Steve

So they've gone and done it; the Amalgamated Transit Union membership voted down the latest contract offer by the London Transit Commission... which included, among other concessions, a 10.3% wage hike over three years. It's going to be a long strike. They're talking about picketing City Hall, but if they do I think they'll be shocked at how little support they'll have... as for me, well, I work not too far from City Hall and upon hearing this I turned to fantasies about turning a fire hose on the lot and watching them freeze. Soak me, and I'll soak you back. Then again, given the miserable weather coming up I suspect I'll have my vengeance without having to lift a finger. (Freeze, you miserable bastards.)

-- Steve should look at alternatives; cabs were fine as a stopgap but they're just too expensive to serve as a long-term replacement for public transit.

Well, I paid for yesterday's indolance by putting on the house-mouse big-time today. A big grocery run, the monthly bills paid (including sacrifice to the Gods of Credit), two loads of laundry done, some long-delayed recycling put out, and now a pot of beef stew bubbling away on the stove, to which I'm going to have to add the diced vegetables in about fifteen minutes.

It's long-past due to make that stew, too, as given my plague-month my freezer reserves have dropped to basically nil. In truth, I should've made the stew yesterday and be making some other large meal today to portion out and freeze... but yesterday it was all I could do to order in some BBQ chicken. Oh well, I'll just have to make up that pork tenderloin in BBQ sauce tomorrow or Wednesday.

-- Steve'll now return to catching up on the LJ (and his Guiness) until the timer beeps again.

The sum total of my plans for this evening;

- Leave the office in 15 minutes.
- Catch my buss in 30 minutes.
- Ride to White Oaks.
- Stop in at the liquor store to pick up some more wine.
- Catch supper at the food court in the mall.
- Ride the bus home.
- Curl up in bed and re-read Komarr until I lose consciousness.

-- Steve's ambitions have pretty much run dry for anything else, dammit.

It's taken me this long to note how quiet things are here in the office... since we're effectively at half-staffing thanks to sick calls. Indeed, for tonight we're going to have more employees working from home than in the office because of this peste. (I can also note a fair amount of coughing in the distant background too.)

-- Steve finds little comfort in this, save that it means his griping may not be an overreaction.

I'm tired of this stupid cold or flu or whatever.

I'm tired of blowing my nose constantly.

I'm tired of having a head that feels overinflated.

I'm tired of my throat feeling swollen from irritation by the phlegm flow.

I'm tired of feeling miserable.

I'm tired of taking pills that barely mitigate said misery at the cost of loginess.

I'm tired of losing so many IQ points to this thing that planning supper is as hard as writing a dissertation.

I'm tired of feeling tired all the time.

I'm tired of waking up every couple of hours every night to blast various airways clear and void my bladder.

Look, I'm no cream-puff. I toughed this out for a week the old-fashioned way with rest and fluids before jumping on the medication bandwaggon. But variations on this theme for two of the past three weeks (and over a family holiday to boot) would have Heracles begging for mercy.

-- Steve's just venting while waiting for the [censored] antivirus check on his workstation to finish grinding through, is all.

Here I am, still in pyjamas trying to muster enough energy to put breakfast together. Given my 'druthers, I'd just cocoon myself.

However, the weather forcast for tomorrow is either wet snow or freezing rain... and I need to get groceries soon. And however chilly and bleak it is today, it's not a patch on what it'll be like tonight and tomorrow. So I guess I'll stuff something down my gullet, make myself at least marginally presentable to the world, break out the winter clothing (including the Russian fur hat, given my packed sinuses) and go get food. (And Brütal Legend as a reward/bait.)

-- Steve's now straining his willpower to make him get off his duff. Soon. Really.

Firstly, it was a kick to see Jane McG's comment on my "Paging..." post. I was astonished she'd spotted it so quickly; then again, there are a lot of ARGers on my Friends list so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. This really is a small world, after all.*

Secondly, I should note that my brother brought me two half-pound bags of roasted espresso beans from Milan of which I have guzzled one entire pot. Bliss.**

Thirdly, I have decided to be a very bad boy and to order in supper tonight as I can't be arsed to make anything. Since we had ham this year for Thanksgiving, I'm actually hankering for some Swiss Chalet unlike roughly 2/3rds of the population around here.

-- Steve's now going to steam out his sinus cavities, hopefully.

* Yeah, I earwormed myself with that when I thought of it and I thought I'd share the pain.

** I actually favour dark-roast coffees, and espresso beans make for surprisingly good coffee in my French press. Admittedly, if I'm not careful with my grinder the last cup can be a bit silty...

I'm staying in today, trying to out-last this silly resurgence (if that's what it is) of last week's cold. Head's packed, so I'm pouring in a lot of hot drinks to loosen things up... and I decided it was time to turn the heat on for the season, as it'd dipped below 10°C in the apartment even with the sunlight. Damn, I wish I felt alright enough to go out... if for no other reason, that Brütal Legend is out now and I'd like to pick up a copy if I have to stay in. Then again, head-banging is probably contra-indicated for sinus symptoms so maybe it's for the best.

Tomorrow, though. And I'll do a grocery run and get the fixings for a big spaghetti dinner that I can use to fume out my head (and freeze for lunches when I return to the office on Saturday.) Maybe I'll pick up some stuff to do sweet-and-sour pork for Friday night too; it's been ages since I had Chinese, and I have an unopened bottle of soy sauce in the cupboard that's been sitting there for weeks. (I wonder if I could do it with lemon juice and plum sauce? I have those both handy.)

For now, though, it's time to put some soup on and maybe a grilled cheese sandwich. Then after lunch I'll take another hot shower to loosen up the attic contents, gasp and splutter for a while, and then I'll settle down to finishing my Legendary medal in ODST.

-- Steve'll just have to make the best he can with what he's got... as usual.

I think I actually managed to sleep through the night last night, rousing to semi-consciousness a couple of times but only long enough to realise I either just had to roll over or recall that I didn't have to get up. I'm not rested yet, but being merely tired is a pleasant improvement. The throat's mostly okay, just a bit "icky" with drainage but thankfully that's waning. Fortunately I've got tomorrow off too so maybe I can shake the last of this before returning to the office.

Very disappointing breakfast; I tried for toaster waffles, but the PC brand is failing me again with thin, soggy pastries that don't toast terribly well. Also, through them I discovered that it's possible to put too much cinnamon flavour on something. Given this, I had to resort to a bowl of cereal just to feel like I'd had a breakfast, and here it is an hour-and-a-half later and I'm hungry again. *sigh* PC brand (the "upmarket" store brand for the Loblaws chain of groceries) seems to be going through a phase of changing suppliers and recipies, and frankly every change I've noted seems to suck. Very disappointing.

I just booked my train ticket for the Thanksgiving holiday, and it (along with the bonuses for online preordering and my eventual ticket pickup at the automated dispenser) put me over the top on my VIA Preference rewards points for a free return ticket over the Christmas holidays. That plan, at least, has come to fruition.

Alas, I see that my work schedule hasn't been updated for my upcoming family visit... so on Tuesday I'm going to have to check with the Boss to see what the hold-up is. I have the signed paperwork, the absence is already approved, but scheduling doesn't reflect it yet. I'm getting tired of scheduling fouling my shifts up so much.

Anyway, I see I'm getting a bit crotchety on here so I guess it's time to sign off and go do something, like get showered and dressed and possibly get those postponed groceries in before it rains again.

-- Steve feels so little ambition today, though, that it wouldn't surprise him in the least if he zonked out for a nap afterwards.

Grocery run called on account of rain and exhaustion. I think the mall run was too soon, as a bit over an hour in I was left panting, sweating, and trembling. (Not out of some sort of perverse bargain-o-philia, either, though I did get 55% off a London Fog trenchcoat.) The idea of me hauling $50+ of groceries uphill today daunts. So tonight's menu will be home-made burger and beefeater fries (with Schwartz's fry seasoning, yum) and raw carrots, with a glass of French merlot. It's what I got...

-- Steve is really pleased with that coat. Oh, and picking up Unbreakable and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy out of the 2 for $20 bin at HMV.

PS: HMV was running their own voice pitch for Halo 3: ODST over the sound system as I was leaving the store. Astonishing... more so if you've managed to forget they sell games now.

Okay, just writing down my plan for tomorrow's ODSTage to make certain my brain retains it...

8:00am Awake, shower, etc.
8:30am Bus to the Mall, arriving between 8:45-8:50
9:00am Store opening, pick up copy
addendum: if there's time, check HMV across the way for the soundtrack album
9:20am Catch the #13 Bus to work
9:45am Arrive at work bus stop, catch breakfast at Timmy's
...
Insert wage slavery here, while The Shiny sits under my desk
...
7:00pm Leave work
7:15pm Catch bus home from downtown
7:30pm Arrive home. Nuke something and eat
8:00pm Start ODST
11:00pm (No later than) Stop ODST and get some sleep

-- Steve's hoping he can stick to that.

... which means I'll feel less guilty about spending the bulk of it indoors. *chafes hands*

I guess I'm still a bit excited. I woke up at 7 on the dot this morning, despite a self-promise to get lots of sleep, remembering computer dreams... some pleasant, some not so pleasant including one rather spectacular one ending with vigorous application of a fire extinguisher. (Yes, I have one. It's a little kitchen-sized one my Dad got me a few Christmases ago... I still check the pressure guage every now and then.)

I'll spend a leisurely morning with breakfast (not bacon-and-eggs with an open computer cabinet on the dinner table... toaster waffles and an apple involve much less risk of contaminating current-bearing circuitry) and coffee, maybe catch the news on TV, do the usual ablutions, and then set up for the power-on test. Which involves taking the monitor off of this computer... and if the test goes well, it involves opening up the old case to implant its floppy drive and hard disc into the new one. So barring disappointment this'll be my last blog post from my old silverback Pentium 4. *sniff* Ave atque vale, loyal servant.

-- Steve will most likely donate the remaining components to a local charity that restores them for non-profits... does them good, and keeps all that solder and stuff out of the dump.

I've been on something of a cooking blitz lately... to the point that my freezer's almost at capacity right now with my left-overs.

• 3 servings of "Bacon Curry" (instant curry mix with bean sprouts and then bacon instead of chicken, as my chicken had skunked and I didn't have anything else to put in)
  
• Rigatoni in a blush sauce
  
• large serving of spaghetti
  
• prime rib with asparagus, carrots, and roast potatoes (done before I left for Montreal... that's on the menu for tomorrow's lunch to get it finished)
  
• 2 servings of rump roast in gravy with roast potatoes, broccoli, and carrots
  
• 3 servings of BBQ roast pork with half a baked potato, french beans, and kernel corn
  
• pork tenderloin with whipped potatoes and... I can't remember the veg, probably french beans

Add to that the beef stew I've got almost done now (there'll be 3-4 portions left from that) and the shrimp teriyaki I'm going to make tomorrow (3 portions to freeze from that) and that's *counting* 17 or 18 meals ready-to-go.

*Whew*

-- Steve'll have to ease off; not only is the freezer just about full, he's running out of containers for frozen food.

I've seen this answer in others' blogs, but what the heck. My first job was as a paperboy for the Globe & Mail, getting up at 5:30am to get everyone's paper out before 7.

My introduction to capitalism was fairly gentle, actually, given that I (and later my brother, with whom I shared a second route to our mutual benefit) lucked into the Doctors and Lawyers routes. The base pay was just pocket money, really, but every Christmas we'd cash in like robber barrons with the tips; it pays to give good service.

Alas, the Globe modernised when I was in junior high and I lost out to motorised delivery... but I've heard from my former customers as recently as five years ago and they remembered our service with a lot of fondness.

-- Steve's first "real" job was as a self-serve gas station attendant in high school. It payed more, but it was a lot more dull and unrewarding.

I think I've mentioned earlier that I do have a gaggle (or whatever they're called) of ravens in my neighbourhood. Apparently they sparked a dream I had last night.

I was walking back from getting off the bus, not my usual route but the one that runs behind my grocery store. I saw one of the ravens doing lazy orbits above the parking lot next to store's dumpster and, giving in to a whim, raised up my left arm in the falconry pose and whistled. I then noticed that, despite the season but given how damned cold it's been not entirely unreasonably, I was wearing my leather jacket.

The raven wheeled and dove, then flared up and perched on my outstretched arm. It looked at me, first with one eye and then the other, obviously confused. I brought my arm in close to face the bird directly in a smooth motion that felt oddly familiar and practiced. With my right hand I scratched the raven's head, and after the first motion the bird leaned up into the scratch much as a cat will. I then bent my neck down, almost as if to kiss the crown of the raven's head, but just before the bird reached my lips I whispered its name that I didn't know before and now cannot recall.

The raven was obviously startled and ruffled its feathers but didn't seek to fly away. Instead it cocked its head and looked, first at my left eye, then at my right, and croaked a puzzled croak.

I understood, and replied, "I know, old friend, but the wheel has not reached that limb of its turn. In time, yes, in time I will be as I was."

The raven answered in turn, a caw that bore warning of frost and fire and woe. He (for then I was certain he was male) looked again into my eyes with fondness and pity, and flew off.

And then the alarm clock sounded.

-- Steve thinks it's been a chilly summer, but not that chilly.

PS: and no, I didn't stay up late last night with mead and the knucklebones, either.

So, here we are, 40 years older than we were when one of our species first set foot on another world. It was an epochal event for me, even though I was far too young to even remember the landing; my mother tells me that we were on a vacation trip to Cape Cod at the time, huddled around a little black-and-white TV in the cabin, and apparently I started kicking up some sort of fuss and as a result my parents missed the instant of the landing.

It wasn't the moment of the landing that so affected me. It was its resonance.

I grew up in Brampton, Ontario, a tech and manufacturing centre during my childhood with a double-handful of Fortune 100 companies present; Dad worked at Northern Telecom and dealt with the Bell-Northern Research lab on occasion, Chrysler had two assembly plants there, Ford another, I believe Phillips had a plant there for a while if I recall correctly... and the seed of that came from the nearby Malton plant owned by McDonnell Douglas.

It wasn't McD's influence that affected me, not really, but rather the guys from whom they bought the plant; Avro Canada. Brampton was the beneficiary of this former aeronautical engineering giant, and had even inherited much of the company's oral and filmic legacy. Our local cable access channel often ran promotional reels and internal documentaries shot by Avro, showing the CF-100 "Canuck" interceptors under construction, the Jetliner, the weird-but-paid-for-by-USAF Aircar... but most often, films of the legendary CF-105 "Arrow" interceptor. I'd watch those films on rainy or blustery days, imprinting on those 1950s images on what the future meant to Canada and my neighbourhood. (Indeed, I later found out that the host of our Saturday Night at the Movies show on public television, Elwy Yost (father of writer/director Graham Yost, of Speed among others), had worked at the Avro plant.)

Alas, the Avro story did not end well. Amid great publicity and with much outcry the government cancelled the Arrow in February of 1959. Having concentrated entirely on construction of this one ultra-high-tech aircraft, which suddenly lost its sponsorship and could find no other market given how optimised it was for Canadian requirements, and forced to destroy the plans and jigs to maintain the secrecy of some of its design components the company failed soon afterward.

How does this relate to Apollo? Well, the very next morning after the announced cancellation of the Arrow, NASA had a recruiter at the plant. Some 25 engineers alone migrated south from Avro to work on the US manned space program, some of whom eventually worked on the design and build team for the Lunar Module and others worked in Mission Control.

So, however indirectly, there's a piece of my youth up there. There's likely more to it than that, but that's what comes to mind.

-- Steve thinks that those old Avro newsreels are probably key to his eventual obsession with science and space. (Pity they didn't impart any actual talent in said obsessions.)

PS: I suppose that's also the reason attacks on Apollo and the manned space program in general hit my hot-buttons; I've seen the long-term effects of killing dreams first-hand. Also, having some bloated TARP-recipient ($800bn in one lump, 2008 dollars) complain that Apollo (<$200bn over 10 years, 2008 dollars) was a waste of taxpayer money strikes me as hypocritical in the extreme.

Well, my birthday day was nice enough, capped off with an early supper (t-bone, rubbed with Montreal steak spice two hours before then fried in a pan just used to saute some onions, with steamed asparagus and carrots plus popcorn shrimp) on my balcony and then an early bed time as I was really tired from yesterday's sleep debacle.

That's when it all went wrong.

About a half-hour after I nodded off I had an allergy flare-up which woke me rather abruptly. I was out of my old allergy medication, so I opened up a new box of a different generic I bought to give a try... and though it opened up my airways nicely it left me jittery, dammit. And then the neighbours started having noisy sex...

-- Steve didn't sleep very deeply last night, and is rather dreading what he's in for at the office as a result.

Back in the office after a brief visit with family, now. I did do some catching-up yesterday (and was alarmed to see 24 top-priority messages in my inbox, though all were about an issue already resolved so no panic required) so today's fairly routine.

Apparently Dad got me a set-top digital-to-analog signal converter on my folks' last trip to the States, and gifted it to me as an early Birthday present. It looks nifty, but there seems to be an issue with my indoor antenna now that it's hooked to the DTV box and can only pick up one station at the moment. (And my analog reception's gone south, too, even when I take the box off.) I may have to get a replacement for the old antenna; it's over a decade old now, come to think of it, and the adjustment dials don't mesh too well anymore. Still, DTV is very pretty, near-DVD quality is nice to see from an over-the-air signal.

Tomorrow is Bungie Day, 7/7. This year won't be as elaborate but there are still fun things to do to mark the occasion. Alas, I seem to have mangled my left thumb's ball joint again while schlepping luggage so teh Haloz are contra-indicated until the inflammation goes down. Yay.

More later, but break's over.

-- Steve's delving into the telephone mines again.

I just ordered a whole whack of reservations for train travel over the summer... and got some rather good prices too for ordering in advance.

The big prize is my trip to Montreal this August; I got the "supersaver" discount for advanced purchase plus the delightful 10% convention discount, and I may even have gotten the 10% discount for paying with my Visa card... so my return fare for Business class seating (meals and taxes inclusive) was $243.81. (Hee, I just noticed that I even got window seats each way.)

If it'll get you to where you need to go, rail just works.

-- Steve's wondering if these'll accrue points to his just-requested Via Preferance account, or if he should've signed up for the points program first. Oh well, it had to be done anyway.

Just looked in the mirror and noted that I forgot to shave this morning, thanks to the insanely-fast onset of summer here^*. While examining the stubble I heard, in my head, Bruce Campbell's voice ordering, "dos mojitos, por favor."

-- Steve thinks that there are worse afflictions to suffer.

^*Over the past week temperatures have risen by ten-twelve degrees Celsius. For those still shackled to the primitive Fahrenheit marks, think of the daily high temperature going from mid-60s to high-80s over a five day period. Oh, yeah, and the relative humidity shot up to a fer-gosh-honest 99%. It certainly feels Miami-ish in comparison to the cool and drizzly spring just a week ago. In any case, the sudden temperature change makes it tough to sleep... especially since I haven't cleaned and checked the air conditioner yet. Argh.