the pod bay door

:: I’ll be in Jasper tomorrow until Sunday afternoon, attending the Alberta Library Conference.

:: My Winnipeg visit is nearly over. On Friday night, as mentioned earlier, Claire and Tony hosted a group of 15 friends at their home, having cooked an Indo-Dutch dinner, on which we feasted for the evening. The food was incredibly delicious, the company engaging. On Saturday, I attended my cousin Barbara’s wedding ceremony in the afternoon, and reception in the evening. There were enough guests invited to warrant the use of a curling rink for the dinner and dance that evening. I was able to spend some quality time visiting with my cousin from Atlanta, Adam. I also took time to bolt over to Oakbank, and visit some of the WPC homeys, who were enjoying a post U Manitoba Bisons football game bonfire and pizza party.

This morning, my parents, my friend Susan Robinson, and I went for dim sum. Following that was another visit with Steve, Tony and Mike, and Steve’s family, including daughter Kaitlyn, aka KickButt Kate (her soccer name). After that, I drove back to St Vital, to a community club where my cousin and her husband were opening their wedding gifts. After visiting with everyone there, and eating yet more food, I returned to my parents’ place, where I’ve packed, and now plan to veg out for the evening, before waking again tomorrow morning at 0430 hrs, to catch a plane that leaves at 6:25 am for Edmonton.

:: I leave for Winnipeg in a couple hours, to spend a few days with family and friends, and attend my cousin Barbara’s wedding on Saturday. Yesterday, while packing, I opened the curtains a little in my bedroom, and a bird flew out from behind them, scaring the shyte out of me. Initially I couldn’t tell if it was a bat or a small bird. It flew around the second floor between rooms, until I was able to remove the screen in my master bedroom, and waited for it to fly back in that direction, which it did, and out into the night.

What I couldn’t determine was how it got in, and for how long it was hiding in my bedroom. So far, I haven’t seen any – er – evidenc, to indicate where it might have spent time while in my house. Enough surprises for one night.

:: I’m in Vancouver for one more day, leaving tomorrow at 7:00 am. I’ve had a nice time, the weather has been good, and I’ve visited with old friends. The surprise birthday party for my friend Lea was a blast. She was totally blown away by the event, completely caught off guard. I’ve been fighting a bad cough I developed last week in Edmonton, and my rib muscles are sore from coughing all day and through the night. I’m looking forward to healing from this latest episode. I hope the coughing subsides in the next 48 hours, as I am lecturing on Tue afternoon at 3:00 pm.

:: I’m flying to Vancouver tomorrow to attend a surprise birthday party for a friend (who doesn’t read this site, btw!), and to visit a few other people I haven’t seen since 1997, the last time I was in Vancouver. I’m bringing with me a bad cough that I picked up last weekend. I’m doubling up my COLD-FX dosages again. In Vancouver, I will rent a car at the airport, and stay one night in Coquitlam, the other two nights in Vancouver. The return flight on Monday will leave at 7:00AM – ouch.

:: A number of items of interest happening in September: 1) The Star Wars Trilogy DVD package arrives in stores on September 21st. Episodes IV, V and VI are included, plus a bonus disc of material, including the following:

The fourth disc is packed with bonus material, the most notable being Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy. This two-and-a-half hour documentary traces the evolution of the saga, from a low-budget labor-of-love space saga to the movie phenomenon that defied the odds and reinvented the rules.

This comprehensive documentary features all new interviews with George Lucas and more than 40 members of the cast and crew from the original trilogy, as well as a host of filmmakers and media personalities. Empire of Dreams includes some never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the three films.

The Star Wars Trilogy DVD Details page explains everything.

2) The 2-hour premier of Season 15 of Law & Order is on September 22, featuring Dennis Farina replacing Jerry Orbach – big shoes to fill for sure.

3) I don’t watch The Tonight Show, but the 50th Anniversary of its first broadcast is on Sept 27, 2004. The show was developed by Pat Weaver. Weaver’s daughter, Susan, is better known by her other name, Sigourney.

:: I’m reading sporadically these days, occupied with other things. I’ve been sifting through Sharon Butala‘s book, Coyote’s Morning Cry: Meditations and Dreams From a Life in Nature, a small volume of spiritual writing, and finding it a comforting read.

:: I’m looking forward to new albums by Paul Westerberg, and Joseph Arthur.

:: What’s th-? Is SETI close to confirming the existence of extra-terrestrial intelligence?

:: Last Friday, July 16th, I spent time visiting with my friend, Jason Pascoe, who lives in Kitchener-Waterloo ON. I had not seen him for some years, and we had a good time catching up and eating diner food at C Kelekis’ Restaurant, a legendary greasy spoon on Main Street in Winnipeg. Chris Kelekis began operating his food business from a pushcart in 1918, and opened the restaurant in 1946. He was decades ahead of McDonald’s with his shoe-string french fries. For many years through to present day, his daughter, Mary, has managed the operation. As usual, I had my hot dog with bacon and cheese, shoestring fries with gravy, and a Coke. Diet out the window!

On Friday evening, I attended a pool party with my high school cohorts from the 1971 Windsor Park Collegiate class. Held at the Oystryk home in Southdale, about 15 of us had a blast, eating Chinese food, swimming, and ending the evening with a rousing Beatles singalong in the tv room, with me on guitar. The members of this group were not close friends of mine when I was in high school, but that doesn’t matter. They were responsible for organizing the 2003 reunion, the year our class turned 50, a hugely successful event. Now, we are developing strong friendships as a result of the reunion and subsequent parties, and all future trips to Winnipeg will include my WPC homeys. They are fantastic people.

The same day, I visited my mother in the St Boniface Hospital, after her surgery. She was in the hospital until today, and is slowly recovering from what the doctors determined to be bacteria destroying the ligaments and tissue in her left shoulder! I was so annoyed and angry when I learned this. Before I went to St John’s, the week before, I had returned home one evening to find my mother in tears from the pain in her shoulder. I felt so damn useless at that moment. My dad and I were left wondering why the doctors couldn’t determine what was happening until she was six weeks into the pain. I cannot imagine how hopeless she felt, and how intense the pain was. However, better late than never, I suppose, and the operation was performed by one of the top orthopedic surgeons in Winnipeg.

In any event, she is recuperating slowly, and now has a PICC line inserted through a vein in her arm. A PICC line, or Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter, is placed through the skin and inserted into a vein in the arm, and moved through the vein until it reaches the large vein that enters the heart. Through the PICC line, intravenous medication is delivered directly to the heart.

On Saturday, I drove for 14 hours back to Edmonton in scorching heat. With each successive trip, I find the drive slightly less tolerable and a bit more annoying. When I drive to Winnipeg from Edmonton, I take the Yellowhead Highway (now considered to be the “northern route” of the Trans-Canada Highway) all the way to Portage la Prairie, where it connects with Highway 1, some 45 minutes from Winnipeg. I drive back Edmonton on Highway 1 to Regina, then up to Saskatoon on Highway 11. The Regina-Saskatoon run could quite possibly be the most boring 2.5 hours of anyone’s life, but at least it is a divided highway. Between Regina and Winnipeg, there remains ~162 kms of two-lane highway (west of Virden MB to east of Sintaluta SK), one of the many National Embarrassments of the southern route of the Trans-Canada Highway.
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