Your Weekend Edition Two

News from Brandon

My parents live in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.  The city of 30,000 or so is located in the South Center of Canada.  I lived there long enough to graduate from high school, spend some time at the local university, and be a part-time soldier with 71 Field Battery, 26 Field Regiment.  Courtesy my parents, here is some news from Brandon:

• A recent cold spell has ended.  It can get down to minus forty when the spell "enchants" Brandon.
• Elvis Presley would have been 75 yesterday.  To my parents, this means time has flown.  To me, it shows how young Elvis was when he died.
• My parents received a Christmas Package from us, yesterday.
• The Torch Relay for the 2010 Winter Olympics, to be held in Whistler, B.C., recently passed through Brandon.  Hardly anyone in China cares for the Winter Olympics.  Most of the students I talked to are unaware of the winter games.  I, being of the belief that the Olympics are another way for governments to waste money, love this indifference.

Some Latvian

Es esmu Andis -- I am Andis.

 

Some Vomit

I have another vomit story.  You may recall my telling you about a pool of steaming vomit being trampled upon by people waiting for the bus.  Yesterday evening, taking the bus home from work, I was able to get a seat, but it was in the front of the bus.  Many people will try to get a seat in the back of the bus because if you sit at the front, you will have a greater chance of having to yield your seat to some old person or to a parent with child.  "What selfish-kick-the-can-down-the-road-so-someone-else-can-deal-with-it people" I thought to myself.  So I looked to the ground and listened to some podcasts, in order to not notice and have my conscience pricked by some yieldee type.  This proved to be a good strategy.  But thirty minutes later, after the once-crowded bus had free space, I looked across the aisle, to see a pool of vomit under a seat.  Someone had gotten sick and I had missed seeing it.  Just as well...

 

Wrestling with Tony

Saturday night is fight night for me.  Not seeing Tony for two days, except in bed, I play with my little guy.  Last night, we gave Wrestlemania a run for its money.  However, this tires me out -- I'm getting old you see.  

So, I put on this DVD I just bought full of old cartoons.  My wife had say Tony wouldn't like it.  But I was proven correct in my thinking that he would.  He chuckled aloud as he watched the antics of Bongo the Bear in a cartoon featuring narration and singing by Dinah Shore.  He also very much enjoyed Felix and the Cat, and his Eskimo buddy Vavoom, a character whose voice can blow down trees and rocks.

Rain

It is raining this morning in Wuxi -- a dull, gray day that makes me want to act like I am glad to be alive.