Candies gone -followed the "help yourself" plan again this year, about 125 "packages", all gone by 8. Some take 1, some take a handful. My neighbour's daughter was too little to reach the doorbell, so she just yelled "Mike" until I came to the door. The last bunch wiped out the bowl even before their friends got to it - oh well. So I turned off all the lights and went upstairs.
No, not the movie, or the result of too many lentils, but mainly today's weather. The forecast is for snow pellets and gusts of up to 100 km/hr,as the storm blows change past us and into Quebec, looking to stir things up there (as are the Liberals). I was supposed to do leaflets for Alex Munter, a contender here for mayor, but it's too nasty outside for that. A better day to work on my own changes, as winds blow through my own life. Such as catching up on piles of "to be blogged" notes.
The last few months have been filled with Quality related work, studying for a certification exam, and developing and managing a website for a volunteer group. The exam was a week ago, and after some disagreements with the volunteer group they chucked me out. So - more time to move on to other things, to refocus and redo my to-do list.
Speaking of lentils, I've been looking into the Mediterranean diet. Low in meats, especially red, high in grains and fruits and vegetables. Olive oil rather than butter. And the best part - red wine. With exercise included of course, even if to just walk to the local LCBO, about 20 minutes away. At least as long as it stays there, it's in a local plaza, and not a huge store - yesterday when I was there they were recording your postal code with your purchase, to compare with the larger store up the road. As in up the road by car, definitely a major hike to get there. The cashier said they were deciding whether to keep the local store open. I'm disturbed when local politicians make a big deal about breaks for developers and encouraging local jobs, when it means acres of big box stores that we all have to drive to. And between. There seem to be several variations in the design, not sure which is more annoying. One is just a huge parking lot by the road, and at the back of that a big box store on it's own, or with 3-4 other stores, as a mini-mall. Another is still a huge parking lot, but with stores around the edge, and no sidewalks across the middle. So, you either park in one spot, and wander back and forth through the parking and traffic, or get back in and drive across the lot to the next store. yet another is a peculiar mix of the two, a large area that contains small clusters of square mini-malls, each with parking around them. A little too far from each other to walk, a little too close to drive. But - we do insist that our subdivisions be built with shops away from residential areas, the days of mixed use zoning, of small local shops with apartments above, single homes, row houses, small apartment blocks - all blended together - those days are gone. Not popular with developers or the buyers of upper class homes. Or middle class for that matter.
So - changes, not more time in my life, just a re-focus. Photography, arts, reading - whether the papers, New Scientist, or blogs. I suppose a little more exercise too, as part of the Renaissance man package. I'd take the cat for a walk, but at 21 she's lucky to get up the stairs. She's at my feet now, under the desk - I'm always afraid of stepping on her or rolling my chair back over her tail.