Victoria Day Holiday Weekend

Apparently my mind is distracted lately. It wasn’t until a customer mentioned the fact that we probably wouldn’t be open Monday that it even occurred to me that this was to be a long weekend. My mind has obviously been on other things of late; I suppose this explains the pyrotechnic noises outside my window in the last few days. RABA is obviously selling fireworks. In the world at large nature has been proving that there are plenty of natural calamities possible without humankind adding to the suffering. In Burma the military junta continues to prefer allowing their people to die of hunger, thirst, and disease than allow foreign aid workers onto their soil. In China an earthquake has wiped out an entire generation in some areas as their schools pancaked killing the offspring of entire towns. China is at least allowing aid workers in but access to many areas is so difficult that it will be some time before the full extent of the disaster will be known. With an Olympics impending the communist government could do with more positive news coverage. For the record, Tibet is not part of China—might does not make right; and the Dalai Lama still lives in exile from the country of which he is the spiritual leader.

In a lighter vein I learn that Honda Corporation programmed a robot to conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra—after a rehearsal or two the orchestra having learned what to expect adjusted well. As I’ve opined in the past if you watch the Toronto Symphony under conductor Guenter Herbig you’ll notice that aside from the opening downbeat and the final cut only the newest members of the orchestra pay him any attention at all—they know exactly what to expect. This is not a compliment to the maestro in case you’re wandering. It has also been announced that the final instalment of the Harry Potter Novel movie adaptation will be a two-part effort released over two years. Whether or not this is a recognition of the fact that the books are too storyline rich for the plot to be adequately covered in the span of one movie or just a money-grab remains to be seen.

I have spent the week watching the BBC Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood. I’m still attempting to collect my thoughts on the series to write a blog but I am piqued at the BBC for forcing me to watch their advertising before I can access the menu for the main feature on each and every disk—how churlish of them. I spent one evening with my feet in my foot spa hoping to ease what I believed to be a muscle spasm in my left heel. The pain and soreness is easing so perhaps my self-diagnosis worked. This week I managed to cook two meals out of five and desperately need to go shopping this weekend though my distaste for mingling with the common herd and hibernating in check-out line-ups means I’ll probably wait until early Sunday Morning now—most places being closed on Victoria Day. Picked up the Dylan biopic I’m Not There but haven’t gotten to watching it as yet. On Sunday I did finish Eureka season one.

On Monday I acquired the download version of Windows XP Service Pack 3--350 MB of the Operating System’s not broken. Looks to be the equivalent of replacing the engine in an automobile. At work I spent a couple days shredding old files--10 large garbage bags worth. When I wasn’t destroying hard copy evidence I spent the remainder of my time pushing electronic paper. Last night I started the movie Little Children but drifted off to sleep before it completed. At the moment I’m not sure whether I should attack the day or go back to bed for another nap while things are still quiet outside. So far the noisiest critter stirring is an over-sexed robin in the maple outside my window. The leaves are almost fully expanded so finding his perch is almost impossible; the pine trees are candling and will soon spread clouds of greenish-yellow pollen. One compensation for the expected weekend of rain is the fact that it will serve to keep down the pollen.