Monday grumpiness

So, slightly grumpy mood today. First bout of grumpiness came via this story about the end of the recycling program in Nunavut. I won't get into this too much for...personal reasons. I just liked being able to donate our beverage containers to Cathy's school, which they could return and get money to help with programs. Instead, we're just going to add more fuel to the still burning landfill.

Speaking of which, bout #2 came because the wind shifted from the dump fire around 4 pm and I had absolutely no problem smelling or tasting it at work. It was only an hour, but I could certainly feel a headache come on. Then there's this lovely story about how if you feel an ill-effects from the fire, you should move. That's grand and all, but I don't think it's much of a long-term strategy. If the wind shifts and blows directly over town for several days and people start getting sick, well, things are going to get ugly.

I've heard some long-term residents downplay things and make jokes about the old days when dump burnings were a regular occurrence. Perhaps, and maybe I should be made of sturdier stuff, but Iqaluit is going to become a singularly unpleasant pace if the smoke from this fire lingers over the city for weeks on end.

The final bout of grumpiness came from, of all things, eBay auctions.

I acquired a little habit there a couple of years ago of falling deeply in love with comic book art and wanting to own the original pages or sketches from the artists. I gave it up after my bout of unemployment and the realization that I was just going in and grabbing stuff I liked without really having much of a plan on what I wanted to do with it.

However, last week I spotted something I wanted - several pages of original art from one of my favourite series, "Amelia Rules". Among that were a couple of covers. Great, a chance to get some original art and I knew exactly what I was going to do with it...hang it on the wall right in front of where I work on the computer. The prices remained optimistically reasonable and I placed what I considered to be safe and large bids on several pieces I wanted this afternoon shortly before the deadline.

I got outbid on every one of them. By huge amounts in some cases. I was floored. And now quite disappointed. I mean, I'm thrilled Mr. Grownley got a lot of money for his art and part of those proceeds are going to Habitat for Humanity, which is a good cause. Still, it would have been nice to have won at least one of those pieces of art.

Thank God for tonight's Chuck, that's all I have to say, otherwise this evening would have been a total write-off...

Last Five
1. Divorce song - Liz Phair
2. First chance - David Gray
3. Travelling woman - Bat For Lashes
4. Weird divide - The Shins
5. Starting to hurt - Ryan Adams