Christmas has been a little tough on George st. for the last couple of years. Dad does his best to make the house look as good as Diane used to but it's not easy and feeling the need to was probably hard on him. So this year we decided to go to Sarah and Steve's house for a Carleton County Christmas.
I woke up on Henry St. groggy from my late night visit from St. Nick Pacey and the rum and egg nog elf. I made my way to George St. for breakfast with the family then we made our way to Bristol. We arrived just in time not to have to do anything but have a drink. We sat down to an incredible meal in sister Sarah's beautifully decked-out holiday house. I ate alot of turkey and even more ham and before the stuffing was gone started scoping out the best coach for a nap. There would be none of that and shortly after dinner a few of Sarah and Steve's friends showed up with guitars in hand. Will also brought his guitar along and by 10 o'clock we were having a non-traditional Christmas jam. They played straight until 3am when their fingers were raw and voices raspy. We had a lot of laughs; it was a great, great time. The celebration of Christmas has evolved alot over time. From Christ's birthday to rabid commercialism the "true meaning" of Christmas is different for everyone. But for most is has come to mean a time to be together with family (related or otherwise) and this year I got to do a ton of that with the family here on Henry st., the family on Cityview ave. and the family that gathered in Bristol. When my uncle Doug asked me what I got for Christmas I showed him the new Christmas socks I was wearing. That's a good sign.
I was planning on writing my own version of the Twelve Days of Christmas but I couldn't get past the line '5 Hang-o-vers' which should give you an idea why I couldn't come up with anything else.
On the way home from Christmas in Bristol yesterday (which was wonderful but will be expanded on in a future post) the roads were quite shitty. Aunt Margie asked me to drive as she wasn't very comfortable driving in the snow. We left Sarah's and the roads weren't too bad but they got progressively worse as we drove south. Just outside of Woodstock they started to get a little slushy but still seemed ok. I was driving at the back of a cluster of cars when one of them swerved towards the center divider and then shot back the other way doing a 360 into the ditch. I slowed and pulled over. I started running back to see if they were allright when the driver of another car that had stopped ducked into the woods in front of me. I didn't know where he was going until I looked into the edge of the woods and saw an overturned SUV. The car that I saw was likely trying to avoid this truck that lost control out of my line of sight. We got to the truck and the two people inside were conscious but shaken. The doors wouldn't open so we had to pry the back hatch so they could crawl out. They did and, thankfully, the ambulance arrived almost immediately. Scary stuff. We saw three more cars off the road on the way home so we kept it pretty slow and steady and made it home.
It reminded me of my fateful trip in the Bronco way back when. Being upside down in a vehicle is strange and scary. Adreneline is an impressive drug though.
I also can't help but think how dangerous it would have been if that had have happened at night. No one would have seen that SUV in the woods unless they saw it go off the road. Point being; slow down.
Last night I arrived home from church (no joke) and began my Christmas decorating. I took it to a new level this year in that I didn't actually start any Christmas decorating until it was 12:30am on the 25th. I put my tree up and trimmed it with lights from Dad's and the ornaments of my youth that Mom had sent. After the decorating was done I was about to pack it in when out on the step there arose such a clatter that I went to the door to see what was the matter. I'm still getting used to life in Devon, and we did get broken into last year, so I was leary. Happily through the wreath in the doorway I could see a large red-cloaked shape. I opened the door to see a clean shaven Santa Claus that looked just like my Dad. He brought gifts for the boys of Henry st. and even convinced Jesse to take a seat on his lap. He also had a beer and told me to relay the message that he is allowed to drink on Christmas eve and he particularly likes Bailey's on ice. He wanted to make sure that you knew that he doesn't drive the sleigh; the reindeer are completely in control and he is just a passenger. So next year Bailey's and rum balls for Santa everyone.
We had a get together at the club last night to spread some Christmas cheer and have a toast to Bill. Jesse and I went out for a bite to eat afterwards and despite the lack of snow it really is starting to feel like Christmas. The regular throng of Christmas homecomers have arrived making each trip out in public like a reunion. It's a great thing really.
I'm also on my way home to deck the house out in some Christmas cheer. So with the spirit now making it's way to the Embassy it's time to show you my all time favourite Christmas song. I have loved this song since it came out in 1984. Watching it now I can't help but laugh but it still hits me. Take a good look at Bono when he makes his appearance. He looks like he's trying to make love to the mic stand but I still get chills down my spine when he delivers his solo line - 'Well, tonight, thank God it's them, instead of youuuuu'. Apparently I'm not alone either. It's gold.
Oh, and as another Christmas treat; in searching for that song I also came across this little gem. Prepare to laugh. I am beside myself after watching this video. I'm lost for words but I pledge to dedicate a full post to this video in the New Year. It's too important to be a footnote.
As a footnote, though, I will relay a couple of Normy's favourite Christmas songs. He mentioned this one and this catchy ditty. If his choices tell me anything it's that he should probably cut back on his zoloft dosage. The Boney M guy is an early frontrunner for Normy's Halloween '07 costume though. I insist that this happen. Please? A guy can dream.
Today is the first day of winter. It's also the shortest day of the year and therefore the darkest. It got a little darker with the news that my good friend Bill Thorpe passed away this morning.Bill had been ill for some time and had been in the hospital for the last couple of months. As hard as it can be to say his passing comes as somewhat of a blessing. Not only as an end to his suffering but also as a relief to his kids Matt and Jenny who have been here with him since October.
Bill was one of a kind. He was never one to bite his tongue and offered his advice whether it was requested on not. One of my first and favourite memories of Bill is being with him on a sideline in Saint John; him as coach and me as a young spectator. One of his players had the ball and Bill was imploring him to "pass the ball!"; the kid took his advice and moved the ball to a teammate. Apparently Bill didn't approve of his choice and yelled "Not to him!". He was very passionate about the game and remained so. He would always come to our games and often show up at practice to check in. The Caledonia Cup was with him at the hospital since Matt took it to him after we won it November 5th.
He leaves quite a legacy. I don't want to overstate Bill's importance to the club because there were a group of people that founded the club, another that made it into what it is today, and still another that will see it continue to flourish. But when we gather at the rugby club next Thursday after his funeral it will be a roomful of people that had been coached first by Bill or (as in my case) were coached first by someone coached by Bill. He also lays claim to naming the club the Loyalists which is historically apt but more importantly has a meaning to us that lies at the heart of the word. We are Loyal.
W.W. Thorpe will be missed but his spirit lives on in Matt and Jenny and the Loyalist Rugby Club.
In response to rabid commercialism and rapid weight gain I decided last year that I would not get in the holiday spirit until the 20th of December. Well, the Victoria Secret Pop Up Advent Calender on my desk says the 20th so it's time to get in the mood. This means I can now start my Christmas shopping (the DVD player I bought on the weekend was for me and therefore does not count) and I can also start drinking various things mixed with egg nog. Last year I gained 20lbs in the 6 weeks between the end or rugby season and Christmas and I, rightly or wrongly, attribute that mostly to chicken milk. I'm going to start by watching It's a Wonderful Life ASAP. And I may also watch this video over and over again: This songs includes a special Merry Christmas shout out to the girls over at the DHB because I know they're gonna dig it. It's up there with Mistress for Christmas as nouveau-holiday classics that have slipped under the radar and should get more air time than anything Mariah Carey might cough up.
The internet has all the answers. In light of this fact I have cleaned my own brain of all the useless knowledge it once contained. The only downside I can see it that I may now have some difficulty making of fool of North at Trivial Pursuit when he next comes home from Taiwan. The plus sides are numerous, most notably that it will free considerable space for me to concentrate on finding a solution to global warming (my best idea so far being a device that harnesses pent up sexual energy; alas I'm just an idea man).
So with the holidays fast approaching and me with little in my brain to entertain you with I scoured YouTube and found a few of good ole' Christmas laughs. You may call this "mailing it in" but I promise to follow up with some of my actual favourites. This is just a start: 1)Timberlake on SNL - I declare this the most whimsical gag of the season; clearly destined to be a Christmas classic. 2)Ding! Fries are done - This already is a Christmas staple for anyone with a friend with too much time on their hands. 3)Family Guy Christmas Album - I'm sure those are the same lines I came up with for the Little Drummer Boy in grade 2. 4)Bing and Bowie - This is of course unintentional comedy but could they find a more awkward pairing. Love the song though. 5)Jingle Bell Rock - I'm going to explain myself here. I will tell you that I did get in an argument recently about this video. I was on the side that thought Lindsay Lohan is clearly the most talented dancer of the quartet. Thoughts?
Normy often works while we sit in our living room and watch random sports. Every once in a while he starts giggling at something that he found in the course of his "work". I like to laugh as much as the next guy so I needed to know what got him giggling. So last night he shows me this story. So, jumping to conclusions, I assume that Normy finds tall people as funny as Curnie finds midgets. That might be a stretch....mmmmm, delicious pun.
So I am pretty tall guy and have always thought that the worst thing about being tall was not being able to hide on a dance floor. And just yesterday a lady asked me to get an item from a high shelf for her at Canadian Tire so I really don't mind using my height for good. But that story takes the cake. I think they may be on to something though. Is this a medical breakthrough? I'm going to go ahead and say yes, mostly because it's Friday and I'm eager to tear into the weekend.
I get a kick out of my job. I like the fact that I can pick up the phone and talk to some random person in Debuque, Iowa about their organizations retention strategies comfortable in the fact that I will never speak to them again unless we can help them with their retention strategies (or if I can convince them that they need help with their retention strategies, right Normy?).
I also like to marvel at how small of a world it is sometimes. I may have recounted to you the story of me being stopped at the border last year for being "unlawfully at large" from Alberta due to a failure to appear in court in 2001. Thanks to some friends in Canadian Law Enforcement I later found out that it was actually the OTHER Simon Pacey that was drunk and disorderly in Edmonton and didn't want to talk to a judge about it in 2001. The border guard tried to bluff me by saying that he didn't think it could be anyone but me because this guy had the same middle name and birthdate as me. That's when I told him that I would have to ask my Mountie stepfather the story and he kindly let me through. But still there probably aren't that many First Last names out there that are one and only's.
So today I got a call back from a client in Iowa named James Chitwood. Iowa isn't far from Indiana and any sports movie fan will know who Jimmy Chitwood is in the clip below: I asked my James Chitwood if he had ever seen Hoosiers and he said "Does anyone ever ask you if you like to do drawrings?". Touche Jimmy, touche.
This is one of the busiest times of year for the North American sports fan. The NFL is nearing it's playoffs (and have games 4 days a week from now until Christmas) and the NHL and NBA are both now in full swing. That being the case it is not surprising that baseball news isn't getting all that much play in the media. And so this news may have gone unnoticed in many circles. Matt Stairs has carved out a (Canadian Baseball) Hall of Fame career in 14 seasons in the majors and will go down in history as one of the best hitters ever to come out of Canada (the stats back this up). Moreover he has been a fan favourite wherever he goes likely because of his shape and the fact that he's still rockin' the 'stache. Despite the fact that he looks like a heavy equipment mechanic from Stanley, make no mistake about it, this guy is a great athlete. I remember watching him play hockey for FHS at the LBR and he was always the best player on the ice. The fact is you don't spend fifteen years in the majors without some incredible natural talent. Hitting a baseball maybe the most innate skill in sports; to quote Willie Stargell: "They give you a round bat and they throw you a round ball. And they tell you to hit it square." I have, by default, become somewhat of a Jays fan but now that they have a homegrown guy whose picture could appear in the encyclopedia next to hoser and whose bio likely includes the phrase Enjoys: Sausage I will be watching them more intently this season. Smart move J.P.
Christmas came to Devon this evening. At about 7:30 I was getting an early start on my taxes (or sitting on the couch watching football) when my doorbell rang. I went to the door and found a collection of my neighbours gathered on the front lawn. I hesitantly openned the door assuming that they had come to rid the new rabble rouser from the 'hood. To my surprise that wasn't their intent at all. When I stepped out on the front step they started singing Here Comes Santa Claus. It was a great performance and I gave them a stanging ovation. They informed me that this was the annual Byng St. Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Then they invited me nextdoor for a little get together. I couldn't say no due to the promise of chowder. Once there I got the meet everyone including the nine kids that live on the street. They even gave me a handy reference map and told me the Byng St. motto - It's a dead end in both directions but it's alive in the middle. They are a pretty tight knit group and were very welcomeing to the new guy. To reciprocate their hospitality I told them that Normy and Jesse would be happy to help them with any heavy lifting.
So number 3 on the List of the 50 Worst Songs Ever is the Wang Chung classic Everybody Have Fun Tonight. The laughs generated (even if they are laughs at rather than laughs with) by this song should keep it from appearing this high on the list. Besides I get the same feeling laughing at this song as I do laughing at a foreigner struggling with English. Something's just missing. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn that Wang Chung is actually a school for the mentally handicapped in England. Someone should look into that. Of course, in addition to that there is the fact that the song gave us one of the best Hallmark greeting cards of all time and one that keeps on giving. Check it out:Gold!
And let's not forget the message here - Everybody have fun tonight, so much fun that you make up nonsensical words and name your new wave band after them. It is Friday, seems like the right thing to do.
So this may be a bit of a convaluted story but you should probably be used to that sort of thing by now. Craiger sent me this list of the Top (or is it Bottom) 50 Worst Songs of All Time. The list starts off well enough, although that particular Celine Dion warble could have easily cracked my top 10. There are some hiccups throughout and as we get to the top there are some decisions that I would consider very questionable. But I'll get to that later. The song that left me thinking "how could you choose this song over that song" was Rico Suave by Gerardo and the song that it made me think of was Are You Jimmy Ray? by, well, Jimmy Ray. They both suck royally and hearing one of them makes me think of the other. Hearing Jimmy Ray also makes me think of a good story. Back in 1998 I went on a trip to play 7's. At the tournament in Paris they had somehow mispelled my name Simon Rey in the program. This was shortly after Are You Jimmy Ray? was a hit and, inevitably, this came back to haunt me. The night the tournament ended we hit the town and the boys were nice enough to start an impromptu rendition of Are You Simon Rey? in the Hotel Sofitel lobby. They tried to convince me to get it tatooed on my shoulder but I thought better of it. I thought Jimmy Ray may have been a one-hit wonder. So maybe it's not a great story but hey that song really sucks. Equal to Rico Suave. Frankly, though, I think that both of those are worse than the one they rated the worst; We Built this City by Starship. The song may be monumentally bad but it really does typify the 80's and the good memories of Fisher's personal rendition keep it far from the bottom.
I got this news yesterday: Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube are coming to Fredericton. I can't even imagine how they ended up deciding to come to Freddy Beach (in January no less!) but you can only imagine how excited I am to be able to see them without having to make a road trip out of it. We saw Snoop almost two years ago at Harbour Station and the show was actually the proverbial bomb, as in da bomb. It will be fantastic to see him here in town where Slippy can use his considerable Aitken Center clout to get us front row tickets. Doggystyle remains firmly entrenched on my personal top ten albums list and last time he (happily!) leaned on it heavily. If he's on stage with Ice Cube they will definately spend some time on the Glory Years. And I expect the Normy's considerable industry presence will land us on that very stage with them. Okay maybe that's a stretch but I do predict a funny Tuesday night in January and at least one ridiculous scenario involving a freshly afroed Normy and freshly stoned Ice Cube that will appear in the next Friday after Next. So I guess this is also the time to request that Normy doesn't cut his hair between now and then. You can wear a Santa hat for the house Christmas card. It'll be worth it; that 'fro could get Ice Cube rapping at the clubhouse latenight. Comb it out Normy!
Today is one of my favourite days of the year. The first sunny day after the first big snowfall reminds me of one of the things I like most about winter; how bright everything is once there is snow on the ground. It can be somewhat dangerous as you try to adjust to it on the fly on Union St. but looking across the river at the Southside with a low fog hanging close to the still open water it looks pretty impressive. And ever better is when that snowfall coincides with a full moon and a clear sky. It's as light as it any night of the year on those nights. Although it does make it hard to hide from the fuzz after throwing the perfect snowball at the drug dealer that scurries around the neighbourhood. It's vigilante justice, Devon style. "Armed only with snowballs the Bakers of Henry st. rid the neighbourhood of all crime...at least for the winter." Or so the story goes.
Primero de Diciembre So December falls and so does the rain. We're used to hearing about the November rain but with global weather trends will this be the norm. December rain? I don't think I like it...and I am officially placing "At least you don't have to shovel it!" above "It's not so much the heat as it is the humidity" on the list of crappy weather related salutations. BTW - the top of the best list is "Holy F(bomb)! Hot/Cold enough for ya! - it's simply timeless.
As for this song...well it's one of my favourite Lightfoot songs and the one I would like to learn first should I ever get around to learning how to strum that guitar in my room. It's also one of of the 100+ songs that Scotty put on discs as part of what may be the best birthday present anyone has ever got me. Knowing my penchant for procrastination, he took up my plan and followed through. He downloaded and burned (almost) all of the songs that make up these blog titles. Quite a chore and I am deeply indebted. And now if anyone actually does want a greatest hits compilation I can do it. And just in time for Christmas...2007!!! Of course this gift was complimented by this post on his blog. Oh and I gotta give North some love too...he was clearly drunk when he wrote this but it's the thought that counts. Shit...I have some good friends.
So in listening to these compilation CDs this morning I also heard one of my favourite back to back lyric pairings in a long time. From PJ's Wishlist: "I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good I wish I was the fool moon shining off a Camaro's hood" The first line is so true and the second line, well, it mentions a Camaro; what else do you need.
