Oorgo

Chug chug chug die

Well it has been an interesting holiday season so far, we've gone from anticipation of gifts and all that's Christmas-ish, to happiness and joy at recieving cool or needed things, to swearing and yelling and wanting to blow things up.

The last day of work before Christmas I was driving around and around and around town doing various things, all the time hoping my car wouldn't act up, as it has wont to do when the tranny gets overworked. Sure enough about 10 blocks from home, car full of Wendys and Tim Hortons food and drink, and with Xavier in the back sleeping, the thing chugs to a halt in the left hand turning lane. Usually I can turn it back on, put it in neutral, rev it a bit, or toss it in 2nd and it will get going again. Not today. Today it says "Screw you f@$#er!" whenever I attempt to put it in gear, and thereafter dies.

I pull out the phone to call AMA, all the while being flabbergasted at the amount of people pulling in behind me (I'm in the beginning of the turning lane with my fourway flashers flashing). One effer even honked! Christmas brings out the best in people doesn't it? Anyways I get AMA on the line and after a bit they schedule someone to come pick me and the car up. After a few minutes of eating fries and drinking Coke and listening to Xavier be whiny and full of anxious questions about the car I decide to try it again. Turn key, cautiously put in 2nd and away we go. AMA lady calls me back I said no worries, thanks but don't bother. WHEW.

Later friday night I was talking to my brother-in-law and he suggested it's a commonplace problem in GM vehicles after they're 10 or so years old. It's called a TCC something or other, and it gets dirty, but what you can do is unplug it right at the transmission and it will work fine until I can get it fixed. I highly doubt I'll get it fixed, it apparently takes about 3 hours of work, and at $85 an hour... no. I unplugged it, and the car is running fine like this, on highway trips I'll plug it back in because it definitely will affect my gas mileage at higher speeds. I noticed an extra 500 rpm at 100 km/h, and since I usually travel at 120 km/h on trips that would eat into my pocketbook a little too much.

Christmas Present

Hey so I thought I'd show you folk the biggest Christmas present we got this year.

Our little fella Griffin, not long after he got home, sleepin in his Bassinet.

Happy Time of Year to everyone and their families.

An early Christmas wish

I don't know how much time I'll have over this Christmas period so I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas now. The new baby has been adding to my time loss, and I've been trying to focus more on work while at work (yes, of course I'm posting from there but never you mind) so I've been posting much less lately, and less actual content.

Merry Christmas to all, and as The Kinks say in Father Christmas:

Have yourself a merry merry Christmas
Have yourself a good time
But remember the kids who got nothin'
While you're drinkin' down your wine

When collection agencies and parking meters collide.

It's almost like a collection agency in a metal box, Smart Parking Meters: Technology that sucks.

On the cool side it will automatically bill your credit card or text message you if your time is up, but on the downside the thing takes a photo of your license plate and sends you a bill in the mail if you didn't pay. Who was the friggin evil genius behind this? If my city installed this there would a rapid increase in vandalism to street meters, I mean, these things had better be bash/bullet/water/fire proof man.

Shiny metal hordes

Now this is sweet: New futuristic armor that is

5 times stronger than steel and at least double the strength of any current impact-resistant material.... a sample of the ApNano material that withstood shock pressures of up to 250 tons per square cm by a steel projectile moving at 1.5km/s

I'm just imagining this shining horde of people armed to the nuts, walking through the fields of corpses deflecting all attacks. It's like Robocop, Judge Dredd and Terminator are all mixed up and stomping around in my brain.

I think I need to go and drink a fistful at the office Christmas party now. Wish me luck

Blubbering mess

How about some nice PCB laced Orca blubber? Apparently the Killer whale has now topped the Polar Bear as the most polluted animal in the Arctic. Funny how such a desolate place of solitude can be so filled with industrial byproducts and waste.

Griffin, things, etc.

Well Griffin came home on Thursday after a few days in the hospital. He was held partly because at first there was some difficulty continuing breathing, but that was resolved, and then because of a bit of jaundice. I personally think the NICU people are so used to dealing with critical and problem babies they over-analyze things, many of the problems he was having would have been solved by just letting him go home (regular feedings, nipple confusion, angry feedings, etc.). And then he failed the carseat test at the very end because he's stubborn and likes to hold up his head so he got tired at the end and lolled forward or something. He's doing splendid now though and really he's a piggy, he will eat as much as you can give him! So much different from Xavier, he took forever to feed and didn't eat as much.

Amber? She's doing great now that she's gotten used to the short sleep cycles, especially since she's had me here to cater to her, feed her, and take care of X-man. That may change on thursday when I go back to work, I hopefully won't come home to a crying wife, screaming child(ren) or one of them gone off to his grandmothers. You never know though, right?

Me? I'm doing ok I guess, freakin' stressed about the money situation, and upcoming doom Christmas. Buying gifts for all these people always freaks me out. If you look back to the December posts of the past years I'm probably even more messed up. At least this Christmas I get my wish: at home, and I've got a 3 year old who is very very excited about the whole thing. That makes it much more fun, really takes me back to when I was young, the excitement, anticipation, the wonderment of seeing Christmas lights, trees, reindeer, all of the stuff. NOW I just wish it would get back to winter here, we went from -20 C to +12 C within 2 or 3 days! Completely insane and in my books, depressing.

Well that's a short short summary of my past 10 (really? 10? Good lord!) days. Other things have floated through my brain, I will have to attempt to retrieve them, or fail miserably and toss them on the pile of neural refuse.

Red hair and screamin'

I praise the Merciful God that guides us and created us, I am the father of a beautiful 7 lb 1 oz (I'm not 100% sure on the length, of course it IS 4 am) red headed boy.

We went in at noon to be induced, probably 1 or so she was jelled up. Everything was going ok, but there was a problem, the baby wasn't moving down as fast as she was dilating. Not good, and later on the labour was getting really bad, she almost looked like she was going to pass out. Not long into that labour the doctor checked her and her water broke, only it wasn't the water it was what's called a Placental Abruption. The baby's heart rate dropped to 1/3rd what it should be, and they rushed her in to do an emergency C section. Probably 15 minute or more later we get the good news. I was overcome with relief and joy! Mommy is doing fine but on a long road to recovery and after a bit of oxygen baby came off his tube and breathing on his own.

His name is Griffin, and he is chubby with (what looks like) red curly hair. It took 4 women to hold him down to give him a needle. I think he was aptly named; the head of an eagle and the heart & body of a lion.

Update - Griffin is 18 inches long and was born at 11:15 pm.