This little guy, Valentino, was born at about 8.20 a.m. on Monday 21st of May. He’s the latest addition to our little herd.

“Wormsign!”

We had some wild weather in Waterloo Region yesterday. I love it. Nature is awesome and breathtaking. I pulled into the Futureshop parking lot on my way home, to get a refund for the piece of shit webcam my Dad and I bought, that’s when the hail started. It was big, and sounded like somebody was throwing buckets of marbles onto the roof of my car. It got heavier, the sky became darker, the noise became deafening, and I was sure that my car would look like a golfball when it was all over, my only consolation being that so would everyone elses’ cars.

The hail eased off, then stopped. I was about to get out of the car when I heard bigger bangs, more intermittent than the hail. There was big jagged chunks of ice falling from the sky. Bloody hell, it sounded like somebody was taking a hammer to the roof of my car, and I thought I’d lose the windshield. I was thrilled and a little worried too. That kind of hail is a sign of tornado activity. Our house is close to Waterloo Region’s “tornado alley”.

When I’d obtained my refund, I headed in the direction of home. Up 85 to 86. As soon as I’d turned left from 85 onto Listowel Road, the sky ahead of me was as dark as night, with a big, nasty cloud formation. Lightning forked from the cloud every second. as I drove along 86 toward Listowel it was dark, with rain like a solid wall of water, and strong winds blowing the car about. Luckily it’s a Jeep and it’s heavy. The lightning was the most frightnening part. Flash! Flash! Flash! One after another. I was getting worried about everyone at home.

As I passed Dorking it eased up, and by the time I turned at Club 86 it was gone. The system headed toward Arthur and Fergus, I think. That was one scary drive home.

Our Alpacas went off to be sheared on Monday and Tuesday. We had to round them up, get them into the barn, put halters on the three brown ones, then get them out of the barn and into the van. Sounds simple.

They were very stressed, and bucked about a lot. I held onto the haltered ones while the others were having theirs put on. There was lots of squealing and pitiful crying. Poor things were very frightened, and did a lot of jumping and pulling on the lead. We got the two younger ones into the van, but the older one didn’t want any of it and plopped herself down on the ground. She’s got some mule genes in here somewhere. Once they were all in the van I had to head off to work while Darlene and Lee went to the Mill for the shearing.

We did it all again the next day with the white ones, two of which are heavily pregnant.

Over at the mill it was very hectic. Lots of people there to hold the alpacas while they were sheared, then to sort the fleece.

20 years

Originally uploaded by marksmullen.

What a difference 20 years can make.

I’m depressed. The symptoms are all there for me to see, I recognize them well enough, and I take the medication, but that doesn’t stop me being depressed. Some might say that I don’t have much to be depressed about, and maybe not, but from my point of view, in my world, I’m still depressed. There’s the usual stuff. Money. Being broke, and all that entails. Illness in the family, and all of the worry that brings.

Then there’s the other stuff which might be both the partial cause and effect of the depression. Dissatisfaction with work. Disillusionment with the world. Wanting my friends and family to be closer. I think that depression feeds off of other peoples’ depressions too. There are people at work who are fed up, tired, pissed off and depressed.

I look forward to getting home, seeing Darlene and the Alpacas. My parents are visiting, and I look forward to seeing them. I don’t look forward to going to work, for many reasons. And now I should get my nose to the grindstone and do some of that work.

I picked up the parents at the airport on Saturday. Airports are interesting places. There’s all kinds of people waiting for their friends and family. All human life, and all that. When I watched the people come through the doors from arrivals I wondered about their stories. Where had they been, and what did they do? Did they have a good time, are they glad to be home?

The parents looked a little tired from their trip. My dad had taken his medication twice before boarding, my brother said he looked like he’d just had 10 pints. He didn’t think they’d board him, but they did. I drove home and installed the parents in the guest room, they were fed and watered and happy to be on the ground.

We’re expecting one of our Alpacas, Gertie, to have her baby any day now. Usually they like to give birth during daylight, while it’s warm(ish) and sunny. Any day now… waiting on updates from home while I’m at work. Baby Alpacas are too cute to put into words. All legs, neck and eyes. Sort of like a furry baby Giraffe.

In other interesting news, I had a phone call at work from a recruiter who found my resume on Workopolis. He’s interested in putting me in touch with his client, an agency in Guelph specializing in pharma work. Could be interesting, what have I got to lose? It’s worth seeing what they’re offering. I have another iron in the fire, which I’m hoping will come to fruition soon (that’s quite a mixed metaphor). A situation that would suite me and my home situation perfectly.

Last night I updated my resumé on Workopolis, and applied for a graphics job at RIM. I don’t expect anything to come of it, but it’s the first step in getting a job where I can do some proper design work, and no be just use my 18 years of experience cleaning up PowerPoint presentations, resizing other people’s designs, and cleaning up badly executed artwork files.

There is another option, but I have to be prepared for that opportunity to fall through. It’s good to be prepared.

This means I’m going to have to get some web space and put my portfolio back online. I can’t really afford that kind of money right now, but I suppose it’s important.

I just asked for some time off, which is long overdue, next week or the week after that. My boss declined, saying that *******, the junior freelancer, will be away for three weeks, and maybe I can take a day here or there.

That really pisses me off. I’ve taken “a few days here and there” since last April, I’m due some time off. My parents are flying in and I’d like to hang around with them for at least a week without working, otherwise I’ll only see them in the evenings all during their visit.

Shit. That really pisses me off.

I was sitting out with the Alpacas this morning, watching as Adama (not quite 1 year old) was bothering Hannibal (not quite 2 years old) causing him to make wookie noises at him, and eventually bite Adama’s fleece as a warning. Adama is just a kid, so he keeps on bothing Hannibal, who is a teenager, and eventually Hannibal gets really annoyed and starts posturing and they both end up chest butting. We put Adama back in with his playmate, Delilah, and the other females. He was as happy as a nerd in an Apple store.

Two of my Toronto-gal friends came out to visit, Denise and Fatima. Fatima brought her two rabbits, Bunny-Stu (get it?) and As-Yet-Unnamed for some country air. We chatted, drank tea, and then got to putting up the new shed as a temporary shelter for the boy Alpacas.

The instructions were written by a linguistic sadist, or else orignally in Chinese and translated into English. Denise was able to make make sense of them, me, I was totally stumped. Give me visual instructions – diagrams and such – and I’m set, because that’s how my brain works.

With much confusion we got the base and the floor assembled, only to find out that the floor covering isn’t included, so off I went with my measurements to Home Despot to get some plywood. When I got back I screwed it into place and it was snug as a bug in a rug. Not bad considering I’m totally ham fisted when it comes to tools and renovations and stuff like that.

I ended up getting sunburned, because as is usual with the first really warm weather of the year I didn’t think the sun would be that strong. Now my arms are bright pink on top and pale blue underneath. My face looks like I’m about to bust a blood vessel, and my scalp is senstive too. Dumbass. I should have worn a hat and used sunscreen.

Hannibal

Originally uploaded by marksmullen.

Our mulitple award winning “macho” (young male) Alpaca. What a guy.