Oh Yeah, I'm A Celebrity Now

Know how I know? 

Cause a guy asked me in the hallway of my office if I was that snowblower guy.  I admitted that I was, in fact, The Snowblower Guy (note the capitals and the use of "The" instead of "that" - it makes a difference).  He said "Oh yeah, that was pretty funny."  I could tell he was impressed and was barely keeping the urge to ask me for a picture and an autograph in check.  It had to be overwhelming because he walked away. 

You know what else happened?  CUPCAKES.

These are the cupcakes I'm referring to

That's right, I totally got swag!  

Okay, sure, they were from a friend of mine.  And they were kind of for the team.  But he sent them over to me!  But you know what?  I'm taking it!  A big thanks to Karen and John at The Cake Box for hooking us up.  See that Cookies and Cream - second from the left at the bottom - yeah, that one? That was mine.  ALL MINE!  Except for the half that my lovely wife ate.  She's always thinking about my health, so she offered to eat half of it so I could maintain my awesome physique.

The Snowblower Ad took another leap today as the news broke in Australia, the one country I'm sure we can all agree colder and with more snow than Canada. Greetings to everyone in Australia!  Everyone, that is, except for Greg, who is kind of a jerk (but that's not news to anyone, am I right?).

I thought I might break 50,000 links from Facebook by the end of the day, but instead I now have 51,453 so that's just another example of me under-estimating the Internet).  There are 385,583 views on it right now.  Which is a number so awesome I took a screenshot.

If you type it into a calculator and turn it upside down it says "EBSSBE"

Tomorrow will be a sad day for me.  I shall bid a fond farewell to my trusty snowblower.  As a parent - or a prospective parent who doesn't always call his cats "the kids" but sometimes does - you always hope that your children will grow up and leave the house someday, but you're never ready for that moment when it comes.  

Maybe it's their first day of school, or when you walk them down the aisle, or the day that you sell them to someone else because you don't want them anymore.  Whatever it is, you can't help but think back to that day you brought them home from the hospital in a bassinet or from Home Depot in the back of your brother's truck.  So innocent, so full of mystery and wonder.  What will they eat?  How do I change the oil?  Will I find good child care?  Will it eat my leg if I get too close?  The only difference is there's only one exit zone on a snowblower that stuff usually comes flying out of.

Yes, there are lots of memories.  That snowblower treated me pretty well, and I'd like to think I returned the favour.  Sure it sat, ignored and unneeded at the back of the shed for 8 months a year (insert your own "snow's all year" joke here).  And yes, the only times that I ever took it out, the weather was always bad.  But when the weather was -35 C, and the snow was so deep that I had to dig down to the doors of the shed just to get it out, it started first try and was anxious to work.  

It sounds like I was kind of a jerk (but I'm no Greg from Australia), but I was trying to help it build character!  On the other hand, if you spent 99% of your life in a dark, 5x9 room that froze in the winter and was sweltering in the summer, you'd probably do anything to get out too.  Maybe this is more like the Shawshank Redemption, only without narration by Morgan Freeman.  

Now THAT would make my ad truly epic.