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« July 2006 | Main | September 2006 »
In With The New
I'm in my new digs here at TypePad and I have to say, I'm just snug as a bug! Everything was easy to move over, I didn't strain any muscles but I DID still have the mandatory alcoholic beverage that is required after moving day.
So I'll be back to my blogging ways and hopefully much much better now that I've learned a few things.
The last day of the month....but a new day in blogging.
With Permission from Diane Armstrong:
Just got a call from MCTV - a part of the CTV network. They received word today that the film clip on the Postcards for the Troops will air this weekend on "Good Morning Canada". The story is actually 'going National'!!!!! Their theme for Labour Day weekend is going to feature the military and your efforts in this postcard project will be a part of it.
According to my TV guide, Good Morning Canada is on Saturday, from 8 to 10 a.m. EDT, so no matter where you live in Canada, you should be able to see it. I'm so excited and I have all you wonderful, wonderful people to thank for being a part of this worthy effort.
Diane
P.S. I'm also told that on some stations, the programme is repeated on Sunday morning in the same time slot.
Me: "Wow I can't believe everything you got done today. The toilet installed, the railings done on the deck, the garbage to the dump, the door fixed to the furnace room, what was your motivation?"
G: "Because if I die while I'm gone on my fishing trip to Prince Rupert, I don't want it said in my eulogy that I never did get that toilet installed.
Me: "So all it takes for you to get these "To Do" lists done is an expensive fishing trip and the fear you might look bad......when you're dead?"
G: "You're not getting it Joy."
And I probably never will.
Jackpot Joy
This isn't going to be fascinating to anyone but me I'm sure, but I was driving downtown yesterday when I came upon the Greyhound bus depot. 103 Street and 103 Avenue, I remember the address because as a 17 year old I used to have to take 3 City buses to get down there if I wanted to go visit my sister on the weekend. Good old Greyhound, it seemed to stop in every small town there was.
So I'm driving downtown yesterday when I come up to the corner of 103 Street and 103 Avenue and the light turns red. There are LOTS of homeless people down there but one inparticular caught my eye. There, in front of me about 25 yards is a homeless man laying half on the sidewalk and half under the big metal parking fence.
What caught my eye instantly was his feet, but then my eyes started scanning him from top to bottom. He had long very back-combed salt and pepper hair, his face looked very peaceful as he rested his head on a duffel bag that I'm sure held all his worldly posessions. His dirty blue shirt was unbuttoned and I could see his pale skin heaving with every breath he took. He was very thin and I could see the belt that held up his light colored dirt stained jeans.
And then, there it was, what stopped me in the first place.......his socks. He had on the most whitest of white socks. A huge contrast from the rest of him and of course me being me wondered how it was possible that this homeless man, who was laying on the sidewalk, could have socks on that were so perfectly white? Not a trace of dirt on the bottom of his crossed feet and there they laid, on the sidewalk for all the world and God to see.
Normally I carry my camera everywhere with me and I was kicking myself that I had looked at it that morning and thought best not to bring it downtown because I had to park on the street and run in to a few places. What a fascinating interesting picture that would have been!
That's the buzz on this blog today.
With Diane Armstrong's permission:
Where to Begin?
Jimmy Durante once said that the fastest ways to spread news were: Telephone, Telegraph and Tell-a-woman. Now we have the internet!
I'm getting a bit weak in the knees, for I never dreamed there would be such a fantastic response to this project. I may need to enlist the help of the local high school to help pack your postcards! My deepest thanks to you all, for helping to spread the word. You've given me such a warm feeling, knowing that we are ALL going to make so many soldiers aware that the people in Canada are thinking of them this holiday season.
With thanks,
Diane
With Diane Armstrong's permission:
Just an alert that the CTV network should be carrying a story on the "Postcards for the Troops" on their morning show that begins at 8 am on the weekends. It aired on MCTV in Ontario yesterday, and the reporter told me that the story is "definitely going 'national'."
The response has been terrific. I had phone calls last night until after 10, from the 6 pm airing. Thank you all, for your participation in this project - one that has become very dear to my heart, but seems to be taking over my life!
You can start popping your cards in the mail one week from today. Please remind those you've encouraged to participate, that the postcards must be in my hands on or before October 3. That's the deadline set down by the DND - Department of National Defence.
Thanks again for your encouragement and for making those postcards. You are WONDERFUL!
Diane
G: "I thought I would clean the windows while you were out of town for the weekend."
Me: "Hey that sounds like a fantastic idea, they sure could use it."
Skip ahead two days, when 'Me' and 'G' are sitting in the kitchen reading the paper:
Me: "You know, I don't know what it is but I'm looking at the windows and they look better but they still look kinda dirty to me. Did you make sure and change the water alot when you were washing the inside and outside of the windows?"
G: "What are you talking about, I just washed the outside of the windows not the inside."
Jackpot Joy
I sent my husband the URL to my blog two weeks ago to see what he thought about it. Today he called and said....
G: "Hey I got that 'thing' of yours a little while ago and I finally figured out how to get in and see it."
Me: "Oh ya, so what do you think?"
G: "Cool, but how come there's nothing about me in there?"
Me: "I mention you in there."
G: "Well ya, but just in passing. You should tell people how great I am to live with and how I always call you 'Jackpot Joy' because you're so lucky to have married me."
Me: "Uh huh."
G: "Ya, and you should write about how much fun I am and stuff like that. Ya how much fun I am and how lucky you are.
Me: "Sure, I can do that, it'll be fun. As a matter of fact I'll give you your own 'category'. A category is where no one has to go rooting through the entire blog to find things on you.....they can just click on your category and read all about you.
G: "Wow, that's great. I bet they'll like reading about me."
Me: "I bet they will too."
Me:
sar.casm
a way of using words that are the opposite of what you mean in order to be unpleasant to sb or to make fun of them.
G:
naive
lacking experience of life, knowledge or good judgement and willing to believe that people always tell you the truth
Jackpot Joy
We had a bit of a scare here last night, and by scare I mean the "BOO" kind of scare, not anyone in trouble or the house catching on fire kind of scare.
I was downstairs watching a movie and my oldest daughter was upstairs in the office, when all of a sudden we heard coyotes howling. We live out in the country and it's not unusual to hear coyotes......off in the distance......but last night I heard them and thought 'Wow those things are close!'. Then they really started carrying on and talk about déja vu.
My mind went flashing back to a time when me and my sister were about 9 and 10 years old. We would often go for walks in the miles of woods behind our house, sometimes to go exploring and other times just to get away from what was going on at home. We would be gone for hours, and it was a time when no one gave a second thought to two young children being out alone or gone that long.
One particular time we got a bit lost, but had finally made our way back to where we knew the clearing to the back of our yard wasn't too far away. As usual I was yakking away and not paying attention when all of a sudden my sister stopped dead in her tracks. I went a few more steps before realizing she had stopped, and when I looked at her face I knew something was wrong. Funny how after all these years, I can still picture her face. I asked her what was wrong, and she said she thought it might be her imagination but she thought there were coyotes following us. She thought she had noticed one a little while back, but didn't say anything. I just laughed, told her she was crazy and kept walking.
All of a sudden we could both hear the rustling of leaves and stopped again. The sounds seemed to be all around us now, but by this time we were about 100 metres from the clearing to our yard so I wasn't really worried. Then the howling began. I tell you, there is NOTHING in this world to make you break out into a cold sweat than to hear coyotes howling......and all around you. My sister came running by me, grabbed my arm and screamed "Ruuuuuuuun!!". I think we set a record that day in the 100 metre dash.....2 seconds flat. We were screaming and crying and had just come out of the clearing when our two dogs who had left us earlier-on to head back home came barreling towards us barking and snarling like I'd never seen them do before.
Thinking back on it now, there were probably only 5 or 6 coyotes, but when they're howling and you can hear them running behind you, it seems like there are thousands of them. The dogs caught up to us, ran right by and went straight for the coyotes. The coyotes saw the two big dogs and I guess thought this meal wasn't worth it and ran back into the trees with the dogs right on their heels.
By this time, our dad had heard all the commotion and was out in his underwear, black socks, big clunky work boots......and a shot gun up and ready to shoot. All I could think of was dad was going to shoot in his drunken stupor, miss and hit me or my sister. I could see the headlines.....Two Little Girls Barely Escape Coyotes but Shot by Father.
My sister and I talked about that adventure for years!
So last night when the howling started, I thought "Oh oh, are they surrounding something?" Sure enough by the time I got upstairs, it sounded like the dog or maybe even a fox was in a real bad predicament. The yelps and screams were unmistakable and the louder the dog or fox would yelp, the louder the coyotes would howl. I couldn't tell where they were in the yard, because with all the windows open it sounded like they were everywhere. My first thought was for our dog Mushu and if he was outside, but I quickly saw him cowering in a corner of the front room.
My daughter came running out of the office with big round eyes and said in a really loud whisper "Mom they're right outside the office window!" The howling was almost deafening by now and I ran to the switches that turn on all the outside lights. The second I turned on the lights, the howling stopped, the yelping stopped and we could hear them clamouring and scampering down the hill and into the trees.
Mushu came out of his corner and barked as if to say "Oh ya, you better run cause I was just about to get brave and your sorry ass was mine!".
My daughter and I looked at each other and the only thing that came out of our mouths was "Holy Shit!"
That's the 'very long' buzz on this blog today.
Doesn't life just have a way sometimes?
I came on here this morning wondering what I'd write about today, when all of a sudden I hear a familiar thud against the front room window. We've lived here 11 years and I've lost count of how many birds have flown into our front window. That thudding sound is embedded in my brain though.
I got up from the computer and went down to look out the window, and sure enough, there was a little tiny bird amongst the rocks. I found a site on the internet and can't figure out if he's a Pine Warbler or a Finch. I believe it's a finch, and I believe it's a young finch. I also think it's male because of the coloring on it. Of course, I could be completely wrong because I haven't read up on birds......ever.
I never know what to do in situations like this. My first instinct is to make sure it's alive and not too badly hurt. A Blue Jay flew into the window last year and made the most horrible sound when I went out to inspect it. I heard the momma Jay close by calling to it and I think it was the little Jays way of saying "I'M HERE, I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED....AND MY HEAD HURTS!"
So when I stepped outside to inspect this little finch, he tried moving away and I knew he was probably ok. He tucked himself into some rocks and closed his eyes, which scared the bejeebers out of me, but then I decided to leave him along and let him rest. I managed to move some flower leaves so he would be in the shade and figured if he died like that, in that spot, it wouldn't be so bad. Nice and cozy and surrounded by flowers. Better than at the claws of a cat. Well that's what I kept telling myself anyway. No way did I want a dead bird in my front flower bed!
But within 10 minutes, he had opened his eyes, looked around and saw......me.....hovering over top of him taking pictures. Always the shutterbug. I didn't have my tripod which sucks when you're trying to get a shot like I was, but oh well, it probably would have just been something else to scare the crap out of him.
He took one look up at me and bolted out of there before I could say "wait!". Seconds it took him to fly from me to the willow tree about 50 feet away. I thought it would have been cool to get him at the different stages of recovery. His eyes closed, his eyes opened, him stretching and yawning, a nice pose for me, and finally one of him and me together with him thanking me for my hospitality.
Well I can dream can't I??
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