August 20th

Hello Mechanicsville and Hintonburg!

I promised A-Train that I would make a blog entry tonight, so here we go!


Last weekend we had our first wild family weekend up at the cottage, and it was off the hook! My grandparents came up in their camper van, my aunt and uncle also stayed over in their camper, Rabbit came up for Saturday night, and DaveT23 and Ian came up for Saturday night as well.




I did a little fishing, and managed to catch the biggest fish in the lake on Saturday morning. He put up a valiant fight, but was no match for my Shimano reel and rod. (If the Shimano people are reading, I will accept sponsorship money).


On Friday night, we decided to fix up the old fence, and here is a good picture of the world's sturdiest fence:



Money Making Idea:
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On Saturday afternoon we took a drive to Poltimore to get some supplies. (ie Beer, smokes and lottery tickets). We drove past this house that was under renovation, and upon closer inspection I noticed that they werent tearing it down, or adding onto it - they basically cut it in half. I thought to myself, what an incredible way to downsize! Many people do the boring thing and sell their house when it becomes an empty nest, but what do you do when you like your house?

The solution is to literally cut your house in half....that way, you will pay 1/2 the heat, 1/2 the hydro....its a cost saver! And you dont have to worry about renting a moving van. You just have a big fire to get rid of half the stuff you dont want. I'm going to write a book called "Downsizing for Dummies" and option it to the good people over at Wiley publishing.

Thurlow Thunder Alumni Reunion

Hello Slo-Pitch Fans,

What a weekend! First I took Friday afternoon off of work when I found out I could sub in for one of my father's golfing buddies, and as a birthday treat...he would pay for my round! I played my best round of the year, firing a 79. After golf, we had a hangburger and a few beers, then headed home.

On Saturday, it was the big day of the Thurlow Thunder reunion. I left for Bowmanville around 9am, and arrived in the bustling small town around 10am. We went out and played 9 holes at Stonehenge Golf Club just outside of Bowmanville. It is a really nice course, but could use an extra 9 holes, as I dont see it making too much money with only 9 holes. My good fortunes on the course continued, and with the help of 2 birdies I shot a 36.

We had a few beers, and waited for 2 more Thunder members to arrive at O'Neills place. At 4pm we decided to finally head over to the sunny ballyard. We only 7 seven members show up, so we couldnt really play a full game so we just decided to have a pitcher, a hitter and 5 fielders. I thought we might play for 2 hours or so, but we ended up playing for a solid 4 hours. (With a few beer breaks in between batters)

The Thurlow Thunder were in fine form, and after 4 years apart there was very little rust. We have decided to re-assemble for the 2007 season and enter a tournament or two.


Thats all I have for now, thanks again to O'Neill for hosting all the fellas.

Ps - Here is a video of Melling gunning out an (imaginary) runner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Q1mMNvULg

Pushing 30

Hello Mechanicsville, Hintonburg and surrounding areas!

Today was my birthday, and it was a fantastic one! Neb bought me a Big Mac meal from the McDonald's at Holland Cross and it was delicious! For the rest of my birthday, I got to head to the Vehicle Licensing place to renew both my licence card, and my vehicle registration. It was a great $155 birthday gift that I got to give to the MTO. Its all worthwhile I guess, I dont know what I would do without my fossil fuel burning, pollution spewing, tire squealing transportation.

Last night I had my first party at the cottage, and let me tell you...it was off the hook! Purdy and I took off from work at 4pm and made it into downtown Poltimore around 5pm. First stop was MacLellan's for some groceries. Since the Doyman's were bringing the hangburgers, and the Geofforelli's were bringing the hot dags, Purdy and I decided to make a salad. Luckily, MacLellan's had everything we needed (and at rock bottom prices!). I also picked up a 6-pack of "Le Gros Cochon" beer, it was $7.50 for the 6 of them. It was incredible! I liked it so much, I drank one, and then immediately switched back to MacLays.


We got back to the cottage around 5:30, and started to sawr some wood. We found some dead trees lying in the back 40, so we decided to sawr one of them up. It was pretty hard, and I can definitely see why the chainsaw was invented. However, I am pretty confident that if we had a chainsaw at our disposal last night, I would be typing this blog entry by mashing the keyboard with the stumps that were left of my arms.



The party was fun, we swam at 6, had a BBQ at 7, soccer shootout at 8:30, and a bonfire at 9:30. The carload went back into town around 11pm, leaving Purdy and I there to guard the fort. We heard a coyote howling in the night, and I got scared...but Purdy had his buck knife there in case the little vicious fella tried to attack us.



I set the ol' alarm for 6:30am, and jumped into the lake at 6:45am for a refreshing shower. We left Denholm around 7:15am and I was in my office at 8:15, so it was not a bad commute at all. I think I am going to stay up there every wednesday for the rest of the summer...unless I hear that coyote again, then I will probably come back to Mechanicsville and hide out.

Well, I better get back to my birthday chores...aka packing up. This weeking is the Thurlow Thunder alumni softball game. I played slo-pitch with a bunch of fellas from Belleville back in 1997-2000, and we had a good run for a little while. It will be fun to try to knock some dingers once again.

August 8th

Hello Mechanicsville and surrounding areas!

It is 2 days away from my birthday , on August 10th I will take another step closer to fossilization. Birthdays used to be fun, but now all you get on your birthday is the opportunity to renew your driver's licence for another year.

Last weekend my family and I finally took control of our new cottage. The weather was incredible all weekend, which made it that much better. I took a 4 day weekend, but it felt like a month. I wonder if I could find a job in Poltimore, then I could live up there full time.



The cottage is in great shape, the only things we have to do are exterior things, which will be fun. We went to MacLellan's in Poltimore on Saturday to pick up a few things. That store is incredible, I have never seen so many items under one roof. It is like they jammed an entire Wal-Mart into a tiny space. It was nice to spend money at a family-run place though, instead of one of the big corporations.

Tonight, Y.E.P. played another softball game - and destroyed the competition 17-2. This team beat us 10-5 last time, so it was nice to stick it to them. They were full of "softball guys" who got a little mouthy near the end...but who can blame them, they were getting their hats handed to them by the 2nd worst team in the league.

I am hoping that Y.E.P. is gelling just in time for the play-offs, which start in a few weeks.

Anyway, that is enough for tonight.

Mechanicsville Fact:
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Mechanicsville was created by Mill owners Thomas Blasdell and Alanson Baldwin in 1872 on the land that was formerly owned by the Sparks family and other American entrepeneurs.
(Fact taken from "Hintonburg & Mechanicsville, A Narrative History)

August 2

Greetings from Mechanicsville!

Well, I have survived the heatwave of the century that has gripped the city for the past 2 days. The ol' mercury hit 36 on Tuesday, and I think we topped out at 33 today. The humidex was almost 50 on Tuesday as well...which was refreshing. When I left work, it reminded me of when I was a little kid and I would stick my head into the running dryer to watch the clothes bounce around. That was my 2nd favourite game, it followed closely behind playing hide-and-seek in old discarded refridgerators and freezers at the junkyard.

I am taking Friday off, so tomorrow is my last day at work this week. That makes for a four day weekend which should be fun. The cottage sale should be finalized Friday, and if all goes well the Mullins' family will be heading off to Denholm for the first cottage weekend! The over/under on the first family fist fight is currently set at 25 minutes.

I dont have any more exciting delivery stories to tell. Last night I ordered a steaming hot chicken parmagiana from Gabriel's Pizza in Ottawa. It was incredible as usual, and they provide you with a large amount of food, which is great for leftovers for lunch! Tonight I bit the bullet, and gave into the KFC craving I have been having for about a week...and KFC did not disappoint! I decided on the 3 piece meal, it was incredible...but next time I might lean toward the 4 piecer!

Well, that is enough I think...good night internet, and good night Mechanicsville!

PS - Please buy a t-shirt (on the right side of the page)...I am trying to finance a house purchase!

Today's YouTube Link

Is none other than Ontario's Loudest Band....Distillery!!!!