Headvoice

Bugs and Berries

Not at Home Office

Finally this tedious cold is loosening its grip on me. Today is one week since I got it, so that old adage of three days coming, three days with you and three days leaving sounds more than just an old wives tale. Lots of people have it I hear.

This is also the day the pool gets covered for the season, which is our homely signal that winter is here, not just fall. It is one of my least favorite annual events, which is why I am hiding out this morning at the local Starbucks, sipping green tea and tapping away.

This shop is situated inside a Chapters book store, and even before it opens, practically every seat is full and there is a short line for beverage service. Let's move around the room and see what is going on...

Directly across from me are two women in their sixties, dressed impeccably in earth tones and leather, speaking in French about a family matter and a house. At least that is my best guess! Next up is a stocky bearded man in his thirties or so wearing work pants and a grey t-shirt browsing a set of spreadsheets and checking his printed notes against them.

The women sitting behind me is on a conference call. I can hear the other voices from my seat. Her daytimer is open on the table in front of her and she is clutching her cell phone close to her ear, with a finger in her other ear, desperate to keep the conversation going over the hiss of the baristas working and the conversations all around her.

In the next table by the window, a woman with a orangey pink hair pixie cut, is chatting with a man and sharing the screen of his blackberry for a moment. They shake hands and agree on dinner plans.

All in all the room has six single people at the moment and the rest groups of two with one exception. A group of four is sitting quite comfortable at one of the largest seating areas. In front of them are a blackberry each and two laptops. This is their office; the body language is clear all around.

I recall this same group of people was here last week when I stopped in looking for the special food issue of The New Yorker that I missed. Then it was the afternoon and I spent a half hour or so here when Mark was teaching singing back at the house. Like today, it was clear that the one guy was running some sort of business activity, quite blatantly, with his team surrounding him.

I wonder what the mandate is for people who stay too long in a Starbucks. Is there a latte per hour thing going on here?

Cold

I can't breathe. I can't sleep. I sound like horror movie character on the phone.

The last thing I remember is a turkey dinner...

Floundering

The poor maligned flounder, too often dismissed as ugly and not appealing. As a cook I can tell you that it is one of the most delicious fish you can eat when well prepared. Fresh fillets of founder simply dusted with seasoning and flour, then sauteed quickly in clarified butter is famous in France as "Sole Meuniere" or sole in the style of the miller's wife. Classically the lily is gilded at the end with the fish sprinkled with chopped parsley and some fresh sizzling butter poured just before serving.

But me... I am just floundering these days. No fish, just the action of...

Walk in the Water Park

Still warm and summery in Toronto for the first week of October...

A pleasant surprise this morning as a European blogger who covers the digital signage industry posted about my company ScreenVox in a positive way; interested about the concept and my content mandates for brands who advertise on screen networks.

The post is here.

Waiting and Waiting

This year has been a series of tests that I don't seem to be doing very well at...

First I was waiting for our first client and then the date was set. Then it wasn't. Now I am back to waiting for them.

Now I am waiting for word from New York about another opportunity. If I didn't have much patience to begin with, whatever meager reserves have been spent some time ago.

If there is but one constant in life it is that change is inevitable.

Could somebody please flick the switch?

The Morning Walk

I took the camera with me for this morning's canine ambulatory process. And even with the fallen leaves swirling in the October wind there were still some spring-like blooms in the neighborhood....

Voting and Assumptions

Yesterday I voted for the first time in Canada, and when I returned home afterward, our mailbox contained my absentee ballot for voting in the November election back in the states. It was a reality check of my new dual citizenship, something that has been forefront in my life for the past few weeks.

Mark had never voted before yesterday, something he acknowledged was embarrassing, but good for him for taking the time to understand who and what he was voting for. I was quietly proud of him, taking responsibility for his citizenship for the first time ever.

Some people are not in favor of dual citizenship in theory, but I refute that if you have been a productive and responsible citizen in more than one jurisdiction than you have earned that right. Now I can travel as either an American or a Canadian; and also have to file tax returns in both countries for the rest of my life.

At a party last weekend couple of folks were shocked when I told them that I was a registered Republican, and had been all my adult life. It was as if suddenly my last name was Cheney and I was running a Guantanamo like prison camp in my suburban basement.

I tried to explain that voting in the States is different. Your party affiliation really only affects the choices you have when voting in primary elections, but I wasn't heard over the booming Kanye West soundtrack. In the kitchen I asked L., who has known me for a few years, what assumptions were going through her mind now. When I further explained that my father was the Mayor of the town I grew up in she softened again...

I showed Mark the absentee ballot from the States before I mailed it back. Unlike the Canadian Parlimentary system you vote for all levels of government, and in this election some referendums and other ballot initiatives were included. We had just come from voting on two little scraps of paper, simply putting an X in a circle which was aligned with name and a party.

Two different countries, two different political systems. And now for me, a voice in both places.

The First Monday in October

Today is the day the US Supreme Court returns to session. It's back to work with the leaves turning color...

We settled in again over the past week, with a newly organized and much more usable basement now. Mark has expanded his studio into two areas and is clearly in a better frame of mind with this development.

It is clear that both of us really needed to get away for a bit, and our road trips to the shore and New York always seem to be able to provide just what we need.

Taking the lead from the Court's traditionally day of returning to work,from now on I am going to try and post as much as possible here. It will help me with my writing and my photography, and I just paid the bill for yet another year of hosting...

I do hear-by swear to this your honors!