I popped in the Matrix on a whim last night. At first I was not really paying attention…surfing the web, reading some stuff and then I realized that I was missing out on the coolest movie ever made. Man, the film has been excited again. I still remember the sequel having pretty well the greatest last hour of a film I have ever seen.
I received this nice documentary from Steve at Christmas time. It’s a nice hour long documentary taking a look at the making of Wish You Were Here through various interviews of band members, producers, artists…all in all, it’s pretty great!
I have never really watched a making of documentary so I’m not sure how it stacks up amongst others, but I thought it was great to see band members chat about what their thinking was behind each song, listen to some alternate takes of songs, see some live versions and listen to some instrumentation that may not have made the cut. They also talked about the fact that following up Dark Side to the Moon was a daunting task and they went in there unprepared.
By only beef is that the documentary definitely looks like it could have been included on the Wish You Were Here reissue last year. Why did they not put it in the package? Getting a little more out of the fans? Who knows. Either way, it was a great treat to watch for an hour, and the backstory on Sid Barrett was a welcome refresher on all things Floyd.
The subject line is what Dad said to Vero and I when we were leaving for Ottawa after spending Christmas with the family up North. He said it while passing a treble clef sign to hang on the wall that we received for Christmas. We all had a good laugh. I think everyone loves to pull out some one-liners like that.
***warning: disjointed thoughts all abound…is it the new year, or is it the new beer?***
It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m getting ready to go out but I felt the need to chat about the year gone by and Christmas holidays. By any other measure, the trip was the same old success…get to visit family and friends, get to have a few beers along the way, get to revisit old haunts. But we also had some new adventures as well…15 hours to get to Kapuskasing was a first…this was due to not one, but two accidents even before we hit North Bay. All I care about is that we made it home safe. I hope everyone else did as well. We had a great time spent in Kap and Hearst and I loved playing on the open mic night with Randy, John, Mike, Lynn and especially Maureen. It’s a fantastic feeling to sing along with your sister and I don’t think I’ve ever said that to her in person before. If only I had my trusty binder by my side, I could have probably given John and Randy a two hour break!
As I look back on 2012, it’s hard to pinpoint specific events and that was the original intent for this blog…I have a horrible memory and I wanted to have a diary of everything that happened in my life. But now it is somewhere where I drop in from time to time and jot down my current thoughts. There’s nothing wrong with that I suppose. I have a solid five years of entries to show my grandchildren “Hey, this is what your grandfather was about.” It also fuels my fire to write, but I feel that fuel has been taking over in the past few years to write music. I feel that I have written a few songs that I am proud of, some that don’t make the cut, and some that just need a little more work. That’s the classic life of a songwriter of I suppose. I have challenged Troy to embark on a songwriting challenge and write a song a month for the next year to see what we come up with. I don’t care if they all suck. I care that I try.
I have taken piano lessons since September and I’m proud of what I have accomplished. Have I practiced as much as I should have? Hell no. In fact, I’m scared to go back to lessons considering I have had the last month to practice and only have tinkered a bit. But I don’t care…I’m glad that I have made use of the instrument that Vero bought for me a few years ago to build up our chamber of music. Next up: The kazoo!
2012 has been an incredibly trying year for a lot of family and friends, including ourselves. Vero and I both were ‘affected’ by the potential of job losses at work. Some of our friends lost their jobs, some of our family lost their jobs, but some of us made it through and we’re grateful for that. Did we end up with what we want in the end? Maybe not…I definitely did as I love my job, but some others just don’t have that chance in life. It’s hard to feel lucky when we jump through one hurdle victoriously only to end up in another hurdle to overcome. The thing is, we just have to constantly evaluate what’s important in our life…the most important thing to me in my life are the people within it. I love going into work just to sit down for my first 15 minutes and respond to emails because I know someone is depending on it, or is seeking my opinion. I then love chatting to whoever is around and basically treating anyone at work as I would a friend or family…finding out what they are up to in life, teasing them about something ridiculous that they did and offering support when it’s needed. There isn’t many people that can say the people they work with are like family…I think I started thinking about this when my father and mother retired and I realized they spent more hours with the people they worked with than their own family (not by their own choice!) I would be remiss to not point out that I actually love the work I do as well and I feel that I am making a difference in people’s lives. There’s not many people that can say that.
I also cherish my time outside of work…it’s my most important time of my life…whether it is making beer with friends, debugging a faulty hot tub motor for an entire week while freezing my ass off before the giant winter has set in (and making triple daily phone calls to Dad in the process “Hi Mom, how are you…is Dad there?”), or catching up on some TV watching (which I’ve basically realized had taken a standstill to my piano lessons!) Speaking of taking a standstill to piano lessons, JF, John, Martin and I got together one time in 2012 to play together as a group and it was amazing. Did it happen again? No. My life was way too busy to get into it again. Especially with piano lessons. Will it happen again? Definitely. The feeling was electric in the room. John is a fantastic drummer AND music connoisseur and JF can outplay any lead guitar player we throw at him. I’m still disappointed we never went to see Roger Waters that one night at a bachelor party in the summer and he was playing a few hours away in Quebec City!
Of course, people are reading this wondering when I’m going to talk about my lovely wife Vero. In August, we wed and it was fantastic. Up in Hearst, ON, it ended up being everything we dreamed about. I secretly loved that it went down to five degrees because everyone out of town got a taste of what it is to live up North! All kidding aside, Vero planned, double-planned and triple-planned this event to the nth degree and it went off without a hitch. While she is sure is determined some times (read: tete de mule), it pays off in the end for the perfection she aims for. I look back to the summer and still feel that this is the wedding that we both wanted and we both made happen along with some significant help from our family and friends. But we did it on our own rules. I’m proud of that and I’m proud that it adhered to the same principles of our current parties: Make sure everyone has a great time. I love my wife and as I’ve said before…this is just another event in our lives. I’m not discounting the seven years before that.
I’m excited for some future plans we’ve set out. We’re planning to hit up Australia in September (which was diverted due to job cuts last September) and Vero is currently planning a trip with her Dad in Spring 2014. Of course, people ask when/if children fall into our plans in the future. Of course they do…just be patient. Many things to accomplish (such as the art of woodworking which is a personal goal in 2013). We’re also planning a complete bathroom renovation in February. I must admit that while I feel a bathroom is fine with a toilet and a shower, the shower just isn’t up to snuff so “out it must go!”. But in the same breath, Vero feels strongly about other elements so I feel the entire thing may be transformed come end of February!
What does 2013 offer us? Well, unless the Mayans were off a little and the world is going to end in 2013, there’s a slew of weddings to go to (when will it end?), maybe a video project to finally be completed (our music video chronicling the great white north excursion in the song “705”) and I suppose we should plant a tree or two.
One final thought before I pass it off to New Years’s wishes…something that really struck me this holiday season…
We had Melissa’s husband Jeff stay with us on Christmas Eve as she had to have an operation on her appendix on in Kapuskasing on Christmas Eve. I can only imagine what it must feel like to have to drive 16 hours up to Hearst only to have your appendix rupture the next day and then they have no surgeons in Hearst so you have to go by ambulance to Kapuskasing. While Kap is a fantastic town, it’s still a hospital room next to some lady hacking her lungs out. I am not one to dwell on misfortunes so I made the best of the situation and offered to take Jeff under our wing for the night and spread some Christmas cheer. I brought him to the Townsons who offered us some amazing festive cheer and then we headed off to our house. This reminded me of what Christmas, and more importantly, what my family (and the Townsons) are about. I don’t even think that Mom flinched when I mentioned in church that Jeff would be staying with us that night. I felt bad for not giving her the heads up, but at the same time, I think she understood that and did not mind too much. A bed was set up for him and the famous Palmer family cheer was spread out to the all-encompassing family. I feel that the Palmers are like some organism that just envelops everyone they meet and makes it one of their own…I’m talking about all the Palmers…and if you have met any of us, then you are a Palmer as well. You know what I mean…countless tales have been told of how my parents are the coolest there ever was. Maureen and I aspire to be those people who welcome anyone with open arms into their house and make them feel comfortable. This is what we are made of and I don’t think we would settle to have anyone amongst us that didn’t act like that. I personally aspire to be what my uncles, aunts, parents, grandparents and whoever else have been associated with the family…I aspire to be what they are…inviting to all. Jeff appreciated the night spent with us and enjoyed the fact that he could shuffle off to bed when he was deadbeat tired after looking after his wife in the last day or so. Sure, it was a shitty time for them…but people get through that. I think Melissa appreciated that we could take Jeff int our house instead of having him in some old hospital room. Melissa was up and at ’em a few days later when we visited for an excellent brunch with Michel, Carole, Miguel and Stephanie. I also managed to sneak in a well deserved nap at the same time. That’s what family is about as well…accepting everyone around them, no matter what their faults (in their eyes) may be…especially a lone soldier just wanting to catch a few winks while the guys go out and go on the ski-doo. 
I want to thank my family for welcoming Jeff into the house during Christmas.
Was 2012 challenging? Hells yes. But I say throw whatever you got at me in 2013 because I’m always going to emerge with a smile on my face.
I don’t care if you’re with a loved one watching the clock strike midnight or with a giant group of people tonight…reflect on the year you’ve had and see the joy you’ve had. Talk about it…tell someone three things you loved about the past year.
Also, it doesn’t hurt to phone whoever the heck you want at the stroke of midnight. They’ll never get mad.
Well on that note…
On December 1st, Etienne, Mina and Benoit came from work to try their hand at making beer and cider. It was the largest batch I have ever taken on…four batches at a time! We decided to make Longhart Red Ale from scratch, some apple cider, an IPA and an Australian bitter.
The evening was tons of fun. The guys were really into it and I’ll be honest, it’s always fun to create beer with a few friends over.
Today, amongst the horrible weather outside, Etienne and Benoit made it to the house to bottle the beer. I had brought bottling operations up into the kitchen instead of downstairs as I didn’t know how many people would be showing up to help and we may be a little cramped downstairs.
I was worried about the lack of bottles, but as the guys joked about (after having to sanitize every bottle in the house!), we ended up with more than enough. Unfortunately for us, we sanitized every plastic bottle from the garage only to realize that the plastic bottle caps had melted rubber bits inside them (from the time two years ago when I put them in the dishwasher and then switched to glass bottles). So…we couldn’t use all the plastic bottles, but no matter! Somehow it all worked out and Etienne drank approximately 17 gallons of San Pelligrino water so he could have the bottles for the weekend. He proceeded to spend the day in the washroom as it was a constant flow. Ha ha.
Four batches done and I’m itching to start a new batch in the new year! I’m toying with the idea of moving to a keg system instead of using bottles. Any tips?
Two weeks ago, I decided to put up the Christmas lights before Vero got home (read: she told me she would love to see the lights up before she got home) but when I went out to the garage I heard an awful racket coming from the hot tub.
Note: the things I will talk about in this post will mostly make me sound like I know what the heck a hot tub does, but let it be known that I had little understanding until AFTER two weeks of research along with my co-researcher…Dad. Also, this is mainly for historical purposes so it may not be the most entertaining thing to read.
When I opened up the cover to the hot tub, I found the circulating pump (Circ-Master by Aquaflo) was the source of the racket. I also noticed it leaking which explains why the water level would go down over the weeks. I turned the breaker off, engaged the cut-off valves to the pump, unscrewed the unions, took the ground wire off, unplugged the guy, and Bob’s your uncle.
Luckily for me, there was a sticker on it indicating that I should bring it to a store on Cyrville Road. Perfect! I gave them a call and they said to bring it on it.
As soon as I walked in there, I knew I was amongst experts. The guy at the counter took one look at it and said “Ah. You must have a leaky seal.” He explained that once the seal goes (every 3-5 years), the chlorinated water starts leaking over the pump. Turns out that it started to deteriorate the impeller blade on the pump as well. I left it in their good hands and returned on Wednesday to pick it up. $188 later, I’m walking out with a working pump.
Or so I thought. Plugged the pumped back in, attached the unions, flipped the breaker…nothing. Hmm…after some research I realized I never bled the line of the air pocket. Loosened a union, heard the air escape…still nothing. Hmm…
I called back and they said they test all pumps going out so it should be working. Next up is checking out my spa pack! The spa pack is the circuit board that runs the hot tub.
Everything checked out there. I ended up phoning Chinook Hot Tubs who were a great help in trying to debug the problem. They are always super helpful and I recommend them to anyone. Even though they thought it was the pump, they ended up finally suggesting maybe it’s a fuse that has gone in the spa pack. I changed the fuse but no dice. I even got Mike’s help in measuring the amount of voltage from the plug and it was outputting a solid 248V. So we knew the pump was getting power.
I have to say at this point, it was a frustrating experience. I spent a few hours in the cold on Wednesday and woke up early Saturday morning to sit in the cold winter chill (the wind was quite nasty that day!) to not have a damn thing work for me. I was fighting against time and the weather at this point…winter was coming and I needed to figure this out.
I ended up bringing the pump back in to get checked out. I figured that if it wasn’t the pump, it has to be the circuit board. Dad thought that maybe there is power going to the pump but a signal has to be sent to trigger it on. At this point, it could be anything but sometimes it’s the simplest things and I knew I had to go back to square one. Verify if the pump was working.
I chatted with the guy at the counter for a bit while the pump was being tested. The young guy brings the pump out of the back and says “Well, it works.” There went all the hope in the world. But then he explained…”Well, it works now. There was a loose wire in there.”
Hallelujah! I was so ecstatic. I don’t think they’ve had a reaction like that from a pump that works! I was dancing on the countertops, fireworks went off and cheerleaders threw confetti on them. At least that’s how I remember the moment.
I brought the pump back home, cleared out the snow around the hot tub that had fallen the night before and lo and behold, the pump worked on the first shot! Bingo bango, it works!
After speaking to Dad, I realized that while it was a pain in my ass, I learned a lot from this experience. It’s good to understand how things work (like your hot tub) and no one bothers to understand a device until it breaks. That’s just how the world works. At least in my world that is. I’m confident in debugging hot tub issues at this point, but I’m no expert. But at least I figured out a few things along the way.
Yesterday I asked Mike to pick up a copy of the Ottawa Citizen for me as it had the review of the Neil Young show we were at the night before.
He shows up to the house with a copy of the SATURDAY Ottawa Citizen, and not the one from Sunday. To make matters worse, it has a nice review of the Justin Bieber concert from the Friday night.
We laugh, we ridicule him, we taunt him with “What? You would rather read yesterday’s news instead of today’s?” and other mentions of time travel and whatnot.
After taking the brunt of these jokes, Vero and I walked to the corner store to pick up a copy of Sunday’s Citizen and discovered that the Ottawa Citizen doesn’t actually sell newspapers on Sunday!
So there you go. Sorry Mike for making you feel like a chump. Granted, we still know that you have an aversion to reading today’s news!
Saturday afternoon brought me over to Mike’s place for a quick beer with Mike and Trish before we headed out to the Neil Young and Crazy Horse show that night.
It was the first time that we would be seeing Neil Young so anticipation was high. I can’t say I am a connoisseur of Neil Young but I would say that I have a higher than average knowledge of his work. I’ve been listening to Psychadelic Pill for the past few weeks and I must say it’s a great album. NY&CH have a good thing going when they get together, and it’s a sound that is distinct. Crunchy guitars, great harmonies…this is what the people want!
We headed over to Vero and Martin’s to pick up a hungover Martin. It was his birthday weekend so the party didn’t stop too much the night before! Vero was nice enough to drive us to the Crazy Horse restaurant where I enjoyed some excellent jambalaya which was on par with Mike’s personal recipe. We also met up with Chantal and her father Marcel who was a good time. I had a good laugh when we would switch from speaking french and English and he said it was playing with his brain too much and we would stick to one language! Ha ha.
I had always assumed the restaurant was owned and operated by the people who owned the previous one down the road, but no such thing. Completely different franchise altogether.
We arrived at the Scotiabank Place to realize we had missed most of the Sadies set. Too bad! They seemed to be a sharp-dressed fun band who had this surf rock + country thing going on.
Can I just point out that compared to my previous concert at the same arena, the floor was empty. Bruce Springsteen had so many people on the floor, whereas we could easily move in and out of the crowd at this event. We were fairly close up to the front for Patti Smith who was quite an entertaining act, but once the Neil Young show started up, we stayed for a bit but realized that it would just be easier to stay in the back after we grabbed a few extra beer.
The show has some good spectacle…the video screens to the side of the stage are framed to look like old TV sets. On the stage there are road cases 50 fifty feet tall and when the show started, lab technicians came out to the tune of Day in the Life of by the Beatles and acted out the removal of the road cases to produce fifty foot tall Fender amplifiers. I have a feeling this is something familiar to Crazy Horse fans as I think I heard someone say it’s like the Live Rust film.
The band took the stage for a singalong of the National Anthem and then proceeded to rock like rockers do. Swaying their guitars back and forth, close together on stage and taking the microphone with their three party harmonies. Love it!
The beginnings of the set were excellent and overall, I really enjoyed the selection of songs. I was happy to hear some classic tunes like Needle and the Damage Done but the crème de la crème was Cortez the Killer. NEVER expected to ever hear that one live. Mike and I were blown away. I may have also grabbed Mike’s phone to call his brother. I’m sure there is an interesting phone message with some distorted guitar and he’s wondering what the heck it is!
What I love about the band is the fact that they embrace the song and just ride it’s coat tails as long as they can. They aren’t a pop song kind of band with three minute songs. The average time of each song was probably around the ten minute mark. I love the fact that I can just lose myself in the music for awhile and just enjoy the ride instead of putting my focus on three minute chunks at a time. It’s definitely a different way of experiencing a concert and I’m glad I could lose myself in the music for the entire concert.
Excellent show put on the band and I think I’ll start going to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse shows whenever I can.
Love and Only Love
Powderfinger
Born in Ontario
Walk Like a Giant
The Needle and the Damage Done
Twisted Road
Singer Without a Song
Ramada Inn
Cinnamon Girl
F*!#in’ Up
Cortez The Killer (!!!)
Mr. Soul
Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
Roll Another Number
You probably didn’t know this, but I probably have a package from Amazon.ca every week arriving at my house. Amazon is my go-to for CDs, DVDs, book, etc.
I have never had an issue with them for the past five years so it was interesting to see them slip up in the customer service realm with my order of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness on vinyl.
Scenario: October 1st, I pre-ordered the box set as well as the vinyl of Mellon Collie. Both items come out on December 4th. (sidenote: Super pumped!)
Amazon’s pre-order guarantees are amazing…when I pre-ordered it, the vinyl was around $65. But the price dropped a few times to the point of $26. So I’m locked in at that price! Bonus! It’s a great guarantee they have and that’s why I use their service all the time. On a sidenote, $26 for the Mellon Collie vinyl was an amazing deal compared to Amazon.com.
Fast forward to two weeks before the release of the item, Amazon.ca suddenly cancels the item completely, apologizes because they can’t obtain it from the supplier, pre-order eliminated as well. D’oh!
I contact them asking if this is an error since all other Amazon sites have it still listed. I get a response saying that it’s not an error, they don’t know when they will get it. Bummer.
I then ask if it does come back into stock on their site before the item is released, will I get my pre-order guarantee.
I swear that I emailed them four times about this issue and the generic copy/pasted (with some tweaking) response always said no. I find this ridiculous. This smelled of a “Uh oh…we notice that we may take a big loss on this item. Let’s just cancel it and bring it back in a few days.”
Luckily, I had a tab open with the item in question and I noticed it popped back up one day for $65. I then noticed that if you simply searched for this item, it didn’t appear in the results. Interesting.
I emailed them about this and asked again if the pre-order would be honoured. I also found out that someone else had successfully obtained a credit by using their client service ‘chat’ feature. I decided to try my luck. Within ten minutes, I had a credit for the amount of difference between the current price and what my pre-order price was. Success! I was very impressed with the service I received.
I wasn’t too impressed when I received an email 5 hours later singing the same old story that it wouldn’t be possible to honour my pre-order guarantee…without them realizing that I had already obtained a credit through their chat service.
Herein lies the problem of large organizations. Heck, I know what they deal with. Email responses generally have a databank of stock responses that they copy and paste and maybe they add a little personal touch here and there, but in the end, we can see that they never went over and beyond the duty of customer service and actually thought “Hey, this guy is completely right. We cancelled this item, canned his pre-order guarantee, but managed to put the item back online within a week and now we aren’t honouring the guarantee?”
But the person on the chat service easily gave it to me. Bingo bango, they realized what was going on and rectified the situation.
I’ve emailed Amazon with my comments about the differing level of service between the email service and the chat service. At least it’s good to give them a heads up. But knowing large organizations like I do…they probably already know this.
No excuse though!
UPDATE: Received an email saying that the item was cancelled by mistake and they have a limited amount to offer up those who pre-ordered.
Good on you, Amazon.ca.
The other day I was ready to get out and get the Christmas lights up before Vero got home and I heard this god-awful racket from the backyard.
Turns out that the motor/pump for the hot tub was making this noise. After removing the wood panel, inspecting and and chatting with Dad, it was due time to take it off and see if I could get it repaired.
Luckily, hot tubs are smart little creatures and they had two cut off valves which would allow me to remove the pump without losing any water in the system. Score!
Upon bringing it into the World of Pumps (which is an excellent repair shop), the gentleman at the counter knew exactly what was going on. A seal had gone, which allowed the chlorinated water to start deteriorating the rest of the motor. Bingo bango, I’ll have it repaired in a few days.
Just in time for winter as well! The hot tub has had a few repairs this year…here’s to hoping nothing needs to be done in the middle of winter!
Everyone fears their wedding ring, but it isn’t until it actually happens that everything comes into perspective.
I was standing at Hurdman station and then I happened to notice my wedding ring was gone! A sense of panic started to rise and I calmly fished into my pants pocket where I usually put it when I wash my hands. You see, I have a wooden ring and soaps are not recommended.
I’ve had some close calls in the past where I leave the ring in my pocket for hours not realizing it and then think “Oh wait, I need my ring!”. Vero has told me I would lose it one day.
Today is that day. I scrambled and could not find my ring. I started freaking out a little and then retraced my steps. If my ring was in my pocket, it wasn’t in my shirt pocket because I didn’t have one on my shirt today.
I remember putting it into my left pocket so it doesn’t get scratched on my keys. I also have my iPod there. I ALSO have my earbuds there…a pile of wires that I yanked out of my pocket this morning on the way to the bus.
Quick, get on the bus going back to the original spot. When the heck is the bus coming? Why is this taking so long? Stop freaking out!
I get off the bus and start scanning the pavement. I seriously don’t know why I’m doing this because if anything, my ring is back at the spot where I pulled out my earbuds, not a kilometer past that point. But no matter, I’m doing whatever I can.
Things are racing through my head…I’m wondering what my reaction will be if I find the ring. I wonder if I should ask people along the way if they have seen it. Imagine if they had picked it up? I ask a woman if she’s seen a wooden ring. Please get freaked out when you say “Excuse me”. They wonder what the heck you are going to say. It’s a sad world we live in. You can see she felt sorry for me.
I start thinking about how Vero and I always said that these rings don’t matter that much. A ring doesn’t show how much we love each other and if we choose not to wear it, it’s not an indication of anything lost.
That’s all hogwash now. I miss this ring so much. It hurts to think that I’ve lost it three months after we got married on a beautiful day. It was a beautiful wedding. I’m hating the ring so much now for what it means to me. Here I thought I would always think it’s ‘just a ring’ and now I’m freaking out because I’ve lost it. Maybe someone picked it up. Maybe someone left it there once they saw an inscription.
All these thoughts and feelings are going through me as I see my breath before me on this cold morning, looking for my ring on the sidewalk.
I’m not going to lie, tears came down my face when I found the ring exactly where I thought it would be. Sitting on the sidewalk where I pulled out my earbuds to listen to some music this morning. I thanked the heavens (as I always do when good luck comes my way) and just stood there shocked that I found it, and shocked at how much this ring meant to me.
It’s just a silly ring, an object. But I love it.