Today is neither Thursday nor Four O'clock ... that was yesterday and as it happens, it was also Christmas. Of course I excused myself from my appointment with self. A table laden with roast goose stuffed with brandy soaked dried fruit, wild rice, asparagus (much more appealing to the taste buds than the traditional Brussels Sprouts) and other dishes too numerous to list here seemed like a much more desirable activity than an appointment with self. And it was.
Today is Boxing Day. Well in Canada it is. It is a national holiday.
Traditionally Boxing Day as I recall it was a day of visiting friends. Everything was closed. Gifts left unopened under the tree were taken to their intended recipients. Of course there was always plenty to eat and toasts to drink to. It was an extension of the goodwill of Christmas Day.
If you go further back, Boxing Day originated in England and it was the day that leftovers from the Christmas Dinner were "boxed" and taken to those less fortunate. Hence the name Boxing Day.
Today Boxing Day has morphed into something completely different ... it has become the equivalent of Black Friday in the United States which follows the day of their celebration of Thanksgiving. Stores open early in the day with promises of high discounts, up to as much as 70%. Eager shoppers line up early in the morning (some even camping overnight)so as to be sure to be able to purchase that which they want. Its a mad dash ... more to the point, its pure madness. Moreover, this one day is now becoming a Boxing Week Sale.
I find it so distasteful. Have we as a society become so consumer driven that we squander a day off with shopping? True, the pricing is attractive, but camping overnight? Where has the value of spending time with family and friends gone. We talk about quality time as being important and something we strive for. Is this our idea of quality time?
I guess that this is the chicken and egg question. Did we start to shop on Boxing Day because stores stayed open and offered big discounts or, did stores decide to open for Boxing Day and offer outstanding discounts on products because there was a demand for it? I think it just morphed. I think it just sort began to happen. Stores noticed that on December 27 which was the first day of business after Christmas, they got a lot of traffic, the reason being that stock unsold prior to Christmas was now reduced. Some vendor had an AHA moment and the rest is history.
More is the shame. Our response akin to that of lemmings and sheep. What would it take for us to shun the Boxing Day specials? If we but adhered to our touted family values and took this day of December 26 as a time to be with those closest to us ... would the goods last to December 27? Revolutionary. I know.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Are Cats Indeed the Superior Breed?
I am posting my four o'clock waaaaay past the hour ... but I'll post anyway.
A pang of guilt coursed through my veins as I thought to myself "curses! missing my appointment with self, yet again..." It was four o'clock and I was on the freeway, perilously negotiating anything that looked shiny --- was that water or black ice? On a freeway where traffic typically hurls itself forward the movement today was positively glacial. Even the SUVs crawled along with the rest of us. Then a thought occurred to me, I can keep my appointment with self, right here, in the car, on the freeway and then I can write later.
It is now later.
You could be excused for thinking that I live somewhere on the north eastern part of North America where news of ice storms and power outages has been hogging the headlines ....oh nooooo, my little chickadee, I live on the west coast in the city of Vancouver. The snow behaves very nicely here, it stays up on the mountaintops where it belongs and turns to rain down here where we mortals live, the better to keep the streets clean for our many visitors and most welcome tourists. Oh yummy we love their money and the least we can do is keep our city clean --- the rain does wonders for the municipal budget!
Its not just that we are at sea level but that we enjoy the benefits of the warm Japan Current. Understand that "warm" here is a measure of interpretation by aspiring meteorologists, although I must say we do have hundreds if not thousands partake in the annual New Year's Day Polar Bear Swim at English Bay and apparently the water is not cold enough for some of these touched sapiens as buckets of ice are added to the mix in the Bay. Curiously these naked bodies come out of the frigid waters all pink, not blue, after having dipped themselves in the ocean. Some of them even linger on in the waters, but that I think is more a comment on their post New Year's Eve state of sobriety than on the warmness of the Japan Current.
Oh but I digress. Occasionally all this goes to you know where in a hand basket and the temperature drops and the snow stays as snow all the way down to our very own streets. Chaos. No one knows how to drive in this white stuff. I mean unless you are a regular Whistler type, why get snow tires anyway? The all weather variety suits us well here, and never mind, for the odd year when snow does come all the way down, well, rain follows and washes it all away in no time flat ... EXCEPT... except when it's a cold snap and the rain does not follow and the snow freezes and hangs around for a day or two or even a week! The sun melts the ice but come dusk its icicles we see forming. Today it is one of those EXCEPT days, and tomorrow they promise more cold. Zero temperatures we are not used to, but below zero? What do you mean cloth coats are as warm as furs?
I would ordinarily not bother venturing out in this type of weather. I can walk to the local grocery store for food and I work from my home office so no commute, but I am looking after a trio of saucy cats for friends while they are away in Europe. They, the cats that is, are all rescue cats and at least two are very skittish so someone they already know (and get along with) was preferable over another kind albeit a strange, soul. I'm not really a cat person so this is an honour bestowed. So here I was at four o'clock this Thursday, on my way to feeding these cats. All good, all done.
Oh, I have become the cats' best friend --- all three of them, yes, including the two timid ones, greet me with eager faces on my arrival, however, unlike a dog, they do not see me to the door when I leave. So is it true, are cats our masters? More disturbingly to the point, are cats the superior breed after all?
A pang of guilt coursed through my veins as I thought to myself "curses! missing my appointment with self, yet again..." It was four o'clock and I was on the freeway, perilously negotiating anything that looked shiny --- was that water or black ice? On a freeway where traffic typically hurls itself forward the movement today was positively glacial. Even the SUVs crawled along with the rest of us. Then a thought occurred to me, I can keep my appointment with self, right here, in the car, on the freeway and then I can write later.
It is now later.
You could be excused for thinking that I live somewhere on the north eastern part of North America where news of ice storms and power outages has been hogging the headlines ....oh nooooo, my little chickadee, I live on the west coast in the city of Vancouver. The snow behaves very nicely here, it stays up on the mountaintops where it belongs and turns to rain down here where we mortals live, the better to keep the streets clean for our many visitors and most welcome tourists. Oh yummy we love their money and the least we can do is keep our city clean --- the rain does wonders for the municipal budget!
Its not just that we are at sea level but that we enjoy the benefits of the warm Japan Current. Understand that "warm" here is a measure of interpretation by aspiring meteorologists, although I must say we do have hundreds if not thousands partake in the annual New Year's Day Polar Bear Swim at English Bay and apparently the water is not cold enough for some of these touched sapiens as buckets of ice are added to the mix in the Bay. Curiously these naked bodies come out of the frigid waters all pink, not blue, after having dipped themselves in the ocean. Some of them even linger on in the waters, but that I think is more a comment on their post New Year's Eve state of sobriety than on the warmness of the Japan Current.
Oh but I digress. Occasionally all this goes to you know where in a hand basket and the temperature drops and the snow stays as snow all the way down to our very own streets. Chaos. No one knows how to drive in this white stuff. I mean unless you are a regular Whistler type, why get snow tires anyway? The all weather variety suits us well here, and never mind, for the odd year when snow does come all the way down, well, rain follows and washes it all away in no time flat ... EXCEPT... except when it's a cold snap and the rain does not follow and the snow freezes and hangs around for a day or two or even a week! The sun melts the ice but come dusk its icicles we see forming. Today it is one of those EXCEPT days, and tomorrow they promise more cold. Zero temperatures we are not used to, but below zero? What do you mean cloth coats are as warm as furs?
I would ordinarily not bother venturing out in this type of weather. I can walk to the local grocery store for food and I work from my home office so no commute, but I am looking after a trio of saucy cats for friends while they are away in Europe. They, the cats that is, are all rescue cats and at least two are very skittish so someone they already know (and get along with) was preferable over another kind albeit a strange, soul. I'm not really a cat person so this is an honour bestowed. So here I was at four o'clock this Thursday, on my way to feeding these cats. All good, all done.
Oh, I have become the cats' best friend --- all three of them, yes, including the two timid ones, greet me with eager faces on my arrival, however, unlike a dog, they do not see me to the door when I leave. So is it true, are cats our masters? More disturbingly to the point, are cats the superior breed after all?
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Democracy at Work
Last week I wrote about the political hullaballoo in Canadian politics.
The attempt at the power grab by the combined opposition parties --- the coalition, or Dion's Last Stand --- did not fly. Parliament is in recess. The official word is that the Governor General prorogued it. Yes I know! I had to look it up ... it just means that government has been suspended until a given date which is January 26 in this case, so that all can go back to the drawing board and let cooler heads prevail. Prime Minster Harper's first job of the day will be to present the budget.
Of course the coalition did not want cooler heads to prevail. The opposition party with the largest number of seats, the Liberals, have since literally disintegrated. Their leader resigned, another candidate stepped down, and a new leader of the official opposition was crowned without due political process. The new man is Michael Ignatieff.
We know little of the man here. He is relatively new to politics and only returned to Canada a few years ago from the US where he was a professor at Harvard. So the boy is not exactly stupid, at least not academically.
Will he too try to topple the government? The pundits all seem to think not. While he is saying all the "right" things to support the shennanigins of his predecessor, it is generally believed that he will work with the current government and take the time to rebuild his party. The next election several years down the road should indeed be an interesting one.
Politics is a strange animal. It has always been my belief that the elected government makes policies and takes action for the betterment of the country and its citizens, and what that means to me is party brand be damned, lets roll up our sleeves and make things work. That is democracy at work. Given that each party has some fundamental differences from the others, debate, disagreements and occassionally downright opposition are not uncommon. That's ok too. Its democracy at work.
What boondoggled my brain here was the "damn the election, damn the results" posturing of the opposition and a trumped up outrage to oust the just re-elected government. Now that's not ok. At least not with me and from the outpouring of the comments on radio, blogs, call ins to any type of a public show, it wasn't ok with the majority of other Canadians too. But then I guess I don't understand, because, that too apparently is democracy at work!
The attempt at the power grab by the combined opposition parties --- the coalition, or Dion's Last Stand --- did not fly. Parliament is in recess. The official word is that the Governor General prorogued it. Yes I know! I had to look it up ... it just means that government has been suspended until a given date which is January 26 in this case, so that all can go back to the drawing board and let cooler heads prevail. Prime Minster Harper's first job of the day will be to present the budget.
Of course the coalition did not want cooler heads to prevail. The opposition party with the largest number of seats, the Liberals, have since literally disintegrated. Their leader resigned, another candidate stepped down, and a new leader of the official opposition was crowned without due political process. The new man is Michael Ignatieff.
We know little of the man here. He is relatively new to politics and only returned to Canada a few years ago from the US where he was a professor at Harvard. So the boy is not exactly stupid, at least not academically.
Will he too try to topple the government? The pundits all seem to think not. While he is saying all the "right" things to support the shennanigins of his predecessor, it is generally believed that he will work with the current government and take the time to rebuild his party. The next election several years down the road should indeed be an interesting one.
Politics is a strange animal. It has always been my belief that the elected government makes policies and takes action for the betterment of the country and its citizens, and what that means to me is party brand be damned, lets roll up our sleeves and make things work. That is democracy at work. Given that each party has some fundamental differences from the others, debate, disagreements and occassionally downright opposition are not uncommon. That's ok too. Its democracy at work.
What boondoggled my brain here was the "damn the election, damn the results" posturing of the opposition and a trumped up outrage to oust the just re-elected government. Now that's not ok. At least not with me and from the outpouring of the comments on radio, blogs, call ins to any type of a public show, it wasn't ok with the majority of other Canadians too. But then I guess I don't understand, because, that too apparently is democracy at work!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Politics do indeed make strange bedfellows.
Wow! There's definitely blood running in our veins after all and its running hot! Canadians in record numbers took to the airwaves to voice their displeasure in no uncertain terms at the turn of politics in this country. Nice and polite gave way to incredulity and virtual vitriol as Canada's citizens climbed down off of their proverbial fence and took their politicians to task. Any ambivalence or indifference as witnessed by the less than stellar turnout of voters at the recent election was quickly dispelled.
There was nothing ambivalent or indifferent in Canadian's reactions to what amounted to be am attempt at a power grab. Little can be added here that has not already been dissected in print, radio and TV. No longer can we say that politics in Canada are dull.
For the uninitiated non-Canadian readers, a quick summary of the week that was. We just had an election in October. Early September the Prime Minister called for an election. He was governing with the smallest minority government in the history of Canada. Having done what he could and being frustrated by the opposition parties, he called for an election. He was re-elected. Again with a minority albeit a much stronger minority.
Ours is a government of several parties. The "runner up" holds the title of opposition. Four parties hold sway, one of which ironically holds the position of separation from Canada --- yes, I know, it is a complicated issue and fodder for grist for another day. The elected minority government won the most seats of any party, but if faced with a united front from the other three, would be outvoted.
The new Parliament opened with what in retrospect may have been an unfortunate postion taken by the Prime Minister rescinding government funding of political parties according to votes garnered. Stay with me - there is a formula. There were other items which did not sit well with the opposition and they took this opportunity to form a coalition with the other parties so as to topple the government. If successful they could form the next government without going to the electorate. What is most interesting about this is that the parties in question are not exactly fans of each other, in fact a scant month and a half ago, they were barely civil to each other. So, as the saying goes, politics do indeed make for strange bedfellows.
Suddenly things got exciting. The rapier sharp "he said, she said, you said, I said" ascerbic rhetoric that followed was worthy of a verbal fencing gold at the Olympics if such an event existed.
What I enjoyed most about this whole episode ... this being my Four o'clock Thursday hour, is that it seems to have galvanized Canadians to action. Got them off their keesters. We have found our spine!
Oh yeah...things will now be held in abeyance until an actual budget is brought down January 26.
There was nothing ambivalent or indifferent in Canadian's reactions to what amounted to be am attempt at a power grab. Little can be added here that has not already been dissected in print, radio and TV. No longer can we say that politics in Canada are dull.
For the uninitiated non-Canadian readers, a quick summary of the week that was. We just had an election in October. Early September the Prime Minister called for an election. He was governing with the smallest minority government in the history of Canada. Having done what he could and being frustrated by the opposition parties, he called for an election. He was re-elected. Again with a minority albeit a much stronger minority.
Ours is a government of several parties. The "runner up" holds the title of opposition. Four parties hold sway, one of which ironically holds the position of separation from Canada --- yes, I know, it is a complicated issue and fodder for grist for another day. The elected minority government won the most seats of any party, but if faced with a united front from the other three, would be outvoted.
The new Parliament opened with what in retrospect may have been an unfortunate postion taken by the Prime Minister rescinding government funding of political parties according to votes garnered. Stay with me - there is a formula. There were other items which did not sit well with the opposition and they took this opportunity to form a coalition with the other parties so as to topple the government. If successful they could form the next government without going to the electorate. What is most interesting about this is that the parties in question are not exactly fans of each other, in fact a scant month and a half ago, they were barely civil to each other. So, as the saying goes, politics do indeed make for strange bedfellows.
Suddenly things got exciting. The rapier sharp "he said, she said, you said, I said" ascerbic rhetoric that followed was worthy of a verbal fencing gold at the Olympics if such an event existed.
What I enjoyed most about this whole episode ... this being my Four o'clock Thursday hour, is that it seems to have galvanized Canadians to action. Got them off their keesters. We have found our spine!
Oh yeah...things will now be held in abeyance until an actual budget is brought down January 26.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
On Point at The Point
My home office faces a grove of oak trees. The leaves have all turned brown. Most have fallen. There is one tree that stubbornly refuses to go naked even if it means being clothed in old shriveled up brown leaves. That is how it will be till spring. I know. I have watched this for several years now. Somehow, sometime, ever so gradually that I don't exactly know how, the old shriveled up brown leaves are replaced by fresh new young green sprouts. Note to self: this spring, watch to see where the shriveled up old brown leaves go.
Came home from The Point with time to spare before the appointed --- or should that be the annointed --- hour of 4 o'clock. The Point is that curious bit of terra firma situated at the tip of a peninsula in the southwest corner of British Columbia which is Canada. But The Point is the United States. Tantamount to something like the 49th parallel running across the tip of your finger, right about where the finger nail begins. Its actual name is Point Roberts, but if you are in the know, you call it "The Point." It is a charming piece of real estate cut off from the rest of the US. The only way you can reach is via a Canada, or by boat.
There is little on The Point save cottages hidden away in darkened forests or basking in the sunlight on cleared land often populated by a grazing horse or two. Cottages give way to more substantial homes closer to the ocean, but they are still just summer homes for someone. Everything that is on The Point is there with the neighboring Canadians in mind. Gas is always cheaper than at home no matter where the Canadian dollar may be and the prices are showin in litres, not gallons. There is a big marina, filled to capacity with Canadian owned boats. Orchards, long abandoned and overgrown, still bear fruit, be it apple or pear but forget about picking any unless you live on The Point or have a friend who does. Bringing apples across the border is a no no.
The US Post Office and package receiving outlets do a brisk business. Canadians in direct marketing find that fulfillment of orders for the US is both cheaper and faster when sent from here. There are no less than three such outlets, and I believe a fourth has just opened up. There is a well hidden restaurant by the sea, a cafeteria by the marina, and a higgledy piggledy place called the Capanna Cafe. It is from the Capanna Cafe that I returned this afternoon after whiling away a pleasent two hours and then some with a friend. The menu is mostly soup, pannini sandwiches and quiches. There are salads as well. The coffee is good for drinking on its own, or for dunking yummy biscotti. Its home cooking at its best.
Should you ever be in these neck of the woods, I recommend that you take a little bit of time and visit The Point. Its buccolic rural charm is relaxing and a throw back to a time when life was lived in the moment, devoid of the umbilical high tech chord so many of us seem to be attached to today. Oh, while there, be sure to stop in at the Capanna. You'll be glad you did.
Came home from The Point with time to spare before the appointed --- or should that be the annointed --- hour of 4 o'clock. The Point is that curious bit of terra firma situated at the tip of a peninsula in the southwest corner of British Columbia which is Canada. But The Point is the United States. Tantamount to something like the 49th parallel running across the tip of your finger, right about where the finger nail begins. Its actual name is Point Roberts, but if you are in the know, you call it "The Point." It is a charming piece of real estate cut off from the rest of the US. The only way you can reach is via a Canada, or by boat.
There is little on The Point save cottages hidden away in darkened forests or basking in the sunlight on cleared land often populated by a grazing horse or two. Cottages give way to more substantial homes closer to the ocean, but they are still just summer homes for someone. Everything that is on The Point is there with the neighboring Canadians in mind. Gas is always cheaper than at home no matter where the Canadian dollar may be and the prices are showin in litres, not gallons. There is a big marina, filled to capacity with Canadian owned boats. Orchards, long abandoned and overgrown, still bear fruit, be it apple or pear but forget about picking any unless you live on The Point or have a friend who does. Bringing apples across the border is a no no.
The US Post Office and package receiving outlets do a brisk business. Canadians in direct marketing find that fulfillment of orders for the US is both cheaper and faster when sent from here. There are no less than three such outlets, and I believe a fourth has just opened up. There is a well hidden restaurant by the sea, a cafeteria by the marina, and a higgledy piggledy place called the Capanna Cafe. It is from the Capanna Cafe that I returned this afternoon after whiling away a pleasent two hours and then some with a friend. The menu is mostly soup, pannini sandwiches and quiches. There are salads as well. The coffee is good for drinking on its own, or for dunking yummy biscotti. Its home cooking at its best.
Should you ever be in these neck of the woods, I recommend that you take a little bit of time and visit The Point. Its buccolic rural charm is relaxing and a throw back to a time when life was lived in the moment, devoid of the umbilical high tech chord so many of us seem to be attached to today. Oh, while there, be sure to stop in at the Capanna. You'll be glad you did.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
First Four O'Clock Thursday
This is most interesting ... it is the first Four O'Clock Thursday, an appointment I set with self, to ruminate on the state of affairs: mine, the world's, the neighbor's, maybe just the weather. I stood myself up! Yup! I had another appointment that pre-empted this one.
Before I get too far ahead of myself, let me explain how Four O'Clock Thursdays came to be. I belong a Master Mind Group --- we meet by phone each Tuesday. Somehow the subject of negativity came up. One of our members, a wise man and a leader said something to the effect that we should not dwell on the negative; that is, not to avoid its presence but to simply have little to do with it. His suggestion was that we should set aside an hour or so each week and that that is the hour we should devote to having it out with ourselves, with our negative talk. Allow yourself to be as negative as you want and thrash it all out. With such an appointment, everytime you have a niggling negativity creeping up your spine, just tell yourself that it will have to wait till the appointed hour of the week and then go about your day, secure in the knowldege that you will give this negative thought its due attention. Why not make it four o'clock on a Thursday, he said ... and then when four o'clock Thursday arrives, and you are not in a bad mood, well then you've blown it for the week, and will now have to re-schedule.
We all laughed. What an idea! We talked about that famous book, Tuesdays with Morrie . Well one thing led to another and that is how I decided to start a blog about Four O'Clock Thursday ... but with a difference, its not a bitch session with self, but an hour devoted to mental meandering, and to see where that meandering will take me.
So, today, I stood myself up. As I began to say at the beginning, another appointment pre-empted this one. A business appointment, a rather important one, and so I had to weigh the matter and decided that just as with the first option of a "negative hour" being blown because you felt good... well, so too, this appointment with self will now have to wait till next Thursday.
The appointment? Yes. It was good. It was productive. We sealed the deal. What's good for the bottom line, is also good for self.
Till next Thursday!
Recommended Reading:
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
Before I get too far ahead of myself, let me explain how Four O'Clock Thursdays came to be. I belong a Master Mind Group --- we meet by phone each Tuesday. Somehow the subject of negativity came up. One of our members, a wise man and a leader said something to the effect that we should not dwell on the negative; that is, not to avoid its presence but to simply have little to do with it. His suggestion was that we should set aside an hour or so each week and that that is the hour we should devote to having it out with ourselves, with our negative talk. Allow yourself to be as negative as you want and thrash it all out. With such an appointment, everytime you have a niggling negativity creeping up your spine, just tell yourself that it will have to wait till the appointed hour of the week and then go about your day, secure in the knowldege that you will give this negative thought its due attention. Why not make it four o'clock on a Thursday, he said ... and then when four o'clock Thursday arrives, and you are not in a bad mood, well then you've blown it for the week, and will now have to re-schedule.
We all laughed. What an idea! We talked about that famous book, Tuesdays with Morrie . Well one thing led to another and that is how I decided to start a blog about Four O'Clock Thursday ... but with a difference, its not a bitch session with self, but an hour devoted to mental meandering, and to see where that meandering will take me.
So, today, I stood myself up. As I began to say at the beginning, another appointment pre-empted this one. A business appointment, a rather important one, and so I had to weigh the matter and decided that just as with the first option of a "negative hour" being blown because you felt good... well, so too, this appointment with self will now have to wait till next Thursday.
The appointment? Yes. It was good. It was productive. We sealed the deal. What's good for the bottom line, is also good for self.
Till next Thursday!
Recommended Reading:
Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
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