A Special Song Lyric Friday - July 18 2008

Twenty-seven years ago on this date was a hot day in July, the very opposite of a cold day in December (sorry, that’s an inside joke).  It was the day that Shelley and I were married in a civil ceremony at her Grandma’s farm in Valhalla, Alberta in the company of family and friends.

Although we had been “living in sin” for almost two years, we spent our respective “last night of freedom” apart.  She and her bridesmaids spent the night at the farm and I was supposed to be at our place in town (um, it didn’t exactly work out that way…).

 

Song Lyric Thursday - July 17 2008

I’d heard The Dandy Warhols “Bohemian Like You” on the radio a couple of times and liked it.  But I had heard neither the song title nor the artist.

Then we were watching Igby Goes Down one night and the song was used in a party scene.  Afterward I scanned the credits looking for the song title and artist so that I could download buy the song.

 

Thoughts about “Moving Forward, looking back”

Another widow recently posted a blog piece about “Moving Forward, looking back“.  She’s just a tad bit further out on the “widow road” than I am.  And it is safe to say that we have chosen quite different paths in living our lives after the death of our respective spouses.  Not to say that one is better or worse than the other.  They’re just different and suited to our respective individualities.

But some of the statements that she made got me to wondering.  Admittedly, I don’t give much thought to how I am perceived by others in respect of what’s occurred in my life and how I’ve chosen to live it since Shelley died.  And so I sometimes marvel at what other widoweds see in how they’re perceived by their families and friends, especially, I suppose, in how they have chosen to live post loss.

 

Peak Oil, Crude Oil Price, and Fast Money

Not long after I added the Stumble Upon add-on to my Firefox, I came across a little blog on blogger called “Peak Oil Premonitions“.  The blog has a couple of contributors and they mostly post news items that are related to or in support of Peak Oil Theory.  The posted pieces are intermittent and typically not that long and I’ve had the site on my Bloglines ever since I set it up.

 

The Fallacy of the Gasoline Octane and Mileage Correlation

****UPDATED: Note that this post has been revised.  I’ve left the original comments, though, but the context may be a little confusing.

When I blog I’m usually either relating some real life event or events (often slightly modified for dramatic effect or expedience) or providing my valuable opinion on some topic.  If I invoke something that could be construed as factual, I go to some length to ensure the veracity of the information I’m parroting or publishing.

Recently, I stumbled onto this post via the WordPress dashboard.

 

The Hidden Cost of the “Warranty”

This has been another of those weeks where some time was required to take care of things that were not done right the first time or do not work as they should.

The first one was relatively painless, I guess, in comparison to the rest.  We bought a 2007 Equinox in September of ‘07.  It was just before the ’08’s were due out and the available inventory in the area was starting to grow thin.  A rear seat DVD player has become “must-have” equipment of late and my local dealer was unable to find one with both a rear seat DVD player and OnStar to bring in for us.  (From the factory, you can either have a DVD player or a sun roof, but not both together.  The folks ordering most of the models brought in to our area had opted for the sun roof.)

 

Song Lyric Thursday - July 10 2008

Music has been somewhat absent from my life for the past couple of weeks.  During the long drive home from Iowa, the iPod stayed in the centre console and the radio, including XM, was just muted for much of the way.  It seems that there are times when no music - no sound, no noise - is better.  When we did have the radio, we would be listening to news stations.  We’ve found that on given XM radio stations, while station reception is nearly always available no matter where you are, the playlists are somewhat short and it isn’t long before it becomes clearly repetitive.

 

Driving My Life Away - conclusion

I started my driving experiences here and continued them here.

Now it’s time to draw this reverie to a close.

I don’t think I’ve driven a million miles…yet.  Maybe a million kilometres though.  Over all that distance, there’s only a handful of anecdotal conversations worth sharing.

 

Being Sick

After dodging the bullet for a week or better, I felt the effects of oncoming illness the evening before we planned to leave on our “vacation” to Iowa.  We were at the final instalment of children’s grief group at the Pilgrim’s Hospice and I was feeling very tired with a scratchy and phlegm-y feeling throat.  That was June 19th.

By Saturday I was in misery.  Over the counter decongestants and other assorted “medicines” managed to partially keep the symptoms at bay as our four day road trip progressed.  By the time we arrived in Dubuque I was already at the “coughing it up” stage.  I figured I was on the upswing out of this “brief” illness.

 

Haircuts and Horoscopes

I started a piece a little while ago whilst laying in bed (home from work sick).  It was going to be another one of those…I guess…grief-related pieces.  I had initially titled it “Juxtaposition“.  Here is what I had drafted before taking a break to feed the child some supper:

Ann gave me a haircut yesterday.  I’ve been getting my haircuts at home for about 10 or 12 years now.  It’s easy to do with an electric clipper as I’ve been keeping my hair close cropped ever since it started getting thin on top.  Close cropping started with the 1/2″ attachment, but now it’s down to 1/4″.  I suppose it’s only a matter of time until I’ll be shaving it “right to the wood”.