In the bleakest moments, people need to shine their brightest.  I am not sure that things are truly bleak, but they are a far cry from good.  What I can say is that I have not been doing my best to shine my brightest.

Due to laziness, boredom, or general blah feelings when sitting at the keyboard, here is a rundown of Perfect Moments I have failed to record.

My girlfriend celebrated an important birthday–though now I think all of them, and even the days in between, as important.  Rather than do the romantic thing and cook her dinner, I allowed her to cook her favourite dish.  I have to admit that it was better than anything I could have made.

I did manage to buy her some birthday presents that brought a smile to her eye.  I won’t bore you with the details, but I think we’ve all been in that situation when we doubted out gift choices.  The moment of anticipation can be too great for the giver as well as the receiver.  How crushed would you be if the “perfect gift” turned out to be the “perfect dud?”

We were able to get some delicious cakes.  Unfortunately, I had spent too much time looking for a light bulb for her stove that  I fear we didn’t get the variety of choice we were hoping for.  She was quite gracious when she said that she didn’t mind.  I still feel a little bad about it.

My foray into home DIY continues.  My confidence is improving and things are turning out well. I’ve fixed a few more things and assembled a couple of others.  I had a little setback installing some outdoor lights.  This is mostly due to some rather bizarre choices that were made when siding was put on the house (long before I bought it) and had me step back and do a little bit of a re-think.  I’ve got it figured out, but I just need a bit more time to execute the solution.

My interest in woodworking and “making” continues unabated.  While the library is not open to loan me some magazines, they have started curbside pickup if I put something on hold.  Unfortunately, someone has put the books that I want on hold already.

I did managed to survey the various magazines available and was able to take advantage of membership in the CAA to get a pretty good discount on the yearly price.  Were the library running smoothly, I probably could have saved that money.  However, sometimes you’ve just got to make a choice.

I’ve taken some time to watch a bunch of old movies and old TV series that I seem to have collected on DVD.  I watched Stallone in Victory.  While it wasn’t a particularly great movie, Michael Caine was his usual understated best.  If I remember correctly I got the DVD’s at the dollar store in a two pack.  The other movie was American Flyers (Kevin Costner and bicycles….)  I am sure that the cycling movie was the reason I purchased it.

Virtually every night I am dreaming about traveling somewhere.  This is often by bicycle or train.  I don’t know if this is an omen that I will be traveling soon or a reflection of my deepest fears that I won’t get to travel for a while.  I still have a deposit on a bike trip to South Africa–it isn’t officially cancelled yet–in December.

My war with the weeds in my front garden continues.  I am not winning, but I am not losing ground.  After it rains tomorrow, I will be out pulling up more weeds and planting new grass in an effort to leave less room for weeds.  If I fail this year, I will either have to call in the professionals or turn the whole thing into a rock garden.

Another, we can’t call it a Perfect Moment, but more a Perfect realization Moment is that I have (touch wood) been drifting well enough in these turbulent seas.  I am still working and paying my bills.  A year ago, I was very busy at this time.  While this may not be true this year, it isn’t terrible.

I have been waking up earlier than I need to make the long two metre commute to work.  It is kind of nice not to feel rushed in the morning.  I am sure it makes my coffee taste that much better.

I wish there were some Perfect Moments while teaching, but there aren’t.  This might be the future, but it isn’t good enough right now.  I am learning a lot, but the learning curve is not over.  I need more tools and I need better tools provided to me.

The protests that happening south of the border are sad, both for their causes and results.  I don’t have a lot to say about it, but I don’t want to be silent.  My thoughts go out to those who are in pain.  You all deserve so much more.