A week ago, this river, jammed with ice and swollen by a massive rain and snow storm, burst its banks. The muddy-looking chunks toward the left are actually the leftover pieces of some of the enormous ice pans that clogged the river.
The river is still unusually high, but no longer a threatening behemoth.
Happy Saturday.
The Raptors just won against Philadelphia and have earned a trip home to play them again in game six on Thursday.
Chris Boucher, a talented young man from Montréal, is helping his team to get there.
Go Raptors! 🏀
In this time of turbulent uncertainty, where we once again see a military behemoth threatening a much smaller, peaceful country, we sometimes need to remember what we have and what we can give.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahead_by_a_Century
I think this iconic Canadian song from The Tragically Hip encapsulates that idea. It’s a song with a broad sweep as it weaves together past, present and future. It is about time, memory, loss, disappointment and desire, but it’s also about Canada’s identity and the politics of hope. Generally, it’s song in which we’re asked to drop what holds us back, and to imagine a future unharnessed by personal drawbacks.
Most of all, we’re urged to rethink the present, and to imagine a more generous and accepting future that should not be ahead of us by a century.
It’s very sad that we lost Gord Downie so early, but he and his band mates gifted us with an incredible body of heartfelt, lyrically beautiful music; this song in particular. It’s a huge reminder of all our advantages and why it’s necessary to help a friend who’s fighting a massive, vicious bully.
Glory to Ukraine. 🇺🇦
I found Togetherness in a Penticton park.
Given world events, we can all do with some of that right now.
Happy mid-week.
Today is St Patrick’s Day, and although I don’t have any Irish antecedents, my husband does. He, in fact, is half Irish.
I don’t really understand why St Patrick’s Day has become so popular (is it the green beer? the riddance of green snakes?), but since I’m a half French frog, I do understand the green background and that it confers a certain ability to stand up to the preconceived notions of others.
So here’s to the Irish! May they live as long as they want, and never want as long as they live.
… forward, that is. I find it unbelievably irritating and totally unnecessary. But what is probably a lot more irritating is that although politicians are listening to complaints about their time meddling, it’s only on their terms. Why? Because they want to nail it down to daylight “savings.”
Is it just me or is that totally thoughtless? Daylight “savings”? In December? The sun won’t peek over the horizon until 9 or 10 am. Apparently politicians don’t understand this concept. And summer? Try sending your kids to bed at 2 a.m., especially if you live anywhere northish. Yikes.
I want standard time. All year. Permanent daylight “savings” will feel like we are in the wrong time zone for most of the year and will affect our health. But apparently, daylight “savings” is supposed to be good for late shopping, so I guess that’s the only thing that matters. We’re just supposed to bow down and accept whatever is best for the God of Commercial Consumption.
What do you think?
You are facing gargantuan odds against the greedy Putinesque determination to have you, to take you, to force you against your will, and that is now threatening the use of nuclear weapons.
But you have united fiercely against him and are holding out. There’s not much I can practically do for you, but today I am making a donation to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. It’s how I can help.
With all my heart I wish you well. You have the support of huge chunks of the world. Sanctions are taking effect, and even many of Putin’s own citizens don’t support his actions. His oligarchs are becoming worried about their bank accounts. Maybe it will be enough. I hope it is.
Good luck.
Dear readers, if you are interested in learning how you can help, here is an article with suggestions. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-how-to-help-ukraine-canada/
… you were able to embrace your inner two (but not your inner tube).
Regardless of all the twos, a picture of a bear pair seems appropriate.
Happy non-twos day. 😉
Valentine’s Day can be a cute, lighthearted day, but I don’t like what has become of it. When I was in elementary school, it was fun to make cards, colour hearts and take them home for friends and family. There would likely be a few heart-shaped chocolates or a heart-shaped cake for dessert. It was a low-key, fun day.
Now, advertisers try to make us feel like moral degenerates if we don’t buy flowers, chocolates, restaurant meals and some sort of sexy present for our significant other, if we have one. It’s sort of, spend money, and spend THIS way, otherwise you don’t care about or love your people.
My M and I disagree. We don’t believe in giving special attention on just one day; we try to show it every day. We avoid going to restaurants or buying gifts for Valentine’s Day; the commercial demand that we celebrate in an “appropriate” way by spending money in a super-busy restaurant with over-worked staff who are serving up limp meals is not something on which we’re willing to spend money.
We would much rather go at a time of our choosing and really enjoy it. Give flowers at any time just because. Do little things and show in numerous ways how much we love and appreciate each other. Enjoy a chocolate heart.
But be guilted into a formulaic response so that big companies can collect money? No thank you.
What is your opinion?
Penticton (and most of British Columbia) has had a much colder winter than usual. Heck, over the last six months, it’s had unbelievably bad weather, period.
First there were heat waves (referred to as “heat domes” by the media). No matter what they were called, they were bad. I will never forget seeing on June 28 a temperature of 46°C (115°F) on our deck. In the shade.
Then there were the fires. Almost all of the town of Lytton was consumed by them. Throughout British Columbia, the air quality was terrible and the heat unrelenting.
Then autumn brought intense rain accompanied by high winds. The rain saturated the soil, the wind pulled the fire-dead trees from the ground, and this lead to extreme flooding and landslides, especially in the lower mainland. Dozens of landslides swept vehicles from the roads and trapped people and communities in isolated pockets.
The Coquihalla Highway, a main four-to-six lane artery that carries supplies and people through the mountains, was seriously damaged in 20 separate places. The community of Abbotsford, a major supplier of dairy and other agricultural products and situated in the lower mainland, suffered extreme flooding and enormous economic damage.
Now we’re being hit by record-breaking cold temperatures with freezing rain, snow and slush. The media are doing reports on how people can help to save the non-migratory hummingbirds from freezing to death. According to the scientists, this is the tip of the (melting) iceberg because these “weather events” are going to get worse.
Question is, what are we doing to mitigate this situation? And, what are we doing to get ready for what’s coming?
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