Home Again

The SO (there's that nickname again!) and I have been out of range of computers, televisions, news etc.

Camping is when you discover your obsessions. Can you go three days without checking your e-mail? Or do you insist on packing in a generator just so you can play Everquest in a tent?

The SO and I went up north to meet with IH, who has posted comments here from time to time. IH is one of my oldest--no wait, he's the second-oldest exactly, friends, and I wanted to ask him if he'd be next-best man at my wedding (who's the best man at my wedding? The same guy who's best man at any wedding attended by me :-) ). So the SO and I met him and his own SO (to avoid confusion we'll refer to her as Fred) in Barkerville, which is a preserved Gold-Rush-era town in northern BC.

This was all in aid of celebrating the Labour Day weekend, a holiday observed in many Commonwealth nations, among others. Its function is to celebrate the efforts of early trade unionists toward things like fair wages and paid vacations. In honour of these efforts, the residents of most civilised nations do no work at all on the first Monday of September. I spent last year's holiday writing a novel for the 3-Day Novel Writing Competition.

This year we went camping. We hadn't packed sufficient cold-weather clothing or sleeping gear. My fault. I know what the weather gets up to (or rather down to) up there. But I was thinking about warm September afternoons, not icy Cariboo nights. But IH and Fred wimped out and ran for a hotel on the second evening, leaving us their extra blankets. And thank Bog that they did! If they were tougher, we'd have been in a hotel ourselves. Thanks, folks.

When we got home, I caught up on reading about Katrina and New Orleans. I spent some time in New Orleans a few years ago. Pretty city. I suspect I wouldn't recognize it now. Certainly put my unnecessary freezings in perspective. I have nothing else to say on the matter. Even any criticism of the White House can wait. There are things on which I do agree with the POTUS, surprisingly, one of which is that this is a disaster.

Thirty-Something blogged about her visit to Daiso, and her $2 "titanium" bracelet, which is supposed to short-circuit the body or something. Daiso's not just another dollar store. The SO and I went there on opening day and couldn't get near the place. People were lining up for three hours to get in!

On bracelets: I recently found one of those magnet bracelets lying around--think I found it in a puddle at school two years ago or so. I put it on and I hate to think I might be falling for something I regard as total quackery, but I swear my hands (which generally perform handsprings on the edge of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) feel better.

Unfortunately, I have no control for this experiment, so if I'm deluding myself into feeling better, then how can I tell? I mean, the other hand is connected to my body, so any seeming improvement might be related to my brain telling my body it feels better, or to a real improvement originating with the bracelet. Either way, it's a nice delusion to have.