Today saw the release of the list of nominations for the petertweeter awards, an upcoming gala night of fun involving our small city’s busy Twitter community. A core group of cool people came up with the list, and put it out there via the website of rock station The Wolf so the online plugged-in digitarati can vote for their favourite Twitterer in a variety of categories.

Disclaimer: I am a nominee, as are some of my coworkers, my employer and many great friends.

This is a solid celebration of how Twitter works on a local level. You may use Twitter to follow celebrities, or people with shared interests from around the world, or you may use it to have a little fun with people living just down the street. You make of it what you will, and you use it at your leisure, and that’s all it is. It’s all it’s supposed to be.

Tomorrow, I will have to explain all this to my mother.

Vote here.

If you ask nicely, I will do my Werner impression.

At one point, my kids realized the person walking beside them wasn’t me — it was Michael Myers from the Halloween movies. A great moment.

You’ll find it at Buckhorn Berry Farm’s Pumpkin Fest, which has plenty of other fun Halloween things to do, and the best fries in the Kawarthas at Duffer’s chip truck. After the kids have calmed down from the horror barn, they could use some fries.

• (True fact: You can just make up constellations, and kids don’t realize it until much later, if at all. “I don’t think I deserve this F, professor. There is totally a constellation called Kal-El!”)

This weekend, if the weather permits, you can look to the Big Dipper and spot a type A supernova discovered a couple of weeks ago. It’s still in its death throes, so its light will be visible tonight and through the Labour Day weekend if you know where to look.

So you have something you can do this weekend that doesn’t involve wires, screens and buttons. Give it a shot. Look up.

More on this here.

• A note: I love animals. I love dogs. I would love to have one. But I can’t, because my sneezes break windows.
  

Today we saw a building filled with cats and a sign saying there are too many, and the unwanted cat population in our city is at crisis levels. We saw a tiny puppy so terrified after being abused that she shook when I entered the room. And we saw a cool hound dog named Fontaine who looked me in the eye and said “Mister, I would be a pretty amazing dog for you.” He was the only one not barking like a maniac, and the only one who didn’t quake at the sight of me, and I wanted to just take him out of his cage and let him run.

I have this weird ninja superpower that means babies love me, but dogs get upset in my presence. I have never understood it. My neighbour has two boxers, and they go nuts if I even walk past a window while they’re in the yard. Yet strange random babies will crawl into my arms.

This dog was the rare combination of both those things, and came pretty close to coming home with us. But I knew that in the end, because of my allergies, he wouldn’t be able to stay. Or maybe he would, and I would have to sleep in the shed … he was a pretty awesome dog. It was difficult to walk away.

Spay and neuter your animals, people. Take care of them. Love them. And if you aren’t sure you want a dog or cat, don’t adopt one casually, thinking you’ll just get rid of it later if it doesn’t work out. I saw too many of those today.

Despite the good intentions and selfless mission of shelters and their workers, no animal should have to shiver with fear in a cage. When that happens, it’s a person’s fault. Don’t be that person.

Staying cool:

• Drink lots of water and natural fruit juices even if you don’t feel very thirsty. Avoid alcoholic beverages, coffee and cola.
• Avoid going out in the blazing sun or heat when possible. If you must go outside, stay in the shade as much as possible and plan to go out early in the morning or evening when it is cooler.
• Go to air conditioned or cool places such as shopping malls, libraries, community centres or a friend’s place.
• If you don’t have air conditioning, keep shades or drapes drawn and blinds closed on the sunny side of your home, but keep windows slightly open.
• Keep lights off or turned down low.
• Wear loose fitting, light clothing and a wide brimmed hat.
• Take a cool bath or shower periodically or cool down with cool, wet towels.
• Avoid heavy meals and using your oven.
• Avoid intense or moderately intense physical activity.

Symptoms of heat exhaustion include:

• heavy sweating
• muscle cramps
• weakness
• headache
• fainting
• paleness, tiredness
• dizziness, nausea

We’ve lived here four years, and learned to love its odd charm. This is a Victory home, orphaned in a quasi-rural area away from its cousins, and loaded with efficient nooks and crannies, a nifty garage and the biggest back yard possible. It was never meant to be a permanent home, and as we prepare to move on (we get the keys to the new house tomorrow), I would like to look back at the good and the bad.

The bad:

1. That driveway. A snowblower was fun for the first winter. Not so much fun the second. The third was no big deal, as we had no snow. The fourth? the snowblower died (I sold it on Kijiji by claiming it was a battleship anchor). I cleared the runway, sorry, driveway once by hand, and aged a decade in the process.
2. That yard. “I don’t need a rider mower,” I said. “It’s a good workout.” And then I stuck to that sweaty motto for years, dealing with allergies and other health issues (known as Outashapitis) while steadfastly refusing to invest in a big riding mower.
3. Those neighbours. They have always looked at us in our little house as the poor relations, sitting there in their big fancy homes across the road. One of them threw a dead skunk in my yard, and later let his recyclables blow into our ditch in a windstorm and never picked it up. He had his rider mower up for sale and, just to spite him, I said no.
4. Well water. If the power goes out, as it does here all the time, we lose water. I can live without electricity (Lights, stove, TV, Internet, music), but not without water. Also, not without the Internet. I was making that part up.
5. The hill. Have you ever tried to walk or bike to our house? It’s not easy. Sarah tried it once and we had to do CPR. The kids won’t even try. It takes me six minutes to bike downtown, and an hour to get home. “But it’s a good workout,” you say. I would then refer to you to No. 2.

The good:

1. Privacy. Yeah, there are neighbours, but they’re across the road. Nobody lives beside us. This allows us to make kites out of 20×20 tarps and fly the kids around the yard whenever we want.
2. The ’70s rec room. Honestly, if you’ve never been in my rec room, you’ve missed out. Astroturf, wood panelling … when I’m in it, I just want to watch the Partridge Family while having a fondue.
3. Darkness. As a skywatcher, living in a place with no streetlights is a blessing. And as a burglar-basher, I have had plenty of opportunities to use the Big Dawg voice to scare away prowlers.
4. Well water. When it works, it’s the best-tasting drinking water you’ll ever sample. Going back onto city water is not something about which I am excited. Nor is proper grammar, but I do it anyway.
5. The wildlife. This is what I’ll miss the most. The curious fox, the circling hawk, those crows, the turkeys, the rabbits, the skunk, and even the raccoons who hang out in the garage … we are surrounded by nature here, and we’ll lose that. One time, the hawk was eating a dead skunk up in the back 40 and I thought it was a turkey doing some kind of breakdancing, so I walked up to it and was basically told to find my own skunk. Have you ever come face-to-face with a big hungry hawk? Not fun.

But life goes on. And so do we. I will miss this weird little house, but I’m also looking forward to something new. Also, once we’re in the new house, we can walk to Walmart. So there’s that.

I checked Facebook this morning and found a friend request. “Hmm,” I told myself, “who could this be?” See, Facebook friend requests, for me, fall into three distinct categories:

1. Old friends and colleagues from years ago, from cities far away, and far-flung family members who’ve just figured Facebook out;
2. People I encounter in one fashion or another through my work as a journalist and podcaster;
3. Your girlfriend.

Today, however, I was friend-requested by someone I didn’t expect. “Hey, this guy has the same name as the singer from The Godfathers,” I said. “Whoah, wait — this profile picture looks like Peter Gabriel’s cooler kid brother … this might be the real Peter Coyne.”

And it was. For whatever reason, the lead singer of one of my favourite bands from the ’80s and ’90s wants to pal me up on the FB. Now, I have no illusions; I get social media marketing the way you get how I was kidding about your girlfriend, maybe. I know he’s reaching out to his audience. But it’s still a thrill.

Peter Coyne’s sneering, snarling voice got me through many a party night, many a long small-hours drive. The Godfathers were never huge in Canada (or the U.S.), but man, they should have been. Blending post-punk, three-chord riff rock and a little ’billy twang, all while wearing snazz suits, the five-piece U.K. operation put out several no-filler albums that remain pivotal elements of my collection.

So this is my chance to thank Peter Coyne for wanting to look at photos of how fat and grey I am now, while at the same time telling you fine people about a band you probably don’t know, but should. And the timing is right; The Godfathers have a new single, The Outsider, and a new album coming this year, and Coyne is rocking Facebook to promote it. Nicely done, sir.

Birth, School, Work …. Facebook.