Winter 2000 |
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| 13 March | I've updated my book list with some thoughts on Nicholas Christopher's "Veronica" and Mo Hayder's "Birdman" |
| 13 March |
Here's where I live......
It's always helpful to know where you stand, don't you think? |
| 4 March | After 12 long years of careful behavioural observation of thousands of people making the trek from Union Station to First Canadian Place, I think I have come up with a foolproof personality test. All you have to do is walk behind someone as they walk through one of the heavy glass doors between office buildings and see whether they hold the door open just enough to allow themselves to slip through, or push it all the way open and before letting go, glance over their shoulders to see who is coming behind. A disturbingly large number of people seem to care not a whit for the rest of humanity and let go of the door only to have it close on the face of the next pedestrian. |
| 23 February | For what it's worth, I have decided to take a year off work. Not right away, mind you. These things take some time to wangle your way into. I intend to keep going to the office for the next 9 years. But come my 50th birthday, I want to be out of there. Don't know what I will do yet...I have lots of time to think about that. Maybe I wont do anything. Maybe I'll become a ski bum. Maybe I'll do something useful. So many possibilities... |
| 22 February | There is no such thing as good skiing in Ontario, just varying degrees of bad. But there is a bit of a hill 20 minutes drive from out house, with 3 chair-lifts and more ski classes than you can shake a Rossignol at. I signed Andrew and Colin up for lessons which started in January. I also decided that this presented the perfect opportunity to get up off my butt on Saturday mornings and join them. We have had a blast, and it sure makes the winters a helluva lot more fun. |
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Andrew hits the slopes on the first day of lessons.  |
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Colin was so enamoured with his new ski goggles that he wore them almost continuously around the house for days on end.  |
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| 22 February |
I have heard nothing but great things about Don Delillo's book Underworld and an old friend loaned me a copy a few months ago. I delved into the first chapter and found it to be a tour de force of skilled storytelling. But then I put it down and never picked it up again. Curious, eh? My reading habits are so sporadic that I am constantly put-off by massive novels like Underworld, I am afraid that I would lose interest and stop reading part way through, and then, months later, face the daunting task of piecing the story back together. Given the choice, I tend to stick with books in the 200 page range. Not only do I stand a half-decent chance of finishing them, I think that the best writers are those who use the language economically. Some of my favourite books are exceedingly short (Remains of the Day comes to mind). I have started a list of books that I actually managed to finish this year. You can, if you wish, read about them here. |
| 6 February | I am going to attend a meeting in Paris at the end of May and since it is scheduled for a Thursday and Friday, Heidi is going to come over for a few extra days. We haven't been to Paris since the mid-1980's. |
| 13 January | In 1998, Heidi and I spent a week in Tofino on Vancouver Island. We are going back in August, this time Andrew and Colin are coming too. |
| 12 January | During the Christmas holidays, I took advantage of our local video shop's "5 movies for 5 days for 5 bucks" deal, and included a couple for the kids. |