The Voice Of Reason

I laughed at myself this morning. I was heads down in my book (ereader) on the bus. The bus I took had a row of seats along the side of the "walls", facing inward toward the bus aisle, rather than forward facing seats. That means you're sitting sideways on the bus. This is important to the story.

So there I am, sitting and reading and the bus is going over the harbour bridge to Halifax. It's about 7:15 a.m. and the sun is coming up. I glanced up and noticed the bright sun and pretty clouds in what seemed to be quite a nice sunrise, though past that red-pink stage but I immediately thought: Wait, what? I'm facing north-ish! Have I slipped into an alternative universe? What the heck is the sun doing rising over there? and a split second later I realized I was looking at the reflection in the window! Heh.

It was a "perfect storm" kind of situation. The reflection included a piece of land at the other end of the harbour where the sun was legitimately rising. The direction I was facing further up the harbour has, of course, land on either side. The land part of the reflection was laid over the land that I could see through the window so it really did look like the sun was coming up from that direction for the exact instant I looked up.  A few feet more across the bridge and the land bit in the reflection would have been floating in air over the water of the middle of the harbour and would have been more noticeable, and would have looked like the reflection it was. It was "right time, right place" kind of thing.

The office has half-emptied out this week. Next week, there will be a skeleton crew on board and I won't be one of them. I haven't worked Christmas week for years and having some seniority would generally mean I can get the time off if i want it. It's very quiet, too. Not a lot happening.

Just have to get through this afternoon, then a session at the gym after work. Don't really feel up to is as i'm a bit tired, though. I woke up at 4 and really didn't get back to sleep properly, though dozed a bit. See, yesterday i bought a small bag of "chicken bones" as seen in this photo here. A New Brunswick company, Ganong, makes the best. They are a brittle candy shell of cinnamon with chocolate inside as the "marrow" and oh God they're good! They only bring them out at Christmas time, or at least, that's when you see them around a lot more, so it is one of those treats that really typify the season. We always had them in the house growing up, those, and the buckets of hard candy in various shapes including ribbons and the clear sugar gylcerine "toys", shaped like animals, clowns, all sorts of fanciful things. Anyway, sucking on those chicken bones can make your tongue bleed from the sharpness of the brittle candy shell or.... which is what i think i did, the hot cinnamon "burned" my tongue and the roof of my mouth a bit. My mouth hurt when i went to bed but when i woke up at 4, it was very tender, felt a bit swollen and i had a hard time getting back to sleep. It's not so bad now, just a little tiny bit sore. Guess i learned that lesson!

2009 books:
30. Once in a Lifetime by Cathy Kelly
She's an Irish writer and i've read a few of her books. I quite like them. This one is mainly about one woman, Ingrid, who's a well known political interviewer on television. Her husband, David Kenny, runs the family owned posh department store, Kenny's. There are a few other characters, mainly women who all have a connection either to one or both of this couple or to the store and we get to know some of them as well, and their problems and solutions. David Kenny dies suddenly and most of the book is about the aftermath, dealing with that, how she copes (not very well at first but that's got a lot to do with a "shocking" discovery she makes. Standard plot really, but i won't spoil it for you). The other characters' stories aren't given a huge amount of detail but enough that make it interesting to read. What was a bit odd, though, is when they take a fairly minor character and jump back into their past and describe it all in detail. It doesn't seem to really go with the rest of the flow. It might have been better if it was about Ingrid rather than someone that's really not a major player. I think i would have enjoyed it more if all of these secondary and minor characters had more connection to each other or to Ingrid in the end. Some of them did, but not all of them. Having said that, I still enjoyed the book. Cathy Kelly writes decent books. She's no Marian Keyes, whose books i really like a lot, but she's not bad.

...And it's only Wednesday!

Monday i forgot my wallet.
Good thing i brought my lunch.

Tuesday, debit card and driver's license weren't in my wallet.
Nor in my purse.
I knew where it was at home though.
Switching purses/handbags always results in an accident of one sort or another.

This morning
a small trail of liquid running down the aisle of the bus.
Wonder where that's coming from?
Followed it back to a puddle...
between my feet. eeeeek!
Hmmmm...
it can't be salad dressing because my dressing not vinaigrette today.
I looked in the bag.
It wasn't a container of grapes like it should have been.
It was sliced olives!
Brine all over the bus floor starting between my feet.
Rainy day would have been better. Wet shoes would have disguised it somewhat.
I can't tell you what it sort of looked like. :-&
You can probably guess, though.
The bag and contents aren't in as bad a shape as i thought so the container must have been on its side right against the bottom of the bag.
Small mercies.
And i forgot my reading glasses. *squint*
just at the newspaper though.
Computer's fine with regular specs.