Head Tale

Early Christmas Present!

Pretty hard to wrap a cabinet this size so I got to “open” an early Christmas gift tonight.

Library nerd heaven! 🙂

¶ Posted 08 December 2021 § Library § Xmas ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: xmas

RPL Christmas Party at Sky Park Regina

Had a lot of fun at Sky Park Regina (which had the misfortune to open less than a month before Covid hit but luckily was able to stay in business through the past couple years!) which my work’s social club picked as the location for our annual family Xmas event.

It was a blast as they had booked the place for RPL staff and their families so we got to try multiple activities –

wall climbing…

sky walk…

go karts…

and more.

An hour and a half went way too fast!

¶ Posted 07 December 2021 § Pace § Photo § Sasha § Work § Xmas ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: xmas

Music Monday – “They give me all these flowers and these big balloons/But I’m not gonna stay in this little room/I don’t wanna die in this hospital, I don’t wanna die”

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the saying “You know how much money you have; you never know how much time you have.”

If it’s not obvious, what it means is that you (roughly) know how much money you have – what your paycheque is every two weeks, what your investments are worth, the value of your home or any other assets you own.

But whether your net worth is a thousand or a million bucks, you never know how much time you have left to enjoy your life – if you are close to retirement, if you have a family you want to spend time with, if you’re hoping to develop a small parcel of land in Mexico to live out your golden years while scuba-diving in the ocean.

I’ve always said I think it’s better to die quickly in your sleep then to linger for years in your old age. But sometimes things happen that make me reconsider that – is it better to linger in a nursing home for years into your 90s or die suddenly overnight at age 56?

Maybe dying suddenly isn’t better if you have so much life left in front of you.

Because whether you’re 56 or 96, in the end, life is always too short. And for that reason, it’s not worth it to spend your time being unkind and petty and focused on the wrong things as being meaningful and worth worrying about in the limited time we all have.

RIP Tony – thanks for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for being endlessly kind and supportive. Thanks for constantly giving me perspective and always being willing to offer a listening ear.

[Edit to add Tony’s obituary.]

“I Don’t Want To Die In The Hospital” – Connor Oberst

¶ Posted 06 December 2021 § MemoryLane § Sad § Work ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: health

Secular Sunday – To Avoid Controversy, Starbucks Should Put Bible Quotes On Their Holiday Cups

¶ Posted 05 December 2021 § Censorship § Humour § SecularSunday § Xmas ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: book, language, xmas

Saturday Snap – Gift Ideas for the Beatles Fan In Your Life (Hint, Hint)

“The Lyrics” is $75 at Costco? Holy crap! You can get like eight giant jars of dill pickles for that kind of money! 😉

¶ Posted 04 December 2021 § Humour § Photo § PopCulture § SaturdaySnap § Xmas ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: beatles, book, economics, xmas

Friday Fun Link – If Wrestling Is Art, Kenny Omega Is One of Canada’s Greatest Performing Artists

Don’t agree – and this is a good article about the multiple ways pro wrestling appeals to people.

¶ Posted 03 December 2021 § Canada § FridayFunLink § Jobs § Sports ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: wrestling

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – Intently Studying DC Comics (August 2011)

¶ Posted 02 December 2021 § MemoryLane § Pace § Photo § PopCulture § ThrowbackThursday ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: book, cute

Happy 69th Birthday, Dennis!

Happy birthday to my father-in-law who turns 69 today.

Here’s a pic of him and Pace standing in front of a tractor we stumbled upon in an Estevan parking lot that happens to be the exact same model as the first tractor they had on their farm, I think roughly when he was Pace’s age.

¶ Posted 01 December 2021 § Family § MemoryLane § Pace § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: parents, saskatchewan

The People’s Calendar: When Does Each Season Start?

Interesting survey about the different markers – natural, manmade, etc. – that people use to connote the change of seasons.

For me, I know the “official” dates for season changes but my (very limited) list probably goes like this…

Spring – whenever snow is almost fully melted
Summer – when school’s out at end of June
Autumn – when school starts at beginning of September
Winter – whenever the first snow falls

(via r/dataisbeautiful)

¶ Posted 30 November 2021 § Infographic § Randomness ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: education, weather

Music Monday – “Send your letters off to Santa, baby/Tell him all your secret wishes too/Send your letters off to Santa, baby/Hoping all your wildest dreams come true”

It’s not quite December but we’ve already had our tree up for a couple weeks (which was also the timing last year – anything for some extra joy in Covid times!) and spent Sunday morning wrapping presents so I figured it’s time to start sharing some Christmas music too.

Oh, and speaking of wrapping presents, since I’ve posted a list of our Christmas traditions in the past, here’s a list of the things my wife and I usually disagree about at this time of year (including 1-2 items that make both lists!)…

1. When to put up the tree (me = anytime after Nov 11 but as early as possible, her – Dec 1 at the earliest and preferably closer to Xmas)
2. When wrapping gifts, if you need to use name tags (her) or can just write on the wrapping paper (me)
3. If it’s possible to roughly balance both number and value of gifts for kids (her = yes, me = no).
4. Whether we’ve bought too many gifts for the kids (this one alternates – she’ll say “no” when I say “yes” then we’ll flip and probably end up buying more than we should!)
5. If each kid’s “big” Santa gift should be wrapped (her) or the only one left unwrapped on Christmas morning (me).
6. If giving a used item you bought off Facebook Marketplace is appropriate (me = did you see the cost of a new Stephen King boxed set at Chapters? I can get 5x more books for less money on Facebook, her = why did I marry you?)
7. If anyone cares or notices whether the parents get gifts (me = no, her = yes)
8. On a related note, if it’s okay to just wrap the empty boxes of anything you bought in the past three months as a gift if you’re a parent (her = no, me = hell yeah)
9. How many blinky lights around the house are enough (me = no limit, her = oh, my aching head)
10. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie. (Okay, we actually agree that it is! Now, whether it’s appropriate viewing for an eight year old is a different topic!) 😉