Small town acquaintances in big town life

 

I do like Facebook for certain things.

I happened to note on "my wall" or whatever its called

that my son, Jeremy, has tickets for a hockey game
on Monday in Edmonton
and that he is "stoked" to go as he has never been to an NHL game
 

Anyways, someone commented that they were going too.

And asked who he was going with and where his seats were
and if there were "pre-drinks" arranged anywhere
(not that I needed to know that!)
 

 This someone is also named Jeremy

and therein lies the story.

 

When my son was maybe 2 years old or so,

we went to a local moms and tots group.

There was another mother who had a son also named Jeremy.

This Jeremy's grandmother had knitted him a little jacket with his name on the back

He had outgrown it and the young mother was delighted to be able to pass

it on to another Jeremy, otherwise it would have been stuck in a closet.

 

 

The mother and I didn't really stay in contact.

Both Jeremys grew up in the same town though not the same school

 both involved in things that meant running into each other

and while there was not really a close friendship,
there was a friendly small town acquaintance

One a year older than the other

 

They were both into hockey and both reffed for a time (my Jeremy not for very long).

They were both in soccer though not on the same teams as those were divided by school

and when the time came for high school,

 they attended Junior and Senior High together

(as there is only one of each).

The one had a girlfriend who was friends with a friend

They sometimes found themselves at the same party

Or happened to be hanging around with the same group at the park or the arena

Or would run into each other at a fast food place

(not McDonalds, the powers that be deem that we are too small for one here :()

 

Fast forward a few more years and they have both grown into young men

Both have left the small British Columbia town life behind
for the big bucks to be earned in Northern Alberta
Made lives for themselves as adults.
 

I had no idea they still kept tabs on each other

When suddenly this Facebook comment comes up

about two small-town boys with the same name running into each other in the big city.

 

I thought it was kinda neat.

 

 



Enough already!

 

As I sit here with my coffee and a bowl of grapes its snowing outside.

 

Again.

 

I really do think that Mother Nature has to show Old Man Winter

who wears the pants in the family

She has indulged him long enough and its time to stop.

 

 

I realize its only the end of January

and spring is still almost three months away

and yes, I chose to live here

and yes, I love living here

and yes, I do enjoy the snow

and yes, we do have beautiful winters

 

 

but when I step off the shovelled pathways to the shed, the wood shed, the garage, the garbage shed

(or lose my balance, because those pathways are getting narrower and narrower)

and step into snow past my knee-high boots, past my knees for that matter

I say enough.

 

Monty has to step off the pathways

where he is not allowed to poop (though sometimes does anyways)

and tries to crouch high enough in the deep snow so that there is a bit of space left between him and the ground or risk a poopy butt. (great mental image eh?)

I think even he says enough

 

 

In the last two days my husband and I have accumulated

a total of 6 hours shovelling.

Six hours out of our lives that will never come back.

The snow banks are higher than me in places.

He says enough.

 

 

The days are getting longer

Sunset this evening is at 5:03 precisely

by the time the longest day comes around all this snow will be gone.

 

But where will it go?

The irony is that we have to hope for a slow melt and a late spring

because it's going to be a muddy mess

That goes without saying

We have four seasons here, green, yellow, white and brown.

But this year's brown season is going to last forever.

 

 

So Old Man Winter, stop sticking your tongue out and saying "Nyah, nyah you can't get me"

 

We say enough.

 

(old man winter picture is not mine and was found on Yahoo Images linked to this blog)

 



Sunset Sunday

 

"The sacred lamp of day

Now dipt in western clouds

His parting day"

 

                                                       William Falconer

 

 

 

 

 



When opportunity knocks.....

       Don't ask questions.  Just bask in it. 

 

 

I dumped out my yarn bin

with the intention of finding yarns suitable to make Barbie doll clothes for my great-niece.

 

I went to do something in another room and when I came back I saw Monty had found a nice soft spot.  I couldn't disturb him looking so sweet, so the yarn had to wait until he got up.

 

 

After all, we are told to let sleeping dogs lie.

 



On dreams

               I Dreamed.

I dreamed a dream and in that dream,
I dreamed that I had dreamed a dream

Of hope and fairytales come true,

I dreamed a dream and thought of truth,
I dreamed a dream of life and love,
Of fate and angels and God above

I dreamed a dream of good wishes and friends,
I dreamed a dream I dreaded to end

But then I woke into my dream,
I dreamed I woke in a world obscene
I dreamed a dream of violence and hate
And once again I dreamed of fate

I dreamed a dream of terror and fear
I dreamed that each word went unheard
And so children never spoke a word

I dreamed a dream of demons and beasts
I dreamed a dream that ended at last

I woke in my bed and wondered if
I dreamed a dream of dreams or if
I dreamed a dream of truth that night
And if so I wondered which was truth
And which was merely a dream.

                                                              
                                                                                    Emma Wright

I dream many weird things, as do we all.

Last night I dreamed that my oldest boy hit the in winning three runs in the World Series (baseball) on the same day that my younger son played for BC Lions in the final playoff for the Grey Cup (football).  I was so incredibly proud of them both but when I couldn't find their names in the Vancouver Province newspaper while sitting on a school bus with their old bus driver, Rick, trying to count out $1.00 for the fare because on Fridays the fare was higher and keeping on loosing count I began to wonder if it was just a dream that it had happened and while picking up three pairs of striped mittens off the floor for the lady sitting next me me with her two kids I noticed that the papers I were looking at were all soggy and that was why I couldn't read their names.

Fastforward to the dinner table, where I had made vanilla pudding for dessert and wouldn't let the little girl have any unless she ate all of her sausages laid out in front of her in a row and I didn't have enough pudding out of a 4-serving package to divide into 8 bowls and the strawberry sauce was mostly water which was not good enough for my sons who were heroes even though nobody had heard about it except for the people at the sports store who tried to sell me a suit for Gerry for funerals and weddings because the father of such now famous sons had to look good, a suit with blue jeans and long fuzzy red suspenders that hung down under the jacket.

Gerry didn't want the suit and instead wanted 24.00 which I didn't want to give him unless he told me what it was for and he was choking me over my mom's living room chair to give it to him and finally said he needed it for lottery tickets and if I didn't laugh at him every time he bought them he would have no problem telling me what the money was for, it's not as if he was using it for strawberry syrup!  And if he wanted to drive the kids down to the end of the road to catch the bus it was really none of my business and if I really wanted to go to Grade 15 I could take the bus with them but I would have to do all of my homework and not be afraid to go into the elevator at the hotel.

Any dream interpreters care to take a shot at that?????

they gang awry

Robert Burns ....He Knew it Best

"But Mousie, thou art no thy lane
In proving foresight may be vain
The best-laid schemes o' mice an’ men
Gang aft agley
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain
For promis'd joy!"

My plans were laid

Foresight I had tried to prove

Promised joy was gleefully expected

And I wound up with grief and pain

^^^

Well, not quite so drastic

^^^

But that darn flu knocked me for a loop

And caused my plans to be put on hold

^^

I had planned:

* to get back to blogging and fill in the blanks on all the blogs I follow

*to shampoo the carpets

*to finish creating my craft room

*to take walks in the snow with my dog and my camera

*to get back to hockey

*to get caught up with various paperwork, nasty stuff that but it has to be done

*relax while playing Pogo and reading books

^^^

and what have I done?

Frittered the days away, thinking I'd do it tomorrow

when tomorrow came, which is no longer tomorrow

I found myself wiped out and in bed on most of my time off

and even during some of my time on

^^^

Now it is my time on, but I am taking time off to get at least one blog written

and will catch up on the rest bit by bit.

^^^

Editor's note:  Luckily, the flu gang way afore too long!!

Got it!

Thanks Relyn....Google Chrome worked!

Happy days to all.

upload picture woes

 

Just when I think I know it all

Well, enough to get by anyways

I get a curveball thrown at me.

 

Blogger.com's face leering at me

as it winds up and let go of what I don't see coming.

Daring me to correctly compensate my swing and hit it square on.

 

I can't even knock it into foul territory this time

(Though there's certainly enough foul territory coming out of my mouth)

Strike three I'm out.

 

Can anyone help me with this? 

 

It seems that I can no longer upload pictures to be used on a post from my computer.

I click the little picture icon

am told to select a file

but "computer" is no longer an option.

 

I can upload "from this blog", "from Picasa Web Albums", from "my phone" from "webcam" and from "URL", but no option from my computer.

 

Has anyone else had this happen? 

What can I do about it? 

 

A solution would get a standing ovation!



What is normal?

They say it's back to normal now.

The tree is laying out in the snowbank and will be roasted in the spring cleanup.

The decorations are put away

The needles are mostly out of the carpet

and the cat has puked and shat the last of the tinsel out of her system.

 

 The goodies are almost all gone

(someone shared a good theory with me the other day, eat all the leftovers really quickly, gorge yourself because the sooner they are gone the sooner you can start to lose that weight!)

 

Roast turkey, turkey pie, turkey sandwiches and turkey soup are done with until next Thanksgiving

Tim Horton's Candy Cane Hot Chocolate is no longer stocked

And the outdoor lights still hang but are no longer plugged in.

 

I used to look so forward to this time

Time to go back to normal.

 

But, normal these days

means that the house is just Gerry and I

after two weeks of hustle and bustle and cooking dinner every night (gasp!!)

Mom caught her Greyhound bus back to the coast

and
 

Jeremy flew off into the fog this afternoon in the little rinky dink 2 prop plane today back to his work in Edmonton and home in Red Deer
 

after a couple of false starts, first to bring us back the bottle of iced tea in his pocket that he wasn't allowed to take on the plane,

then the bottles of shampoo and conditioner in his backpack that had to go back through the luggage check in area to get put into his suitcase.

When the plane only holds a couple dozen people, it's easy to find his suitcase back that hadn't yet been loaded.

Finally getting the go ahead to step out on the cold windy grey tarmac and climb the dozen steps into the plane,

us banging on the window for a last wave goodbye but him not noticing

and the door folding him up inside

putting my son's life in the pilot's hands, wanting to tell him to be careful as he has precious cargo on board

Then the two and a half hour drive back home, him nearly arriving in Edmonton before we get back home.

 

Thankfully, normal does mean that Trevor is still around, even though he no longer lives at home either.

Having a girlfriend means that he is not to eager to explore the opportunities that well paying labourous jobs in the cold north have to offer, for now. 

He's only 18, still young, time will tell where he will head in his future.

So, back to normal, like it or not.

ps....what is not normal is that I can't upload pics off my computer to put into this post, anyone else having that problem??

 

 



Time for me and angel pee

 

First I want to wish all my blog buddies a happy new year and say that I was pleasantly surprised to see that some of you checked in on my wellbeing during my abscence.

 

 

 

Now, I'll tell the story of angel pee.

 

 

I was in the liquor store before Christmas looking for Root Beer Schnapps

Suggested to me by my son

(you know you're getting old when....)

 

Found the Schnapps, but as good as Root Beer Schnapps sounded, Butter Ripple sounded better, so that's what ended up in my basket.

I also spied with my little eye something that was yellow.

Advocaat, to be exact.

This is a Dutch drink that I used to call "yellow pudding" when I was small.  I knew my mom loved it, so I bought a bottle to surprise her, I didn't even know you could get it in Canada.

 

So, twas the night before Christmas and in my house

Two ladies sat around the table with advocaat and a game of Rummikib.

Advocaat is served in shot glasses with a little tiny spoon and whipped cream on top. 

At the first taste, my mom said:
"net of er een engeltje op mijn tongske pissed."

Apparantly, she and her mother used to drink advocaat and play cards and giggle over nothing and my grandpa would tell them to at least let him in on the joke, but since he was a man, he didn't understand how us gals can just get the giggles over nothing.

 

Anyway, she asked if I knew what it meant, which I sort of did.

It translates to:

"Just as if a little angel peed on my tongue."

 

I guess in Holland the angels pee differently than here,

because I wouldn't want anyone peeing on my tongue, even angels!

 

Do love the trip down memory lane though.