The week that was (rather annoying)

I had an ok week, but there seemed to be more than an average number of items that got to me - but fortunately they gave me some nice juicy things to write about. The noisy young dude on the subway. You know the type, that cocky attitude that will get him beat up when he's younger, but will ultimately give him the chutzpah to be massively successful in the business world. Aviator glasses; whiny and piercing voice; Gabe Kotter do; plus 4 annoying friends who thinks he's hilarious and agree with everything he has to say. Oh, come on.

The electric guitar busker at Yonge and Eglinton. Hey, I love music, but I do have a limit and this guy's way over the line. The dude's trying to do one long guitar solos at a blaring volume. I like some good heavy rock and metal as good as the next guy, but I don't recognize anything this guy's is trying to play. Dude.

Tax forms. I'm not a great money man, but I don't mind manually filling out my tax form every year (actually there seems to be something rather comforting about the old fashioned way of doing your taxes - rough copy with a pencil a calculator and some intricate instructions). But when I get to an unfamiliar section and venture down a hopeful path of new found refund discovery and then find out that your net income is to be subtracted from the promising sub-total. Result: a big fat zero, agh, that's pretty annoying. Couldn't they give me a clue upfront that a person making a reasonable income shouldn't even bother with the section ?

Survivor. Note that my current domestic contract does not permit me to elaborate.

A hair on my sandwich. What can I say, I was hungry and I know if I'd made a big fuss about it, nothing would change. Side note - while I was eating said sandwich, one of the "sandwich preparation team" snuck up on me as she was trying to clean the window sill and touched me leg - quite a surprise. Nice eventful lunch break eh ?

People who drive less than 8 blocks to work. And I'm assuming the person is able bodied and has enough time to get a little exercise and enjoy their neighbourhood. However, I obviously can't assume they're paying attention to, or care about, any of the environmental topics smothering the media today.

The Toronto Blue Jays. A bumped into a buddy of mine the other day and he said he was looking forward to having a quiet night in and catching the Jay's game. Ahem, NHL, NBA playoffs ! But the one that put this annoyance in the list is the story of a two recent autograph signing events. Last week I was overjoyed to meet my favourite Toronto FC lad Danny Dichio at the opening of the new Adidas store at Yonge and Dundas. He was there with two other teammates (who I'm embarrassed to say, I didn't recognize) and no one else was there asking for autographs. Not only did I get 2 nice personalized autograph cards for my son and I, but I had the luxury of having a chat - I could have had time to have a beer with the guys ! Compare that to the site of hundreds of people lined up in Sears by my office to get an autograph from Matt Stairs a few days later. (No I didn't know who he was either, I had to ask the security guard). Hundreds ! Zan says it was because of better marketing. Another mate said it was because all the TFC fans have jobs.

Escalators under a constant state of "proactive maintenance". The worst one is at my subway stop - Yonge and Eglinton (photo below shot this morning). I don't think they've had both escalators running for a year now ! But there are many more around the city that just choke the regular flow of the growing commuter foot traffic in this fine city.

I'm not sure where Jenny Yellow Top is trying to go !

The ankle. Ok, I am now back as a functional member of the walking humans club, but I'm far from being game shape for ultimate. My physio says I'm probably overdoing it. He's probably right - ultimate practice on Tuesday, a little footy with the kids yesterday, three 2km+ runs last week, a few hoops and lots of downtown walking.

Losing stuff. In this case, a windows folder called "demos". You can image it had a lot of valuable stuff in it. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how I'd deleted it. But it was gone ! I went about my business with that horrible nagging feeling of "you-idiot" with me for about 6 hours until I finally found an old (February) backup. Backup your valuable computer data people !

But to end on a nice note, I walked into my lovely office this morning to find a nice potted hyacinth on my desk for Mother's Day. As Zan just said, a thoughtful touch for the forgetful Dad (not that I'm one of those). Yes, I brought it home !