Bye Pop.

I know a lot of people who do the tribute blog after a loved one has passed on. I often find it to be a bit excessive because it's usually a poem, or song lyrics, or some other way to show their artistic flare for conveying grief. This puts me at a loss because last week something monumental happened that i need to write about, if for no other reason than to vent about it.

As I mentioned before last week was the Canadian Federation of Students' national general meeting in Ottawa. I've been to the past three of these and this was to be my forth and final. But after getting there Wednesday my meeting was cut short. Thursday at 5 am I got the phone call I've been dreading my whole life. My Pop had died. I immediately contacted the necessary people to get arrangements to get home and by 8 that night I was on my way back to Newfoundland.

It's a horrible thing to have to say goodbye to someone you love, especially when you don't actually get the chance to say goodbye, but I'm going to keep with what got me through the past weekend and tell you some funny stories about my Pop.

Now, one thing you need to know is that my Nan and Pop had been sleeping in seperate beds by the time I was born. This was Pop's fault. First he would snore so loud he would wake himself up and tell Nan to stop snoring, while she was sat up reading. Then came the final straw. One night he woke up and on the way to the washroom stubbed his toe, or hooked his shorts, or something like that in the bed post. He then cursed (which he did a lot) and got a saw and sawed off the bedpost...I think it was the bed hitting the floor that not only gave Nan a bad back, but also woke her up.

He also had some run ins with the family dog, Perk. He used to take Perk in the woods hunting all the time. One night Perk showed up at the house without Pop. Everyone thought this was a sign something was wrong and a search party was formed. On his way out of the woods Pop met the search party and offered them help finding whoever it was they were looking for, they told him not to worry, because it was him. He then cursed on the dog and chased him with the shotgun. Perk just hid under the table, he was used to it I think.

The dog had to hide again when Pop was learning how to drive. It was the summer of 1969 and my Aunt Pat, who already had her licence, was teaching him. As he went to pull into the driveway Perk jumped in front of the car and Pop swerved to miss him and wound up putting the car through the house. This was happening as Neil Armstrong was about to land on the moon. Nan thought he crashed into the living room. Again, Perk spent the week cowering under the table.

All this happened long before I was born, but luckily for me, I was present for some of his finer moments. Like when he was being admitted into the Health Science Center when I was 10, and the nurse asked him if he had his own teeth, to which he replied yes...
Mom: No you don't, Dad
Pop: Yes I do!
Mom: No Dad, you have false teeth
Pop: Goddammit, I paid for them, they're mine!

He also had this old clunker car that was held together mainly by duct tape and shoestring. This was where I heard him say "fuck" for the first and last time, during which he flipped someone the wrong finger. It was also in this car that he said if he won the 649 jackpot, which was about $25 million at the time he would buy himself a brand new car, and he would give my Mom the clunker. He never won the jackpot, and when he gave up driving he sold the car for $150. With $30 worth of gas in it and four brand new tires.

Now, while you might not find this as funny as I do, I guess you had to know Pop. I did know him, and I'm really glad.

First Notice of AGM

Next week I head to Ottawa for the Canadian Federation of Students annual general meeting, and it got me thinking it it was time for a little policy review. So the plan is that on Friday, June, 2006 the first annual genneral meeting of the {name of group to be determined at AGM} will be taking place at my and Dennis' apartment.

This will be a time for me and the guys to come together and set out policy on the proper way to be a single, male, twenty-something who knows way too much about writing policy.

Please submit any motions for consideration via email to michaelhickey@gmail.com by Wednesday, May 31, 2006. All motions will be posted here to give delegates the opportunity to familiarize themselves prior to the meeting.

Motions served with due notice:
MOTION ACCOM01
D.Rice/C.Mercer
Whereas finding a good apartment in the city is really hard;
Whereas it is especially hard to find one in close proximity to work/school;
Whereas it is near on impossible to find one with really cheap rent; and
Whereas mismanage ment of the situation can result in eviction. Therefore;
Be it resolved that you should not have sex with your landlord's daughter.
Be it further resolved that you should not have sex with any of her friends either.

MOTION BRO01
C.Mercer/M.Hickey
Whereas this organization recognizes the age old creed of "bros before hos";
Whereas you don't want it incite drunken stories of how he hit that first. Therfore;
Be it resolved that you should never hook up with a friend's ex-girlfriend unless two conditions are met:
a) He has a new girlfriend;
b) He says it's cool.
B it further resolved that depending on the level of drunkenness the term "girlfriend" can mean that girl he's making out with at the bar but will never again, and his "saying it's cool" may refer to his not saying it's not cool. But that only counts if you're both drunk.

MOTION BAR01
M.Hickey/B.Stinson
Whereas you never bring a deer carcas on a hunting trip. Therefore;
Be it resolved you never bring a girl downtown with you.
Be it further resolved you especially never bring a date to a wedding.

Well wasn't that just Souper!

Ok, I know it's been a while, but in my defense I moved, and the internet has been sketchy at the new place. But I'm hoping this means I'm back and blogging on a regular basis. It might be sketchy and the "regular basis" might not be as often as it used to be, but it's something.

So here I am, out of the frigging loop. Since I last had contact with the outside world through television or the internet the Flames were up on the Ducks 3 games to 2, and Barney was setting Ted up with a hot paralegal and pretending she was a hooker. I know the Flames blew it, but I need my HIMYM fix. Apparently the matchmaking company has found Ted a girl? I need to know these things people!

I'm not going to go all crazy and try to make up for weeks of internetlessness, but I thought I'd make a post to let everyone know I'm not dead. I had a couple posts done I was waiting to publish, like "FUHaul", and a thing about people whose MSN status is always set to away, but the UHaul rant is from like 3 weeks ago, and Steph Pelley did a post similar to my MSN one on the Snowy Driveway, you should check it out.

Anyway, I'm going to go catch up on some instant messaging, keep checking back.