Sunny with a 50% Chance of Flowers

For a whole year I kept two Christmas plants

Amaryllis, and her adopted brother, Cactus

Tucked away in the dark closet

Keeping them so dry they must've believed they were in the Sahara

Must've thought I had forgotten them

In the glory of summer's gardens.

Then, when my plastic stick and the paper note,

taped to the inside of my cupboard door

Said it was time,

I brought them out

Though still in a cool location with at least 12 out of 24 hours of darkness

Just as I was told by the foremen,

Mr. Stick,

& his equal partner in the business,

Mr. Paper.

Watering them sparingly,

As one would give water sparingly

to a man

About to die of thirst

So as not to overwhelm them

With too much of a good thing.

Amaryllis began to grow her long green leaves

So fast that I could almost watch them stretch out longer every day

Christmas Cactus began to show little pink blushes

on the ends of his darker green leaves

Then it came time to bring them out

To put them where they would hopefully

Display their full glory in colour

Cactus was ever so grateful to be out in the brightness again

And showed his appreciation by spreading wide his lovely red petals

Amaryllis grows ever longer

Somehow though,

I don't have much faith in her

She's a little more revengeful

And won't let me forget the long lonely months

She spent banished to the closet.

There was one more though;

One who was treated differently from the others

Pointsetta, left over from last Christmas

Was left out in the open all year long

I watered her, gave her light.

Allowed her to take part

As spring turned to summer, and fall turned to winter

She grew bigger and never lost its greenness

I was proud of her

Not many would've done as she did

Sadly though

She was so used to being the only child

She couldn't face the competition

Of the showy new addition to the clan

Within 5 days of her bigger brighter sibling coming home

She shrivelled up and died.

I felt her pain,

and my guilt.

Sibling rivalry can be rough.

But most of us learn

To love our fellow man,

And yes, even our siblings,

Even though we may feel jealous of their beauty

Isn't that what Christmas is about?

-The End-

Thankful in the Dark

"The moon was abreast on the new-fallen snow

Gave a lustre of midday to objects below"

Those two lines of "The Night Before Christmas"

Often run through my head

I never gave them much meaning,

Just a part of another Christmas Story

Memorized by children before they can read it

But lately, I have been thinking of how apt they really are

As I walk through the night in the new-fallen snow

When there's a full moon, there really is a luster of daylight

To objects below

And what to my wondering eyes should appear?

(No, not a miniture sleigh and eight tiny reindeer)

But a really big moose, with no reasons for fear!

I stopped in my tracks

To my dog gave a whistle

And away the moose bolted

Like the down of a thistle

I continue onward,

Monty now securely on his leash

As the moose may not feel like playing

with an exhuberant full-grown but puppy-minded dog

And as I head home

I give thanks that I live in a part of the world

Where one can walk at night

Guided only by the moonlight or starlight

Sure of the ground beneath my feet

With no fears of muggers or rapists or serial killers

The only thing I have to be aware of

is making sure I don't startle those moose!

This is a terribly fragmented post

But I don't apologize

Its how it came out of my mind

and how it stayed.

None of these are my photos,

I don't usually bring my camera at night

One of these nights I should,

But I don't have the photographic skills

to do the beauty justice.

credits here and here and here

I Heard How Your Day is Going........

First you had trouble getting out of bed,

You had a stiff neck.

You washed your hair and couldn't do a thing with it

Your new diet really doesn't seem to be working out

You pulled a muscle when you tried to exercise

And your new hat looked better on you at the store

You keep misplacing things

You got caught in the rain at lunchtime

Then the lunch you had didn't seem to agree with you

You feel trapped

Uninvited guests showed up at dinner time

On top of that you think you're coming down with the flu

And when you're finally relaxing alone at night, you think you hear a noise in the basement!

Just remember, handle every stressful situation like a dog,

if you can't eat it or play with it,

Just pee on it and walk away.

The magic number

Most of us don't like the cold
Not the kind that makes your nostrils stick together,
The kind that makes it impossible to take a big breath
The kind that freezes your water pipes if you forget to plug the heating tape in
Makes your car impossible to start if you forget to plug the block heater in
and forms ice on the insides of your windows.

But there is a select group of the human race
(okay, that part is debatebable)
who pray at night, if its going to be cold anyways,
dear god, please let it be -32C.

For -32C is that magic number that all kids look forward to
They peer out the window every 20 minutes all evening
Excited at every drop in the temperature
Even the teenagers
More excited than the on night before christmas

Kids who live in less wintery parts of the country
Sometimes get "snow days"
A day off school because the inch of snow that fell overnight
Has completely snarled the traffic


We don't get snow days.
We are prepared and accustomed to it
We prefer driving in the snow
Because it fills up the potholes in the road

But we do get "cold days"
When the mercury drops below that magic number - -32C
The powers that be have decided that is the point
To call it off

And,
today is a cold day!

I'm late, I'm late, I forgot the date!!

One cannot manage too many affairs

Like pumpkins in the water

One pops up while you try to hold down the other

(Chinese proverb)

*

To do two things at once

Is to do neither

(Publius Syrus)

*

Take care of the minutes

and the hours will take care of themselves

(Lord Chesterfield)

*

I am overextending myself

I cannot say no

-

I am close to using the stress management skills

Which have been tried and true

But are unhealthy all the same.

-

Instead, I am using my blogging

-

If I'm not careful,

Like a spent bulb

I will soon burn out

-

(But I will visit your blogs as soon as I can, I miss y'all!)

Poss...the ImPossible

I know I have mentioned my Poss......Possum that is.

Let me paint a picture:

I am trying desperately to finish the chapter I'm working on......Microsoft Word...Boring!

Almost anything is a welcome distraction.

Possum decides to help me out.

He does his graceful cat leap onto my desk, and settles onto my binder.

I pet his head and turn back to the keyboard.

He wants attention.

He hooks his claw into my sweater,

pushes his head under my chin

(giving me a noseful of hair on the way)

I tell him he can't be doing that cause I really need to work.

He gives me the most utter look of contempt

Turns his back to me

Lifts his hind quarter

And begins his hourly cleaning ritual,

showing me what he thinks of me.

Butt end first.

Of course.

End Note: As I finish this, T comes home from school, checks his Facebook first thing.

(He's grounded from the computer but I let him on for 5 minutes to do that.)

I hear a crash

And a yell

"POSSUM"

"What did he do?"

I holler at him,

Curious because of what I am writing.

"He knocked the speaker behind the desk

Where I can't reach it....

and...

He didn't even say sorry!"

So, Mr. Poss, you don't have to wonder why I posted these embarrasing and unflattering pictures of you, (which definitely do not show your handsome side,)

On the World Wide Web

For everyone to see!

The Good For You Lesson (aka Healthy Living)

First, I will explain my absences, which are not going to end anytime soon, unfortunately.
I am back to school....which involves 30 hours a week, plus my home business hours, which are 2-3 a day, plus family, housework, me time....you get the idea.


More on that later.


It so happened that today I could devote my morning to studies...3 hours.


Things I learned this morning....

• Don't fall back asleep after the kids have gone to school
• After one hour of computer learning, take a 5 minute break
• Use that break to perform small household tasks.....put away a load of laundry, fill sink with hot water & dirty dishes, feed the dog, sweep the kitchen floor, etc.
• Don't grab a snack out of the cupboard everytime you get up
• At lunchtime, don't give in to the desire to take that nap you missed this morning, find your boots, toque, mitts, and go for a bushwhacking walk. Your dog will love you for it.
• During that bushwhack, you may find within 15 minutes of your home, a beautiful view that even after 7 years you didn't even know was there! (note to self..take camera next time)(note to self again...I bet Dagmar knew it was there!)
• When you get home, having 2 pudding cups would destroy any benefits of the walk & just make you feel guilty....you'll feel better after having some carrot sticks.
• Finally, get back to the job at hand.

Blinded by the Light

Its all in the wording.

In the adjectives you choose.

Stark or Striking?

Golden or Glum?

Isolating or Inspriring?

Its all in the attitude

I'll never be happy here

I'll never get the job

I'll never have enough money

I'll never meet Mr. Perfect

I'll never kick the habit

As T.V.'s Jake Harper says

"Not with that attitude you won't"

Time Wasted

I am one of those people who go by the adages

"If you have nothing to do,

Don't do it here"

and

"Idle hands are the devil's workshop"

and

"To fill the hour, that is happiness"

So, I was not happy that I slept away the last two weekends, that's four days!

Think of what I could've gotten done!

I could've finished my cross-stitch stocking

Finished my summer scrapbook

Pulled all the solar lights out by the driveway

So they don't get in the way of the snow shovel & get ruined

Washed the dog

Blogged

Gone for a walk or two

Attended the craft fair in town

I suppose I could've even vaccuumed, washed, & dusted

(How likely is that though?)

Now those four days. never mind the evenings of the days between those two weekends

Are gone forever

Curses to the God of the Flu!

May he never return!

I really do apologize for the constant theme of my last few posts

Next time will be better

I know - Famous last words

But they're true I say!

They're true!

Sometimes I Get it Right

Most often,
when it comes to scheduling out of town appointments,
If you need to do 3 different things,
You can count on 3 different days.

Not often does it all fall into place
As easily as it did yesterday...

My son needed to go to the orthodontist to get his braces off,
Then wait 4 hours while they made his retainer
And come back.
He also needed a follow-up CT Scan
From his springtime accident
(which thank-god, is hardly more than a memory now)
Besides that, I needed to take an "Accuplacer" Exam
Which, put simply, is an exam to prove to the funding department that since I graduated more than 20 years ago,
I am still smart enough to succeed in upgrading my education

All this needed to be done in Williams Lake, an hour & 15 minutes drive from here
(If you do the speed limit......so it doesn't take me quite that long)
So I, by some stroke of good fortune,
Managed to get it all booked for the same day.
The Gods were shining on me.

The only kink in the armour was that I am still slowly recovering from the flu,
And can barely keep my eyes open & my body upright for more that 2 hours at a time.
Whether or not its H1N1 we don't know as the docs have given up testing everyone
They just hand out the presriptions for Tamiflu
Which didn't even help.

But there was no way I'd get all those planets lined up so perfectly again,
So I told Jeremy, make sure you've got your license,
Cause I may not be able to drive the whole way.

Anyways,
The braces came off,
The exam was written (& passed with flying colours except for the algebra part)
The CT Scan was done
New snowboard bindings were bought
The Superstore was visited
And the retainer was fitted & placed.

Supposedly, when I am supervising Jeremy driving,
I'm not supposed to fall asleep.
Well, it doesn' exactly say not to in the manual,
But its probably one of those "givens"
I couldn't help it,
and anyways,
we made it home in one piece.

And I went to bed!

Williams Lake, BC

Its here

We may live out in the in the boonies
But it came anyways
As we all knew it would.....
Eventually.
It just took a little longer to find us is all
But it's here now

Rampidly & rapidly making up for lost time
In our town
In our schools...
and
In our home

Tagging Baby Bears

My sister-in-law sent me a link to this video, which happens to be on another blogger's website. I don't know how to add the video to my blog, I think I have to somehow save it to a file and then put it in, but I don't work with videos and I haven't got a lot of time right now to do that.

So, I'll just post the link, that should work too.

To watch an amzing video of collaring and tagging baby bears who are so little their eyes aren't open yet, for the means of tracking them in a Provincial Park, not for any hunting or injury purposes, that you all just HAVE to see, click here.

The Hard Lesson of Equations

Last night my husband was at work, one son was at his girlfriend's, and the other went to a friend's at the last minute.

I was home alone for dinner.
Yeah! I don't have to cook tonight!
I can eat whatever I want!
That's where the trouble began.

I knew one thing I wanted for sure...a bag of Maynard's Wine Gums
I went to the corner store
(which is not really on a corner but you know what I mean)
Picked up a bag,
But I had no money, only my debit card.
I didn't want to pay for two bucks with a bank card, cause that would look dumb,
so I looked around for something to add onto it.
A litre of chocolate milk should bump it up a bit.
Those bags of kettle corn at the the till look really good too
Might as well pick up a bag for desert.

Well, the kettle corn became dinner
Washed down with chocolate milk
And the wine gums became desert.

And I proved once again
That I can't be trusted home alone,
Because......



PLUS


EQUALS

On Kids & Questions

We all know kids have the knack of asking the wierdest questions that require the most inventive answers. Note to parents with young children.....WRITE THEM DOWN! Because you won't remember them.

My 15 year old asked me one yesterday though, that was one for the record book. We had our dog neutered yesterday, and he was full of empathy for the dog & wondered if he knew what had happened, if he felt different now that he was a "eunich", etc.

Then he asked.."What do they do with the balls after they cut them off?"
I almost choked on my coffee. I told him they put them in jars & pickled them. He didn't fall for it.

So, if anyone knows what they do with dog balls.....let me know!
(I put J's picture because I couldn't find one of T looking "inquisitive" in a rush)

Forever More

credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/cayusa/2051756510/

Mrs. E, at Easy Street, is a teacher and has handed out an assignment...a short list or essay on the simple things in life, the things we enjoy & would miss if we were to die.

So here's mine:

"If today were my last day,
And tomorrow was too late
Would I say good-bye to yesterday?"

What would I say good-bye to?
What would I miss?

The pleasure of seeing others smile, even more being the cause of their smile.

A nice hot cup of tea in the evenings,
And an ice-cold glass of lemonade on a summer afternoon.

The pleasure of reading, the pleasure of crafting
The pleasure of learning.

Hot candlelit bubble baths in a deep tub,
Singing in the shower.

Walks in the hot summer nights, in the crisp scent of fall,
In the briliantly blue winter skies, and in the promising renewal of spring.

Feeling a cat sleeping on my legs, seeing a dog ecstatic to see me, and hearing the never-ending chirp of birds.

The ability to use all my senses, to see unlimited shades of colours, to smell freshly cut sawdust, to hear the quietness of falling snow, to taste riches like chocolate, cheescake, and fuzzy pork chops, and to feel the warmth of my husband's skin next to mine.

There is so much I would have to say good-bye to, so much I must appreciate time & time again
Forever more.
credit here

(the first 3 lines are from a song....by Green Day I think, the whole song would be perfect for the occasion)

The Connoisseur of Comfort

There are cat people
And there are dog people

As much as I do like (okay, maybe even love) my pup
I am most definitely a cat person

Dogs are fun to be with and good for walks,
But you, or at least I, can't sit there and watch a dog doing his thing
And marvel at his muscular liquid beauty
In awe of his being
Amazed at every little part of his body
Just like a parent watching a newborn baby
Only a cat has that ability
Even the big mean cougars & panthers
inspire the same alluring awe,
Display the same admiration
For all that they are

Cats can find comfort anywhere,
As I was thinking out this post
Inspired of course by my cat lying in the sun
I thought of the cats I've owned
And where they found comfort

As a teenager I did a lot of jigsaw puzzles
And Ceaser would lie in the open box
Come to think if it
I'm lucky he didn't think it was kitty litter!

Cypress liked to lie in the bathroom sink,
And also cuddle up to our shepherd-sharpei dog
Jasper would crawl into the open topped guinea pig cage
Again, I'm surprised he didn't use the shavings as litter
Blue would find the highest perch possible
and look down on his kingdom
and its subjects
Snoopy would invariably locate the empty baby-carrier
And Possum, shown here, absolutely loves the fleecy blanket
we use for napping

The one thing they all had in common though,
Is the knack they had for finding the lone patch of sunlight in the room
How can a cat, sleeping on someone's bed
Instintively know, in his sleep,
That if he gets up & goes to the living room
Pausing for some kibble on the way
He will find the sunshine that wasn't in the bedroom?

Cats are truly amazing
And if reincarnation is a reality,

I want to come back as a cat

Three hours I'll never get back

I aplogize to you and me for disappearing over the last week. One of those break from blog times.
When I logged on this morning, I did not intend to spend so much time, in fact, any time, rearranging my blog. But it looked too summery, with the blue colour scheme & bathing suit picture.

Oh well, it is what it is.

How do you like my "new look"? It still needs some finishing touches, like unblurring the header photo (How do I do that without making it smaller?), but its getting there. I notice I still don't have the option of "centering" my text as I'd like to.

The Russell Fences are typical for my neck of the woods, I always like them. I think it was an ingenious way to build fences without tools. And this picture is from last year, most every year it looks like that in the fall, but this year, with the unseasonably warm early fall and then the drop to -15C within two days, the leaves basically turned black & died on the trees, and have only now fallen down. Makes me wonder what kind of suprises Mother Nature has in store for us this winter!

We really don't live in igloos.....

A misconception that Canadians believe about Americans, which may in itself be a misconception (are you following me?) is that Americans don't know a heck of a lot about Canada. This could in part be perpetrated by Rick Mercer's "South of the Border" TV Interviews, which consisted of interviewing Americans on the street and convincing them to agree with ridiculous statements about Canada. The intent was to satirise American ignorance of its neighbour and the world in general. Examples included:

-Persuading Americans to congratulate Canada on adopting the twenty-four-hour day,
-Congratulating the Canadian government on building a dome over its "national igloo" (apparently a downsized version of the United States Capitol) to protect it from global warming,
-Asking Harvard students and professors to sign a petition asking Canadians to discontinue the practice of abandoning the elderly on ice floes.
-Asking presidential candidate George W. Bush – who had previously stated that "you can't stump me on world leaders" – for his reaction to an endorsement by Canadian Prime Minister "Jean Poutine". Bush responded diplomatically and said he looked forward to working together with his future counterpart to the north. However, the prime minister's name at the time was Jean Chrétien; poutine is in fact a French-Canadian fast food dish of french fries, gravy and cheese curd. Also, Chrétien had not endorsed any candidate at the time.

Anyways, we don't live in igloos, but my walk today, which planted the seed for this post, could almost convince you we do. Mind you, this is the middle of October! This is the same park I featured in a previous, fall-time post: (Oh crap, I forgot to change the settings on my camera..these are taking a while to upload)

Does this or does it not look like a giant toothbrush???
You wouldn't catch me wading in there for a drink!!
The waterfalls aren't quite frozen yet, but they will be soon!
We left our marks (although as you can see I wasn't wearing my winter boots yet)
The leaves aren't even off the trees yet, in fact, some are still green!

Tim Horton's was great after the chilly walk, although I took this picture because it really looked like all 4 vehicles were attached to each other...ANd I knew that really couldn't be!