My Stiff Little Fingers


It’s amazing how quickly something that is habitual becomes lost in the rigours of day to day life. I have not been too prolific in terms of my writing as of late. I didn’t realise how lax I had become in my writing until I went to update my blog, only to find the whole formatting procedure had changed, and saw my last entry as being in February of this year! Isn’t that life in a nutshell – before you realise it you have passed through to another phase in life and those things that seemed to have occurred a mere day ago turn out to be months of even years.

So what has my journey held? I continue teaching and am looking forward to the summer holidays. I believe that I am completely over the “institutionalised” feelings that I was having earlier this year as I made the transition from Prison Guard back into teaching. That being said, teaching has been somewhat of a disillusioned experience as it appears similar ideologues have control of the Educational world, just as they do of the Correctional Service. Perhaps it’s my nature – going way back to my adolescent punk rock era – that causes me to be disenfranchised with everything. Regardless, my thoughts do frequently traverse the career change path often. I can not complain about my life as it has held some amazing experiences. Still, I’m beginning to think that I will never be in a career where I’m happy. I think I know what I’d “like” to do – teach History and/or Politics at a small college or university. Taking four more years to do a doctorate simply isn’t feasible in terms of time and finances sadly. Is that not the worst thing about life - when it’s money barriers that stand in the way of your dreams? So, Bill Gates or any other billionaires out there reading this, if you’re feeling generous….

Anyway, it is almost Summer and the Canadian winter is on it’s annual five month vacation. I thought that I’d take up Slo-Pitch this summer as nothing beats a bit of ball and a few beers on a hot summer’s day. Leave it to me however to get gimped up! I was playing third base a couple weeks ago, the play was to me and the runner slid in to the base. In doing so, his cleat caught my big toe and fractured it plus dislocated it at the knuckle part! The worst part was the excellent acoustics in the emergency room when they yanked it back into place – thank god they froze it first! So, I’m on the D.L. until mid June at least.

…And on the topic of ball, my beloved Red Sox are up 11.5 games on the damn Yankees, so life’s not all bad!

Fortunately it was my toe and not a finger that I injured! I recently began taking guitar lessons from a guy called Ma Fletcher (his web site is http://www.mafletcher.com/ ). Being a big folkie, I’m a bit star struck as this guys been around since the 1960’s and played with one of my all time musical deities: Stan Rogers. My playing is coming along I must say. When I’m a bit more proficient, I think I’ll look around for a few folks interested in jamming. My main musical influences are neo punk-celtic bands like the Pogues, Dropkick Murphys, etc. (I actually met the front man for Captain Tractor yesterday – he’s an acquaintance of a good friend of mine). Who knows! Perhaps that will be the outlet I need.

Anyway, I’m nattering like the old man I’m becoming. Just wanted to move the fingers over the keyboard and see what came out. I’ll try to get in the habit of keeping this site up to date, though June is always a hectic months for teachers and I’m following that up with a trip to San Diego and another to Nova Scotia in July. We’ll see what comes of it all….