Quand le chat n'est pas l�...
2003-07-29, 12:47 a.m.

You'll have to forgive me, as I've been vacationing, cleaning and adapting.

(Well, you don't have to, but you know what I mean.)

Part A - Vacationing:

We begin out journey through this entry with, naturally, a journey. We took our increasingly annual trip to Canada, our third time in the last 4 years (the odd year was taken up by this pesky wedding thing I had to attend-- oh wait, that was mine). This time 'round we stayed over in Niagara Falls, where out little one, Simon, had not yet been. He was pretty impressed by the falls, I think, but more impressed by the Marvel Studios game place. Being six, to him, Spider-Man is still all that. We were there over July 4th, and expected to see a spectacular fireworks show over the falls. Nonesuch. Oh, there were fireworks, but I'd seen better here in NE Ohio. If you ever happen to be near Shaker Heights, OH on the 4th, I suggest seeing their show.

We also spent some time on the U.S. side of the falls (a first for me), having lunch on Goat Island and checking out the statue of Nikola Tesla. Damn Edison... The statue depicts Tesla sitting and looking down at what I assume is plans for some great invention. I saw it as him looking at the day's newspaper and responding to the headline, "What? He took credit for another of my ideas? Hrmph..." Poor Nik.

After NF we headed North and East to Peterborough, ON, in or near which is the largest 'collection' of petroglyphs in Canada. My wife and I are anthropology geeks (among so many other ways of being geeks), so it was a must-see. The kids were kind of non-plussed about it, but they were acquiescent, at least. Allt he while, during the walk along the trail to the actual area that the glyphs were, H and I were all abuzz about seeing something so ancient and yet is still used by native peoples. The rock formation and the glyphs carved into them, after being uncovered by idiots in the '50s that forgot how erosion works, has been placed, for all intents and purposes, under glass. This is to keep the formation from wearing away any further, but it gives the impression that, as we Westerners are wont to do, it has been separated from reality, like a display. The visceral element of the experience was completely removed. I felt like I may as well have been seeing them on TV. But as time passed, staring at these beautiful ancient carvings, we got the sense of not belonging, like we were intruding on something sacred. Suddenly the whole park seemed wrong to me (us). I felt like the whole thing should be ripped down, left to the natives that made it. I mean, this formation was used as a teaching tool for new shamen that were hand-selected for the purpose. And here we are, looking at them at a cost of $9 Canadian. There was no earning the right to see this, no sense of honor or respect. Only a cold, distant Western entrapment of something that still belonged to a time when Man still lived as a part of Nature. So we left.

We stayed overnight in Peterborough at a campsite, then headed out early to the Merrill Lea, the cabin by Lake Mazinaw. This cabin is owned by my wife's boss and, as part of per perks, gets to pick a week to stay there every summer (something which would cost an actual paying customer something like $900 for the week). Not a bad deal, eh? The cabin is just 30 steps away from Lake Mazinaw (pictured left, with Bon Echo Rock in the distance), which begs you to swim. Unfortunately we only had about 2 days of good weather while we were there, so swim alot we did not.

We did, however, make our second day trip to Ottawa, this time to go and see the Canadian Museum of Civilization. It was a cooler place than all of us had hoped. For the wife and I, was the feature presentation about the Bog People of Northern Europe, about which we had read a bit in National Geographic. But not only were the items on display cool, the entire presentation was excellent, and unlike anything I've seen in the U.S. to date. The entrance to the exhibition served as a thoughtful preamble to the displays. The whole thing was set up in chapters, as if one were reading a good book on the subject or watching a quality PBS special. It had a true opening, body and closing that was well thought out and wonderfully presented. And that was just a small part of the place. The building itself is amazing - it was designed with native cultures in mind, built with a minimum of corners, so that ill spirits would not linger there. And the kids? Normally a trudge through a museum would be just that. However, the place also held a suprisingly fun kids area that was practically a museum in and of iself. All in all we managed to spend 8 hours in the place without even realising it, always a mark of a good museum.

Most of the rest of our time in Canada was spent eating fresh blueberries, playing The Only Known Game (which went remarkably well, even playing with a 10 and 6 year old - we used our copy of Fantasy Forest as a basis), reading, sleeping, playing and making Smores. Not our best trip to Mazinaw ever, but still a good week.

Part B - Cleaning:

This is because, right after we got back home from our vacation, we had two parties lined up inside two weeks.

First was Simon's 6th birthday party. The house needed a serious overhaul and we'd somehow managed to invite 13 kids to the event. Egad, but the boy does have some friends. More than me, I think. Anyway, it was alot of work with both of us working again and trying to find time to get ready as well (cf. Adapting), but we somehow managed it. The party was a success, judging by that no one cried and/or got hurt the entire time, and everyone got something out of the Spongebob pi�ata. What more could one ask for?

The second party was Kovachfest 2003 (a.k.a. Kovachapalooza), a drinkfest for those of us who have not had or been to such a thing in a long time. Mainly that was me, and I'm fine with that. I was looking forward to, as I told one person, drinking my skull off. This entailed more work, mainly for me, as it was left to me to prepare the way for our normally cluttered basement to become useable in a party atmosphere, incase of impending rain (which never came). I am proud to say that I was vastly successful in my endeavour. Said basement is now quite useable and I aim to keep it that way. At least until the next Spring flood.

Part C - Adapting:

Ah yes, the new job. During all this, the new job. 12pm-8pm, the true work hours of the happy family man. That is, if one never wants to see one's family. Thus the need to drink last Saturday.

I think the shock has worn off of both being back to work and having to deal with the ludicrous hours, because the loathing in the pit of my stomach has lessened. Another promoting factor is that I've already lost about 7 pounds in my first 2 weeks of actual work, a side benefit which I am heavily promoting to myself. I'm considering billboards in the kitchen and bathroom. "It might suck, but look at that dwindling gut!" "Think of the surprise you family will experience when they finally see you again!" That should do the trick.

So I'm habitually teetering on the edge of depression on the matter. But for now, the novelty of getting an income again is keeping it at bay. Not to mention the weight loss. "Get paid to lose weight!"

Sigh.

--End Transmission--