… and a temperature of -20 Celsius (with the wind chill factored in)?

The walk around my neighbourhood that da missus takes me on, that’s what. Me darlin’ wife has a regular walking partner from down the road. Lately, that lady hasn’t been feeling up to going so my wife takes me as a partially willing second choice. Tonight, I decided to put a pedometer on to measure the distance in paces and it came to, you guessed it, 8900 steps.

Can you guess how cold it was?

Halifax Airport. My flight arrived at 1:45 and by 2:05 I had been end to end… twice. They’ve given the place a little bit of a facelift since I was last here, but it’s still not a place that can keep you entertained enough to pass a five hour layover without at least one heavy sigh. A smoked turkey club and some waffle fries can only take up so much time.

Heavy sigh.

While passing by one of the flight information boards, I noticed the following:

That’s my flight. AC8778 to St. John’s… delayed. Heavy sigh. A quick check with the information counter and I was told that the flight really isn’t delayed. The airport authority just can’t get the board information right.

Interesting. I hope my luggage makes it outta here.

… and the fires are howling way down in the valley tonight. There’s a man in the shadows with a gun in his eye and a blade shining oh so bright.

Funny sometimes when little events from one’s past sneak back in to the forefront of your memory. I was driving home from work yesterday, listening to my iPhone and a song came on that I hadn’t heard in quite some time. It was Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf and it brought back to mind something that happened to me many, MANY years ago, way back when I worked at McDonald’s on Topsail Road in St. John’s.

I was working the close shift. As the manager on duty when the store closed, I had to ensure all the accounting was balanced and the cash counted. The cash on hand plus the cash float minus the bank deposits from the earlier shifts had to add up to the register totals. The store closed at 2 am and by 2:30-ish I was ready to go. I rushed out to the parking lot, which was pitch black by that hour of the night, jumped into my car and turned on the radio. My assorted tape was cued up to Bat Out Of Hell, about two-thirds of the way through. I cranked the stereo and popped the clutch, tearing through the parking lot. When I got to the entrance, I didn’t slow down, taking a right directly on the empty streets. Red light, right turn. I never hit the brakes and I was shifting gears. Another stop sign, right turn, and again a stop sign and a left turn, each time passing a quick glance to ensure the way was clear but not slowing down. I lived close by so I was home before the song ended. I pulled up to the curb and sat there, finishing the song. In my mind, I was the original Canadian Idol as I belted out the last lines of the song, still cranked at top volume. “Like a bat out of heeeeeeeelllllllllllll ooooo..oooo..ooooo..ooooo.”

Just as the song ended, I shut the car off quickly, pulled the keys and jumped out of the car bumping directly into the chest of an officer from the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. His car was parked directly behind mine, but the only lights on were his park lights.

He had a huge smile on his face as he rested a firm grip on my shoulder. “How about stopping for a few stop signs next time you drive home from work?”

I managed an awkward “thanks” and walked into the house, thankful I wasn’t carrying a mitt full of tickets.

I lucked into a free ticket to go see the Austrailian Pink Floyd concert in Moncton this past Monday night. Our friends Kevin and Christine from Charlottetown had planned to attend but for some reason Christine couldn’t go. Kevin, being desperate for friends, had almost no choice but to ask me if I’d like to go.

Like my Cirque du Soleil experience, I had heard the show was good but I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What the heck… the worst I could do is get my money’s worth. Well! Was I in for another treat! The show was awesome, the music was impeccably reproduced, and the crowd was thoroughly into it.

I managed to take a couple of vids with my iPhone. The light and sound in the building kind of overwhelmed the recording equipment in the iPhone, but you will get the feel of the concert by watching anyway.

Here’s the encore:

Check out other vids of the show on my Youtube Channel.

Thanks again Kevin, for inviting me along with you.

Recently I was fortunate enough to be invited to a promotional event put off by a local information technology services vendor (Bulletproof Solutions) partnered with Cisco. They had rented a local racing oval and secured a couple of racecars and, you guessed it, I got to drive one!

It was quite a rush to say the least! Check out the photos in the stack below. Click to see more.

For those of you reading this in Facebook, click here to go to my blog so you can see the pics.

Just about a year ago I posted about my Sopranos addiction replacement – Dexter. When Dexter Season 3 ended I terminated my subscription to The Movie Network. Without Dexter, the movie reruns were like chicken soup without the noodles.

Last week I saw an ad that the noodle was coming back and the season 4 premiere was going to air at 11:00 pm Atlantic last night, Sunday September 27. I planned to call my satellite TV provider on Friday to add TMN back so I wouldn’t miss a minute of the show. Well, Friday was busy and I didn’t get to it. No problem, though, my satellite provider has a self-service page on their website that allows subscribers to upgrade their service with the click of a mouse. So, on Saturday I fired up the laptop and went online. Click click click. Double check…. my new channels weren’t showing up on my profile. Hmmm… well, the site does say that it may take anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours for the changes to register.

We were invited out to dinner so I figured I’d check when we got back.

We returned about 4 hours later and I ran to the TV. Nope… the channels weren’t there. No, problem. I’ll just phone the provider and update the service there. Ring ring ring. Shit… an automated attendant telling me that their hours are Monday to Friday 8 am to 10 pm, Saturday 8 am to 6 pm, and closed on Sunday. Current time: Saturday 10 pm. Damn, damn, damn. Wait… the nice automated attendant also says that I can use the phone for self service. Super! Press 1 for English, press 2 for technical support, listen to all the options, synchronize the programming. Presto! Done. All I have to do is wait 15 minutes to 2 hours for the changes to register.

Sunday morning. Run to the TV. Damn! No channel updates. Oh well. I’ll have to call on Monday and have the updates done then. I’ll miss the premiere, but maybe I’ll catch an encore presentation (that’s fancy talk for rerun) later in the week. Fast forward to Sunday evening 10:45 pm. If I had the channels, in 15 minutes I’d be watching my favourite show. Wait! WAIT! I have an idea! Maybe there’s an option on my satellite receiver to update channels. Click click click. This time on my remote control, not my mouse. Choose TMN. You currently do not subscribe to TMN. To add the channels select OK now. Woo HOO! I got it. All I have to do is select OK. Click click click. Thank you for choosing TMN. Your subscription update will take up to 24 hours to complete. What?!? Freakin’ WHAT?!? 10:54 pm. T minus 6 minutes to Dexter. And I missed it.

Dejected, I checked the channels anyway. It was there. It was really there! Dexter, dude, here we go. It’s gonna be a cool, blood-soaked winter.

Incidentally, the show was pretty good. However, it felt a little contrived. The time had shifted ahead several months and the plot of the premiere seemed focused on setting up all the new relationships and premises that will set up the rest of the season. Dexter has been married for several months, he has a new baby that won’t let him sleep, there are office romances going on that weren’t there before, there’s a new serial killer in town, and some old characters have resurfaced. I know, you are saying that’s what it is supposed to do, but it seemed a little forced. Hopefully next week gets us back into the Dexter groove.