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Well - I stayed home from work two days last week and I think I nipped the sickness in the bud. I spent last Wed. recuperating and sorting through old photos and throwing out many duplicates. The next day I relaxed and wrapped presents and cooked dinner. Suddenly about 6 pm I heard a loud bang that sounded like a gun shot. I ran to the dining room window and scanned the parking lot and heard no voices or cars driving away. So I went back to doing my thing and a few minutes later I heard another loud bang/pop. I looked out the window again and noticed nothing out of the ordinary except for a parked car in the other parking lot with the hazard lights on. Feeling a bit uneasy about the possibility of gunshots I didn't want to venture out and investigate. I then heard a few more pops but ignored the noises.

A few hours later after cleaning up dinner and showering I emptied the garbage and walked by my car. It's parked just a few feet from my dining room window. Anyway I noticed that my tailgate window was completely shattered but still intact. There was a small hole (I thought was a bullet hole) on the left. I was livid and also noticed small rocks around the ground and rock dust on the car roof. Upon closer inspection I noticed scratches on the drivers side windows. So the punks were pelting my car with rocks and using a b-b gun or slingshot!

Of course my car insurance paid for nothing as the deductible was $500.00 and the cost was $300.00. Geico recommended a mobile glass replacement company that replaced the window the following day. I waited five hours and had to practically watch the guy for fear of getting ripped off. He spoke little English and reported to his superiors in Spanish. The window is not an official Volvo one. So I'm bitter about it and the fact that it happened right out my god damned window!

I spent the last two weekends Christmas shopping and have some good presents but not as many good ones as last year. I bought an Everlast standing punching bag - it works pretty well! Darcy's party is this Saturday and we leave for home a week today! I submitted my article to the publisher last week and will wait for an answer. Very late now so I should head home. Happy Holidays!
posted by Michael at 10:37 PM

 
Welcome to December!

Today was a typical busy day at work. I'm just about ready to submit my article to the journal's editor to be proofread. Publishing it will be a big relief as it's taken up too much of my time over the past year and a half.

Today was my library's first time doing chat reference through Florida's Ask A Librarian. I was the first librarian at work to do it solo. We did the first hour as a group as we were having our dept. meeting. I answered three diverse questions (short story review, free schematics for a 1948 Westinghouse radio), and online directions for how to activate a Santa Fe Community College student library card. The systems crashed once but I'm sure bugs will be worked out over time.
The chat service is part of the new Florida Electronic Library. Not a bad site and every Florida resident that has a public library card has remote access to several First Search and Gale databases. I used it for my first chat reference question.

Darcy and I thoroughly enjoyed our Thanksgiving Day long weekend trip to Naples. It's a nice little town despite the touristy aspects to it. The main shopping district is on 5th Ave and where we had dinner twice. I couldn't resist the temptatation to have turkey on Thanksgiving Day! But I had seafood the other two nights. Our room at the Comfort Inn was good and it had a hot tub. The hotel we stayed at almost three years ago was torn down and replaced by condos. The bookstore we visited was also gone - too bad! The weather was warm the first two days and we got a bit tanned despite putting on much sunscreen and sitting under the beach umbrella. The harsh Florida sun is still intense even in winter. We visited Marco Island - very nice and it felt more like an ocean beach with the sea smell and many sea shells. We were sad to leave.

I'm listening to CHED as usual and just heard that the low tonight in Edmonton will be minus 25 celcius. A bit nippy but it must seem Christmassy there. Not so here even though Darcy helped me put up my Christmas decorations. Had to listen to my 1967 Goodyear Christmas album that Rick taped for me.

Edmonton experienced two great sports events that I dearly missed. The first was the Eskimos winning their 12th Grey Cup in a rematch of last years game with Montreal. Then the following week the city hosted the first modern day NHL outdoor hockey game. It was the much touted Heritage Day Classic. A great marketing event that, unfortunately, the NHL didn't take advantage. Fans in the U.S had to get pay per view to watch it - I was livid. But I was surprised to see that the game was available free online! Anyway it seemed to be a smashing success and I'm sure the greedy American cities will want to emulate having an outdoor game. I'm sure there will be future outdoor games but they won't have the excitement and marquee players that this one had. Both alumni teams combined for about 118 Stanley Cups - incredible!

We leave for Edmonton in three weeks. In fact Christmas Eve is in three weeks today! Can't wait for the cool weather and snow. Plus I can wear my Eskimos jacket. I set a record for doing chinups at the park - 150. I wasn't sore or too tired. Likely reasons were I had a long break from working out and the weather was cooler. I know believe that the humidity and heat severely affects my endurance here. Working out in a cooler climate is easier. Well, that's all for now - bye...
posted by Michael at 7:47 PM