Toronto in a nutshell…
April 24, 2019, 9:30 PM
I mentioned about a month or so ago that Elyse and I were going to Toronto in mid-April. That trip is now in the history books, and much fun was had. I’m going to do a more detailed photo set in Life and Times later, but I want to present a high-level view of what we did on our trip now. Much of the focus of the trip was to visit various locations where Today’s Special was filmed. We visited the store, as well as other places where various characters visited over the course of seven seasons. We also rode a lot of the TTC, visited friends, had dessert at a poop-themed restaurant, and rode some vintage elevators.
So here we go…
Main Place Mall, a mostly dead mall in Buffalo, New York, where we met up with a friend.
Continue reading…Categories: Canada, Today's Special, Travel, TTC
Seeing what my innards look like from the inside…
April 15, 2019, 11:18 PM
So on Wednesday, March 26, I had an endoscopy as part of a weight loss program that I’m in. That involved going to the hospital, getting an IV, getting wheeled into the room on a stretcher, and then getting knocked out while they did their thing. The good news is that everything looks healthy inside of me, which is what I was expecting to see.
What I found interesting was the difference in the experience in this procedure vs. the last time that I got sedated, back in 2005 when I got a pilonidal cyst removed. This time was just a diagnostic procedure, though, while it was actual surgery back in 2005. The endoscopy was done at Montgomery General Hospital in Olney, while my 2005 surgery was done at Augusta Medical Center (now Augusta Health) in Fishersville, Virginia.
Much of the process was pretty similar to 2005. Come in, check in, change into the hospital gown, put on the hospital bracelet, get all of my information, do vitals, and so on. The first big difference was the IV. I’ve had IVs in the hand before, but for some reason, this one hurt like hell going in. I don’t know why – I’ve never had an IV hurt like that. Then I met with the doctor, who was scoping me and then a second patient. I was told that it was good to be the first one to get done. Then I met with the nurse anesthetist, whose job was to knock me out when the time came. After she told me what was going to happen, I joked about hitting me on the head with a big cartoon mallet. I wonder how many times they hear that joke. I imagine that they hear that a lot.
Categories: Personal health
Time to complain about Daylight Saving Time…
April 5, 2019, 1:16 PM
So it’s been about twelve years since the last time that I wrote about Daylight Saving Time (DST). That previous instance was back in 2007, which was the first year that the current date rules were used. That put “spring forward” on the second Sunday of March, and “fall back” on the first Sunday in November. And apparently, I was justified in being a bit on edge about the new time change date, because the next day, when it took effect, I ended up oversleeping and showed up for work late. Oops. But considering that I got fired from that job a few weeks later… oh, well.
One thing that I’ve noticed since the switch is that no one seems to know when it’s time to change anymore. 2019 is the 13th year of the new schedule, and the changeover date still catches me by surprise. It feels random to me. It’s not the first Sunday in March, but the second Sunday. It’s not a new month with a time change, but rather a mid-month thing.
In any case, I would love to do away with the whole charade of changing our clocks twice a year. I would lean towards abolishing DST in favor of standard time rather than adopting DST year-round. Ultimately, standard time is the one that more closely lines up with the sun. “Noon” is supposed to be when the sun is at the highest point in the sky. If you’re going to adopt one time standard year round, ditch DST. Going to DST year-round would essentially mean moving up a time zone, putting the east coast of the United States on Atlantic Time, putting the midwest on Eastern Time, putting the Rockies on Central Time, and putting the west coast on Mountain Time.
Categories: Events