It's take your mom to school day...

Okay, so maybe not...maybe it's cuz I have my own learning to do that I went...to school...with Eem-er...and the U-Dog, Rob Kerr. I rode in the bus, too....with a pack of nine dogs...
It was better than Disneyland. I swear. Louder and with a bit more slobber, but still better than Disneyland! You know what I learned in school today? That I have a better dog than I gave her credit for... and that she will come back to me(eventually), if I give her a little more freedom than I have been. Those times she's bolted from me really scared the bejesus out of me and I have to learn to give up some of that fear...and find better ways of dealing with my headstrong dog.

The hike was amazing...I'd never been out there on that trail before. Some grand scenery, lots of arbutus and moss, and sky and grass and rocky knolls, and vistas....

Thanks for the walk, Rob. And the lesson.

sleep sound

* Paul Newman had a soft spot for underdogs in real life, giving tens of millions to charities through his food company and setting up camps for severely ill children. Passionately opposed to the Vietnam War, and in favor of civil rights, he was so famously liberal that he ended up on President Nixon's "enemies list," one of the actor's proudest achievements, he liked to say.
(taken off Yahoo news this morning)

Happy Birthday to me....

I have been waiting nearly twelve years to see this guy live...so for my birthday(he must know it's my birthday, right?)tomorrow, tickets went on sale(today) for Martin Sexton's show in Vancouver next month...Orchestra level seats...and for me, for my birthday, I bought some. And honestly? Serendipity. Yeah, cuz I didn't know about this ticket sale at all...was looking into a Ticketmaster notice about Lucinda Williams tickets going on sale tomorrow at the same venue and stumbled across the news by accident....which is just the slightest bit irksome cuz I am on Martin's mailing list....but whatever. And? I already have the day off and the day after...just saying, serendipitous, eh? And you know what else??? You only turn 40 once. I may just buy myself tickets to see Lucinda, too. Because I love a girl who knows how to rock, in a bluesy, country, soulful sort of way...and doesn't really fit the mold.
Life can be sweet, even without the cake...
and tomorrow?
I get cake, too!

with frosting.

summer is definitely wrapping up....

and I can't really say that I like that. The down comforter goes back in the duvet cover tonight! And I am pulling the long-sleeved things to the front of my closet today.....and thinking of soup...with dumplings for dinner.

We had a lovely dinner party the other night...a goodbye to Dukie and family. It was fun to have the house full of people, and laughter and food, and love. I reckon there won't be so many of these moments for a while, the house crowded with dogs, elbows knocking into elbows, the good-natured teasings of good friends come together. I will miss them so much.
It certainly has been a summer of change...my emotions have run the gambit, and still are. My pack of plenty is down to just Eem-er and I most of the time now. Thank goodness she loves the U-Dog. At least she will be part of a pack still. Thank goodness I have work now, as well, and that I love it.
Well, it's time to get out of here for a bit...there is sunshine out those doors, even if the wind is chilly...and smells for Ee-mer to smell, and sights for me to see, pictures to take and discoveries to make. Tomorrow, I will download some of the photos off the camera and give you all a little update on the Hood. Some cool haps down this way...of course, lots of the same old crap, too! Talk to y'all later.

Ditto what Allium(Life in the Bathtub Racing Capitol) said...and the best friend the south end ever had

November 15th
Elect to Council
Gordon Fuller
Building Community
An Alternative to Vested Interests
In running for Council for the third time Gord believes he would bring a balanced perspective with both personal and professional experience around social issues as well as his involvement over the years with various community groups. A long time Social and Community activist Gord knows it is critical to recognise the importance of a healthy diverse economy in providing meaningful employment and the necessary tax base from which to run our fair city. “We need a strong advocate on council representing the interests of the South End, an advocate who also understands the issues in other areas of the city as well. There is much to be said for the Ward system as opposed to the at large. This becomes even more apparent when we consider South of the Hospital area has seen no elected representation for years.”Gord is a third generation Nanaimoite, himself having lived in Nanaimo for the past 27 years most spent in the South End and Downtown areas. In 2002 he completed a degree in Child & Youth Care at Malaspina University/College while working full time as manager of Samaritan House Emergency Shelter. Gord is currently employed with Nanaimo Youth Services Association as coordinator of their 20 unit Youth Housing Complex.Active in the community Gord Fuller is currently Co-Chair of the Nanaimo 7-10 Club Society, President of Friends of Plan Nanaimo, Vice President of the South End Community Association and Vice Chair of the Nanaimo Neighbourhood Netwerk. He is also an active participant on the Board of Citizens Advocacy as well as with the Downtown Nanaimo Partnership – Housing Design Development subcommittee, Working Group on Homeless Issues, Neighbours of Nob Hill, Nanaimo Old City Association and Mid Island Coalition for Strong Communities. Gord’s past community involvement has also been extensive including participation with the Nanaimo Crystal Meth Task Force, Nanaimo Alcohol and Drug Action Coalition, Working Group on Downtown Social Issues, Mental Health Advisory Council, City of Nanaimo Nuisance Property Committee, Nanaimo Social Development Strategy, S.A.F.E.R Downtown Nanaimo Project, Community Food Connection, Food Link Nanaimo, Action for Diversity Team and Nanaimo Food Share Society.“I believe Nanaimo is a unique city that still has an opportunity to work collectively towards not repeating the mistakes other cities have made in the past. We need to focus on the preservation of Nanaimo’s heritage with development that works in harmony with the waterfront and mountain vistas, maintaining the unique character of neighbourhoods and the community, Citizen Driven and Not Developer Driven. Smart Growth not rapid growth should determine Nanaimo’s future.”“We need to implement sustainable small-scale social programs that move away from the institutional and towards community integration. We must work towards Social Equality and the elimination of the endemic poverty that exists in Nanaimo. This process can be accomplished in part through innovative sustainable affordable housing options that do not place a greater burden on the already high taxes that exist in Nanaimo. It is imperative that we, as a community, recognize and value diversity and the potential of all citizens in contributing to make Nanaimo a vibrant and inclusive community.”In keeping with a vision of a healthy community Gord believes, “we must look towards the environment both urban and rural. Initiatives towards green energy, environmental protection and public ownership of our drinking water must be given priority.”Other Comments:Parks: “ From recreational to Tot Lots we need to ensure all of Nanaimo’s Parks are safe from rezoning in the future.”Water: “We need to ensure that privatization of water never comes up on the agenda of the municipality and Regional District. Nanaimo needs to look to the purchase of the watersheds surrounding our drinking water.”Planning: “Nanaimo is fast becoming a laughing stock, among communities across Canada, when it comes to urban planning. We need to implement smart growth principals creating density within, rather than by expanding, the urban containment boundary.”Development: “Neighbourhood involvement needs to be the first step for developers before taking their projects to the city for approval. “Housing & Homelessness: “The City of Nanaimo must lobby provincial and federal levels of government to work with the municipality in the provision of affordable/social housing and other means to end homelessness and poverty in Nanaimo.”Concentration of Social Services: “Most communities work from the adage that you put the services where the people are. This has tended to concentrate services in the downtown or bordering neighbourhoods and results in urban decay and the ghettoization of the community. Poverty is not located in any one area and as such we need to look at creating smaller scale services outside of the downtown areas. We need to move away from large scale all-in-one institutional settings.”
Food Security/Policy: “The City of Nanaimo must adopt a food charter coordinating municipal strategy that will encourage greater support for local food producers as well as allowing for the development of community gardens that would help provide food security to those in need in Nanaimo.”
Conflict of Interest: “If there is even a remote chance of conflict or perceived conflict of interest councilors must make it known.”Councilor behaviour at council meetings/public hearings: “The denigrating of people speaking to council must stop. All citizens coming before council must be treated with respect.”City Council Terms of Office: “Too often this has become a career, many having sat on council for 25 years or more. I believe we need to limit the number of terms a person sits on council to 2 or 3 at the most. This would allow for a quicker turnover to fresh ideas and enthusiasm on the part of newly elected municipal officials.”A strong believer in an open communication process you can feel free to contact Gord at:Ph: 250 754 6389e-mail: gorfathome@yahoo.ca
Posted by Allium at 8:04 PM
Tags: City Council, Community, Community Gathering, Homelessness, Nanaimo, Natural Living
3 comments
Sunday, September 7, 2008



so, hey, it's me now, Dilling. If you are reading this in Nanaimo...get out and vote...and make your vote count....make it count for something you believe in... You do have a voice...USE IT!

her first day of school....

Where does the time go?

I should start saving for her college tuition, eh?

moo

whew...........

Two years ago today we adopted Sylvan-Charlotte-Emma-Eemer from Beaglepaws....and life has been a learning experience ever since...for better and for worse. She starts U-Dog University this week...so that she learns something or, more likely, we do. However it works out, we still have "issues" to address, but we love her, all the same. That's why she starts University.

Back from another whirlwind camp trip to Nanaimo Lakes. We saw all the lakes, fished some, didn't catch a thing, and still didn't see any elk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, gotta go get to work...it's gonna be a busy week so if you don't hear from me, don't think too much of it. Should be quieter around here next week. Maybe.

Hope y'all had a good weekend and we'll talk soon?!?

ps....check out this!!!!!

reveries

So we headed off camping a few days ago....no major trip, just out of Here...I don't have much to say about it, other than it was just so good to get away...my mind is full of daydreams, Mellancamp lyrics, plans that could happen, things that might be, politics(let's NOT talk politics, though)....remember how I said that my brain has lots of noise a few posts ago? That's going on right now. Mostly, it's music, but not all of it. So, photos of camping and thoughts of random, sometimes shiny things..... Why is 40 such a big deal? There have been YEARS of my life where I didn't remember how old I was...for real. I don't remember being 24 at all. Is that weird? I don't feel much different than I did in my late 20's(mentally...physically, DAMN!!!!) and I think I should. Shouldn't I? Sometimes I think I should be further along than I am...more at peace, more comfortable in my skin...I actually think sometimes I am going backwards in those areas....but then I realize how often I laugh out loud...and feel, really FEEL things now. Even the uncomfortable things.

We set set the alarm to get up and watch the sunrise over the lake and then went back to bed. How funny are we? It was beautiful, though.

Right now in Washington State, they are trying to pass a Doctor Assisted Suicide Bill for people with terminal disease. My brother-in-law, whom I adore, is completely and vocally against it...with very convincing arguments that have nothing to do about God or sin....but I still intend to vote in favour of it, all the same. Wait...I wasn't going to talk politics...though there is nothing political about the time we all go Home. Sometimes, I gotta really, truly believe we all know when the time is right to just, simply, go Home. Somehow, I feel my time in Olympia next month will be nothing but political, at every turn....and I dread that. But I still love my family.

I spent 2 hours with an accupuncturist today. It is the first time in months without some remarkable pain....but somehow, I don't trust this reprieve. I can still feel where the pain is supposed to be. Does that make sense?

It's 9/11 then...I am still sitting alone on the floor of our house in Vancouver watching the towers fall through my tears, barely able to breathe, alone in a foreign country, unable to cross the closed borders even though I should be home, part of the collective pain, part of the collective suffering.....bleeding.

It's 9/11 now, and I feel we've learned nothing.

But the sun still rises and feels good on my skin....

and I can still find something magic just about anywhere, if I remember to take the time.

Eem-er's boyfriend, Dukie, is moving back to Ontario this month with his mom and dad. This neighbourhood seems so empty now. Except for the crack hookers.

"This getting older ain't for cowards."

And, I have felt like a bad country music fan...y'all know that we lost Jerry Reed on August 31, don't ya? Some of you may only recognize him as Burt Reynold's sidekick in Smokey and Bandit. If that's all you know, then look him up. He was so much more than that. We lost an artist, a musician, a songwriter...a good ole boy and a poet. Goodnight, Guitar Man, one sure can get lost in the Louisianna Bayou. Hope you found your way.

"I have worried about many things

most of which did not come to pass...." yeah, that's me, quoting Mellencamp. Maybe it's it is this whole coming up on 40 thing, thinking about how my life is(very good) and how it might have been(let's not go there, see earlier post)...if any one thing had been different, if I had not been strong enough, or brave enough, or crazy enough...or if the colour blue of the sky in Colorado had been something I had seen before... This post isn't about such introspection...at least not mine. It is about John Mellencamp's, though. And it's full of heel-stompin', emphasis marking statements about getting older , being tired and dying one day, about the eyes of heaven, about not being a coward without being a hero(not that he's not one of my heroes, cuz he absolutely is!!!!) As much as this music is about getting older and dying, it's about LIVING, about being a better person...something I can work on. How about you?

Yeah, I know, I told you about it before, but EVERY time I listen to this album, it just gets better. Like life-altering, jaw-dropping, holy-shit-that's-deep-and-I-wish-I-could-have-said-it-that-way better. Don't you love a real life songwriter? Just look up the lyrics...read them like a poem...read them like someone's secret diary....read them like it's your life. Read them like it's my life. Read them like it's your neighbour's life. Or someone you have never even met....now add the music....

"I realized our country has written some sad motherfuckin' songs. I wanted to see if I had it in me to write like that....I see darkness everywhere, and I have to write about it. I don't care if I just sell six records. All I can do is keep on writing songs and singing."
-- Mellencamp on Life, Death, Love and Freedom in Rolling Stone magazine's 2008 spring music preview issue.

You should buy this album. I doubt you'll regret it...and if you do regret , hold onto that cd until you're old enough to get it. He should sell at least seven albums. Don't you think?

The Rapture

All summer

I wandered the fields

that were thickening every morning,

every rainfall,

with weeds and blossoms,

with the long loops

of the shimmering,

and the extravagant-

pale as flames they rose

and fell back,

replete and beautiful-

that was all there was-

and I too

once or twice,

at least,

felt myself rising,

my boots

touching suddenly the tops of the weeds,

the blue and silky air-

listen,

passion did it,

called me forth,

addled me,

stripped me clean

then covered me with the cloth of happiness-

I think there is no other prize,

only rapture the gleaming,

rapture the illogical the weightless-

whether it be for the perfect shapeliness

of something you love-

like an old German song-

or of someone-

or the dark floss of the earth itself,

heavy and electric.

At the edge of sweet sanity open such wild,

blind wings.

(Mary Oliver)

Up to the Challenge?

CindyDianne has challenged us.... without cleaning it, we were to take a photo of our bedside table. And to tell what the "to do" list is regarding the stuff there. I don't know what that is supposed to tell you about me, but I am not afraid. And seriously, CindyDiane, I did not clean it for the photos. You may remember that I am that person who wanted a mop for her birthday last year(this year I want the Dexter book series, hint hint). This is just how it is...my "to do" list, at any given time, is to finish reading whatever four or five books I have on the go at the time. My bedside table is tiny for a reason...so that it can't collect stuff. There is a method to my madness, after all. A battery operated clock so that if the power goes out, the clock is still going. I used to have a glass of water bedside, but the kitty likes to put her feet in it while I was sleeping and taking a swig out of kitty foot flavoured water at 3am is disgusting...so bottled water it is(sorry, Al Gore.) The silver thing is my reading glasses case. I know I paid a good chunk of change for 20/20 vision, but sometimes the tiny print books are just TOO TINY of print these days....which brings me to my books. Yup. Usually four at a time...right now, it's five although the fifth one is on the living room bureau since it's about training dogs, and I am not training Eem-er at bedtime. Here, though, you will find I am reading this, and this, and this, and, finally, this. What are you reading???

Just to prove it's not a staged shot, CindyDianne, I'll add this one....note the bed is not even made and my ginormous stack of pillows is on the floor. I am currently sleeping with only pillow now, an ortho pillow, at that. I hate it. I miss all my pillows....oh, yeah, see the blue ball on the nightstand? It is for rolling along knots in your neck, back, etc....been having some neck and back pain lately...so on my to do list, STRETCHING exercises and possibly an accupuncture treatment....and maybe someday actually find out what causes this pain. And if you think my bedside table is boring....look at Michael's!

Just the remote for the fan/light fixture....what is it about men and remote controls?

K, that's it. The phone just rang and they are down one person at work...cold and flu season seems to have started.

bye now.

two days off....

and I am sick....go figure. Two days and all I have to show for it is two clean loads of laundry. Sigh. Snoozing on the couch watching Bob Ross painting happy little trees in his happy little world on public television...Fishbone tucked behind my knees and Eem-er curled against my belly kind of makes my little world a bit happier, even though I am mostly miserable...

ah well....

life happens.

I watched a flock of Canadian Geese from the back deck this morning. I think they were already heading south.

Talk to you all later.