May Your Days Be Merry and Bright
My conference finished up today, at least the main part of it. I have a meeting to go to tomorrow morning that will last a couple of hours, and that's it. After that I'm done and have the rest of my Saturday in Vancouver to myself. I will probably do some shopping, though the downtown might be a bit of a shitshow tomorrow as there is some kind of protest planned.
The last speaker at the conference was Joel Bakan, author of The Corporation. During the afternoon break, a colleague of mine, who happens to be a very talented concert pianist, spied a piano and since he loves to play and I love to sing, we commandeered it and he played some Christmas carols. One of the speakers at the conference was a black man who was a professor, who gave a presentation about racism and systemic bias. He had just finished his talk before the break, and when he heard the singing, he came over and joined me and we sang a few duets together. My pianist friend was choosing the songs, and when this professor joined me, he was just beginning to play "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." I didn't say anything (but I did sing) and the professor seemed amused and we sounded wonderful together.
After the conference I went for a long walk from the hotel to Stanley Park and back (about 6 km. in total). My friend and co-worker Lynal came with me. He was going to run it, but he forgot his running shoes in Cranbrook. After the walk he told me that I walk too fast and he was pretty bushed. When we got back to the hotel, we hung around the lobby for a while, when a couple other guys joined us and we went out for supper. On our walk we passed by something called the Vancouver Christmas Market, which was set up in front of the Convention Center. It was mostly fenced off, but inside we could see a carousel. We were going to take a closer look but they wanted twenty bucks just to get in, so we passed on that.
We went for supper at some trendy spot next to the train station called Rogue. There was about a 20 minute wait to get in, and it was very loud inside, but the food was good.
Meanwhile back in Missouri, we had a bit of drama. Last March I ordered a hot tub for our place. The guy selling it (our pool guy) said it would take three months to get there. When I was about to leave for Cranbrook in September, we still didn't have it and I called the guy. He said it had just arrived, but he was busy with pool closings and we wouldn't get it until late October. Until today I still hadn't heard anything from the guy. Today just after 1 p.m. PST (3:00 p.m. CST) he sent me a text saying that he was there with our hot tub. No prior warning, he just showed up. Seth was asleep of course. I texted with the guy. Had this exchange:
Him: This is Curtis, the pool guy at the Missouri house. We have the new hot tub here for delivery. I was just going to drop it in the garage next to the house if we can get in and there is no alarm on.
Me: The garage [actually not a garage, a storage building] is full right now. When were you planning on delivery? I won't be back there until next Friday.
Him: I just left it sitting in front of the big garage door for now. Once you get back we can meet up and pick a spot and get a plan for moving it and setting it up.
And that's what he did.
They must have woke Seth up because he called me and was in a pissy mood, and that put me in a bad mood because I didn't ask them to deliver it now, and there wasn't much I could do about it from 2000 miles away, so why was he getting mad at me? But anyhow, there it sits. I know it's too big for anyone to steal, and it's covered in plastic, so it should be okay from the elements, but I wish they could have called me before delivery so we would have planned for it when I was there.
And now for some reason my text messages aren't going through to Seth.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.
That was my day. I hope you had a good day, and I hope all your problems are first world ones like mine. And as for a Christmas song, well why not White Christmas? Here are my two favourite versions of the song. I can't decide which one I like better, the Drifters or Darlene Love. So you decide, if you can spare the time.
Poll White Christmas
The last speaker at the conference was Joel Bakan, author of The Corporation. During the afternoon break, a colleague of mine, who happens to be a very talented concert pianist, spied a piano and since he loves to play and I love to sing, we commandeered it and he played some Christmas carols. One of the speakers at the conference was a black man who was a professor, who gave a presentation about racism and systemic bias. He had just finished his talk before the break, and when he heard the singing, he came over and joined me and we sang a few duets together. My pianist friend was choosing the songs, and when this professor joined me, he was just beginning to play "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." I didn't say anything (but I did sing) and the professor seemed amused and we sounded wonderful together.
After the conference I went for a long walk from the hotel to Stanley Park and back (about 6 km. in total). My friend and co-worker Lynal came with me. He was going to run it, but he forgot his running shoes in Cranbrook. After the walk he told me that I walk too fast and he was pretty bushed. When we got back to the hotel, we hung around the lobby for a while, when a couple other guys joined us and we went out for supper. On our walk we passed by something called the Vancouver Christmas Market, which was set up in front of the Convention Center. It was mostly fenced off, but inside we could see a carousel. We were going to take a closer look but they wanted twenty bucks just to get in, so we passed on that.
We went for supper at some trendy spot next to the train station called Rogue. There was about a 20 minute wait to get in, and it was very loud inside, but the food was good.
Meanwhile back in Missouri, we had a bit of drama. Last March I ordered a hot tub for our place. The guy selling it (our pool guy) said it would take three months to get there. When I was about to leave for Cranbrook in September, we still didn't have it and I called the guy. He said it had just arrived, but he was busy with pool closings and we wouldn't get it until late October. Until today I still hadn't heard anything from the guy. Today just after 1 p.m. PST (3:00 p.m. CST) he sent me a text saying that he was there with our hot tub. No prior warning, he just showed up. Seth was asleep of course. I texted with the guy. Had this exchange:
Him: This is Curtis, the pool guy at the Missouri house. We have the new hot tub here for delivery. I was just going to drop it in the garage next to the house if we can get in and there is no alarm on.
Me: The garage [actually not a garage, a storage building] is full right now. When were you planning on delivery? I won't be back there until next Friday.
Him: I just left it sitting in front of the big garage door for now. Once you get back we can meet up and pick a spot and get a plan for moving it and setting it up.
And that's what he did.
They must have woke Seth up because he called me and was in a pissy mood, and that put me in a bad mood because I didn't ask them to deliver it now, and there wasn't much I could do about it from 2000 miles away, so why was he getting mad at me? But anyhow, there it sits. I know it's too big for anyone to steal, and it's covered in plastic, so it should be okay from the elements, but I wish they could have called me before delivery so we would have planned for it when I was there.
And now for some reason my text messages aren't going through to Seth.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.
That was my day. I hope you had a good day, and I hope all your problems are first world ones like mine. And as for a Christmas song, well why not White Christmas? Here are my two favourite versions of the song. I can't decide which one I like better, the Drifters or Darlene Love. So you decide, if you can spare the time.
Click to viewPoll White Christmas