A miscellany of know-it-all-isms by Geoff Sowrey

Posts in category General

Back at the (new) Calgary Farmer’s Market

Apr22
2011 Written by Geoff

On Thursday, a few months behind schedule, the Calgary Farmer’s Market finally re-opened its doors at their new location near the corner of Blackfoot Trail and Heritage Drive in Southeast Calgary. It’s been long-planned and long-awaited by many — especially the Monkey, who wanted to go back to the “jumping castle”.

But if you’ve read by blog, you know that the jumping castle is no more, and Mike the Balloon Tycoon is no longer a figure at the market. Many things have changed, actually, all of them affecting the market we once knew and loved. It’s definitely not the same market anymore, and rings more of The Forks in Winnipeg, or Granville Island in Vancouver.

I can’t yet say if it’s a step up or down, but it’s definitely a step forward.

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On the mend

Apr17
2011 Written by Geoff

Let’s pick up where we left off, dear reader. As you already know, I came home in a fair amount of discomfort. Thankfully, I also came home drugged up and bearing a temporary stash of drugs to maintain the druggy state. They delivered in their promised one-two punch: lessening of pain, and increasing drowsiness.

I should point out that until Friday, I had not really known pain. My previous experiences had been limited to bonks of the head (one of which has left a noticeable scar) plus a few nasty scrapes. And with one exception (which led to stitches in my nose), every injury was resolved with a simple bandage.

Now I understand why “keeping up on your meds” is so key during recovery.

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My first surgery

Apr16
2011 Written by Geoff

Yesterday, I finally got my hernia repaired. (“Repair”, incidentally, is what the surgery is called.) It’s a short job that uses, believe it or not, part of a screen door.

It wasn’t a procedure that I was particularly looking forward to — the thought of surgery was more than a little frightening — but I’m sure I’ll be glad to have had.

Y’know, once all this pain subsides…
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Going under the knife

Apr08
2011 Written by Geoff

Back in August, I was diagnosed as having a direct inguinal hernia. While not particularly serious (right now), it is periodically uncomfortable — especially with a groin-level child who doesn’t realise that hitting in the groin area can be painful with such an affliction (let alone the hits to the family jewels).

I was told at the time that it could “take a year” until I could get it fixed, but if I was willing to do things more ad hoc, they’d put me on a call list. On the call list I went … and I waited. I finally got called about a month ago, which put me in surgery on 17 March — the day before Choo Choo’s 1st birthday. Recovering from surgery on such an important day was simply something I wasn’t willing to do, so I passed. Last week, they called again.

On 15 April, I’ll get to experience surgery for the first time, ever. And I gotta tell ya, I’m more than a bit apprehensive.

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Hey, Four Eyes!

Feb18
2011 Written by Geoff

When I was about 12 years old, my eye doctor told me that I’d need glasses one day, but not until I was 40. When you’re 12 years old, you can’t comprehend 40 — heck, it’s hard to comprehend 13. Still, it was something that always stuck in the back of my head as reality — one day, I’d need glasses.

Then, last year, I found out that I needed frickin’ lasers shot into my frickin’ eyes. At the time the diagnosis was made, it was already apparent that age was catching up to me, and that my vision — compounded from nearly 30 years in front of a computer monitor — was finally beginning to lose its finesse. But I stayed in denial, and stuck to my “when I’m 40″ belief, and marched on with life.

That was until this year. The time has come.

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2010, A Year in Review

Jan04
2011 Written by Geoff

Man, it feels like a year ago since I last wrote one of these … oh, wait. (Yes, it’s a stupid joke. You should know me by now…)

2010 was the year we made contact … wait, sorry, wrong catchline. 2010 was the year my family welcomed new members, notably my youngest, a daughter (code)named Choo Choo. It was a year I changed my career outlook (yes, again), and found that I’m not (completely) useless. This was a year of family, for me, and that’s perhaps the most important aspect.

But despite all that, I hesitate to call it “a year of change”.

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Catching up with a few Radical friends

Dec21
2010 Written by Geoff

Not long after our trip out to the Lower Mainland entered the books, I hit up some old friends of mine through Twitter, to see if they’d be interested in a get-together. I hadn’t actually seen some of them in over a decade (even Joel I hadn’t seen in at least three years), and it just seemed a perfect thing to do.

Twitter has become a perfect way of bringing people together. Just as last year, when I met up with my old friend Sonny, I’m finding Twitter to be an intensively useful tool to meet up with friends long-unseen. In this case, it became a catalyst, and we dragged in a non-Twitterer while we were at it.

And it was a good evening, however short.

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Apologies for the comments

Dec03
2010 Written by Geoff

Hi there readers! Sorry about the closed comments on my blog. I really have no idea why they decided to close on their own — I leave the comments open for a reason. It’s rather odd.

At any rate, they’re open again, so hopefully that’ll continue some of the conversation!

Humble apologies,
Geoff

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Fundraising fail

Nov18
2010 Written by Geoff

Besides being the penultimate month of the year, November is also “Movember“, a campaign where men are encouraged to grow moustaches and raise money in the on-going fight for prostate cancer. I’ve known about the movement for a few years (if you live on the internet, such as myself, it’s impossible to not know about it), and had managed to avoid doing anything about it.

It’s not that I don’t support cancer research — naturally, I do. It was just that I had no particular desire to grow facial hair any more than when I get lazy and don’t shave for a few days. (When you’re trying to get out the door in time to get the bus, you take whatever shortcuts are necessary.) This year, in a desire to have some unity with my fellow Evans-Huntians, I let it start growing out.

Sadly, that’s about as far as I’ve gotten.

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Living with a hernia

Aug16
2010 Written by Geoff

All I do is grunt and groan
Hurts me to walk anywhere
Went to see my physician, Dr. Jones
He took my trousers off, told me to cough
Doctor says there ain’t nothin’ to discuss
He tells me any day I might have to wear a truss

-“Living with a Hernia”, Weird Al Yankovic

A couple of months ago (could be longer, but let’s start there), I noticed a rather odd bulge just to the left of my [CENSORED FOR PUBLIC DECENCY]. At the time, I wasn’t too concerned — it didn’t hurt, and prodding it seemed no different than the other side. Given my new exercise regiment, I merely assumed it was a result of over-exertion. (As a side note, I’m probably still correct on that point.)

Yesterday, while having a shower, I happened to notice that it looked bigger than before. Alex, my personal medical encyclopedia, looked at it and said: “hernia”.

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