Saturday and then NYE

Today, besides going to The Druid to write the other blog, I went biking. It was frigid for the last two weeks, today it got to a balmy -4. To you in the Sun belt that is cold, to us that means get the hell out of the house and do something

I put bike on back of the car, after cooking a good breakfast and doing laundry. I got to the city, I was going to get an oil change, the wait was too long. I went to River Road, parked the car and got on the trails. They plough the river valley trails, so it is not too bad. It wasn't warm enough to turn the snow to slush on the trails, which is a good thing. (There is a really fast blues song playing, I am speed writing!)

I was slow to start, my legs were bitching. But I ignored them. Finally after about two miles, they shut up. The trails are multi use, but some people think that means they can use the whole trail, multiply. As in the whole family walking side by each blocking it off. I guess they have to be more descriptive in the definition.

I am finishing this on New Year's Eve. Life happens.

Saturday, Thelma showed up at the bar I was writing at. I haven't seen him since November. He has been trapped at home with Anita. Anita is a 90 year old woman who he knew in Toronto. She was living alone in an apartment, she has dementia and Alzheimer's - Thelma went out to get her in February......damn he didn't stop and pick me up! He wants to get her in a home, but there is a waiting list. There is also another issue with one year in the province. The year is just about up.

Anyway, bar, sitting, typing.....Thelma comes and sits with me. I was typing but soon it became apparent he needed coherent conversation. :). I packed up ipad and keyboard.

We talked about all kinds of things and then Steve showed up. In order to prevent a re-occurrence of 2 weeks ago (the check stop blog). I was slow in drinking.....too slow for Thelma apparently.

Steven was sitting at the table next to us....alone. He looked like a firefighter I work with and he talked like him too. He was there about half an hour, sipping on a beer when finally I asked him if he talked. He said yes and smiled.

We talked and talked and talked; the three of us. I am absolutely horrible at picking people up in bars. But apparently he must have liked me. I had more beers and a place nearby to stay the night. Oh and he did too - funny, it was the same place. There can be nothing permanent though, he lives 1.5 hours West of Edmonton and I am 1 hour East. It sure was fun though!

I got home at 07:00 on Sunday. I slept most of the day, as I didn't sleep to much the night before.

Today, I am in the city. Going to a New Year's Eve party at a hotel, staying at the hotel. No way am I bumping into an officer of the law tonight! Unless my music is too loud.

Thelma will be staying in the same hotel as will a pile of other people. I have my own room. So I can get some sleep.

I started doing pushups in April. Decided to keep in shape. Every morning before doing anything else I would do 50. It went to 60 in September and 70 in November. I missed 2 days. I don't think it is that incredible, but there are guys on the FD who can't make 40. So I guess it is something I can do.

Anyway, last blog this year. Thanks for reading and have a great New Years Eve, even if you do nothing.

Last Saturday of 2012

No deer on the way home from Calgary. I wound up taking the long way home. Lots of pictures. Actually there was a deer, outside of Nordegg. I fuelled up and was heading back onto the highway and there was one standing there. It looked both ways before crossing road.

The drive home took 10.5 hours. Out side of Rocky Mountain House I felt like getting a room. I was still 4 hours from home. But I kept on going.

I worked Thursday & Friday. I stayed in last night, watched The Bourne Legacy. That was a good movie. I think I am more of Bourne fan than Bond now. But I am not sure they are going to make anymore. Jeremy Renner was good. The whole drone thing was scary as well as the cameras everywhere. It is scary that they could find you anywhere. I know it was a movie, but, CBC has a story about privacy being violated in Canada in malls and stores. You are being filmed, there are no signs saying so. And they own your image, or they think they do. Everyone who enters the store and is filmed has the right to access the footage with them on it. It appears not many are. If there were the stores would be complaining about the cost......it's free, they have to pay it.

I am almost finished Mark Bowden's book 'The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden'. I bought 'No Easy Day' by Mark Owen, a guy that was on SEAL Team 6. He apparently has a hate on for President Obama. Says the President did it for the glory. I am waiting for him to say Bush did all the work. Perhaps this gentleman should read former FBI Agent Ali Soufan's 'The Black Banners' and then 'The Finnish' - these books lead up to the raid on Abbotabad. They deal with the intelligence gathering and the risk that the President took in authorizing the raid....the one that occurred. But anyway, I have to read his book. No opinions, yet.

Christmas was good. I was at my friend Elisabeth's house, her son, Colin, is a co-owner. We had a good time. I was there for four days. I did take a trip out to Lake Louise on Sunday, it was sunny. I went out to take pictures. Have to use the Nikon!

Had some good conversations with people about various issues.

So it's that time of year, when people work out their goals for the next year. My birthday is exactly 4 weeks into the year, I make my resolutions then. But i start to formulate and act on them before my birthday.

So here are the tentative ones:

1) Take a lot of pictures, get a lot of practice. I am getting better at composing. The ones attached to the blog are mine.

2) Write more and not just this blog. I have to get lost in fiction. I have to create.

3) Find a change that works for my personal situation. While I love my job and the Fire Department. I have to get a life. The dating prospects are zero, where I am. Are they going to be much better anywhere else, who knows. But I have to try. If I occupy myself in writing and snapping pics, maybe I will change the course of my universe.

Well three is good....oh and I have to commit to losing weight. My 70 pushups a day are not doing that. I am too tired at the end of work to go to gym. But I have to. I had a test on lung capacity. I passed, but just. I always wondered why I laboured so much on hills, biking and running. I am at 80%. I am not sure what that means about being on an attack crew in a fire. I think they want at least 85%. Will find out when the doctor reviews the results. On my department it is a race to get to the hall to be on the first truck out to go into a fire. I am not going to go really super fast to get to the hall.....the cops can stop you and then you are on no truck. If you cause a collision......

There are enough other jobs at the FD to do.

My heart goes out to the families and co-workers of the firemen at Webster, NY. A psycho with an AR15 killed two and wounded two others. Why....so they wouldn't put out the fire and rescue his sister?

I belong to a group of gay law enforcement, firefighters and the other job I have. Most are Americans. We can agree on a lot of things, but they have issues with Canadian reality. They can't see why anyone would want to live without one.

My question, and I have seen a lot of Law Enforcement Officers who are anti-Obama, is why do you want heavily armed civilians? Is this a thrill show? Obama is the guy that wants to fund Police, Fire and EMT's as well as Teachers. Yet Police and Fire appear to be in favour of the GOP. Makes no sense. The police should know that Obama hasn't ordered officers to go on raids to seize guns, yet they believe FOX News when they say they know a cop who knows a cop who had to raid a family and blah blah blah... All names hidden to protect their sources. It is all bullshit, FOX has nothing; they are making the news. They are afraid of Blacky McBlackman (Bill Maher's name for Obama). Even FOS New's owner Rupert Murdoch has come out on the gun control side. WTF.

New Years party on Monday night 'taking the elevator home!

Christmas Eve

Well I am in Calgary. There was no way I could stay home. From 16:00 today till Boxing Day there is nothing to do in Vegreville. The whole town shuts down. Rather than be a shut in, especially at -20C (and colder), I took off to Calgary on Saturday.

Saturday was not the best day to drive, but I looked on the Motor Association site and found a relatively safe route from Vegreville to the city. It was tense, winter driving conditions, but I think the media made it a bigger issue than it was. It took just over 5 hours, which was as long as it takes on the bike. But with the bike I have to stop for fuel.

Met up with my friends at a Bar, they went there for supper. I had the name of the bar, I tried to use Google maps to find it. Google apparently addressed the issues with Apple Maps. After typing the name of the restaurant into Google search, it took me to a site which said that was an New APP for Google Maps! I already had the APP. It took me to the APP store, where the phone told MAPS I already had the APP. Google then asked me where I wanted to go. I had to re-type the name of the restaurant. Then Google showed me where it was, when I asked for directions, it showed where I was. You could not go far enough out to see how to get from where I was to where I wanted to go. I went back to Apple Maps and found the way.

This isn't the only issue Google has with Apple. The new YouTube app looks good. When you search for something, it takes you to google to find it. It's when you get the results that AppleGoogle shine. Play one of the 'hits' and then go back, maybe cause its the wrong one. YouTube goes to it's main menu. You have to go back to Safari to find the Hits. It goes around is a circle. I have found it is best to delete the APP from phone/ipad and just use the browser version.

Went to Lake Louise yesterday. I was going there anyway, I decided to go yesterday as it was sunny, I have some pictures. I am sharing a Summer view, just so you can see what it looks like for part of the year. I walked out on the Lake, to about mid-point. Dummy that I am I didn't take camera bag, so I only had one lens. The telephoto. I had to take a pile of pictures, then I went back to the car and got the other lens, It was actually good that I did that, I managed to get some pictures without people in them. When I got back close to shore, I could see slush....that was kind of an eye opener. It was -21C when I was out there, I am sure the water was solid enough. Besides, I could see people walking down to the other end of the lake. I was ready to move fast if I heard a crack.

Last night my friends and I went to see Hitchcock. It was a good movie, I have never seen Psycho, nor do I want to. But it showed the issues he had making it. They messed up in one scene, Janet Leigh is talking to Hitchcock, her collar is popped when the camera is dead on her. But when they look over her shoulder at Hitchcock, it is down. They go back and fourth about 4 times. I checked every time. Funny, because they had just explained the cutting and editing that had to be done in the movie and discussing mistakes.

Well this is a family free xmas, probably will be the first of many. It is probably best we go our separate ways. I am not going to change to be the person that one sibling wants me to be, what ever that is. As for my son, I can only talk about how a telephone works both ways so many times. He is 21. I am sure at 21 that I was too busy living my life to be paying attention to the parents. It is nice when I happens. But to tell the truth my family has not been close, so I don't think my son feels he needs to be close. I am sure the ex doesn't care. She will just foist it over on me and say 'Who is the adult here?' ......ah he can, drink and vote. Besides, she sees him everyday. Appears to be now pressure by her for him to get a full time job. Every time I find a lead on one, it is either too far away. The hours aren't right or blah, blah blah. And of course, the sibling attributes this to me...and his lack of communication with them as well. The Rule in my Family is that if there is something wrong 'It is all my fault'.

This touches on another thing, I guess this is the serious blog which I knew I was writing at the end of the year. If you have been reading, you'd know that in May I had two significant things happen. First off, getting some extreme homophobic feedback from firefighters from other departments in the area. We were on joint training for Interior Firefighting, things were ok one weekend, and the next I got the full on treatment. If I joined a conversation, they'd all stop, one by one walking off. Then they'd congregate someplace else and re-start the conversation. One guy had a t-shirt on with 'EXIT ONLY' on his back, and an arrow. He made a point of having this facing me as often as he could. Now you could say, this is just firefighters being guys etc. But these weren't just ordinary firefighters, two were Chiefs and the others were Deputy Chiefs. These are the ranks that set examples. You work in pairs at a fire, the instructor kept mixing us up. So I wound up getting one of these guys as my backup. Stress level was really high, I went back to my department, no real support. Depression set in, pretty serious as I had no one to talk to. Anyway, I was pretty close but didn't go through with what I was planning.

The next weekend, I was riding home from the city on my motorcycle. It was dusk. I wound up hitting a deer at 85 miles an hour. No I wasn't going that fast, I sped up cause the car next to me looked like it was going to take my lane...and me. Then I saw the deer.

I didn't die, I didn't go down. I didn't stop. I actually thought I was dead. When I got back to town, I tried to contact anyone to slap me. It was eerie.

I started to see a therapist after this, which was a nightmare as I was actually refused by one. Finally after a few visits I started to come back to normal. Threats of pills were wiped out by promises to exercise. The sibling event happened in September, I haven't been back to see the Doctor yet. I am thinking I have to go in. But I want to have a plan. As it stands right now I have none. Well I do have one, it is to get through Xmas. (this part was added after I wrote the next part....this may be a key to the plan).

That all being said, I did read something to act on. An article on a comedy site '6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person' It is a real eyeopener. One easy thing to remember 'throw enough hours of repetition at it (anything) and you can become sort of good at anything.'' because humans need things.

At the beginning of the article it asks you to list 5 things that you can do; not what you are. So I can sort of write, and I have worked my way up into being able to take half decent pictures. I can drive reasonably well and I am a good motorcycle rider. Practice is what makes me good at them. It is fun to try and tell a 21 year old son this. But 21 years olds on the Fire Department seem to get it. Check the article out on Cracked.com.

Today my friends and I are going to go to their friend's place for supper and snacks. My son's friend, Colin, got stopped at a Checkstop a couple of weeks ago and blew over the 0.05 and lost his car for 3 days. No demerits. No insurance increase. Just the inconvenience of having no car for 3 days. He doesn't drink anymore. From his re-telling, the officer said he was at 0.045 and that is within the thresh hold to take the keys. This is confusing, the Alberta Law is 0.05, but the government has given leeway to take the keys from 0.04 to 0.08 (that is the real Law). How soon before MADD starts going for 0.0? For now I can celebrate I have a Designated Driver.

Thanks for reading. Have a Merry Christmas treat the family nice.

On a sad noted, two volunteer firefighters were killed responding to a call today, Xmas Eve. When does the message get out there, when does the reality change?

Check Stop

Yesterday I was in the city for a haircut after taking pictures in the park. I got my haircut, I have memorized the face, she will not be allowed near me again. After washing my hair it became apparent her mind was not on what she was doing. I have the start of a mohawk on one side and not on the other side. I am un-balanced.

I wen to the Druid and wrote my blog, I had a couple of Guinness's and some food. Then I went to Woodys, I was just seeing who was there and then either heading home or to a movie. My buddy Chris was there, he asked if I wanted to play pool. Normally I am not into playing pool, but, well it was Chris.

I was on top of my game, I had some runs and in one shot where almost everyone in bar was watching, I sunk a ball, looked down the table and saw there was a group of balls, bit now possible called shot. I just took a shot to break them up, two of my balls split and headed to each corner.

I wound up playing pool for about 3 - 4 hours, about one beer per hour. After I finished playing pool, I switched to water. I think I stayed around for an hour afterwards and then decided to drive home. I was not feeling drunk, and my reactions were good. I was headed out of the city on a main highway. At one entrance an unmarked police car came on. My heart rate went up. I was going a bit faster than him, and at a light, he had to stop at the light, I kept going.

Up further ahead I saw blue & red flashing lights. I went by them, they had a guy stopped. As I got around a corner, there were about 6 police cars and I got pulled over.

My heart was beating like crazy. The officer was professional, he asked the usual questions. I told him I had some beers earlier and had not had any for 2 hours. He went away and came back. I had to do the roadside test. I was kind of nervous, I knew i was not Criminal Code impaired 0.08, but I was not sure about Alberta - 0.05. After blowing, he was like a cheerleader...blow.blow.blow. I got a green - 0.029 - I swear he was going to high five me.

I had a discussion on Twitter about the new Alberta limit and tweeting check-stop locations. I had a choice about which way i could leave town. I just rolled the dice. I didn't check twitter.

My heart rate died down about half way home. I was thinking about what would have happened if it went the other way, a red light. My pacing of drinks must be in tune with the law. As I said, I knew I had been drinking, but I was only around halfway to the limit.

As a first responder, who has been to numerous collisions where alcohol has been involved, I guess some people out there say I should not been driving. The law is the law, it is not zero. I could see no error in the officer's administering of the law. He read some card, which is probably the result of litigation. It gave you an option, but really there was only one option. Blow. The refusal to blow is far worse.

I did not feel impaired. The only danger in this is I tend to be pretty controlled, conservative in fact. No one more for the road for me. I know my judgement was safe, proven by measurement. Just one thing, I don't think I would have been driving if my blood alcohol level was anywhere near the 0.05 measurement - I would have thought I was drunk.

Xmas -10

What's with the weather, up down! It was -35 last week for about 12 hours. Then it went to 0, stayed there a couple of days and now it is -12. Oh well, the Sun was out and I managed to make it to Elk Island Park. It is so nice there I feel my batteries re-charging just driving through.

This week was ok, I got lots done at work. That happens when the boss is away. She was back yesterday, I kind of got in shit for speaking my mind on an event which happened early in the day.
Apparently I upset someone...no not at the FD. It was like I had something to do with what happened. Part of my job is monitoring media.....so guess what story I stumbled across.

I work in a politically correct place - no need for explanations right?

The person complained and then the boss said I shouldn't discuss cases, due to privacy. I was trying to figure out whose privacy I had violated.

Anyway, the event. I have some feeling about this, as y'all do. First off, I live in Canada. I have taken weapons training, in the military and for an FAC (Firearms Acquisition Certificate), despite being horrible playing video games, I get pretty good groupings on a target. For the FAC, you have to take a course and then a medical exam; and I think there was a police report, I forget.

So what does being Canadian have to do with this. Well we have a different kind of respect for guns. I was speaking with some Fire guys today and I said if a handgun was sitting on the table, like a cell phone. I wouldn't matter what wee were talking about, all the guys would check that thing out, every 2 seconds. I think we would think about it more than sex. I have a feeling our American cousins would ignore it, its just a thing....or it wouldn't be the only one on the table.

Our reality is different, not better. I keep getting knives every year from the fire department. It is getting to the point I think I have one in every coat. I never think one is there until I go to a bar and the bouncer pats you down....for knives. The bars don't post signs for no knives, they just don't want them in there. Their rules. I usually have to go back to the car and put it in there. Oh well. It is there more a tool, there is one in my bunker gear, never know when you'd need one.

Americans have guns on them, or in their car. They never think they are there. In the back of their minds they know they are there, like me with my knives. But it is not on the top of their minds. We Canadians look the same, act the same and some Americans think we are a branch office. They cross the border, with their forgotten about (you can say it the Canuck way, cause its relevant) gun. Then the CBSA guy asks if you have any weapons, the elevator goes up and your face gives you away. A nicer CBSA guy would let you return to America and park your gun someplace. A not so nice guy will cause you more pain then you ever thought possible. Not so much physical, but financial and legal. Don't even think of lying to them.

When I was on trip to New Orleans I went to a bar in Memphis with a a No Guns sign on the door. A couple of days later I was at a gas station in Mississippi, I was behind a guy in line with a handgun, in a holster, on his hip. I stared at it, its a Canadian thing. When I go back outside I saw the plate on his vehicle, he was a Law Enforcement Officer, from Louisiana (I was 100 miles from there). His son (about 7 was dressed the same, except the gun). I guess they were out for a tour.

Our cops carry guns, tasers and a whole pile of other stuff (running must be a bitch!). But we are used to it, we don't tend to stare them down, it may lead to problems. But to tell the truth I would not have to want to wear a weapon for work. I write reports for my job, I have deadlines and usually I am writing away after hours the day before. I don't want to be writing a report for every time I discharged something. It's just me.

So back to 'The Event' - I am not sure a person in Canada, except on Halloween, would be able to get too far wearing body armour and carrying (in Connecticut's' case) 4 weapons. The cops would be called pretty fast. You may get tackled. I hate to say this but we would be like the Norwegians, looking at the gun....frozen.

To Americans we are weird, they could not imagine living here with no handguns. When you own one, you have to store the weapons in a different place than ammunition. You have to have a travel certificate to take it with you in a car. Again, bullets one place and the gun someplace else (cuts down on serious road rage!).

We are naive, we cannot imagine going someplace where everyone is armed - like a ski hill or the French Quarter getting totally blitzed. I'd be nervous about where gun was, all the time.

The reality has to change in the US, there is no reason for AR15's in a citizen's hands. A Marine friend posted that if the government were to go rogue, they'd come at you with more shit than you could imagine and your M16's and AR15's would mean nothing. I would think that they are cool looking, but useless for hunting.

Enough about that.

I go my hair cut today, it was quiet in the shop. Only one other guy in there. When he was finished he went to a mirror over a sink and started messing with his hair. After 10 minutes, I was done, he was still messing. I was paying and the manager asked my haircutter, 'What's with that guy?'

Today I volunteered to collect food for the Food Bank, again. I didn't volunteer, but someone thought I did, so I was voluntold by a Deputy Chief. It was fun, I think I got more people to donate.

Well that's that. I pray for the families that were directly impacted by the shooter. I also pray for the classmates and their families. There is going to be a lot of counselling needed in order to let these youngsters lead normal lives. This Christmas is screwed for them though.

Like all the rest, I will not honour any of them by saying their name. This is a decision I came to after John Lennon was killed. That person became nameless - all the rest have joined him.

Saturday the 8th

Well this was a good week, at work. So so outside work.

The guy from up North had slowed down his chatting, He was supposed to be in town last weekend, but the issue with his shifts screwed that up. About Thursday I found out he was coming to Edmonton today. I asked if he wanted to meet up. Well I had told him about Town Xmas party, which was last night and volunteering today.

He said i'd be too busy to meet this weekend. I tried to same 'No I wouldn't' but I got the ignore. Heard nothing from him on Friday. My date for the Xmas part got sick, I didn't feel like being at a +1 event stag. So I didn't go. I do that all the time, it is getting old and I don't need to answer all the questions.

This morning, I missed the first volunteer shift for Food Bank, but they called out and asked if anyone could do second shift. I did it.. I think I have a big S (sucker) on my forehead. But I knew, that all the other 50 guys are too busy, because The Day is coming. It was fun, got to chat with a friend for 2 hours, we raised $340 and a pile of food.

When that was done I got the car and headed to Edmonton. It got really cold, I wasn't going to stop to take pics in the park. But the previously shy bison were out. After I finished taking pictures of them, the Sun was putting on a show. Since it was cool and snowy all week, the trees were either snow covered or frosted.

Last night I watched The Trip, it is a gay movie which won a pile of awards at Sundance. It was a story on gay rights from around 1973, when I finished high school till about 1987...mmm when I got married. Watching it was really weird, the same issues that were the issues in the last election, we the issues in 1973. Except Nixon was getting impeached. One of the lead characters is a gay Republican. That party sort of left him, even though there appeared to be lots of closeted gay republicans. Good movie.

I had come in the city on Thursday night, went to the Druid when it appeared impossible to get a hair cut. The scaffolding guys were there, we were having a good time until they made one of the 'if you can't do that, you're gay.' One of the last things one of them said, so I could hear, well he didn't deny it.

This didn't bother me too much, maybe I have grown. Just because I am gay doesn't make them better than me. I wasn't judging them. It has been a year since I came out to the family and a lot of friends. I am not a flag waver and I am not going to convert some guy. So I am not sure why I am scary.

I am reading the Killing of Osama bin Laden, still. President Obama is not the pacifist the Right would have us believe he is. Why SEALS and such do not like him I don't know - same with Police Officers. Obama is going to keep them employed. For the guys upset about people dying.....maybe they should look at the occupation. No one goes into Special Forces as it is a cake walk. And no-one leaves Special Forces and joins a Private Security company / Intelligence organization cause it is safe. The thrill gets them. Firefighters, Cops, Soldiers etc die. It's a fact of life. This President actually very supportive of them. In my opinion.

Well I am off. The buffalo are in Elk Island Park, the Sunset was just West of there.

The 1st of December

Ah December, not a good month to go to a mall. They are packed with people buying the perfect gift. I did all my shopping in November lol

The Nikon Story, on Black Friday I bought the Nikon D3000. Saturday morning, I was laying in bed and I was wondering how it did sound on video. My little Nikon has a very obvious microphone/speaker. On the bigger one I didn't see one. I took to the net and found out it doesn't take video at all. Now if I am going to buy one of these cameras, I want it to take video. At the Canadian Finals Rodeo, the little Nikon took both pictures and video. I didn't want to carry it everywhere, just to do video. Besides there is no zoom on the little camera, it stays at whatever setting you start filming at. In order to film closer, you have to stop, re-focus and start again.

I compared the D3000 to the D3100, which was $100 more. It took video and was pretty good camera. For $200 more I could get the D3200 which is the best of this line of cameras. The D3100 wasn't on sale though and there were no special offers. The D3200 had special pricing on the camera and two lenses. It also came with the wireless unit. You could take pictures with an app on your phone. This of course was something i'd like.

I checked my bonds, and I could afford the D3200 and all the lenses. I had to take the D3000 back, I packed it all up and Walmart took it back. The bank though put a hold on the refund, they would not waive it. I had enough to buy the D3200 but not the telephoto lens. Oh well, that's what I had with the D3000. So I bought it.

When the bonds finally showed up in the bank account, five day delay on them and the refund, I had enough to buy the lens. I called the camera store, they would sell me everything at the discount. They would return then resell the body and then add in the lens.

I went to the Druid to assemble everything, it wasn't going to be easy to do in the car. I had charged into the city after work, so it was only around 5. The bar would not be packed, I could eat and have a $3 Guinness and assemble camera.

Well the bar was busy and everyone was watching what I was doing. I met Dave and Garrett, they work for a scaffolding company, they go there for beers after work a lot. We chatted, when I had the telephoto working I focused on bottles behind the bar. It was like they were right in your face and your could read the whole label, including the tiny print.

We spent a couple of hours together talking about all kinds of things. They were going to another bar to eat, I found out I had to go to London Drugs to get a UV filter for the telephoto, it wasn't the same size as the 18-55 mm lens. When I was there, the guys were true camera geeks. I asked if they knew when the iPhone app for the D3200 was out. The wireless worked on Android phones, but a could not find an app on the iPhone. They were on this, the reason I couldn't find it is Nikon was tricky or not thinking. They called the app WU-1A, this does not follow any naming convention I know. But I search, under the iPhone, not iPad and found it. You can't find it by it's full name.

Anyway, I have the whole camera and I am happy. Xmas is going to involve a trip to the mountains for picture taking.

Oh, I met up with the guys at the other bar. They bought me a beer and we talked about stuff. I had an appetizer and then had to go home. They said they occupy the same barstools and told me to come back and hang out with them.

The long distance guy, had still been texting me. It has been 2 weeks. No indication when we were going to meet up and things took a turn for the worse. His boss started changing his shifts around and blah blah blah .....this appeared to be drama. I used to get sucked into this stuff, but call me jaded. The script is always the same. I basically put it out there, New Year's Eve is not going to be the first date. That is too heavy. Anyway, things apparently got better on Thursday (the same day I bought lens). But that was the last day I heard from him. They must have gotten way better. I texted him last night, no response. As I said, I have read this book before. December is a new month, he may have someone else to cavort with.

At work this week we had visitors. People from Headquarters who are trying to set up what we have in our section. It was presentation after presentation. I asked the boss why they didn't send us there to set it up, as they will be doing it from the middle. I think they are sending someone, my boss wants to go. Which is good, sort of. She doesn't do the work and didn't assist in setting it up. Oh well, Ottawa sucks at this time of year. I got to meet some of the people I have corresponded with over 4 years.

One of the people from Vancouver, in the section that said I didn't have enough knowledge, emailed me and asked me what to do with something. I was tempted....... but I answered the person. Next time I will tell them to contact the screener.

The moustache is gone! I shaved it off this morning. It was tender after it was gone. I am happy not to be straining anything anymore.

I was at gym running for the first time in a long time. I heard a song by Alan Jackson on my iPod. It was a ballad, he was singing about when we all thought 30 was old. Now it is in the rear view mirror. It was a good song. It got me to thinking about all the things you don't do when you are alone, slow dancing, watching shows on the couch with someone. Joking about what is on the TV. Watching sports together and laying down bets. Lots of things. I don't live in that house all the time. But this is the time of year when people who have other people in their lives start to go on and on about it. I guess if you don't tell them....but you know where that goes. It is best to avoid those people.

One advantage of Xmas shopping is all the theatres will calm down, I can go see the Bond movie and get home at a decent time.

The crooked restaurant picture was taken remotely you should have heard the camera go, focusing etc.

I went to Elk Island Park to take pictures of buffalo, but they were all in hiding again.