Milestones

A couple passed in the last few hours - over 4,000 visitors and 7,000 page views. Woo-Hoo!! Though I sometimes think half those visits are likely my own - heh, heh, heh.

Upcoming Blog Birthday

Come Monday it will have been two full years since I started this gig - amazing! It came about by stumbling on some folks blogsites and beginning to follow them through their posts. After a couple of months of that I came to the conclusion that hey! I can get in on this too. Away I went.... and here I am.

Along the way I've posted some opinion pieces about the things I care about - a bit about recovery, a fair lot about music and more recently books. (There has also been quite a lot of straight-up day-to-day news that I'm sure is probably pretty boring for some but it keeps me occupied.) I was helped through some difficult times by blog friends - mainly regarding Lynda's and my break-up, time apart and reunion. Good times too - with our grandson Owen and the births of my kid's kids, Zeph and Madison. Through these things I've been fortunate to have made some damned decent friends and I feel fortunate to be a part of this ever growing on-line community. (Seems I've made another friend this week in Martin at hstbooks.com. Hello Ireland!!) You all mean a lot to me and on those occasions where I felt I could be of help, I've tried to be. Lord knows you've helped me.

I never fail to be amazed at the number and variety of talented people 'out there' offering up their work in words, photos and artwork. That and the appreciation, support and encouragement that flies back and forth between parties. Awesome. Maybe I'll dig through my archives to see what all is in there. Whenever I do that I always come across something I had forgotten about ever having written..... surprise, surprise. (Senior's moments already.)

And for anyone interested I'm having my last intended cigarettes tonight - I'm going to try and lay them down for good again. See, one thing I've hated about smoking for the last few years is having to smoke outside in cold weather. I was just outside for one and I bet it is down to 0C/32F out there - freezing!! One more motivating factor, by geez. Wish me luck. BTW - it is a beautiful still clear night. The stars are shimmering like diamond dust on blue-black velvet.

L'il Dancer

When I arrived yesterday afternoon Owen, his gramma and his mom had spent a couple of hours on the side patio - it was cool but sunny and shielded from the wind. Once again gramma was the focus of Owen's world and referred to her in everything he wished to do. Out of the blue he began to sing, then to dance and decided he needed a partner. Here, gramma gives him a whirl.

7 of us walked down the street, round the corner to the local pub for a belated birthday dinner for Lynda. As we ate a band was setting up equipment and doing sound checks and Owen was following what they were doing. He stopped a couple of the band members to ask questions as they worked. I watched him as they stepped up to the microphones to introduce themselves and then count themselves into the number. The expression on Owen's face was worth a million bucks as they quickly ran through the first few chords and began to sing. He was off his chair like a shot, running up to where he had the best vantage point and proceeded to stomp his foot, shake his leg, clap his hands and dance, dance, dance. When the applause died after the song was done the band members gave Owen a hand and high-fives all round. He was a hit to say the least. Such enthusiasm - what's the saying? dance like no one is watching? he did....

Lynda and I took Owen back to the house to give the kids a couple of hours to themselves and the chance to sit and talk over a couple of beers. Lynda and I still haven't told Owen we live apart - whenever I arrive at the house I'm coming from work; if I have to leave I'm going back to work. Simple; it works and doesn't upset his view of the world. I had a couple of additional hours with him before leaving for work - big hugs and squeezes and a kiss on the cheek; he doesn't like my whiskers. Got a couple of hugs and kisses from Lynda , too. Woo-hoo!!

Last night was exceedingly quiet; downright boring. I caught up on a couple of important emails, considered watching a movie but then surfed and followed links on friends blogs. Found lots and lots of good creative writing and excellent photography. I'm looking to update those I link with and want to add a few. I'm not really sure of the etiquette involved - should I tell them I intend to link and give them the opportunity to veto the idea? Input people???

BTW - the time spent at the house and bar were the worst I've had for craving a smoke. Neither are 'smoking' places but both were loud, confusing and loaded with stress (for a few reasons). I used some of the 'tools' I'd been told of and they worked in the short term. I kept fantisizing about that '1' smoke all night and was glad to get home to bed. hmmm.... 11 days now. Best regroup, review, renew or ... relapse.

on 'experimentation'

Well, I still don't really know what I'm doing (you'd think I'd read the bloody manual) but .... I managed to post this picture of G'son Owen and I which was taken a few days after he was born Feb 23, 2004. He'll be 3 in a couple of weeks.

So much for anonymity. There are just a couple of AA people who check in here and they're friends anyway.....and so it goes. See, I told you I was a skinny old bugger!

I did try to edit the photo, cropping and re-sizing, print screen, save as, etc. As you can see it didn't take; got the whole shot. I'm not finding the help pages to be much 'help'.

And, of course, any and all advise or reference tips would be appreciated.

Periodical Posting

Where this blog relates to publishing..... well it isn't a daily; certainly isn't a serial and I hope it never becomes a soap. It's just going to have to fit somewhere along the pace of life...periodically.
It's been a very hectic, off balance, sometimes frustrating, occassionally rewarding and painful stretch for the last month or so.

The only highlights in the last week have been some good time spent with Lynda, getting to a meeting with a new sponsee (and getting to know him a bit better), and helping another sponsee with some step work. And we heard a wonderful speaker at tonights meeting who had a very powerful message of recovery - a very engaging young gal who attained one year sobriety yesterday.

My heart sank when Sarah called Friday morning to say that Shorty had suffered a stroke on Thursday morning. Her Mom and Russ had flown in from Calgary Thursday night; Sarah arrived from Vancouver Friday morning. Lynda and I joined the rest of the family at the hospital for the balance of the day Friday but it was clear that there was no hope for recovery. We carried on over the weekend with our work about the house but our hearts weren't really in it - our minds were elsewhere. My friend and work mate John has offered to cover my shifts on an 'as needed' basis this week; for that I'm grateful. Relief of that worry!

So I'll continue to write when I can; it just won't be as often as I'd like. Next time something more cheerful - honest.