Show & Tell

Some of you that follow my blog

Also follow my cousin Dagmar's

She commented on mine the other day

Remembering when we were kids

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I was looking through my pictures,

I wanted to find something to crete a new header with

Also a new avatar.

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I came upon this:

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Dagmar & I and the rest of our cousins on that side of the family.

Can you pick us out?

(Hint...we're the oldest

Well, except for the one in the red T-Shirt - our Aunt Tonny,

who passed away a few months ago.)

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This was probably one of the only times we were all together,

As they all live in Holland,

And my brother & I grew up in Ontario.
We were on a holiday in Holland

And it was my 9th birthday

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I was so incredibly shy

With all these cousins, who grew up blocks away from each other

I hardly knew them,

couldn't talk to them very well.

As we got older, they learned english & I learned dutch

And communication became a little easier

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I remember another time in Holland...I was 14,

we were in a deli, & I got up the nerve to ask, in dutch, for a "vlees-kroket"

(A yummy dutch meaty deep-fried thing [who's spelling I probably butchered]that I never get enough of and if you could send frozen meat products in the mail Dagmar would be mailing me every month)

And they laughed at me.

All in good fun, but I was mortified.

It took a long time before I dared to do that again!

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But in this picture, Dagmar & I are obviously sharing some kind of joke..

Don't ask me what it was...

Maybe Dagmar remembers

(She's younger than me, so has a better memory...

That's my story & I'm sticking to it)

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Anyways, the pointof this story,

Well, there isn't one

I just wanted to have a

"show and tell" day!

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Caterpillar in a tree

How you wonder who you'll be

Can't go far but you can dream

~

Wish you may and wish you might

Don't you worry, hold on tight

I promise you that there will come a day

Butterfly fly away

~

Butterfly fly away

Flap your wings now you can't stay

Take those dreams and make them all come true

Butterfly fly away

~

We've been waiting for this day

All along and knowing just what to do

Butterfly, butterfly, fly away

~

~

~

Isn't that a tearjerker?

My son is graduating this year, and any verses I hear about growing up & growing out

Make my chest all tight inside.

You know the feeling.

I can't take credit for the song, its Miley Cyrus's,

And the Flickr credits are here

But as I passed by my son on his computer

On my way to toss a piece of wood in the stove,

(not the one who's graduating, the younger one)

He was singing to this

And I've heard him sing it a thousand times before

But this time it caught my ear

And I had to come back into my office & write it down.

Olympamania

(No, I don't like this layout, I'll have to mess around with it when I have time)

There's got to be some parable about people following each other blindly to their deaths

Like lemmings over the cliffs

I' just to lazy to go searching for one

I did just spend more than 1/2 an hour

Looking for pictures to accompany this post

Without any luck.

People must be so crazy over it all,

They haven't had time to upload their pictures

So you'll have to listen to my rant & rave without them

Except for this one:

I'm sure the world knows

that the Olmpics are being held in Vancouver this year

My home province

I wouldn't go anywhere near the place

Even if I was paid big money to do so.

I have nothing against the Olympics per se,

Nothing against a celebration & competition of amateurs at sports

Nor am I unpatriotic

I am proud to be Canadian

And wouldn't have it any other way

What I am against is the gross commercialism

The gross misrepresentation of government over the last 10 years

Of how much money was to be spent

The schools that are being closed all over the province,

Because of budget cuts

The rural areas that "don't count anyways"

6 years olds having to spend 2 hours each day in the school bus

The cuts in medical care

Women in labour having to travel over 120 km.,

To deliver a normal, no risk baby

Because our hospital cannot afford to emply an anesthesiologist

The Vancouver Public Library

having to put masking tape

over all the labels of the electronic equipment they own

which is not manufactured by Panasonic

Because Panasonic is an Olympic sponsor

People being asked to refrain from wearing any clothing or drinking any beverage in public

That bears the logo of any competitor

To any Olympic sponsors

Those are just to name a few

I simply cannot grasp the mindset

Of the thousands of people celebrating right now

Downown Vancouver,

Only a block away from Canada'a poorest district

Filled with homeless, forgotten, drug addicted human beings

That everyone tries to sweep under the rug.

Have they all been brainwashed?

A lot of the people I speak with

Feel the same way I do

So it was surprising to hear of the large turnout

As the torch passed through my hometown.

I've never been one to involve myself in protest rallies

But I am so utterly and vehmently opposed to this

That if I lived in the Vancouver area,

I would protest with all my might.

Consider this my protest.

Viva La Canada!

My Old Man

Today he turns 50

That old man of mine

"You're only as old as you feel"

He always says

~

How does it feel

To be 50?

That's like, half a century

or

Half a dollar

~

He was 26 when we met

(Almost half of 50)

I thought he was old then,

I was 17

Eons ago

Half a lifetime ago

~

We've changed since then

Both of us

For better or worse

We're not who we used to be

For better or worse

~

His daughters, 5 & 3 at the time

Are grown women

Our sons

In a few years, will be grown men

~

We've built a life since then

Moved away from the city

Built a life in the Cariboo Country

The place we call home

~

We've bought & sold homes & cars & trucks & vans

Along with kids, we've raised

Dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits, birds & fish

~

One thing that hasn't changed

Is our committment to each other

We're not as "lovey dovey" as we used to be

And I miss that

But our love has always been there

To pull us through

~

My old man

I love you