Bringing out the worst in people

Have you ever made somebody freak out without even trying? I have. I'm not talking about your husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend either. I'm talking about a complete stranger.

A few years ago I was at a busy butcher's shop waiting to place an order. I wasn't in a rush and was just standing in line when the butcher yelled "Number 93. Who's got number 93?"

Looking down at my ticket I relaxed because my number wasn't 93, it was 94.

"Ninety three, I'm looking for 93, he said again.

Everyone looked around but number 93 didn't step forward. Finally the butcher said, "Okay, who's got number 94?"

I held up my ticket and stepped forward. I'd already told him what I wanted and was waiting for him to prepare it when a woman came up behind me and grabbed my shoulder.

"Are you number 94?" she asked me.

"Yes," I replied.

"So how do you feel about yourself jumping in front of me?" she snarled.

"I didn't jump in front of anyone, he called my number," I said.

At this point in the conversation the proverbial train left her station and she flipped out. Hysterically she began yelling at me for taking advantage of her when her daughter had just died.

"Listen I'm not in that much of a hurry, you go ahead," I told her. I could feel my face going about a dozen shades of red. I didn't know this woman and I certainly didn't know her daughter had just died.

The woman placed her order and I stepped back. But while she was waiting for the butcher she turned on me again to yell some more. It was obvious that arguing with this woman would only have made things worse so I didn't engage her. I just took the abuse knowing that whatever the woman was going through must have been tough and I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

When I got back up to the butcher's counter he apologized on behalf of his customer. I told him it was no big deal but here I am years later still thinking about it. I wonder if that woman remembers me? I wonder if she regrets taking her frustrations in life out on a complete stranger? I wonder.

Fast forward to this week and I again found myself in a precarious position with regards to a complete stranger being upset with me for reasons I had nothing remotely to do with. I was walking the dog with my son Tavish and we'd stopped so he could explain a story to me. Tavish was right in the middle of his tale when all of a sudden he stepped back.

"What's wrong Tav?" I asked.

Tav remained silent and just looked beyond me at something approaching.

"What did that damn dog just do on my lawn?" a crusty voice growled behind me. I turned around and saw a woman standing there with her hands on her hips.

"Just pee," I replied.

"Better be. I'd better not find anything else on my lawn," she said. "Now get out of here."

She then turned around and stomped back into her home.

I turned to look at Tav. "Why did she say that Dad?" he asked.

"She must think that Oz (the dog) was going to crap on her lawn," I said.

"But you would have picked it up, right Dad?" he said.

"That's why I have these bags," I said holding one up.

As we walked away I looked back to see the woman glaring at us from her window. Again, wrong place at the wrong time. Obviously some other dog owner had left a package for this woman on more than one occasion and I was the unfortunate guy who stopped in front of her house while she was looking out her front window. 

On both these occasions I didn't do anything to warrant the abuse I took. What can I say, sometimes I just bring the worst out in people.

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

Peter Gabriel has thrown me a concert lifeline

My wife Heather and I do not get out often. Three kids, a dog and a cat tend to limit our social calendars.

But we do try to get away to catch a concert or two each year. Heather's list of must-see concerts includes James Taylor, James Taylor and James Taylor. Oh, did I mention she's a big fan of James Taylor? That's right, for about 8 years James has come to Toronto every other summer and paid us a visit at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre. The price has always been affordable and we really enjoy the venue.

A couple of years ago James went commercial on us. Last winter he came to Toronto with Carole King. I went online to order tickets and then gasped at the price, almost $200 a ticket. Hmm, what to do, feed the family or let them starve for a few weeks and see a concert? The food and hunger thing won out.

Heather forgave James and we both hoped he'd come back to Toronto this summer without Carole King (yes we blamed her for the over priced tickets, not James!). Well, James announced three weeks ago he would be back in Toronto in June at the Rexall Centre but again his tickets cost upwards of $200 each. Again, feed the family or see a concert? For the second time in less than a year we put the credit card back in the family wallet and hit cancel in the 'purchase tickets' section of the Live Nation website.

A quick search of the bands playing the Toronto area this summer turned up slim pickings for two 40-somethings. Teenagers though, they'll be rocking out this July and August. Oh to be younger...

Two weeks ago though Live Nation sent me a lifeline. I got an e-mail from them announcing Peter Gabriel was touring and would make a stop in Toronto this June.

Both Heather and I have been big fans of Peter Gabriel going back many years. We last saw him at the SkyDome in 1993 during his Secret World Tour. But he wandered off into concert obscurity after that and hasn't been heard from since.

The Peter Gabriel New Blood Tour comes to Toronto on June 22. I immediately checked Live Nation fully expecting to see James Taylor ticket prices. To my relief the tickets were half the price. For $200 we got two tickets in the 300 level.

So my question is this, how could a performer of Peter Gabriel's status charge half as much for one of his concerts while James Taylor, who used to be affordable to see, charge such exorbitant prices? It's just not right.

Yes, I realize James Taylor could fill practically any venue he wanted. There are a lot of Boomers out there who would pay any price to see him. Unfortunately I'm not a Boomer or able to shell out that much coin for 90 minutes of entertainment.

Funny, I took Heather to see Jason Mraz a few summers ago and we paid around $75 a ticket and ended up in the front row at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre. We were two of the older people in the crowd but Jason Mraz put on just as good a show as James Taylor ever has. The difference? Jason Mraz's fans were made up of Generation Ys with far less disposable income.

In my mind though a concert is a concert is a concert. If one Boomer could put on an affordable concert why couldn't another? Just asking.

 

If you think you're having a bad day think again



 I'm sporting a nasty bruise on my hip today thanks to a lightsaber battle I lost at the hands of Darth Child last night. Did he use the force on me? No. Was my lightsaber thrown from my hands? No. How I lost this battle was epic, I fell over the vacuum cleaner. Who leaves out a vacuum cleaner in a Death Star? I am so not a Jedi.

***

My family was reduced by two this weekend and daughter No. 2 was never happier. Rebekah and Tavish disappeared to two different sleepover parties leaving Heather and me with Bronwyn. It felt like 1998 all over again when we had just one child to look after. I'd forgotten how much easier it was to entertain and feed a single child. Bronwyn loved the undivided attention. Far too often she has to battle with her older brother and sister to be heard. No yelling this weekend though.

                                                                   ***
 
If somebody carves the word 'asshole' into the side of your car while it's parked in the driveway that's what I would call a bad day.

If somebody returns and throws silver paint over the hood of your car that's still parked in your driveway that's what I would call another bad day.

If your birch tree gets blown over rendering your front yard a complete disaster I would call that a really awful day.

Believe it or not these things have all happened to my neighbour in the last three weeks. The car problems were a result of a dispute with a former tenant. The birch tree could only be the result of a dispute with God.



Timber! This is what I would call a bad day.



Last summer a water pipe leading to his house sprung a small leak that went undetected for weeks. His yard turned into a bog. He got the leak repaired but in the process must have damaged the root system to the tree.

Last night the wind blew the birch over making a mess of the whole yard. Funny, when asked, not one neighbour could recall hearing the tree fall putting an end to an age old mystery!

The part of the birch over hanging the street has been removed but my neighbour, who shall remain nameless, had to cut that part with a handsaw. Nobody had a chainsaw for him to borrow. It will be interesting how long it takes to him to get this mess cleaned up.

So if you think you're having a bad month, think again. You could be my poor neighbour or worse yet, you could be his tree.

Imagination is a powerful thing

You have to hand it to George Lucas, he's fostered the imaginations of children for decades through his Star Wars franchise.

I'm listening to my son Tavish right now. He's in the living room having a lightsaber battle with an imaginary foe, possibly Count Dooku or General Grievious. Judging by the sound of it the duel's going back and forth. He's bounced off a number of couch cushions and has slid across the coffee table.

It wasn't long ago I was that boy but back then there weren't half the opponents to do battle with. You were either Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. These days Lucas's Star Wars The Clone Wars spin off  has introduced countless new characters through its movies and weekly television episodes. Tavish is downstairs now doing battle with one of those  new characters. I hope he wins.

I thought I knew everything there was about Star Wars but my knowledge pales in comparison to my son's. Every day he talks to me about The Clone Wars, its characters and when he isn't talking Star Wars he's drawing it. Tavish loves to draw and colour scenes from past episodes or ones he has dreamed up. It's wonderful to witness.

When he's not drawing scenes from the Star Wars or battling an imaginary evil foe Tavish focuses his attention on real battles with me, Darth Daddy. Tav received lightsabers for Christmas from Santa. We broke one the other day having a battle in the living room. Thank goodness he has four others to use. I have to admit I'm getting pretty good with the lightsaber. Yoda would be impressed except for the fact that I'm never allowed to be a Jedi. I'm always made to be somebody on the Dark Side!

I'm 43 years old and I think Star Wars is pretty cool but how it inspires my son's imagination is awesome. I'm sure there's millions of 9 year old boys across the world having lightsaber battles of their own. To that I say, good on George Lucas.

Imagination is a terrible thing to waste. I hope my son holds onto his forever.

Made in Canada makes sense

When was the last time you tried on any piece of clothing be it a shirt, pants, baseball cap or even a tuque that had the label, 'Made in Canada' in it?

Even a 'Made in USA' label would be a shocker to see these days because North Americans simply do not manufacture clothing anymore. We buy it but the textile industry left our shores long ago and sadly so too did those jobs.

It appears another industry has picked up and left Canadian shores as well. This week Sher-Wood closed its Quebec operations and relocated to China. The Chinese now can lay claim to manufacturing hockey sticks National Hockey League stars used to proclaim as the best in the game. Of course they won't be the best in the game anymore because the Chinese manufacture nothing but junk. But they do so at the lowest possible prices.

Sher-Wood operated in Canada for 62 years but officials said the company had no choice but to ship out production of composite players’ and goaltenders’ sticks to China, where it has over the years steadily been moving its manufacturing facilities. Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be a huge hockey fan but nothing his party has done, including corporate tax cuts, was able to save Sher-Wood from shipping its sticks and Canadian jobs, overseas.

So if you wonder what's been happening to the shrinking Canadian middle class look no further than low-wage countries in Asia. A Statistics Canada report (February 20, 2009) measured the recent decline: “Canada lost nearly 322,000 manufacturing jobs from 2004 to 2008, with more than one in seven manufacturing jobs disappearing over the period.”

In Canada we're in the midst of a federal election. Today NDP leader Jack Layton made an announcement that his party would not cut defence spending – and that the money spent on procurement, especially for ships, would remain here in Canada. Wouldn't it be refreshing if more of  the parties running for office would do the same? If you're going to send Canadian soldiers over seas send them there in Canadian ships and planes made in their own country.

Middle class Canadians need decent paying jobs and governments of all stripes should attempt to attract and retain companies here.

It gets tiring reading about Canadian companies moving their operations offshore and far too often those headlines are splashed across newspapers and websites all over the globe.

The party that can make this a priority and follow through on it will have my vote for life.

The things I tell my kids are sometimes true

For years I've told my children not to hold in their sneezes or else their heads would blow off. I know, it's cruel to make them believe their heads would actually explode if they held in a sneeze but it's worked. When they have to sneeze they don't hold back and the majority of the time they cover their mouths. 

One of the reasons I've preferred my kids to sneeze out not in was because I hate the sound of someone attempting to stifle something so natural. It literally sounds as if a small but powerful bomb goes off inside your head when you try to hold it in. When you think about it though sneezing can send tiny particles speeding out of your nose at up to 100 miles per hour so it's no wonder it sounds like an internal explosion when one is held in.

Despite my preference to sneeze out I've never really believed any injury could result from holding in a sneeze. But my friend Grant was living proof some serious damage could result from holding it in. He was driving to his cottage the other weekend, felt a sneeze coming and immediately went in to lock down. When he did that something popped inside his head. That pop was his ear drum rupturing.

Grant's seen a few doctors and a specialist and the prognosis is good his ear drum can be repaired. It's going to require surgery though to repair the damage. He's in a lot of pain and can't do a whole lot until his surgery. Not fun. Would have been easier if he'd just sneezed, don' you think?

I told my kids Grant's head exploded. The looks on the faces of the younger two were priceless, the 12 year old just said, "Whatever Dad." When I explained the truth about what happened to Grant they learned a valuable lesson.

I feel bad for my friend and hope he gets better soon.

On a positive note though, bad decisions do make good stories. Better out than in, don't you think?

Kobo heaven

Our family has a love-hate relationship with my wife Heather's Kobo e-reader. Earlier this week we hated it, today we're back in love with it.

Last week when my daughter Rebekah went to use it a disturbing line ran down the left side of the screen rendering it useless. I screamed at Rebekah, Heather screamed at Rebekah and then we both screamed at once. Why we were screaming at our daughter was a good question because she didn't break it, she discovered it was broken. Nevertheless, Rebekah bore the brunt of our anger.

"Can you believe this, I've had it six weeks, six weeks and it's broken," Heather said. Then to emphasize her frustration she said, "SIX WEEKS!"





By this point Rebekah had disappeared to her bedroom. For those of you who don't know our daughter as well as we do (and how could you?!?) when she's in trouble she just disappears. All other times she's usually in our faces and behaving as wonderfully as any 12 year old girl would. 

So Heather called the Kobo people and they were very sympathetic to our plight. A Kobo lady told us to ship it back to them once we received a postage paid envelope they would courier to us. It arrived and Heather sent it back on Monday.

We fully expected to wait the two weeks they said it would take. On Thursday a new Kobo arrived at our front door. Who got to sign for it? Our daughter. She thought that was so cool.

In life there are times when companies jerk you around because they can. But not Kobo. We thought our e-reader was toast and the money we spent on it was lost. It was nice to not only be treated like human beings but to have our problem dealt with so efficiently. Good on them.

There's only one problem now that we have a new Kobo to enjoy at home. Heather won't let Rebekah or myself touch it. She doesn't share very well. Now I know where my four year old daughter gets it! But that, as they say, is a story for another day.