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It was while working at a Nuclear Generating Station in Ontario, Canada that the author met many American contractors who specialized in nuclear contract work within North America.

These men and women jokingly called themselves Nuclear Whores and the website in which they found work was called http://www.roadwhore.com/.

According to the online ‘Urban Dictionary’, a Road Whore is defined as: “A temporary worker from out of town. In engineering and construction, road whores seek out and find massive bonuses, high pay rates, hazardous duty pay, per diem, housing allowances and any form of premium remuneration”.

These new friends taught him the ways of the contractor and he soon began a life as a nuclear contract engineer, moving from project to project around Ontario.

Soon after beginning his life as a nuclear contract worker, the author met and fell in love with a news journalist while doing improvisation at Second City in Toronto.

Three years later they got married. A year after that they gave birth to a son.

Unfortunately their love was short-lived. It ended two years into their marriage while living in Kincardine, Ontario while working under contract at the Bruce Nuclear Facility and she was home with their son.

One day, she packed everything including their son and moved to Oakville leaving the author in Kincardine, all alone.

Like many parents who suddenly find themselves inthis position, the author was surprised when told he was not an equal parent of his 1 year old son, but was what his divorce lawyer referred to as a “Secondary Parent”.

As such, he was not allowed to talk to his son whenever he wanted or to see him whenever he wanted. He had to fight to see his own son, and this took time.Without his boy in his daily life, he couldn’t eat, sleep or work. He was absolutely devastated.

After a few days, he went to his family physician who was immediately concerned for the author’s well‑being. This country doctor suggested a personal remedy of his for overcoming difficult times; he told him to concentrate all his thoughts away from the negativity of the present to the funny, happy stories of his past. He suggested trying to relive these memories, by recollecting them through painting, writing, songs, etc...

So, he wrote.

Each day, he concentrated on one funny, true story from his past. He would think about it for hours at a time, sometimes all day, and then would write it down. It took 42 days for the author’s lawyer to get visitation permission to visit his son in Oakville and in that time he wrote the stories that compile this blog.



Warp 10 to Nerdville



During the honeymoon phase of any relationship I believe the chemistry of the mind slowly changes to turn you into the best partner possible for your mate.

There is nothing more evident of this than in the watching of television shows. You start off watching each other's favourite shows just as a way of spending time together, even if you can’t stand those shows. However, before long, you find yourself becoming a fan in the very shows you used to despise.

This was indeed the case one day when I was watching Melissa's daily dose of, 'Days of our Lives'. I found myself, from out of the blue, yelling to the television screen, "How can it be Shawn's baby?? Oh no! What's Phillip going to do? That Belle is such a bitch!"

Then there was this long awkward pause in our living room.

I slowly turned to face Melissa who was staring at me with her eyes beaming as she held back a laugh.

"You've become a chick! You've become a chick! Oh, this is great!" she said, the happiest I've ever seen her. "Now I've got someone to watch my soap with!"

"Forget that!" I said with a gruff. As soon as the soap was over, I grabbed the remote control to change it to 'Star Trek Voyager'. Being an engineer, watching Star Trek is as close to being back in the womb as you can get.

Melissa sat back with a smile, allowing me to watch what I wanted; simply delighted that she had changed me into a soap loving show watcher.

After a half hour of the episode or so, Melissa yelled out, "This show is so stupid! I can't believe you watch this. Everyone knows warp 14.1 was the maximum speed in the original series but suddenly now it has changed to warp ten. That's just ridiculous! And Paris and Janeway mating and having lizard babies?? That just doesn't make any..."

Melissa suddenly froze, stopping herself halfway through her rant. She realized that she too had changed since we started dating.

I truly loved this moment.

"Well, well, well. It looks like I didn't have to wait for kids to have another nerd in the family. I'm going to get popcorn, let me know if Neelix finds a use for the beryllium crystal he bought".

Melissa let out a long sigh.

"Dear Diary, today I have become a nerd", she quietly said to herself.

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