| selling my youth |
[Jan. 14th, 2007|12:10 pm] |
Well, as many of you have heard, my car failed safety inspection last week. Not just a little failure either, where I might need a new part here or there for $100. Nope, it bombed. The exhaust has to be replaced from the catalytic converter back, it needs a new ball joint, and several other smaller parts in the suspension. Altogether, it would cost around $844, says my mechanic. That's probably about what it would be worth if it didn't have those problems, but it does, so that brings it's net worth to me down to $0. So my options here are to sell it for parts, or to trade it in for something newer. Given that I work in bayers lake (for now), will be living in Cole Harbour again soon, and am taking classes at Dal, that would mean about 4 hours a day on the bus, so I'll likely get a car.
Today I cleaned out every bit of garbage and brought up everything still worth something. Some of the more interesting things I found:
a sleeping bag
a pair of ice skates
PC campaign buttons from the 2003 election
a potato cannon
an empty yet somehow still capped bottle of keiths
risk, the game of world domination
an empty briefcase
a pocket knife
a bb gun and carton of bb's
Bart Simpson's Guide to Life, which I'm not sure I've ever read
plus all the usual stuff you'd expect, like 3 kleenex boxes, tic tacs, caffeine pills, tire iron, jumper cables, shovel, 10lb bag of road salt, several tapes, 3 ice scrapers, and service records from the past 10 years.
It's now 12 years old, and I've been driving it for 8, which is longer than I've know most of the people reading this. It's been fun, and I hope it has a good retirement. |
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| the most frightening part is that none of this frightens me. |
[Oct. 12th, 2006|10:48 pm] |
Ok, it happened. Sooner than I had figured too. I got old. Here's what's been happening.
1. I've been driving slower. Sometimes I'll look down and notice I'm acually below the speed limit. Not if I'm in a hurry, or if there are people behind me, but if I'm not in a hurry, I'm not in a hurry. I could probably attribute some of that to having an old American car that was never built for performance in the first place, but it's been old for awhile now.
2. I've been going to bed early, and waking up early. I rarely sleep past 10 anymore, whether I have to get up or not.
3. My drug habits have changed. I've more or less given up on casual weed use, and my drinking has mellowed. I drink 5 or 6 nights a week, usually one beer, and lately it's been lower alcohol beer too. I haven't been drunk in awhile either. Buzzed, sure, but I don't think I've been stupid drunk since Mike and Megan were here.
4. I'm not as hateful as I was. I used to hate pop culture a lot, music especially, just on principle. For what reason, I don't know. My guess is that I was a belligerent elitist prick who needed a way to feel better than most people. Like the guys in High Fidelity. It doesn't matter now though. I've noticed myself listening to top 40 music more often and watching reality shows. I like what I like, and I don't need to explain it anymore than that.
5. Me and Heather are talking about buying a house in the suburbs in the next few years. The idea of getting married and having kids later on appeals to me much more than it did a year ago. Not soon mind you; that's all expensive and I'm still jumping from temp job to temp job. But later on I can see the whole domestic scene happening.
I'm tired now, so I'm going to bed. |
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| Update! |
[Oct. 6th, 2006|01:47 am] |
Ok, updating time. I quit Sameday Rightoway on August 31, and have since worked for Universal Property Management, Shambala Sun Magazine, and the WTCC. You know that great feeling you get on your last day at work? I sure like that. Still, a permanent job would be nice so I'm still looking for one. Hmm, other news. Sunday shopping will kick ass, I hope. Or not. I don't really care specifically, I just like the principle. Shopping will probably suck on sundays as much as it sucks every other day.
Beer news! My last two beers, my brown and amber ales were mostly successes. The amber had a yeast problem, so is a little hazier than I hoped for, and the brown had starch problems, so is a little more explosive than I'm comfortable with opening away from the sink. The chocolate brown ale and double IPA had to be put on hold due to summer. Boo to that. Anyway, my bitter is done, pale ale is next, then maybe some more depending on if I have money for it. |
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| go domestic life |
[Jun. 20th, 2006|12:41 pm] |
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It's been a busy month here at our place. Heather graduated last month with a B Sc. in Nursing, and started her new job on the neurosurgery ward last week. She says it's going good. Winston settled in pretty quick, he's put on a little wait and isn't puking as much. I guess he's figured out that his food will still be there later if he doesn't eat it all right away. Good for him. In personal news, I think I'm getting old again, because I'm much more content with staying in than I used to be, and haven't been out a whole lot lately except for when Mike and Megan were here. Then I went out and got completely wasted. Fortunately Jason might have a party soon, so I will have to attend and bring my berry and honey beer from the post below. Sorry to say it isn't as sweet as I had hoped, but it's still light and fruity, and definately a better success than the barley wine. I might try again sometime without the honey, since I figured that's what killed the sweetness. Oh well. I'm making the chocolate brown and the double IPA next month sometime, and also a brown ale and an amber ale. Whoo! |
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| experimental beer! |
[May. 11th, 2006|11:07 am] |
Ok, I've been brewing a lot in the last month, 3 German wheat ales, and a lager this weekend, but lately I've been in the mood to try something more experimental. I've had a bunch of dumb ideas, involving such things as carrots, peaches, spices, and different grains like rye, spelt, and dinkel, but I've narrowed it down to three ideas.
1. chocolate brown ale (5 - 6%) - this'll be an English style brown ale, but with 10oz of cocoa powder thrown in. It should be sweet, chocolatey, dark, a little nutty, and with little bitterness, hop flavour, or aroma. I might add some vanilla extract too, or a vanilla beans.
2. mixed berries with honey (4 - 5%) - superstore sells bags of frozen mixed blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, so I would add that to a light flavoured ale with some honey. I might add some citrusy hops for flavour and aroma, but with low bitterness. Should be light, fruity, and not at all like my blueberry barley wine.
3. double india pale ale (8.5 - 10%) - not really experimental, because there is such a thing, but they don't sell it here. It should be dry, with a full hop flavour, and bitter as fuck.
Anyway, you can all tell me what to make, and I'll make it next week, on wednesday or thursday probably. Heather votes for the berry one, so that's where we're at now. |
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| a big boy now! |
[May. 4th, 2006|04:01 pm] |
Ok, I'm long overdue for an update, but I didn't have an internet connection until recently. In the past two months, I've moved out, made some beer, and got an infection! Hopefully that'll go away. Right now I just have some spots, and they're fading. Whoo to that. And yesterday, we got us a cat! His name is Winston, and he's cute, and that's about it. He doesn't do much else. There'll be pictures soon, I need to get one of those card readers because my USB cable is broken. But there will be cat pictures, and apartment pictures for the benefit of my far away friends. But yeah, good enough here. Heather got a job at one of the hospitals soon. I still have my data entry job. Oh yeah, thinking about going back to school in the fall, since I'm 4 half credits from a bachelor of commerce, and a second degree might help my job prospects, since I'm looking at doing a CMA after that. Yay school.
Tomorrow: pictures!
or maybe this weekend. |
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| Moving! |
[Feb. 27th, 2006|03:23 pm] |
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Hey all, update time. I haven't updated in awhile, but I've been a little busy for the past month or so. As most of you know, moving day is Wednesday, so from then on me and Heather will be living in Halifax in the south end. I won't have internet access right away, and it may be awhile after that, so probably no updates anytime soon. Other good news, I'll have 2 batches of beer ready this weekend, a stout and an American nut brown, and my pale ale in a few weeks after that. Whoo! |
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| Ok, update time |
[Jan. 24th, 2006|12:23 pm] |
Yeah, time for updating, since it's been almost a month, plus there's been an election, new years eve at patricks, and 2 more batches of beer are done. Lets go with bullet points. They're easier to read and to write.
- I'm not sure if there's a way to get real bullet points. I may have to go with these things: -
- We won! Whoo! Well, we didn't, since we lost our riding, but we kinda figured on that happening. Or people who actually knew what was going on did. Most of the volunteers had the same stupid optimism they had last year, and in the 2003 provincial election. So yeah, not a total victory, since we lost here and only got a minority, but that's ok. A majority would scare even me, and Mike Savage is probably a better MP anyway.
- New Years at Patrick's was fun. I'd post pictures or something, but I don't have any, and most people reading this were there, with a few exceptions.
- Beer! My stout and brown ale are done. My stout is my new favourite of them, but I'm making a few changes to the recipe for when I make it again this weekend. My brown ale I'm not as happy with, especially the head retention. I'm making that again in february, but with more changes. |
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| correction. |
[Dec. 11th, 2005|10:19 pm] |
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Ok, starting tomorrow I'm a conservative again. Or, I work for them anyway, so I am as far as they know. The new campaign manager got my phone number from the last candidate, and since I'm in no position to turn down money and what is for the most part a good job, I start tomorrow. Of course I can't quit my night job because then I'd be unemployed again in 6 weeks, so I'll be rather busy for the next while. I'll still have the weekends, but next weekend is already filled up with bottling, brewing, christmas shopping, and drinking with anyone who feels like drinking next weekend. |
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| status quo |
[Dec. 5th, 2005|03:58 pm] |
Yesterday marked the beginning of the christmas season in my house, starting with the annual tradition of me, shawn, and mom waking up too early to do inventory at fabricville. It was easier this year, since they got rid of the bridal room as well as a lot of the drapery section upstairs, but a lot of that was wasted space anyway. There's pizza for lunch, so it's like some sort of annual party for middle aged women and their children, but the theme is work and nobody wants to be there. Also, it smells funny, and I always get a little sick.
I expect Christmas this year will be the same as most other years, which is fine by me. The usual signs are starting already - there's egg nog in my coffee, shawn's studying for exams, and mom's got new cat themed decorations. Heather will be home in NB from sometime next week until the 30th, which sucks, but spizzy, cue_dot and kerblamo will be here, so that's good. Hopefully there'll be some good binge drinking, because I haven't done that since camping, which is also the last time cue_dot and kerblamo were here. Maybe there should be sledding.
Oh yeah, the status quo thing. The nomination for the conservative candidate in Dartmouth-Cole Harbour is tomorrow night, after which there'll be a campaign office with envelopes to stuff, volunteers to coordinate, and all the other piddly crap I did last summer. I think I'm just going to sit this election out. With the exception of tax cuts, the conservatives don't seem to stand for anything good, and I'm seeing less and less reason to work for them. Of course, I still don't like anyone else either, fringe parties included, except the freedom party, libertarian party, and marijuana party, who don't seem to be running here. |
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