24 March 2013 ~ VIVA LOS MARRIOTT EL AEROPUERTO TORONTO

 

 

Vacation.   Such a lovely little noun; and we have already set off on our little noun.  As I type, Mr. & Mrs. Steve and Helen Knowles, along with my lovely bride, Jane, are all sitting by the Toronto Airport Marriott Hotel pool surreptitiously sipping virtual coffee (which is really booze in a coffee cup).  We are doing this for a reason; we suspect that we are all on double-secret probation by the hotel staff.  Why, you ask?  Because they have already come by to see us and to tell us to stop drinking beer out of glass bottles by the hot-tub; yet the only people here are us!  We are behaving ourselves and we are being quiet; in fact we really are just enjoying some quiet time!  And then Jane went to the washroom, only to report back to us all that she was followed by a pair of shoes (that’s all she could see from under the toilet door), the shoes were definitely dressed for business purposes.  The shoes walked in, walked around and walked out; never to be seen again. 

There is now grave concern within our group that my Marriott Silver status could be in jeopardy.  Are they treating us like this because I used my points and not real cash?  One will never know, but we got a really good deal on the parking!  Hopefully Steve’s truck will still be here when we get back from Cancun.

Well, time is of the essence and we have already over-shot our ‘beddingtons’ dead-line; our plan was to have enough virtual coffee by 7:00PM in order hit the sack and get up at 2:00AM for the shuttle bus to the airport terminal, and then catch our 6:00AM flight to Mexico.  So I am wrapping this up with an abrupt Adiós.  Between the four of us, we have had a chuckle trying to put this blog together before leaving Canada.

And so this blog will be closed out by Mr. Steve Knowles himself; and I quote…

LOL, LOL, LOL the end.

15 March 2013 ~ SPONTANEITY; ON DEMAND

 

 

 

 

I seem to be in a rather philosophical mood this afternoon.  I am about to stare my 55th birthday in the face in just a few short months and for some reason a part of my brain has kind of been fired up.  It’s okay; it’s not a sense of middle-aged urgency or mid-life crisis.  In fact I’m not sure if I have even had a mid-life crisis; well, maybe it was the sunroof on my minivan, but I’m really not sure.  Anyway the point is this; I have been so darned busy lately that I haven’t had much time to do something that most men don’t enjoy doing, and that is something called thinking.  I like to think.  Maybe that’s why I like to write.  After all, if you’re not thinking then there’s bugger all to write about.  If I want to publish two blogs a month in my quest to become a better writer, then I have to be more disciplined in allowing myself some thinking time.  Instead of waiting for inspiration, I think I might have to adopt a more ‘on demand’ approach.  It would be great to just be able to sit and wait for it to happen but I can’t; there’s too much on the go in my life.

 

So anyway; I am thinking about how good a life I have.  Other than being a bit of an orthopedic train-wreck I appear to be in relatively good health.  I certainly hope that I am not tempting providence with that remark!  But really; except for the bit of my thigh bone that is attached to my C5 and C6 vertebrae with a metal plate and some associated hardware, my fractured ribs (which are healing nicely, by the way) and my new right prosthetic knee, I would have to say that all is well.  I am certain it is better to be in a bit of pain here and there than to actually have a serious illness.  Pain can be dealt with ‘on demand’ whereas as an illness can be very much an ongoing thing.

 

I don’t know if it still is written on the back of English bank notes; but as I recall it used to say something like “I promise to pay the bearer, on demand…” which is essentially an IOU (I owe you) for whatever amount the bank note was for.  What does all this mean?  I haven’t a clue; I just thought there was a theme growing here with this ‘on demand’ thing.  It has cropped up about three times so far and I haven’t even finished typing!  Once again I digress.

 

Back to my philosophical thoughts about my life thus far; absolutely no complaints from this writer, I can tell you.  I love my life and all its surprises.  If you can get this far and still be married to the same ‘hot chick’ and have three children that have all grown up relatively normal (at least by my standards), and everyone still has a sense of humour as well as a sense of purpose, then it can’t be all bad, can it.  I have swallowed up so much joy, to date, that it’s a wonder I don’t have indigestion of sorts! 

 

On demand is definitely the way to live, I think.  It has this sort of spontaneity to it.  How sad it would be if one was living a life that had spontaneous surprises at regularly scheduled intervals.

 

Well I think that’s it for now.  Whatever part of my brain that ‘fired up’ has now somehow ‘fizzled out’.  That’s enough ‘on demand’ for me, for now.  So, until my next regularly scheduled, yet spontaneously written blog later this month; I have to get back to work.  There’s a scheduled dead-line I have to meet!