Just Chillin'

Day 20 - Today, I officially entered that zone. This place consists of being back near the peak of Maslow's pyramid. I wanted for nothing. Moreover, I was pleased with everything.

I was able to appreciate the little things in life. This sounds silly but I spent at least a half an hour simply watching ants march across the cement floor of the breezeway. Clearly, one little fellow had literally bitten off more than he could chew and carry. Members of the troop going in the opposite direction would often stop to greet and I imagined their tiny little high fives. The individual paths varied so as to ensure most would make it to wherever they were headed.

Jay and his elder sister visited their sister-in-law. She'll be flying to NY next week for a couple of months.

We are now packing for a day trip tomorrow. We're taking a van to visit Dimbulagala, a religious site three-quarters of the way across the island, near the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. Over the years there are few places we've not visited. Tomorrow will be one such place.


I found this travel episode from a Sri Lankan TV channel. I will ask Jay to translate as I Chromecast it to the living room television.

Days Do Add Up, Don't They?

I've seen 59 years worth of days from today. Several online, web-calculators pegged me as being on number 21,550.


Jay presented me with a mango-yoghurt cheesecake w/o candles.
Being off Facebook means I have had fewer meaningless wishes than previous years, but that is entirely okay with me. I bought myself two pairs of shorts because they were on sale for $10 each. Having been retired already for three full previous summers, I am making use of the very best gift in the world, free time!

Music by the River

Ho-hum, another sunny day. One is a precious thing here in British Columbia; I should be more attentive and appreciative.

Yet after several days of sunshine, we've now got to start worrying about forest fires. It seems as if some parts of this province don't get constant rain, they burn! We don't often see much of that down here next to Vancouver, but during some summers we can be bothered by smoke. Let's not even consider that scenario yet!



Has another week sped by so quickly? I truly, truly appreciate the copious amount of free time I have. I was thinking of that when I found myself walking back from the other end of downtown.

I returned by the river and through Pier Park wearing my large Sony earphones. I was trying to locate exact requests to the Google Assistant which would play relaxing nature sounds. I figured if I could get the Google Home Mini on my bedtable to cooperate, it would come in handy at the start of my daily naptime. The Google assistant replied:

"Since I couldn't find the album Mozart's Music for the Night with Sounds of the River in your music libary, here's a similar mix on Google Play Music."

The playlist of classical music was a nice diversion. I sat on a park chaise lounge. I listened for the longest while while watching the Fraser River rush towards the Pacific Ocean.

Personal Quote #20

"When giving career advice, people have often told me to do something I love. Over the years, I've discovered that the thing I love doing most is nothing."

Dennis Sylvester Hurd (1959- )

Chillin' warthogs at the San Diego Zoo - May 2006.

It Ain't a Self-Portrait

A pig rests at the summer, petting zoo in New Westminster, BC in 2007.

There are so many things I could be doing. There are even some things I should be doing. Yet, I'm not. I seem to be putting off everything but I don't have a problem with that.

Who (Not What) Are You?

I was going to make the title, Work Sucks. Well that'd get an audience's attention even if not strictly my own thoughts. I had expected to teach classes during the summer but, unfortunately, I only had one class. That has left me with a copious amount of down time. On first blush, it's great. There's no planning to do and no getting up early or getting back late. Best of all, there's no correcting!

After these weeks, though, I have had quite a bit of extra time. As well, we leave for Europe for a month on September 6th. I am strong, however, and I can deal with it. I can keep myself occupied. I enjoy being with my own thoughts. That, I fear, is a situation that far too few people have a chance to experience. People run hither and dither often not so much because they have to, although they kid themselves into believing that. Honestly, people usually make the choices to make themselves comfortable and I believe that many people cannot handle extra time. They're wired for constant action and create stress where none needs to exist.

Relaxing does take practice but I'm getting pretty good at it. I bet that when some folks retire from work, they go absolutely nuts. I have been on contract and therefore semi-retired since I turned 36. Yet, I'd so like to make it completely permanent right now! Alas, I'll probably keep taking on classes until at least 2014. I hope when I'm 55, we will be able to travel between a summer and winter destination and make use of the nearest patio, balcony, porch, park, plaza, or beach!


For example, this is Unawatuna Beach from last autumn's trip to Sri Lanka. It wouldn't be so bad to sit there from November to April every year. There's just something about coconut trees ...

I'm Simply an Amazing Blogger!

I have got to remember to cherish my time off today. Now that I've completed the course which ran from January, I truly have no obligations. That is nice to say. I am never overworked but at the present there is nothing which I have to accomplish today. Some people consider that a waste. I consider it a wonderful luxury. I don't want to spend money on myself, I want to spent time. Thank God, I've always been in a position to consider work a passion and not a necessity.

You know, I don't want to turn this into a another blog entry about blogging. Yet, I am also thankful that I've stuck with this project for so long. I've spent six and 3/4 years putting something in my eJournal and images every day. I suppose there's a sheer feeling of accomplishment doing what so many start and so few continue. That's not really it. I just feel as though all the things I want to say have a forum. On any particular day, I could gripe, extol, or report on anything. Because it is searchable, I can quickly locate something I may have said even if those keystrokes occurred years ago. For example, a Facebook acquaintance sent me a message today stating that he didn't know I was into photography and asked how long it had been a hobby. I was able to give him the particulars and then include reference to an old entry. I love digital cameras for their ability to easily document life. I provided him this link from February 2007. It's not recent but my words still express my feelings.


The nest in my potted cedar on the balcony looked quite full on 04/28/10.

What Weather!

I started the day by wondering what to do. The weather today promised to be the hottest yet with strong sun. I sometimes feel an irrational fear of wasting a good day. I mean, I am not working this week or next. I know that I could do anything. For example there are hundreds of thousands of folks in town enjoying being out soaking up all the downtown atmosphere when not at a sanctioned event. I could join them. I really could do anything.

I had to relearn how to just open the balcony door, and relax. I decided it's not a crime to simply hang around. I am test-driving retirement, I guess. Later, I did walk uptown through my park. I walked back down 6th. The exercise was nice.

Take a Deep Breath, then Exhale

It's quarter to seven and dark. The lights across the river show a diamond-like quality of sharpness. The darkness is not black; there's a twinge of orange. The orange is not from an impending sunrise, but the colour added by urban streetlights.

I love not having anything at all necessary to do today. So few people are blessed with empty time. I suppose at different times in my life, I would have dealt with it differently. I don't want to sound like an old person, but after hanging around the planet for close to five decades, a bit of greater understanding does prevail. I look back on my thirties as my most hectic and driven time. That would be the time that employers could've gotten the sheer largest amount of work out of me. Notice, that I did not say most productive though.

Anyway, I don't think everybody is capable of dealing with 'downtime' without practice. As a society we're still conditioned to believe if we're not actively engaged in some quantifiable pursuit, then we're just being lazy. Few value the simple task of thinking. The chance to catch up on reading or media can be more of a worthy endeavor than most actions accomplished for one's job.

I like not having somebody else's timeclock to punch. I appreciate having enough money to afford lots of free time. I love the idea of doing exactly as I please today.

It Cannot Rain on My Parade

The PNE must be on. It's still raining and the weather has been really quite awful since yesterday. July can be nice and often September and October is. It does seem, however, that in mid-August a few big storms line up in the Pacific. They can keep the climate wet and grey for a number of days. That's what's on at the moment. It has been like this from the time I woke up yesterday morning. One could easily mistake these days for being in February by just looking out the window. It's a fair bit warmer than that though.

It's okay. This weather arrived at the right time for I don't mind sitting around inside. In the past three months, I was only under contract for five weeks. After a hectic start to the year, it always takes me quite a while to get into this comfortable frame of mind.

No, I've not painted the living room walls. No, I've not yet cleaned the inside of the truck. I still haven't taken the winter blankets up to the laundromat for washing either. Yet, these things aren't nibbling on the back of my consciousness. I don't feel bad about any of it. I can keep myself occupied. I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon making changes here. For example, the little screen-shot image points to my modified archive page. As my eJournal and images turns five years old on Labour Day, I decided that I needed to make accessing the wealth of my personal thoughts a tad easier. Click the little image to see the results of my efforts. I bet you didn't even notice some of the wording under my photo to the right on every page had changed.

There was time in the afternoon to make tea and curl up with Jumper by Steven Gould. I generally make use of our city library by checking out CDs, DVDs, and travel guides. When at the library recently, I thought it was time to pick up a few science fiction titles.

An e-Journal-ish Type of Entry

I had finished up correcting the final exams by 9:00am. It was so easy to add them to the online grade book and then push the final mark results for approval. There was a time when this procedure would've meant printing off a spreadsheet, filling in a triplicate form, and driving into campus to hand the resulting paperwork to an administrative assistant.

I'm happy when technology makes things easier. In fact, I refuse to accept new procedures that make things harder or which are more intrusive. For example, at work I don't even know how to stop my telephone message indicator from blinking. To me voicemail is a tremendous hassle and so I refuse to participate. I find it much simpler to maintain a cell phone that's primarily for work related issues. It offers me the chance to accept calls at my convenience. It allows students to make better and more useful contact. If a student is stuck in traffic, I will expect a short call before class. At BCIT attendance and punctuality are as important as they are in the workplace.

So, I had all work out of the way relatively early today. Phew, it's a scorcher. Yes, I do tend toward hyperbole. It's probably about 28C (82F) which is a lot for this area! It was a rather nice day to do a few uptown errands. I even picked up a can of Turtle Wax car polish as I have not yet waxed the truck this year. I do it annually.

Relaxing and Reexamining

I won't hear whether my June 30th course is a 'go' until a few days before it's to start. Being off from teaching right now is good. I didn't plan anything this month but the time surely seems to be zipping by. A lot of people never find the time to get back in touch with themselves. Okay, that sentence looks a little weird and new-agey. I mean to say taking off one's work hat for a while is needed. Far too many make that the hat they wear most often. It's so unfortunate people build their lives in such a way that being off is simply not possible. Not working allows one to reexamine many of one's goals and priorities. In often cases, they need reexamination.

Another thing which needs reexamination is our relationship to energy consumption. While many people feel as though the sky is falling under the impact of $US4.00 a gallon gasoline prices, I look at this with optimism. At present in Vancouver, we pay closer to $5.50 for the equivalent.

The party is over. Under-priced, cheap oil will never be the norm again. I have always been miserly and so the current realization doesn't come back to bite. My 5-speed, 4 cylinder truck is 12 years old. Keeping it going for another four or five years isn't going to break my bank. I don't feel any sympathy for those must fire up a Ford Expedition to pick up the dry cleaning.

Of course, the price of everything is going to go up. It's the price we pay for organizing society the way we have. My kitchen table is made from wood which was cut in Malaysia while I'm living on the edge of one of the largest areas of that resource on the planet. We will have to start forking out the true costs associated with our activities.

Th Saudis are, rightfully, starting to react to fears that prices may actually drive changes to our patterns of consumption. As the price of petroleum increases, the chances for affordable alternatives multiply.

I will be keeping my truck. Actually buying new at this point would take more energy, in the larger scheme of things. Hardly anyone will be saving energy or money buy running out to buy a new vehicle at the moment. I will hold on, in the hopes that gas hits $10 a gallon! When car companies cannot even give away their product, they'll really get to work on creating alternative forms of personal transportation. People aren't going to have to give up their own car. If there's a space-race mentality and an economic imperative, we'll be driving around in things that are a lot smaller but run on something else. When the going gets tough ...

What an opportunity for society!

As It Should Be

It's now 5:47 pm. It just seems right to be sitting on the balcony with a whiskey on the rocks at my side and this notebook on my lap. I can glance at the river and at all the cars on their homeward commute on Columbia Street. I'm facing the SkyTrain bridge as a few Seaspan tugboats pull a barge up the Fraser. The breeze is cool but the sky's blue. The balcony is little used during so much of the year; I'm happy to see summer's coming.

Today, I didn't do much. It's taken a while for this to actually feel good. When I'm first on a break I have an impractical impulse to create to-do lists. For instance, I was all worked up about doing some things around the apartment yesterday. This morning, I did drive up to a 'dollar shop' and got a few brushes, extra rollers, and two paint pans. Perhaps tomorrow, I'll actually purchase a few gallons. Although there's a paint store about a block away, I'll probably drive to the Queensborough Walmart.

When uptown earlier, I went in the library. That's why today's Daily Picture Parade highlights the outside of the library. A lot can be shown in twenty seconds.

Will I Get Hoarse?

Today, I spent a sizable chunk of the day at my office at the BC Institute of Technology. I knew that I'd start classes next week. What I didn't know until yesterday, is that I shall also be spending the next 5 1/2 weekends there too.

My boss called to ask if I could pick up two classes during November. I reluctantly agreed. I surely want to make things easy for our department. My usual class will meet weekday afternoons. Additionally, my weekend course runs from 8:30 to 4:30 on Saturday and Sundays! I'm not sure how educationally or physiologically sound that schedule is. Yet, I've taught it in the past and was shocked to see the great progress the students made. It just goes to show how extremely motivated some of our Professional English Language Development students can be!

I was just saying in this blog this week how I had been out of the classroom for three months. I think it's strange that I'm going to be practically living in one from the month of November. It some strange way, this feels like the hangover for being so relaxed since the beginning of August!

Don't Read This at Work

How can it already be the 22nd of the month? I finished up teaching my classes three weeks ago. I've really needed this time to decompress, I guess. I spent the first week of break in a rather manic state. I tried to busy myself with errands and tasks. The second week, I felt a little depressed as I had no pressing engagements and wondered what I should do with all my extra time. It wasn't until last week that I had glimpses of relaxation.

Now, I'm pretty much back to my normal, old self now. I can appreciate a day that has no itinerary. In fact, I've started to enjoy that type of day again.

Luckily, I've still got another three weeks off BEFORE MY VACATION STARTS. We don't fly to Munich until September 13th. In case I've not been clear about my copious free time: I have also had three or four prior weeks off between classes earlier in the year. During one we went back to see my father in hospital in New Hampshire and we went to explore Los Angeles on another.



I'm blogging about this topic as some misguided souls feel sorry for me when I say I work part-time and have for the last decade. I want to loudly proclaim that I have my personal priorities correctly set. Furthermore, I love the situation that I've created for myself.

Rapid De-Pressurization

It is taking me a few days to get used to being off from work. One of the few drawbacks of teaching is that one's never really done. The job is not like a carpenter's. They get to look at a finished project and must feel a sense of accomplishment. During the time I'm teaching, I'm always thinking of things to add or change. I know the materials I'm using by heart, but I constantly consider new methods used to present it. It's like I'm always working although I'm usually in the classroom less than 20 hours a week. This is why I generally need a lot of time off.

That is exactly what makes being free such a change. I'm still thinking in the back of my mind there are things I could or should be doing. My mind, however, is wrong. I'm completely free for August. In addition, we'll be heading to Central Europe from mid-September through the beginning of October. I've requested time off. That means I won't be doing any chalk and talk for almost three months.

I really do have to sit back and just kick up my feet a little.

Chillin' Out

I'm teaching my evening class tonight. Although, I had no other work, I didn't really enjoy my day because I was aware I had to go to the campus later. That seems rather silly but I really relish having days with absolutely no appointments.

I have really put in a lot of hours already in 2007. Mind you, it's not nearly as much as the average person works but I take my job much more seriously than I have to. I cannot stand putting in anything less than my best effort. These statements seem a bit strange to me as I always considered myself the jovial, liaise faire sort.

I just found a small insight in these comments though. I understand something important about myself. As I expect near perfection in myself, I have no respect for others who cannot do likewise. Maybe that's too much to ask. For example, just because I'm smart, should I hold the rest of the population to similar standards? Clearly, that's not possible.

More "According to Dennis ..."

I've always felt that happiness must reside internally. It doesn't quite seem right to me that external circumstances should affect one's emotional state. Of course, that is a blatant oversimplification for our interaction with the world is how we experience it.

External forces affect our habits. For example, the weather is great today just as it was yesterday. I was extremely happy to not have to go into work. I walked uptown soaking up the extra sunshine along we way. Being out with no obligations seemed joyful. I will always have a hard time understanding people who get bored when they've time off from their jobs. Life without a schedule is the way it was intended to be, I believe.

Furthermore, many people have trouble being in the moment nowadays. Technology has made it easy to exist in a constant somewhere else. Take all the people immersed in some other reality as they go about life. If I were to pull out the iPods' earbuds and switch off the cell phones, two thirds of the people on public transit would immediately go into a panic. Rather than attempting to be in some other zone, maybe it would be healthier just to look around and experience the here there.

Guilt-Free Laziness

It's after ten o'clock in the morning and the lights are on. Another blustery day is upon us. The rain is again pelting the windows. Water is accumulating in cracks and crevices. The wind is whipping off any remaining autumn leaves.

On days such as this, I can see why the newspaper is full of advertisements for sunny destinations. It's a day like this when I realize why some retirees wish to get of the area from November to March.

Yet, there is a part of me that enjoys the inclement weather. It is carte blanche to laze around for the day. There'll be little guilt in doing next to nothing today.

This Week's Still Four Days

Today, is Tuesday on the calendar but it'll be like a Monday in class. Our class meets on Mondays to Thursdays. Yet as yesterday was a holiday, we'll meet today through Friday.

I really enjoy the present group I'm teaching. They are clever, hard-working, and friendly. Even though I can say these things without reservation, it's still sad that the long weekend went by so quickly. I wouldn't have minded another day off!

I guess there's nothing unusual about feeling like this. After all, even when one loves it, work is still work!