Devauld.ca

The Christmas madness is over. Greyhound pulled through, and despite the bitter old man at the Calgary terminal informing me, rather smugly that my parcel wasn't going to arrive in time for Christmas day, it did in fact arrive on the eve at about 9:30pm. I was very happy that I didn't have to put the IOU cards under the Christmas tree.

As for the event itself, I mainly got a lot of fat. Between poppycock, chocolate covered nuts, apple turnovers, pumpkin pie and eggnog I now need to start my New Year's resolutions a week early. I probably don't need to eat until the new year anyway. My family and friends also put a great deal of care into my gifts, and I received more than I really think I deserve. Most notable were my new juicer and Wacom tablet, both of which I hope to put into use a lot in the new year.

Coming home was the usual mainstay of nonsense at the airport. Now, it would appear, you can no longer take on more the 100ml of fluid with you through security. It's not that you can't take it with you on the plane, you just need to purchase it after you have crossed the line of bag searching. I thought the whole idea was pretty stupid, because 100ml of Kerosene in a pop bottle coupled with a lighter and a ball point pen makes an effective flame thrower (Not that I ever tried it in my impressionable youth). I started having these half baked security ideas, when the security professional was informing one of my fellow passengers that his cigarettes needed to be in one ziplock bag and his lighter in another and under no circumstances can they both be placed in the same pocket.

After my flight home, I immediately went to work. It was a pretty light day mentally as we were voluntold to help with inventory count. Although, after retiring for the night I was most unpleasantly surprised. This morning, when I tried to wash the filth from my body, I couldn't get the water warmer than ice needle freezing. It turns out that my hot water heater/tank finally gave up the ghost, and I'm now without hot water. Adding to the fun is the holiday season where it will probably cost me double on labour to get a plumber out to fix the mess. I'm sure there is going to be a story involved in getting the situation rectified, and you can be sure I'll put it up here to let you know how it all turned out.

This week's photo for the Photo Friday challenge came to me pretty quick upon reading the title. I have a set of lightning pictures, and needed to pick the candidate that would represent me. Although this shot is a much more intense strike, I find that I like the above shot because you can see a little bit more of the land where the storm is brewing. I was also a lot more comfortable taking this picture because I was sitting on a patio in Priddis, instead of hunkered under an umbrella on Nose Hill.

I'm a couple of hours before entering my favorite spot on Earth the loved Calgary Airport. I'm sure the next hours of being treated as human cargo is going to be ripe with adventure.

I'm looking forward to seeing the family at Christmas, but there is a dark shadow on Christmas for me this year. Since, everyone from Greyhound to Purolator is behind for the Christmas season, my gifts will not make it to the Peace until after Ho Ho Ho day. I'm pissed, but it is really my own fault for not getting it together earlier. Since there won't be any Christmas surprise coming from me, I thought I'd allow those that are getting a hand made gift this year to have a sneak peak at what they won't be getting on Christmas day.

It's going to be a whirlwind of a vacation, with my corporeal self required to be in my office on Wednesday. In that kind of time, my baby face won't even sprout enough for a shave.

The last two weeks of my life have been in fast forward. Since the middle of November, I really haven't done much but burn the candle on all it's ends. I'm forcing myself to write this down, because it won't be long and I'll have switched gears, probably to neutral. After which I will not want to do anything but stare at the stipple on the ceiling.

The end of the month brought about a weekend of moving, and the arrival of my lathe. I committed myself to making some Christmas gifts this year. A decision that was made based on entirely too little information regarding the time it would take. Therefore, I've spent a great deal of the last month out spinning, polishing, oiling, sanding and breaking things in my shop.

Early in the month, Mike and I took some photographs at a wedding. Another undertaking of which I was not prepared for the time commitment that was involved. The preparation was easy enough to lead us into the storm. Then my partner and I scrambled into action to deliver the gallery we promised with all the cropping, white balancing, color correcting and touch ups that were required for us to feel good about the quality of the work. Mike deserves a big thanks for all the effort he put in to make it all happen.

This past evening, I put the final touches on my last spun piece of work, and the only real chore before the holidays is getting all the presents on the bus so they can be in the Peace by Christmas. After that, it's going to be a Holly Jolly Christmas

I couldn't figure out what I was going to do for this week's Photo Friday competition when I first read it. Immediately I thought of the military definition of Ambush, which is to attack from a concealed position. I have no military pictures, and nothing that involves fighting from concealed positions.

As I was working thought my day, my mind happened across thoughts of rugby, and I remember some old wise ass from the university cracking that Rugby was the closest thing you could get to a battlefield, it just doesn't use any weapons.

I have a collection of rugby photos that I looked through to find this week's entry. It turns out that another definition of Ambush is to attack an unsuspecting person, and I know our boys did just that in this game.