New Year's Day, 2010

I've had a quiet but industrious start to the new year. I've cleaned my place, all but the floors, in anticipation of my next couch surfer, Renan, a 19-yr old Brazilian, who will arrive tomorrow morning just after 10 am.

I have also completed the 200-piece tulip window for Germen, the first of two, which involved completing the soldering of the second side of the second half, cleaning and adding copper patina to discolour the solder, soldering the two halves together and cutting and attaching a frame around the entire window to give it more strength.
The attached picture is awful, I know. This wet day is almost without daylight and the only place I could photograph it was on my window sill partially obscured by another window that is hanging in front of the upper right corner.

The past day has been quiet. There were few calls at work yesterday, but management no longer lets some of us go on New Year's and Christmas eves as it once used to. I had been invited to spend last evening at Aunty Tinkerbell's but I declined. He had half a dozen other friends or more in his crowded bachelor apartment over for dinner. Actually, he led them across the street to buy dinner at the Urban Fare cafeteria (right before it closed at 6) and haul it back to his place where they spent the evening watching a Hugh Jackman song and dance show on TV. I feigned not feeling well, knowing his place would be too crowded for comfort, knowing his furniture was too low to easily get out of and knowing I would have to struggle up the steep hill back to my place through streets filled with rain, hooligans and drunk drivers. I didn't feel like watching TV either.

I did go out to the Fountainhead briefly, to have a dinner and watch the Canucks lose. There was no air of celebration in the pub, no special plans for the New Year's as they were closing at 11. I hoped to run into Kal, who said he would likely end up there, but he wasn't there. I left before the game was officially over.

The steady rain did not seem to deter the revelers on the streets last night, with their amazing lungs. (Opera singers should not be allowed to drink!) Around 1 am I put on a CD I recently recorded of the Waterboys to drown them out, and I drifted off to sleep.

I haven't been out today. My sister had planned to bring one of her best friends to see me and my place full of stained glass artwork. Janice, her friend, is the sister of my former best friend, Brian, when I was going through puberty. She has been eager to meet me again after 30 years, sis says, but sis has terrible back pain today and can't make the drive. Janice will have to wait a little longer. She doesn't talk to Brian anymore. She tells Linda he has become a stereotypical homophobic redneck fireman. I had quite the opposite impression of him when I met him and his family in 1990. He asked me if it was OK that he was straight, if we could still be friends, which was very cute, but he didn't return my calls after I moved back here in 1996.

Stephen C canceled his New Year's Day levee planned for today due to lack of interest, although I had responding that I was coming. I had already bought the food but I guess it will be part of tonight's dinner.

"Leo", Stephen C's Vietnamese friend living in Saskatoon, arrived in town last night. We still haven't met but he will be staying with me next week after Renan leaves. He called around noon but wasn't available to visit me. At least he isn't calling me 3 or 4 times per day and asking me relationship-oriented questions, then challenging me when I didn't give him the answers his ideal lover should. I suspect he's going to be high maintenance. Wouldn't be so bad if he was cuter, but I was on the verge of telling him to find accommodation elsewhere.

I am in a fine mood overall, in spite of weather and cancellations. I have made it all the way from August 6 to the end of the year without a fall. I am on Day 148 and (still) counting.