1471 - A Tale of Two Climates

I left Seattle mid-week, and in doing so, I went from a warm, sunny, summer-like climate to a wintery one, courtesy of an April snowstorm. I don't mind April snow as much as I mind snow earlier in the year, because I know the end is near.

Monday morning, I hit rock-bottom. I was tired of being in Seattle, yet I still had the better part of a work week to get through. I'd scraped through Saturday and Sunday via the fact that it was the weekend, but I had no such reason to feel good Monday. Fortunately, work calmed down, and I had a fairly quiet day. By the end of the work day, my mood had improved significantly, because for the first time I felt like I could see the light (or the plane, in this case) at the end of the tunnel.

Our lunches hit rock-bottom Monday too, as we dined in a grocery store cafeteria. After work, we went to Canyon's again, where I had tasty ribs with spicy buffalo fries. Physically, I felt better Monday, having not eaten much Sunday. We didn't do much after dinner - at least that I remember.

Tuesday was another relatively light work day (light in Seattle means ten hours). It was hard to work, because we'd decided to go see the baseball game after work. We ate lunch at an authentic Mexican restaurant called Guaymas, where they welcomed us "amigos" at the door. They had free nachos with home made salsa - it was the best salsa I've ever had. We devoured three bowls of chips and salsa before our meals even arrived. We each ordered burritos, but these were no ordinary burritos - they were a full foot long, and much thicker than a fully-loaded Subway sub. Inside were veggies, rice and chicken (in my case). Guacamole and sour cream came on the side.

I was only able to get through half of my burrito, and I opted not to take the rest home in a doggy bag. I just wasn't willing to spend my afternoon passed out in the office.

We headed to the game right after work. We had walked to Safeco Field the previous Sunday, so we pretty much knew where to go with the car. We parked about ten minutes away, and walked to the gates to pick up our tickets, which we'd ordered online.

Inside, we found out it was military appreciation night. They were giving out yellow ribbons, though I didn't take one. The lady handing them out looked at me like I had two heads when I turned it down - I guess you're either with her or against her. I later found one left at a concession stand, so I grabbed it to give to JW as a joke later.

Despite having worn my warmest clothes, I nearly froze to death at the game. The days in Seattle were warm, but the nights were still cool. I had a sweater and a summer jacket on in five degree weather (celsius of course). After my dinner of a hot dog and popcorn (popcorn is not a good choice when it's cold outside), AN and I went back for $3.75 watery hot chocolates. They were worth every penny though, keeping us warm for about an hour.

The game was good - the Mariners won 8-4. A couple of foul balls came within twenty feet of us, one of them nearly mowing us down in the process. It was a hard-hit, low screamer that got to us very quickly.

Between innings, there were countless military tributes. There were six ceremonial first pitches, helicopters flying overhead, military personnel singing the anthem and God Bless America (the most heavily emphasized word of which was "foam"), a giant flag, and Mariners players praising the troops. The game was attended by four thousand military personnel, so it was pretty impressive when they were all asked to stand up and take a bow.

We all had a good laugh when they played the theme song of our trip, a rap song the subject of which is the fact that the rapper is getting rich by writing about nothing in his songs. Our favourite line is, "I make a mil sayin' nothin' on the track." The rest of the song belittles the listener for actually listening to such garbage - we got a good kick out of the fact that we kept listening to it.

The game was about three hours long, fortunately not longer. Outside the stadium, we all got collectible military coins, then headed for the car. We got slightly lost, but still managed to get back to the hotel quickly.

Wednesday morning, the last work day for AN and I, another bomb was dropped on us. We were to repeat our work of the Thursday and Friday previous, on a new code drop from engineering. It was stressful for two reasons: we had to wait for the new code to become available, and we didn't have the luxury of finishing our work the next day - it had to be done that day. We got the code early in the afternoon and began our data import. It went well - much better than the last time. Still, it took us until 8pm to finish. Even worse, we couldn't get a hold of a guy who'd written another data import tool that had to be run, so we were asked to do it for him. It took us an hour just to track down instructions on how to use his tool, but we finally did, and it didn't take long to run.

We left work shortly after 10:30pm, following a twenty minute chat with one of the VPs about "the girls in Halifax" and his life story. He seemed interested to know whether the girls are beautiful in Halifax. He told us that they are not beautiful in San Jose. Interesting.

For those interested, we ate at a cafe for lunch, and we had Arby's for dinner (I ran out quickly mid-evening). One of the Arby's employees pointed out that the store was understaffed because, and I quote, "no one goes to Arby's." That's employee spirit for you!

Thursday morning, I got up at 3:15am, beginning a long day of travel. I felt terrible, but I resisted the urge to stay in bed and miss my flight home. I had a quick shower, and an even quicker shave, then headed down to the front desk to check out. Using a phone to call an employee to the desk, I woke up a girl sleeping in the employee office. Apparently staying awake is not a job requirement at the particular hotel. She could barely function, but finally I got checked out. I told her not to go back to sleep until after AN checked out.

Normally, AN is the first one down to the desk. I have this terrible tendency to cut things to the last second - if you've read past entries, you know this. One manifestation of this problem is my tendency to miss busses. Anyway, I was surprised that I made it to the desk first. After throwing my bags in the car, I came back in to the hotel and went to AN's room. I wasn't sure it was his, so I nervously knocked on it. No one came to the door, so I went back down to the desk, presuming we'd missed each other. He wasn't there, so I had the sleepy girl at the desk phone his room. He didn't answer. I went back up and banged on the door a second time, this time confident I had the right door. He quickly opened the door as he got his stuff together. He had set his alarm for 3pm instead of 3am! Five minutes later, we were gassing up the car down the road before returning it.

We got to the airport about an hour and a half before our flight. It was surprisingly busy for 4:30am, and again we had trouble getting all of our boarding passes from the incompetent personnel. After sorting things out, we got to the proper gate, bought some snacks, and waited.

The first flight was uneventful. We got into Vancouver and went through customs. Again, I left a bottle of juice in my bag (I was supposed to drink it before customs). They took it, and when I asked if I could drink it on the spot, they just threw it away.

More snacks and another short wait later, we boarded our flight for Toronto. I hate to say "I knew something was going to go wrong," because I always feel that way about air travel, but it did. I was just way too happy about getting home in time to see JW that night for it to actually happen.

Somewhere over the Rockies, close to the BC-Alberta border, the pilots detected a leak in the emergency oxygen tank they use if the flight cabin depressurizes. We were forced to head to Calgary for repairs.

We sat, grounded, and unable to leave the plane, for over two hours, while repairs to the tank were made. Finally, after deicing, we took off. We landed in Toronto a little over three hours late. On the flight, I watched "Good Will Hunting" on my laptop. It's about a janitor at MIT who's a math genius (Matt Damon). He has his problems, and a MIT professor and his psychiatrist friend fight over Damon's direction. The professor pressures him to accept a job in mathematics right away, while the other tries to help him with his demons while he makes his own choice. In the end, Damon makes his own choice, having been mentally saved by the psychiatrist and his best friend (Ben Affleck). I especially liked the math aspect of the movie - the problems being solved by the professor were in the graph theory branch of math. I took a course in graph theory in school, so I could relate to the problems being worked on. It did take a bit of the realism out of the movie, but whatever.

AN and I were expecting bad things in Toronto - prehaps a day stranded there, or even worse, given the Easter weekend. Fortunately, they had moved us to a later flight to Halifax, and it left soon after we got to Toronto. We did have to wait for them to fix a couple of the seats before we could leave.

We got to Halifax around 11pm, though our bags (predictably) didn't arrive with us. After filling out the paperwork, we went home. I went straight to bed - I did not see JW, nor did I pass "GO" (that has absolutely no meaning, though having thought about it, I think some meaning might be read into it!).

Friday morning, I got up at a decent time. I unpacked what little I had with me, and basically killed time until my bags arrived at 12:30. After unpacking those, I finally went over to JW's. It was great to see her, after such a long time. We spent the bulk of the afternoon asleep - we were both tired. We had leftovers for dinner - pizza and scrambled eggs. We "blew" the eggs so that JW could paint them later - you basically poke holes at the top and bottom of the egg, then blow the insides out of one hole via the other. The hollow shell then dries, and it can later be painted (for Easter).

After supper, we watched Jesus Christ Superstar, an appropriate activity for Easter Friday. It had been my turn to pick a movie, but I yielded to the sense that JCS made. I really didn't know what to expect, as it was my first time seeing it. I was pleasantly surprised by the plethora of 70s music - the songs were really fun. I couldn't get past just how 70s the movie was - the King of Jews wore a head band and yellow-tinted sunglasses - awesome. I didn't like that the movie ended with Jesus' crucifixion - I wanted to see a bit more.

On Saturday, I suggested to JW that we go to Scott's Bay, close to Cape Split, where she gets the rocks that she tumbles/polishes. I like going there, because I also have an interest in rocks, though I never bring any home because I don't have any way of polishing them. I like the ocean even more, and the last time we were at Scott's Bay, the waves were big and fun. I love tides, so naturally, any visit to the Bay of Fundy is exciting for me. I would get a cottage along the bay in an instant if it weren't for two things: poor swimming conditions (cold water, dangerous tides, mucky/rocky beaches), and my ties to the north shore (where the swimming conditions are the best in Nova Scotia, but the tides aren't much fun). I still might. I feel lucky to be within driving distance of such a natural wonder.

JW was excited about going to Scott's Bay too. On the way there, we picked up her friend, BE, and we were off. The traffic was light, and we got to the beach in Scott's Bay pretty quickly. Along the way, we stopped at a lookoff close to the beach to take pictures. We also stopped to take pictures of a donkey and its guardian horse. As we approached, the horse kept between us and the donkey, not allowing us to get a good picture of it. It had a cold, icy stare, and a wild look in its eye - it would've killed the three of us had we gone any closer, shooting flames through its menacing nostrils to counterbalance the icy stare. The donkey resumed grazing, and as it moved, we got a few pictures of it. The horse remained motionless, staring holes through our heads. No human could've possibly defeated it in a staring contest.

At the beach, much to my delight, the conditions were similar to my last visit. There was a bit of wind, and the waves were a decent size. The tide was coming in, which of course is more exciting than a tide going out. I discovered this while washing clay off my hands - there are deposits of clay all over the beach. I could scarcely get my hands in the water before being forced to take a step back. I've never enjoyed washing my hands quite so much (numb hands included). The tide, already being about three-quarters of the way in, severely limited the size of the beach, and thus the rocks available, but there were still plenty to be found.

The three of us split up and staked claims to different parts of the beach. We slowly walked, heads down, examining the ground for potential winners. BE and I would occasionally walk over to JW with several candidates. Thinking we'd done well, we would have our hopes crushed time and time again - quite literally. JW would take a rock, declare it no good, then throw it to the ground. I'm learning, though - she accepted more of my rocks (editor's note: you're really asking for it) than she had the first time - I'm starting to learn which rocks will polish well. My favourite polisable rocks are the ones that you can see through, or into. I also like the ones with geodes in them, though I didn't personally find any this time around. I like some other unpolishable ones too, but I didn't bother keeping any of them.

A stream cutting down the middle of the beach was just narrow enough to get across, so I went over to the other side for a look, leaving the girls on the other side. Much to my delight, I found a large deposit of shells along the edge of the stream on that side - large snail shells (smooth), one large broken pointy snail shell, clam shells, and a very strange, flat shell that was circular, had a hole in the middle, and had spikes around the hole on one side.

Soon after the shell run, the girls decided it was time to go home. I was disappointed, not having had my fill of the beach yet. I just like being there, and I wanted to stay as long as possible. I wanted to watch the tide come all the way in, and I wanted to listen to the waves along the way. Ironically, nature called us away from the beach.

We drove to Wolfville to eat at Paddy's/Rosie's, just as JW and I had done last time. JW and I both had the sesame salad again, too. It's right up there with authentic Chinese food as far as making vegetables taste good goes. I very seldom love eating green pepper, but it actually tasted good in the salad. There was a live band to entertain us as we ate, and I watched the Masters on a TV reflected in a mirror behind the band.

After our meal, we headed back into town. It snowed most of the way, and by the time we got to Lower Sackville, it had covered the ground. It made for a beautiful, though potentially dangerous, drive. We dropped BE off, then continued back to JW's. We stopped for groceries/Easter cards/birthday cards along the way.

I dropped off JW, then headed home. It was UFC night, and I'd promised TA that I'd come out to the event. I went over to TA's, and found AD already there. We stayed for a little while, watching golf. After the golf, we headed downtown to the Oasis to catch the action. We arrived at 8:45, with the action starting at 11 - and wings ending at 9. So yes, we had a feast of wings and some beer, while watching a hockey game. It was the Canadiens versus the Leafs, and playoff spots were on the line for both - a loss by either team meant elimination. I'm a Canadiens "fan", in the laziest sense of the word. At least I was able to watch one game this year - it was a good one, but they lost. I don't like the Leafs, and I was happy to hear the next day that they too had been eliminated from playoff contention.

The UFC event itself wasn't particularly entertaining - I slept through a lot of it. Too many wings and too much beer I guess. The main event was supremely disappointing. It was for the welterweight championship, and it pitted the Canadian champion Georges St Pierre against the winner of the UFC TV reality series, Matt Serra. There wasn't much hype for the match, because it was widely believed that Matt Serra had no chance. I'll give you one guess as to what happened.

I wound up walking all the way home, tired and disappointed. It was windy and still snowing as I stumbled along snow covered sidewalks. I sort of enjoyed it though - being outside experiencing all of nature's fury. It took me an hour to get home, finally getting in the door around 2:30am.

My alarm woke me up at 10:20am Sunday. I rushed to get dressed, then headed to my parents'. I got quite a verbal lashing when Mum saw my pants - they were slightly wrinkled, and apparently they had grease stains making it look like I'd shit myself. We picked up my grandmother, then stopped by my place for a fresh pair of pants.

We met my Aunt and cousin at 44 North for Easter brunch. It's a buffet, one that I've been to several times. I found the food quality to be worse than I remembered, but it might just be that I've got higher standards these days. The desserts were excellent, at least. I had a few plates of food before calling it quits, not wanting to eat myself into further discomfort. I had a nasty headache the entire day from the night before.

While at the buffet, LS opened his cards and presents, while I recounted Seattle stories to the relatives. I was surprised to see that LS had grown a beard - he carried it well.

After the lengthy meal, I wound up on my parents' couch watching five solid hours of golf. It was the Masters, the year's first major, and the biggest tournament of the year in my opinion. Many years, I miss out on Easter activities because I'm too busy watching it, but this year it worked out perfectly. We had snacks in front of the TV at six, in place of dinner. I did regret having to turn down an invitation to Easter dinner at JW's parents' - I would've liked to have gone. However, if I had gone, I would've either spent the entire time in front of the tube, or sat there fretting about missing it. It's so important to me, that if I had to choose to watch just one television event (sports, a movie, a TV show) a year, I'd choose the final round of the Masters. I've taken days off work in the past just to watch the early Thursday and Friday rounds, let alone the final Sunday round!

My second favourite event of the year is the British Open (known to the rest of the world as THE Open), played in July. My third favourite is the US Open, played in June, and I suppose my fourth is The Player's Championship, played in May this year.

Zack Johnson won this year. It was only his second win, which is unusual for the Masters - the pressure generally crushes all but the most seasoned veterans. I've watched him play for a couple of years, and I always liked his style - I figured he'd win something big, but I didn't think it would be this soon.

Well, next week should be a bit quieter, for a change. It'll be nice to see the office again, and the four-day week will ease me back into "regular" life. I've got nothing big planned, but I'm sure something exciting will happen - hopefully Spring.

I’m currently listening to: Waiting, from Rotten Apples by The Smashing Pumpkins (whom I hear are back together!).

Movies watched this week: Good Will Hunting