Gray (Grey) Day

No matter how you spell it, we do get a lot of gray days here in not-so-sunny Vancouver. I think I am suffering from SAD (seasonal affective disorder). Or perhaps I am just missing sunny Thailand and all of my friends there. I think I have seen the sun 3 times since I arrived back in Canada on Dec. 3rd. Ottawa is experiencing a hard winter with lots of snow so perhaps it is a trade off I will have to live with.

My son Jordan called me yesterday and chatted for a while. He has decided to finish off his year teaching contract in Sweden and return home to Canada and take a year off from teaching to reevaluate what he wants to do with his life. That is probably a good thing as he jumped right from high school to 4 years of university and then a year at the faculty of education and then jumped right into a job teaching overseas in Sweden. I agree he needs a break and I hope he enjoys it.  maybe we will find time to circumnavigate Canada and the States on coastal highway #1 as we always planned to do.  At the very least we should head off to Key West in the Florida Keys.

Dreaming aside, I do a little programming, head to the gym everyday, read a little, and think about what I want to do with the rest of my life. Every now again I get the itch to coach some basketball so that may be in my future at some point. I also need do do some serious beach time on my next trip to Thailand. I have too much money tied up in apartments and when those leases are up it will be time to explore a little more of the world.  Who knows, I may end up couch surfing.

I also get the urge every now and again to take some university courses. It would be interesting to take a computer programming course or two just to see what they are teaching these days.

My daughter Jaime is still undecided about next year. She is currently teaching in Malaysia and next year would be her third in Malaysia which is one more year than I was willing to take on. I still think she would love to head off to Australia or New Zealand.

My divorce is still held up by Shelley finding reason after reason to not sign the papers even though it is an even 50/50 split. She seems to like spending money on lawyers and is on her second lawyer.

My male friends seem to be falling apart. Steve had his wheels aligned via a hip replacement. John is also due for the same in Thailand. Brent needed a shunt to open up an artery. Larry seems to be doing okay now that he finally has his big screen television. I think I manage to avoid those kind of things by visiting the gym as much as possible.  My dad used to kid me that I would wear my body out but that does not seem to be the case.

Linda, a friend in Bangkok is thinking about joining the yacht club and is an avid sailor. I am hoping I can join her and finally learn to see. Must be the pirate in me or my grandfather's genes who used to be the captain of a sailing vessel. I think I could do a fairly good Johnny Depp imitation with the beads in the hair and beard.

Well yo ho, ho and a bottle of rum ... TTYL,

Jim