4 days in and I already wanna bail

Here I am 4 days into my new venture of blogging and I already have nothing to talk about. I'm sure once we get out on the road, life will be one adventure after another and each day I'll have tons of things to share, but in this training phase, my life is pretty much same old, same old.

I could write about being on kitchen duty and having to go early to church today only to discover they have completely changed the routine and somehow forgot to make sure I got the memo. It was another one of those "Your name starts with zed, and we ran out of bulletins before we got to you" incidents. So try, if you can, to picture making coffee for 180 people with a 12-cup Betty Crocker pot ... with a permanent mesh basket filter - you know, the kind that lets all the sludge and dregs get through. I know it's a conspiracy on behalf of the church to have the kitchen staff (most of whom own Tim Horton's 3-minute brew pots) get so frustrated we all pitch in and buy a Bunn restaurant style brewer, or at the very least a Horton's pot.

Now imagine my delight when I found a lone coffee filter to line the mesh basket with. Now imagine the looks I got when I rinsed and wrung out this filter 5 times to re-use it. Hey, I have a reputation of making good coffee, and I'll be darned if I let a mesh filter mess it up. Okay, this part isn't true ... but it coulda happened, had I discovered only one filter, instead of the dozen or so that I did.

Did you catch that game?

Hey, all you nay-sayers who didn't think the Canucks could make it out of the first round. Didn't I tell you? Remember back in September '05 when I called for the Bertuzzi/Luongo trade? You didn't think I could make it happen did ya. Remember back in 1994 when the Canucks went to the 7th game of the finals and lost against NYR - 12 years after getting blown out 4 games straight in the final against NYI - 12 years after they entered the NHL? And remember on that fateful day I said they'll come back and win the cup against Buffalo (the other NY team) 12 years later in 2006?

Of course you know that they didn't win in '06, but how was I supposed to know that the 04/05 season was going to be cancelled. So, really '07 is the twelfth year. (and I have a back-up excuse should Lord Stanley's cup not get raised in Vancouver this year)

I'd been saying for 6 months now that when the Canucks make it to the second round we'll get a new plasma tv to replace the crappy old thing we had. Well, when they got up 3-1 in the first round, I exercised my faith and went out and purchased the long-awaited tv, only to have them lose the next 2 games. I was starting to sweat in fear that I'd have to pack it up and return it to Futureshop, but they pulled through for me.

Now, I just need to figure out why, if I'm so hockey-smart, am I sitting in 28,495th place in a pool of 31112 people in my hockey pool.... hmmm

Drive-Through Banking

Today was my first trip to our new bank that moved (inconveniently, I might add) out of the mall and across the parking lot. It has drive through banking, and this was a new experience for me. I watched the guy in front of me hang half out of his vehicle with the door open and wrestle with the machine. In the end it grabbed onto his $20 and it ripped right into two pieces. He had to get completely out of the vehicle to get the second half of the bill from the grasp of the machine. He turned to me and held up one half of the bill in each hand in a triumphant pose as he conquered the ATM. I yelled back "It's a great concept.... for people with 12 foot arms!"

I took great care to drive up a close as I could to the machine. As a matter of fact you can now read the blurred word Michelin scraped along the curb. Just in case someone was watching me, I avoided opening the door and hanging out like the dork before me. Instead I hung out the window by my toes until I could reach.

Thank goodness I was depositing and didn't have to wrestle for a twenty. Just as I was about to poke the envelope into the slot, a gust of wind came up and nearly snatched the paper from my hand. Now there would be a sight .... car with door ajar rolling forward because I forgot to put it in park, as I race across the parking lot trying to recover my paycheque.

Of course the "no more transactions" button is just beyond my reach, but I refused to open my door, so I dislocated my shoulder pressing it.

So while the concept of drive-through banking is nice, the reality of it is that it makes standing in line at the bank machine in a 6'x6' room that reeks of sweat and alcohol seem like a vacation.

I did it. I did it. I did it!!

I have my own blog. It's taken 10 years and 3 months of being a registered internet user - I tend not to jump into things. I wanted to be sure the internet was actually here to stay before I got too carried away exposing myself to the world.

This is just one more step in my preparations for our cross-canada trip on the Goldwing. I've updated our will, increased the Visa limit, bought some really sexy leather stuff, started my blog .... hmmm, I think I'm ready to go. Just 81 more sleeps 21 hours and 7 minutes.