Battle of the titans

Alex has been hankering for me to meet Kris, an old friend of his, for a couple of years now. He finally got around to having us both over simultaneously. It was tricky to schedule because I was already involved in several plans that accounted for much of my vacation and Kris had to work a lot. However, Alex did eventually manage to find an evening that would be convenient for both of us. As he was staying with Sarah's mom on that day, we agreed to hang out in Guelph.

I told him I'd catch a bus that would get me to Guelph around noon. This bus was scheduled to leave TO at 10:30. It was almost 10:10 by the time I got out of the building. I knew it would be tight but decided not to try using the subway as an expedient since it wasn't a long enough walk to be worth the setup time of actually boarding a subway train. By the time I got to the Greyhound station, there were only 5 minutes left for the bus to depart and it was already in the station so I couldn't count on a delay.

The queue at the ticketing booth did not inspire much confidence either. My first attempt to work around the system failed because the express cash-only booth at the other end of the station was closed. Realizing that I wasn't going to make the bus without resorting to drastic measures, I fell back to my trump card; using all the Jedi mind-control skills I could muster that instant, I convinced each person in the queue to let me ahead of them. I didn't want to deal with the extra minute required to process a credit transaction so I paid or the ticket in cash, thereby obliterating the tiny amount of Canadian currency I possessed.

I boarded the bus less than a minute before it pulled out of the station. The trip itself was uneventful, although I did arrive in Guelph 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Alex and Sarah were late getting there but I killed time by reading while I waited for them. They actually showed up in Sarah's mom's 19-year-old hippie van, which is more an adventure than a form of transportation.

Sarah's mom is currently in the throes of moving to a new house so we helped her move some boxes into the van and she gave us the grand tour of the new place, which is a warren of little rooms, most of which have lovely hardwood floors. Alex, Sarah and I ate lunch at a little place in downtown Guelph, where they took longer to prepare my food than it took me to eat it; and anybody whose watched me eat a social meal can appreciate quite how tardy the service was.

After hanging out at the house for a bit, Alex and I took Sarah's doggie for a walk. He let me hold the leash until my hand got cold. It was the first time I've ever walked a dog. Kris had shown up by the time we returned so he, Alex and I went out for Pizza. Kris is an entertaining guy. We hung out a bit longer once back at the house, although Kris had to leave shortly so I showed my 3D game to Alex, who played it for longer than I've ever seen anybody else do, giving me a few suggestions for improvement in the process.

When everybody else showed up again, Sarah produced the DVD for "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days", which we watched before going to bed. I didn't get much sleep because the heating system kept starting and stopping all night. Oddly enough, however, I wasn't sleepy in the morning. Plus Sarah's mom was nice enough to lend us the car for a while so Alex and Sarah could drop me off directly at Michelle's place in Oakville, since I was supposed to meet up with her that afternoon.