Why Spelling Bees Are Important

This is in Port Coquitlam. I took a picture of it a few months ago for a laugh thinking they'd obviously change it, but they haven't. Surely they must know.

Stay in school. Learn how to spell.

Rock on.
J-Rock

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Doing Shots With My Son

I did something this winter I have never done before. I got a flu shot. I always thought that flu shots were for the aged. Seniors. OAP's. You know, the blue-rinse crowd. Plus, I never get the flu. I can't remember the last time I had it. I think I may have been in elementary school. But times have changed and I have a baby now...and babies have to have flu shots...and so do their parents and caregivers...and seeing how I work with the public and come in contact with about 300 people a week, who knows what I'm packing home with me. Needless to say, I don't want my baby getting sick because dad didn't get the free shot. So I got one. And so did my wife. It was no big deal. I didn't even feel it. I felt good knowing that I had done something to protect my baby. Yes, I was being responsible.

That was right before Christmas.

Monday night around 11PM I started to feel sick. I went to bed and tossed and turned and felt worse and worse and worse. I started throwing up at 1AM. It must be food poisoning thought I, as we had been out for dinner the night before, but my wife and I had the same thing and she was fine. The only difference was I had mussels for an appie and she had only had a couple of them. That had to be it. I went to the doctor that afternoon and after the standard blood pressure cuff, look down the throat and in the ears, listen to the chest and lungs, urine test and questions she let me know that it was either the flu or food poisoning. If it was the latter, it would be gone in 24 hours and if it was the flu there was no telling how long it would last.

I'm still sick today.

And now my wife has it too.

That's the last time I get a flu shot.

Rock on.
J-Rock

It's official...I'm a night owl

It's true. I hate going to bed early. It makes me crazy. There are times...like tonight...where I should be going to bed but I'm just not tired. I got up early today so I didn't get my normal Saturday morning sleep in. And I have to get up with the baby tomorrow as it's my day...and I have a rehearsal at noon...yet, I just can't make myself go to bed. Oh, I could...but I know for a fact that I would just lie there.

Part of the problem is that we had a really great show tonight and there were some good friends and some old friends from school in the crowd...and when I am pumped after a show, I just can't go to sleep early.

The other part is that I suffer from SIMS...Scared I'll Miss Something. It's the thing that makes me the one who shows up early for everything and is usually the last to leave...but what is there to miss at 1AM?? I don't know. But I can't make myself go to bed.

So I sit here...in the mostly dark, sipping my Jack Daniels and Coke and knowing that I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow. And knowing I'm going to hate it. But I can't do anything about it, for I am a night owl...

Rock on.

J-Rock

Random Shoes

2100 block St. John's Street, Port Moody BC

Left foot

We've all seen them. Random shoes that are just lying, all alone in an intersection or on the side of the road. Where did they come from? What are their stories? And why is there always only ONE? Where did the other one go? Are we to believe that Steve Fonyo just happened by and decided to discard the one shoe he didn't need? Maybe someone was cycling and got it stuck in the pedal and it ripped off but they didn't notice because they were concentrating so hard on not being hit by a vehicle. Maybe someone decided "Hey, I'm feeling all right today" and so threw the left one away. Now, I've never done a study or anything so I have to assume that they're not all from the same foot. Some will undoubtedly be from the right foot, while the law of averages says that some will be from the left.

I have made it my personal mission to photograph every single shoe I find lying alone. Be it in an intersection, on the side of the road, in a ditch, in a field...wherever. I will be posting these pictures on this blog as I find them...complete with the address of where it was found and what foot it belongs to. I do this for no other reason than for personal amusement. It has always been a mystery to me, and in discussions I have learned with others as well.

Enjoy the shoes. Feel sorry for them. Make up stories as to where they came from. But most of all, love them because they are alone. So very alone.

Rock on.
J-Rock

Happy Friday the 13th!

I am in no way superstitious about the number 13 or Friday the 13th. In fact, some of my best days have been on a Friday the 13th. It's usually a pretty good day for me. We'll see how today goes as I'm working both jobs and with the installation of a new lighting rig at Giggle Dam, the potential for failure is high.

I used to be superstitious about watching the Canucks. I thought that they would lose because I wasn't wearing a specific jersey (I have home, away and 3rd jersey's and would wear what they wore to match them), or because I shaved, or because I didn't listen to a certain album before the game. All very silly really. And with the slumps they have had over the years, I was afraid of getting an ulcer. Then it dawned on me one day that what I wear, do or listen to in a day has absolutely zero effect on how a team plays or doesn't play. I have no connection to them other than being a fan. They would have no idea who I was if they saw me on the street. It was a HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders.

I am now proud to be superstition free!

Except I still won't walk underneath a ladder.

Happy Friday the 13th everyone. Enjoy it because we get another one in March!

Rock on.

J-Rock

Welcome!

Welcome to J-Rock's Jams...a place where I will come on occasion and just write about stuff that's going on in my life, my jobs or just some strange rambling things I happen to be thinking about. I may write a lot at times. I may not write much at all at other times. You might be in my posts or you may not.

It's not gonna be Hemingway.

I'm just learning this blogging game so bear with me.

Rock on.
J-Rock