Darryl Henry's blog
The Weekend!
Some things I will ponder as we enjoy our first July weekend:
Where do the picketers take their garbage? Maybe they have their own dump. That nobody pickets.
My neighbour Mimi has a rose bush with enough blooms on it to outfit a float on next year's Tournament of Roses parade. I have a rose bush with one bud on it, that has taken approximately a week to show signs it may, may, just open. This hardly seems fair.
The last time gas went down 4 cents the Friday before a summer weekend was...never. I think, anyway.
I play hockey, and It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game. Well, until you go O-For An Entire Month. Then, really, you just want to win. To see if you still can. That's why you may have heard a bit of a big WOO HOO! at the Powerade Centre in Brampton Thursday night. O-for July too would have been tough to take!
Weekends, in summer especially, are too short.
On that note, have a good one!
Back From Vacation!
Some random thoughts after spending a week playing tourist with Tanya's sister and beau:
The CN Tower should adopt a new slogan: "The CN Tower. Not Just For When You've Got People Visiting From Out Of Town!" The CN Tower is cool, and the Skypod is still the highest observation level in the world that's not in Shanghai. Take that, Burj Dubai!
Everyone Loves Marineland. It's true. The jingle speaks the truth. It may be because it has the best line-up-to-really-cool-ride wait-time ratio in the world. You just walk on to these mind-blowing rides! Oh and Kayla got to pet a whale.
On Vacation!
Off on vacation for the next few days. We have Tanya's sister and her beau coming to town from Vancouver, and of course for The Beau, it has to be his very first time visiting T.O. I'm sure he'll come away with a very favourable impression of our little town! They have mountains. We have mountains! Only of garbage. Gulp. Oh well. We'll be going up the Tower, going to Marineland, and anywhere else it will be kind of hard to really see the piles.
Have a great weekend, and I'll talk to you again Thursday of next week!
Wednesday - Thursday
So, hopefully we can work this out sooner than later. Because mother knows best. Right mom?!
Tuesday-Wednesday
Oh oh. Apparently none of my raccoon ideas from the last blog do any good. Shawn, who works on our website, told me he has a nice family of about 5 or 6 living under his deck, and here's what he has learned:
1). Light doesn't bother them in the slightest. It does, however, bother your neighbours.
2). They actually like talk radio.
3) Ammonia shammonia. Shawn had a dish of it out by their "home" to keep them away. They just swatted it aside.
Poor Shawn has tried everything: put up lattice to prevent them from going under the deck (they tore it down); sprayed them with the hose (they stopped, waited for it to end, then carried on); threatened to kill them (they knew he was bluffing. Hefty fine.) So it looks like there's only one thing left to do: move. Or, go to Canadian Tire and buy a trap. Good luck Shawn. Let them loose near my house and I'm coming after you with the hose. Hooked up to a tank of ammonia.
Monday-Tuesday
Ah, Toronto. Home to the Happiest Raccoons On Earth! Because it's Garbage Strike Season! Imagine Mandarin, doors open 24/7, and it's all FREE! That's what Rocky Raccoon is thinking right now! YAY!
Ahem. So, here then, a refresher course in Keeping Raccoons Away 101:
1). RACCOONS ARE NOCTURNAL. Well, most of them, anyhow. Lord knows we've all seen the odd bold one cavorting around in broad daylight, but by and large they only come out at night. So try and store your garbage in a well lit place, somewhere you can keep a light on all night long. And the brighter the better.
The Weekend!
Oh oh. Just got a call. Tanya and Kayla. At Yorkdale. Off to do some Father's Day shopping. But. And it's a big But. They stumbled across the Disney Store. Going out of buisness or something. Big sale, anyway. 40% off. My wife and daughter. In the Disney Store. With 40% off everything. This bodes ill for Dad. Focus people. Remember why you're there. FOCUS!!
Have a great weekend...and Happy Father's Day! If I get a Goofy fridge magnet, I'll let you know. And of course, I'll still be happy!
Thursday-Friday
Exams. Ugh. Just writing the word made me shudder. I saw a girl on the streetcar last week poring over a math textbook. Graphs. Symbols. Numbers. I had a highschool flashback. Calculus. Mr. Johnston. AHH! Get out of my head. Anyway, exams are upon us, and if you have a kid dreading I mean studying for them, here's a tip I found from a memory expert who's name, believe it or not, escapes me at the moment. His advice: when you crack the books to prepare for a test, try every once in awhile to change location. Apparently this helps the brain to retain stuff. Break up that study session and, say, move to a different room. The memory expert whose name I forget says while no one is quite sure why, it really does pay off. I wish I had know this when I was writing exams. I would have moved. To another town. Until exams were over, anyway.
Wednesday-Thursday
I went with Tanya for her consult at Lasik MD yesterday, and it was one of those moments when I realized, holy cow, there is so much out there I know absolutely nothing about. So much. Know nothing. Nada. I mean, these people are going to use a laser to adjust the cornea of my wife's eye so she can see again. Where do I begin. Who thought of this? Who made the equipment? Who knows how to use it? I know who: Not Me! That's who! One of the doctors yesterday measured the thickness of her cornea. If I had to measure the thickness of this desk right now, I'd probably get it wrong. It was about 520 microns, in case you were wondering. Her cornea. Not the desk. I even had to ask how big a micron was. A thousandth of a millimeter. That's small. I think. On the wall was a poster of the eye. There were a hundred different words I had never seen before on that poster. Never seen them before. These people not only know the words, but they know what the things attached to those words are, and better yet, know what they do, and holy cow, me? Well, I've heard of cornea, and retina, sure...and, and...and it ends there. And don't ask me what they do. They help us see. There.
Tuesday-Wednesday
My wife has had it. She's had enough. It's over. The end is nigh. She is getting rid of that annoying nuisance that has irritated her to no end all these years. That's right. She's throwing out my 20 year-old Sperry Topsiders.
HA! No way Jose. Those babies aren't going anywhere. No, actually, she's decided to ditch the lenses. The contacts. And the glasses she never wears because, well, she feels the same way about herself in glasses as she does me in those Topsiders. Enough said. Anyhow, we heard plenty of good things about Lasik MD, so we're off to their Sheppard location near the DVP for a consult. I'm looking forward to her getting it done. Maybe then she'll see...those shoes aren't all that bad!
Lottery results for Sat, Jul 04
