Small Things Amuse Small Minds

to quote my dad! Often, sadly, he was referring to the things that I found amusing...

like collecting match books ( used ones ) when I was a kid.... or some seemingly insignificant thing like that!!

HOWEVER.... this week, something quite UN-SMALL amused me immensely...

I got to ride in a dump truck for the first time in my life!! WHOOOOOOO EEEE!!

My friend Sean Bowker, who roomed with me for a few months in Lindsay, in 2003, is a heavy machinery operator... i mean, he operates heavy machinery! The fact that he may or may not have put on 15 pounds since getting married, has nothing to do with it!!

I on the other hand, have NO excuse for the 15 lbs I've put on since last fall!!

anyway, Sean was working in Brantford this week... hauling gravel from a pit near the airport in West Brant, and dropping it around the corner from me...

since I was home on Thursday, he picked me up ... literally "feet" from my townhouse, and took me on a run with him...

I was like a kid in a toy shop.... found it quite exciting....

but, to quote Sean....... " after 14 hours of sitting in here, it tends to lose it's lustre"

well I only had to endure 45 minutes... and the lustre is intact!!!

here are some photos!!


This is Sean's Truck

The view of The Grand River, looking South from Highway 403

I think that the trucking company got gyped... They weigh the truck in the morning... and then deduct that amount from every load during the day...... the trip that I was riding, the truck was a few pounds heavier than normal!!

Sean arriving to pick me up..

Mr cool....Driving like he's done it forever!
Heading west on 403, to Rest Acres Road

Smile.. you're on candid camera

the loader that filled us up

This Week....

Started with the arrival of the newest Mackay..... Faith ( or Faife as Eva calls her ) Ann Elizabeth arrived just after lunch on Monday......

we are SOOO excited .....

Heading in to the hospital Monday afternoon with Jacob and Katie... I felt so bad that my kids were not able to be there.... sigh...




Gramma, holding her newest grand daughter!!
Faith, with her Daddy

Isn't she precious????





Here's Aunt Carol... just a LITTLE proud eh!!


Faith with Grampa Jones


Jacob.... completely excited about the new baby!!!


Papparazi!

The view from Faith's room..... not that she got to enjoy it!

Life in the past lane

check this out.....

I was heading north on 62 on Tuesday morning..... and saw this in my rear view mirror....







it's not the truck that's so cool.... look to the left of it.....




neat huh??!

It's a GIRL!!!

Isaac and Eva have a new sister.....


Faith Ann Elizabeth ...... 6 lbs 8.9 oz




What a precious little angel she is....





Bruce and Tanya??? You make awwwwwwwwwwwesome babies!!!

The Edge Show.... One Last Time

Tonight was the end of an era......

My brother has, for at least the last 5 years, had a radio show every Sunday night on UCB 102.3 ......

What started out at Loyalist College as " The Edge " radio show grew into a really incredible thing...Sometimes live and sometimes taped, Every sunday night from 8 to 12 was
The Edge..... Mackay Morris and Heidt ......

I'm too old to enjoy a lot of the music that they played, but the banter back and forth was remarkable....exceedingly funny....... quick witted and clean....

I'm very proud of you Bruce.....

Tonight was their last show on the air.... After 5 years, and with Baby # 3 arriving at noon hour tomorrow, Bruce has decided to hang up the headphones.....



We stopped by the studio tonight ...... it was PACKED with people.... and there was more food than you could believe.....

It was obvious to me how loved these guys really are and how much they will be missed......

Garry Quinn, the station manager, put it best...... " You guys have changed the face of radio in the Quinte Area ... and you will be missed"

Here are some pictures from tonight.

I imagine that a lot of kids in the Quinte area went to bed sad tonight cause The Edge as they know it, is changing...

Don't be off the air too long.. you and your cronies are too funny to not be shared!!!

Budgetary priorities

I saw this guy on the street on Friday...... just caught a glimpse so clicked a picture to see if my eyes were playing tricks...





nope... they weren't playing tricks....

I felt bad for this guy..... Has money for beer but didn't have money for shoes....

Huntsville pictures...... sigh... I love it up North

Staring east from a dock on Lake of Bays....

In the village of Dwight... east of Huntsville.....

The lake, directly east of Huntsville...... seen from the lookout in Huntsville....

Huntsville at sunset

The entry way to Huntsville, from Highway 118 just off Highway 11

I LOVE this view.... I want to run and jump in....

Huntsville.... from the lookout.....

I love how the sun hits the wake... almost as if he drove through a bright spot!

A HUGE rock cut that was blasted along DR 118, between Port Carling and Bracebridge

I love this sign...... If Heaven is the land of milk and honey, then the Muskokas are a close second....!!

I love this old truck....

The old Post Office in Bracebridge

A sweet little church in Port Carling

Traffic in Port Carling.. WHAT A BUSY little spot!

This brought back memories of Grampie's store in Randboro

I love this view... scenic.... and peaceful

Hydrantsin Muskoka ..... have to have a snorkel sign so they can find them in the snow pile! One lady told me that the entire accumulation over the winter last year was almost 18 feet.... good thing they had a couple THAWS eh??!!

This uh... GUY was on the bridge in Baysville..... I almost drove off the road trying to get the picture of him!!! Love the hat buddy!!

Huntsville in the rear view mirror.... sigh... was sad to leave!

Brantford Sunset

Cooking Tip # 234

When a person, generically speaking, is boiling eggs,

that person ( or any person ) should not go back to the basement to try to figure out Windows Vista

I'm Just Sayin......

My week

so.... I'm inspecting in Huntsville this week..... staying at Motel 6 ... and can't upload photos because of their firewall..... so will have to post photos when i get home.....



Today, I was south of town.... inspected in a town called Baysville.... 12 inspections in a 20 km circle... whoo ahh!!!

more later!!

The Yellow Brick Road......

Wednesday last week, I was inspecting a large fruit farm near St Catharines......
Very nice place.... a pick your own property, with a very nicely groomed property..... you might remember, it's the place that, while on my way there, I turned around and came home to change my clothes so I'd look presentable.....

well....... funny how THAT turned out....

I met with the owner in front of the main house... while we were chatting, his phone rang... and he walked away a few yards to converse on the phone...

While I was waiting, I began to wander around the house to get my bearings...
As I heard him finishing his phone call, I turned around to head back to talk to him....
and per chance... glanced at my feet.......


GASP................





When I got my composure again, I walked up to him.... and as politely as I could muster ... i said...." can you tell me what's on my BOOTS????"

he laughed...

and then he grabbed at a branch of the tree that we were under..... rubbed the buds on the branch and said..Pollen.....

sigh.......

PFFFFFFF.... after all that effort to be presentable....!

Bernie Mac

died this morning.... he was 50 ......

Though I did not agree with all of his humour, I did find his demeanor funny... just the way he WAS ... talked... walked .....


he made me laugh..... and the world will be a little less funny with him gone...

sigh

Fire in the sky

Last night I had a late appointment.... while the OTHER inspectors are done their first inspection before I'm out of bed some days, I am booking appointments for 7:00 pm......


I had to inspect a second location for a client who lives in Toronto... they were stuck in traffic coming north from Toronto, so the inspection didn't start til 7:30 .....

In the middle of the inspection, the batteries on my camera went dead.... when I ran out to the car to get new batteries, THIS is what I saw.....

the sky to the east was on FIRE .... it was gorgeous

...........and since it was in the EAST, it made me feel like I was up early for once !!!

Peaceful

Saw this on Friday while I was inspecting...... soooo peaceful....

Rain softly falling in the lake.... the shore line lapped gently by the waves..... Standing under a tree to avoid getting wet, it still was remarkably peaceful.....
and then I heard a noise to my right...... and as my camera scanned to the west.......

I found it incredibly unpeaceful all of a sudden!!!

Bee in my Bonnet

OK.... so this is a RANT! but it's my blog and I can rant if I want to! so here goes:



one of my favourite quotations is this:

"The True measure of a man ( or a woman ) is how you are made to feel in their presence...."

I have come to the point in my life that I evaluate people ( consciously or self consciously ) by how they make me feel.....


The older I get, the more annoyed I get by self absorbed people.....

don't get me wrong, sometimes I'm guilty of that too..... when my life gets snaky busy, and my pile of paper gets really high, I shut down... block the world out, and get down to business and ignore almost everybody.... but i honestly do try to not be so absorbed in my life, that my two shoulders and two ears are not valuable to my friends.....

in the last year or so... I've "moved on" from some friendships that were very .. hmmm.. what's a good word.... lop sided...

people who needed me to be there on short notice, when THEY were hurting....

But when I was hurting, they usually made themselves scarce....

In the end, i did the math.... I know... that sounds SO harsh and almost shallow....

but that is what I did.....

I asked myself these questions:

How much time was involved in the friendship? and how much do I get out of it?....and how does this person make me feel when I am around them???

in the end, the math ( as shallow as that sounds ) was ominously lopsided....

and I quietly walked away....

I stopped emailing....

the phone calls slowed and eventually stopped ....

and the last few text messages I sent, I didn't even get a reply..... so I guessed that the "walk away" was mutual.



know what?? after several months of silence, to be really harsh, I didn't miss the friendship.



but inside, I felt kind of unfriendly....and I didn't want to someday be an old man, and bump into that person and it be awkward.... I don't want to go to my grave ignoring anyone....

so I sent an update email... just to say hey...

and I updated them on my life....mentioned that I'd had a bout with cellulitis which turned into a blood clot, mentioned that I'd missed a whack of work because of it...... and that I'd missed MORE time from work because of a back injury.....

and I told them about my mom's health ... which as most of you know, was really really bad earlier this spring.....and remains a concern.

in general, the email "report" on my life wasn't very good.

But be that as it may, it is what it is.... and I clicked send...

and I waited....

in all honesty, after not getting any response from my final text messages way back when, , I wasn't sure if I'd get a response at all.....



today though, I got one....

a response that in short said this...

"it would be nice to talk to you as it has been months and we haven't really had that kind of friendship in the past. Perhaps we can have coffee if you are around and have a moment for me. "

and they gave me their new work # ....
************

when I first read it, I knotted up.... probably because I started to get the guilt feeling again.... for having been a snot for the last few months.....

But after I pondered it for a bit, I didn't feel quite as guilty any more.....

the long and the short of it is this : After several months of silence, with no communication at all..... my first communication with them is about some serious health issues, for me, and for my mom.....and yet all they seem to be worried about is how different our friendship is.... no inquiry as to how's your mom.. how's your leg.. how's work.. nothing....

all I got back, from them, in the end, was a guilt trip for not being a good friend......



I keep going back to the quotation :

" the true measure of a man is how you are made to feel in his presence"


and I say to myself...... if that person wasn't so self absorbed, our friendship WOULD be different....... we WOULD communicate.... I'd WANT to be in touch.... I'd WANT to be calling them, texting them....

sadly though as shallow as it sounds, sometimes I like to get something in return..... to know that somebody cares about more than just THEIR life.... and is genuinely interested in me.... and my health or my moms' or my kids'.....

sigh......

I DID tell you it was a rant.... serves you right if you get to this point in the blog and wonder if there's a POINT to this...

there isn't..

thanks for reading though!!

Stormy Tuesday

Drive home in a wicked storm Tuesday evening...... got some photos of the rain... on the way and at home....





And just as fast as it'd come up, it was over......

I still love a big whopper rain storm!! Wanted to get my rubber boots and go out and play in it!

Sometimes, my job is the pits....

Spoils of work.... came home with all of this as a gift from a kind fruit farmer today...


as you can see.... the one on the left is a little more empty than the other...

I uh.. you know.... kinda ate some on the ride home!! that is... until I thought about what chemicals might be on them.... and whether the people that'd picked them, had used clean hands...

hmmmmmmm


so when I got home...I swallowed some rubbing alcohol.....

so far so good! I'll keep you posted!!!

Frosty the Doh man

so today I was inspecting a Fruit Farm near Stoney Creek.... it was muggy.... like sticky muggy....

it was a pretty nice place.... a high value inspection ..... and for those, we have to dress up ( kinda!! ) ..... in fact, I returned home to change after only 3 minutes east on the 403..... in my hurry to leave, I'd not discovered the rather obvious hole in my pants.... doh.

So I went back home, changed, and decided to put on my nice black shirt... and headed to inspect...

but wearing a long sleeve black shirt is not exactly smart in 28° temps with 178% humidity.....

ok, slight exaggeration.

anyway.... to make a short story long.... part of the inspection involved measuring the barns... one of which had 3 coolers..... at a balmy 1° C ......

This was my face when I came out...... took my glasses almost 90 seconds to adjust!!!

Olives....

God's gift to the salt lover!

Hubba Hubba!!!

special thanks to National Grocer Cash and Carry! ok, I shouldn't have to thank them... I paid them $4.99 .... that should be thanks enough!!

Lake Pictures... from July 16th

The Mighty Oak....

Anybody remember these????



When I was a kid, I used to get people's autographs.... not stars or celebrities... just people I knew that mattered to me! It started at Camp Livingstone... they used sell Autograph Books at the tuck shop.....


I found mine a while back... brought back a ton of memories.....



One of my very favourite entries was from Jamie Bailey's dad , Jim. or Uncle Jim as we called him....... I have quoted him many many times....... here's what he wrote....

A couple of weeks back, when I saw this tree while inspecting... it reminded me of Uncle Jim's poem.....

pretty cool tree... pretty cool poem!

Vacation Mode.....

Ever get in vacation mode.... and can't seem to get out???? I've been that way since April it seems.....





of 2005!!!



I've been in shorts and sandals for the last 2 weeks.... and I seem to be doing stupid stuff.... ( I know.... even MORE stupid than normal )

Yesterday, one of the not stupid things I did, was to take Taylor out for lunch... he had a break during his 9 hour shift at Sobeys, so I met him at 2:30 PM and we went to Kel's diner for lunch/supper/breakfast - whichever meal we felt we needed! He felt he needed a big lunch... I felt that the breakfast I'd had earlier wasn't sufficient so while he ordered a burger... I had more breakfast... 2 eggs easy over, sausage, and brown toast...

But since I'd eaten earlier in the day, I wasn't quite as hungry as taylor.... I gave him two of my sausages..... but he could only finish one...... so trying to be prudent and shrewd , I wrapped up the last sausage.... tucked it away in my pocket.....

and found it there this morning when I went to go to church.......G A R O S S !!!



Sausage anyone???!!BUH!

Paris in August

The scenic views in Paris are gorgeous..... it's such a hilly little town.... but very pretty...

Anna and I saw this view today .... we were driving around town, putting in time til her work started at 11 ....

and this was what we saw in the rear view mirror..... gorgeous!!

Location Location Location

Got a treasure today at a yardsale...

I have a fascination for metal signs.... I got this one today for a dollar

But in my mind, it's not what I got, or what I paid for it that matters.... but more so, where I put it.....

Computer dating.....

at the urging of a friend..... I finally joined a computer dating site....


I told them I was looking for a date that was soft, sweet and a little bit nutty....



Their computer matched me up with a loaf of banana bread.

Reliving my childhood....

Have you ever had something that you loaned out.... and then never got back???

I have a long list of things like that..... ( some of the things on the list were things I didn't KNOW I'd loaned out, until I found them MISSING .... like the Vice Grips taken from my dorm room in college...!! let it GO paullllll!! )

I had a cassette tape I loaned out in high school.... of a quartet I'd heard.... and I never got that back... it was a terrible recording, live, that I'd made by holding an old black cassette tape recorder on my lap during a concert at Parkdale.....

the thing with live tapes like that is, that there are often mistakes, or sometimes, there are chords that a group will hit "live" that are different than on the albums they sell.... often, the live concerts I find better.... some of the harmonies are unbelievable.... proven only by cassettes like this... that are now lost forever....


When I was a kid... I treasured those cassettes... played them over and over and over and over..... part of my musical training to harmonize, came from mimicking those voices on my home made cassettes......

I have often envisioned myself as an old man, lying in a bed in a home somewhere.... and the nurse or housekeeping staff, for that matter, coming into my room every half hour to flip the tape onto side two .....

lofty retirement goals huh!!!

anyway... one of the things I lost as a kid..... when I loaned it out... was a book called "The Mercer Boys Cruise in the Lassie"

The Mercer boys are like the Hardy Boys.... I only ever had 2 of their books.... this particular book I read over and over and over...... two brothers have a boat ( called the Lassie ) and they take a summer holiday ( teens, boating together on a boat alone... give me a BREAK!! ) but it was exciting for me when I was TEN!! ) and they run into pirates on the open sea ... that's what I remember anyway!!

so... fast forward to 2008........

to make a short story long.... I found the book on EBay ..... bid on it, and won it.... for $3.99 USD.
talk about exciting!!!

When we got home from the cottage yesterday, the book was in the mail box....... the colour of the outside ( which was a rich red brown at one time ) is almost green from fade..... but I'm still excited...

sigh... I know what I WILL BE DOING this weekend!!!!

i know...... once a kid, always a kid...