On my continued report of 2006, I’ll say that the second week ended with a bit of a bump. I was sitting at home on Friday evening and around 8:20PM my telephone rings… It was my wife, stating she had just been in a car accident.

I jumped up off the couch, wrestled with trying to get a stubborn sock on my foot and sped off to the intersection she gave me to make sure everything was OK. Upon arrival a spectator filled me in on what she saw happen… my wife was in the middle of the road turning left and clearing the intersection on a yellow light, when another car tried to make it through the yellow / red light. It just so happens that the car that tried to beat the light was a female off-duty OPP officer, who we’re told is a sweet-heart.

This unfortunate accident resulted in both parties being charged. Karla got “Left turn – fail to afford reasonable opportunity to avoid collision” which is a $110 fine and 4 points. We’re still thinking about whether to fight this in court or not, because the fact is that Karla did nothing wrong, she did exactly what she was supposed to do.

All in all, Karla’s poor new Yellow Saturn is pretty much destroyed and we’re waiting to hear from the insurance company as to what the verdict is as to whether it is a write-off or not.

We’re just so lucky that both Karla and Tanya are OK and I’ll definitely be giving updates on this as they happen. I’m especially interested in blogging about dealing with an insurance company for the first time. We have all of our insurance through State Farm and have always been happy dealing with our local office, this should be a good test of their system.

Experience Log with State Farm:

[-] Small Issue:
My local office wasn’t open on the weekend so I had to wait until today to talk to them. We could have filed the claim with the 24 hour toll-free number, but I’d rather talk to my local people.

[+] Positive:
First thing Monday morning I was speaking with my local office and they got everything started for me right away. They asked a few questions and said I should expect a call shortly from a claims officer. I was called within an hour and the lady setup a rental car for my wife, and contacted the garage where the car was towed. Easy as pie thus far.

After not blogging much over the Holidays this year I have a few important life-notes to blog about today. Two Thousand and Six has started out with a major up and down, and staying true to chronological order I’ll start with the bad before the good.

.: The Bad News :.
On January 2nd, 2006 my Grandmother passed away in the hospital after falling ill two weeks prior. I miss her already and wish I would have spent more time with her and called her on the telephone just a bit more often. Human nature I guess, to need something tragic to happen before realizing what you’re missing.

My wife and I left for Richmond, Quebec at the end of last week to attend my Grandmothers visitation, funeral and burial. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to be there and shake hands with the the few hundred people that showed up at the visitation. Many of them told a few stories of how they knew and will remember her and everyone paid their respects. The funeral service was short but powerful and finally the burial took place a top a snow covered cemetery in Ulverton, Quebec where she was laid to rest beside my Grandfather who passed away 12 years earlier.

I will always remember and cherish the times throughout my life I have spent with my Grandmother Simpson and I thank her for all my great memories. I would also like to thank my wife, Karla Simpson, for all of her incredible love and support during this difficult time. Karla; you are an amazing person and great to me and I love you with all my heart.

.: The Good News :.
On January 2nd, 2006 a long time friend (and ex-girlfriend actually) Cassie, asked me to be her “Man-of-honour” in her wedding this summer. She actually called me only a few hours after I had found out my grandmother had passed away, so I was sort of at a low-point, a bit confused at first, but delighted none-the-less. After I had a few minutes to let everything sink in I realized what an honour had been bestowed upon me… I don’t know any other weddings who have had a man standing up with the bride. I only had two small reservations before agreeing to the title.

1. No matter how cute I’d look, I would not be wearing a dress / skirt of any sorts to the wedding.
2. I will not be accompanying her to a male strip clubs at any time for her bachelorette party or any other event.

After both conditions where agreed to with a few laughs, I accepted and I am really looking forward to to accompanying her on her wedding day, August 5th, 2006.

A bit of history behind Cassie… she’s an army brat that moved around a lot when she was younger. I met her through another really good friend of mine, Kevin Hogan, while he was dating her during our first year of high-school. After Kev and her broke up, Cassie and I briefly dated for a few months and then called it quits before she moved away. After she moved, we always kept in touch, keeping each other up to date on our lives, friends, family, etc. I have always found it interesting to hear Cassie grow up over the past 10 years and see her settle down with her fiance John, who from what I know, is a really nice guy and perfect match for Cassie’ personality.

Thank-you Cassie and John for the opportunity, I’m looking forward to seeing you both again soon.

This topic just does not want to die and I need to blog about it to get the anger out of my system.

Every year, the same group of idiotic wanna-be Christian enthusiasts whine and complain that more and more people are not saying “Merry Christmas”, but instead are saying “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings”. As far as I can tell, their argument has always been “It’s Christmas time, stop taking Christ out of Christmas. This is the time of year that we celebrate the baby Jesus…”, and so on and so forth.
Continue Reading…

Last night my wife and I along with a friend (Greg) went out to Moxie’s for a good dinner and a beer. I can’t seem to get enough of their ranch-house chicken burger, spicy fries and basel mayo dip. Yum. Either way, while I was attempting to eat the yummy yummy fries, my teeth for whatever reason got angry at my tongue and attacked. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve bitten my lip / cheek / tongue before, but damn, this time there is actually a chunk out of the side of my tongue causing me constant pain and slurring of words.

So my two-bit piece of advice for the day: chew slowly and keep your tongue away from your teeth. Teeth aren’t always friendly, they will turn on you and attack without warning.

Best Regards,
Matt Simpson

So I was sitting here at work listening to music, working on some database stuff during the first major snow fall of 2005, when all of a sudden I hear what sounds like thunder. I quickly shrugged it off as a snow plow and went back to work. A couple minutes later our administrative assistant comes in and says “Did you hear the thunder?”, to which I replied, “It can’t thunder during I snow storm, it was a snow plow.” We both looked out the window and saw the roads were still snowy but I didn’t think anymore about it until I heard it again (this time the music was off). It rumbled and rumbled and rumbled. So of course what do I do? I jump on the net (I actually went to Ask Jeeves first because sometimes Google doesn’t answer questions that well). Sure enough I see “Thundersnow”. Can you believe it? Who would-a thought.

Morale of the story: To save yourself from looking like an ass by saying it can’t thunder when it’s snowing, learn about weather phenomena like Thundersnow.

Best Regards,
Matt Simpson