A whole bunch of stuff...

We saw the Broadway play "Wicked" on Friday night. We went downtown with the Plymouth Crescent crowd and had a great meal at the Snow Garden Restaurant (Richards and W.Pender). I love it when you say "we have 12 people - please bring us food". They bring you stuff you never would have ordered yourself, and all of this food was fantastic. After dinner, we walked over to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre for "Wicked". By today's standards, it's quite a long play - the first act is about 1.5 hours! I found the premise of the story was really interesting, but found the ending just a little bit too wholesome. Then Laura told me that the book is far more depressing, and does not have a happy ending. I don't like it when they change a story based on audience feedback. I don't think Shakespeare ever asked for audience feedback, and some of the best, most provocative theatre out there doesn't necessarily have a happy ending. After this event, I've come to the conclusion that small venues (community-sized) for both music and theatre is what I like. These mega-productions are more often about the spectacle, and less about the content. Give me a half-baked Gordon Lightfoot on stage with a guitar and an attitude.

We head to Toronto this Wednesday for eight days, primarily for a wedding, but just as important to catch up with old friends (Brian and Jaccee) and Laura's cousin (Nicole). I have to admit that, as much as I'm no fan of Toronto (big American city that happens to be in Canada), I do want to see the people. And giving Laura a good opportunity to see the city is a great thing. Brian and Jaccee are taking us down to Niagara-On-The-Lake for a tour and a play as well. Should be fun!

On to the sleep thing. It seems I'm always writing about this! I've read three additional books (in addition to the one's I've already read), and may be narrowing in on some consensus. I think a big part of my problem is now my sub-conscious has determined "my bed = no sleep". That's why I sleep better elsewhere (boat, RV). There seems to now be a common, agreed upon reset - stay up as late as you can (1-2am), and get up early (6:45am) for several days in a row. Kind of a brute force method of resetting your internal sleep mechanisms. One of these latest books also includes a hypnosis CD to listen to as you fall off... I'm sure you'll here from me how it's going.

If you saw my Picasa photos from the sailing trip, you'll have noticed my current obsession with floating homes. I have to convince Laura that, when we get back from sailing with Dave and Sherri (catamaran on July 14), we have to get over to the island and see the homes in Maple Bay. If I take the practicality of tiny homes, and teach them to float, it seems to me a perfect combination. Unfortunately, I've been unable to find anyone that builds float homes, and there seems to be quite a few regulations around them. Oh well, if there's something I have lots of - it's free time!

This just keeps getting better

I went sailing this weekend with Andrew and Dean, over to Maple Bay on Vancouver Island to see our mutual friend, Arnim. On the way over, I got seasick three times in a relatively small swell, and on a moderately heeled sailboat - probably a quarter as rough as I've been in (actually, not rough at all, but "pleasant"). Just one more surprise about the re-wiring of my brain going on. Sleep, sailing, swimming - I wonder if it's just anything beginning with the letter "S" (I know what you're thinking)?

Fortunately, I was able to buy some Ginger Gravol (no drugs - just ginger that they sell for $7), and that seemed to do the trick for the journey back. In sheltered water (no swell at all), I am just fine.

On another note, I slept well on the boat. I sleep well in the RV. I didn't sleep last night at home in my own bed. What's with that?

Photos on Picasa.

Round The World Travel?

I received an update to a mailing list I'm on regarding RTW travel - it advertised a Vancouver - Beijing - Delhi - Mumbai - London - Rome - Paris - Vancouver trip for about $2400 taxes included. This got me to thinking.

I went on to the BootsnAll travel site, and am getting them to quote me on my individual choice of journeys:  Vancouver - Boston - Amsterdam - London - Istanbul - Dubai - Singapore - Bankok - Hong Kong - Vancouver. All the flights are one-way and completely changeable - so it's really just a series of one-way flights, with the same restrictions as a regular one-way would have (very few). The price I got online was from $2400-$3400 all-in. We'll see what they say when they contact me.

Once you figure that I would force Laura to take a backpack and sleep in hostels, the total cost for the both of us shouldn't exceed $10K, figuring 45 days and trying to do it for less than $100/day.

It could be the trip of a lifetime ... just wonder if I'm up for it??

I'm fascinated with this stuff

I went to my family doctor a couple of weeks ago - not so much for more drugs or tests - but for some opinions about the sleep issue (my continuing nemesis). Everything else, for the most part, is measurably getting better, but the sleep thing continues to haunt me every night. I asked if it would be counter-productive to try Ativan again once/week to see what that did. He said that if it helped, there would be no harm in doing it - you couldn't develop a new dependency relying on the drug that infrequently. So last night I gave it a try. I'm hesitant to use anything, but after a few nights of no rest, I give in and reach for the medicine cabinet. So now I'm alternating doxylamine succinate (the Nyquil stuff) and Ativan every third night. The graph above is with the Ativan - I know I slept really well for a couple of hours there...

Just for fun, I pulled a "regular" sleep graph off the website of Sleep Cycle to see what it should look like (below). The two are still quite different, but I'm getting closer! Tonight, we're going to hook the iTouch to Laura's side of the bed to see what her graph looks like.

Sleep is a stubborn foe ...

But the Sleep Ap is cool!

I have an application for my iTouch (an iPhone without the phone) that cost me a whopping $0.99. It uses the accelerometer in the iTouch to determine if and when you move during the night. The thinking is - when you're in deep sleep - you don't move at all - you are basically paralyzed. When you're in REM sleep, you move a bit. When you're awake or in light sleep, you move a lot. I think this application is reasonably accurate - on the night this graph was taken, I was in and out of dreams all night. When I woke in the morning, I felt as though I hadn't slept much, but the Sleep Alarm application says otherwise. You don't know when you're in deep sleep, so all you remember are some dreams from REM, and all the times you were awake and moving around. Somehow, seeing these graphs is cathartic for me - I now believe I get more rest than I would normally think I had.

Now, on the other hand, the other night I had a truly lousy night's rest - that graph is here to the left. You can tell that there wasn't a whole lot of relaxation and snoring going on.





Finally, the graph below is with drugs (doxylamine succinate 12.5mg - the same active ingredient that's in Nyquil or Unisom) - not a lot better than the one at the very top. Gives me something to think about...

The semi-retired life

Bruce and I were talking about this today, while enjoying a coffee in the middle of the afternoon - with no particular place to go and no identified time to be there...

I get up in the morning about 7am, and it takes until 8:30am or so until I'm fully conscious. During that first hour and a half, I'll eat some breakfast, watch The Daily Show (recorded the night before) and do a quick scan of my email.

Then, the dog needs a walk - and this will take until about 9am unless we see something particularly interesting on our outing (could be really fast if it's pouring). After this, off for a quick shower and I'm in my office a few minutes past 9am most days. It normally takes me a good half hour to read and react to the email I've collected overnight, and almost always at 9:30am I sit down to do two solid hours of writing (the TKA thing). This may have to expand this as there becomes more desk work to do.

Then it's walk the dog again, just before making some lunch. After lunch - which doesn't take all that long - it's household chores; I'm so anal each job is entered in my calendar (ie: the first Monday of every month, wash the bedding). In the afternoon, provided it's not raining, I'll go for a two hour bike-ride with my buddy Bruce (most days he comes along). By the time I get home, it's late afternoon and time to think about dinner. Evenings are spent reading and watching TV, and if it's nice out we'll take Bo for another long walk.

I have no idea how I ever found the time to have a regular job.