Summer Vacation & Other Observations

I'm on vacation starting Friday and was wondering. What are people doing for summer vacation breaks this year? There's been a lot in the press about "stay-cations" due to the economic downturn. Are you going away or staying close to home? We plan a few days trips but nothing elaborate. We're starting to see a lot of "discount" deals on Mexico trips advertised. Gee, I wonder why??

In unrelated news, I saw a piece on the local news about a woman who got an allergic reaction from a pair of flip-flops @ Wal-Mart for $5.00. OK, now she wasn't threatening to sue (obviously not an American) but the Wal-Mart rep said they pulled that brand of "shoe". Now, to me, if you pay $5.00 for your footwear, what kind of quality are you really expecting?? I know people who loves the Dollar Stores. Anything we ever bought at one of those places fell apart the first time we used it. Why don't they rename these places "Buy our Cheap Crap" stores? I will say you can get cheap deals on last minute birthday cards, in case you forget.

June-July is the dead time for the NFL. The last mini camps are wrapping up and come mid July, the rush to sign all those overpaid first round picks will start. There is talk of a rookie pay scale in the NFL (like that of the NBA) in which players need to prove that they can do it at the next level before making the big bucks. Sounds like a plan to me, especially with the volume of "busts" that each draft inevitably contains. Bigger concern is the looming uncapped year & possible strike.

Hope everyone has a great Canada Day holiday next week. Is it really unpatriotic if I consider a US day trip on July 1?

Gifts

As anyone who goes near a store or watches TV is aware, Father's Day is coming up this Sunday. Not long after that is my wife's birthday. Now, I loved my dad (RIP Ron) but I've grown really tired of what my friend Dan Brown calls "Hallmark Holidays", like Mothers' & Fathers' Days, Valentine's Day, Halloween, etc. I love my wife every day; not just more on February 14. I'm lucky too in that my wife & I are to an age where birthdays do not entail the need for surprises anymore. We each let the other pick out what they really want. In her case, it's a "road trip" up to Mary Maxim in Paris and Stockade in Guelph. It's a nice drive at the end of June.

OK, now, am I becoming a "grumpy old man" for not embracing the "hallmark Holidays"? Should I be doing a big surprise for my wife? I've been considering a surprise gift, such as the DVD Box set of Keeping Up Appearances but that's about it. BTW, she doesn't read this blog so no worries about spoiling the surprise. What happens when you have to do a birthday gift? Is surprise still part of it?

Houston Football Players Not "Pussies"

OK, this one is under the cheap laughs catagory but my smutty mind enjoyed it anyway. NFL teams have just been given permission to sell advertising space on their practice jersyes. Click here to see which company wanted to post it's logo on the Houston Texans' practice jerseys.

Now, who's got the best pun to go along with this story. "Tight end" and "deep penetration" are too easy; let's see some imagination here folks!

Live Music - Wow!

Daryl has posted in the past about his love for live music and I can see his point. In the past week, we've been lucky enough to see 3 great live performances. We saw Harry Manx Friday night, Tom Wilson (fronting Lee Harvey Osmond) on Saturday in St. thomas & Colin Linden last night @ the London Music Hall.

All were great shows and even my wife said on the drive home,"we should go see more shows and take a risk on a few performers we haven't heard of".

That leads to to my question. Do you go to live concerts for bands/performers whose music you don't know? If so, what criteria do you use? Do you chose by venue (ie - that place always has my type of music so I'll try this band that is playing there)? Are there any upcoming live shows you're looking forward to? Sorry for the slowness of updates; as I warned you, summmer's almost here & my mind is turning to mush.

Nearly Summer

I can always tell when it's nearly summer because my mind basically starts to shut down. I have to work of course, but in terms of getting worked up, excited or even pi$$ed off, it just doesn't happen as much. Which means, it's harder for me to come up with things to blog about.

Once I finish work, all I can think about is going for a walk in the sun, wearing shorts & sitting on the patio with some BBQ'd dinner and a cold refreshing beverage. My mind goes into So-Cal mode (fortunately, no wildfires to go with it).

I'm not an NHL guy so the Stanley Cup playoffs holds minimal interest for me (I know that's sacrilege since I'm Canadian but I just don't care). There are too many teams now days. I mean, is anyone shocked that Phoenix couldn't sustain a hockey team, really??? Anyway, I used to be a bit of a hoops fan but that's kinda died out for me too since I got too old to play the game and since Michael Jordan retired after making that last shot against Utah (the comeback doesn't count; sorry).

Are you like me? Does your mind go on vacation even before your body gets to? Is there anything going on in the world of sports, politics or music that really has your attention right now? If so, I must have missed it while my mind was on vacation. Bring me up to date & thanks for reading.

Being Late

One of the things that drives me crazy is when people are constantly late for things. If you accumulated the time I've spent waiting for others, I think I've wasted days so far. All of us have been late once or twice for things; unforeseen stuff comes up, like the car won't start, etc. I'm not talking about that though. I'm talking about people you deal with who are constantly running behind and seem to accept it as normal. Have you ever dealt with someone like that?

In my experience, the only thing you can do is to tell them a time earlier than you want. For example, if you want them to arrive by 8:00, tell them to arrive by 7:45 or 7:30. That way, you'll have a reasonable sense of certainty that they'll arrive by 8:00.

Are you a late person, who can maybe explain to me why you are the way you are? If not, have you ever found any other creative ways to deal with this lateness in others? Or, am I just getting worked up over nothing and should learn to relax more? Tell me what you think & thanks for stopping by.

Upcoming Music

On the weekend, I picked up tickets for the Lee Harvey Osmond show in St. Thomas on June 6. On the 5th, we've already got tickets for the Harry Manx concert @ The Aeolian Hall . What a great weekend of music with 2 diverse performing styles. Tom Wilson , who's the front man for LHO, calls their style "acid folk", whereas Manx mixes acoustic blues with Indian influences. If you haven't heard either of these performers, I highly recommend them. Tom's played solo, plus was the leader of Junkhouse and 1/3 of my favourite Canadian group ever, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings . Harry seems like he releases a new CD every year (keep it coming please) and tours constantly. Watching one of his DVDs and seeing him playing the 20 string Indian instrument is amazing.

Later on this summer, Home County Folk festival has another outstanding lineup, headlined by Jill Barber . Jill's style is completely different from the artists above, as it's almost 1920's French cabaret, but really soulful and enticing. Plus, Home County's free!

In terms of new CD releases, I'm not really seeing much to make me jump up & rush into the stores. Dave Matthews & Steve Earle both have new ones coming out and I picked up the new Bob Dylan, which I like.

Does anyone else out there have any upcoming shows or new releases that are exciting them? Or, are you like me and find existing CDs by artists you hadn't hear of to fill in your time?

I'm Soooo Confused!

Royal Canadian Air Farce used to have a skit called "The Confused Philosopher". Although I've posted one or two of these on Dan Brown's Blog on the London Free Press website , here are a few of my random observations of things that confuse me in modern life:

• When people go to Costco on a motorcycle, what exactly do they buy?
  
• If you are delivering fliers for lawn care, why would you leave one at a house whose lawn has a sign from another company already on it?
  
• If civic minded people want to "clean up" their downtown, where exactly in their town do they want all the drug addicts and homeless to go?
  
• Why does the "large" cup of soda @ Wendy's have the word,"small" printed on the side of it?
  
• If kids can't be failed in elementary school until Grade 6, doesn't that kind of make,"No child left behind" a slam dunk?
  
• I know that there is now "classic rock" and that there is very little big time current rock. So, does that mean that soon, we'll be subjected to "classic rap" and that current rap will become irrelevant?
  
• When Madonna has "the talk" with her daughter, does she just hand her that "Sex" book that came out in the early 90's & say,"let me know if you have any questions"?
  
• Are there any baseball players who DID NOT use performance enhancing drugs?
  
• Are there any rappers who DO NOT have a criminal record or is that just part of "street cred"?
  
• Why do golf commentators whisper?
  

Anyway, those are a few "top of mind" questions I've had in my warped mind lately. Do you have answers to any of these questions and/or have questions or your own? Post them here & thanks for reading.