No cards yet

I see that my last posting included a plan to get some Christmas cards done, well…. not yet. If I wait long enough I can send them early for next year. I learned lately that we are beginning to suffer from having continuous partial attention, which means we can’t do one thing at a time anymore but have to have continuous activity. In fact there is an acronym to describe increased activity …FRED as in Frantically Running Everywhere Doing everything – which this season seems to bring with it.

The most recent road trip went smoothly and I’m glad that is the last overnight journey until after the holidays. After arriving in the city following a snowy drive, I managed to coordinate attending the retirement party by taking a cab across the bridge. The cab driver told me he was originally from Columbia and when I asked what he did there he said “politician” and then followed up with “yes I’m a refugee here” He continued with a long list of reasons why Canada is a wonderful country – everything from the people, his apartment, his wife’s job, you name it – was great! When I arrived at the Cambridge Suites there was an impromptu cocktail party just beginning and then the retirement roast. The framed ballad (read by yours truly) and the ‘pimp hat’ were an enormous success, prompting someone to suggest a gold tooth, which was fashioned by the foil of the champagne bottle – great photo op. We headed up Spring Garden Road to Il Mercato:

http://www.il-mercato.ca/

and had a wonderful (as expected) supper. At last report the recipient was headed home to Cape Breton with the hat firmly on his head. .

The conference was very good but very long as it is broadcast from Orlando, Florida and so the time zone difference made for different breaks and a later conclusion. I was reminded that ‘muda’ is the Japanese word for waste that doesn’t add value in processes ex. hunting and gathering when looking for supplies. I also had reinforced that confirmation bias means you observe what you expect to ex. 13 could be a number or a
capital B. A highlight was a one-woman show by a performer called Sarah Jones who was amazing at creating at least a dozen characters with just a scarf or a jacket and great accents. Here’s the Wikipedia entry about her:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Jones_(stage)

We headed out to hit the mall for the evening as my co-worker is a shopping addict and then for supper to Boomerangs which is an Australian chain with amazing ribs. Yum. One of the best speakers was on the second day - Sister Mary Jean Ryan who is a CEO of a large chain of healthcare facilities in the US:

http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/newsfromnist_ssm052103.htm

Getting home at 7 p.m. put more time to be banked.

Thursday brought a trip to pick up daughter # 2 from university so a straight run from work got me there at 6 p.m. just as the exam writing ended and on the road. About an hour from home we hit the predicted snowstorm, which resulted in 40 – 50 km top speeds, as visibility was the pits. It was good to pull in the driveway.

When the cleaning lady arrived on Friday she was surprised to find a human home as she usually only shares the space with the cats. This was especially so as she’d decided to come in her pajamas but daughter # 2 assured her she was wearing them as well. I was reminded of the morning many years ago when I had chased the bus as the kids were late and managed to attract the driver’s attention so he stopped to let them on. Another mother pulled up behind us as well to let her daughter out when I noticed that Marg was wearing her flannelette nightdress so I thought I’d at least managed to get dressed.
Today I transported daughter # 2 out to visit with her older sister and they got some shopping and decorating done. I picked up some groceries and some last minute things and was home in time to take the dog for a very chilly walk. The temperature has already fallen to –11 c and it’s only 10 p.m. so it’s going to be a cool one.

Big weather, which has been pounding the US, is headed our way so boats will be in for a couple of days. Hopefully not too much loss of gear as this year will not be a good one to replace it. The lobster prices have risen a bit to $6 in anticipation of filling Christmas orders but aren’t expected to go up much more. The catches are down now so that most fishermen are landing some traps already. The shore captain had been trying to reach his boat, which is expected in the a.m., well actually he was expecting them the day before and they’ve stayed out to continue fishing and are getting in ahead of the predicted gales so he’d been a bit antsy as the cell was still out of range. I phoned them back (having been online – dialup – arggh) and it is always so reassuring to hear the trill of that diesel engine in the background when whoever is on watch answers meaning they’re steaming in and everything is okay mechanically. When I told the Captain he had a cold night to steam in he said, “been cold here all day” which in his mild way is quite an understatement.

And the quote of the day regarding research is “most things have been found sometimes to work”