YAY!!! It's a beautiful day today!

I'm going out with the camera!

See ya later.

UGH.

Today I feel like I've been hit by a bus!

I'm rather sore after all those exercises yesterday. I didn't actually think I'd be this sore though, I mean I do go to the gym and exercise. I guess yesterday's routine was harder than it seemed.

This morning I went to my regular Friday physiotherapy session in Port Moody. I was a little tired and sore of course, but it was ok.

I had my camera with me today and I took some shots of myself at the physiotherapy clinic again. This time I'm on the skiing machine (called the Fitter). It's probably my favorite exercise I think. It's a lot like downhill skiing--the old style with two skis, not a snowboard--and it actually moves in all the same ways skis do.

Afterwards I went for breakfast again at my friend P,'s Restaurant. I don't think I was in a very good mood though. I was happy, but just a little tired so I didn't do very much talking--actually there were two little kids who did enough talking for about 10 people. Kids are so loud. I think they do that because they want to be heard above all else, or they just like being loud--one or the other--I don't know, I'm not a child psychologist.

Where was I going with this?--Oh yeah,

There was this little old lady in the restaurant who just wanted to sit and relax but the poor old dear was sitting right next to the table with the super noise making kids. She was getting pretty frustrated. She didn't say anything to the kids, but she did mention to my friend P. that she would like them to shut up. Heehee! Poor old thing.




Here's the little old dear after having forgotten her purse on the table.




Here she is receiving her purse from P. who quickly retrieved it from the table. She was very relieved that it was still there.

Finally the noise makers left, and by that time I too had a headache. So everyone was at peace for about 2 minutes, when these other two ladies started talking really loud. What was it, was everyone deaf today? Or did my hearing just happen to go all Superman on me.

Well, the day is over and I'm back home from Surrey now. As it turns out, the tests were really good. The occupational therapists was a really cool guy with a good sense of humor, so it made it a lot more pleasant than I had anticipated.

He had me perform every kind of physical task I could imagine; from my head to my feet. No wonder it took 8 hours. Then I had to do a fitness test in the end. I did really well in all the other tests, but I'm a little clumsy when it comes to doing step-up aerobics. Just when I thought I had 'my rythm on' I fell on the steps. Then I fell again. I felt silly, but I quickly recovered and continued on.

I was wearing a heart rate monitor the whole time which was like some kind of 'Man-Bra' or "Bro" as pertaining to the Seinfeld episode. It included a wrist watch which would show my heart rate and set off all kinds of alarms just in case my heart went crazy during the exercises.

Overall it was a good day. I'm very tired though because of the high level of physical stress and a little sore. I know I'll be sore tomorrow.

I brought my camera, but there was nothing really to take photos of. I didn't get the opportunity during the tests. I did take some photos of the nasty weather on the way in though and on the way back home. It rained all day today. Yuck.

So I'll leave you with these photos of the weather while crossing the Port Mann bridge into Surrey this morning at 7:00a.m. And coming back home at about 6:00p.m.

Have a good night!

Tomorrow morning (Thursday) I've got to drag my butt out of bed at about 6:30a.m. and drive to Surrey. I have an all day appointment with an occupational therapist. He's going to put me through a series of physical tests to see what I'm capable of. I have no idea what I'm actually going to be doing though, so I'm a little freaked out. I just hope I don't do (or say) anything stupid.

The whole think lasts 8 hours, so there must be about a million things they'll try with me. I'm going to try to sneak my digital camera in there and get some shots. If I do, I'll post them here.

Right now I'm listening to Beethoven's Sonata No.8 in C maj., second movement Adagio Cantabile. It's a lovely piano piece.

Here's my friend Rino on the keyboards. He sounds really good. That's Rex the drummer sitting beside Rino. This guy is an amazing drummer. He makes one drum kit sound like several.

This is Vince playing the lead guitar. He sounds a lot like Stevie Ray Vaughan. He's a great guitarist and he sings too.

Here's a closeup of Rex's drum kit.

Here's the whole band. That's Joni on bass. She's the song writer and singer of the group. Very talented woman.

Here's a closeup of Vince again.It's a really nice guitar--an Ovation accustic/electric.

And this is me fooling around on Joni's bass guitar. I don't play bass. I play a little piano, but not like these guys.

So yeah, it was a fun evening. I took a lot of photos with the G2 and about a roll with the film camera.

I'm off to bed now.

G'nite!

Monday night was great!

My good friend R. is a jazz and blues musician and he plays keyboards in a band called The Miller/Eastman Band. They were playing at a club down town last night and he invited me to do a photo shoot of them performing. It was a blast! There's four members in his band and they're all really good musicians.

I'll provide mroe details and photos later, I've gotta go mail some parcels.

Ciao!

Wow! Lots of sales on Ebay this week! It started off slow, but ended with a boom! I listed a bunch of books for my best friend L. and lots of those sold too. She's happy. I'm happy. Now comes the hard part; packing and shipping. The post office is going to love me tomorrow!

I want to sell my old synthesizer, the Roland Juno 106. It's been with me since 1987, but now it's a bit of a junker. Some of the keys don't work. This thing is huge and heavy, so if I sell it on Ebay, it's going to be a shipping nightmare. I'll really have to get creative with packaging materials for that thing.

Happy Easter everybody! It's been a good day. I hope you all got to enjoy some time with people you care about today.

See ya tomorrow!

-Mark