Christmas is Coming

So here we're on the eve of the holidays starting with it being the 17th and I have just dropped off my son Harrison with my buddy Lou so that my young man can spend time with his Mom this holiday season up in Montreal. Lou and his family are heading up to Montreal for Christmas. I'm spending the week here for the first time in 10 years to spend it with Jackie and her family. This will be the first one that I spend with Jackie and her family and I think we are about to embark on a new tradition. I smiled as I typed this!

The reason for the blog though is that this will be one of the first ever Christmases that Harrison won't be nearby for Christmas Day. It is definitely the first time since I lost my Mom back in July 2002 so it will be weird. Ever since that day, Christmas has been spent with my sister Chantal and the rest of the family up in Laval. It won't be like that this year. That saddens me! Cue the tears. LOL. Seriously I am misty-eyed.

Anyways back to dropping Harrison off. Just before leaving him I gave him a hug and told him I love him and that started getting me misty-eyed. I don't do that often enough. Hug and tell him I love him. Is it some misplaced male machismo that does not allow me to do that? Is it my hoping that my actions on a day to day basis absolve me from vocalising these thoughts? I don't know.

All I do know right now is that I will miss Harrison over the next 10 days or so. I will have fun with Jackie and her children but at the same time a very important piece of me will be missing.

Off Days

Do you ever notice that we have off days every once in a while? By this I mean that sometimes things just don't seem to work right. It is almost like the left foot doesn't know what the right foot is doing. A case in point is that I just woke up from a nap 10-15 minutes ago. I caught a cold at the start of the weekend and my energy level is non-existent. I was watching the Biography channel and fell asleep on my couch for a couple of hours. I woke up in a dire need of kleenex for my the one side of my nose that seems to be working properly and I gingerly extracted myself from the couch and nearly wiped out. It was like I took two steps with my left foot as opposed to the more normal left right combination that would have been more effective. LOL. I think I need a really hot shower to get me ungroggy.

What has become of civility?

So before I go off on my latest rant about something that I see as wrong about today's world I should perhaps preface this by saying that I'm not perfect. I know that is a bit surprising but I have come to grips with it as I rapidly middle age-dom. LOL. Is that a word? Sounds like one. Agedom! LOL.Doesn't look right though.

If people could sometimes read my thoughts; they would think that I am not too civil. I need to work on that I think.

Anyways the reason for the title of this blog is about an event I found about last night at "trivia night" at the Zone in Mauldin.

Here's the event. Jackie and I and my good friend Lou (most times) have been frequenting the Zone on Wednesdays for the last 3-4 months for their trivia night. They offer bar tabs for the top three places and the beer is cheap and the food isn't too bad. DJ Quiz (Chris) runs the trivia "show" and he tries pretty hard to make interesting for all of us. He takes over the music playing which is slanted to 80s stuff which I happen to like and he even takes requests. Where else can you get to hear within minutes of each other Garth Brooks, Buckcherry, Rick Springfield and Matt May? Pretty cool and eclectic.

Sadly last night one of the people that has attracted many of us to the Zone was fired. This lady was and is bubbly, smiley, pretty, fun to be around and a great barmaid/waitress. She would see us walk in and before we even had a chance to take our seats we would have our pitcher of Yuengling with 2 cold glasses and Lou's vodka cranberry at our booth. All of us felt good about this little gesture. It made us feel special and important that someone who serves hundreds of people a week knew exactly what we wanted. She just wasn't only a barmaid or waitress. She was our friend Casey!

So Jackie and I walked in last night at 7pm and Casey was there but not serving people. She was dressed just like the clientele. Casual like. Whenever we walk into the Zone, Jackie gives DJ Quiz the obligatory hug and I do the handshake thing. Jackie more often does the hug thing with Casey and I do my usual "hey". LOL.

At this moment we found out that Casey was fired because supposedly there were some shortages. I've seen Casey on her own and by herself handle a full bar of people ordering drinks and food own. Running from table to table, from stool to stool and giving us absolutely wonderful service. I really don't think that she was "stealing" from the Zone.

Regardless of this so called reason; she was fired by text message last night after showing up to work. Yes that's right text message. Uneffing real. Some gutless worthless uncouth a-hole fired a great person via a text message. Where is the civility in this action? How does such a person look at himself in a mirror? What an effing something or another. I really want to go to 4 letter word territory to describe this spineless amoeba but am refraining from doing so.

Most of last night I was frustrated beyond words. I've never heard of this happening. I'm sure that it does but I never thought this would happen in my little world. I'm sad. I'm discouraged. I'm disappointed. I am trying to think of what I can do to "protest" this. I am pretty much a black and white guy. I can almost see what my next step will be. A man, a woman, a human being must have some tenets, some beliefs, some line in the sand that one just can't cross without a repercussion. We shall see. I will miss the professionalism of Casey. I know that I won't be getting the same service from the supposed eye candy that are now working there.

JACK-fm

So lately I've been listening to different JACK-fm format stations out of the Great White North and the really cool thing is the amount of CanCon on these stations. CanCon being Canadian Content. The JACK stations I've been listening to have been out of Vancouver, Smith Falls and lately the Regina station.

If I had to rank them it would go Regina, Vancouver then Smith Falls. Smith Falls loses out because of the schmaltz factor. Too many drippy songs.

I love the JACK format as they go from decade to decade and from genre to genre with a very healthy dose of CanCon and I will espouse at greater length at a later time on my love of CanCon.

So far tonight I heard the following songs after watching SC take care of Clemson. Go Cocks!

...Bitch...Meredith Brooks
...Light My Fire...The Doors...
...Black Velvet...Allanah Myles (CC)...
...You Spin Me Round...Dead or Alive...
...Make Up Your Mind...Theory of a Deadman (CC)...
...Centerfield...John Fogerty...
...Teenland...Northern Pikes (CC)...
...Only The Good Die Young...Billy Joel...
...Don't It Make Ya Feel...Headpins (CC)...
...You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth...Meat Loaf...
...Where The Streets Have No Name...U2...
...Undun...Guess Who (CC)...
...Mr. Jones...Counting Crows...
...We Run...Strange Advance (CC)...
...Sweet Home Alabama...Lynyrd Skynyrd...
...Wild Horses...Gino Vannelli (CC)...
..."Dirty Laundry...Don Henley...

A pretty eclectic bumch of songs but lots of sing-alongs in my world!!!

There She Goes Again...

So the helicopter-riding, wolf-hunting, fence building Mama of all mama grizzlies decided to once again express her "thoughts". LOL. This time it was on another like-minded limited thinking talk show host's program earlier today. It wasn't on Calamity's show this time; it was on Ingranite's show. It seems that Mama of the mama grizzlies has an issue with our 1st lady's ideas on childhood obesity. She thinks that it is wrong that our 1st lady backs programs that are trying to tackle the child obesity problem. You know I'm thinking that this may all be solved if we build 14ft high fences across our southern and northern borders including blocking all radio and tv signals then we can stare at our navels and problem solve with that plumbing guy. You betcha!

Geez Louise Original Thinking Not Required

So the issue troubling the nation at this time per the GOP is the funding of National Public Radio (NPR) and the funding of Planned Parenthood. This seems to be the case for the rising star of the GOP Mike Pence. You would think that having an unemployment rate of 9.9% as of October 2010 in the state of Indiana which he happens to supposedly represent would be a little more important.

According to the Planned Parenthood website this organization has been around more than 90 years and part of their mission is to help inform us about things like "vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide."

So this is money wasted supporting this kind of organization. After all the dreaded abortion word shows up on the Planned Parenthood website. I haven't checked but maybe the dreaded homosexual word shows up there as well. LOL. What a joke!

Does the thinking of a typical GOP member ever evolve or take into account that we are now in the 21st century and that maybe the viewpoint of a 40+ white male hasn't exactly brought us exactly to that ideal place?

I think not! Then again I am one of those dang liberals.

Oh Boy That Was An Adventure

This will be short and sweet. It was quite an adventure driving home tonight along 85 what with the holiday seeming to start plus the misty rain on the roadway. All I kept seeing were blue lights along the way. It'd be nice if people took it a little easy on days or nights like this. What's the rush anyways? Pretty much a 5 dayer here now for most of us. Alas woe is me as I am working the next three days. Well kind of! LOL.

DADT....

I just got home from a pretty poor performance at trivia and decided to get online. I have a tendency to check out 4 websites in no particular order. These being MLB.com, Wikipedia.com, SlamSports.com and HuffingtonPost.com. I usually get quite worked up about an article or two on Huffington Post which typically slants to the left which is primarly where my thinking rests. Anyways time to get back on track. One of their banner articles was about DADT. Don't ask don't tell. Why the eff does this make an effing difference in 2010. Does one's sexual orientation really matter in the forces? Does it matter on the battlefield?

This is my take on it coming from a single parent perspective. I am incredibly proud of what my son has become in his 19+ years on the planet. In the past I have told him especially since moving to the land of the free and the home of the brave that I admire the sacrifice and wherewithal of ALL the young people that enlist in our Forces. I'm glad that he hasn't decided to join the forces because we are involved in some actions that we probably shouldn't be involved in at this time. My opinion only. Regardless of my selfish thought process I am incredible grateful, thankful and proud of those that choose to enlist to promote our ideals. Those being males and females. Whites, blacks or hispanics. Democrats, Republicans or Independents. Catholics, Protestants, Muslims or Atheists. Straights or gays. Does it make a difference. Look at the "labels" I just gave people. Does it matter whether or not you like the opposite sex. No it doesn't. Why should it? Why is this important? Any reason why it is? Convince me otherwise please! I don't think anyone can.

Kirkland Signature Amber Ale

A little while ago I impulsively bought for the first-time ever a case of Kirkland Signature beer. Ever since that impulse buy I find myself buying this beer brand rather often. There are four different distinct flavours in the case. There is the German-style lager, the Amber Ale, the Pale Ale and the Hefeweizen. These beers are manufactured in my market by the New York Brewing Co. in Utica, NY. Tonight after picking up the prodigal son after his night class I celebrated Carey Price's latest goaltending gem by having a couple Amber ales. A mighty fine beer from my semi unrefined palate in my humble opinion.

O'Byrne is traded...

Darn it they did it again. Why do my Habs always seem to trade some of these young guys that may become really solid players elsewhere. O'Byrne in his short stay with the Habs never was really given the chance to play his game without the fear of being either in the coach's doghouse or glued to the end of the bench after making a mistake or expanding his game day wardrobe to include lots of new suits to wear in the press box. I kind of liked the fact that this guy was a redwood and not afraid to muck it up at times. Why didn't we give him a decent chance? It seems that we like going after other teams' defencemen and often those that are a bit long in the tooth. Good luck Ryan! We hardly knew ye....