One small step for dem-kind....

the impending sale of my house brings to an end my brief sojourn into property ownership; I was not to be the feudal lord I had imagined - surveying my land from protected heights while troll-like surfs toiled in the mud below, giving their meagre earnings to me whilst I protected them from barbarian invaders. Instead my renter shrank my shirt in the shared laundry dryer and complained about the 'freezing cold' in the basement suite. A subsequent renter deftly abandoned the premises just prior to rent day - a blessing in disguise as I was able to procure his electric organ. Oh, how the warm notes echo throughout the empty halls! The apparent disapppointing effectiveness of the suite in returning any sort of significant monies towards my mortgage payments was quickly diminshed by the pure joy of maintaining and repairing the physical structures of the 45 year old house on a limited budget (ie. high-interest credit card). Under such trying circumstances I had the good fortune of receiving help from my father who, at various times in the past, had been known to nail things with a hammer in one hand and a smoke in the other (a trick I gleefully anticipated observing again). My father is a complicated man (and deserving of his own post I am sure) - one that although he doesn't want any type of guidance or assistance for any maintainence task won't 'do things for you' and 'wants you to be home when he's plastering your walls and not out boozing it up with women half your age'. At any rate, the sale of this house has now afforded me the opportunity to return to school at some point in the near future, hopefully in a climate more hospitable to a person of my sensitive disposition, but more on this later....

The Players: Little Sister

If one were playing the game 'Twenty Questions' the answer 'yes, bigger than a bread box' would be the most fitting response to questions about Little Sister. All other questions about her would be met with puzzeled looks and downcast eyes. How else could one illustrate the personal stylings of someone who has completed so many things both on people's 'cool stuff to do before I keel over' and 'uumm...no' to-do lists? A dangerously free spirit with a disconcerting laisez-faire disposition Little Sister makes Jack Kerouac (circa On the Road) look like a hermit. Examples of her wanderings include meeting the late Pope John Paul II (whom she swore whispered to her 'tell them kids they can use rubbers'), joy-riding in a stolen yellow cab ('hey can I take your cab for a spin? No? Ok - I'll be right back), and following Che Guevara's infamous motorcycle trip through South America. Little Sister is as comfortable engaging in discussions of Latin American politics, mass consumerism, and post-modern art as she is hitch-hiking, tree-planting and telling strangers to 'eff off'. Both the former and latter being done with more reckless abandon when (a) imbibing copious amounts of French beer and (b) socializing with siblings and younger cousins.

The Players: Willy

Willy the Whippet can best be described as a true gentleman's companion; upright and obliging - he is the quintessential gad-about-town. His days of napping on the couch and cushion-chewing are frequently punctuated by frenzies of jumping on reluctant guests, assaulting unsuspecting canines and shedding hair at an impossible rate. His nemesis, my father, has often commented that I collect enough 'Willy hair' in my dustpan to create a small pack of similiar whippets. Indeed, I have arranged a paper-mache 'faux Willy' using common chicken wire and lumps of coal (as his beady little eyes).

the longest of journeys begins with....

A recent occasion has been the cause of much intropsection and deliberation - the outcome being one of ironic resignation; the return of oneself to the behaviours and values of one's formative years; it appears, by many acounts, that the further one runs from oneself the more intense one confronts the true self.

To be more specific; I have chosen to return to myself and the written word - in prodigal son fashion, to the past that created me. It has been many a day in which thoughts have been put to paper and shared for no other reason to amuse myself and those around me - by and by so much time spent in mindless busy work for others and consuming THINGS with the consequent renumeration.

The posts to follow will cover various topics and circumstances of interest to me, and possibly a narrow group of others, in a manner that displays humour, imagination and some critical thinking. With this in mind I hope that friends and family are able to glean some insight into my life and inner workings that perhaps in the past has been shrouded by a rather restrained temperment and penchant for privacy.

carpe diem