Merry Merry

Hope everyone has the merriest of Christmases!!

I haven't been my usual verbose self this week as I've had little sleep..... which really kills the urge to write. Last night I had to put my head down for a while here at work (which of course is verboten.) Couldn't keep my eyes open. Driving to and from work has been nerve wracking with all the never ending snow we've had. Ah well, I'll be a long time dead and can catch up on my rest then.

Today Lynda and I will have her two younger sons over for the day and dinner along with one of their girlfriends, plus her 5 year old daughter. When I arrive home from work come morning I'm to get the turkey out of the freezer, figure out how long it needs to cook, baste it with oil and depending on time pop it in the oven. By the time I sleep, get up and clean up it ought to be time to join the rest of the crew for dinner before I come back to work. Hmmm.... turkey for breakfast.... might start a new trend.

Last night before I had that lie down I watched the 2nd of those documentaries. This was the video exploration and expansion of Tom Harpur's book 'The Pagan Christ'. It made for interesting viewing especially so close to Christmas. The premise of the book was that there is no real historical evidence that Christ 'the man' ever existed. No hard biographical fact in the four gospels or elsewhere. Further investigation showed paths to Egyptian Coptic sects which predated Christ's birth by more than a thousand years. In Coptic beliefs there are a large number of like stories which parallel the story of Christ. Like I said - interesting viewing that provokes thought, asks pertinent questions and provides a few answers. I'll try to watch both productions again before returning them to my friend Cindy.

Tonight I brought to work a number of videos; a variety of music, action and drama. I think it's time to choose one, go sit and pass some time.

One Quick One...

...before I head home to bed.

I just spent an enjoyable hour watching one of those documentaries I mentioned previously. This one was about the international aviation industry; current trends; addressing greenhouse gas emissions. There were lots of behind the scenes shots where John Q Public would never have access. It gave a good overview of the evolution of air travel in North America and western Europe as well as where the current massive expansion is; India. There were also projections of where the next big one will be; China.

With every technological advance it will impact aviation in one way or another from larger more streamlined aircraft design to new air traffic control systems to new generation materials.

On a personal level I found I paid far more attention to the details of the films production simply because I knew someone involved in the production of it. How to sort and organize all that footage; what to include and what to leave out; how to weave a story out of it all; how to script the information to tell the tale??? Many, many questions..... that I'll have to pose to her when we next meet.

Seems I've Hardly Been Away

.... back at work once again.


(If you haven't stopped by lately I'd suggest you scroll back a couple of posts to check out Kel's 'Aussie Christmas' guest post.)


For the last few days here it has all been about the weather, and how!! The sight of snow blowing horizontally past the windows becomes hypnotizing after awhile. And even while it is blowing about it still piles up and needs to be cleared so I have all the subsequent aches and pains that go with that sort of grunt work; Lynda too. On Thursday we had a few inches on the ground - tonight, pulling out of the drive I had to be careful because the snow was piled higher than I could see out of the car. The good news is that the plows, sanding and salting crews did a good job despite all the drifting and largely the roads are pretty good.


My Xmas shopping is done!! Woo-Hoo!! I only have Lynda to buy for and I made it out Saturday afternoon to cover that off. I hope she's happy with her variety of small gifts. During that excursion I made a quick stop at the liquor store - here they are all government run - and was surprised at all the new product on the shelves since I stopped drinking. I was like a kid in a candy store wandering up and down the aisles - ooooo, that looks tasty. It wouldn't take me long to get into a pack of trouble there, I tell ya.


I think I've mentioned here before about a friend of mine who is a documentary film producer / director / writer. Seems each time something of hers airs I'm at work so I emailed her asking that she drop DVD's of a couple of her latest productions with a common friend. I arrived at work tonight and found them waiting for me. Cool; I'll have plenty of time this week to check them out.

We won't have any kids around this Christmas and I think that is the primary reason I haven't much enthusiasm for the season this year. That and the fact it's a typical work week; no break. Two of Lynda's sons are coming over for an early dinner Xmas day and that'll be the extent of it. Then I come to work..... If we see #1 g'son Owen it won't be until the weekend.

Work is good - a good group of guys in-house. Quiet, just the way I like it.