Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Win, Lose or Draw?
The flickers in Nob Hill Park are getting pretty used to me and my camera in the mornings. Sadly, so are other things...less pretty things.
This morning as I was leaving the park, I saw three crackheads coming straight for the park from methadone clinic....so I turned around and marched myself and Eem-er right back into the park and right up to where the addicts usually go to get high...I got there first!!! Then, two more neighbours with two more dogs showed up...and then Dukey and his mom arrived. We all just meandered around the park, back and forth and up and down, letting the dogs play and sniff and explore to their furry hearts' content. The crackheads tried to wait us out but the crack was just itching to be smoked.
So they just crossed the street to this little patch of grass outside a yard where there were three little kids just coming home from somewhere and smoked it there in full view of everyone...and then just headed off downtown, unconcerned with their actions or ours. 
So I ask you, is that a win, a loss or a draw? Yeah, they didn't get the park today, but it didn't really feel much like victory, either.
This morning as I was leaving the park, I saw three crackheads coming straight for the park from methadone clinic....so I turned around and marched myself and Eem-er right back into the park and right up to where the addicts usually go to get high...I got there first!!! Then, two more neighbours with two more dogs showed up...and then Dukey and his mom arrived. We all just meandered around the park, back and forth and up and down, letting the dogs play and sniff and explore to their furry hearts' content. The crackheads tried to wait us out but the crack was just itching to be smoked.
So they just crossed the street to this little patch of grass outside a yard where there were three little kids just coming home from somewhere and smoked it there in full view of everyone...and then just headed off downtown, unconcerned with their actions or ours. 
So I ask you, is that a win, a loss or a draw? Yeah, they didn't get the park today, but it didn't really feel much like victory, either.Monday, February 25, 2008
The Festival of Sugar
The 8th Annual Maple Sugar Festival arrived and departed over the weekend. Thank goodness it comes but once a year and stays but two or three days...thank the maple sugary goodness.
There is plenty to see packed into this tiny package...lots of live music, visual artists, textile artists, clowns, balloon-animal-makers, etc. I really look forward to seeing Frenchie the Clown each year, but I didn't see him this year. Merde.
And there are ice scultptors, too. Michael really enjoyed watching these guys create their short-lived art...I think it was the allure of power tools. It's a guy thing.
MMMMMmmmmmmaple butter spread.....oh my sugary goodness. Life can be sweet, but not as sweet as this. And somewhere between maple syrup and maple butter comes the Sweetest Perfection of all and it is called maple toffee by most. Divine Intervention, is what I call it. Proof that the Universe loves us...loves me, anyway. I don't know about the rest of you.
A confection made by boiling maple sap past the point where it would form maple syrup but not so long that it becomes maple butter or maple sugar. It is part of traditional culture in Quebec and northern New England. In both Québec and Northern New England, it is poured onto the snow and then lifted either with a small wooden fork or a metal dinner fork. Here, they used tongue depressors, but who cares?????? Just GIMME GIMME GIMME!!!!
Here in B.C. , this gives new meaning to "rollin' one." At least I can appreciate this one.
Oh my goodness.....I am drooling now just looking at this photo. Thank goodness it is only available here once a year(twice for me cuz I go back again the next day just for this every year). So, okay, I am gonna go now....make some toast and butter it with a mapley spread....
There is plenty to see packed into this tiny package...lots of live music, visual artists, textile artists, clowns, balloon-animal-makers, etc. I really look forward to seeing Frenchie the Clown each year, but I didn't see him this year. Merde.
And there are ice scultptors, too. Michael really enjoyed watching these guys create their short-lived art...I think it was the allure of power tools. It's a guy thing.The art I appreciated is short-lived, too. The food artists were there....chutneys and jams and ice creams and pickled things and spiced things and mulled things, food galore, in every fruit or vegetable imaginable. GLORIOUS. And of course, the sugar. The maple sugar...everywhere.
Maple sugar syrup on your pancakes, on your sausages, in your baked beans, glazing your ham...sigh. Maple candy, maple fudge, maple biscuits with maple icing...pardon my drool, you guys.
MMMMMmmmmmmaple butter spread.....oh my sugary goodness. Life can be sweet, but not as sweet as this. And somewhere between maple syrup and maple butter comes the Sweetest Perfection of all and it is called maple toffee by most. Divine Intervention, is what I call it. Proof that the Universe loves us...loves me, anyway. I don't know about the rest of you.
A confection made by boiling maple sap past the point where it would form maple syrup but not so long that it becomes maple butter or maple sugar. It is part of traditional culture in Quebec and northern New England. In both Québec and Northern New England, it is poured onto the snow and then lifted either with a small wooden fork or a metal dinner fork. Here, they used tongue depressors, but who cares?????? Just GIMME GIMME GIMME!!!!
Here in B.C. , this gives new meaning to "rollin' one." At least I can appreciate this one.
Oh my goodness.....I am drooling now just looking at this photo. Thank goodness it is only available here once a year(twice for me cuz I go back again the next day just for this every year). So, okay, I am gonna go now....make some toast and butter it with a mapley spread....MMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmapley goodness.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Yeah, um, Hello?
To whoever keeps calling and calling and calling my phone...the caller i.d. says Blocked Number. Or Private Number. Or No Data. I am not going to answer you. Give up now....or leave a dang message. If it is the paper...no comment. That is all.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
trying to look up
So, trying the past couple days to not look at the hookers coming back to roost in our neighbourhood, on our corners...soon enough, their dealers will follow. So much for the big clean-up...and perhaps the Red Zone. It's hard though, to not see the predators trolling...it's hard to believe that this is the Vision of Nanaimo that is being built. This is what it seems to be, anyway. It's hard to look away but if I don't, I'll drown in it.
Walk the dog to Nob Hill Park and look at the Flickers and the Robins and the Ravens(who don't like their photo taken) instead of the crackheads(who also don't like their photo taken) on the hill, instead of the broken wine bottle spreading over the grass, instead of the "whistling" crack dealer(like the pied piper or something)'s car parked over there. I just can't look at it today. Not today.
Today I can't pick up one more piece of litter, take down one more plate number, tackle one more issue. We all just want to have normal days down here, too. Uncomplicated. Easy. You know, I don't mean EVERY day would be uncomplicated and easy...I am a realist. Life has it's trials...but do we have to do THIS every day?
Walk the dog to Nob Hill Park and look at the Flickers and the Robins and the Ravens(who don't like their photo taken) instead of the crackheads(who also don't like their photo taken) on the hill, instead of the broken wine bottle spreading over the grass, instead of the "whistling" crack dealer(like the pied piper or something)'s car parked over there. I just can't look at it today. Not today.
Today I can't pick up one more piece of litter, take down one more plate number, tackle one more issue. We all just want to have normal days down here, too. Uncomplicated. Easy. You know, I don't mean EVERY day would be uncomplicated and easy...I am a realist. Life has it's trials...but do we have to do THIS every day? We would like to be able to sit out and enjoy the enormous gift of warm sunshine in the middle of February, the same as anyone living in the north end...
So today, I am not looking...at that car idling outside my window for some reason....who is he waiting for? Damn. I looked.
So today, I am not looking...at that car idling outside my window for some reason....who is he waiting for? Damn. I looked.I am not looking to see who is yelling in the alley. Not today.
Today, I am gathering my furry friends and heading out to look for more birds. Look up look up look up.
Today, I am gathering my furry friends and heading out to look for more birds. Look up look up look up.Today, I am, to the best of my meager ablity, tuning out the riff raff and tuning in to the warm rays of the glorious gifts of a gorgeous,warm February sun...
and feathers. Because, after all....
and feathers. Because, after all....Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
(Emily Dickinson, Hope)
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Skid Row, Nanaimo
So I wrote a long tirade last night...deleted. If you read it, sorry.
I am just so angry that repeatedly every agency, whether it be city or social or health related, privately or publicly funded or paid by our tax dollars, lies to us.
Blatant lies to our faces or glaring omissions of facts.
Or simply ignore our questions(VIHA, City Social Planner, I mean you, in particular). Do not respond to correspondence. Leave us out of the planning of services that will directly and PROFOUNDLY affect US...since none of you actually live in the places you assault.
The new by-laws from Mayor and Council that allow social services to go in without a zoning meeting means that now we have NO SAY whatsoever. None. Kiss your voice goodbye. And guess where VIHA wants their new drop-in centre, needle exchange, crackpipe hand out station? And guess where the 7-10 Club plans to go? And the projected 10-unit wet housing from our city social planner? And guess where Mayor and Council is going to let them go?!?
All within two blocks of the Salvation Army Walmart Style Super Centre....cuz that's about the only place the new zoning bylaws affect. Go figure. We found out all of this about the same week that the city offered us curbs. Smoke and mirrors. Smoke and mirrors.
Despite spending our tax dollars on several different studies(tens of thousands of city tax dollars per study, mind you) that have repeatedly all said one thing...that concentrating social services DOES NOT WORK, it seems that is what they are bound and determined to do it anyway. You know, cuz it has worked so well in places like Skid Row and Vancouver's Downtown Lower Eastside. Huge, glaring examples, time and time again, city after city, of what not to do disregarded in favour of the same old non-working plan. There is not one original idea, not one plan that sees beyond the next five minutes, not one agency that is empathetic to the suffering of hard-working, tax-paying, home-owning people in the south end who are overwhelmed with the bad choices of the SOCIAL SERVICE INDUSTRY here in Nanaimo....time and again. VIHA has taken no responsibility for the dismal running of the drop-in centre that has been pushed out of three seperate leases in two years.
Now, they just plan on buying a place(and even though they said in the paper just yesterday that they don't have the money for it YET, they did in fact make an offer to purchase a place so we count another lie down in their column, whether blatant or by ommission can be your call).
And, after the city has dumped 80+ million and counting of your tax dollars, Nanaimo, into "revitalizing" the downtown core, to the detriment of nearly every other tax related service(roads, lifeguards, maintennance, etc), every single high impact(and countless low impact) social services will be right there, too. Congratulations. Oh, and then, let's raise your property taxes.
The southend now rivals the northend in tax rates and property assessments and yet the northend does not have to deal with any needle exchanges, drop-in centres, wet housing, crack-pipes handout stations, yaddayadda....why is that?
I am just so angry that repeatedly every agency, whether it be city or social or health related, privately or publicly funded or paid by our tax dollars, lies to us.
Blatant lies to our faces or glaring omissions of facts.
Or simply ignore our questions(VIHA, City Social Planner, I mean you, in particular). Do not respond to correspondence. Leave us out of the planning of services that will directly and PROFOUNDLY affect US...since none of you actually live in the places you assault.
The new by-laws from Mayor and Council that allow social services to go in without a zoning meeting means that now we have NO SAY whatsoever. None. Kiss your voice goodbye. And guess where VIHA wants their new drop-in centre, needle exchange, crackpipe hand out station? And guess where the 7-10 Club plans to go? And the projected 10-unit wet housing from our city social planner? And guess where Mayor and Council is going to let them go?!?
All within two blocks of the Salvation Army Walmart Style Super Centre....cuz that's about the only place the new zoning bylaws affect. Go figure. We found out all of this about the same week that the city offered us curbs. Smoke and mirrors. Smoke and mirrors.
Despite spending our tax dollars on several different studies(tens of thousands of city tax dollars per study, mind you) that have repeatedly all said one thing...that concentrating social services DOES NOT WORK, it seems that is what they are bound and determined to do it anyway. You know, cuz it has worked so well in places like Skid Row and Vancouver's Downtown Lower Eastside. Huge, glaring examples, time and time again, city after city, of what not to do disregarded in favour of the same old non-working plan. There is not one original idea, not one plan that sees beyond the next five minutes, not one agency that is empathetic to the suffering of hard-working, tax-paying, home-owning people in the south end who are overwhelmed with the bad choices of the SOCIAL SERVICE INDUSTRY here in Nanaimo....time and again. VIHA has taken no responsibility for the dismal running of the drop-in centre that has been pushed out of three seperate leases in two years.
Now, they just plan on buying a place(and even though they said in the paper just yesterday that they don't have the money for it YET, they did in fact make an offer to purchase a place so we count another lie down in their column, whether blatant or by ommission can be your call).
And, after the city has dumped 80+ million and counting of your tax dollars, Nanaimo, into "revitalizing" the downtown core, to the detriment of nearly every other tax related service(roads, lifeguards, maintennance, etc), every single high impact(and countless low impact) social services will be right there, too. Congratulations. Oh, and then, let's raise your property taxes.
The southend now rivals the northend in tax rates and property assessments and yet the northend does not have to deal with any needle exchanges, drop-in centres, wet housing, crack-pipes handout stations, yaddayadda....why is that?
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Would you?
Valentine, won't you be my Valentine?And introduce your heart to mine and be my Valentine?
Summertime, we could run and play like summertime
With storybooks and nursery rhymes, so be my Valentine.
Candy heart, if anyone could you could have a candy heart.
You're the sweetest of all sweethearts.
Won't you give your heart to me?
Can't you see I love you valentine?
Won't you be my Valentine?
And won't you share your space with mine and be my Valentine?
Candy heart, if anyone could...
(Valentine, Willie Nelson)
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Woot woot!!!!
Check out that looker!!!!! Best in show, Baby! As if there could be any doubt!!!! Woot woot! Good boy, Uno. Good boy.http://www.westminsterkennelclub.org/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080213/ap_on_re_us/dog_show
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Pay it forward...
I did it. I couldn't resist. Must have present!!! From Texas. From CindyDianne So, here's the deal...
The Game:
Everyone who has a blog is welcome to participate.
The first three people to leave a comment on my blog will receive a gift from me in the next 365 days. The only condition is that those people will have to do the same on their blogs.
Pay it Forward!
The gifts will be silly and I promise to have them sent out within the month. Forget that 365 days thing...it'll be in the next month, k?
On an entirely different note, since changing my template, I cannot link to things while posting now. Why is that? Anyone? It is most irritating. You know I love to link, right? I mean c'mon, this template thing was supposed to be better..but when I load a picture, I don't see it, only html, until I publish...I don't KNOW what my post looks like til I publish AND no links? So, anyone able to help me with that?
Monday, February 11, 2008
it's Monday again....
and grey again...and raining again...and gloomy...and blah...
First round is on me.
Anyone? Anyone?
Four Dinners??? C'mon, surely you wouldn't turn down an offer like that?
See you all tomorrow.
Friday, February 08, 2008
smoke and mirrors
LOOK AT THIS!!!! Look over here. TA DA....the city is giving us proper curbs and grass....if they come up with the money that they already had once for this project and spent elsewhere....yay, yay for us...curbs and grass and maybe even trees....look, look over here....
But wait...what? What is that?
NO!!! DON'T LOOK OVER THERE!!!!
Is that a ten unit wet housing that may be going in across the street from two properties that combined have been crack houses how many times? That's where the City Social Planner has been eyeing to put in the wet house? No matter how many studies the city has paid for that have recommended spreading out social services? No matter that study after study after study warns against acts that lead to the 'ghetto-ization" of any one part of the community? Really? Huh. Go figure.
NO! Don't look over there, don't look.... No, don't look behind that curtain...don't look behind....ah damn.
So VIHA is looking to open a big box service kinda like the No Hope Centre, er, sorry, the New Hope Centre...where they will provide a drop-in centre and yet another needle exchange....and more...with money pilfered from other programs that are already running under efficiency...Instead of running three programs well, they would rather run six programs badly. The drop-in centre has been closed three time here in two years...why is that? Could it be all the problems it caused to this neighbourhood all three times? Helping pave the way towards the open air drug market that we endured until just a few months ago? Could it be because properties it was housed in received damage and theft? Could it be because they just can't run this damn program?
And just where do you think it will be? This next time? Hmmmn?
Hey, but look over here at these curbs and grass and trees you might get if we find the money for them...that we already had once and spent somewhere else...just look at that, will you? Ah, c'mon, look over here, dammit.
But wait...what? What is that?
NO!!! DON'T LOOK OVER THERE!!!!
Is that a ten unit wet housing that may be going in across the street from two properties that combined have been crack houses how many times? That's where the City Social Planner has been eyeing to put in the wet house? No matter how many studies the city has paid for that have recommended spreading out social services? No matter that study after study after study warns against acts that lead to the 'ghetto-ization" of any one part of the community? Really? Huh. Go figure.
NO! Don't look over there, don't look.... No, don't look behind that curtain...don't look behind....ah damn.
So VIHA is looking to open a big box service kinda like the No Hope Centre, er, sorry, the New Hope Centre...where they will provide a drop-in centre and yet another needle exchange....and more...with money pilfered from other programs that are already running under efficiency...Instead of running three programs well, they would rather run six programs badly. The drop-in centre has been closed three time here in two years...why is that? Could it be all the problems it caused to this neighbourhood all three times? Helping pave the way towards the open air drug market that we endured until just a few months ago? Could it be because properties it was housed in received damage and theft? Could it be because they just can't run this damn program?
And just where do you think it will be? This next time? Hmmmn?
Hey, but look over here at these curbs and grass and trees you might get if we find the money for them...that we already had once and spent somewhere else...just look at that, will you? Ah, c'mon, look over here, dammit.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
may you find some comfort there
You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort there
Let me be empty
And weightless and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight
Its easier to believe in this sweet madness oh
This glorious sadness that brings me to my knees
( Angel Sarah McLachlan)
Red Cross
Of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort there
Let me be emptyAnd weightless and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight
Its easier to believe in this sweet madness oh
This glorious sadness that brings me to my knees
( Angel Sarah McLachlan)
Red Cross
As a U.S. citizen I am mightily sickened by the news today. Some 40 tornadoes touched down in one day, killing at least 50 men, women and children in five states, leaving countless families homeless, parents jobless, students without schools, lives wounded, bereft, grieving, in shock... and every news station had Super Tuesday as the lead story. Isn't that a crying shame?
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Eem-er's MeMe not for me
So I was tagged for a meme....well, actually not me. Eem-er was tagged. By Katy. Well, actually by Mr. Milo. She is supposed to tell you six random things about herself that you might not know. Since she can't type, I guess that means it is up to me...which is difficult because really, what haven't I told you about this dog? But, here we go...it is for Mr. Milo, after all! He's a good boy.
1. Her first name was Sylvan. In rescue at Beagle Paws, they renamed her Charlotte. We couldn't figure out a name for her the first week we had her...I didn't want the name Charlotte. Michael picked Emma. We liked it...it had been my first choice...but the longer she was with us, the more we found that somehow Emma just doesn't fit her...and she has become Eem-er to most who know her, although officially her name is still Emma.
2. She has a fake Kennel Club tattoo in her ear.
3. Her favorite toys are the lids off our soy milk containers...or better yet, off a Propel bottle... or rocks. We don't bother buying her real toys anymore. She just ignores them.
4. She will never get enough love to make up for whatever happened to her before. She'll always be a bit "damaged." Damn people, anyway.
5. She refuses to go for a walk in the rain. I have to drag her out the door. She plants her feet and digs in. Every time.
6. When she meets you the first time, she will attempt to put her nose on your eyeball.
No tagging from me. If you want to tell us six random things about yourself, well, you go right on and do so!!!! I won't stop ya!!!
Monday, February 04, 2008
Monday, Monday
Another Update*******Frickin' Hiccups.
Update*** Later in the day, suffering long - lasting hiccups...I am exhausted which makes me more emotional than normal but still...just watched the Passionate Eye about J. K. Rowling. They brought her back to to the single flat she lived in while writing and trying to sell the first Harry Potter...She cried when she saw the full series of her own books on the new occupant's bookshelves. I imagine that there is nothing nearly so emotional as that going to happen in my life...and that's alright. It really could be cuz I am friggin' exhausted from hiccups. And considering all the overly emotional shit that HAS happened in my life? Just as well. Maybe I should go get a shot or something. Honestly. This is exhausting. Hic. Hic. Hic.....damnit.
Know what I mean?
Update*** Later in the day, suffering long - lasting hiccups...I am exhausted which makes me more emotional than normal but still...just watched the Passionate Eye about J. K. Rowling. They brought her back to to the single flat she lived in while writing and trying to sell the first Harry Potter...She cried when she saw the full series of her own books on the new occupant's bookshelves. I imagine that there is nothing nearly so emotional as that going to happen in my life...and that's alright. It really could be cuz I am friggin' exhausted from hiccups. And considering all the overly emotional shit that HAS happened in my life? Just as well. Maybe I should go get a shot or something. Honestly. This is exhausting. Hic. Hic. Hic.....damnit.
Know what I mean?Saturday, February 02, 2008
Who do I thank?!?
I know that I originally downloaded this recipe for Yucatan Lime Chicken Soup from somebody on Blogger....and have tweaked it some for my own taste....
Just made it(for the hundredth time?) tonight for a small dinner party....and I have never gotten so many compliments. Yeah, deservedly, I admit it. It is GOOD stuff.
So, wherever it came from....THANK YOU! I wish I could remember who it came from specifically.
Just made it(for the hundredth time?) tonight for a small dinner party....and I have never gotten so many compliments. Yeah, deservedly, I admit it. It is GOOD stuff.
So, wherever it came from....THANK YOU! I wish I could remember who it came from specifically.
Friday, February 01, 2008
Name somebody on your "Must See Live" list
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