Saturday, November 03, 2001
Started work at home this morning, but Rogers was not co-operating. It was just as well I didn't work at home on Thursday, as the connection had been down from noontime until the time I went to bed at around 11am. It was up first thing this the morning, and I did manage to get a few things done, but the connection got spottier and spottier as the morning wore on, presumably as other people in the area tried to connect. Erika decided to give Rogers a call, and it turns out that the outages are due to the fact that Rogers is apparently adding a new node to local area - in order to handle the relatively high traffic our area collectively handles - hence the semi-regular outages these days. Erika managed to get Rogers to reduce our monthly bill as a result, but in the end I had to call work and tell them I couldn't effectively do the work I had intended to do in the morning. I hope to make things up on Sunday. Grrr Rogers grrr...
The previous day I received my advance cheque from Prentice Hall, so I took it down to the bank. Not much joy there either if truth be known. Turns out that the bank had to place a hold on the cheque for 24 business days (!). I thought this odd, since previously I've deposited other amounts without having a hold placed on them. I complained to the teller, asking why things seemed so arbitrary. Glad I asked, since it turns out the explanation for all of this that the cheque I had just deposited was above a certain dollar bracket - but as result, the semi-harassed teller did give in a little bit and let me have an amount equating to the amount for a cheque they wouldn't have to do a hold on, which amounted to roughly a third of the total sum of money. Oh well, something is better than nothing...
When I got back I did some homework with Vanessa. This was the first time I had done this, and it was much harder than I had expected. Her homework consisted of her trying to write a few numbers. Vanessa is good at tracing, but had real problems trying to copy a figure without any sort of guides. I helped out by making a bunch of dots she had to connect in order to create the numbers "2" through "5". This worked up to a point, but she never really seemed to get the hang of it. Things are made all the harder because all she really wants to do is to play. At one point I had to send her to her room because she wasn't paying attention and was just goofing around. I know I am treading a fine line here, since the last thing I want to do is make homework an unpleasant experience. When she came back down and more studiously did her homework, I made sure I gave her high praise for her work, and she excitedly showed everything to her Mother as well. Had a better time doing the letters comprising her name, which was leavened by me doing funny things with some of the letters, such as turning the letter "S" into a snake with googly eyes and forked tongue.
When Erika took Vanessa away to school, I made a couple of calls. One of them was to Universal Digital Products, who are the people on the first floor of the building I work in a few days out of the week in Oakville. Since I now have at least some of the money from the publisher, I gave them the official go-ahead with the new computer they are putting together for me, intended as a testing station for use with the book, as a general file and print server on the home network, and as the base computer to drive my MAME computer game cabinet. It won't be the fastest computer in the house, but it should more than adequately address these needs. I also called VIA Rail asking them what advantages there were to their "VIA 1" service. Turns out that besides a reserved seat, there's longer leg space (yes!), choice of dinner, free liquor, and each seat has an electrical outlet for plugging things like laptop computers into. The legroom and electrical outlet were enough to convince me, so I tried to upgrade my existing ticket. Turns out the train was fully booked, but the agent suggested that I call into the VIA 1 lounge at Union a 1/2 hour before boarding time to see if any of the reserved seats had been let go. (As it would turn out, I lucked out on this, snagging what I gather was the only freed up ticket).
Immediately prior to me catching a train to the station, the teacher who teaches an empathy class for Grade 1 (I think) kids dropped by, as Erika had arranged. I like the concept behind the class. The teacher shows the pupils pictures of a Mother and her baby (read: Erika and Annie), and then she gets them to think about what a Mother does for a baby. This is aimed primarily at kids who do not necessarily have younger siblings, so the concept of looking after a baby may be a new concept to them. When we asked what "Mommies do for babies" to Vanessa, she proudly told us all of the things that she know Erika does for Annie, such as changing diapers, breast-feeding Annie, dressing her and so on. (A lot of these duties apply to me too - okay, maybe not breast-feeding ;-) - it was just the way the question was put to Vanessa). The teacher took some pictures of Erika and Annie, and was fascinated by the baby books that Erika has compiled for both Vanessa and Annie, detailing the birth process, growth. She also dug out the same book that Jean had created for Erika, and it was fascinating to see pictures of Erika at three months and then compare them to little Annie at the same age - there's a lot of her Mother there. Speaking of which, I noticed when that one of Annie's happy expressions reminds me very much of Vanessa, and Erika repeatedly tells me that Annie's eyes are like looking into my eye. ;-)
In the middle of the interview I caught my cab to Union Station. Shortly after getting my upgraded ticket, I boarded the train and got into my relatively comfy seat on train 65 heading to Montreal.
The ride itself was pretty comfortable, though by journey's end I was definitely ready to get off of the train. I ended up writing the majority of this posting while on the train, and thanks to the wonders of modern technology, was able to watch an episode of Futurama and the first 40 minutes or so of Princess Mononoke while on the train. The food was okay, though the best part was the free bar (though I didn't over-indulge). Best part was eating a Belgian chocolate and sipping from a Grand Marnier. Yum!
In Montreal I arrived at Dorval about a half hour late, due apparently to some CN signal problems that slowed us down prior to Belleville. A cold rain was falling as I lugged myself and my baggage out of the train. I got out and started looking for signs of Bryce. Since Bryce didn't expect me to come out of the VIA 1 car, he expected me to come out from one of the other passenger cars behind it.
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