Happy Easter!

Easter weekend has come and gone again, and I am so glad I went home to South River. Well, I never actually did live in South River after about 0.5 years of age and spent most of my time growing up in North Bay and surrounds, but I digress.

My mom made a spectacular turkey dinner for Shea and I on Saturday night (instead of the traditional Sunday, since we were heading home that day) and I had forgotten just how good I had it when I lived at home oh those many years ago. My mother is a fantastic cook and her turkey with all the fixins had my mouth just celebrating the joys of food. And blueberry AND raspberry pie, oh my!!! Shea and I could not move afterwards. It was one of those peaceful could not move afterwards, too.

Sunday was equally great. I had not really played in the snow for years. I didn't really have to dodge snowballs for years, either. I got hit with a few well placed throws by Shea and my feet got soaked, but it was a beautiful warm sunny day. Luckily I am bigger than her, so at the end of the day I won the battle by tossing her in a snowbank. ;)

Did I mention holy crap but there was a lot of snow up there? There was at least two feet of snow on the ground and there were 8 foot piles of snow at every street corner. It just goes to show that Toronto has a much much different climate. I miss that climate.

Till next time.

Go Ice Tigers!

My buddy Claus cheers for the Nuremburg Ice Tigers in the German Hockey League.

Every season he goes in with high hopes, and every year when the playoffs start, he is brimming with efficient German excitement.

Unfortunately, every season the Ice Tigers meet Mannheim in the playoffs, and every season, no matter the seedings of the two teams, the Tigers come up short. I can hear the cursing all the way to Waterloo.

Last year, Claus promised a hot tub and keg party if they won the German championship. Unfortunately, they didn't even last a round, losing to... you guessed it, Mannheim.

When Claus first came from Germany on exchange and introduced me to the Ice Tigers, I was interesting in how things went for them, but I wasn't what you'd call a fan. But give me a reason to cheer for a team - such as the possibility of a party - and I'm there! Now I'm almost an Ice Tigers fan - although I'm more of what you would call a Mannheim hater...

Uh oh, Claus just sent me 15 MSN messages in a row. Something interesting must be happening in the latest game... oh, by the way, Mannheim leads the best of seven series 3-1. Nuremburg leads game five 4-3 in the 3rd... Stay tuned...

Long Weekend!!!

Wow, I looked up the other day and it turns out that this weekend is Easter! :o

How time flies when you are buried in work.

The good news is that I will have the opportunity to visit Mike and Peggy again, as well as Winnie, whose birthday passed a few days ago (just after mine, coincidentally). I tried to call her, but it was a little late in the evening, so I'll settle for a visit instead. I'm sure she will approve.

And maybe this weekend I will find the time for some exercise. With the weather warming up, there should be ample opportunity for a hike off into the bush somewhere, maybe up in my old stomping grounds of North Bay. Who knows.

I plan on leaving work behind for the entire weekend. I decided recently that I would rather not pollute my home time with work - I began to resent work at times when I did so previously. And then there's those papers I still have to write.... oh well.

Why the hell is my desk so untidy all the time?

I don't understand it. My desk at work is a disaster area. And if I clean it up, it just gets messy again. The same with my bedroom at home. I tend to ignore it for about a week and then BAM, it just hits me and I'm disgusted. I know it drives Shea nuts. So then I spend time cleaning up when I could be doing other, more fun stuff. Like work.

Though I suppose I could use another file cabinet to file some of this stuff away.

Not a good way to start your day, as a disorganized mess. :(

Birthdays, Employment and Dirty Carpets

Another year older, perhaps a little wiser. These definitely are different times than my previous birthdays.

This is the first year in a long time where I haven't gone out and drank myself silly on March 17 because I had to work. Fortunately, the weekend is near, so some celebrating will indeed be done. Starting this afternoon!

Things are a lot different than I thought they would be when I started working. For one thing, I work more hours than I thought I would, and strangely, I don't seem to mind too often. For another, I didn't expect to be visiting Kitchener all the time. I guess this is what happens when you give up the single life. ;)

I haven't spent very much time at all at home in recent weeks (good thing too, my room stinks of musty leaked water after the wall leaked three times this winter - "But this has never happened before!" - Uh huh, and it had never happened before when the living room wall leaked last year, too.... I haven't been home long enough to clean all the carpets). That will be on tap for tomorrow - that is, if I can see straight after all the bear foolishness I plan on engaging in tonight (I love these bajan sayings).

Winter? Spring?

With spring officially only days away, I am wondering what is in store for us after such a weird winter. The part of the year that is usually the coldest really wasn't, and lately it has been much cooler than usual. Even now that the daytime temperatures are creeping up towards normal (low to mid single digits) with beautiful sunshine to boot, the nights are frigid, with -12 to -15 being the norm of late. And this morning there was a bit of a windchill to go along with that, meaning that it was tuque time. I don't mind the cold, but the ground was frozen this morning, which prevented me from finding the monitoring well that I was looking for, so it was a little counter productive. And now it is supposed to snow again, which is really weird - another 4 cm (you know that a storm isn't going to be bad when the weather folks don't go in increments of 5 cm). I've gotten so used to commuting through bad weather (3 Monday snowstorms in a row) that I don't worry about it any more.

Here's hoping that the ground is a little softer this afternoon so I can find my monitoring wells. :)

The Weekend is Over

Where did it go? I mean, I did a bit of work here and there, drove around a lot, spent time with Shea (who has an affinity for sleeping in) and had coffee with Cindy for the first time in a while.

I really didn't do anything profound this weekend. However, I am starting to realize that work is starting to take chunks of my time that I'd prefer not to be giving it.

Four days until St. Paddy's Day!!!!

Farmers

It looks like the farmers are gonna be out again to protest their lack of subsidization by the government again. They were out protesting a week or two ago, complaining that they can't compete in the current global marketplace (where others are much more heavily subsidized, i.e. American farmers). It makes me wonder whether it is even worth it for these folks to keep growing some of the crops they do and either sell their farms to developers for untold millions (rare, I know) or grow something a little more lucrative (i.e. how some tobacco farmers are into ginseng now). I know it isn't as simple as that, but to someone on the outside who just hears on the radio how the 401 and 404 are going to be full of tractors today, that's the best I can do.

And another thing...

I made sure I hustled my buns in early today to get clear of said tractors. Who wants to get caught behind somebody doing 30 km/hr on the 401 (unless it is a snowplow in a blizzard)? Hopefully these same folks will be long home by the time I head to the Kay-Dub tonight.

Field work

Well, today I was in the field all day sampling from people's wells once again. Windchill and frostbite aside, I find it strangely relaxing being out of the office - almost like a weekend. When I am in the office, the stress levels are sky-high. But once I get outside.... I don't know if I will ever turn into one of those "don't want to leave the office" hydrogeologists. I couldn't stand that.

I keep learning new stuff too, peeking into people's wells and looking through their basements for that treatment bypass tap. I've seen some pretty spiffy houses in the last couple of weeks.

Anyway, it has been a medium-long day (not the 12 hour jobbies I've been working of late), so I need to go take care of this smell. :P

Monday Morning Commute

The commute from KW to Toronto isn't so bad when there isn't any traffic. Unfortunately, that means leaving before 530am. Even then there is a bit of a slowdown from Mississauga to Mavis, but that only lasts 15 mins. Smooth sailing the rest of the way, and I got into work at 645. A little early, yes, but I really had no reason to stop off at home this morning.

What else is new? Not much since last night. Shea was in a playful sort of mood last night, if playful means trying to get under my skin. It worked on a number of occasions. :P

Not much to say yet today - maybe I'll have more later.

A daily dose of derk....

It sure is good to be back. With the proliferation of blogs these days, it seems to be a lot easier to post my views than it was in the old days. Well, emails were an easy way too, but those could only be sent to a limited audience. Now everyone online has the chance to share in my sometimes obtuse thoughts and opinions. :D

So hopefully I will be able to keep up with this again. It shouldn't be too tough given the simplicity of the whole process compared to before.

I don't anticipate these being as long as they were in the past, but I'll try.

Who knows, I may even dig up some old emails and share those.

So, onwards and upwards.

Derk