Happy Hallowe'en!

I'm making my way home from Journalfest today, which means I'll be spending most of the day in airports or on a plane. Not sure how many of my fellow travellers will be in costume or whether we will be trick or treating up and down the aisles of the plane!? :)

Hope you have a wonderful Hallowe'en, however you are spending it!

(Many thanks to the Graphics Fairy for finding and sharing this image from the public domain. The Graphics Fairy  Don't you just love the owl on the witch's hat and the black cat on her shoulder?)

Through the Rabbit Hole

Ingrid Dijkers is teaching the course I am taking today (Ingrid's website).  We've been told we will be journeying "into the realm of Alice that takes us through the Rabbit-Hole in tunnel book format."

I'm not entirely sure what a tunnel book is, but here's a picture from the Journalfest website that shows the book from the front. Doesn't it look amazing??

Soulfood

I've wanted to take a course taught by Juliana Coles (Juliana's website) ever since I met a woman who had taken a course from her when I was staying at the Hacienda Mosaico way back in January 2009.  Finally, my wish is coming true and I'm really looking forward to it.

The course description includes the following: "It’s going to be a smorgasbord of all things extreme: a little of this, a little of that. A dash of drawing, a cup of lettering, a layering of collage, some pickling of experimental mixed media surfaces, a tablespoon of writing, and a serious smatter of "reconciliation." This is rich food for the starving soul."

This picture is from Juliana's website (I hope she doesn't mind my reproducing it here) and is not from the course description for Soulfood but I like it because of its October/Hallowe'en theme:

Journal Spilling

That's the name of the course I am taking today at Journalfest 2010. It's being taught by Diana Trout (Diana's website). She has written a book by the same name and we are going to learn some of the techniques from that book.

According to the class description, "today is all about working in layers: spill writing, color, collage, acrylic and textile paints, gesso, portfolios and collage fodder. Gesso will be smeared and scribed through, portfolios scribbled. Ink may be splattered, pages ripped and glued back together in this process-oriented class."

We have also been warned that the side effects we may experience following this class are: "a sense of freedom, flights of fancy and joy."

Sounds like fun, don't you think? :)

(photo credit:  amazon.com)

Journalfest

I'm off to Seattle today (by way of Vancouver), on my way to Journalfest 2010. Once I arrive there and meet up with my friend Heather and our fellow travellers, we will be taking a two hour shuttle bus ride to a small town called Port Townsend.

I don't really know what to expect but I'm pretty darned excited.  It's an art journaling workshop, with only a small group of people - 150 at most. If you'd like to read more about it, you can check out the website here:  Journalfest but otherwise, stay tuned as I've got blog postings set up for the next few days to let you know what I am doing there.

(photo credit: Teesha Moore, from the Journalfest website, only it got chopped a bit somehow)

Lots Going On

There's lots going on and I've got so much to talk about but no time to do it, because I'm meant to be packing for a trip, leaving tomorrow morning on a 7 a.m. flight which means going to the airport around 5 a.m. which means trying to get to bed early which is so not going to happen, because I'm not finished packing and I've still got lots of lists to get through, plus I want to watch tonight's episode of Glee because they're doing The Rocky Horror Picture Show but I can't start watching that because then I'll be another hour behind schedule so I'm going to go buckle down and get busy putting stuff in my suitcase and I'll have to tell you all about everything else at a later date.

Wish me luck!!

Did You Vote?

Municipal election day here in Ontario.  I was one of those undecideds, making my decision on the way to the polling station. I debated whether I would vote at all but I do feel strongly that we should exercise our democratic right to vote, too many people in the world don't have the opportunity to do so at all, not to mention all of our suffragette sisters in days gone by that fought hard to get women the vote.  But I really didn't have a good reason not to vote (other than the lack of a strong candidate to support), as I was home half an hour before the polls closed, there was no lineup and best of all, the polling station was right downstairs in my building!!! They can't make it any easier than that.  (If only they were serving dinner, that would have been ideal!)

But let's face it, we didn't have too much to choose from here in Toronto.  The guy with experience was vague on his plans and the mouthy guy with lots of plans has a questionable past and no experience, and the 3rd guy doesn't think there is anything wrong with the way things are right now, so how do you pick?

I was actually totally shocked to see that there were 40 candidates in the mayoral race.  Only 4 of them have been making any noise and one of them dropped out last week.  But oh Lord, the noise.  I'm always so glad when campaigns are over so we don't have to be inundated with all the TV and radio ads any more and those damn signs can come down off the lawns - enough with the audio and visual pollution already!

We'll see how it goes. The polls have just closed, now we wait to see who comes out on top.  Heaven help us all.

One Last Day

My sister and I went up to the cottage yesterday just for the day.  For me, it will probably be my last visit of 2010, which always leaves me feeling both a little sad and little relieved. Sad, because it is the end of another season and I know it means a long, cold six months before I will be back there again.  Relieved, because it means I will no longer be away every weekend and that means I can focus some time and effort cleaning and organizing things at my apartment, which always seems a complete disaster zone after a summer of spending every weekend at the cottage and not enough time at home.

Two surprises awaited us when we arrived yesterday.  A tree we have been meaning to cut down all summer had finally fallen over. Luckily, it doesn't appear to have done any damage to the building it landed on!  So now we'll just have to arrange to have it cut up into pieces, but at least half the job is already done!!

The second surprise was inside the fridge I had just cleaned and defrosted last weekend:  two exploded pop cans.  Probably a combination of too cold a temperature inside the fridge with not enough stuff left inside to absorb the cold and too cold a temperature outside in the unheated cottage.  Drat!  That means I had to clean the darned thing all over again! Oh well, these things happen.  Serves me right for leaving the pop in there in the first place.

But overall, it was a lovely fall day, quiet and still, just enough sun and not too cold. Janine got 10 more bags of leaves raked up and I packed everything away indoors that needed to be protected from the mice that will be moving in for the winter, cleaned ashes out of the fireplace, swept up, dusted one more time, emptied the cupboards and the fridge for the last time, etc.

October Light

The late afternoon sun on the water at the cottage was especially shimmery today.  The absence of people and boats and wind made the lake so quiet and still and peaceful.

Beads for Andrew

I bought some amazing beads today, as shown in the above photo, posted by the artist herself:  Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio (http://www.earthenwoodstudio.com/), who is just one of the many artists showing their support for the recovering Andrew Thornton by raising funds to help defray his medical expenses.  I've been reading Andrew's blog on a more frequent basis the past few days, as he has been posting about the various people who are very generously offering their creations for sale on his behalf.  There has been much to tempt me - at the moment, there are some incredible lampwork beads of various types being shown, the birds in top hats are especially appealing - but when I saw these ceramic beads, I knew I had to have them.  (My plan is to make something with the beads that I can in turn offer as my own humble contribution towards Andrew's medical relief fund, so stay tuned for that.  I'm also anxiously watching my mailbox for the arrival of the skull beads I won from Andrew a couple of weeks ago, which haven't appeared yet.) There are some beautiful works of art made by some incredibly talented people on offer.  Click here (Andrew) to go to Andrew's blog, scroll down, look at the pretty pictures and then follow the links from there. 

It's a win, win situation - you get something pretty, and Andrew's medical bills get a little smaller.  Treat yourself and share the love.

I'm Not Ready

Have you seen that new Canadian Tire commercial? The one with the guy in the plaid shirt who stops his car at the parking lot exit, waiting for the bar to go up to let him out (or possibly in) and there are few flakes floating about and suddenly, before you know it, there is a foot of snow on the ground?

I felt like that guy today.  I had been out at lunch time and it was a regular fall day.  The morning sun had given way to some cloud, it was headed toward overcast but the sun was still breaking through here and there.  Then we had a little bit of rain mid-afternoon, just enough to wet the pavement, no big deal.  But when I left work at 4:30 this afternoon and stepped outside, bamm! 

It was FREEZING cold. It felt like winter. It felt like winter was HERE.  Already!!  Even though it's still October.  I could feel the Arctic air swirling around me.  I pulled on my gloves and rushed to my car, anxious to get the engine running so I could turn on the heater.  

Then it got worse.  They used the "f" word in the forecast, talked about the possibility of flurries in the morning.  Was it wrong of me to feel happy that it was only supposed to be areas north of the city that might have that delightful experience to wake up to tomorrow??

I am so not ready.

(photo credit:  saugeentimes.com)

Believe

I can't remember if I have posted this picture before.  It's a picture of a shelf in my friend Diane's powder room.  I took a picture of it because I liked the little fairy and because "believe" is a word that I've sort of had as my mantra for 2010. Some days, you just need a word to hang on to.

Here are some things I believe today, in no particular order:

I believe each one of us make a positive contribution to the world just by being here.

I believe Andrew Thornton will get better.

I believe I will never understand why the price of gas fluctuates so much from day to day.

I believe there is more good in the world than bad.

I believe sometimes we focus too much on the bad stuff.

I believe sometimes you can have too much information about certain things that you really don't need to know about.

I believe there is no way to know what the future has in store for us and that's probably just as well.

I believe cuddling a purring cat can make you feel better.

Good To Know

This sign is posted on the wall of the classroom where I'm taking the collage class on Tuesday nights.  In case you were thinking about becoming a nude model, you're going to need to know this:

Bargains That Followed Me Home

Here's a peek at some of the things I purchased at the Flamboro Antique Show this past Saturday:

Some pretty off-white gloves with a fancy applique design:

An old school reading book with pretty pictures:

A jump ring bracelet made with purple Unicorn beads:

Flamboro Antique Show

My friend Barb and I had a great time perusing the wares at the Flamboro Antique Show at the Milton Fairgrounds yesterday.  Lots of interesting things to see, a few treasures to take home with us, and as always, a few special items left behind with regret.

We arrived about 9 a.m. and it was a bit chilly to begin with, gloves were a necessity but wearing them made it difficult to fondle the items that caught our eye, so I walked around wearing only one for quite a while.  This dog appeared to be dressed more warmly than we were:

(we were even more amused to see him being carried about by his owner later in the morning!).

We were not the only ones a bit flummoxed to see this outfit being worn by one of the shoppers:

I was charmed by this pillow of French silk flowers but didn't want to spend $85 to own it.

How cute are these place tags? Makes you wish you were invited to a dinner with people named "Gramp" and "Twinkle Eyes", doesn't it?

I enjoyed looking at everything but I have to admit that several things seemed wayyy too expensive after the bargains we had seen at the vide greniers in France last month.  I was gratified to see that old black and white photos like the ones I had found in France were selling for anywhere between $1 and $7 a piece here, depending on the size and subject matter.

Both Barb and I were seriously tempted by a fancy shoulder height dresser with a mirror on top.  The vendor offered it to us for only $100 and showed us where we could pull up our car to load it in.  It was dark wood, in great condition and all of the drawers slid in and out perfectly, unlike a beautiful but frustrating dresser I have at home.  But alas, we both had to admit that we didn't have a spot to actually put said piece of furniture if either one of us decided to buy it and so we reluctantly walked away from this bargain.

When we left around 2 p.m., ours was the last car left in our area of the parking lot.

Back at Barb's home, we relaxed in the hot tub for a long while, watching nuthatches and chickadees helping themselves to sunflowers in the bird feeder and enjoying the beauty of the late fall afternoon and the view from the hot tub, while Wayne kept us supplied with cool drinks. 

What a lovely day!  Tomorrow I shall show you pictures of some of the treasures I brought home with me.

That Time of Year

It's that time of year again.

Time for roadside stands selling pumpkins.

It's also time for the last outdoor antique market of the year and that's where I'll be today.  You never know what kind of weather mid-October will bring, they call this one the "wear your mittens" show.  Luckily, the forecast is for sunny and 15 degrees Celsius, although it's supposed to be a bit windy.  I'm taking my earmuffs and gloves, just in case! :)

Tabletop, Not Laptop

When I first got a laptop computer, I thought it would be handy to type away while I was watching TV.  The reality is that that rarely happens.  My laptop has yet to actually make its way onto my lap, because there's usually a cat there instead!!

Max the laptop cat

(That's my right foot you can see in the background, as I ice one of my remaining bruises with a bag of frozen peas, wrapped in a tea towel I bought in France.  In case you were wondering.)

Silver Lining

I've been noticing that since my car accident 3+ weeks ago, my brain doesn't seem to be functioning at 100% capacity.  I'm not quite sure how to describe it, except to say that it feels as if I am slightly distracted or somehow not firing on all cylinders, especially when I'm tired.  It's not so bad that I shouldn't be operating heavy equipment or anything like that, it's just hard to concentrate at work at times and I seem to get less done in the course of the day than I did before the accident.  Hopefully this is a temporary condition (as opposed to the onset of early senility), that my brain is still recovering from the trauma of the event just as my body is and just needs a more little time in a not quite full steam ahead mode to rejuvenate itself.

In the meantime, I find myself both amused and annoyed to have experiences like this:

I was disappointed to realize last week that my new laptop doesn't have a built-in card reader.  This means I have to either connect my camera to the laptop by way of a cable in order to download photos or buy an external card reader to attach to the laptop.  Using the cable is easy enough, except the one I have is already attached to the CPU for my desktop, which is situated under my desk and facing the wall, so it's hard to reach the spot to plug it in (especially now, when kneeling on my bruised knees is still slightly uncomfortable), so I generally prefer to leave the cable plugged in all the time and just connect the camera as required.

So today after work I headed over to Best Buy to buy an external card reader, figuring it would be a handy gadget to have for travelling anyway.  I picked two types off the rack and walked over to look at my model of laptop to see which one would be best, as the card readers each had a different configuration as far as the plug-in portion was concerned.  Imagine my surprise (and chagrin) when I discovered that my new laptop model actually does have a card reader, it's just located in a different spot than it was on my previous laptop!!!  As Homer Simpson would say, "d'oh!!"

The silver lining to this story is that I also noticed that the laptop was on sale, a full $100 cheaper than it had been last week. Luckily, I still had my receipt in my purse so I was able to amble on over to the customer service desk and get my refund right away.

In the end, it's all good.  :)

A Miracle in Chile

Do you remember what you were doing back on August 5th, 69 days ago? I don't, which means I was probably just going about my regular routine, nothing out of the ordinary. 

For 33 miners and their families in Chile, their world changed in an frightening and extraordinary fashion that day, trapping the miners underground from then until today, when all of the phenomenal efforts of the rescue team who have put this operation together reached culmination and the men began to be removed from the ground.

When I woke up this morning, I did something I never do - I immediately turned on the TV.  I knew CNN would have live coverage of this event and I couldn't wait to see what was happening.  This is the reason I pay for extra cable channels, in order to have CNN available to watch when this type of story is taking place.  It's fascinating to be able to see all the camera angles and hear the various interviews and stories as the rescue unfolds, nobody does this stuff better than CNN.  For once, it's a good news story and not a tragedy that draws our attention.

I watched miners 9 and 10, Mario Gomez and Alex Vega, as they reached ground level and were reunited with their wives, it was so touching to share in those moments.  As I write this, 12 have been rescued, with 21 more to be brought to the surface, as well as the rescue workers who have gone down to assist with the rescue operation from below.

One of the interviews I saw featured someone who referred several times to the resiliency of the human spirit.  Certainly we have seen that first hand over the past several weeks as these men were trapped underground, somehow staying sane and hopeful.  I wish them all the best in the days and weeks ahead, as they adjust to their newfound freedom and get back to their lives.  I'm sure they and their families will have a lot to cope with going forward but the good news is, they're alive and very soon now, hopefully they will all be safe above ground.

The Day After Thanksgiving

Back to work, back to reality ... but with turkey leftovers.  My sister Janine made another fabulous turkey dinner - here's a picture of the bird fresh out of our retro oven:

It was a beautiful weekend at the cottage.  The leaves are about a week past their prime and many have already fallen but the colours are still quite vibrant and make for a really pretty picture, especially when the sun is shining.

The cold air and still warm (by comparison) lake water makes for a pretty mist/fog in the morning:

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians.  I know I for one certainly have a lot for which to be thankful, and I hope you do too.

A Fall Flower

Here's one of the sample photos on my new laptop, a chrysanthemum.  Perfect for fall, as it's hardy enough to withstand that first chill of the season.

No Electronics?

Susanna left me a comment on Thursday's post about possible problems resulting from using a GPS unit while driving, telling me about a question asked by the CBC's Jian Ghomeshi on his radio program that day - what would we do without our electronics? What could we do without them?

I have to say, at this moment in time, I could give mine up quite happily, having just published a blog post meant for Saturday on Friday instead by accidentally pushing the wrong button.  So now this post is a day later, which is fine because I'm up at the cottage by the time you're reading this and letting my scheduled posts carry on without me.

As of Friday night, when I am writing this, I could give up my iPod, my computer, my cell phone.  I'm so tired at the moment, I don't have the energy it takes to deal with electronics or to figure out how to reverse actions that occur when you push the wrong button by mistake or disagree with my cat Max over which one of us should have greater access to the keyboard (apparently my typing interferes with his napping).  Or do laundry, or tidy my apartment or pack for the weekend.

On the plus side, I have my new laptop up and running.  It's not as sexy or pretty as my old one (which they apparently discontinued last month) but it's doing the job and after spending a couple of hours last night and tonight setting it up, creating restoration disks, installing the security program (all of which seemed to go a lot faster than the first time I went through all this only 4 months ago but still seemed to take too long), I'm able to work faster online. It would also mean I could share more photos from France...if only I could find the disks with said photos. They're here somewhere, I just don't have any idea exactly where and I don't have the energy to look for them.

I'd like to turn off my electronics and do simpler things, like just read a book or better yet, go to sleep. It seems like it has been a long week. I'm heading to the cottage for Thanksgiving weekend and we don't have Internet access there, so I will happily leave my computer behind. Besides, look what happened the last time I took my computer for a ride!! (and don't think I wasn't nervous, just bringing the new one home from the store!)

I'm not saying I want to give up electricity altogether, although that has its appeal sometimes as well. But this weekend, as wonderful as the forecast sounds, we're still going to need a little help to keep warm and we'd like to watch a movie or two in the evenings, so I would prefer to have the baseboard heaters and the TV connected. Plus we'll probably use the microwave to get some part of the turkey dinner ready. So I would have to say I need a little bit of juice for those machines.

But I'm okay being disconnected from everything else for a couple of days - no Facebook, no blog roll, no emails.  I'll have my cell phone with me but hardly anyone ever calls me on that.  For the next 2 or 3 days, the world will continue to revolve without my presence online without any problems. Could I do without it for longer?  Sure.  Forever?  Hmm, I'd have to think about that. 

Happy Birthday, John Lennon

Tomorrow would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday. I have often wondered what life would have been like if John hadn't been killed at such a young age, what else he might have done or said or written or sung. I have to admit, he is only my 3rd favourite Beatle, after Paul and George, but there is no disputing the man's talent.

In honour of his birthday, Google made this really cool doodle - watch it here on YouTube:

No GPS after Dark?

It seems there might be an argument for not using a GPS in the dark.  In the past 24 hours, I've heard of two separate incidents involving GPS systems which might possibly have steered people into dangerous situations.

First there was the story of a woman here in Ontario who ended up with a sinking car in the middle of a swamp late at night, because her GPS told her to drive there.  In her defense, it was dark and raining really hard when this happened but at the same time, I can see why she was too embarrassed to give her name to the reporter.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario/eastbound-and-down-when-gps-goes-awry/article1745101/

Then came the news story of a man in Cordoba, Spain, who allegedly drowned after his GPS had him driving into a lake:

http://autos.sympatico.ca/automotive-news/6335/man-drowns-when-gps-tells-him-to-drive-into-a-lake

Having just recently experienced driving with a GPS for the first time while we were in France, and having chosen not to make several of the recommended turns because the instructions did not appear to be correct, these stories don't surprise me.  I'm sure an in-car navigation system can be a handy tool but it seems they might not have worked out all of the bugs just yet.

Of course, accidents happen in daylight too and without any help from technology.  The other day, some guy drove his pickup truck into the window of my favourite clothing store, Hamilton Creek, in downtown Lindsay.  Apparently, he hit the gas instead of the brake.  It happens, right?  Sadly, yes.

http://www.thepost.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2786523

I love this picture I found on the Internet, it seems to suit these situations perfectly!

CSI

Ten years ago today, the first CSI show hit the air, the show that put Las Vegas on the map.  Oh no, wait, that's not quite right - I guess some people had heard of the city of Las Vegas before that.  But this is the show that put CSI on everyone's radar, the one that has since spawned CSI: Miami, CSI: New York and I see now they have CSI: UK starting to air on our local TV's. 

I don't recall watching it from the very beginning but I remember noticing it because I had really like Marg Helgenberger in "China Beach" and at some point, tuned in to see what her new show was all about.  I quickly realized it was a really well done show and started watching regularly.  I wish I'd know forensic science could be so interesting when I was younger, I might have paid more attention in science class and tried for a career in that field, I find it all quite fascinating.  Okay, maybe not the bug stuff but other than that.

Eventually, I stopped watching the show every week and now I only see reruns now and again and I never did get involved in any of the other franchises.  Once Grissom's character left Vegas, it was pretty much over for me.  But I'm still feeling a little nostalgic for those early days of the show, it's hard to believe it was 10 years ago today that it all began...

Herding 100 Cats

If you've ever heard the expression, "it's like trying to herd cats," you'll want to watch this video on YouTube. Apparently, they let 100 cats loose in an Ikea store one night after the store was closed and filmed them running around for a commercial.  The ad itself is as cute as can be but the behind the scenes look at making the video is hilarious (especially the part where the non-cat people discover that cats often find their way into the most unlikely places!)

I would suggest you watch the commercial first:



and then watch the "behind the scenes" video:



Enjoy!

I Miss My Laptop

Now that I am forced to use my desktop on a daily basis, something I had gotten out of the habit of doing for the past four months after I brought the laptop home, it is driving me crazy.  It is like having dial-up Internet service, it is soooo slow to load anything and at least 50% of the time, the response is an error message.  At the moment, I am trying not to scream, as I have tried twice to open Picasa and both times it opens but then I am told it is "not responding".  Do I want to send an error message to Microsoft? Of course not, does anyone actually read those things??!! I highly doubt it.

I am assuming my desktop's memory is overburdened, I've got several thousand photos stored on this machine and it probably needs more power or for me to spend some time deleting stuff off of the hard drive.  Some day, I might deal with these issues but in the meantime, I really need to get to the computer store and buy my replacement laptop.  The good news is, the insurance company tells me the cheque is in the mail.  I can't decide if I should buy the exact same machine that was damaged in the crash, which was an HP Pavilion and which I really enjoyed in the short time we had together before it was damaged in the crash, or whether I should take my friend Kate's advice and get a Mac (for a substantially higher investment, I might add).  They say once you go Mac, you won't want to go back. It's not that I don't believe them, I just don't know if I can afford the time or money right now to learn a new system.  It's a bit of a dilemma.

I have a day or two to decide...

Versa 2.0

Picked up my new car yesterday.  She's a real beauty.  Of course I got another Nissan Versa because, really, why wouldn't I?  It's the right size, style and price point for me, I like the way it drives and as of two weeks ago today, I'm very clear on exactly how effective is the car's five star safety rating! 

I decided to go with blue this time around.  Not that I've got anything against red, I had a cherry red Pontiac Vibe before but my gut feeling this time around was not to go with the red colour again.  Looking back, I realize that most of the cars I've owned have been various shades of blue, from my first car, which was a navy blue Honda Prelude.  That car was followed by a turquoise Mitsubishi hatchback, then came a turquoise Pontiac Sunfire, then the red Vibe which was replaced by a dark blue Vibe...so overall, blue tends to win out as far for car colours for me.  I'm seriously attracted by bright yellow, lime green and pumpkin orange cars as well but usually those colours aren't available in the car models I choose.

I like this blue, it's very bright and cheerful.  The rental car I'd been driving for the past two weeks was grey inside and out and combined with the fact that it rained most of that time period as well, I couldn't handle it - it was soooo depressing.  I could not have lasted with that shade.  I'm hoping this shade of blue, what Nissan calls "Daytona Blue", will help keep my spirits up as we head into the long, cold winter months ahead.  (I think Daytona Blue makes a good name for the car too, I like the sound of it.  It seems to suit her.)

But first, we have the beautiful shades of fall to enjoy.  Here's a cool photo I took yesterday - I like the way the tree is framed in the mirror, a pure fluke of positioning.  (yes, I was driving as I took the photo but I was careful too, there were no other cars near me and it was on a straight stretch of a relatively quiet country road).

A French Butterfly

Here's a picture I took of a butterfly in France, perched on the flowering part of what I was told is called a butterfly bush.  I was quite excited to get this clear a shot after several tries, it was a windy morning so the branch was fluttering in the breeze and the butterfly itself was moving about quite a bit.  Doesn't it look like he's staring right at the camera?? :)

Ironically...

I got a reminder in the mail today to tell me that my car is due for an oil change.  Apparently, whomever is responsible for generating these mailings hasn't yet heard that my Cherry Bomb won't be needing any new oil.  Nor was I anywhere near the 12,000 km mark they think I should have hit by now, I was just under 8,000 km when the accident occurred.

Equally ironic was the mailing I got last week from the company that provides our health benefits at work, offering me a $10,000 accidental death policy for only $10 a month.  Not quite what you want to find in the mail just days after a major car accident.  Or is it?

I'm off to pick up my new car tomorrow.  I must say, the people I've been dealing with at Nissan, both at the car dealership and the finance company, have been wonderful, more than helpful.  The insurance company people have been pretty good, not quite as great as the Nissan staff but then again, they're the ones out of pocket in all of this, so it's understandable they might be slightly less likely to be warm and fuzzy.  But still, they too have been very helpful and the fact that I'll be sitting in a new car in less than 2 weeks time seems like pretty amazing service to me.  I am very grateful to all involved in making this happen and to my dear sister, who is driving me to Lindsay to pick up the car.

(photo credit:  awakeningbusiness.com)