Our Cursed Internet Connection

Xplornet is not my favourite Internet provider. Unfortunately where we live, they are the only game in town. There are things about them that really bug me but we're resigned to live with it.

First and foremost their customer service really sucks. Thankfully for the past year we haven't needed their help much. Prior to that the system had some reliability issues and calling them to solve anything was a nightmare.

To troubleshoot they want you on a land line phone. Guess what? We don't have a land line and where we live we can't get one. Our phone works through the Internet. We did our best to work with it. We would use the neighbour's phone and relay instructions by walkie talkie. Great idea if someone answers the phone on their end and goes through the troubleshooting before the batteries go dead. Good luck with that.

We have learned by experience that when you go over your monthly limit they don't just charge more. They also slow your connection way down until the month cycle restarts. With seven users in the household that sometimes happens to us. Like right now and we get to suffer until Saturday. Not real happy with a connection that allows us to do very little right now. The company doesn't tell you about this by the way. We heard that they did this and experience has told us that it is true. On the bright side it's impossible to get whacked with huge overage fees like this.

For the next few days we will just suffer.

A Date With My Chainsaw

When the firewood stockpile is getting depleted and the temperatures are cold, I know what I get to do at every opportunity. I get to cut down and cut up dead trees. Today has left me pretty tired and sore although the cold crisp weather was beautiful.

No big issues today. My first victim was out in the open. As long as it didn't fall on me, I really didn't care which way it went. I cut if down before the gang was ready to start hauling the logs for splitting. After checking the forecast I decided to take down a couple more. The boys should have (they better have) the wood all rounded up before there is any more snow to bury my work.

Those two trees were a bit more dicey, so I had Sheldon spotting, in case things went wrong. They snagged a couple times on the surrounding trees but with a little wrestling they came down right where I wanted them. Fifty-one more pieces for the boys to haul. Better looking wood than the first one too. I expected significant rot on them, but there was almost none. We'll be nice and warm burning these.

Plenty more out there for us. One of the neighbouring lot owners gave me permission to take all the dead trees on his land (they're a bit of a fire hazard the way they are) and I can take anything in the whole area that is already on the ground. The key is having the right weather on my days off and the energy to process it all.

Much as I hate to admit it, I don't have the energy or strength I once had. A day of cutting that much tires me out without even having put in much time with my six pound splitting maul busting it all up into wood stove size pieces. Thankfully I can still terrorize the boys into hauling most of it for me.

It was a good day though. A couple of days like this each month and we should be just fine.

We Are the Borg...

The boys had to go outside in the dark to fetch firewood because they were too busy playing online games while it was daylight. At the door they realized they forgot to grab one of their flashlights first. Maybe they didn't forget because they were eager to borrow my head strap flashlight. I didn't know why until I let them in with the first arm full.

Francine bought it for me on an inspiration because it would allow me to have both my hands free while dealing with whatever late chore was on my plate. I always wore it up on my forehead like a miners head lamp. Never occurred to me how cool it would look wearing it as an eye patch. The picture was very difficult to take because of lighting problems. It still doesn't quite capture reality but I'm sure it comes close.

First thing I did was laugh and then referring to one of the kids favourite animated movies, Treasure Planet, I intoned, "Beware the Cyborg."

The weather is miserable cold but the family sense of humour keeps us going. Both Brandon and Andrew took turns with the look but since it was Andrew's idea, he got to be the model for the photo shoot. Remember resistance is futile.

New Year New Habit

Courtesy Pixabay

I seem to remember a sermon on overcoming that it takes three months to establish a good habit. I might not be remembering this very well. Granted I remember who delivered this message and we're friends on Facebook, so maybe I could just ask him. If he's anything like me though, he probably doesn't remember unless he has the source somewhere on file. At the time I'm assuming he was quoting some reputable psychology study and knowing him he probably was. Googling the question out online didn't make anything clearer.

Numerous articles claim it only takes 21 days. That sounds a lot easier but I couldn't find any research and my own experience doubts the truth of that.

One article I found made the statement that everyone knows it takes 28 days. There's a convincing source. Kind of sad that I'm the only one who didn't know that. Now I know and if it doesn't work I'll really be disappointed.

Looks to me like that I'm best off relying on my own experience because it all appears to be opinion anyway. I think it depends on the person, the particular habit in question and the environment at the time. I can fall into bad habits with no effort at all but I've tried establishing good habits and some of those don't seem to stick after years of effort.

I'm a writer and am well into a personal challenge to write 30 blog posts/articles in 30 days. A week and a half in and I'm one ahead of the pace. The idea isn't just to accomplish this for thirty days. I'm trying to establish a productive lifetime writing habit. Hard to do and too easy to fall back out of. I've been there before and I know that 21 days or 28 or even three months might not do it.

If you've started a New Year's resolution or are trying to improve yourself in any way, more power to you. Stick to it. It's worth it. Just don't think there is some magic formula.

An Unexpected Threat

Courtesy Pixabay

My younger brother William started playing basketball pick up games with a couple of friends after his day of work. Living in another town I wasn't able to join in unless I happened to be visiting. While he wasn't completely lacking in athletic ability basketball was not his game. Their regular opponents beat them almost all the time. He let them know that when the stars aligned and big brother could be there the outcome would be different.

Of course the opportunity eventually came and he did his darndest to convince me to join in. I love the sport so it didn't take a lot of arm twisting. We had about a week from that point to prepare.

Shooting hoops in the yard he confessed to me that in their games he had never actually scored a basket. I told him I couldn't make a star out of him in a week, probably not even teach him one good move. His shot though really didn't look bad, so I showed him a spot on the court  and told him to practice shooting from that spot and no where else.

He dutifully worked on the shot while I explained his importance. If his nemesis team played team ball as well as he said, they would try defending against me straight up until I proved everything he warned them about. Theoretically that wouldn't take too long. After that they would try to double team me. Double teaming me would leave someone wide open right on the spot he was practicing shooting.

“What if I miss?”

“I don't care if you miss. If you don't shoot it, when I pass to you on that spot I'm going to come over and smack you one.”

He started laughing. He got the point though. If he got the ball there, I expected him to go for it without any hesitation.

On the big day my shot was a little rusty but it didn't take long for the opposition to understand that their friend guarding me was in way over his head. Next pass comes into me and Williams man drops down for the double team. Why guard my brother when he has never scored before. I kicked it back out to William, who swished the bucket. The look on their collective faces was priceless. They tried again a little later and William proved the first one wasn't a fluke. We won handily.

We might have won with my “star” power but creating a complimentary threat made sure that they had no answer. They couldn't double team me without leaving someone else with an easy bucket. Teamwork can be a beautiful thing.

First Real Winter Storm of the Season

A few days ago the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. Taking care of a few outdoor chores at work was a pleasure. Yesterday winter came with a vengeance and today the temperature plunged. Hard to believe the weather was so balmy so recently. Outdoor chores were not for the faint of heart today.

On the bright side the forecast was pretty nearly on the mark. Something I'm not sure happens very often. When the storm started most people stayed off the roads. Business fell off at work. The boys and I have the most remote home compared to the rest of our co-workers, so we were asked if we wanted to go home early. I thought it was the better part of wisdom. I maybe wouldn't have been quite so quick to agree had I known the snowplough had cleaned out the roads in our neck of the woods. The roads were bad but I didn't find them particularly challenging.

This morning was less fun. The snow had melted and then froze on my windshield. Took a lot of effort to clear enough so that we could drive to work. It only got colder as the day progressed. Business started slow but as soon as the sun came out we got swamped. Lots of people traveling because of the holiday and they all got hungry at about the same time and place.

Tomorrow is supposed to be just as cold. I'm not looking forward to it.

Basketball Player: Unorthodox, Short Winded, Canadian

Courtesy Pixabay

Three strikes, you're out! I thought it would be kind of fun to write an analysis of myself as a basketball player during my college days. In some ways the title says it all. I think I had a pretty good idea of my strengths and weaknesses. Maybe some of my former teammates will read this and disagree but this might make a fun discussion.

Offense

My offensive game through almost the entirety of my college stay was back to the basket in the low post. Against smaller opponents, I used a spin around jump shot to great effect. I could spin either direction. Similar size players with good leaping ability could block that though. Against someone like my teammate Donald Campbell that move was almost useless. There were other moves I could fall back on. I could pivot and face an opponent and let fly with a hesitation set shot that was all wrist. It was hard to block because it was very difficult to know when I would let go of it. I was accurate within fifteen feet of the basket. Complimenting that was a fake that would allow me to go under my opponents arm. I could score off that provided one of the opposing team players didn't help my man out. Last off I had a reliable/unreliable hook shot. When that was on the mark I was an offensive one on one match for anyone. Unfortunately it did at times desert me.

Outside of the post I did have an effective outside shot clear out to the three point line. I was taught all through high school that as a big man I did not have the green light to shoot those. That carried over to my college thinking. The only three pointers I ever took were in the waning minutes of games in which we were playing catch up. The concept of a three point shooting big man hadn't come of age yet, but I am glad Alan Dance the coach let me prove I could do it my sophomore year.

Last move of note was my favorite one on one playground move. I liked to get the ball on a short wing on the left side and roll into the key with a right-handed hook shot. Used it to impressive effect in pick up matches but it rarely came up in a real game. I didn't play that position. Only came up once on some kind of defensive mix up. Somehow I ended up in that spot with Donald's younger brother Earl guarding me. He was not my usual man and I rolled it in on him beautifully.

Defense

My weaknesses as a player were a great deal more evident on the defensive end of the court. I had some lateral movement problems, which I did my darnedest to conceal. Any player who could handle the ball well could get past me. I only stayed with people second guessing what they were trying to do. A player didn't have to catch me going the wrong way, they just had to catch me not moving the right direction fast enough.

I did somethings very well though. I'm Canadian and I know how to zone defense even in man to man coverage. In “B” division ball nobody scored a reverse layup driving baseline, while I was on the court. I was also quite adept at screwing up offensive timing by getting in the way.

My biggest weakness can summed up with one word: Asthma. Americans like to turn their basketball games into track meets and with that kind of tempo in Los Angeles air you may as well park me on the bench. I can run and plenty fast. I just can't keep doing it. This was also my biggest college secret. I knew I was asthmatic, but it was not officially diagnosed at the time. Had that shown on my application I suspect I would not have been accepted at all. I should have been found out in jogging and conditioning class. My results clearly pointed in that direction. Mr. Petty even commented on my weird graphs but never put it together. Years later I discussed this with my family doctor and she confirmed that my results should have given me away.

In “A” division ball most of my shortcomings were well concealed by my team mates. Who wants to break past me so that Donald or Paulbo could ram the ball down their throats when they got to the basket. They were far better rebounders than me so my real concentration was to just make sure my man wasn't the guy who got the ball. Because we had a short bench, we slowed the game down to a tempo I could handle. I had a very good year that season. A lot of players had sub par outings against me and probably didn't know why.

I'm not as weak a defender as some people might have thought. I'll illustrate this by highlighting one outing. We had a game against the faculty. My opponent for the night was Mr. Jim Petty, head of the physical education department. I heard he had played pro ball at one time, but I was never able to confirm that. He was crafty and averaged twenty points a night. He had his absolute worst game of the season against me and it's because I don't play defense like an American. He did not physically over match me. His game relied on losing his man. If you took your eyes off this guy for a split second he was gone and while you were busy looking for him he'd be on the other side of the basket scoring a layup. I'm Canadian and zone defense in those days got drilled into our brains, not only that we were taught if you lose your man don't look for him go straight to the basket. If you don't meet him there you probably have nothing to worry about. I don't think even he understood why he couldn't lose me long enough to get those easy buckets. After all I wasn't considered fast enough to cover him that well - I gloat to this day.

Courtesy Pixabay