This year we pushed our vacation out by a month so we could coincide our trip to Newfoundland with the start of classes at Memorial University. Our son, Garrett, started his first year at university. We were soooo excited that he chose to go to post-secondary school, and we are particularly pleased that he decided to go the university route. He’s determined to make something of himself and we are supporting that with our time, patience, money, blood, sweat and tears.

It was hectic getting him ready that first week, driving him around to buy supplies, snacks, bedding etc. and trying not to forget anything. His first couple of nights in the dorm were a little rough on him. He is a fairly quiet kid, not really getting into too much rowdiness growing up. The other kids in the dorm pretty much let loose that first week… all week… all hours. Between dealing with the noise, sleepless nights, broken heat in the rooms (it was on high and wouldn’t turn down), cafeteria food and a huge lifestyle change, our son was not having a great time. It was difficult to drop him off the night before we left Newfoundland. I got a lump in my throat and my heart was pounding, but I managed not to break down and cry. Later on while driving home, I DID hear a pretty sad song that managed to make me sob my eyes out. I mean why, WHY must that continue to achy break that poor man’s heart? Really sad song, but at least I didn’t wuss out while watching my son walk into adulthood.

Later that week, our son continued to struggle with the adjustment to dorm life. His buddy from down the street who traveled to Newfoundland to attend the same university and who happened to be my son’s dorm roommate decided that he wanted to quit and return to New Brunswick. Wow! I was so afraid this might give our son fuel for giving in to his misery and asking to do the same. However, I think it made him stronger. He pushed his friend to change his mind and put forth arguments that sounded a little like, well, me. Now, while he is still not really enjoying the whole dorm life thing, he has a stronger attitude about it. He is determined to make the most of it.

Am I missing him dearly? Yes. Am I worried about him? A little. Am I proud of him? Most certainly.

Good luck, Garrett my son. Good luck.

Hmph! Our 11:30 pm crossing on the Atlantic Vision isn’t expected to sail until 5:00 am. Hurricane Bill had less impact on me a week ago when it pissed all over Moncton. I had to wait a week and travel 500 kms to really see what a sonofabitch he is!

Anyone who has perused my site in the past whould have come across a post or two where I have stated that spring is my favourite season. I don’t know if it’s simply my distaste for winter, but I dearly look forward to the longer days, stronger sun, budding life and snow storms that this time of year has to offer. I mean it’s truly wonderful to see the miracle of li…. what?! Wait a minute! Did I say snow storms?

Yes. I guess I did.

Two days ago, I took a picture that was eerily similar to another one that I took and posted about last year. The snow was melting, the tulips were poking their pretty little sprouts through the newly thawed topsoil, and the stench of last fall’s rotting leaves filled the air. It was wonderful. We had taken the winter tires off the cars, removed the ice scrapers and shoved the shovels back in the shed.

But Mother Nature is a cruel and sadistic bitch. She flirts with you, winking at you as she slowly saunters seductively in your direction. She steps right up to you, running her fingers up and down the lapels of your coat, glares into your eyes, and then grabs those lapels tight, pulling you forward as she comes up with a swift knee directly into your crotch. Then she laughs at you as you crumble to the ground, her laughter sounding like a shovel scraping across an asphalt driveway, her cackles just like the rumbling of a weary snowblower. We woke up Easter morning to the wintry scene you see here. It continued, and continues, to snow into this morning. I didn’t have the strength to take an updated picture this morning, but suffice to say it was about twice as bad as the picture on the left.

I am sooooo heartbroken! Spring, please come back! PLEEAASSE!!!!

Today in Moncton it will be minus 43 Celsius with the wind chill factored in. That’s minus 45 Fahrenheit!

‘Nuff said.

I took the plunge today. I went for the laser eye surgery that I’ve been telling myself I would do someday, but never got around to it.

I called them up last week and asked to go for the free consultation. I went and bing bang boom I had an appointment for the following week to get it done.

I went in this morning. It is a very soothing environment. They have chocolate chip cookies laid out, soft leather couches, BBC’s Planet Earth playing on the big screen TVs hung on the wall. Very clean cut, smiling, friendly staff wandering around calmly. The gave me an Ativan and a surgical cap and off to the operating room I went.

The procedure only took about 10 minutes to do both eyes. From my perspective, it wasn’t too, too bad. The doctor put this contraption in my eye socket to hold back my eye lids and then he taped back my eyelashes. A little uncomfortable but no problems. Then he said that I will feel a little pressure. He took this thing and laid it directly on my eyeball. He said he was going to gently press to create sucket. No problem I thought. He started to push and push, and PUSH. HolymotherofGodI’mgonnahaveeyesinthebackofmyhead! Then he stopped. I think that he does that only so you won’t be freaked out when they shave a layer off your eye directly in your line of sight, fold that back like they were opening a trap door and then proceed to burn off layers of your lens. You can actully smell burning flesh. But, I thought, thank GOD it wasn’t that unholy pressure like before. All things are relative.

Then they did the other eye. Same thing… at least this time I didn’t believe him when he said it would be a little pressure.

Outside of that, the procedure was painless, and only mildly uncomfortable. Nine hours later, I’m still putting hourly drops in my eyes. (My eyes are closed while I’m typing most of this, as I’m supposed to stay away from TV and computers for a couple of days.) They just feel a little stingy, ichy and gritty.

I recommend the procedure. I can see better already. But, if you are considering getting it done, DON’T WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO!!! It appears to be an accurate depiction of what happened to me.

It looks much worse than it was.

Oct 30 update: I got the operation a week ago today. Later that day and for the next two days, my vision was perfect. I could see clearer and crisper than ever. The next couple of days, however, my eyes felt glossed over in the morning, but they cleared up in the afternoon. Now, since yesterday, my vision has gotten steadily blurrier. Now it’s worse than it ever was. I can usually see my computer screen clearly, even without corrective lenses, but it looks blurry to me now. I don’t know if this is part of the normal healing process or not. I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow morning… I’ll post an update then.

Nov 3 update: The appointment with the clinic revealed that I had REALLY dry eyes. This was one of the potential side effects of the surgery. The doctor wasn’t very reassuring to me when he said that it wasn’t the worse case he’d ever seen. Gee thanks. But, he recommended a different kind of eyedrops and I’ve been using them religiously. Since, my eyesight has been constantly improving and I’m more reassured of a complete recovery…

Nov 11 update: Another week of pouring chemicals into my eyes and I’m almost completely recovered. My eyesight is near perfect. Sometimes they feel a little dry and itchy, but less and less so each day. I just re-watched the video above and it still turns my stomach. I recommend the surgery, but you should do it completely ignorant of the gory details.

In the Moncton area, there are 17 different varieties of mosquitoes breeding over an area of about 800 thousand hectares of marshland.

They say… and by “they”, I mean the chairperson of the pest control board in southern New Brunswick so there could be some tendency to draw a more dismal picture for personal benefit… ahem, but I digress. They say that due to the long winter and the wet spring we are in for a worse mosquito season than we’ve had in decades. I’ve only been living in Moncton for 8 years, but that sounds pretty bad. They continue on to say that without a pest control program (spraying) Monctonians will be subject to up to 29 bites per minute from these rascally little nuisances. With the pest control program in place, we will only suffer 6 nips per minute.

The mosquitos are pretty bad around here. I’ve always said that if they were smart and organized, there are enough of them to single out a human from the herd, carry him away and devour him like piranhas on a wild boar or whatever kind of animal crosses rivers in South America.

I had actually build screened panels to enclose my front deck to find some relief from the relentlessness of these little suckers a few years back. However, since there’s been a lot of development in my area and fewer trees as a result, I didn’t have to put the panels up last year. Perhaps it’s time to dust them off…

“If it weren’t for flies, snakes alive, we’d be living in paradise.” Buddy Wasisname