Program for 1912 Calgary Exhibition and Stampede, front cover (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Two weeks ago, Calgary, home of the Stampede, the world’s biggest rodeo, was inundated by flood waters. If you saw any of the coverage on television or Youtube or if you live there, then you know what it was like. Other nearby communities were also flooded, especially High River, which was hit particularly hard. Four people died and the property damage has been astronomical.
Mayor Neheed Nenshi’s skills as a leader were tested in a big way, and he succeeded in a big way. His calm, common sense approach to all the work that needed to be done established a calm, common sense method for dealing with the situation. As a result, there was very little crime or idiocy and people helped each other wherever and whenever they could. All the first responders and City of Calgary employees knocked themselves out.
Today, Calgary begins its 127th Stampede. The last two weeks have been a hard slog to get ready for it. Some of it had to be scaled back because of water damage, but the show is going ahead, as usual.
Calgary has managed to pull through this disaster with grit, determination, dignity and respect.
The Canada Day Parade making its way along Westminster Avenue in Montreal West (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today is Canada Day – our national holiday. Canada is officially 146 years old.
It’s time for fun, food and fireworks.
I am a very proud, patriotic Canadian and am grateful to have been born in this country. Many, many others are not so lucky and are stuck in some awful place where they have little or no control over their lives, especially the girls and women.
Today I give thanks for the privilege of an accident of birth.
There has been loss of life and the damage to property has been monumental.
Calgary and the other communities are hanging in there, though. Calgary is still planning to go ahead with the Stampede which is due to start two weeks from now.
Makes me feel petty for having whined about my wet basement and also reminds me to be grateful for what I have.
I’m thinking of all of you and wishing you the best.
English: View from the Finley Bridge, looking South toward City Hall and Court of Queen’s Bench. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I was/am a fan of the HBO series The Sopranos, so it was with sadness that I heard of the passing of James Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano, at the age of 51. He was on holidays in Rome and apparently died of a heart attack.
I enjoyed his acting and the series. He employed a deft hand in creating a truly screwed up character; a mass of psychopathic contradictions who could kill with his bare hands one minute and tenderly kiss his daughter on the cheek the next. Tony Soprano transcended the stereotype of the typical mob boss with his fainting spells and his trips to a shrink.
Gandolfini played many other parts, however. He had been on Broadway and most recently had been in Zero Dark Thirty. He was also preparing for a new HBO series.
“Oh How I Hate to Get up in the Morning” (sheet music) page 1 of 3 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Why is it that the morning people dominate the world??? Discriminatory, I say! My rights are being trampled on!!
Night owls of the world arise! You have nothing to lose but your sack time, and that’s already happening! We need respect! We need understanding! We need coffee!
I hate mornings.
I really hate mornings when you’re with someone who’s all perky and bright and chirpy.
They sing at you: La da ti da dahh di da doe mi so la fa dahhh …
That’s what it sounds like to me. Then, because you don’t respond because you can’t understand them, they sing at you again, more loudly this time. It’s like having a gong go off in your head.
And because you aren’t like them, they can get all huffy and defensive and even start viewing you as a lesser species.
A word of advice: it ain’t about you, morning lark.
If you think that there’s no such thing as life after death, you haven’t been to my house and seen me get up in the morning.
M. is the same way. Only worse. He looks the way I feel. Slow. Lumbering. Somambulant.
If you really poke at me, I can start acting like a pissed off velociraptor. A confused one.
Nothing looks right. It’s all so briiiight, and faaast, and loooud. And I hear and see it all in slow motion, no kidding. The lights are on but nobody’s home.
Coffee is my saviour. Without coffee, I wouldn’t wake up until four o’clock in the afternoon. I wouldn’t be able to deal with plumbers, meter readers, letter carriers, work, or breathing.
Coffee bean (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If life operated the way it should, I would go to bed at one o’clock and get up at nine. I would be functioning and contented, if still not fully awake. But our 24/7 world doesn’t allow for this. We have millions of years of evolution screaming at us to go back to bed, especially while that storm is raging outside, but we have to shoehorn ourselves into a work life that our biology hates.
I really sometimes wonder what we’re doing to ourselves. Do you?
So, I’ve been really busy and haven’t had a chance to post for a while. I realized just how busy when I took a look at my last post and saw that I was supposed to give eleven random facts about myself but didn’t. Why eleven? I have no idea, but that didn’t even register when I was doing the post…
All right. I’m digressing again. To finish the last post properly, here are eleven random facts about me:
1. I am fourth-generation former military. My son makes five.
2. I once met George Bush Jr. before he was president and had a chance to talk to him. His wife was nice. He was an idiot.
3. I am “double-jointed,” especially in my hands, elbows and shoulders. My legs used to be the same way but aren’t any more because I’m two seconds away from officially becoming ancient.
4. Every time I have the gall to think that I’ve figured something out, God or the prophets or Murphy (you know, the Murphy’s Law guy) smites me (smotes me?) to make sure that I don’t get above my raisin’.
5. Water follows me everywhere, especially into my basement where it keeps finding new places to drip.
6. I’ve eaten prairie oysters and enjoyed them. For those of you who don’t know, prairie oysters are bulls’ balls.
7. I have a small extra rib on one side, colloquially known as “Adam’s rib.”
8. I like to eat Swiss cheese and pickled beets. Together. I know. It’s weird.
9. I’m half English and half French. This should make me the perfect little Canadian but what it really means is that I can shrug and have a stiff upper lip at the same time.
10. My favourite colour is red. I like lots of other colours, too, but red rules!
11. I am NOT a morning person. I could do a whole post on this one. I hate mornings. They’re just so, so bright, and, and, bright. And I don’t like it when people around me leap out of bed and act all perky … see, there’s a rant coming.
Ramblings from a Mum has passed on a cute game to me and I’m passing it on to others. Hope you have a little fun with this! 🙂
Rules:
1. Post these rules.
2. Post a photo of yourself and eleven random facts about you.
3. Answer the questions given to you in the tagger’s post.
4. Create eleven new questions and tag new people to answer them.
5. Go to their blog/twitter and let them know they’ve been tagged.
Please note that I have to break rule # 2. Can’t post a picture of myself as I would be concerned that my ex-narcissist/husband might find it. Sorry. But I will explain the blue square. I’m sure you’re dying to know.
It’s supposed to be a picture of some clouds taken from above them. That picture actually shows up in bar at the top of the page, but nowhere else. For some reason only known to Zeus and Aphrodite, when I go visiting other blogs it simply shows up as a blue square. And actually in my sidebar, too. Go figure. Anyway, sky and clouds and weather are a big thing for me because I’m a pilot.
So, on to the game!
Here are Rambly’s questions to me:
1. What started you blogging?
I started because I wanted to throw my voice into the growing chorus of warning about the dangers of narcissists.
2. What are your worst and best traits?
Hummm. You just want one of each??? Especially the best traits? 😉
I have many worst traits. One of them is that I have had to really work on creating personal boundaries; in the past people have taken advantage of me.
My best trait is my sense of humour. Sometimes I can be funny. Really.
3. What is your favourite animal and why?
Dogs! Who is ever going to be as unconditional as a dog?
4. Who would you like to meet and why?
Good question. Not sure. Probably Pierre Trudeau. He was a PM of Canada who’s dead now. He was witty, smart, and completely irreverent and arrogant. He had something to be arrogant about, though. Lots of people really disliked him, but no matter what they say, he loved this country.
5. What is your favourite memory?
My most recent one is the day I met M. 🙂
6. If you had the power to change something in the world for the better, what would it be?
Wait a sec … just getting out my Harry Potter wand – oh yeah! I keep forgetting! It’s in laundry. Good chance I’ll never see it again. Well. To the answer. Everyone would have an equal opportunity at education.
7. What country would you like to visit that you haven’t been to?
Australia! No kidding! Have always wanted to visit! 🙂
8. If you could invent something, what would it be?
A yard work robot/machine/whatever. Something that will do yard work for me. I HATE yard work.
9. Who inspires me?
There have been many inspirations. M inspires me. A colleague inspires me. Seeing people give of themselves inspires me.
Happy..Happy.. Mother’s Day :-).. (Photo credit: Thai Jasmine (Smile..smile…Smile..))
So it’s Mother’s Day tomorrow and all you procrastinators and excuse-ridden forgetful people who are too lazy to get out of their own way better rush out and get a card, some flowers – even if you have to steal them from someone else’s yard – and then make your lunch reservations.
Lunch reservations?
Fuuuuck!
Probably too late for that now!
Now what are you to do? Standing there with a card that used to say “Happy Birthday” and to which you’ve applied a liberal amount of Wite-Out while your stolen flowers droop for lack of water and and your face resembles that of a robber’s horse?
Hah! I guess you’re just going to have to make the best of it and do what we used to do years ago before the commercialization of everything under the sun, including Hang-Nail Day. Ohhh, wait a minute. I think they forgot that one.
Nevertheless.
Here’s what we used to do – and I would do now if I still had my mom:
1. Make a card. When we were kids we used to make these really goofy-looking cards that were supposed to be endearing during the Friday afternoon art class before Mother’s Day Sunday. After my mom passed away, I discovered that she had kept a whole stack of these from me and my siblings. It’s not hard to go find a craft store, get a few simple supplies and make something that’s much better than you can buy.
2. Grow some flowers. Kidding. Actually, I did do this a couple of times when I was a child but I got the idea back in February. However. If your mom is into flowers or gardening, you could buy a plant that will bloom later in the season. In this hemisphere, our greenhouses are all just getting going and there’s lots of choice. There might even be plants available that have some blooms on them already. And don’t buy those tacky ones that they sell in the grocery store.
3. Make lunch. Or dinner. OH. MY. GOD. Make dinner? But I burn water, you scream silently to yourself. Don’t stress. If necessary, you can always buy something ready-made and just heat it up. Remember, the whole idea is for your mom to have a day off. And be sure to do all the clean-up. She’ll probably appreciate that more than anything else.
4. Last but not least. If all else fails, go to your mom’s place and do her cleaning or her yard work or her laundry for her. I don’t think that there could be a better present.
Happy Mother’s Day, moms, stepmoms, and all you people who have endeavoured to raise us and give us a good life!
In the Net! - Pictures and Stories of Life 