I feel like what I’m coughing up. It’s green and slimy and could be used for carpet glue. I think I caught this at the hospital. I spent Sunday in bed and took yesterday off as a sick day. Yesterday I woke up at 3:45 PM – only 7 hours late for work.

This past weekend was “How to have a baby classes” at the hospital. If they had given those classes about 9 months ago, we wouldn’t be having a baby. If the video and graphics weren’t enough, the nurses descriptions of things that sometimes ("don’t worry, it won’t be you") go wrong would have surely scared us off.

Only 1 in ten babies need surgery of some kind to be born. There were 20 couples there. That means that at least 2 of us would either be having C-sections or some other form of surgery. Only 1 in 20 is born “sunny side up”, and that apparently is worse than a C-section. If your baby is breech, you get a C-section. If you don’t have coverage you share a room with 3 other moms and their babies. I guess in that case you just don’t sleep.

Husbands are encouraged to spend as much time with their wife and baby in the hospital as they can, but no food or place to sleep is provided for them. Moms spend 2 days as a minimum. So I have this image of OHIP families packed into a room with 3 Moms, 3 babies, and 3 Dads stuck sharing one room, all the dads trying to sleep standing up, or in the very hard chairs that hospitals seem to look for to put in their wards. I thank God I went back to school and got a job with good insurance.

So now the debate is whether to take a semi private room which is 2 moms and babies and dads, or get a private room. I think there are good things to be said about a shared room. Making a friend would be good, and there would be a chance for me to escape while LW chats with the other mom. On the other hand, the private rooms are beautiful, and look more like a hotel suite than a hospital room. I think the private bathroom alone makes it worthwhile. This is one of those decisions I leave up to Herself and smile and say yes dear when she makes up her mind.

No matter what she decides, I will end up in the same place. A hard chair beside the bed smiling like a goof. Apparently Dominoes delivers to the maternity ward. So does Kentucky Fried Chicken. I’ve looked into it.

If herself gets sick with whatever I have, I fear for her. I can’t imagine going through labour while choking up green goo and not being able to breathe. Could you imagine what those breathing exercises would sound like? Huh, huh, huh Ackck Hork spit, repeat. She is due in the next 3 to 4 weeks. That means she could go anytime. This morning her throat was scratchy.

After the baby courses, we went out for dinner, and enjoyed the quiet of earth hour. Earth hour and a baby. It makes you think deep thoughts. What will this little guy grow up to? Will the planet he walks on be very different from the one I did? Already so many places I’ve tried to take DD to have changed since I was a kid, and it’s not like it’s been all that long.

I wonder what we’ll catch when we go fishing, or what will be there to catch, and I wonder if we will still be able to plan canoe trips that avoid portages through clear cuts and hunting lodges and power dams. It’s getting harder all the time, and we don’t seem to learn.

Let’s move on to something a little lighter.

Boat launch is coming up. The backyard is covered in water, and the snow is mostly melted. We have spotted a number of spring birds in the area including Robins, purple finches, red-winged blackbirds. The temperature today was convincingly above zero, and more trucks have gone through the lake. Spring has sprung. Yesterday lying in bed I looked up and saw a red tailed hawk perched in the tree next to my window. I could wax poetic about it, but let’s just say that had deep significance to me.

I sent all the gauges off the boat to a place in Buffalo for reconditioning, and they were mailed back to us about a week ago. In order to avoid extra brokerage fees I requested they be sent USPS regular mail, and so far there is no word of their return. I am beginning to wish I had gotten them sent by someone faster. Of course I have to complete other jobs before I get to fix the boat up, but I am growing impatient. I really need to put these gizmos on Iris. Maybe tomorrow I’ll talk about the other jobs I have to do. Maybe I’ll take another sick day.

I have been in toastmasters for a few years now and have been working on delivery and speaking skills. The meetings can be a little corny, and like most community groups suffers from a difficult time in maintaining its volunteer base. Right now I sit on the executive of our local club as both the past-president and the VP of membership since no one else could be found to replace the past VP of membership when he left.

Since I am on the executive, and our club needed representation in the speaking contests that were in the area, I was put in the agenda. I spoke and won, and went on to the next level. Won again. Next level. Won again… Now I am at the District level. A district in Toastmasters can include a load of clubs. In our case it is pretty much all of Ontario with the exception of Ottawa and Windsor. This will be a big crowd. I wonder how I’ll do.

I am in the evaluation competition. In this scenario, you are giving feedback to a speaker. It’s basically a contest to see who can have the speaker feel happiest after they rip apart their speech. You know how after you do something, there is always someone who steps forward and says “I would have…” and as soon as they open their mouth, you know you don’t want to hear the rest? I am being tested on how much they want me to keep talking.

The format is pretty simple. Someone will stand and give a speech. Then I and about 6 other competitors will be given 5 minutes to come up with our critique of the speech. While we deliver, a number of judges will score our abilities, based on things like poise, value of input, positive tone, and so on. The scores are averaged, and the winning evaluator is announced.

I like to turn the whole process on its head by deflecting the whole evaluation process off the speech topics and delivery and looking at the mechanics of what was said, and how the audience was reached. Sometimes the judges respond really well to this, sometimes they don’t. Lately I’ve been on a run of good luck. Then again when you think of it, I’ve beaten out 20 competitors who each beat out 20 other competitors so far, so I can’t be doing too badly.