August 16, 2004

• Hi all

  I feel the need to give you a bit of the back-story of the last
  month-and-a-bit. Here we are in the middle of August already. The time
  has been flying by lately, and autumn is looming just around the
  corner. It's been unseasonably cool here the past few weeks, which
  pleases me greatly. As I never seem to tire of saying: heat bad.

  Two weekends ago I had a wonderful time at the Mill Race Folk Festival
  (the pictures on that site, at the moment, are from last year's
  festival). This was its 12th year, and the first year that it was
  stretched to three days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday). I volunteered as an
  MC for a couple of shifts (about 9 hours total) and had a blast
  introducing the acts and making announcements. It's nice to use some of
  my stage skills every so often. The caliber of the entertainers was
  absolutely top-notch, so it wasn't hard to be enthusiastic in my
  introductions. Volunteering at folk festivals is a family tradition. My
  family volunteered 4 or 5 summers at the now-defunct Hangashore Folk
  Festival when I was younger, and it's something I've really
  missed.  I had a blast at this one, and you can bet that I'll be
  there again next year, if we're still living in this neck of the woods.
  (Of course, I do harbour a secret hope that I might be able to perform
  at next year's festival, but we shall have to see...)

  The apartment is slowly shaping up. By the time I get home from work,
  I'm always really tired, so it's hard to find the energy to get the
  painting done. 3 1/2 walls in the bedroom are finished, the living room
  has one coat on 2 walls, the kitchen remains untouched, and the
  bathroom is all done except for a final coat on the ceiling. The place
  is slowly starting to feel like home. We're still suffering from a
  pronounced lack of furniture, which means that a lot of our stuff is
  still in suitcases and cardboard boxes, which means that it still feels
  kind of like a dump. But oh well. Nothing much to be done, since our
  finances are too tight to buy anything much. We did get a fabulous desk
  for the computer. It's about 50 years old -- an oak desk like the ones
  teachers have, except this one was used in an office instead. It's a
  bit beat up in places, but it's massive and solid (we had to remove
  both the front doors to get it into the apartment), and it cost exactly
  as much as the cheap-ass particleboard desk I was trying desperately to
  avoid buying. Forty bucks at the Goodwill and this behemoth was mine.
  It really makes the room look better (matches the floor and
  everything). My big goal at the moment is to get to the point where we
  can start
  putting up our paintings and posters -- that'll really make a
  difference. I took 'before' pictures of the whole apartment, which I'll
  eventually post here along with 'after' ones, but not any time soon at
  this rate.
  
  Work's been slow these past 3 weeks, ever since the rush at the last
  round of closings. My hours have been pathetic, which puts an extra
  strain on our finances. Thankfully, my wife's salary is now being added
  into the mix, and although it's certainly not her ideal job, she's
  sticking with it. She's just finishing her training period as a Sprint
  PCS customer service tech at a local call centre. Unfortunately, while
  her hours so far have been pretty bad (3pm-11:30pm), as of tomorrow
  they get even worse for a while (4:30pm-1am). Those of you who read
  here frequently know that I'm a night owl, and I rarely go to bed
  before 2am, but even so we hardly see each other as it is. With these
  new hours, I'll only see her for half an hour a day, except for
  weekends.

  A couple of entries ago, I recommended a book, so I might as well tell
  you what I've been reading lately. Let's see. I just finished Oryx and Crake,
  by Margaret Atwood. It's a post-apocalyptic one, and I really enjoyed
  it. The reviews are really polarized -- people seem either to really
  love it or hate it, so if you read it and hate it don't blame me .
  I'm currently reading Stardust,
  by Neil Gaiman. It's a lovely fairytale, written in a light and
  accomplished tone. I'll probably finish it tomorrow. Before that, it
  was Buying A Fishing Rod For My Grandfather,
  a book of short stories by Gao Xingjian, the first Chinese winner of
  the Nobel Prize for Literature. Other than novels, I also read various
  writing, art, technology, architecture and home design magazines, and
  various other bits and pieces of non-fiction.

  Well, I'd better stop myself there, before this entry gets any huger.
  I'll leave you with a recent photo. This is my wife and I with her aunt
  and uncle. We visited them for a lovely dinner a few weeks ago.

  

  Well, that's that then. Thanks for dropping by and reading and
  commenting. It really does brighten my day to hear what you have to say
  and read what's going on in your world.

  Take care
  -Justin-

  • 1:57 am
  • 16 Comments