20 years to life

A couple of weeks ago marked my 20th anniversary with the Ontario Public Service. 

Twenty years. 

It doesn’t feel as though I’ve toiled here for 20 years, which is merciful considering I have another 14 to go before I can entertain the thought of retirement (at least with a pension.  I entertain the thought all the time, otherwise).  But what is it supposed to feel like, exactly?  Twenty years.

In 1992 I heard that the Toronto Sun (trash that it is) was celebrating it’s 20th anniversary, having begun publishing in 1972.  I thought “that doesn’t make sense.  1972 wasn’t 20 years ago”.  But it was.  I just had no sense of what the passage of 20 years felt like.  It felt like nothing, like just a couple of years.

And it still feels that way.  

We’re hurtling through space at hundreds of miles an hour (how many hundreds depends on where exactly on the earth’s surface you’re standing).  But we don’t notice.  Apparently we’re hurtling through time the same way. 

I wondered if people who have more visible accomplishments are able to track time better.  People who can see their past scattered with the art they created, the buildings they built , the books they wrote… But I doubt it somehow.  I think we’re built to largely ignore the passage of the years.   We deal with life in smaller, more manageable, chunks.  Days, seasons.  And they always cycle back to the beginning again.  You start in the morning, work your way through night and the next thing you know you start over again.  You start in Spring, work your way through summer then fall then the darkness of winter and you are right back where you started again.  No wonder we don’t realize when twenty years go by. 

Soon I’ll be given 4 leather coasters by my employer in thanks for the 20 years of dedication to the job.  I suppose that’s because they realize that if you’ve been working here for 20 years you’ve probably started to drink.

Happy Pride

Pride 2009.

We took a cab to Saturday’s Dyke events, to preserve S’s energy for the rest of the day.  Met up with some friends, walked with the Dyke March for a bit (which is one of the things that makes the Saturday superior to the Sunday), then went to the 519 beer garden.  Where once the beer garden was a place you could sit on the grass, hang out with friends, meet people you hadn’t seen in a while… this year it was, basically, taken up entirely by people in serpentine lines queuing up to buy beer.  After a couple of hours (one of which I’d swear was spent entirely in line), we left and headed for nearby Local 4 – tasty food, good service, reasonable prices and we didn’t have to wait to get in.  We caught up with some friends to eat some gelato and listen to some music, then headed home.  Fairly early.  Apparently S’s pregnancy is affecting us both – she gets tired quickly and I get “sympathy tired” .  or as I tell her, it’s like I’ve been pregnant for years, and now she gets to better understand what it feels like to be me.

The 55 SPF Hawaiian Tropic spray-on sunblock worked well to protect the expanse of base skin I exposed to the glaring sun.  To my profound disappointment, however, it stained my new, stylin’ and oh so comfortable shorts .  At first it was just a little bit of yellow at the waistband, so I threw the shorts in the wash – but when I took them out, the stain came through everywhere the sunscreen touched the shorts.  The pockets where I put my hands, the waistband, the bottom of the legs.   All stained orange.  Hawaiin Tropic + Diesel = $70 poorer.  Thank god I bought them at Winners instead of paying full price.  But still…

Today it’s Sunday, and we’ve decided to stay home instead of watch the parade (although we have seen a bit of it on CP24).  Turns out it was a good decisions since it has been raining  a bit today.    Typically we don’t get rain on Pride – because we are the chosen people.  But at least the benefit to light rain is you don’t have to find someone with a supersoaker to cool you off.  And taking the day off from the festivitis allows S’s feet to recover, us to watch Harry Potter on DVD and try to take the stains out of my shorts (so far, in vain).

 

Note: Vinegar and Didi Seven seems to be doing the trick.  Woo!  Almost stain free – I’ll give it another go after work.

Blame it on the Boogie

I turned on CBC Newsworld and learned that Michael Jackson is dead.   My jaw actually dropped.

Shaft

My evening was made by the guy in the dark green Chevy, circa 1970 ish, blasting the theme song to Shaft  at the red light at College and Elizabeth.

Father’s Day

Yesterday was Father’s Day.  My Dad’s been dead a number of years now, so Father’s Day is a bye for me.  I sometimes think about my Dad on Father’s Day, but usually the day passes largely unnoticed.

This year, I noticed it.  Radio personalities mentioning father’s day and what would be happening in their families.  Ads for it on t.v.  References to what the weather was going to be like on the day. 

Since parenthood is looming for me, I’ve been wondering (and have often been asked) what parent name will be used for me (Mom, mamma, ?).  And I have wondered if I’d share Mother’s Day with S or claim Father’s Day – justifying it as the day to celebrate the parent who didn’t carry the baby. Plus, there are sales on some excellent gadgets for Father’s Day.

But listening to all the pre-Father’s Day commentary this year, I don’t feel a bond to the festival of the male parent.  I’m not sure I feel a real bond to Mother’s Day either.  But I have plenty of time to sort all that out.

Keeping Time

The Limes Aretemisia watch I bought S had stopped keeping good time.  It would loose 10 minutes over a few days.  The see-through back allowed us to see that there was a thin arc of plastic that was in the way of the rotor.  Eventually we took the watch to Shane Ede.  The plastic was from the spacer and easily pulled out.  But the watch also needed cleaning/lube (suprising since it was only 2 years old), so we left it there and came back for it a week or so later.

When we came to pick it up, I had him look at my Nomos Tangente which used to keep really good time but was now about a half minute fast per day.  He wondered why I had all these German watches and asked me what I paid for this one.  I sheepishly gave him the answer and he didn’t sound taken aback (whew!) but said for the price they should be able to make it easier to regulate — the screws were too close together for his liking.

He and I had a discussion about women and modern jazz, then he “treated” us to a listen to his Sainkho Namtchylak  Lost Rivers CD.  It was very interesting to listen to – for 2 minutes or so.  Sainkho is a throat singer, but not in the husky Inuit kind of way.  This was more screeching birdsong.  The more staccato stuff was really amazing, and it was amazing that she could make those sounds not just once, but over and over again.    But overall, I won’t be buying that CD anytime soon.

Shane’s an interesting guy though.  I kind of feel sorry for all the watch afficionados who mail him their watches for repair but don’t get to talk to the guy.

Meanwhile, S emailed Limes /Ickler again, asking if they could send her replacement screws for the screwbars that holds her watchband on.  Even though she used loctite last time, another ball worked its way off (took about a year though).  And Limes sent her 6 replacements, for free.  It’s a shame it keeps happening, but the customer service is excellent.

And as for watches, I just bought myself a Casio AMW-340 from Sears – 30% off for Father’s Day shopping.  This will be my beater watch to replace the one that was stolen.  Because it’s new, and I like new things, I’ve been wearing it since I bought it.  But I miss the tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick of the Nomos.  Hopefully the battery in this one will last longer than the one in my last quartz (needed replacing every year.  Why?).  If not, I’m pretty sure I’ll feel a compulsion to buy a solar powered quartz to replace it.

Luminato weekend

One of the best things about Toronto is that S and I can walk to a movie theatre after work on a Friday, catch a movie, then listen to a free concert at Dundas Square.  Friday night’s concert was “Goran Bregovic: musical superstar of the Balkans”.  I wouldn’t have stopped for it based on the title alone, but we couldn’t help but stop to listen (we couldn’t watch – the crowds were too thick).  It was fantastic.  The music was amazing.  The crowd was huge, people were dancing and singing along. 

We walked home and the next day headed to the Infant/Child choking, first aid and CPR classes at the Jewish Community Centre as part of the Baby and Me Fitness program (overall, not very useful.  But it was a handy reminder of stuff I learned in a short AED/CPR course at work).  Part way through the class, we couldn’t help but notice the local participants in the World Naked Bike Day as they nakedly rode their bikes along Bloor and down Spadina.

After the classes were over, we took the streetcar down to Harbourfront where we strolled amongst the Luminato performances (very Cirque du Soleil) then went to our favourite harbourfront patio for pizza.  Sitting in the shade, listening to music, watching the crowd, watching the boats.  Perfect. 

Walking home, our route took us past the Woofstock booths in the St. Lawrence Market area.  The booths were all shut down for the evening, but there were still plenty of dogs around, some on patios while their owners had dinner. 

And on the home stretch, we chatted with a neighbour and ended up learning about a lot of the past owners of our house — so many of which had been caterers or cook book writers.  (Oh, and that our house had been known as “The Drugstore” for a while.  I’m glad that nickname hasn’t lasted).

Yep – an excellent day in an excellent City.

Undecided

This is a time of much decision making. 

What will we name the baby?  Will we circumcise him or not? What kind of stroller, baby seat, crib do we buy?  What do we put on our registry? Should we get our name on more daycare wait lists? Will we take full parental leaves even though our employers don’t top up the wage for the whole time?

This weekend’s decision was “what car do we buy?”.  Oh sure, we already own a car.  And it runs fine.  But it’s a 2 door, and we really don’t want to have to get baby in and out of a 2 door.  2010s will soon be arriving, so now’s the time to get a 2009 at a good price.

The new ride would:

• need to accommodate 4 adults and junior, for the times we visit my mother. 
• have enough cargo space so when we visit S’s family, especially at Xmas, we can fit the necessary baby gear into it (as well as everything else for xmas). 
• be somewhat environmentally friendly.
• have sufficient ground clearance to make shovelling our laneway less of a necessity.

So our options have been narrowed down to the Subaru Outback PZEV and the VW Jetta Wagon TDI.  Yep – station wagons.

They each  have similar cargo volume.

They are similar in size inside ( the in-laws came for the test drive on the weekend and say the VW’s rear seat is a bit roomier).

The VW is peppier.

The PZEV has next to no smog emissions and is manufactured at a zero landfill plant.  The TDI has fabulous mileage.   Of the two, the VW is probably better for the environment during operation. Plus it would use around $600-$1000 less fuel each year.

The Subaru has ground clearance, the VW not so much.  The Subaru also has AWD – so might make driving on snow covered highways in winter a bit less of a torture.

The Subaru has a lot of extra niceties for the same price (because the Subaru is currently discounted, but the VW is not).

Both S and I are leaning toward the Subaru.  But as soon as we say it out loud, we right away go “but the VW has better mileage, is peppier, has a roomier back seat…and if we have winter tires, it will probably get through the laneway ok.  Or we coud buy a snowblower”.

 We know that each car’s pros and cons render them more or less equal, so either would do the trick. Which means there is no clear winner.  Subaru seems to be the emotional choice, and the VW the logical choice. So – we are undecided.

May is over.  Will June have the same incentives?  Let’s hope so.

the Kicker

I’ve been waiting for S’s belly to get big and tight so I could feel Junior kick.  Her belly doesn’t seem as popped out as some other pregnant women just entering the third trimester.   Her belly is around 22 or 23 cm, which is perhaps marginally small for 24 weeks.  We suspect that S’s wide hips are the culprit – encouraging Junior to lay as though he were in a hammock.  Nice setup for Junior though!

I finally got to feel Junior kick a couple of days ago.  S noticed Junior was kicking extra hard, low on her belly - so I held my hand there and yep – I could finally feel it.  It felt pretty much like a gas bubble. 

We learned today (at the midwife’s) that the placenta is on the front of the uterus, cushioning his kung-fu action – which really must be a godsend to S, but gets in the way of me feeling what’s going on in there.  But that’s ok, I can wait until he can kick me in person.

Star Trek

I saw Star Trek last night and it totally rocked.  

Totally.