playoff time

spring has sprung. the flowers are ready to bloom, the birds are singing, the snow is long gone and the buds are forming on the trees. this can mean only one thing....

nhl playoff time!

however, my leafs didn't make the playoffs this year. they made a valiant run in the final couple of weeks, but they were too far gone to sneak in. they won 9 of their last 12, losing two in overtime, and getting blown out in the second-to-last game of the season, in buffalo. i went to that game. we lost 6-0 and i even had to travel to a different country to see this game! the only game we lose in weeks... (for those of you in the know... we had a sieve playing goal in buffalo - he has lost his last 3 games, allowing a total of 18 goals... our winning streak (8-0-2) was with another goalie, who 'got the night off' in buffalo).

so yeah, spring is here. i've been out on my road bike a bit. i'm still waiting for my mountain bike to come back from the shop. time's awasting, i need to ride!

maybe this spring, i'll be able to watch the playoffs as an unbiased observer - enjoying the game for the beauty, rather than as an irrational fan, cheering every leafs goal, booing every missed call, or opposition goal. (this is me rationalizing...)

dreams for sale

last night i had this dream i was in a studio with the original members of the Eagles. the studio was in a resort they had rented, and the band sat around the studio making random sounds. then one band member started to talk. i was there with about 5 or 6 other non-band members; each of us had an acoustic guitar. the band member said he'd start to play and sing one of their songs, and then each of us non-members would take over, and sing a verse. it was an audition, and i wasn't too familiar with the song he chose. however, when my turn came up, i somehow managed to get the guitar chords right and sing the words that i didn't know. i came across as o.k., but not spectacular, but i don't think they picked me.

i'm not even a huge fan of the eagles.

do you ever wonder how some things (or some people) pop into your dreams? i suppose they don't pop in... they're already always in your head. sometimes i dream of the most obscure person from high school - someone i haven't thought about since the last time i saw them in the 1980s. how'd they get into my dreams?

how'd you get in here? can i see your invitation please?

it makes me wonder who dreams about me? does this same obscure person ever wonder how i got into their dreams?

do you dream about me?

a lifetime of firsts...

i attended a 50th birthday party last weekend, and i was reminded of the passage of time. i'm still a decade away from the half-century myself, but i've been doing some reflecting about aging. i started to think that maybe 'young' is simply when you're always looking ahead, whereas 'old' is when you spend more time looking back, rather than ahead. i'm still looking forward a lot; to what i don't know, but the future - my future specifically - holds so much potential. i am, however, looking back a fair bit; i'm now at the age i remember other people being - people whom i thought were 'old'. 40 isn't old. nor is 50, for that matter. however, when i was 22, 40 sure seemed old. i now know better...

i think if we keep challenging ourself, we continue to remain young. to do this, we need to find things to do for the first time. i believe that when we fall into the situation where we've become set in our ways, we become old. maybe young is when we make mistakes and learn from them; old is when we think we know better, and we no longer make mistakes. or: young is when we are doing things for the first time; old is when we have enough experiences such that we don't do anything for the first time any more. if that's the case, let me try something new each day, and not fear failure or embarassment.

on that note, i painted my first ever watercolour a couple of weeks ago. i loved doing it so much that i painted my second watercolour only a few days later. i hope to take digital photos of these paintings and put them up on my flickr account. i can't believe it took me so long to try this. i wonder what else i should be trying for the first time. any suggestions? leave a note...

i was at lunch last week with an old friend of mine. we concluded that it's not about what you know; it's about how you communicate what you know. i've been thinking about this. i know some terribly annoying people; people who aren't talking if they're not talking about themselves. i steer clear of these types, but inevitably, we have to deal with them. i also think about how we meet new people all the time. i like to think i'm open-minded, but the truth is, with some people, we feel an immediate connection, and can speak openly with them right away. being a shy person at first, i think i may cherish these 'connections' more readily than most.

i looked out my window a few minutes ago and it was snowing. snow in april... winter's last gasp.... die winter, die! outside on the grass i saw a single bird happily bouncing along in the snow. it was a robin. i smiled because the robin looked so happy. it looked at me, and happily bounced along on its way...

photos

i've started a webpage on flickr, with some of my photos. i hope to keep adding stuff there, so, in a moment of boredom, feel free to go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12584986@N00/