A peek at the REAL Thumbster

Just in case I'm not back again...

Hello boys and girls...


It seems that I have far more female readers than males...Which I think is GREAT!!!! My whole world is male oriented...Except for my Mum...I grew up in a male household...I'm the head of an all male one now. It's great to hear what females have to say and what they think...I LOVE their slant on things. I'm sure Derek, Mitchell or I would never think of putting a wreath on our front door.


This computer's going into the shop to be repaired...hopefully. Last time that happened the guys had computer game withdraw symptoms for several days. We've had 5 computer pro's and one family friend tinker with this since we got it...sometimes it's been gone for weeks. It will be my turn to go all friggin' freaky. I regret laughing at them now.

So...quickly then...just in case you never hear from me again...what should I say?

I believe in possession...Oooooooooooo...what a creepy way to start this off. (I could tell ya some stories)

I believe in astral projection...still keeping with the eerie theme.

I believe in souls...and soulmates...that there are statistically anyways...all kinds of potential soul mates for us out there...but of those...how many do we actually ever meet in our lifetimes?...and of those that we do meet...how many do we recognize as a potential soulmate?...and of those we do recognize...how many do we actually explore...considering that life seems to always find a way of getting in the way of living.

I'm not afraid of dying...not for myself anyways...but for the ones I care about or love...it's a totally different story.

I love this old swivel rocker that we sit in when we use this computer. It was my Grandmother's. It's one of the few things I have in this house that was her's. It's very beat up now, (I've tried to patch it up), and if we're not careful it will tip over backwards on us...but I love it. It used to be in her mobile home...in her living room many years ago now. Back then it was in perfect condition. I always loved driving from Ontario with my family to come visit them. My Dad would drive nonstop from morning till night...my Mum and brother in the back at nights asleep...my Dad and I upfront...we're the night owls. I'd help him with the map. Driving through little towns after dark...with the radio barely on and usually off station...are some of my best memories with my Dad. When he'd get too sleepy to drive anymore he'd look for a service station to stop at and park among the cars for the rest of the night...(cheap beggar :) That's probably where I get my penny pinching ways from) Often he'd make these 500 or 1,000 mile detours just because we'd see a sign advertising "Uncle Harvey's Critter Farm" or something like that. We could easily end up in the Great Smoky Mountains feeding bears out of our car windows or wind up in New Hampshire some place so my brother and I could visit Santa's Village or Six Gun City It's funny how those memories as a kid meant so much to me. I took my wife and grandmother all the way to New Hamsphire once just to show them those places...they had really let them get run down though. My wife saw them as the crappy little tourist traps they had now become and not the way I had remembered them.

Some of Derek's favorite memories are of going across the road and picking blackberries or feeding the baby muskrats at the pond...or going through the woods behind our house and the 4 of us...me and the boys and our dog Max...toboganing...or throwing a frisbee around the backyard every evening in the summer...just him and me...or swimming at the lake EVERY day. None of those things cost a lot to do. Playing video and computer games was special too...as is shooting paint balls at one another...but having fun shouldn't be about spending money...but spending time together.

Speaking of memories...Here's one I just remembered today...I once disassembled our kitchen table so it would fit through our backdoor. The boys and I reassembled it and we surprised their mother when she came home with a picnic in the backyard...with all of her favorite things to eat. Shaking things up is good every now and then.

I'm so happy to hear about Terry's transmission only needing the leak fixed...
Somebody up there likes ya girl.

I am nervous however...once this computer is fixed...of me spending even MORE time on it instead of less. I was addicted to playing computer games on it several years ago...another reason I've been letting this thing slowly die. I haven't played "Age of Kings" in a while...I love that game.

I've always known that I'm prone to being addicted to things if I don't be careful. My solution over the years has been not to get involved with something if I thought it might be a problem later on...consequently...I'm very boring. I don't smoke or drink or do drugs or get involved with married women...not so much out of religious reasons...(although my values are VERY important to me)...but because I've always been very careful about what I put into my body. I've always seen being drunk as losing control. Seemed most of my friends had alcoholic parents...either one or the other...sometimes both. I remember going to my best friend's house and finding complete strangers passed out on his living room couch...somebody his father had been drinking with at the tavern and who needed a place to crash for the night. He never knew who would be in his bathroom...or his bedroom...or his sisters' bedroom. Helping him get his father's car out of some ditch...before the cops came...was like some kinda game for me...but I knew how embarrassed he was...like all the times we'd go get him from the detox hospital...or that everything had to be in his mother's name. I've got lots of stories how drugs and booze and smoking have harmed someone I cared about...I was going to make DAMN sure my guys never had to grow worrying about any of that shit going on in their home. I do have the odd beer every now and then...but I prefer pop or water...I'm a BIG water drinker.

I best go...because of the blizzard I didn't get to go to the gym yesterday...and besides...it's Monday...and this Monday I want to be sure that I'm clean shaven in case I see another unicorn. :)

I haven't forgot my other resolutions...Terry's contest...finish my final item...my goodbye tribute to someone special...when...(or if)...I get back.

This has been a weird kinda preachy entry...and in keeping with that...I've dug up and old poem I wrote...a very preachy poem if I do say so myself...(kids and animals...my two causes)




Paychecks and Piggyback Rides


(A ten minute suggestion)


Late home from work, another rough day.
Bills piling up, so many to pay.
Deadlines and demands wont go away.
Everything's buisness, no time to play.

Think tomorrow will be any different?

Walk through that door, your problems remain.
Little ones need to see you again.
Not in the mood, don't want to explain.
Don't look in their eyes. Ignore their pain.

When will you be in the mood?

Tell them to play, they've got lots of stuff.
All the clubs and camps should be enough.
When you were their age you had it rough.
Better learn now they have to be tough.

What memories will your children have of you?

Complete strangers you seem to find time for.
Spending Christmas with them? Think of who you ignore.
What's special to your kids can't be bought in a store.
They want YOU most of all.Catch, stories, tug of war..

...Wheelbarrow races, treasure hunts, tickling, pillow fights...