As you can see from the picture of me to the left, I've sort of changed my look. Last summer I shaved my head and had some compliments from the members of the opposite sex that I'd never had before. I know it may sound silly, but I shaved my head again this year hoping that I'd have similar comments coming my way. My boss at Boston Pizza was amused when I told him my reason for shaving my head. Hey, what can I say... It's rare that I get any compliments on my appearance, so if shaving my head makes me look more attractive to some people, the head will be shaved. I let my hair grow back again though over the winter.

As for work, I'm still working at the French high school in Tusket as an after school supervisor and am there for a variety of activities. At present there is a karate class using the school every Monday and Wednesday evening, as well as every Saturday morning. (If you're interested in trying the karate class, click here.) There is also a church group whose name roughly translates to "Growing in Your Faith" that uses the school once a week for two weeks of the month. They do the same thing somewhere in the Clare Municipality in the two weeks that they're not in Tusket. There's also a church choir that practices their singing in the school once a week and there's a Brownie group that just started using the school in the last week of September. The only other activity that takes place on a regular bases is badminton on Thursday nights. For anyone that is interested, it goes from 7 to 9 PM in the school gym, and the cost is $2.00. If you come to play, use the rear entrance to the school, near the gym.

I'm still working at Boston Pizza as a pasta cook, but the hours have been trimmed back a bit lately. I worked just over 60 hours per month in the months of June, July and August, but only worked a little more than 35 hours in all of September. I have been doing a bit more prep work there however and have become more accustomed to cutting mushrooms, onions and a few other vegetables. I've also helped out in panning the pizza dough once it's been mixed and has risen enough. For those of you that know my cousin Paul from high school, he also works there and he and I joke around there a bit.

With the lack of hours between the two jobs, I've been applying for other positions but have not heard from to many. Th'Yarc was looking for an administrative assistant and I had applied for that job. It was nice that I was one of about a dozen people that were interviewed for the position, as I haven't even had interviews for some of the other jobs that I've applied for. Anyway this organization was to send out their notices via mail as to whether the people that were interviewed got the job or not. At some point I had to stop into the office and I was told that I was still in the running, along with 3 other people. It was sort of neat that I'd made it to the top four with that job, as the local Canadian Idol star Dwight d'Eon (from West Pubnico, Yarmouth County) had before he was eliminated.

The latest job that I'd applied for was at the Austrian Inn, as they were looking for a dish washer. The job posting said it was part time, but would be 20 to 50 hours per week. That's definitely better than the 6 to 12 hours that I'm getting now at Boston Pizza. I brought my resume and cover letter to the Austrian Inn, but have not heard anything from them as of yet.

As for my volunteer activities, I'm still involved with the same organizations. The Wedgeport Fire Department has their Firemen's Banquet coming up on November 04, 2007. If any single female friends read this and want to go with me (just as friends), let me know... (LOL) The fire department is also starting with their weekly cribbage nights, come the first Friday in October. They basically have meat cribbage, which means that the prizes that can be won consist of packages of meat. People play in teams of two, and two teams will play at one table, and two teams at another table. The winners at each table will then play each other and whoever wins that game wins the meat. The two losing teams play each other for the aces and have the opportunity to win some cash if they get the aces. Anyone interested in playing is welcome to come to the Wedgeport Firehall any Friday night for 7:30 PM. If you need directions, click here.

As for the pets, they're fine except my mother's dog got it's leg caught in the door as it blew shut on a windy day or something, and it's now walking with a little bit of a limp. My mother wants it to try and heal on it's own before we go and take the dog to the vet. It doesn't seem to be bothering the dog, as she's just as playful as she was before. As for Tyson, he's for the most part fine. I usually keep a collar with a bell on him, and had taken that off for about a week or so. I was in the kitchen one day when I looked outside to find him sitting on the patio with a dead bird. Needless to say, the collar went back on him in the hopes that the birds will hear him coming.

As for the love life, I still don't feel ready to start dating again. Earlier in the summer I had hung around with a 23 year old gal that I used to have a crush on that took part in one of the activities at the school. She wanted to make a calendar to give as a birthday present for a guy friend that has moved to British Columbia. She and I traveled around different parts of Yarmouth and Digby Counties snapping pictures for this calendar. Now I did have a good time hanging around with this gal, but I came to discover that the crush I had on her was no more due to some actions of hers that I disagreed with. (Don't ask for details, as you won't get any. To anyone who reads my blogs, don't expect to find the information there either.)

There's a gal on a free personal ads site that I've used before that I do find attractive and may want to contact. Now maybe it's because of the previous girlfriend's attitude about me working part time jobs only, but I want to have a better employment situation before I go and contact this other gal. This gal looks a little bit like the gal that I helped take the pictures with, but her hair is a little shorter and she's 27 (according to her profile).

After typing the previous paragraph I had a gal that is originally from out of province but is living in the area contact me. I have yet to contact her back, as I was busy dealing with a death in the family. On the last weekend of September my mother's brother Gerald (Boudreau) passed away and it's taken some time for the family to deal with that emotionally due to the unexpectedness of it all. My uncle was a truck driver, and any of my facebook friends can see what was done to his truck for the service in my profile.

As for the rest of the family, my father has been having a little trouble with his heart, as it's only getting 17% (or so) of the required blood for things to work right. In the last week of September he went to Halifax and got some information about being part of a test to have a sort of defibrillator hooked up to his heart to restart things, just in case. Mom's still doing fine, but is also still working more than she may like to.

Near the middle of September, dad was working even more on the bus that he's been trying to convert into a camper. I was curious as to why and came to find out that he and my mother were planning on taking it to Kejimkujik on the Thanksgiving weekend. They had taken the camper to Ellenwood (a local provincial park and campground) a few times over the summer and enjoyed that. Hopefully they'll be able to take the bus/camper to a variety of places they'd want to visit. I know I;d ask to borrow it for when I go camping in New Brunswick, but I'd be nervous driving something that big and don't think it would fit through some of the covered bridges that I've taken my car through. Anyway, here are some images from the bus/camper before they left for Keji.

As for my sister, she and the guy she was seeing have split up. She's now "just friends" with one of the truck drivers that comes in on a weekly basis from Halifax. In the late part of the summer she had gone up to Halifax to visit a friend's mother, with that friend and her daughter. They left on a Friday night and were in Pleasant Lake (near the Little Egypt Road) when her rear window blew out. (See image to the right, taken the next day at the store in Wedgeport.) Some of the glass landed on the baby in the back seat, but the child and everyone else was for the most part okay. As for why the glass broke, it's believed to be due to a problem in the electrical system of the rear window defrost.

As for my summer, I spent some of the summer working, some of the summer volunteering, and some of the summer having a little fun. On the Labour Day weekend I went to Keji (shorter name for the Kejimkujik National Park) and had a good time. My plan was to go up on the Friday afternoon, but it started raining as I was packing some of the stuff into my car. It was a good thing that I had spent the night at home, as it rained like heck that night and I heard that some people in tents were waking up wet and hypothermic on the Saturday morning. Anyway I went up there on the Saturday and had to set up my tent in the overflow camping on account of all the people camping there that weekend. It was alright though, as I'd packed expecting to be in the overflow, where you can't light any fires. Hence I had brought my propane burner and also bought a new propane grill type thing. On the Sunday I went out in the lake in my canoe for about 3 hours and enjoyed that. I saw about a half a dozen deer within a 24 hour time period, including 2 that delayed me in leaving on Monday morning as they were walking (slowly) across the path back from the bathrooms. (I was going to post some pictures, but am having trouble getting them off my new digital camera.) I had to be to work that morning for 10:30 AM, and just made it back to Yarmouth on time.

Well, I'm not sure what else to say in this newsletter. As for the next newsletter, hopefully I'll be able to report on a new job, hopefully something more full time (and daytime). I hope everyone that knows me and reads this has a good fall/autumn, and see you in the winter. Hopefully it won't be to cold this year. Later.