Single Serving Friends

One day as I was walking to work I saw a cell phone lying on the side walk. I picked it up so I could track down it's owner. I brought it to the office, found it was a Telus phone. I called Telus to see if they could track down the owner. I thought this whole ordeal could get inconvenient. this phone could belong to anyone in Ottawa or Hull. I'm very busy, and I don't want to take potentially hours of my time to track down the owner.

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A single serving friend is someone who is your friend for a short time, then you never see them again. For examle, when you sit next to someone on an airplane and you talk with them. You have two or three (or more) hours together, then you never see them again. (Unless you're my parents. They met on an air plane.)

But that type of single serving friend is easy to deal with. You probably never see them again. What about the guy who fixed your computer at work though? He comes by, fixes your computer. As he's looking at it, you get to chatting. Next thing you know you see him later on in the day and you say "hi" as you walk by.

But how long does it go on for? 6 months? That seems a little long, doesn't it? So, how does one handle this delicate situation?

During the summer my computer at work was screwed up so I called the help desk. They had to send someone. That someone came, let's call him Fred. He had to come a few times to fix my computer. After a few times he ended up just taking my computer away and re-imaging it. I work in a pretty large complex; he works one floor below me. So I found myself seeing him in the halls, and on the elevators and saying "hi" to him.

But it's conceivable that I will never deal with him again in a tech-support capacity. So, how long do I have to say "hi"?

Just a day or two after I had decided to stop saying "hi" to him.....well remember the phone I found on the way to work? Yeah, well it was his phone. So, now I'm back to saying "hi" to him.

Now, I do want to stay on his good side. He's a nice person, and he can severly screw up my computer if he so desired.

Does Emily Post's famous etiquette have a chapter on single serving friends?

A Change In Direction?

When I started this blog it was mainly to detail my life with the McQueen family. The reason is that life there is interesting. The reasons for this are two-fold:

1. The McQueen family is so much different than the McKay family.


2. Stuff (like car break-downs) happened a lot during a short time.

As for the first reason, after all this time I'm more used to it.

As for the second reason, it's only really note-worthy when it all happens in a short time. And it's only funny when looking back on it. But lately not much has been happening. True, one car was in the shop over a weekend. But it's been a long time since anything else has happened. It just doesn't feel noteworthy.

So this blog may take a turn. Of course, my readers will know that I have been straying from the McQueen stories before. So, why am I writing this post to tell you the obvious? Mostly because I haven't written much lately and I wanted to write something...just for kicks.

HPBBs

Western culture is hardly atheistic. Most people believe in some higher power; be it God, Allah, Jesus, or misc. Most people don't have much of a problem with that. But an awful lot of higher-power-being (HPB) believers reject formal religion. They reject the Bible and it's teachings. They may keep some like "love your neighbour" and most believe in a Heaven even if they don't believe in a Hell.

For the purposes of this post we'll refer to higher-power-being believers as HPBBs, and we'll define them as people who believe in some higher power like God, but reject formal religion.

I'm not sure why HPBBs reject formal religion. A common excuse is "too many hypocrites". (Yet there's plenty of hyprocrites in other areas, yet they don't avoid those.) Some reject the Bible because "what does a 2000 year old book have to do with today" or something else about how the Bible is irrelevant because of who wrote it, or something. Actually, why they reject formal religion is irrelevant to my point.

Now, this HPB is obviously an intangible being. It can't be directly observed by any of our five senses. So, these people are left to their own intellect to try to figure it all out.

But what gets me about that is that most people, left to their own devices, can't even figure out how to assemble a home stereo system, with our without the instructions! How are they supposed to figure out this whole God/spirituality thing?

The Real Reason

Many have asked me what happened with flight training. Why am I not a pilot? Why didn't it work out? Well, I've decided to end those questions with this picture. The picture should explain everything.



Aren't you glad I'm a computer programmer?

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Apparently, today, September 19, is Talk Like A Pirate Day. So, here goes:

Anyone have a copy of Windows XP?

Friends, countrymen, lend me your CDs and DVDs, for I want to copy them.

Anyone want a copy of MS Office XP?

We've Sprung a Leak

Throughout the summer it has seemed as though the water level in the pool had gotten low rather frequently. I had never paid much attention before this summer. I thought it was natural. But it turns out that there's a leaky valve. It just lets a little water out at a time, so it's not immediately noticeable. But the next thing you know the water level is down and the filter is just sucking the water in. Then you have to put the hose in the pool to fill up the water.

Oh well, swim-suit season is over for another 9 months. *shudders*

Who Cut the Grass?

I came home from work the other day to find the front lawn had been mowed. That's odd, the lawnmower is broken, isn't it?

Apparently, Jack took the lawnmower to a small-engine repair shop and had it looked at. They told him it was just the blade, which they replaced.

He brought it home and started to use it, but it was leaking oil! So he took it back to the repair shop. The guy takes it apart, finds the o-ring or washer, puts it back in it's rightful place, puts it back together. Now we have a working lawn mower again!

As Wendy, Bruce, and Robin took turns mowing the lawn this Saturday Jack was yelling "Watch out for the roots!" (which is what broke the lawn mower last time.)

Lengthy writings

What? Me verbose?