So today I decided to cancel my subscription to the Edmonton Journal. I had no problem with the paper, but to renew they wanted $18.99 which I think is too much. At that rate it would almost be cheaper to pick it up from newspaper boxes.
So I called them up and asked to cancel. They asked why I was canceling, and when I answered, they offered me a rate of $27.99 for two months. That was good enough for me, so I didn’t cancel.
Why am I bringing this up? Because I’ve been trying to cancel my newspaper for about three years. Every time they give me a cheaper rate and I take it.
You would think they would have noticed what I’ve been doing by now.

Today, I felt depressed. I don’t know why, but I just did.
My guess is that I’m feeling stressed. When I was on the West Coast Trail I would also get depressed. Eating would help then. But I think it was all the pressure of the trip, so maybe that is what is happening now.
Most of it is self-induced. Did I really need to sign up for improv classes?
Speaking of which, a new session started yesterday. Jacob Banigan is teaching. I’m guessing he is a popular teacher, because the class of normally six people has ballooned to twelve. Frankly, I don’t like him as a teacher. He is telling us good information, but he has a horrid fixation on the game “What are you doing” which I despise with a searing flame of hate that will boil the earth.
Anyway, back to the stress.
I also have a D&D game that could be considered the “TimeSuck 2000”. I put more work in it than I should.
My parents are going to be visiting on Victoria day, so I need to get the condo cleaned up. Canticle has threatened to visit on the second weekend in June. Convenient timing because I’m planning on going to Winnipeg on the third weekend in June. I want to run a Marathon on June 20th. It doesn’t help that I’ve hurt my foot. I have to try and get it to heal while still staying fit.
I need to take a motorcycle safety course so I can get a class 6 license so there is no legal grey area around my scooter. But that is going to take an entire weekend, and my weekends seem to be sucked up preparing for the rest of the week.
I want to get back to programming for my own amusement. I want to learn Javascript better so I can make a cool player’s guide for my D&D campaign. I want to start trying to draw again, because it would be really cool to be able to draw well.
And it would be nice to have a girlfriend.

So I got my report card for my Improv class for April. I thought I would share it with you all. I cut off the personal information, but the rest is exactly what was written about me. In my opinion, everything he says is true.

5) Students Reason For Taking Course (as they explained it to you)
Just wanting to get back involved in improv, get good at improv.
6) Instructors Overall Goal – What were you focusing on?
For Erik, I wanted to get him to an advanced level.
7) Students Attitude:
Was positive and enthusiastic. He wanted to try things, was a little scared to jump up but didn’t let that stop him, and he paid close attention. Had a bit of an intense nervous energy that was a little strange in class.
8) Ability to Accept Concepts Presented:
Was strong, though Erik would get far too bogged down in “the rules.” For someone who doesn’t have a lot of performance experience (not necessarily in front of an audience, but performance related things) it can be difficult to let go of rules, or to know when you have to stick to them and when it is safe to let them go. This comes with time and experience though, rather than by being told when to. That would just be another rule.
9) Strengths:
Was enthusiastic and adventurous.
Was the most willing to take risks in the entire class.
Would follow notes or lessons to the letter as soon as he got onstage and would be very focused on those things, though sometimes would misinterpret them or take them a little too far.
10) Weaknesses:
Lacks a confidence with the basic improv skills, they are there, but he has not internalized them, he is thinking of them too much.
Thinks WAY TOO MUCH, while off and onstage. Erik needs to relax onstage.
Lacks basic stagecraft: staging, character voice and characterization, projection, etc.
Erik has a nervous mannerism of giggling or making small guttural sounds after speaking. This prevents him and the audience from being able to lose themselves in a scene.
11) Recommended Future: Next level, more training, Show?
I would recommend further training at the advanced level. I think Tad, Jana or Jacob would be excellent instructors.
12) Instructors Notes To GM: Paid on time? Attendance? Anything else…..
I had a private meeting after the third class with Erik about his nervous tick. I wasn’t sure if he was aware of it, and regardless, whether it would make him uncomfortable for me to give notes on it actually during class. He said I could, though it did improve markedly by the last class and as a result I didn’t. It is something a future instructor would have to be very aware of, and also willing to call him on in class.
Always there on time, at all rehearsals.

I don’t think I’m that upset about the scooter accident. I’m more upset over that it happened while my co-workers were watching. The stupidity and embarrassment were churning through my head all through to Saturday.
On Friday evening I went to a movie premier “The Morrison Project”. It was a movie made by some local actors. It wasn’t great. I went to the premier party afterwards, but it was mostly wrapping up by the time I arrived. I didn’t stay long.
On Saturday I was on the exer-cycle for two hours so I wouldn’t have to do it on Sunday. In the afternoon I took the scooter out for an hour. I retraced the route my sister and I took when we rented a scooter last year. As you can tell, in the evening I went to New City.
On Sunday I joined a scooter gang. The scooter store organized a get together where a bunch of us scooted around town. We first went for gelati in the Italian part of town. (It wasn’t as good as Nucci’s.) Then we had a brief discussion as to what to call ourselves. The person who represented the scooter store is pushing for “The Arctic Cobras”. The other suggestion that I really like is “Capital City Cobras”. It has the right amount of geekiness in it. Anyway, afterwards we scooted around. My bike has a good acceleration behind it.
In the evening I spent time working on my D&D campaign. I seem to focus on the history of the world. Specifically the history my player’s will probably never encounter. I think I’m falling into the trap of putting more work into my world than I should.
Today, Monday, nothing exciting happened. I went to Chianti for dinner and Die-Nasty afterwards. The play was good tonight.

Okay, today it was warmer so I wore the shirt that consists of netting and the black tank top to New City. I must say I think it’s better for me, because I seem to get more attention. I think… I’m easily delusional.
Anyway, Melissa wasn’t there. I guess I’ll have to try stalking her another day.
I did see a girl that I thought might have been Melissa, and I’m still not sure if it was her or not. Which shows how I’m beginning to forget what she looks like. I don’t think it was her because she never made eye contact with me once. And I was dressed the same as the first time I met her, so it wouldn’t be hard for her to recognize me. Also I saw her smoking, which I don’t believe I saw Melissa doing on the first night. The final nail was that she was necking a guy on the dance floor. So even if it was Melissa, I don’t have a chance with her.
Continuing with my delusions, I think I might be making inroads with Christina. I realize that she is completely out of my league, but I still get the chance to talk to her. And she has started touching me when we do talk, so I’m taking that as a good sign. Either that or she is totally plastered. I left the club at around the same time she did. I think I would have been better off if I had dawdled outside, then I could have talked to her… while she was with her large group of friends.
I must say, having an injury that prevents me from running really changes my New City experiences. I can now stay late and possibly meet more people.

Today has been a poor day. For all I know it is going to get worse.
A bunch of us at work went to blood services and donated blood. It was a nice way to get out of working for a couple of hours. At the end though I was told my blood was deferred. I feel like a bio-hazard now.
But the crowning achievement to make it a bad day was going home from work. As I’m getting on my scooter to go home, a bunch of co-workers come out to watch me. They want to see the new scooter in action. This makes me nervous. So instead of walking my bike out to the parking lot from the sidewalk it is on, I figure I should just drive slowly across the grass instead. I have an audience, it makes you do stupid things. Needless to say, a scooter is terrible at going slow. So I careen across the grass too fast. My brakes don’t seem to work. In the end, it falls on its side. So now my brand new scooter is scraped.
I really can’t blame the audience, as much as I want to. I just feel stupid for letting them make me nervous.
So it is good that there are replacement body panels coming in. It’s only scuffed and still works perfectly fine. But there are some places that are scratched that aren’t getting replacements. The people at the dealership say it is now personalized.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
If I took a poll of this audience, I’m sure most of them would agree that they saw this coming.

On Monday, I bumped into some neighbors while I was getting groceries out of my car. They commented on my scooter.
“So where do you keep the helmet.”
“It’s under the seat,” I said.
His friend then pipes up, “Yeah, when we hotwire it for a joyride, we want to be safe.”

Also on Monday, I walked into the Chapters store and the security device started beeping. The woman behind the counter said “Just see us when you leave and we’ll get out the rubber gloves.”
Feeling playful, I say, “I look forward to that.”
She says, with confidence “As do we.”
When I’m walking away, I hear her say to her friend “I didn’t know what else to say.”

So what has happened lately…
Monday I was planning on taking the scooter to work. I wanted to get up early to beat traffic, but I was totally out of it. I couldn’t get myself out of bed. So I got up ant the usual time and ended up taking the car. It was probably for the best. I needed to pick up a small number of grocery items which, although they would have fit in my backpack, would have required me to scooter along one of the busiest streets in Edmonton. Dinner and Die-Nasty were good.
Tuesday I decided to take the scooter to work. Kevan, a co-worker and motorcycle enthusiast, seemed to like it. I was expecting the worst from him. Unfortunately he pointed out some damage to the seat that I wasn’t aware of. I need to go to the scooter people and see what they can do about it. Is it something covered under all the other damage, or am I stuck. I’m not looking forward to that conversation.
That afternoon though it started to rain. So I drove home in it, taking it slow. I hope I didn’t annoy traffic too much. For dinner I went to a small Japanese place where a waitress from Chianti was now working. I thought I would say hello then because it is across the street from the improv class. The class was good. Next month Jacob Banigan is teaching it. The last time he taught I didn’t enjoy the class. He seemed too negative. Maybe I’ve improved as a student by now. Maybe he has improved as a teacher.
Wednesday, since I wasn’t running, I decided to go shopping for some summer clothes. Nothing else to report.
Today I went to the foot doctor. He says I have an inflamed Achilles tendon. (or an Achilles something. I’m not entirely sure.) Basically I shouldn’t run for two more weeks, and I should use an anti-inflammatory. After that, I should start running again slowly. I should still do exercises like being on the exer-cycle in the meantime. Incredibly boring, but I should do it.

On April 27th at 11:02 PM, I was heading south on 109th St. I got into the left lane to turn east onto Whyte Avenue. The light turned yellow while I was in the intersection. I started heading forward to get out of the way, but a car going north on 109th St. didn’t slow down for the light, or even stop. I’m fairly sure the light was red when he went through. I braked and let him go by. When I was able to continue, I saw a flash of light that I assumed was a red light camera. I’m hoping it targeted the person who blew through the intersection, but I have the horrible fear that it took a picture of my car.

Yesterday I went through the hell of trying to register the scooter since I previously went through the hell of insuring it.
Long story short, I now have a scooter. I’m trying to fit it into my parking stall while leaving room for my car. Thankfully I park next to a door, so I always have space to the side that I can use to escape with.
Yesterday I didn’t have time to drive more than 400m with it. But today, after seeing a play I trolled around the neighborhood. I found out that while it is warm enough to walk around in shorts and sandals, it is not warm enough to scooter around in shorts and sandals. So I only drove for about twenty minutes. I’m getting more comfortable with it. I drove on a major road for a few blocks. Tomorrow I will take my life into my hands and I’ll drive it to work. To expedite this, I’m going to get up early so that I can go when there is less traffic. It is supposed to be 22 degrees tomorrow, so it should be better.

Yesterday I saw “Kill Bill: Volume 2”. It was good, but if I had to summarize: “To much yakking, not enough hacking”. Still it was very well done, and all plot threads were tied up nicely.
Today I saw the play “Later Life”. Also good.

So I went to New City this evening. I stayed later than normal because I’m not running tomorrow.
Cute girl Melissa was not there. I’m beginning to think it was just a fluke that she was there at all. I’m probably still going to go every week, and eternally be on the lookout for her. (Stalker) And my fear is that I’ll forget what she looks like, so that when she finally does show up, I won’t recognize her.
Still, I got a short talk to Christina in. But she has other men hanging off her, so I don’t expect it to ever go anywhere.

So, the other day, my mind started to wander. I think I got philosophical.
If you think about it, existence is pretty tenuous. I can sum it up with the question “Why is there something instead of nothing?” Why is their a universe at all? There could just as easily have been nothing at all. And if there was nothing, we would never have been around to perceive it. Even if there is a universe, it would be meaningless unless there was an intelligence to marvel at the creation. Is there a difference between absolute nothing, and a universe with no intelligence.
I suppose that is the wonder of life. If there is life, we can perceive the universe.
How does this work with Schrodinger? The act of observation affects the experiment? collapses the waveform? or something like that? So does the act of observing the universe, create the universe. That sounds circular: The universe exists because we perceived it; We exist because the universe does. i.e. The act of perceiving ourselves creates us. Does the universe only exist because we have perceived it?
“I think, therefore I am.” The more you contemplate Descartes saying, the more you can marvel at it.
I ‘m sure this is all covered in Philosophy 101, but I’ve never taken a philosophy course. I suppose if I was religious I wouldn’t have these contemplations. Because the existence of a god guarantees that there is somebody to observe the universe. Most religions assume he created it too. But I don’t have the comfort of believing in god. (I wish I could. It would be reassuring to know that there is an all powerful being protecting us. But I don’t, and I can’t change that.)
Have we put all the universe’s eggs in one basket. All life on one planet?
Spread out people!

So I phoned in and got the results of my X-ray. Apparently nothing in my foot is broken or fractured. They think it is just a sprain. So I’m going to go into the clinic again tomorrow to get more information. In any case, I’m not running on Sunday. I’ll instead try and use a boring exercycle for two hours on Sunday morning. But since there is no schedule, I should be able to stay up later on Saturday.
I broke down. I’m going to get the scooter, even though it has damage. So I went through the hoops of getting it insured again. It wasn’t as easy the second time around. Because the insurance company knew it was damaged, they wanted a mechanic’s report on the level of damage. I’ll get the registration done tomorrow and then see if I can learn to drive the thing over the weekend.
Last D&D game, a character died. The only way to get him back was to reincarnate him. I gave the player some choices of races that I thought would add well to the campaign. But he didn’t like them. I don’t blame him on the first one, but the second one annoyed me. He decided instead to take a random roll, and he became an orc. This required me rewinding some of the events from the last game, because we played a bit after the reincarnation, but before we had decided what he was. Anyway, this time around, the affable sphinx just attacked the orc. (It’s an orc. What other reason does it need.) It was able to kill him in a few rounds.
This was too much, and I allowed one of them to burn a hero point so that at a crucial moment, they would be able to purchase the diamonds they needed to cast a raise dead, instead of a reincarnate. So after wasting three hours, we were able to get the expedition into the dungeon started again. They then spent two hours trying to actually get down the stairs.

I got several X-Rays today. The first two were when I got up early this morning and went to the dentist. It was a bi-annual check-up and they wanted to take X-rays of my teeth.
After work I went to the walk-in clinic. I felt like a part on an assembly line. The doctor saw me for about two minutes. He mentioned something about possible fracturing before he sent me off to get an X-ray. I drove to a place still open and they pointed the source of radiation at my foot three times.
Hope it isn’t too bad. Needless to say, I didn’t go running today.

“I want everyone who reads this to ask me 3 questions, no more no less. Ask me anything you want. Then I want you to go to your journal, copy and paste this allowing your friends (including myself) to ask you anything.”

So at work today I tried to contact a doctor. The foot clinic where I’ve been to in the past (Had toe problem solved there in 2001) can’t see me until the 29th. I contacted Capital Health to try and get a family doctor for myself. I’ve been here for eight years so it is about time. The one I was recommended can’t see me until May 27th.
So I tried to go to a walk in clinic after work. Got there and saw that it closes at 5:00 on Tuesdays. It’s open until 6:00 tomorrow, so I’ll go then. I’m obviously not going on the Wednesday night run, so I should be okay.
A co-worker, Keith, thinks it is a bone bruise. He makes a convincing argument. Since my left heel was bothering me, when I ran on Sunday, I probably favored my left foot (not the movie, the actual foot), and caused some aggravation to the right foot. i.e. My own fault.
I find that my feet don’t hurt as much if I walk on my toes. It looks odd though.
What have we learned besides smoking can ruin your health? Listen to your body.
Andrew is having a birthday party for himself at the Greek restaurant, Yannis, at 6:00. He only gave me three hours notice that it was his birthday today, so I have nothing for him. I better get going soon, I have the improv class at 7:00. i.e. I can’t stay long.

Last Thursday my left heel started hurting. I hadn’t run on Wednesday, so I’m not blaming that. It didn’t bother me too badly when I did a 23km run on Sunday morning. But after the run, my right foot started hurting. It still does. I’m having trouble walking. I’m going to try and make an appointment with a podiatrist and get this looked at. There are a number of other concerns I have about my feet, so I can probably get it all covered in one hit.

So we got new phone books at work. I thought I had grabbed some last Friday, but apparently I didn’t. So this Monday, I found that they have all been taken, and I’m not getting new ones. This sucks because now the ones I’m using are two years old. Mine are on a bookshelf that is behind me and I always thought of as being public phonebooks.
Cameron, who sits next to me, decided to take some of the new ones and have his own personal set. This wouldn’t bother me, but because he did that, I don’t get to update my phonebooks. I’m actually amazed at the amount of simmering rage I’m feeling. Maybe it’s because it is Monday, or from a lack of sleep, but there is an unhealthy feeling of resentment I’m feeling right now.
He has suggested I take some from the front lobby of where I live. Those belong to other people, so I would be effectively stealing. If I’m going to steal, I might as well just do it from the person who I feel wronged me.
I can just see I’m going to take this out on him in some D&D game later.
In summary: I need more sleep.

Piffle!
She wasn’t there.
I hope she wasn’t there last time just because it was a long weekend.

Well I haven’t written in awhile. I’ll try and recap.
On Tuesday, I had the improv class. I think I’m getting better, but I’m still out of practice.
On Wednesday I chickened out. I was supposed to go running, but I’m in summer mode right now, and with snow on the ground, it was asking too much. There was a condo meeting in the evening. It looks like I’m going to be drafted to create a webpage for the building.
On Thursday, nothing happened.
On Friday, Andrew had a games night. I went to his house and played Risk 2210 with people in my D&D game. Cameron won in the end. I had a chance to make it so that Michael won, but I forgot to play the one card that would have done that. Well, Cameron did play best and deserved to win; He doesn’t need a kingmaker screwing him up.
Michael has his own D&D game that he runs (I’m not in it by choice), but he is not having a session today like usual. Apparently a collection agency has been hounding him at work and just giving him an unmanageable stress level. That’s why there was a game night yesterday, because there wasn’t a D&D game today. He has solved his collection agency problem, by getting them to realize that they have been harassing the wrong Michael.
Today I’ve been trying to clean up my condo. I’ve taken a few breaks. I’ve watched a few Blackadder episodes. I also went out for a walk. During the walk I went to the scooter place.
The regular salesman I’ve been dealing with wasn’t there, but I asked the person there what the status of my scooter was. He told me that instead of getting me the new one I ordered, they’re going to give me the damaged-in-shipping one after they’ve repaired it. It will be just as good as new. However that is not what I ordered. I didn’t like his question “What’s the difference between refurbished and new?” I couldn’t deal with that right then, so when he was distracted with a phone call I left.
I’m going to talk to them when I can find the salesperson I’ve been dealing with. I don’t care for bait and switch tactics being used on me. I’m certainly not paying new price for a refurb. I’m quite willing to cut bait. The money I’ve set aside for this should probably be going towards my mortgage anyway.
Anyway, I’ve been cranky since.
I’m planning to go to New City tonight. I don’t think anyone I know will be there, but I would like to try and see Melissa again. I’ve just got to improve my mood…
Or is crankiness good in a goth bar?

Who stole my summer.
For the past week it has been beautiful weather. Now it has gone to pot. This morning the weather report threatened snow tomorrow.
Not much to report. On the way to Chianti I stopped off at the scooter store. They have changed their mind and aren’t sending the broken scooter back. They will fix it up and sell it at a reduced price to someone else. I’m sure you know my opinion on that.
They also said that they wouldn’t do the de-restricting service. There really isn’t anything they can do to de-restrict it. Instead they are giving me a better exhaust system. Cool.
At Chianti, Michael and Jenn showed up. We tried not to talk about D&D, because Jenn was there, but it occasionally devolved into it. We discussed Cameron a lot and what he seems to like and dislike. Apparently, he really likes to make characters. And he likes to argue.
Anyway, Die-Nasty was good. Ron Pederson showed up. He is the famous actor on Mad TV, who got his start in Die-Nasty. He’s good at slapstick.

So, Sunday run was 32km. I wasn’t able to form my splinter group, so I ran with my previous group. The slower pace was surprisingly easy. But with 10km to go I couldn’t stay slow any longer and sped off.
It was cloudy this morning, and even rained during the run. So I thought I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the beautiful weather as much. But with five km to go, the sun came out and I started heating up.
The rest of the day was beautiful.
I think the brunch was canceled. I didn’t go. We talked about it, and some people were saying that with it being Easter, people would be having an Easter brunch. So the place would be really crowded. I grabbed a muffin and a chocolate milk from the cafeteria and then went home.
Read the paper, then I went to McDonalds to have a lunch. I then went to the scooter store. Apparently they haven’t gotten around to registering their rental scooters. So no free ride for me. Which wrecked my afternoon plans.
So I took a walk, (helps flush the lactic acid out of my legs), bought a slurpee, then went home. I vegged in front of the big screen and watched Blackadder episodes. I made dinner, did laundry, and then typed up my journal entries. I posted this one and the last one on Monday because I wanted to make sure I got in everything. Also, hoping people read them in the correct order.

What a difference a half hour makes.
So when I went to New City on Saturday, I was wearing some different clothes than usual. Last weekend I picked up a shirt that was just fishnet. Beneath it, I had on a black tank-top. Since I exercise a lot, I fooled myself into believing that I was showing off my muscles more. I’ve been doing that at home every so often. I look in the mirror and think, “Hey! I’m looking pretty good.”
But that night, something unprecedented happened. Something that I’ve never seen. A totally unique experience. I think it fundamentally changed my view of the world.
A girl smiled at me.
Now I try and smile at people all the time, but in bars they usually they eye-contact. But this pretty girl looked back and smiled.
At first I didn’t believe it. Then Shay asked me “Did she just acknowledge your presence?”
“She must have been looking at someone behind me.”
He checks. “There is no one behind you.”
He then starts encouraging me to go up and talk to her. She disappeared for a while as someone I know from Die-Nasty suddenly appeared and said hello. Bad timing. Shay went looking for her after we lost track of her. When she was seen again, she was dancing. I wasn’t sure of decorum, so I asked if it is socially acceptable to just go up and start dancing with her. Apparently it is.
And she smiles at me some more.
After dancing, I was able to talk to her for a few moments. Her name is Melissa and she is working towards a Fine Arts degree in theatre. I think she liked me, because she didn’t seem shy about touching me.
Normally I go home around 11:30 because I have to get up early. Screw that! I stayed until 1:30.
Now, I lost track of Shay, so I couldn’t get more advice. I’m not sure how to act in these situations. Don’t be clingy, or don’t be standoffish. Am I paying too much attention and bothering her, or does she want to see me, but I’m not making myself accessible? She had her own group of people. How does that affect things.
But for the rest of my time there I went on to the dance floor every so often. Occasionally I was able to make eye contact, and she would smile again. But I never talked to her again until I was leaving. I wanted to say goodbye and thank her for the dance.
Should I have asked for her telephone number? Or e-mail? Or should I have just given her my number and asked her to call?
I don’t know. They don’t teach courses on this.
I also don’t know why Melissa smiled back at me. Do I look better with muscles showing? (Using the term “muscles” liberally.) I did try wearing some Axe deodorant and the commercials imply that women will crawl all over men wearing it. (Yes, I got sucked in by the ads.)
I barely know Shay. But he’s done more for me in the social world in one night, than everyone else combined. He gave me practical advice, encouragement, and even a target. (Most people just tell me I’m not horribly pathetic.) Next time I see him, I’m buying him a drink.

A long weekend is nice. My brain totally shuts down. I’m writing this on Sunday evening, and trying to figure out what I did on Friday, and I really can’t remember much. I think I took a walk on Whyte Avenue. I did also make myself a very nice dinner with a recipe I’m trying out. I have tried it in the past, but I used the wrong kind of chicken breast. What a difference that makes. It tasted fantastic.
But most of the time was taken up trying to get a D&D game ready for the next day.
On Saturday, it was beautiful out. It was a shame that I made plans to have a D&D game that afternoon. I did some banking and shopping in the morning and then tried to prepare a bit more for the game. But I just gave up and rested on my balcony. Looked at the view, and got to know my neighbor a bit better.
The D&D game was good. The party now has a quest in mind. Unfortunately, five minutes after they started on it, someone was dead from purple worm. They retreated back to the starting point and have begged to have their druid back. So I get to reincarnate him as something. I have an idea, but I don’t know if it is too cruel. I’ll discuss it with the other players before I commit. I could also say that instead they were able to get enough diamonds so the cleric could cast raise dead.
After the D&D game I went to New City. I got there at around 9:20. Staked out a table and waited for people I know to show up. They did soon enough and I talked to them.

So I had a horrible thought when I got up today. It depressed me all morning.
What are they going to do with the shipped scooter.
The scooter I ordered is the only silver/green coloured one of that model (and it’s a higher quality model) in all of Edmonton (possibly Alberta). So there is a certain cachet to being the owner of a unique vehicle. But if they just sell the damaged one to some other schmuck at a reduced price, then I’m no longer special.
Fortunately, I just checked, they are shipping it back to Montreal. I’ll have an idea on Monday as to when mine will arrive.
My coworker was able to drop off the Angel collection to me today, so I can catch up on the missed episodes.
The other co-worker purchased the HDTV decoder and we activated it at my place. It took awhile. The person at Shaw claimed it was plug-and-play, but he must be a Windows user to think that. There was nothing on, so I never got a good example of the great picture it is supposed to have. It was all news programs. Broadcasts from newsrooms looked good, but not jaws dropping great. Note: some people shouldn’t be on TV anymore if that is how they really look. All the other broadcasts weren’t noticeably great.
In theory, the Masters golf tournament will have fantastic picture. If the converter doesn’t work at my co-worker’s house, then I may get to see it because he’ll try and watch it at my place. But I know that isn’t going to happen. While typing this he phoned to say it works in his place. However, I can taunt him.
When first asked, Shaw said that it didn’t cost anything extra to use the HDTV decoder. But, while setting it up, they said it costs $2 a month. Bait and switch. But I can cancel the service, and then he won’t get to see his golf tournament. And he really wants to see it.
But I’m not that mean.

Today was a disappointment.
My scooter is set to arrive today, and I’ll pick it up tomorrow. So I phoned up my insurance agency to get insurance on it. No problem. Then after tonight’s run I saw that the dealership was still open so I stopped in. And there was my scooter.
However, they weren’t going to let me have it. When it shipped to them, it was outside of its box and lying on its side. So it was all scratched up and things were bent that shouldn’t have been. They’re going to return it, and a new one is being shipped from Montreal. It should be here next week. They actually seemed angrier than I was. I was just… numb? (I haven’t made my self-esteem dependent on this purchase.)
Sigh.
I was able to sit on the shipped model and the controls are where I expected them to be, But this ruins my long weekend plans. I was going to spend it getting comfortable with my scooter so I could take it to work on Monday. The dealership said that they will let me borrow one of their rental bikes on the weekend for an hour so I can get comfortable with them. At least that takes a bit of pressure off of my first ride. Still…
For the past few days I’ve been thinking of how this scooter will make my life better. Specifically parking. Where I would go with it. I’ve been meaning to check out Walmart so I can pick up some Wine gums for my 32km run on Sunday. That sounded like a good option for learning to ride.
So I go home, with the plan to catch up on some TV. (Hardly exciting, but I’m tired.) Since Space has been rebroadcasting all the old episodes of Angel, I’ve been watching them. I haven’t seen any from the past two days, so I need to catch up. Then I find that I’ve actually recorded the wrong channel! I have a coworker who has the DVD of the season with the episodes I missed, so I’ll try and borrow it. The problem is that I would like to watch it over the weekend, and that means I would have had to tell him today so he could bring it to work tomorrow.
With the way I’m batting right now, I don’t have good hope for tomorrow. What do I have planned? Another coworker has a problem that I’m helping him with. He currently gets cable from Shaw without paying. They aren’t billing him, but he still seems to get his cable. He wants to upgrade, but if he does, he’s sure they will notice he isn’t paying. This is too good a thing to screw up. But he is going to try an experiment. He wants to buy an HDTV decoder. But he needs to have Shaw activate it. So we’re going to set it up on my TV, phone Shaw and get them to activate it. Then he’ll take it home, and hopefully it will work there.
If it doesn’t work, I think he’s going to try and watch some PGA Masters golf tournament this weekend at my place.
Anyway, my place is starting to get messy, so I’m going to start cleaning it up.
I hope venting here is therapeutic.

I live close to Whyte Avenue. At the intersection of that avenue and the one way street that is Calgary Trail North (now Gateway boulevard) there is a stoplight. When it turns red for the people going north on Calgary Trail, there is first a left turn light for cars turning north from Whyte Avenue before the general green light appears. At that time, pedestrians aren’t allowed to cross Calgary Trail. The red hand signal comes up so people don’t wander in the way of the Whyte Avenue traffic turning north.
But that really only affects the people on the north side of Whyte. People on the south side of Whyte have no chance of getting smeared. All the cars are lined up nicely and it is quite clear that it is safe to cross, even though there is a red hand signal saying otherwise.
That intersection always struck me as a very Canadian place. Because, most of the time, people would still wait for the red hand signal to change to the white walk signal. I want to get a picture of that, becuase it looked so stereotypical.
The reason I being this up is that they’ve changed it. The signal light is now smart enough to realize it is safe to let people cross on the south side of Whyte.
Still, it was a nice image of Canada.

My Mondays are fairly repetitive. There really is nothing to report. They are all the same. Go to work, go to dinner at Chianti, go to Die-Nasty, go to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat.
So let’s discuss Tuesday. Got up. Then, before breakfast, while I’m still hungry, plan out my grocery shopping that I’ll do after work. Eat breakfast, then go to work. Work lasted slightly longer than expected. After I did the grocery shopping, (I have some steak pie and stuffed chicken breast in my future) I went home, scarfed down half a dinner before rushing off to the Improv class that starts today.
I don’t think the class went that well. It’s been so long since I last improvised that I feel I’m off my game. Hopefully next week will be better.
Anyway, afterwards I did some stretching in the gym and now I’m typing this up before I go to bed. I have some cake I got from Safeway last week. It’s not stale yet, but it is now playing the part of “the other half of dinner”.