A celebration of two milestones.

That's milestones, not mill stones.

Recently, we headed south to the good old sunshine state. We have not been there since the children were much younger. We decided that a holiday was much needed and since we did not head further south this winter, O Cuba I missed you, my beloved in her usual way found us an amazing holiday at an even better deal. This amazing woman of Dutch descent has made it a practice to find us the best holiday and the best price. Suffice it to say that she found us a great deal. We had a great time in the pool and everywhere else. We are already planning next years trip.

Oh yes, the milestones. On April 4/11 my beloved and I celebrated 30 years of married bliss.  Now truthfully no one has ever had a marriage that was perfect and our is not. However, over the years we have learned that two key factors are necessary to make a marriage work: they are Love and Respect. They are based on the biblical directive that a "husband should love his wife and a wife should respect her husband".

We have learned that these two make a marriage much better. We are thankful for the amount of time we have had together and we remain best friends as well as lovers and never strangers. We have also learned that communication is not the key to marriage, understanding is.

The other milestone is that while we were in Florida I celebrated my 25th anniversary of working for the Crown Corporation that is under the auspices of the Ontario Ministry of Labour. Twenty-five years of doing pretty much the same job is a long time. I love my job and enjoy getting up every a.m. to attempt to meet the challenges that are presented to me.

I have much to be thankful for. These are not millstones. Sadly some people see their marriage and their jobs as such. It can be so much better, trust me. It's based on our attitude. We need to have an attitude of servanthood rather than one of authority.

Happy May 24/11 weekend. I wish I was sitting in Lakeside Park as the RUSH song says:

"sitting in the sand to watch the fireworks display" 

Sadly, those days are gone, but the dreams and the memories live on forever.

A funny thing happened on the way to work this morning

I leave home very early to get to work at around 6:20 a.m. I do it for several reasons. The traffic is minimal that early in the morning, it is usually beautiful out at that time and I get to work in time to do my reading before I start work at 7:00 a.m.

I was driving to work this morning and all of a sudden, I realized that I was at King and University. I remember getting off the expressway and I remember nothing from that point on until I reached the intersection of King and University. There are four sets of lights that I had to get through to get to that intersection. I know I wasn't sleeping (I don't think I was) I must have been caught up in the moment in thought and prayer that I traversed that 1/2 Km or so and finally realized where I was at King and University.

I have had that happen in the past, the last time I was on the Conestoga expressway and I travelled several miles(Kms) before I realized where I had arrived to. I clearly had a lot in my mind at the time. I'll clock it on my way home to see what the distance actually is.

Have a safe day and watch out for me early in the morning.

Gas Prices, I'm ticked!

OK Now I'm ticked off.

On Friday, the price of regular gas was 107.9 in Kitchener Waterloo and slightly higher in Elmira. On my way to the market yesterday morning, I saw that the price was down to 102.7 in St. Jacobs, that's over 5 cents in less than 24 hours.

The price was about 105 on Thursday afternoon and at the corner of Shantz station road and highway 7 it was up to 113 on Thursday afternoon. So what happened here? The long weekend is what happened. Those mealy mouthed, gas robbing, scum bucket gas companies raised the prices just before everyone went away for the long weekend and then dropped it after everyone filled up.

I am so ticked off about this.  I have got to come up with a way to express my indignation about this thievery. I need gas for my job and to do all things families do, but(I really mean "but" this time) I wish I could find a way to make them hurt. I don't mean the poor station owners, even though I doubt they are poor, I mean the corporate giants who sit in their Ivory Towers(no offence Opa) and rip the rest of us off to pad their own already bulging pockets.

If you have any ideas, feel free to drop me a line and maybe some form of protest will begin, "we shall overcome". 

Well I'm back

Besides being the final three words from my favourite book and movie (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), "well I'm back" is my current refrain.

I made it through my first day at work in over 10 weeks. To say I'm tired and sore would be an understatement. I'm looking forward to getting some rest before physio and then getting back at it tomorrow.

The words make up a farewell and a return and I only have good things to look forward to.

Heading back to work

Finally, I am going to give it a try. I have permission from all involved to start my return to work program. I will be returning on Sept.15/08 on a graduated return to work program and am truly looking forward to getting "back in the saddle" so to speak.

I really have missed the professional experiences that occur on a daily basis as well as the many interactions with colleagues and clients.

I'll keep a daily log as to how it goes. I'm somewhat nervous as I will have been away from the place for ten weeks when I finally return.