Have I told you how Chino didn't know how to play? He lived three years at a kennel, well treated and well loved, but learned no social skills. He is so thrilled to have a good owner now, and all he wants is to be touched and loved, but we were all concerned that he didn't know how to play. He would watch Gypsy with a quizzical look, but when we would toss him a toy, it would "bonk" off his forehead and he would just stare at it. Sometimes we'd put a toy in his mouth, and he would just let it fall out. Like I say...no skills. Well, finally he seems to have the hang of it, and just look at his tail wag as he manages to get the cookie out of the ball. What a goof!

What a mouth!

Chino being happy because he is being touched (in his nice Christmas bowtie) Never have I met a dog who wants nothing more than a gentle human touch. What a loveable beast.

It pretty much was a winter wonderland as we walked through the park the other day. The snowflakes were MASSIVE and the weather was quite warm (considering it's December) and the sky was blue towards the south. It was odd to see such huge snowflakes coming from a blue sky.

The Ring (not the movie though)

Did I ever tell the story of my Mom's ring? I don't think so, so here it is: After my Mom passed away, my Dad asked me if I wanted her rings. Typical guy sort of question; of course I wanted them. I wore her wedding ring for about 5 years and one day I realized the diamond had fallen out. I was sad, but not heartbroken because I still had the actual ring, and people lose stones all the time. As a matter of fact, my Mom had lost her actual wedding ring more than once so they finally decided (after replacing it...more than once) that she should just wear a plain gold band. So this is really her engagement ring. But to continue the story, after I realized the stone was gone, I put the ring away, thinking that some day I'd replace it with a nice new diamond. And that was sort of the end of that. A few years pass by, and I went to Tanzania with my friend Nicole and we decided to buy a small tanzanite stone, thinking it would be a nice sort of remembrance that we could have made into a necklace or something some day. Well, a few months ago it occured to me that the wise thing to do would be to have the stone put in my Mom's ring...sort of a dual memory-keeper. Of course the claw thing that holds the diamond in was the wrong shape and the stone couldn't be rehaped and the jeweller told me that he would have to cut out the old claw-thing (he didn't call it a claw-thing, it has a name, but I've forgotten it) and then he'd have to solder it in and blah, blah...so I fearfully asked how much all this would cost, and to my great surprise, he apologetically said that it would take about 10 days and probably cost...oh, $75.00. Geez. So I said to go ahead, and here is the result. I am quite thrilled!!

Been through the desert....

As I was walking through the woods I came across this "deer with no tail", which of course brings to mind the old song: "Been through the desert on a horse with no mane." (Oh all right, I know the words are really "a horse with no NAME, but that wasn't as funny.)

Anyhow, this poor girl has no tail and Steven said that it was probably bitten off by coyotes, which isn't funny, but yet I can't help but envision a Wiley Coyote type leaping after this deer and ending up sputtering with nothing but a mouthful of deer hair as the deer leaps gracefully off into the distance. Sadly though, the coyotes try to "hamstring" the deer by tearing at their haunches and slowing them down. This girl was lucky to get away, and she seems to have healed up quite well, there was no blood and while she seemed a little too docile and let us get closer than she should have, she eventually took off like a shot and didn't seem to have any sort of limp.

Cute?

Could this little guy be any cuter? His mom must have been somewhere close, but we couldn't spot her. He was very curious and srood and stared at us for 3 or 4 minutes before he flagged his tail and scampered off. That's the closest I have ever gotten to such a wee one.

My Mum.

Just look at my beautiful mother...here she is, about 21 years old, in her uniform. Below, you'll see her a little more casual, outside of the barracks with her gigantic camera. She was a military photographer. I remember so well the brilliant flash of those cameras and the "whoosh" sort of sound the bulb made as it basically burned out. Imagine, each time you used a flash picture, you had to replace the bulb, and then you had to hide in the dark to change the film. She developed her own photos though, so at least we didn't have to wait.

This is one of the covers of the military magazine. My mom took the picture, plus that is her in the photo. Just think, that was Remembrance Day 55 years ago today.

Butch Cassidy?

Everyone has two sides of their family, well, really, much more than that, but it boils down to the maternal side and the paternal side. On my paternal side, there are soldiers back to the 1800's, who fought in every concievable war. That's the Irish side..."the Fighting Irish" isn't just a sports team! The other side, well, they apparently liked the Butch Cassidy personna! This is my great-great Grandfather, not a fighter, although his grandchildren (my mom and her brother) were military.

Nov 11/08

These are my Dad's medals, and below are my Grandfathers (my Dad's dad)

My great-uncles, (brothers) Both fought in WW1. My Grandfather fought in WW2 and my Dad was in the Golan Heights/Isreal/Egypt. My uncle was in Cyprus, my great-great Grandfather was in the Boer War, in South Africa.

Kinda sad....

Someone else who was feeding the goose with the broken wing decided to go to the local newspaper to see if there was something that could be done...someone who could help the poor thing. The conservation officer was contacted and so was raptor rescue, but sadly enough, there was nothing they could do. Or perhaps I should say that there was nothing they wanted to do. Unless, they added, it was a rare bird, such as one of the trumpeter swans that also stops here. So, in their wisdom, they decided to go to the park the very next day and "dispose" of the goose. I am quite sure that it was a very fast and painless death, and seeing as how the goose was tame, he probably wasn't afraid either, but the whole thing breaks my heart. And to make it worse, upon checking his little goose body to see what caused the injury, a .22 bullet was found in his wing. And...if that isn't bad enough, the day after this, no less than FOUR people phoned the newpaper, saying that they lived on farms or acreages and had room for an injured goose, especially a tame one. Too late at this point, but isn't that typical bureaucracy...jump first and investigate later? I just found the whole affair very sad.

Probably not a good idea....

So I was wandering through Wal-Mart yesterday, in the baby section. I have a new niece and I was looking for something cute to purchase and I came across the onesie's. They are the handiest things...instead of little undershirts creeping up and getting all tangled, they stay nice and smooth and crinkle free; they're cool and comfy, and it made me wonder why they don't make onesies for adults? No underwear "ride-up", no panty-line, how unfair that they only come in miniscule sizes.



Mind you, when a baby wears one, people grab their thighs and say: "oh...look at those precious thighs, all chubby and sweet...look at her little arms and all those extra folds, why she even has them on her wrists...and could anything be more adorable than those double chins?"



I wonder if my friends would say that if I opened the front door wearing a onesie?

~I base my fashion taste on what doesn't itch.
~Gilda radner.

It's a Canadian thing.

Hockey. Who knew I'd ever end up such a fan? For my friends who read this blog who live in lands where there is no such national sport as hockey *Gasp!* this is a little idea of how silly we are sometimes. Our team colours are blue & white, so we therefore must dress in those colours.

One must also purchase the appropriate gear to wear as well.

Any friends worth having will also don the aforementioned apparel.

When the Ice score, we all stand and make a "chopping" motion and holler: "Ice! Ice! Ice!", thus the small double-headed axe in Tim's hand. Such is the life of a hockey fan. We sing songs like: "I wanna drive a Zamboni" and any Canadian, hockey fan or not, can recongnize the opening strains of the hockey night in Canada theme...Dah da DUH da Daaaaaaa!

It's a chilly day at the lake, and the ducks were happy and somewhat frantic to gobble down the feed before the geese got there. You can see them skittering around, trying to get the "good stuff". Funny that their wet feet don't freeze to the ice, Nature obviously knows what she is doing.

Duck, Duck, Goose.

Here's an update on the goose we have been feeding, as well as some greedy, but beautiful ducks as well. The lake is frozen over now and most of the other geese have gone, however our broken-winged friend is still there, as well as 2 other ones that we see now and then. The other day those two flew overhead, honking as if to say "Farewell" to the poor remaining one, and he stretched his neck and flapped his wings as hard as he could, it just about broke my heart, but today all three were together again, although the 2 who can fly seem to stay further away from the injured one.

You should click on this picture (of the 2) to enlarge it, I was really pleased with how it turned out, the colour of the weeds and algae underneath the ice is amazing. The ducks and geese walk so carefully, stretching their necks to see where to step and every now and then they peck at the ice, I guess they see a particularly delectable looking piece of weed beneath the clear ice and they try to get it.

The other 2 geese and the 4 ducks won't come up to us, but the injured fellow will take food from your hand. We have to break holes in the ice now so thay they can get water. Today we sat and laughed as all 4 ducks ran across the entire lake to get to us, their little fat bodies waddling and their bright orange feet skittering across the slippery ice, in their haste to get some feed before the geese ate it all. The hole we had punched in the ice wasn't even 3 inches across and yet every single duck fell into it. They hopped out and shook their tail feathers and continued on the mad scramble to get to the food. It was almost as if, when the first duck fell in, that the other 3 thought that they had to also.

We bought some proper feed for them, bread is like "junk food" for a goose, it won't hurt them and they enjoy it, but they can't live on it. I bought 22 kg of cracked corn, wheat, oats and barly and do they ever gobble it down. You can see the size of his gullet in the bottom picture...full and content.

This isn't my eye; my eye was quite a bit more amazing (after all, it being my eye and all...) but this is basically how it looked. Can't you imagine the blood vessels being massive lightening strikes, during some horrendous inner eye storm? Or, is it just me, and do I have some type of Inner Eye Fixation?

Customer service

What the hell is awebding??

Customer Service has been discussed by me before, as well as by some of my friends, whose blogs I follow, who actually haven't updated their blog lately...although that's another story.

This annoys me however. Last year I bought new glasses. The price was HORRENDOUS, but I decided that I would finally get a really good pair, with all the bells and whistles...non-scratch, special coating, anti-glare, bendy-legs (since I always seem to break a leg) and all the other extras. They were $759.00...yoiks! But, there was a $100.00 cash back thing going on, and Steven's Blue Cross would reimburse me $250.00, so really, I ended up paying $410.00 and when I rationalized it that way, it didn't seem so bad.

Plus, there was a one year guarantee that was 100%...if you lost them, sat on them, whatever...total replacement. And the second year was the same deal, but 50%.

Now. After I paid and went home, I was phoned a day or so later, saying that they had mischarged me, and I owed another $50.(she had forgotten to charge me for the eye exam, which is not free in BC anymore. Thanks, Gordon Campbell, but we won't go there now) I was a little choked, but I went and paid it. So, these glasses are now up to $809.00, which is totally outrageous, but again, I am rationalizing that down to $460.00, and I always end up with scratched lens, which drives me insane, so I really am very pleased with these ones.

Jump ahead just less than a year. The glasses seem to need a bit of an adjustment, and since they are so expensive, I don't want to screw around with them, so I zip down to the optometrists and ask the girl to straighten them for me, which she does, quickly and with a smile, also telling me that if her eyes look funny, it's because she just had drops to dilate her pupils, and she wasn't actually crying. As I leave, I am thinking they seem too tight and still sort of crooked. I drive half way home and realize that something is wrong, so back I go. The optometrist himself is there, so I ask him if he could straighten them, and he comments: "God God, who did this?" and I said: "The girl who just had her pupils dilated." He chuckled and said that she couldn't see straight, and no wonder she did an awful job. So off I went again, after he adjusted them.

Since then, they were rather loose, but not really worth complaining about. HOWEVER, a few months later, which was exactly 2 weeks after the one year guarantee ran out (can you see where this is going?) they were just TOO loose, so off I go again. The woman looked at them, and says that the temple is cracked and I need a new one, since I am at the 50% term of the guarantee now, it will be $49.00, which is half of the cost of a new temple. I told her the story, and said that I quite thought that the girl who adjusted them had perhaps been too rough and cracked them, and really, if I had just come 2 weeks earlier, then there would have been no charge to me at all. She basically said: "Too bad.", so I asked her to order the new part, and went home, cranky.

Now, the new part arrives the same day I had another yearly eye exam, so as I am waiting there, the fellow goes to get the new part. I asked him why it would have cracked, being such expensive frames, and he apologetically tells me that even the high end frames are mass produced and out-sourced now. So I said, then, really, rather than pay these prices for glasses that last a year, I'm better off to go to Wal-Mart and get cheap ones for $300 and in reality, get 2 or 3 pairs for the same total price. He didn't say anything, but just went back to fix my glasses. And when he came out, he said: "Guess what? It wasn't the temple at all, the screw had just broken off inside the screw-hole, so I just replaced it...no charge." I was both happy and mightily pissed off at the same time. It's a good thing that after the eye exam, I was told that my eyes hadn't changed in the last year, so I didn't need new lenses, because you can guarantee that I wouldn't have got them there.

As a small side note, they have a new machine there, that takes a digital photo of the inside of your eye. Since glacoma and other eye diseases run in my family, he suggested that I have this done. It's a $25 charge, that may or may not be covered by my medical, but I thought I'd have it done anyhow. The picture is then shown to you on his computer screen, which is quite a huge screen, and I have to tell you, the inside of an eye is simply gorgeous. At least mine is, I don't know about yours. It looks just like Jupiter. Really! Huge and round and orange, with a large reddish "spot" (the place where the optic nerve enters the back of the eye) that look exactly like the red spot on Jupiter. You can see all the blood vessels, and a shadowy area that looks like the possible storm areas on Jupiter. I was amazed...it was phenomenal to look inside of my own eye.

I asked him if anyone ever asked for a print out, as I thought it was quite fantastic, and he just looked at me like I was an insane astronomer and said, in a hesitant tone: "Ummm, no, you're the first." *sigh*. Oh well, maybe next year they'll let us have a copy for an additional $25.00, I'd happily frame it and hang it on my wall.

~The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient, while Nature cures the disease.
~Voltaire (1694-1778)

Never in the right spot.

I'm always either a step behind, or, (not to brag) ahead of the pack.

In the Step Behind Department; now that Sex in the City is long over with, I had my first Cosmopolitan drink the other day....it was excellent. I know that everyone who is "in the loop" is probably now drinking new and fancier "in" drinks, and would likely gasp with disbelief if they heard me order one (although I don't even go to bars anymore, but that's a whole other department) ah yes....I am a Step Behind.

I watched TV the other night, my very first episode of CSI. I think it was a Las Vegas one, I am so far out of the loop that I didn't even realize that there were like 3 different CSI series. It was really good, but I am too far behind to keep up. Ah, yes....another Step Behind.

But on a brighter note, my Ahead of the Packs are pretty good. Although, now that I stop to think, they were Ahead of the Pack a long time ago, so they are sort of Step Behind now. Damn...I just can't win.

I was a HUGE fan of "Pillars of the Earth" long before Oprah read it and gave it her Royal Nod of Approval. I was a Richard Bachman fan before anyone knew he was Stephen King...and I bought his books that were published when he was "just" Richard Bachman. I liked souviner spoons and collected them (all 600 and some odd that I have) before you found them everywhere, but of course no one collects them now, but I think they'll come back again. Ummm, let's see....I sprinkled flax on my food long before it was the healthy thing to do.

There was a time, as a teen, when it would have mortified me to not know the latest trends, and/or to not have tried them, but now I am old enough (no...bad choice of words...experienced enough!) that I couldn't care less what is trendy and what is passe. It's the Purple Hat Syndrome starting to affect me, and I'm pretty tickled about it!

~ If I had my life to live over, I'd pick more dandelions.

I can't stop reading. It's like OCD in a way, like eating cashews...once I start, I can't stop. I have to have a book to read AT ALL TIMES, and a "spare". Right now I am on page 8 of a 674 page book, as well as having a spare, and I am still in a panic because the library is closed for the next 3 days...as if I'll finish those in that time, and be "bookless." And besides, I have books here that I haven't read yet, plus magazines, BUT, they are all old ones that I picked up at book sales and whatnot...so they don't actually count.

*sigh* It's a huge worry. I mean, what if I break a leg and end up in the hospital for a week, and Steven has to get books for me? That would not be good.
~Wear the old coat and buy the new book.
~ Austin Phelps

My latest addiction...and it's not Facebook!

This is my latest addiction, and I am totally hooked. This is probably one of those things that everyone else already knows and (probably) finds silly, but I am delighted!

Curious? I mean, are you a curious person? I am. I love to know what other people think and what other people's lives are like. Their everyday lives. I guess that could be considered nosy.....

So, at the top of this blog (and on anyone else's as well) you'll see that "search" box, and beside it you'll see "Next Blog". Well, click on it and it takes you to a random blog. I have spent the better part of the last few hours looking at blogs from all over the world. Some are in languages that I don't understand, some are even in cyrillic letters and some are in everyday english. I perused one in French; a woman who takes the most phenomenal pictures of food, and she is also redoing her home as well, I think she may want to be a caterer...couldn't quite figure it out, but it was amazing. I think I'll go back to hers again and again.

It's sort of a voyeur type of thing, peeking into people's lives, seeing pictures of new babies and new pets, holidays and just everyday random thoughts of others.

Yes, I am hooked. I wonder if any strangers ever look at mine?
~Curiosity is free wheeling intelligence
~Alistair Cooke

My curious little friend with the broken wing. He is not afraid of me at all. ~