For Mollie & Elle

One of the first blogs I ever started to read was IPODMAMA, now IPM. I haven't been around in ages, but dropped in today to this post to discover lost love at 16.

I've always believed that music is a way to express and to cope.

Maybe this'll help...

Thinking of you both.

Bonding over a wheelbarrow

Something I've known all along came to light the other day. It's one of those things that often is taken for granted. I'm not sure how many of you can look back on your life and shake hands with those who have been a part of it for a quarter century or more, but that's a reality for me.

I interact regularly with long-time friends, but what I thought about the other day was the great number of those with whom I share a lengthy history and more specifically, those who aren't always in my 'daily' life. I have these people in my life who seem to be off doing their 'thing' and we rarely spend any time together. When we do, we each appear not to have missed a heartbeat: we pick up where we left off as if no time had passed whatsoever.

It's a great feeling and it gives me every reason to continue to make more friends.

Today I spent some quality time with my new neighbour, also Dave but no relation. We did what neighbours do - talked about neighbourhood goings-on, and he borrowed a wheelbarrow. Is this another quarter-century friend in the making? Only time will tell, but for now it's a great feeling meeting a new, great neighbour.

What's your wheelbarrow doing these days?

Along the road of life..

...there are




OK, I thought it was funny...

I was cruising around on Facebook and noticed that one of my friends had recently returned from England. She'd taken that photo, along with this one...




...priceless!

It would appear that I am living vicariously through other, more seasoned travellers! These were good for a chuckle, but seeing the other photos brought back some fond memories of our visit in 1982.

Life moves along here - not so much full of places I've travelled to, but rather, times had with good friends.

Speaking of priceless...

Got any ideas?

The question I pose here is directed toward those in my home town of Calgary since the answer lies locally.

Can you recommend a good yoga studio?

Frankly, I miss yoga. Well, not so much yoga as much as the structured classes. I do some yoga at home and when I'm out and about -- like camping at Radium a couple weeks back. Trouble with yoga is that it seems it's so "trendy" these days, and picking the right studio and the right instructor is as important as one's focus on the yoga itself. I'm a pretty easy-going guy and for the most part, pretty accepting of most everyone, but when it comes to my own health care, I require a gentle-natured soul to help me along. That goes for MDs, massage therapists and yoga instructors.

I did one of those Bio-feedback tests at the chiropractor's office about a month ago, too. It suggested (and I'm not exactly sure how it came to the conclusion) that I am "overworked".

Essentially they hooked me up to a computer and took readings of all kinds to compare against a battery of data. It highlighted a number of things that I was already aware of, as well as a bunch of stuff that I was unaware of.

It was on the recommendation of the technician and my chiropractor that I do the cleanse, and that in and of itself brought a new meaning to the word "exhausted".

Today was my last day of the 15-day herbal programme, and I'm honestly looking forward to regaining my energy levels. Literally, I've felt zapped for over two weeks. It's raising my stress levels simply because I have no energy reserves. The energy I normally use to simply operate day-to-day seems to have been robbed by these little purple pills and herbal extract that taste strongly of cloves.

I've cleaned out the body - it's time now for the mind and the soul.

Checking in after...

...I was going to say "the weekend", but it's been a couple weeks since my last post.

Life is moving along here - the highlights of which have been two camping trips. One to the family cabin at Bragg Creek (followed vary closely by our monthly Monday Night Scotch), and most recently an overnight to Radium Hot Springs.

On the health front, I'm seven days into a parasite cleanse - the affects of which have kinda snuck up on me. I was told before I started that I could expect to be tired, nauseous and at worst experience vomiting and flu-like symptoms. All this last week I've felt tired, but thought not-a-lot of it.

Then it hit me last night at supper. I'd felt a headache coming on all afternoon, but figured it was lack of water and possibly food. All of a sudden I had this incredible hot-flash-like experience. Then I felt nauseous... then, it went away.

I decided to go for a nap, woke up several hours later as it was getting dark. I remembered to take my three pills and one-ounce of herbal extract which tastes like cloves but contains an arsenal of herbal extracts. I went back to bed. I couldn't sleep - tossing and turning, and the headache became much worse. I moved to the living room for an hour or so, drank lots of water and tried to sleep.

Sparing you the details, I've had the flu since early this morning.

UGG.

I didn't realize that "cleanse" meant from the tummy up. I'll have to check the instructions... do I continue? Is this actually NORMAL? Another 8 days of THIS might cleanse me, alright!

Turtle out.
(at least for now)

The Naked Plumber - a true story

This just in by email, it made me laugh sooo hard!

You'll remember my friend Utah from a couple posts back, "when's the next train?" - turns out Utah is an accomplished plumber... by life experience rather than by trade.

I don’t write diaries even though people have been telling me on several occasions that I should write a book. Tonight to prevent a sudden nervous breakdown I will write down this one. Note: this is a true story! A story for my best friends.....

I had an absolutely wonderful weekend. Friday evening I walked the Bowness / Bowmont sunset walk with a friend. Later that evening I was invited to watch the fireworks with another friend. Saturday I went out and enjoyed the day in Banff with another friend. Saturday evening I got myself a pizza and just took some time to be home alone and although I thought about cleaning I didn’t. Sunday I went to the stampede with another friend for the day. Sunday evening I walked the Douglas Fir Trail with a friend and went to dinner at Red Lobster. I also talked to my three best friends throughout the weekend. All I could think was what a great weekend and I realized how many great friends I had in my life. Everyone is so completely different but truly amazing people.

So I come home and check facebook of course. Get the usual updates from my friends via telephone. Then I am off to the shower to just feel clean and relaxed after a long hot day. What a way to end this weekend !

I adjust the setting of my water. Get in and turn on the shower. Just as I am starting to get my hair wet the hot water tap that I have fixed (you know all about my frigin shower taps) blew off / brass fitting and all and hit me in the ass. The water was shooting across the tub and up the wall and over the shower curtain. It was like a fountain in a north westerly wind. I ran my naked little self down the stairs from the second floor into the basement to shut off the water line. I ran back upstairs so I could put the tap back together. At this point my bathroom was very flooded. I complain about having over 50 bath towels… Well I used almost every one of them to soak up the mess. As I'm crawling along the floor laying out towels I discover that both my electric toothbrush and blower dryer were plugged in and laying in the flood water. I safely got them out of "my" harms way. All I can picture as I'm crying is someone finding my electo-cuded naked body on the bathroom floor in a pile of wet towels with vice grips in my hand and the bathroom was a mess cause I still didn't finish cleaning the house.

I put the tap back together and got everything cleaned up. Time to turn the water back on. I run downstairs (still naked) to turn it back on and discover that the flooding bathroom has now leaked down two floors into my basement. As I pick my crying naked self back up off the floor after I had a moment. I went back upstairs. Adjusted the small leak and took my shower as if nothing happened. I have safely gotten everything back to normal although I think I’ll let my hair air dry tonight.

I am happy to be back to normal. I cried hysterically a few times until I looked in the mirror and realized I was still naked. Then I laughed until I cried again…. And cried until I looked in the mirror again… and then laughed and you get the picture. If my loan was in I would have called a plumber to fix this right now.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as I did.

Utah

It's Stampede Week, and I'm a tired Turtle.

Yes, sir. Many days of early mornings and late nights filled in with settling in to a new vie avec Nathalie has made Tortue a tired boy.

A couple days ago I was up far before the birds because by the time the birds were to be up, I had to be on site at a pancake breakfast to provide sound for a group of perhaps-not-so-enthusiastic corporate types.

As I was in my pre-first-coffee daze - around about 6:30 AM - I came across a well-known classic country tune that, as it was playing, reminded me of that age-old question,

"If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would that be?"

The song in question was Country Roads by John Denver.



Why this man, you ask?

The answer is simple.

And that, too, is the answer: His unique simplicity.

I truly believe that most artists - be they painters, poets, authors or musicians to name a few, express themselves and quite often the truest sense of themselves through their art.

There I was, in my far-too-early-in-the-morning-to-be-here daze, unable to do anything but that which was ingrained in me through sheer repetition of the years. Somehow, the lyrics and music and genuin-ness of the man came through clear as chrystal.

This is a guy I'd love to know.

Of course, John Denver has passed away, but isn't it wonderful that he's left a few pieces of that which fed his soul and inspired other humans along the way.