Read the real life stories and experiences of freelance writer Mike Gagnon.

Updates Cont'd (read previous entry)

I remembered!

Okay More updates

Wedding

So As you may or may not know Pam and I are finally getting hitched. We're going out to Banff and having the ceremony with a small group of people in the rocky mountains. Really, in the mountains. We have to hike to the wedding site. The big day is August 8th. Jeremy is taking me to a Nascar race in the states for my batchelor party.

Pam's Dad

I don't know if I mentioned this awhile back, but Pam's Ddad was in bad shape in the hospital. There were a number of medical conditions and contributing factors, but he's recovered and out now, but has to deal with some serious respiratory illness issues.

Bear

Bear is the dog that we rescued awhile back as a pet for Pam's dad. When we brought her home she had been severly neglected and was covered in feces and was severly urine burnt on the underneath of her entire body. Her ears also has multiple untreated infections.

We took a week to get Bear into home living shape to live with Pam's dad, and then we helped them with her medicines and vet apointments. Her ears are fixed up, the fur has grown back where she was once urine burnt, and her resulting skin infection is almost cleared up, she's in great spirits and smart as hell. After only being at Pam's Dad's for a couple weeks he ended up going into the hospital as mentioned above. So, Bear's been living with us ever since. As a Husky/Border Collie/German Shepherd/Blue Heeler mix she's a big dog. I've become attached, but our house isn't big enough for her and she doesn't get outside enough. It's hard to part with her, but we will probably have to. Since it's technically Dave's dog we may return her there, but that is uncertain because of his respiratory illness. If they can't have her back in the house we may have to find a new home for her. I hate the idea of sending her to a shelter because she's very unlikely to have any hope of adoption, being an older dog with medical issues that need regular attention. I wish we could get a bigger place out of town where she would have more space, but, financially, I just don't think we could seriously consider that right now.

Not for profit

Lately, in part because of our experiences with Bear, I've been thinking about ideas for a charity or non-profit group that would promote proper pet care, responsible ownership, and animal (pet) rights. Or perhaps a non-kill non-profit animal shelter. No idea where to start with that, and definately too big of an egg to add to my already overloaded basket already, but it is something I'll keep stewing in the back of my mind...

Kirk Out.

Posted by: lightning at 11:22 | link | comments (2)
life updates

Updates

Well it appears that I have some free time, so I may as well post some updates...

Public Washrooms

To all you homophobes...As a straight man to other straight men who use public washrooms, please stop using stalls to take a leak, that's what urinals are for. What are you, three years old? Nobody is going to walk up and look at your wang, touch your wang, grope your wang, or laugh at your wang. If you're too stupid to piss without getting it on the seat you should not be allowed to use a toilet. After only 4 hours of sleep and 2 1/2 hours on the road this morning, the guy who used the stall in the hospital washroom before me today has no idea how close he came to having me hang a hell of a beating on him for having to wipe his piss off the seat before I could take a crap.

I'm cranky this morning.

I haven't had enough coffee.

Weight Loss/Kickboxing

For the last couple of months Pam and I have been doing the healthy eating thing, actually we've been doing it longer than that, but we've been doing kickboxing classes for a couple months. I've lost 30 pounds and 3 inches on my waist. It's hard to tell as I was already tipping the scales well, well above a healthy weight, but it's a start. Only about 100 more lbs to go =), no really, I need to lose at least 100 more lbs, but I am getting surprisingly flexible and feeling healthier. I also bought a bike which I use to go back and forth to my side job and run local errands. The bike has already paid for itself twice over for savings in gas alone, it's also good for the environment.

New Dishwasha

Pam's brother Kev was over a few weeks ago. We went to rent a movie and saw a dishwasher on the side of the road. Kev being Kev, we had to pick it up and bring it back to my place. Since then I have bought a few parts to convert it from a built in to a portable dishwasher. I also built a wheelie cart in order to facilitate the portabilitiness. I know we'll be using more water and hydro, but I hate dishes, plus I'm using a new dishwashing liquid called "Seventh Generation" that is chemical, bleach, phosphate and anything else free, so it doesn't harm the environment, plus it works great, even better than some big name dishwashing detergents.

The book I cannot take credit for

Awhile back, maybe a year ago I ghost wrote a book for an author. It's finally published. Ghost writing means I write the book for the author, but it is credited to his name. So it's out and available on Amazon now, but I can't publicly take credit for it, but it is out. And I was paid, so all is good.

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in...

It's very, very strange how things work. In the past, I've struggled to make the best of business ventures under my helm, and have since enjoyed the simple process of freelance writing and not being involved with the politics of big business. And for some reason, now that I'm not actively pursuing publishing as a venture it is coming to me. I don't know what to do. I am leary and I would likely never consider anything more than the odd self published book. Also, even my freelnace writing and content providing has been picking up. Weird, I've been too busy to promote myself and chase jobs lately because I'm so far behind and backed up on current assignments thanks to all the personal drama and part-time jobbing of the last few months. Now people are coming to me. It feels weird, but I will not look that gift horse in the mouth as I am much more interested in pursuing my personal endevours than slaving away at a boring retail job. A person close to me has also approached me recently with a very sound business idea, nothing to do with my field, but sound nonetheless. The next few months may prove to be very interesting...first I need to catch up on all my current assignments.

Foie Gras

I saw on the news the other day that Roger Moore is taking a stand against Foie Gras, a delicacy served in restaurants worldwide, but mostly in France and Europe. I had no idea what the hell it was all about. So I looked it up. Although I don't care for Mr. Moore as Bond, I think I do now have to agree with him on his stance against this "Delicacy of Despair". All you really need to know can be found here: http://www.goveg.com/feat/foie/ 

Well.....I forget things faster than I can think of them, so if I have more free time later and remember some more stuff I'll be back.

Kirk Out.

Posted by: lightning at 10:42 | link | comments
life updates