reminding me that it was my birthday and I had to get up so I could go to work today.

7:00 a.m. :: Wendy, Mark, and Maggi gave me my birthday presents. Mario Kart for the Gameboy Advance from Mark with the stated intention that we need another copy so we can play head to head. Wendy gave me How (Not) to Speak About God by Pete Rollins and Maggi gave me JPod by Douglas Coupland.

7:15 a.m. :: Mark had Mario Kart open and being played in his Game Boy Advance. As I walked through the room, he was giving himself a motivational speech, "I believe in you Mark, you can beat this level."

7:55 a.m. :: Got to work. Drank some coffee. Read over some notes to start my shift. To the right is the view from my desk taken last Saturday. It wasn't Daylight Savings Time then and in Saskatchewan, it isn't now.

8:00 a.m. :: Wendy came by with a couple of Tim Horton's breakfast sandwiches.

8:10 a.m. :: Cooks arriving now. I lobby for something "that tastes good". The cooks grunt at the implied commentary and remind me that they can poison my food.

10:45 a.m. :: Breakfast rush over. Since the cold is gone, meals have been really busy around here but most people were in a pretty happy mood. Breakfast was good and if I was poisoned, it is a slow acting one.

10:50 a.m. :: Ugh, all of the paperwork from the breakfast rush needs to be filled out.

12:00 p.m. :: Wendy stopped by with a Red Bull and a Diet Coke. The two massive cups of coffee weren't doing it for me. Co-worker told a story to Wendy about how I accidently mistreated probably the most angelic human being on the planet. I was too guilt stricken to protest. Even worse he is so gracious, he didn't even protest. Everyone has enjoyed harassing me about it with the accidental parts embellished just a little bit each time.

1:30 p.m. :: Just read this at work. How can Canada be one of the richest countries in the world and not have safe drinking water for northern reserves? Of course the Conservatives blame the Liberals who blame the Progressive Conservatives who blame the Liberals who blame John Diefenbaker and nothing gets done. Safe drinking water. How much more basic is that?

2:43 p.m. :: The day has been steady but nothing really bizarre. A co-worker has said that after working our job, few other jobs would keep our interest and she is probably right. A former employee said to me that I should never think I have seen it all because I won't have. Guys were just loitering around for a bunch of reasons when it hit me that a lot of people are stranded in Saskatoon by choice or by circumstance and I think some of them don't realize what there is to do in a city of 200,000 people. I started to jot down some notes on free stuff to do and see and hopefully it will help.

4:10 p.m. :: Lee, Wendy, and Mark picked me up and Lee gave me his gift, Star Wars Lego II for my GBA. Mark picked out where he thought we would want to go for dinner and by a strange coincidence, it was his favorite restaurant as well, Fuddruckers. Afterwards we went to Ruckers for some time at the arcade. Not that I feel old but I remember when all games were a quarter. Now they are $1 or more. No matter, Lee and I started playing pinball. Mark was winning tickets and Wendy was doling out tokens.

Got home and of course Lee started playing Lego Star Wars II as he recovered from his hamburger.

7:35 p.m. :: Wendy and I headed out to Alexanders where we met up with the Reimer clan, the Bennetch/Peters clan and the Pederson clan for some dessert, food, and beverages. I was given a copy of American Fascists by Jerry and Becky which I started reading a bit last night. When they first talked about it, I thought the book was just a liberal attack on evangelicals which in Canada is kind of the religious right but I think in the United States would be considered much more moderate as a group. (toss in the blurring of the term evangelical with fundementalist in the media and I think we need a new label up here) The book is much more about dominionism as a movement which isn't as big of an influence here.

I was also given a gift certificate for McNally Robinson and I think I will pick up An Inconvenient Truth book and DVD.

Around 10:30 we were home and checked in on Mark who had been running a fever for the last two days. How did I know he was sick? At the arcade he said that he had enough games and was okay to go home and just hang out and he still had some tokens left.

Thanks for the birthday greetings and cards! It was an enjoyable day.

Hardest working dog on the Internet

Getting a photo of Maggi on the couch is hard to do as she knows she isn't supposed to lay there (don't worry, she has a large dog bed and is free to lay at the bottom of our bed). Wendy and I came home to her flaked out there the other night and it wasn't for a second or two that she realized that she wasn't supposed to be there and started to first wag, then look at me and grimace and finally got down.

Growing up, my dog was named Misty and she wasn't allowed upstairs. Over 15 years she made her way from the basement up the stairs, across the kitchen, and finally into the living room. Occasionally she would get caught in there when we would come home and you would see her with her head under the couch with her tail wagging hoping against hope that no one could see her. The best part is that we used to call for her like she wasn't there and out would pop her head and she would act like she just ran into the room. Maggi isn't quite that stupid.

She does get a little bit of exercise. Yesterday I was tossing her the rather annoying toy goose that she loves. Annoying in that she can make it honk when she bites down on it. Todd and Corina's dog has one which I think they got because Greg and Jackie's dog had one. Nothing like sharing the annoyance with ones friends.

Usually she can fetch to the point where my arm hurts the next day (It's hard because we have to pitch with only a four person rotation and Wendy and Mark can't go long innings) but the three feet snow yesterday tired her out pretty quickly. Generally I grab a ball on use the side street and she can run for about 50 long tosses but yesterday it was about 10 minutes and her pace slowed down quite a bit.

Merry Christmas

Well the stockings have been rumaged through, the presents opened, and the chocolates are laying out ready to be consumed so it must have been Christmas morning.

 

Wendy and I wendy down to the Salvation Army last night and served soup and sandwiches at the coffee house.  Captain Ed and Captain Charlotte lead a nice service in the chapel which ended when everyone lit their candle from the Christ candle.

 

After that there was soup, sandwiches, and donuts and other assorted treats for everyone and I don't think anyone left hungry.

 

After that we went home and joined Lee and Mark for some home made pizza and we watched Over the Hedge.  I was suprised how much the movie made in the theatres ($239,307,057 worldwide) as I wasn't that fond of us but what do I know.  Mark on the other hand thought it was great so as long as he had a good time it was worth watching.

 

After tracking down Santa with Google Earth and the NORAD Santa website, Mark was getting concerned that Santa Claus might come while he was awake so all of us went to bed until moning.

 

I was the first one awake and had to pull Mark out of bed which gave me reason to believe that Mark could not be my child and may have been switched at birth because I never had to be wakened on Christmas morning.  That being said, Wendy is a noted slugabed so he may get it from her, that and the very late nights this weekend.

 

Eveyone dove into their stockings.

Inside my stocking was a bottle of Arbor Mist and the traditional stocking stuffers.  Wendy got her own powered Oral-B toothbruth to ease her Soniccare envy while Wendy managed to traumatize Lee with some bikini underwear.  She threatened him months ago that if he didn't give her a Christmas list, she would give him underwear.  He never got her a list.

 

I gave Wendy a watch, Mark a rod hockey table, and Lee a Tomb Raider Legend for his PSP.  Maggi was given three indestructable frisbees and one lasted under a minute.  The other one outlasted Maggi as we played fetch through some deep snow for half an hour.  It came in ice covered (from her drool) which is more than a little disgusting.

 

Wendy gave me The Great Omission by Dallas Willard and The Upside of Down by Thomas Homer-Dixon.  After 18 years of asking, I was finally given an NFL Football by Lee.  Lee got Mark a Game Boy Advance SP but also managed to get me a game for it.  I forgot how much fun those things could be.

 

Well, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas where ever you are.  I will be adding some more photos to our Christmas 2006 photo set as we finish up the Christmas season so if you care to, check it out here.

 

 

Technorati Tags : Christmas

Christmas Eve

I hope none of you are reading this and are all hanging out with family and friends. I am working today in a fairly busy shelter. Everyone told me that it would be really quiet and empty but we have a full house right now which is good in that I am glad people have a place to stay.

Last night Mark and I stayed up late watching a plethora of Christmas specials and finished the night strong as we watched a Godzilla movie. Mark slept in front of the Christmas tree and when I went down in the middle of the night, Mark was sleeping on the floor while Maggi had the fold out mattress. I pulled the dog onto the floor and Mark onto the mattress only to come down and find Mark back on the floor and Maggi on the mattress when I went to leave for work this morning.

52 Weeks, 52 Books, 52 Reviews

I have been working on my State of the Blog and my year in review posts and this will be a part of both of them in different ways but I thought I would post it here.In the past I have had much more time to read and that time came naturally but now time is now in shortage and it is harder and harder to find time to read and learn. The nights of coming home and reading a book are over just because I don't find the blocks of 4 free hours that often with Mark to read with, Maggi to toss a ball to, and stuff to do.This year the plan is to read a book a week and post a review of it here or at TheOoze or Next-Wave. This year I read the fewest books I have read since high school and that isn't any good. I will post some books that I am thinking of reading or re-reading here but feel free to add any suggestions you have in the comments.

Sick

When I started working at the Community Centre, I was sick for about three months. Flu after flu after flu hit me. My co-workers just laughed at me because they said that they were the same for the first six months. The reality is that the homeless in Saskatoon have a whole different set of virii that I had ever run into. We have rubber gloves (which I hate wearing) and hand sanitizer but eventually my immune system had to adjust and get its act together and I started to feel normal again.

The last week or so, the office where the after hours emergency worker and I work out of has been about 30 degrees. We have had a couple of heating guys come in with a lot of blueprints and furrowed brows but my office was still like a sauna. To keep it cool we have opened the window to allow some -20 degrees weather come in my office through the opening in the security glass. I saw it coming but here I am now with a nasty ear ache, a sore throat, and laryngitis. Last night a fever hit me with the chills. I woke up with 10 blankets on me and I was wearing a toque to stay warm, Wendy turned on the furnace (to the discomfort of everyone else in the house) and I had Maggi laying on the bed beside me (normally she sleeps on my feet inducing a series of paralysis related nightmares) and I still could not get warm. Now that the fever/chills have broken, I don't feel that bad. The heating people have the heat in the office fixed (although now I have a space heater to keep warm) and I hope this ear ache and sore throat leaves soon. The good news is that Saturday nights at the Centre are normally pretty quiet.

My love of football

I was wearing my Denver Broncos hat at work the other day and someone asked me if I was a casual or a hardcore fan. I replied I can tell them the names of every NFL starting quarterback over the last decade and probably the school they came from and the round they were drafted. That and my last dog was named Elway.

They asked me where my love of the game started and I decided to post the story here.

My first football game was in Calgary at McMahon Stadium and we watched the B.C. Lions destroy the Calgary Stampeders. We moved to Saskatchewan in 1984 and it was in the middle of a very long playoff drought and John Hufnagel was our quarterback. Yes, the same John Hufnagel who can't get the New York Giants going at all.. It would kind of like moving to Chicago and then getting excited about the Cubs. It was hard.

As I entered into grade nine, I realized that the road to the NHL wasn't going near my neighborhood, I quit playing hockey and I decided to try out for the junior football team in my school (grade 9-10). I wasn't that fast but I was tall and big so I was an offensive guard. For the first several practices, all I did was get steamrolled by players bigger than I but then there was a big game for the senior team where all of the grade nine kids got bussed to Gordie Howe Bowl (yes, Saskatoon's football stadium is named after Gordie Howe and if you make fun of it, I'll elbow you in the face). Most of the grade nines on the team went to the game but for some reason a friend of mine and I decided to skip the game and go to junior practice and practice against players a year older and more experienced than I. Being short of decent players, I got tossed into a play in practice where the defence was practicing some blitzes. I lined up and two guys came at me and while I was being steamrolled by one, I grabbed the other guys jersey and all three of us came to the ground with me again being tossed on my backside. It was a blatant hold but at the time I didn't have any other options (like technique or skill). While I was laying there my coach came rushing over and got all pumped up about how I kept fighting and saved the quarterback from being hit hard. He was all jacked up and I was just glad I wasn't being cut. For some reason, football just got easier after that and I got to play a fair amount that year.

The next year the same coach gave me a speach about being a great tight end (insert joke here) and helping the offense. My first practice play at tight end was my last. I ran over the middle towards the ball and saw a lot of guys on defence ready to separate my head from my body and decided this is stupid. I immediately asked the coach to play defence.

From then on I was a defensive end and I loved it. I loved hitting the qb so much, I took several late hit penalties over my high school career.

While I played on several good teams, my favorite guy to play against was a big farm kid with red hair and a bad mullet. In football you are told that if you are more intense, have better technique and more desire, you will win the individual battles. That is a lie. This kid had no technique and apologized to every player he played again when he tackled them and knocked them over. He had no intensity at all but he was stronger than a bull. He was so strong that he could tackle running backs at full speed with one arm. His apologizing to everyone didn't go over well with our defensive line coach who was Mr. Intensity. I remember him yelling at this guy for saying sorry to everyone. He just apologized to the coach for apologizing.

1988 was Notre Dame's championship season so it became my NCAA team and I became a Denver Broncos fan during a Monday night game where Tony Dorsett became the #2 rusher all time and the Jay Schroeder lead L.A. Raiders overcame the biggest deficit in MNF history to beat the Broncos. Despite that setback, I became a big Broncos fan that night and that 8-8 season. Other factors that made me into a NFL fan were that 1988 was the first year of Pro-Set football trading cards and I think it was one of the best sets of cards ever.

While I worked at Lakeview Church, the programmer was Mike Gingerich and Mike used to stop in my office on his way to the coffee maker and we would exchange obscure NFL trivia, often about quarterbacks who were busts. I think if we had worked together longer, we would have eventually developed a language based totally on NFL quarterbacks. "That was quite Rick Mirer-ish, don't you think." "Of course to counter your argument, there is the Anthony Dilweg factor".

Lee played in high school and Wendy and I attended most of his games. Now Mark is getting into football which may be because of the six footballs of different shapes and colors that we have around the house. He is too young to play organized football but just fighting Maggi for the ball should teach him something.

Contextless Mark Stories

I have been hanging out lots with Mark.  Here are some of our conversations lately...

Me: How was school today.

Mark: Not good.  We had crafts.

Me: Why is that bad.

Mark: I got glue all over.  Umm Dad, can you send the teacher a note telling her I don't have to do crafts anymore.  I'm pretty bad at it.

---

Mark: There was a fight at school today.

Me: We you involved?

Mark: No, I just watched.  It was a good fight.

Me: Did you try to break it up?

Mark: No, it was a pretty even fight.

---

In other news, I got paid yesterday and did what every man does when he gets paid.  I deposited my check and then went out and bought eight frisbees for Maggi and wondered if that would last a month.  She had broken one within five minutes of being at home but seemed to sleep better knowing she had a frisbee sitting right beside her.  We have one weird dog.

Maggi Monday, umm, I mean Tuesday.

Like David Fitch, I come from a holiness denomination that bans its pastors from drinking alcohol.  I read this with post with interest and not just because I have lost 60 pounds since getting diagnosed with diabetes

Now I come from one of those denominations. I minister under restrictions of no alcohol and tobacco. My denomination, along with others rooted in the old holiness movements of the turn of the century, still hangs on to the holiness codes that prohibit alcohol and tobacco for its clergy. I consider this to be “an adventure in missing the point,” to quote Brian McLaren, and I believe Falsani helps us see why. Let me explain.

If we prohibit certain behaviors as conditions of fitness for pastoral ministry, are we not really revealing the fear that we lack the character (or fitness) in the first place? If drunkenness and addictions that seek ultimacy other than in Christ is what we fear, why not name drunkenness and addiction as the symptoms that require discernment. Instead we prohibit all use as if to suggest we are hiding something. The total prohibition is a sign that we suspect we don’t actually have character formed in this direction in the first place. If this is true, we are we not really dealing with the issue of whether our clergy has fitness. We are just providing conditions to displace the lack of character (if it exists) to some other object that is safer, i.e. from tobacco, alcohol to food. We really do not have a test of fitness for ministry, just the means to obfuscate that the character may not be there at all.

Technorati Tags : alcohol, food, legalism, obesity

Brought to you by Red Lobster

I met Darren Friesen for coffee yesterday at Starbucks and we sat outside on the deck. The sun was hot but the cool breeze balanced it out but I forgot to realize that cool breeze doesn't block out painful UV rays. To make a long story short, I am as red as a lobster on one side of my face, the top of my head and my arms.

As far as losing my mind from working. I have been calling Mark, Maggi and Maggi, Mark. Neither one of them is impressed.

I've been sick

It is just easier if I post this here.  In the last week I have caught something bad enough that it has given me the stomach flu for two day, a really sore throat for two days (btw, does gargling with Listerine actually help a sore throat or is it largely psychological?), a week long fever, and yesterday I had a migraine headache so bad that I thought my head would explode.  Moving hurt, light hurt, Maggi licking my face hurt, even moving my eyes while my eyelids were shut hurt.  Wendy posted some details here.  If I owe you an e-mail, it may take a while.  Even looking at a computer screen today hurts. 

Sleep

Making the move to working nights was really hard.  The first week was really hard.  At the max I was getting five hours a day of sleep.  After that first week I started to sleep in a dark corner of the basement and I am finding that I am averaging 8 to 10 hours of sleep a day, despite the 30+ degree celcius temperatures during the day.  For whatever reason I am getting more sleep and feeling more rested than before.  The only thing that really wakes me up is Maggi's walk by lickings.  I am just sleeping on some fold out mattresses on the floor and the right (maybe that should be wrong) height for Maggi to show that she is glad I am at home.

The best thing is that I can stay up later (earlier?) now as well.  Before Wendy used to pick me up at 8:00 a.m. and I would literally be asleep at 8:10 a.m.  Now I can stay up to noon now and still feel rested.

To Own a Dragon

As I mentioned here, I am reading To Own a Dragon by Don Miller.  It is a book of his reflections on growing up without a father.  Some of our experiences are the same, others are different.  To blog about them here is something that I have put some thought into as I don't want to antagonize the Cooper part of the family.  What I will say is that I shared Miller's feeling of being absolutely worthless after my dad left.  For years I blamed myself for him leaving.  On top of my dad leaving, my grandfather died a couple of years later and his second wife and the only grandmother I knew, contested his will and severed the relationship there.  My mom was an only child and so in three years we had lost all connections with every bit of family I had.  It was lonely growing up and like Miller, I felt like I was burden on life.

 

For me, the church was both a place of rejection and support.  In the 80's, the evangelical church wasn't sure what to do with people who were divorced other than condemn them but there are always those that can't tow the party line and who constantly fed back to me that I was here for something great.  I don't know if it was them making stuff up or if it was something they saw in me but it was enough of a voice to challenge that inner voice that told me that I had no worth.  It was a voice that came from a lot of different people and even when I was a dark and angry teen, it was still there.

 

That voice rang the loudest in Rev. Leroy Nicholls, a former pastor of mine.  Rev. Nicholls was from Barbados, pronounces Psalms as "Sams" and his dad walked out on him.  I remember talking to him about it and thinking that despite the pain, his life was normal.  He lived in a bi-level house down the street, had two sons, married, and was into sports.  I remember one Sunday night during the World Series when his favorite team was playing.  During the sermon, his son came in and put a piece of paper discreetly on the pulpit.  We later found out it was the score.  I watched some great sports games with others in their basement.  He was also one of the first theologian/pastors I met and largely influenced me into being a pastor.  He also was the first to question my political belief that all Christians voted Conservative by having a NDP lawn sign on his lawn.

 

I wish I could say that it was a great relationship with God that brought me through.  It wasn't.  I was so angry at God but my mom kept dragging me along to church.  Even on the fringes of those communities, I was exposed to some wonderful Christians who really cared, even if I kept pushing them away.  While individuals came and went, the church was there.  As I left high school and went off to Bible College, that need for whatever it was that dad's give you kind of disappeared.  Around 8 years ago I tried to patch things up with my dad but by that time whatever bond that fathers and sons are supposed to have wasn't there.  After the Flames, CFL, and weather, we didn't have anything to talk about.  It all fell apart a couple of years after that and we haven't talked since.  To be honest, I can't see us talking ever again, there just isn't anything to say.

 

Don Miller mentions a lot of time the idea of understanding fatherhood and the love of God once you have your own child.  I don't know about that.  I know that I understand somethings better now that Mark is born but that the same time, my dad obviously never got it.  The other day I was thinking about this and Mark kept interrupting me to play Frisbee with him and Maggi.  I'll take that over an answer any day.

 

I'll post some more on the book later on.

 

Technorati Tags : Don+Miller, fatherhood, church, To+Own+a+Dragon

Have you ever stepped on a nail?

About once a decade, I step on a rusty nail that does through my shoe and into my foot.  It hurts as does the tetenas shot afterwords. 

 

At 2:30 I was still trying to sleep, the dog was laying in the bed and was farting in her sleep.  If you have ever smelled something that Maggi has dealt, it can wake the dead.  While I was wonderinng why Maggi didn't seem to be grossed out by her farting, I felt like a nail went into my foot.  Followed by another and another and another.  By the time 3:00 a.m. came around I was trying to sleep on the couch while wondering what trouble those "Duke boys" would get themselves into next while watching old reruns on TV.  I lost count at 300 "piercings into my skin around 4 a.m.  I don't know why my nerve endings were upset but we need a better conflict management system than what we have now.

 

Today, my body feels like someone took a baseball bat to it.  No bruises but I hurt all over.

 

The good news is that it has been months since I felt this bad and it isn't nearly a regular occurance as it was before.  I need a nap.

Neuropathy

A lot of you have e-mailed me about my recurrance of the neuropathy and instead of replying to all of them, I thought I would fire off a post here.

The neuropathy isn't connected to the diabetes in that my blood sugar levels are fine and it hurts regardless. The pain takes different shapes but almost all of the time affects my extremities (hands, arms, feet, legs) in a couple of forms that can best be describes as an extreme burning sensation, a slow drill working its way from your hands or feet into your arms, or a sharp knife like pain. Of the three, the burning is the most common while the drilling feeling is the worst and tends to come when I am tired.

The best way to treat it is to walk. While I don't have my pedometer on today, I walk from 3000-6000 steps at work over 8 hours. If it is bad, I also call Wendy and ask her or Lee to not pick me up from work and walk the 20 minutes home. When I get home, I have Maggi who wants to catch some Frisbee and Mark who wants to play soccer so I often get in another 1000 or so steps chasing them down. Lately Hutch has been making a break for it so both Lee and I have been getting some additional exercise.

Travelling can be hard because my feet aren't doing exactly what I described. It isn't just travelling. Many friends have seen me excuse myself and walk for a bit during coffee or dinner. Sitting down for long periods of time just hurts. Once the pain hits me, it tends to stay for several days, affecting sleep (like it is now) which makes it worse which affects sleep some more, which causes the pain to be worse. The medication I take helps but when the pain gets extreme. The best illustration is like sand bagging during a flood. It helps but only up to a certain point. Right now for the next little while, it is past that point.

Hopefully it is cyclical but for right now, it has been quite frustrating because I don't know how long it is going to last. I had the depressing job of cancelling out of some summer speaking gigs and delaying some much wanted vacation plans. Hopefully it won't last for too long.

Overheard at work

A co-worker's dog is sick and he asked our boss if we get bereavement if the dog dies.
Manager: How old is the dog?
Co-worker: 6 years
Manager: What breed?
Me: Is there a scale for days off?
Manager: Labs and German Shepherds get more days off while yappy small dogs get less.
Me: Makes sense.

Small yappy dog owners, feel free to express outrage in the comments below. For the record, we have one that lives in our house too. He spends a lot of time acting tough while hiding behind Maggi.