Long Weekend Audio: You've Got Questions? We've Got Babble.

This will be the last audio of the night. It would have been up sooner but...well...I got distracted.

We started off talking about the whole underline/underscore thing. Ro had said that Voiceover says "underline" still, and then Steve said that JAWS says underline too. More and more weirdness.

We decided that would be the last audio of the night. Poor Steve had been awake since 4:30 because he knew that I had to wake up early, so his body woke him up a couple hours before. Apparently, it likes to do that. I don't know about that sort of thing...as I've slept so heavy that my snore sounded like a broken fridge motor. The thunderworks were in full effect, so Trix was busily shaking away. So we decided to start answering questions people have been sending us. We explained again that we probably aren't going to do all the mailbag stuff in one go...because it just wouldn't work.

We started with Amanda's question about whether Steve has had any tape/nipple accidents lately. He said no, but he's sure it might happen again. He talked about how he must suffer for his art...which led to the question of whether nude portraits of Stephen Harper, ordinary-looking wooden benches, or toilets should be considered art.

Since we thought we'd rambled long enough about that, we decided to answer James's question about whether we miss Echo or Blogger yet...which is kind of funny since this post is getting posted to Blogger too. James, you wanted rage? You got it. Here it is in written form. We got to talk about how much more Wordpress allows us to do compared to Blogger, and how Wordpress search kicks Google Blogsearch's ass from here to China. As soon as we can find a daily email-sending thinggy, it'll be curtains for the Blogger version.

Other things mentioned in this section included that disturbing comment by someone named Hardon Ricky, and Weird Al's The Good Old Days. So yeah, James, I think you got your answer...loud and clear.

Finally, Ro asked us the condition of the talking beer koozy. In this earlier cast, it was going downhill. Well...the news isn't good. You can hear just how much poor old Joe has to say.

I don't know why, but every cast appears to have a Tugboat reference in it. Hope you don't hate us for that.

For this 42 minutes of goodness, grab it from here. Hopefully we can squeeze out some more audio tomorrow, and at least try and answer more questions.

Long Weekend Audio: I Like Traffic Lights...

Thank Monty Python for the title.

Well! Aren't we the audio crankin' machines? We decided this one would have a different twist on it. We decided to take you, the loyal vomiteers, on a walk with us. We'd never done this before...and it kinda showed in the audio quality. Most of it is pretty listenable, but there are some parts where...ow ow ow ow ow! Stream+need to raise voice over traffic=clip clip clip clip! So...do not listen on headphones, I don't think so. We'll do better next time...namely, place Stream on left shoulder. By the way, Shane? How did you carry your stream on your routecasts? I need pointers. I tested it before leaving and it sounded fine. I forgot the part where I need to raise my voice to be heard over the traffic din.

We decided to demo an audible pedestrian signal, or the blind guy chirp chirp lights as lots of people know them. We thought we'd clear up some confusion, as well as show the differences between two types of chirp chirp lights. We also thought we'd drop into Tim Hortons just because it's nearby, and pick up a couple things at the store on the way home. We turned the recording off when we were in the store just because really? do you want to hear "I'll have a smoothie. Yes debit. chinga linga loo, thank you!"? That's boring.

We split this bad boy into two smaller parts. There's part 1, the trip to Timmie's, description of the lights and how blind people cross streets, talk about the new Tim Hortons bigger drink sizes, and other babble. You don't hear it, but Trix got called a cute dog by some random passer by. As we arrive at Tim Hortons, Steve asks again what constitutes a yogourtless smoothie? It has been written, but we felt like talking about it. That bit is about 23 minutes long.

In part 2, which lasts about 25 minutes, on our way home, we talked about how poor Steve got hit with a giant allergy attack, how we didn't get to ask what a yogourtless smoothie would look like, and how Steve thinks ice caps are disgusting. I happen to like them, but he thinks they're ick. This made us decide we would do our questions not as one cast, but as the mood struck us to talk...and it was time to talk about the differents between Canadian and American iced tea. And, since we were answering that question, we went in to the whole milk in a bag thing.

Because you can find everything on the internet, here's a history lesson on the milk bag, and a video explaining how to drink milk from a bag. The video isn't too blindy friendly, but it basically echos the description that we gave in the cast. I just thought it was funny that someone made a video about this.

I have also learned something. This milk in a bag thing only starts in Ontario and moves east. Westerners get mad if you accuse them of drinking milk in a bag. In describing the different sizes of milk cartons, I start singing Good Luck to the Barleymow. Now you can enjoy a much better version.

As we walk down the street yammering about milk bags, I have a question for folks who live in the UK that came up. I was talking to Torie on Twitter, and somehow crossing streets came up, and she said that over there, they have to wait for an all quiet, cross at a zebra crossing, hit a beep beep light, or wait for assistance. The idea of walking with the parallel traffic is not safe. Is this true across all of Ireland? Can other blind folks explain this? Frankly, the idea of not being able to go with the surge is about as weird to me as Americans find buying milk in a bag.

And we arrived home with our stuff, Trix drank furiously, and we signed off.

So, I hope you can enjoy this clippy cast. I apologize again for that. Hopefully we can learn and do better.

Long Weekend Audio: The First Of Many Casts

Well...our first audio is up. We had hoped to have it up last night, but we kind of fell over after we finished recording it. The file got uploaded to the server, but hell if I was going to write the post around it. So I'm writing it this morning.

Poor Steve had to start it alone, because Trix had to take care of business. But I figured I'd make my presence known. If you wondered why Steve suddenly made some yelling noise in the middle of his sentence, no, he hasn't lost his mind. I was down below, making the Tugboat noise at him. I hoped the mic would pick it up, but it didn't. The Tugboat noise? Yes, the Tugboat noise. It's about 6 minutes in, but there it is. Probably if I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't believe it either.
If you don't feel like waiting 6 minutes for 16 seconds of Tugboaty goodness, you can download his promo right here. Eeeeeee!

After I distract him with randomly-placed Tugboat noises, Steve manages to get his groove back, and talks about our new website, and how it's awesome to have audio capabilities back. He then moves on to baseball, and how certain Blue Jays are doing really well while others were awesome, but need some help.

When I got back, we talked about wrestling, and I finally sort of mention Tugboat, but we really couldn't do him justice. That moved us on to how much wrestling has changed over the years, and how hard it is to be a new fan today.

Next up, I gave a brief update on me, and how Trix gave me a little bit of a scare. This led us to talking about how awesome it is to move over from Blogger to a place where we actually have some server space, and the awesome that is Skynet Communications. We also got to rag on Blogger importer for screwing up who wrote what, and being just a wee bit bizarre.

Somehow we got from here to talking about the new Guelph Central Station, AKA the land of confusion where our city buses live now. We talked about how eventually we hope it will be easier to navigate, but right now, it's a total zoo, and we're all confused, which is really fun when transfer times are next to 0. We also talked about how it's kind of dumb to have a heap of bus platforms and no real shelter, since the inside of the building won't be functional until 2013. Also, we mentioned that that light at St. George's Square is no longer an all-way stop, so don't die, everybody.

As we talked about the crappy decision that was changing routes in January, we some how wandered into describing our creepy landlord from the old apartment building.

Next up, Steve gave his opinions on foreign music. What more can I say about that little piece. Oh, I can link to the video I mentioned as part of the conversation.



While Steve went to get a beer, I talked about how awesome Shane's podcasts are, and how they brought back memories of training.

Things begin winding down with another plug for Skynet Communications. Somehow that led into a talk about how the "underline" key is now called "underscore" and wondering how that happened.

We wrap things up by reminding people that they can send us questions and we will answer them in an audio mailbag, but we need more questions, so keep sending them in.

And that does it for our first 53 minutes of chaos. If you feel so inclined, go get it. Enjoy, and there will be more to come, I'm sure.

Live To Rise

Even though just about everybody around me was, I wasn't a grunge fan growing up. Bands like Nirvana never did much for me. I don't know if I was too happy or what, but I just couldn't get into it. I can listen to it now, but back in the day, no thanks.

But for whatever reason, I always liked Soundgarden. There was something different about their sound that drew me in and kept me listening.

A big part of that is Chris Cornell. for my money that guy has one of the best voices in music. Not just rock or grunge or whatever we're calling it today, but all music. Have this version of Ave Maria if you don't believe he can sing for real.



Or just because I love the song, Sunshower.



the other thing I liked about Soundgarden is that the music was a lot more creative than some other bands of the time. They didn't just use the same few chords and rhythms and write depressing things around them. There was more to sink your teeth into and enjoy.

All of this just to say that I'm happy that they're back and that unlike the horrid Tattoo garbage that Van Halen shat out all over us, their new song doesn't suck. In fact I've had the chorus in my head for the better part of this week.



Live to Rise.



The info is probably out there and I just haven't found it yet, but I'm hoping this song isn't just a one off. It would be nice if there was enough new stuff in the works for an album.

I Went To A Ball Game And Did Some Other Stuff

Before I say another word, I seriously just watched John Cena beat Brock Lesnar at Extreme Rules. No really, that happened. Don't ask me *why* it happened, but it happened. I guess I have to allow for the idea that this might be going somewhere and is part of a larger story, but this is 2012 WWE, so I might as well get my Jesus motherfuck on a slice of toast that was dumb out of the way now so there's no need for it later when they screw this up even more and I'm really pissed off.

So...how's everybody doin'? Other than that, I'm pretty ok.

The new site is coming along nicely. All the posts are now written by the right person, which is one huge job out of the way. the next part of Operation New Comet is to upload all the audio and video downloads to the new server so you can actually download them. Yes, that means all the VC Casts, the singing screenreaders and everything else will work again, and probably a lot faster than before.

I took a break from all the site business and had myself a fun weekend. I spent a good bit of it with our old friend Greg, who some of you would remember a lot better had Echo not hosed us so bad on that comment deal. Side note: Check out where that link goes. Remember, we're not finished yet. If it looks a bit like crap, cut us some slack. I'm just getting myself used to linking to the right site.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, weekend with Greg.

We spent Saturday afternoon down at the Dome (it'll never be the friggin Rogers Centre to me) watching the Jays take on the Mariners. These are always fun, especially because Greg is as much a Mariners fan as I am a Jays fan. Old brain injury, I think.

I was a bit worried about the trip because of Friday's debacle, but the Jays came through big time, sparing me an evening of listening to more laughter from a fan of a team much more terrible than my own.

It was a memorable game for a couple of reasons. It was my first ever live shutout (Jays 7, Mariners 0), plus I got to see my first ever major league grand slam!



Thanks, Edwin! I know you and I haven't always been on the best of terms, but that's all because your managers have had this weird thing about making you field. Your hitting I've never doubted. In fact I'm one of those people who wanted you to be a DH forever ago. It's that sketchy aiming and throwing stuff that gets me all riled up and angry about you. Now that you're where you belong and can focus on what you're really good at, you and I are just fine. I'll go so far as to say that this year, I look forward to your at bats even more than Lawrie's and Bautista's. You're the man, artist formerly known as E5!

There was also, like there is at most games, that guy from the visiting team who gets mercilessly heckled. In my section, it was Chone Figgins. It was pretty standard stuff for the most part, just people slowly yelling his name at him. Expecting much more from the people in our area would have been asking too much. I'm not sure how a few of them walked and breathed at the same time long enough to find seats, to be honest. But the best was when a little girl (at least we think it was a girl) who couldn't have been any more than about 4 looked over at the person next to her and asked "what's that guy's name?" She got her answer and the next thing you know, that cute little voice takes a deep breath and let's out the loudest "FIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSS!!!!!!" YOU'VE EVER HEARD, OVER AND OVER AGAIN. She was much more amusing than that stupid woman behind and to one side of me who kept calling him Shawn Desman, chanting "we love BJs" and laughing at herself all afternoon. I hope something mildly unpleasant happened to her later, something like being forced to struggle with the plot of a Dick and Jane book.

and because I usually can't let an outing like this go bye without commenting, wholly crapshite the price of beer at these places! I go in knowing it's not going to be pretty, but $9.75 for a woman to reach into a cooler, pull out a tall boy, open it and hand it to me? Yes, I said one tall boy! Not two! One! They were $9.75...each! Legalized robbery is what that is. It was extra off pissing because we'd both just finished buying 12 of the fucking things at the LCBO for $30 before we left for the game. If the aim is to get people not to drink so much, forget it. the problem ones usually have more money than they know what to do with or are smart enough to drink beforehand, smuggle the shit in or both. You're just screwing guys like me who want to have one or two while we enjoy the afternoon.

Speaking of drinks, I finally tried one of those Tim Hortons smoothies. They're ok. I'd probably get one again. but I have to ask. Why is adding yogurt extra? Yogurt, at least on planet earth where I come from, is kind of what smoothies are made of. Yogurt, fruit and juice. You cant' have a smoothie without yogurt, it's just not possible. At all. Ever. Cannot be done. What is Tim Hortons putting in these things to make people think that going yogurtless is an option, and how can they still call whatever it is a smoothie without running afoul of some sort of regulation?

Oh, and speaking of running afoul of regulations, I learned something useless yet amazing from Greg when we were back home enjoying our reasonably priced beer.

Poker Face, the song that everybody but Lady Gaga can make sound good, is not as it seems.



Pick a chorus and listen to it. When she's doing the thing about pa pa pa poker faces, tell me you don't hear "fuh fuh fuh fuck her face" at least once. I never noticed this before due to my tendency not to pay attention to crap, but poor Greg spends a lot of time with a Gaga loving child so isn't so fortunate. I went in with an open mind just like I do when one of those Islam is the light type things comes along, but unlike most of those I heard "fuck her face" without a doubt. It's not just our imagination either. Carin heard it, and a little Googling turned up this guy. How is everybody so clueless to this, or are they just choosing to ignore it and see what they can get away with?

That's about all for now. I'm hungry and it's supper time. I may even have a beer afterwards. And no Rogers, I won't be paying $9.75 for it, you arsecaps!

A New O Canada. Why?

Messing around with a national anthem is one of those things in music that's better left alone by most. for better or worse it sounds how it sounds, and that's just the way it is. Spicing things up tends not to end well, and I'm sorry to say that seems to be what happened to Daylight For Deadeyes here.

I appreciate where they're coming from even if I don't agree. I don't remember ever being bored by O Canada, but if you were, fine. And we live in a free country, so go ahead and take a crack at making it a bit better. But that free country thing, it kind of cuts both ways. So I hope you understand that even after a few listens, I still prefer Oh Canada as it was.

Your version isn't completely horrible. I've watched far too many sporting events for it to be the worst thing I've ever heard. I'll even grant you that what you've done "embodies the band's rock feel but still stays true to the original" as the article says, I guess. But I can't shake the feeling that this rendition would be the perfect one if the aim wasn't so much to honour our nation as to sell cars or cheap beer. Come on, tell me you can't see Molson slapping hockey highlights and pictures of lakes and mountains over top of this thing. It just sounds so...so...gimmicky.

Maybe it's just me, so I'll put it to the rest of you. Should O Canada really sound like this from now on?

A Musical Reminder To Carin As She Gets Ready To Take Trixie For Her Physical

This will only make complete sense to two people, and we both live here. The rest of you can feel free to enjoy the music, though.

Happy Birthday To Canada's Polka King

Since I posted last, I've been trying to think of a reason to embed a YouTube video to make sure that Blogger and the steaming inaccessible pile it calls a streamlined interface didn't break that along with everything else to which it has laid waste. Thankfully I didn't have to think too hard, since this new system is well on its way to breaking my brain.

Today is Walter Ostanek's birthday! Canada's Polka King has turned 77, so what better way to celebrate than with his own happy birthday song?



Let's see if this works and if I've fixed my line spacing problem.

Happy birthday, your majesty!

Goodbye, Dick Clark

I guess Dick Clark really does age after all.

According to all sorts of reports, he suffered a massive heart attack this morning and died at the age of 82.

Dick Clark was another one of those broadcasters that you don't see much of anymore. The type who could host pretty well anything and seem to fit right in and feel right at home.

My first childhood memories of him are the guy who cohosted Bloopers and Practical Jokes with Ed McMahon and The $100000 Pyramid. It wasn't until a bit later that I learned about things like American Bandstand and all of his other contributions to music. I never got attached to the New Year's Rockin' Eve the way a lot of people did because we didn't have cable until I was well into my teens and we couldn't always pull in ABC to watch it, but I did tune in for the countdown and ball drop a few times and was sad to see him have to give up that gig after his stroke in 2004.

I wonder if our copy of Dick Clark's Rock 'N' Roll Christmas still lives at my mom's house. If it does, I'm going to make sure we listen to it when we have our party this year. That was the first place I ever heard King Curtis' version of The Christmas Song, which for my money is the best one around.

Exposing me to King Curtis and making me want to learn more about him is the kind of thing Dick Clark spent his life doing, and the kind of thing musicians and fans everywhere owe him a debt of gratitude for. He's one of the last of a dying breed and he'll certainly be missed. there'll never be another like him, without a doubt.

Here he is being interviewed about his career a few years ago. Video runs 25:42.

Guitar Pee

A lot of the world's most famous and best loved music was made by drunk people, but I'm not sure the creations that will result from Guitar Pee will quite stack up to the timeless music of generations.

Guitar Pee is exactly what you think it sounds like. It's an interactive urinal that allows you to aim your stream at pretend guitar strings and make music...or at least something that could be technically defined as such. And to add to the fun, your masterworks will be automatically uploaded to the Guitar Pee website for all to hear. I'd say to enjoy, but let's not get carried away here.

So far there's no word on a girl version, but girls don't seem to enjoy pissing on stuff as much as we do so maybe there wouldn't be a market for it.

Levon Helm's Last Waltz

Well, so much for posting that Levon Helm video to break up the sadness yesterday. Talk about timing. Around the same time I was putting that up, this was happening.

"Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer," says the note. "Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey. Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration...he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage."

He sure did.

It's tragic whenever cancer takes somebody, but especially so when it seems the person has recovered and gotten on with life the way Levon did. It took a while, but he got his voice back and kept on going, sounding as good as ever. Here he is just a couple of years ago, crushing it like he always did. This became one of my favourite songs for a while, constantly getting stuck in my head.



It would take ages to write about all of Levon Helm's contributions to music and folks more qualified than I are already on it, so I'll just join the chorus of those saying thank you. Cancer can take a person, but it can't take the music.

A Post To Break Up The Sadness And Kinda Sorta Wish A Friend Good Luck

I disappeared for a few days and then came back with two posts full of sadness. Sadness is part of life, but we can't be sad all the time. So to lighten the mood, here's a video of Levon Helm being awesome.



I would also like to take a moment to wish Ro and her beloved Tampa Bay Rays good luck in their series with my Blue Jays. They're going to need it. Don't forget what happened to the Red Sox when they had the nerve to beat us once, or the Orioles when they dared do it twice.

Little Boxes

This is pretty neat.

Walk Off the Earth, the band who did the Somebody That I Used To Know cover where they all played the same guitar, has done a version of Little Boxes played on instruments made out of, wait for it, little boxes. It's a neat gimmick, and not a bad cover either.

The Real Mitt Romney

Wow. This Hugh Atkin fellow sure put a lot of work in on this one. Nicely done.

This One Man Band Is Better Than Some Multi-person Bands

Really, what the hell can I say about this other than seriously, this is all one guy? Colour me amazed. I have no idea what this song is about because it's sung in I think Croatian, but this dude is awesome.

I'm Baaack...I Think

So yeah...I haven't posted for nearly two weeks. Definite fail...although failing at blogging seems to be a regular occurrence for me now.

I think, *knocks on wood* that I'm out of the medical woods. I feel better, and bunches of my problems appear to be vanishing. It's funny. I've had this since I was a kid, but only now am I truly learning about its funky intricacies. It appears I have to learn everything by breaking it. But whatever, now I appear to be feeling better, and normal life appears to be within my grasp. This makes me the happy.

Before I forget, the sixth assistance dog blog carnival is up, has been for a couple weeks. Yeah, I fail. Now I have to go read everybody's stuff. Hmmm I'll be busy.

I must be getting close to normal. I'm scrutinizing random oldies songs. the other day, I heard Barbara Mason Yes I'm ready. I wasn't paying attention, and then I heard "I'm ready to learn to fall in love with you." Learn? Excuse me? Learn? If you have to *learn*, you're not falling in love. I don't know what it is you're doing, but it's not that. It sounds like some kind of sick and twisted arranged marriage song. And is it me, or does she sound drunk out of her mind in that song? It sounds like she's had to get totally plastered just to work up the courage to kiss this dude...I wish I could make JAWS slur its words and say "I'm ready...to learn...chugga lugga glugga.

Then I heard Hey Baby They're Playing Our Song and one line stood out to me. "It's the one with the pretty melody." Yeah, that narrows it down. I mean, come on. There's only *one* song with a pretty melody. The rest of those melodies are all discordant and sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. Well...maybe that would fit *now*, but not so much back when this song was made, which according to Wikipedia, was 1967. What a totally stupid line! But then again, oy...there were quite a few in that song.

This also got me thinking about how Please Mister Please won't make any sense to kids anymore. It'll join rotary phones and broken records and all those things that make them stare at us like we're talking a foreign language.

I have two more observations to add to my pile of silly wrestling-related observations. So far we established that I like the way Lilian says John Cina and JBL's old mooing song was the best. Well, now I have more, and I might as well make fun of myself for them.

Steve was watching some old NWA shows with Gordon Solie and Bob Caudle. I walked in, sat down, and didn't say anything for a minute. Then I couldn't contain myself. I had to ask. I knew who Gordon Solie was, but that other guy sounded...just like Johnny Cash! I asked him, and after he finished laughing his ass off at me, said no. That was Bob Caudle. Come on. Can't you just hear this voice saying "My Name Is Sue! How Do You Do! And Now You're Gonna Die!" No? I'm the only one? Ok then.

And one day, Steve was watching some wrestling and John Laurinaitis came on. I listened for a minute and then said "Whenever he talks, he sounds just like Bill MacKendry!" I don't know how to spell Bill's name, because he's only famous at W. Ross, the school for the blind, but I hope someone reading this, besides Steve, both loves wrestling and knows good old Billie. It would be even more awesome if they happened to have a clip of Bill we could put up. Last night, John Laurinaitis said something about Oksanna, and all I could think was "Tanja?..." Again, that'll only make sense to the people who went to W. Ross at the time when Billie was there. But I seriously can't hear this guy talk without hearing Billie's voice behind him yelling "I want a girl!" Am I alone in this?

And speaking of that old school, remember back when I said it was getting sued? Our buddy Shane found the W. Ross lawsuit in all its glory. Yikes. I'm glad I didn't go there during that era. I haven't a doubt in my mind that stuff like that went down...but when I was there, nothing that attrocious ever happened that I know of, except I think there was still the...um...sexual stuff happening between boys. I never knew about it until after when I would hear things. I do have to chuckle that the term "Braille Jail" made it into a legal filing.

The one thing I can't figure out was the repeated references to things being run by the bell and the whistle and being made to line up. Um, regular schools did that too. You had the recess bell, the lunch bell, the bell for each class, the bell at the end of the day. And yeah, we had to line up. That's how they can keep track of everybody. There must be some context I'm missing. I definitely want to hear how this plays out.

There's this commercial that comes on that makes me laugh whenever I hear it, but I have no idea what it's for. All it says is "I just told my boss I'm in bed with a nasty clown. I meant cold! How the hell do you turn off autocorrect?" I get the sense it's for Telus, but how? Do they have easy to access tech support people? guides on all their phones? What? Other people can't seem to get the message either, as google can't give me a definite answer. But everybody's laughing. Anybody know what the commercial's for? Edit: According to this, it's some kind of free Telus learning centre. here, laugh at it yourself.

The other day, I had something odd happen to me when I was out walking. A girl walked up to me and kept saying I'm gonna get one of those soon! I hope I hope hope so!" At first I assumed she was just talking on her cellphone, but something told me no, she's talking to me. She's talking to me and she's talking about a guide dog. So I asked her what school she was applying to, and she said "The CINB." I think she meant CNIB, so I had to tell her the CNIB doesn't have a guide dog school. She then said "I have workers looking into it." At this point my heart sank. I really think a person making this kind of an investment needs to be the primary person doing the research and looking into it. I asked her to come walk with me so we could talk, but she said she was going elsewhere, so I lost the opportunity to maybe talk to her a little bit. But I hope I see her again, and maybe have a better chance next time. I've never had the opportunity to really offer my experience as something to learn from besides what I write up here. I hope to be able to give to someone else what I got from that other handler so many years ago. But something tells me this person might not have been ready for it. Who knows though?

And I think that about wraps it up. I have other ideas for individual posts, but we'll see what happens. I'm so unpredictable these days.

It's Brain Splatter Time

Well, I might be able to babble a while. That last post was kind of lame.

The other day, Honey by Bobby Goldsboro came on the radio. My memories of that song were that it was a kinda sappy song that made me all sad. But listening to it now, again I notice myself turning into quite the jaded individual. When I heard it again now, I thought gees what a needy woman! I think I'd go mad if I were him! Crying because he wasn't home just at the right time? It sounded like she was more like his kid than his wife for Pete's sake! He really enjoyed having someone so dependent and so...well...kinda dumb? What's wrong with him? I wonder does he miss her, or now can he actually live his life? So is it me, or is it the song? Maybe it's a little bit of both.

Man the huppy's growing up. He can talk in sentences, he can count to at least 5, knows his full name and you can almost have a whole conversation with him. He's always trying to help me, and the other day he tried to tell me my boot had come untied. All he could manage was "Carin! Your brown boots!" But the way he said it I knew he was trying to tell me something. And he was just an itty bitty baby not too long ago. He hasn't even turned 3 yet.

Back a while ago, I mentioned that wicked cold. Well, now it's left a bit of a legacy. I still have a bit of a cough and can't seem to get enough air. But my chest x-ray is clean. I'll be going back to the doctor hopefully Monday so we can try and figure this out. I hope it's an easy fix. Something similar happened to me years ago and all we had to do was change a medicine, so hopefully that's the case this time. It's not a comfortable feeling having to take huge deep breaths just to get a normal amount of oxygen. A couple of times, I've wondered if I should get my buns to the ER. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Here's a commercial I don't get. It's for the cheesy bites pizza from Pizza hut. I can't find it, damn it, but you hear this woman say "I love what you've done to the place." and then you hear the kid say "I told you this would be fun." and then you hear the adults sound like they're about to hurl going, "Yeah, real fun." and then it ends with a guy telling us to make dinner time fun time with the cheesy bites pizza, with 28 fun cheesy-filled bites.

Whaaa?

Even if I don't pay attention to the weird dialog, what's so fun about some cheese on a pizza? And cheesy-filled? Makes me think there's no cheese in there at all. At any rate, I really don't want to try one.

Now on to some Trixter talk. I have discovered she's very picky about her water! Either that, or she just hates the water cooler at work. I would always fill up her bowl, and she would never drink out of it. Then she would come home, tank up like mad, and need extra pee breaks. I thought it probably wasn't healthy for her to drink like that, and Steve thought maybe she didn't like the water out of the cooler. So I started bringing water bottles filled up from the tap from home, and she definitely drinks more of that water than the water cooler stuff. Trix, you're odd. But at least you're not drinking all your water at night.

I've noticed the last little while that if we walk a long way, she will need extra chances to pee than she used to. She used to only maybe pee once, and maybe poop once if we went really long. Now, she pees at least twice mid walk, once at the beginning and once at the end. Is this just an older dog thing? She doesn't seem to need extra relieving times when at rest, but there are definitely more pee breaks on walks.

This winter, or near lack of it, has had Trix all confused. By January, she was acting as if spring had sprung. Silly pooch. I'm sure she was very disappointed when more snow came.

Man, Trix was mad about the new bus locations. Well, it was more that she couldn't go on autopilot after a long walk. She knows where the old bus to go home was. Unfortunately, that's nowhere near where the bus pulls in now. So when I asked her to go to the new location, she pretty much threw a fit! She thought we weren't going home, and she wasn't having it! Ah Trix, you've forgotten. We get on the bus over *here* to go home now.

I don't know what it is, but lately I've had more fears about Trixie retiring. It's a scary thought that she's almost 7, and the average dog's working career lasts until they are 8 or so. So when I see things that are of concern, they really play into my fears. It's probably unnecessary, but I'm a worry wart, it's going to happen.

First there are the wee little things. Stuff like the amount of stretching she does when she gets up. She used to give it one good stretch. Now, she has to stretch one way, then another, then stretch again, and then she's ready to go. That's probably just her getting older, but I notice it. I also notice her doing the full body shake, like she's shaking off water, more often. I've heard that can be a stress thing, and I worry that all this zooming to Kitchener and back is stressing her out, even though I don't think so because I've done my best to keep her actual schedule close to what it was.

Then there are the bigger things. For a while it seemed like she didn't like jumping into the truck with me. As we headed to the elevator, she would walk all slow. I also noticed that sometimes, when navigating my work space, she didn't seem to know what to do. Going around the pole seemed like an impossible task. And once, recently, she got really confused at a complicated intersection and targeted the island in the middle of the road. This floored me because she knows not to hit that island and to go all the way across. I'm hoping that was just a freak occurrence. But other days she is just fine.

Then yesterday, after we had done a big walk downtown, when we set off to Dairy Queen, she fought me all the way. It could have just been that she didn't like to walk in the falling snow and sensed it would get worse, but it scared me.

One day, she stepped on something that bothered her paw. But she didn't lift the paw like she usually does. She dug all four paws in and wouldn't move. I could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong. She wouldn't even heel, and we were headed towards home! It was at this point that I felt panic set in. Was she telling me she was done? Out of desperation, I rubbed each paw, and once I fixed the one that was bothering her, she took off like normal, but I didn't like the way that putting on the brakes made me feel.

Then other days she's awesome. It scares the hell out of me to think that that awful day is looming far sooner than I expected. Hopefully not, but only time will tell. I was hoping Trix could work until she was at least 9 or so. Hopefully I get my wish.

And I think that's all I can think of. I hate to end things on a downer like that, but I'm all out of ideas.

Hopefully This Song Doesn't Predict My Future

Well, the day has come. I have found a dentist, and I'm headed there. I kept putting it off, and I finally made myself go.

Partly because of our dentists tag, and partly because it's hard to find a dentist that will take my dental plan, I went strictly on recommendations. I was not going to find some random dentist. That was just too scary a prospect. Two of the dentists that were recommended weren't the easiest to go to, so I chose one of the easier ones. Now let's hope it was the right choice. The receptionist seemed a bit intimidating. One of the first sentences out of her mouth after saying they were taking patients was "Are you good at keeping appointments? If you don't show up for an appointment or don't cancel 24 hours in advance, we kick you out." Well, hello, and a warm welcome to you too. I also don't think she truly grasps the idea of blind. That should be fun and a half when she whips out the form and tells me to start writing.

And, I haven't been to a dentist with Trix yet. Yup, it's been that long. Shame, shame, shame! So I don't know how she'll respond either, or if anything stupid will happen. Baaaa.

So, because my brain is cruel as hell, it decided the greatest soundtrack for the day would be Psychostick - The Root Of All Evil


Really? Must you? It's been a long time and I'm not exactly leaping for joy to go. Why would you do that to me, brain? You're evil.

So, hopefully I don't have more to post about after my afternoon appointment.

5 People+1 Guitar = A Pretty Cool Cover

It's been a bit of a long day and words are kinda failing me for some reason, so the best description I can come up with for this is that it's quite great. I've never heard the original song, but this cover makes it sound pretty good. But the thing that really puts it over the top is that all of it was done on a single guitar...by 5 people. Yes, all at the same time.

As you give it a watch and listen, think about the coolest thing you and four of your buddies have done and see if you come up as empty as I am. Somebody That I Used to Know - Walk off the Earth (Gotye - Cover)

Welcome To The WWF Fun Time Singalong

Earlier today I wrote about how much better wrestling used to be compared to much of what we see these days. I was not, however, so blinded by nostalgia as to completely brush aside the fact that not everything back then was great. In fact, there was a whole lot of stuff that was really, really bad. For example, If You Only Knew from the Piledriver album in 1987.



I'll confess that my 7-year-old self kind of dug this, but come on, I was 7! You show me a 7-year-old that doesn't like awful songs and I'll give you a mirror and show you a liar. To a little kid, it was just cool to hear wrestlers singing a song, or at least what passed for singing.

The problem with this, I came to realize as I grew, is that it was lame. Not only was it lame because well, just listen to it, it was lame because it was a sad attempt to recreate the infinitely more fantastic Land of 1000 Dances from a couple of years earlier.



This was my 5-year-old self's favourite song for a very long time because clearly, 5-year-old Steve had much better taste than 7-year-old Steve. I think I drove everybody in the world nuts with it by the time I was through, but how could you not? It's just so catchy and fun. To this day, I still love this with all my heart and will fight anybody who disagrees with me on the subject of its greatness. Luckily for me since I'm worse at fighting than If You Only Knew is at being a good song, not a single person has ever disagreed.