R.I.P Barney a.k.a Grimmace

We lost our car a few weeks back. The transmission died one day on Leah's way home from work.
Deciding to go to a car dealership to have a look... We walked out the door with Gretchen. A 2016 Volkswagen Jetta.
Barnickle, you will be missed... But you went to a better place. We gave her to charity... The Childrens Hospital Foundation got her. We should be receiving a fax receipt in the mail any day now.

10-4 over and out

getting rid of shit.. the right way

Yesterday Leah and I went down to our storage space and cleaned it out. We were able to get rid of 3 boxes.  thats a huge deal. then we loaded the car with stuff we don't need anymore.

Took to garbage bags of bottles to bottle depot, along with a few cans of paint. and a toaster oven than died and some random electrical cables.  Went to safeway and ditched a bag of plastic bags, and a couple plastic water jugs.

Checked the lotto max ticket... got a free ticket... yay!

Lastly we donated everything else to Salvation Army Thrift Store, feels good to get rid of shit that we don't really use or haven't used or missed in years,

Canadian Blood Services

It's in you to give, so I gave. About 500ml of blood, in approx 6 minutes. But see, I screwed up. I didn't eat enough food before or drink enough. After I felt strange, almost like cold sweats and shivers. Somebody yelled "we gotta 10 over here" and boom, a bed was wheeled over and I was taken to a different area of the floor. RN told me that I had low blood sugar and I had to lie down for a while. 😞

Was glad to be able to give blood. Feels good to do something for other people.  Took around 25 minutes to start to feel normal again. 

Can't go back for another 52 some odd days, but I plan to do it again.

One of the two real New Years on Earth is today... the Summer Solstice

sounds strange... but its true, the earth has its own. Humans call it the solstice... its the longest period of the year which has the most sunlight all year. IE the longest day of the year.

     A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year as the Sun reaches its highest or lowest excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. The solstices, together with the equinoxes, are connected with the seasons.

a life cycle of the earth if you will. anyways... this year... thats today. According to the internet... the winter solstice (6 months) from now is on December 22. below is a picture of what I'm talking about.

I'd like to think the significance of this time is far more important that that of the Gregorian Calendar new years, which is December 31st.  

image from http://www.chezchiara.com/2010/09/autumnal-equinox-harvest-moon-and.html

1. 
   

Life bitch

Kids... stay in school.  You don't want to be stuck a shitty job you don't like for the rest of your lives. No matter how many people will tell you that's it's a job, and it pays for the fun things in your life... It's still a shitty job. 

Hell, maybe it's just me being depressed... Early mid life crisis maybe... Possibly. Makes sense, I'm doing something I don't wanna be doing anymore but am feeling totally trapped in it.

Fuck...

Adventures in music land.

Start of entry.

Recently I have had an influx in the amount of music I have been playing/making. Feels good to have that creative outflow pipe. Without it I may not be here today, sounds a little extreme but it's true. No sense denying it.  Was fortunate enough to go to ashcroft recently and play a little bass with my former catalyst band mate and friend Casey Ladoski, and Keegan Fraser backed us on skins.

Was good to just jam on some old songs we made back in the day, as well as some covers. Killing in the name of by Rage against The Machine, and bottom, by Tool. 

Came back home and started thinking of some influences of mine and started humming a new track. I laid down some bass and guitar to that today, I figured out how to use preset drums from GarageBand and make some riffs. Yes it's sorta cheating cause I didn't make the drums or whatever, but screw you... Drums on a keyboard are hard to make, and it's a good tool for making other parts first.
i personally this is a really good song. Only time will tell what i do with it.

End of entry.

Silent protests

You know if it's a few things I've learned lately... 

Living life in your 30's sure doesn't really have anything on life in your 20's. Doesn't even compare, it's like apples to oranges.

There's no point in spewing off your opinion on Worldly views. 

Judging others on their livelihood is a giant waste of time. You're just being an asshole. 

Live your life... Don't worry about others. Everybody gets theirs at some point.

Anahiem to Los Angeles

We got up relatively early and headed into Los Angeles. we decided to drive through Compton en route to our Santa Mionica. 

At first, was a little worried about driving through Compton, but when you're down there, it's like driving through any neighborhood, no worries. 

We stopped at a convience store and bought some alcohol. Something about being able to buy booze at a corner store... Canada should get with the program, it's just alcohol. 

Continuing on, we headed to Santa Monica Beach..

Dipped my feet in the Pacific Ocean, last time that happened was in Hawaii on the island of Maui back in 2010?

After checking out the beach for a bit we decided to wander around, we came across a seal camped out under the Pier. 

After out excursion under the pier we headed down the pier to check out what was going on the pier, we stopped and bought a sea shell from a vendor.

We spent a few hours there then headed to our North Hollywood motel. The Motel 6 on Whitley Ave and Hollywood Boulevard. We dropped off our stuff and headed out to eat.

LAX to Anahiem...

Where do I start. We landed and headed to the street to see about a taxi or a shuttle. Nevermind the shuttle, we totally took a cab. And we totally lucked out and got the most informative cab driver...

He asked us where we were going, told him disneyland. And he had no idea where that was. Was like are you fucking kidding me.

So we started driving down the road, couldn't find the address to he stopped on the side of the freeway and he started fucking around with his garmin. Which might I add... Couldn't find the address either. and the meter kept clicking on...

Fuck around.

My data finally started working and I found the address and I had to direct him to where Disneyland was. And we arrived at our destination. $150.00 canadian for a cab ride,  * (taxi strike 2)

Portland to Los Angeles

Left Portland, now in an airplane headed for Los Angeles. It's a real plane with jet engines and everything. Boeing 737-800 flown by Alaskan Airlines. Great company so far. Great trip, except for the lady whom decides that the window seat was hers. Oh well, not worth asking her to get the eff out. Overcast and cloudy out the window anyway. Flight attendant was pouring water into cups and it came out to fast and splashes onto my leg. She has the same humor as Leah cause she started laughing. So did Leah, I joined in the laughter cause it's didn't offend me at all, just a little bit of water. I'm already dry, but she left bad and gave me a candy and some extra bags of ranch pretzels. Landed, got luggage and are hailing a cab...

YVR to Portland

Got up at the crack of dawn (4:30am) to catch a taxi to YVR to embark on a most adventurous trip south to California. Of course we get a taxi driver who claims doent have the machine to process credit or debit. Got shook down by a taxi driver. Thanks black top cabs for the bullshit. *(tax strike 1)

Checked in and waited around for our flight.

Boarded somtime around 7:00am and headed to Portland. Seen Mount Baker

It's the tiny mountain off in the distant. If you look closely enough you too can see it.

Then we flew over Mount St. Helens 

Landed in Portland.

First world problem alert...

Turned on my phone to find out we have used all out data for the month and resets on the 10th... Murr... Glad I bought the Roam from home package through my wireless provider...