Addictions

Well good morning!

Sorry I've been away for a while, but it's been a busy few days.

As most of you regular readers know, the wife came home for a three-day break from her studies in Ottawa. She has since returned and I am, once again, alone with the boys. It was wonderful to have her home and terrible to see her leave again. But we will get by.

Enough about that.

I've picked up two addictions recently. I think they're related but I'll leave that to the psychoanalysts and, well, those of you who read this.

The first is Deadliest Catch, a documentary style show about king crab fishing in the Bering Sea. In a nutshell, these guys go out for a very short fishing season (less than a week), literally risking their lives doing a very dangerous job with the hope of a big payoff.

I've been trying to figure out what I love about this show. And I'm pretty sure this is where the psychoanalyst comes in. I love it because it's about some of the things I feel I'm missing in my life right now. A small crew of men, buddies, guys who must depend on one another for their lives and livelihood, working toward a common goal, missing sleep, sharing stress and working their butts off.

With next to no friends in this new town, and a job that involves diaper changes, Lego assembly and playdough with kids under 5, I miss that kind of thing. I think that's why I went and helped my new next door neighbour roof his house. Didn't know him from Adam, but he looked like he needed a hand, there was physical labour involved and we were 10 feet off the ground. Not quite crab fishing, but as close as I could get for now.

The other element, of course, is the gambling. These fishermen can spend the entire sleepless season pulling up nothing, with no payoff. I honestly get excited for them when they bring in a full pot of King Crab. A successful fishing season can net each deckhand upwards of $50,000. Not bad for a week's work, bearing in mind, of course, that, statistically, one or two of them will end up dead each fishing season. Big risk, big reward.

I think if I was about 20 years younger, with no wife and no kids, this is something I would have loved to try.

Anyway, if any of you are interested, there's a Deadliest Catch marathon on this Sunday on the Discovery channel beginning at 7 a.m. and running all day. Check it out.

As for my other addiction, it's the Mafia Wars game on Facebook. Hate to admit that, but I love the game. As expected, it's about building an empire, based on crime of course. It's about making as much money as possible, building businesses and wiping out the competition.

Unfortunately, my "family" is still pretty small, so the bigger families are robbing me blind right now, but I own a deli, a bar, two rental properties, an Italian restaurant, an apartment complex, a Valu-Mart, a marina and an office building. Plans are underway for a 5-Star Hotel, but I need another $8 million.

So these are my escapes. My addictions. And right now I need them. I am doing my best to get Sonwun and Sontoo some outside activity, but it's proving more difficult than I imagined. Preschool is full, swimming lessons are full and I went to the Thompson Public Library yesterday, a Tuesday, at 11 a.m., and it was closed. The bars and liquor stores are open every day, all day, but the library is not. I fear for this city's collective intelligence.

Anyway, mommy's home in 24 days, nine hours and six minutes. Can't wait!