Hold Comes in Early

I got an email from the Avon Park Library today in Ottawa saying a book I put on hold a few months ago had come in and was waiting for me at the library.  I had to look up the number of the library and phone long distance to tell them that I didn’t need the book and they could return the book to the collection.

Garbage Pickers

We were cleaning out a few things from the garage and the basement on garbage day.

We put out an old globe.  A man and his son in a van stopped.  The man got out and picked up the globe.  He showed it to his son and they looked at different countries.  They thought it might be useful and thanked me for it before they drove away.

Then the metal collectors showed up and took a old metal filing cabinet and all of my old aluminum fastball bats.

It was good to see some people making good use of our garbage.

Diabetes Re-diagnosis

When I came back from Florida, I did a blood test and saw my doctor about my diabetes.  He said my blood sugar levels were good and if I got another good reading on my next blood test, he might reduce my medications.

On my next test, I did have a good reading and he cut my medications in half.

Then in my next test, I had another good reading and he took me off my medications completely.  I was no longer diabetic.

Then at my next reading, the doctor said that my blood sugar levels were up and asked me if I had made any change to my life style.  I said no not really.  He said it was borderline diabetic but he wouldn’t do anything right now.  He would wait to see my next reading.

After I got home, I realized he had probably forgotten that I was no longer on my medication.  That was why my reading was higher this time compared to the last time.

Barb Still Has It

Barb was a software tester when she worked.  I asked her to look over the checklist manual and software that I wrote for Max.  She started by reading the manual for typos.  Then I convinced her to try to use the manual to run the software.  She couldn’t figure out how to run the software from reading the manual.  When I explained it to her, she still couldn’t run the software because there were some serious technical problems.

I fixed the manual and the software fairly easily once I realized how bad they were.   

Barb has still got it as a software tester.

Nets Coming Down

Barb phoned the city to find out when the nets on the tennis courts were going to be taken down.  She phoned a number of different times and talked to a number of different people.  They didn't know.  So they said they would check and phone her back.  Then Barb went out for the day.

While she was out, there were two phone calls.  In the first call, the guy said that the nets would come down around the middle of November.  However, I wrote a note to Barb and wrote down that the nets were coming down in mid-October.

Fortunately, another guy phoned a little later and said the nets were coming down around mid-November.  This time I wrote the date correctly.  I was lucky the second guy phoned and I was lucky Barb phoned more than one person in the city.

Environmental Law

Sarah asked me to help her with her homework in Environmental Law.  I told her about many of the things I was reading about regulation and green cities.

Then we were talking about how this other student was writing a lot of crap on the website where Sarah was supposed to post her assignment.  I said I thought we could do better.  Sarah thought it was funny that I considered it "we" instead of "her".

Rain Delay

On the last Saturday morning Laura was visiting, we went to watch the Greater Ottawa Fastball League Showdown in Stittsville.  We watched Micksburg beat Quyon.  Then it started to rain and we went to Tim Horton’s.

While we were waiting out the rain delay, I worked on my line-up for the playoff games in the Glen Cairn league.  When we were ready to go, I scrunched up my little pieces of paper and put them in my coffee cup.  Then I realized my coffee cup was still half full.  So I pulled out the little pieces of paper to drink the rest of my coffee.  Laura got a great laugh out of that.

We went back to the ballpark and found out the games had been postponed until Sunday.  We sat around and talked to the guys in the beer tent for a while, then we went to the airport for Laura to fly to Vancouver.

Tipping the Batters

I was the first base coach of my team in the competitive fastball league.  In the playoffs, we were playing Micksburg.  They have one of the best pitchers in Ontario.  I could see the signals of the catcher to the pitcher.  So I told the guys that I would tip them when a rise ball was coming.

It didn’t seem to help, we still lost 3 games to 2 but we didn’t strike out as much in the games I was tipping the batters.

When I told Laura about tipping the batters, she thought that was just like in the movie "Bull Durham".

The Fastball Fan

Laura had a great time following me around to fastball games during the week she was in Ottawa.  One night she was meeting an old friend.  He had some time off work.  Then he went to work and Laura came home to go to my fastball game.  Her friend asked her if she could skip a game to meet with him after work.  She told me no way would she miss a fastball game.

Laura came to Micksburg to watch a playoff game in the freezing cold.  She enjoyed watching her heroes, Corey and Chad Costello, the pitcher and catcher for Micksburg.  All of the boys on my team made her feel welcome after the games.

Laura thought it was great how everyone at the ballgames that we went to all week, all over town, knew me.  They all said ‘Hi Ivan’ when I walked into the park.

Laura said that by following me around and going to all the fastball games, she couldn’t have had a better time.