Ketchem Up .... Sorta

Ketchem Up .... Sorta



Not much happening on the ol’ home front. Today I did not go for my walk, I find getting ready for the house cleaner exercise enough as I stow, hide and otherwise camouflage my “stuff”. Yesterday Precious, shown here as a professional clock watcher had her annual physical and shots. She was very well behaved, only hissing a few times. She likes her Vet and her Vet has known her since she was just a little fur ball. Precious’ original care-giver died quite suddenly of liver cancer; her request, was that, Precious would be placed in a caring home by the Vet – that would, in this case, be my home. Her Vet was very happy to see she had been placed with me – I’m flattered and a little ummm humbled I guess.

Anywhoo, Ms. P is healthy although her pupils seem dilated much of the time. We will, as they say, “keep an eye” on her eyes! Her dental is scheduled for October – Gad, worse than kids!


This past Saturday Women in Aviation had a major Garage Sale. Our first and there was some really cool things for sale – I got a Galileo thermometer.

Unfortunately for me, I ended up bring more stuff BACK to my garage for the next sale. We did some learning with this one.

Thoughts de Jour

Thoughts de Jour

Back from my walk and no, no pictures again. My friend has a small digital camera and I think I might ask her if I can borrow it that may encourage me.

At the moment I am icing my heel and cursing the “ravages of old age” (and my capacity for using trite expressions). The little green SMART bolted out of its usual avenue a couple of block in advance of my arrival so I am no closer to identifying to whom it might belong – beyond my noting that she seemed like a pleasant “older” lady.

“Older” yeah and younger, certainly missing my youth these days and not happy where I am …. well, I am HAPPY in so far as the alternative is not so great, but I must say, as I was following a little old guy wearing support stockings. I was reminded that after my walk I will be going home to ice a cranky foot. It seems to be the same problem as a friend of mine had (older friend, I might add). All around me I am exposed to what will be and to some degree, what once was. My sister, of whom I am very fond, has been plagued with arthritis pain in her hands and joints, last winter suffering a real nasty bout where her knee was red, swollen and it pained me to look at it. There is some part of me that notes that I will be headed in that direction too, especially since I already have some intense pain, if, when shaking hands, someone squeezes too hard.
Gee whiz, where did my youth go? I find myself wanting to be “back there”, not for the lack of information and innocence but simply for the heath, vigour and resilience. For sure I’m not looking forward to the Jobst and walker. On the other hand, for sure, an error of my youth was to spend time wishing I were somewhere or someone else doing something else – that was a tragic waste and I do not want to repeat it NOW so I need to learn to make the ferocious best of the moment, fully present in the NOW so that when it does come time for the ol’ stocking and walker, …. well I won’t regret what I did with this time of my life

Hunt For the Elusive …

This edition of the morning blog could have had a number of titles, including “Picture This …”, “What I Leaned on MY Walk Today” or “The Stories I Make Up”. I’m doing “The Elusive…”

So off I go on my morning walk, noting that it really is getting to be autumn here. Plants confined in pots have lost their lushness and their straggly appearance makes them seem like they are reaching for the last bits of warm sun.

You regular readers know that I need a “purpose”/”destination”/”goal” for my walks … well, maybe not all of those things listed but it helps. Today I decided to try to find where or from whence the elusive SMART parks itself, the one that passes me occasionally, the one I waved to yesterday. For a fact I know that it always enters the street from a particular avenue so off I go to trudge up the hill of this avenue. Wouldn’t you know it, a couple of blocks into my hike up the hill and my ears picked up the familiar sound of a small, cold diesel engine. I turned to look behind me and there receding in the distance was:



Oh well, I was committed to the walk so continued, mapping in my head the new route since I was no longer on the hunt. It occurred to me, one of the things I could do to encourage the walk would be to take “a picture de jour”. For instance, I say a Gas Utility truck deposit a sign at an alley entrance, just to the side. It said “NO THROUGH TRAFFIC”. The alley was down hill, offering a clear vista to the adjoining, busy avenue. I tell you folks, nothing, absolutely NOTHING was blocking the through-way. Perhaps a bit of a sense of humour on the part of the Gas Utility folk? Future plans/hopes/dreams? Another bit of interesting visage was a tree stump, very weathered, sort of off in the corner of someone’s yard – probably had to be there to appreciate that but I tell you, it WAS photogenic.

Now, rather or not I embark on the “de jour” business is debatable. While my camera is a digital model, if it were a vehicle it would be a tractor trailer, one of those 18 wheelers with a pup. It is, as is often the case with these things, heavy but takes good pictures. Who knows, maybe I will, and maybe I won’t! Stay tuned, work calls and I respond.

A Tax On The .....

Lottery tickets, I’ve heard say are a “tax on the stupid”. That comment is most unkind; certainly, they could be referred to “a tax on the hopeful” or at least “optimistic”.

Lately since I am no longer working downtown and enjoying the privileges of an exercise room, I’ve taken to trying to walk for around a half an hour per day. In an earlier blog entry I referred to the ethnic diversity present in my nieghbourhood. The saying of “hi” to those with whom I share the sidewalk continues even in the early part of the day but the young, walking for the bus, seem less inclined in the morning to toss a greeting.

To the subject at hand … several months ago I bought a few lottery tickets over the space of a number of weeks, five to be exact. The “pot”, I believe, was several million, like 15 million or 32 million or something like that – “a tax on the stupid”. The tickets were shifted from place to place, sometimes disappearing from view for weeks at a time, sometimes being used as bookmarks, sometimes just “holding down the desk”, if you know what I mean.

Walking is not my idea of a “good time”. I do not find it particularly useful for earnest thought or contemplative musing. Sometimes I need encouragement and a set task to engage in my walk. This morning I decided to take the lottery tickets to their final resting ground, the lottery terminal located in a local chain grocery store.

The long and the short of it? Of course there was NOT a “winner” among them, not even a free ticket. However, think of this:
The tickets aside from getting me on my walk:
• Provided fantasy of endless wealth for a few days
• Used for a book mark
• Allowed me to say “hi” to at least three people
• Put me in a place where I could give a hearty “thumbs up” to a passing SMART car driver, for which I was greeted with a broad grin
• Placed me in a situation where I could wave and say “hi” to a couple of old dollies sitting on the balcony of a “retirement home” past which my walk takes me – I probably, with the wave of my hand and hello, provided at least 15 minutes of chat for the ladies.

So, don’t tell me that lottery tickets are “a tax on the stupid”! It all depends on how you look at it. Looking at the short list provided, the tickets gave me some experiences that were, as they say in the VISA commercial, “priceless”. It has been said that the lens through which we view life determines how life is viewed and I’m choosing a different, less cynical lens today.

I REALLY Should Find More to Occupy Myself

pinched this from someone else's blog:

You Are 36% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

Funny thing is, as I was answering the the questions I thought I would turn out to be much more evil. Go figure, even a moral lapse with games these days I suppose

FUN FUN FUN

Saw a client today then it was off to the Flying Club to do some planning of social events. We have a very special “Swing Band” night planned and it is really taking off – a good thing I would say, to have happen at an airport – the “taking off” I mean. There will be three bands involved, around eighty musicians and we hope to have a Beech 18






in the corner and some professional catering and so on. It is easy to be enthusiastic with the group with whom I am working with to make this a reality.
Mind you, first things first and September 9th is the Corn Roast. Some of the flyers offered to bring back real Taber Corn

but there is an old saying that “if you’ve got time to spare then go by air and if you have to get there, go commercial”. Since we really MUST have CORN at the CORN ROAST, we gratefully declined and asked only that they come to enjoy the festivities – and of course help with the cleaning, cooking and anything else where a hand might be needed. It was amazing how quickly things came together today, tasks assigned, volunteers to pick up materials, etc, etc. We are hoping for around 150 souls and of course, the likelihood of rain is quite good that late into September, so we shall refer to them hardy souls.

Anyway, I am off to the Club tomorrow to clean the freezer where some nodnick put a bleeding animal – at least we hope it was an animal. In any case it is a bit of a mess and needs to be seen to.

Conspiracy Theories on a Personal Scale

So yesterday I was pawing through my closet, yet again, looking for a shirt dress that I knew I had but had not been able to locate for a couple of months. What? No way am I going to believe that it has been hanging EXACTLY in the middle of a line of dresses all this time. I’m pretty sure the cats were using it for something and surreptitiously replaced it and being cats, did not think to hang it in some obscure place where I had not looked so carefully. I mean give me a break! In the middle, right under my nose???

This morning I was searching through my utensil drawer – does everyone have one of these sort of “catch-all” drawers for large spoons, flat graters, egg-slicers, peelers, etc.? Anyway, I was looking for a Tablespoon measure as I was going to try my fancy shmancy new laundry soap, Nellie’s purchased recently at the Stampede and I discoved my orange scissors which had been missing since the last time I had my big sister and her hubby over to dinner months ago. She assured me, when I called her a few days after the dinner, that she had replaced the scissors in the drawer, saying “For Heaven’s sake, I know where your stuff belongs, I cat sit for weeks, remember?”. Yes well that is all good EXCEPT the scissors mysteriously reappeared today. My suspicion is, the cats were running around in my dress with pointy scissors and they ARE NOT to do that, especially the running with scissors.

Further to my conspiracy theory, I’ve decided, as per Coffie's book suggestion that page 123 of EVERY book for the next few days has a hidden message, here is my latest:

“We are limited, but we can push back the borders of our limitations. An understanding of the principle of our own growth enables us to search out correct principles with the confidence that the more we learn, the more clearly we can focus the lens through which we see the world. The principles don’t change; our understanding of them does”

From: “the 7 Habits of HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE” – Stephen R. Covey

This means I am again trying to read the darn thing yet AGAIN – something like a “Purpose Driven Life”(PDL), which I would like to point out I did finish.


How did Coffie know that page 123 would have THAT useful message? Hmmmm as PDL would say: “Point To Ponder”.

Further evidence of the cat conspiracy? Both cats took off in a panic when I tossed the special drying balls purchased along with my soap, into the dryer. THEY know they have been busted and are now under surveillance for further suspicious behaviour.

The Common Herd

I’ve succumbed to having folk who wish to comment enter a word verification. Just too darned tired of “try these interesting links”. Thanks but I will decide what an “interesting link” might be.

Very warm today and I must say, it can stay like this and then get hot. Yeah right, not going to happen, rain is forecast for a day or two from now and you just know, because the nights are nippy, summer is coming to an end. If the crisp night temperatures were not enough evidence, the days are getting shorter – I need a light on when I get up in the morning.

Would someone, anyone, like to tell me why Precious insists on dunking and leaving her wooly toys in the water dish? Usually she leaves them in her own dish but Spook's dish is so much bigger. In an earlier blog entry I mentioned that she drags my socks all over the place, in the morning I can discover them in the living room, kitchen, or hall or in Spook’s water dish. It just seems odd, that’s all.

Well, enough about me, how are you doing?

Corrected Links For Other Tagged Folk

Canagal

Library

A SouthAfrican

Man, I spend more time correcting links ....

Tagged

People Tagged:

Quodlibet

Amelia

Tagged by Coffee

Tagged by Coffee
1. Grab the nearest book. Ok got it.
2. Open the book to page 123. You guys are gonna hate me!
3. Find the fifth sentence. still gonna hate me!
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag five people.

"By then, Westland Spraying Service was out of business, and Irwin Spraying Service was lining up jobs through a booking agency. Their first job that season was in an area that was among the first in Alberta to put in rural electrification, and the single-wire power lines became the nemesis of spray pilots. Spaced a pole-and-ahalf apart, there was considerable sag in between, making them nearly impossible for a pilot to see."

From: "Flying Frontiers" by Shirlee Smith Matheson

The Good, The Bad and Ridiculous

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Heard from an old flying buddy today, she has successfully completed her ground school and sim stuff and is now flying for Horizon in a guarded sort of way. In the midst of all her excitement she noted something about 100 hours of flying required before she can really be considered an independent F/O. She is now, just now, beginning to “live the dream” after years and years of sacrifice and hard work – clearly, this is “The Good”.

On a less impressive note, another friend had planned a big paaaatttyyy, discovered she could not deliver because of a really bad cold and an asthma flare-up, which we people who have asthma know all about. No chest cold is inconsequential as they all seem to trigger the wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath and sometimes fear that one is never going to pull out of the coughing bout. Anywhoo, because I am a good buddy I volunteered, somewhat reluctantly because I HATE returns, to return the perishable to the large grocery chain from which they were purchased. I HATED what transpired even more …. Off I go, her credit card in hand, bill in hand, like a good little “doby”, present items, explain the difficulty and … would you believe…. they INSISTED that she needed to come to the store and do it IN PERSON. Yep, get up off her sick bed, remember, we are talking about perishables here and hoping, by a prompt return the store can still sell them, that, is exactly what happened. I was so steamed, I went out to my car and called on the cell phone in not too pleasant a tone, saying “get up, get dressed, YOU have to do this”. That folks is plain UGLY.

The “BAD” … what else, the kitties, picture this, a kitchen island, picture the toaster cover tossed onto the island while the toaster is in use. Picture a certain cat, whose initials are “Precious” jumping up on the island, sticking her head in the cover and walking around on the island with her head covered up. Yeah, a recipe for disaster if not rescued! Bad cat, bad, bad bad … but so darned cute!

OK, I’m ready for the week, bring ‘er on!

So the nephew and his wife are returning to "Springside Green", with our warm wishes for another good year and they are soon to be replaced by "my-niece-the-librarian-adjunct-professor". Maybe I will begin to shorten that title to LAP or something like that. Personally, and what other way is there to deal with a blog, I am thrilled that Laura is coming home for some part of the summer. It is always a pleasure and an intellectual challenge to visit with her. Often I find myself play "devil's advocate", perhaps in the misguided effort to have positions, political and otherwise, for us both, thought through. Of course, I was struck with CanaGal's blog when she wrote about her niece's sixteenth birthday. With my niece there are a few more birthdays and I can remember the day she came home. Mom wanted to name her a name that neither dad nor I could pronounce. Poor kid could have been stuck with "Susan" had we not had some willingness to "accomodate".

Quodlibet is leaning the "wet-dream" ... oops, I mean Jet Stream, a BAE product and a step up the ol' career ladder. Good on her I say, although I must say, I certainly am dreading the day that she establishes herself in a different airline hub - bound to happen and we will adjust - that is the nature of the industry.

Cats, both the shy one and the kittenish one are well and at the moment hiding from the dreaded .... "suckker-upper-noise-machine", as it is cleaning day.

Guess that's about it for me, I'm off to the "hairy-port" soon and will say hi to a few friends whilst I wait for the bird from CO arriving from KGBI