Another reason blogs are changing the way we think...

Well maybe... Scientific Sex postulates that once someone writes something down they believe it, even if they write about something they don't agree with or against something they do agree with. Further research (in the guise of calling up a couple of psychologist friends and searching a bit on the 'net) explains to me that while a complete and utter reversal of opinion isn't the usual result, a questioning as to why one believes as one does, in respect to disagreeing with the 'false' opinion written often occurs.

So that makes me wonder, when we write about something, when we 'blog' our opinions what are we blogging? Are we blogging well thought out stands on issues we are well versed in? Or... are we guilty of 'jumping on the bandwagon' when we read something well written (regardless of truth in what we've read).

I know I am, at least at times, guilty of just that. But...then when I read what I've written I become even more firmly convinced that yes, that is my opinion and why is anyone even questioning that I think that way. Too bad if not that long ago I voiced a different opinion. That doesn't make me wishy washy it makes me smart enough to realize when I'm wrong.

The next time I find myself writing with Passion, I promise myself that I will examine that passion to be certain that it is mine and not inherited second or third hand.

Recycled Post

Well folks, it's come to this. I liked this post when I wrote it but I posted it somewhere else. Now that I'm trying to gather my fractured personality into one place I thought I'd post it here as well. This was written and posted in December 2006.

I tried the NaNoWriMo novel. Which to those uninitiated is a challenge to write a novel in 30 days. The goal is 50,000 words in the month of November. That breaks down to 1667 words per day. I got to just under 42,000. Much closer than the 13,000 I arrived at the end of November 2005 with.

The idea is great. My novel, not so much. But that's not really the point. The point is to write something, anything really, every day and keep it up for 30 days solid to establish the habit. Sadly, when you allow it to either become such a priority that you end up resenting the fact that you have to write those damned 1667 words or such a barrier that every word is wrung from you with such effort you start to sweat just sitting down at your desk, it sorta defeats the purpose. Not that I got that way you see. :P Just that I can see how that whole let's establish a habit can backfire. :P

Meh, I suppose that's nothing more than justification :) But I did learn a few things about myself and my desire to be a writer. I really do want it; and I really need to stop believing those 'only from angst and strife comes good literature' stories I've been hearing. Writing has to be something I do because I enjoy it, not because it's ripped from me like some clinging tentacles that are unwilling to leave go. So when it's not on, it's not on and forcing it, working myself into a mood of anger, disgust or just plain depression will not feed any muses that are hovering nearby.

On the flipside? When the muse speaks I need to listen. I've learned to carry a small pad and pencil in my purse as well as a small tape recorder for those moments where writing won't work. And I need to record everything. Because if I try to write in an orderly fashion, telling that dream of an idea to just wait its turn it will dissolve into the ether, leaving only the barest of flavour to the air that surrounded it. A teasing touch on your tongue, a brush of whisper against your mind and then it is gone. Never to return, never to dance upon your heart again to send it quivering. Oh you'll think you've got it back but if you're truthful with yourself, there'll be some lingering word that just isn't quite right.

Writing can be painful :) but it doesn't have to be. And just because it isn't rent from someone's mind amidst the throes of angst and turmoil that frankly would just leave me with a headache doesn't mean it's not good enough to put out there to read. What some would call bubblegum for the mind, soft teen romance and a girlhood crush that turns to first love is just as important, just as hard to write frankly as any epic. Just ask Margaret Mitchell (author of the ultimate true love gone bad story, Gone With the Wind...which she wrote in long hand.)

Wild Hogs

There are certain movies that have to be seen in a theatre to fully appreciate the scope of the film. Epic type movies like Lord of the Rings and certain family favourites like the Harry Potter franchise which while not really needing the *big screen effect* certainly are a family tradition to see on opening day.

Wild Hogs is not one of them. Not because it's not a side slippingly genuinely funny movie that had us smiling fondly and laughing out loud, choking on popcorn within 10 minutes of opening. And not because the cinematography isn't awe inspiring for many of the long 'road trip' shots. And certainly not only because it's a very accurate assessment of why many people find the appeal of the open road and no helmet addictive.

No, it's because at home, you can REWIND to hear the parts you missed from laughing at the bit just before.

There's little time wasted setting up the premise, as it's not really that difficult a concept to grasp. Four friends, middle aged, a couple of them apparently friends since college like to get together for a ride on their hogs. Not that strange that one or two or even all of them for varying reasons are in a state of malcontent at the way life has turned out for them.

So in the eternal cry of moviedom solutions, a roadtrip is proposed.

The story plays out as expected, but not in a jaded, oh here we go again fashion. Allen is eloquent, although almost seems to be striving to play against type, Travolta sometimes appears to be mailing it in. Hennessey is miscast in my opinion, not to mention looking a tiny bit too skinny. Lawrence is the fallguy or maybe not. And William H. Macy is brilliant. Tomei, cute, sexy, honest. Liotta...mmmmm HOT in a badboy is only misunderstood sort of way with just enough of a nod to the old Rats&Mice version of bikers to make it not sit badly. The Easy Rider nod might not be so apparent to some of the younger crowd but I certainly got it :) as did many others around us. And for anyone who didn't, look it up.

Certainly not an *enthusiast's* movie, for that you might want to go here. It sure won't give you anything more than a jaded 'let's make 'em look like idiots to stop people being afraid of them' glimpse of bikers either. Then again, it's not a documentary, so why should it do anything more than entertain? Which for myself, it did very well. Well enough that a few minutes into the movie I found myself thinking, "I'm so buying this when it comes out."

My rating: 3.5/5

You gotta know how to celebrate the difference, is all I'm saying...

Without much hope of a change, despite the determinedly cheerful forecast by the poor guy on the weather channel last night; (I do believe that's one of the most thankless jobs around at times) I looked out the window this morning to a view of white with more falling from the sky. Did the weatherman not hear the date? I mean we changed to DST early and all for this? Oh sure it's beautiful, all pristine and still like that; the white flakes falling from the sky in silent splendour reminding me of the awesome implacability of Mother Nature. IN DECEMBER it's freakin' awesome.

We are now in April. 'nuff said.

'Move south' my american friends tell me. 'Come to God's Country' my relatives on the west coast and in the valley tell me. 'Come home' say the ones still living in Saskatchewan, adding 'at least you'll know what to expect', because when it's winter in Northern Saskatchewan it's WINTER and while it's brief, when it's summer time it truly, truly is.

Having grown up with seasons as distinct as that I have to say that as much as I bitch and complain along with everyone else I look forward to the seasons changing.

There's something about the scent of snow in the air in October that reminds me that all's right with the world and sends me into a Suzyhomemaker spiral that equates to a squirrel getting ready to hibernate. I bake, I cook, I organize my spice cupboard after much swearing because I can't find the nutmeg I bought last fall after running out and I go out and buy more. Somewhere in my house is a treasure trove of little orangeybrown tins of nutmeg. I pull out my wool for new winter wool socks and I revel in it anticipating the hours I'll spend watching the new seasons of various tv shows and knitting because it's too ugly to go out. And just when it's become very nearly unbearable to stay cooped up inside one more day, I catch a glimpse of a brave stem of grass poking through the muddy snow.

I know that spring will stir other, although similar, urges within me. My farmer father's genes run rampant and I have to fight the urge to rip up the soil and plant something, anything. Usually I manage to lay down and this urge goes away :)but sometimes I have to repot all my herbs and houseplants (the ones that survive in spite of me) and there's usually a new addition. Last year it was crocuses (crocusi?)in a lovely blue crockery pot and I'm rather curious to see if they will come back this year. I guess pulling the pot out of the storage shed and unwrapping it would help, hmm? After spring comes summer, days of lake time (if Miss gets a chance and life cooperates that is) and hot days. As little clothing as is legal or practical and corn on the cob grilled on the barbeque. But even that ideal fades as the summer winds to an end. A soft chill creeps into the morning air and takes longer to leave each day, and soon the dry scent of snow is in my nostrils and the cycle starts again.

Winter allows me to love summer, and summer allows me to love winter. I think that's why I firmly believe you can't know if you're happy unless you've experienced sadness, nor sad unless you've experienced happiness. Success is only truly embraced if you've experienced failure. Although I do believe that contentment is another matter, because it's a fine line between content and complacent with only a step or two to go from there to contempt. But that's another post.

I've learned that seasons change and nothing is forever, not even the idyllic 'hazy days of summer'; no matter what that phrase becomes a euphemism for. I know that life is a temporary state. It's also what you make of it. You can freeze your fingers and bitterly complain about the cold, walking around in clothing unsuitable to the climate, however no matter how much you complain the weather isn't going to change for you unless you move. Or you can bundle up and have a snowball fight, or make a snowman, knowing that even that emblem of fun will not last forever. It's all about how you choose to view the world.

Today, I'm choosing happy and let the snowflakes fall where they may.

Ain't no altruism, at all

Thank you all for the kinds words about getting our good friend Special K up and running again. It's heartening to receive all this attention but like the good lady said. It was absolutely and positively not an act of altruism. Damn it all, I was going into withdrawal.

Most of my daily reads (with the exception of Acidman ... and his are archived posts being put up by a friend in his memory) are becoming somewhat lax in their posting. And yes, I am well aware of the irony in someone who has posted a grand total of what? 5 times in the first quarter of 2007 complaining about the lack of posting by others, but they were daily posters when I started reading them and now they aren't. So, I stand by my whine. ;P. I was running out of new stuff to read. I dislike that. It makes me crabby and whiney and I really needed to know about (let's call him) Mark and the status thereof, and Petey and RaisinDoug and all the rest of the wonderful characters that populate her world.

So, when the simple fact of her not having a computer could be solved by my taking one of the ones we had donated and cleaned up for our own personal little 'make sure everyone who wants one has a computer' thing, voila, easily done.

But altruistic? Nope. Pure, unadulterated selfishness on my part. The woman makes me laugh, think, cry and muse over her random and sometimes scary posts :P. I like that in a person. Don't you all?

So again, thank you but come on, be honest, any of you would have done the same if you'd had the wherewithal, opportunity or what have you. Cause face it, you were all in freaking SK withdrawal too, weren't you?

For those who don't really read comments here's a list of the pimped urls that have accumulated:

www.acrossthelana.blogspot.com
www.thekaetlancaresnot.blogspot.com
http://www.sundrymourning.com/
www.izzlepfaff.com

Now I'm off on my daily roll through the blogs.

See you in the comments.

tru

stolen idea

Heh, isn't that what memes are all about? :P

Crystal over at Boobs has a pretty cool idea. She's asked her readership to pimp their blogs. She also had the *gasp* courage to turn off her word verification for the post. As she said in the comments, here come the penis ads LOL.

I'd like to invite you all to do something similar here. I'm not turning off the word verification however :) I'm not that brave.

I'd like you to instead of pimping your blog, put a link to your favourite read. Be it blog, newspaper, sarcastic news site, entertainment whore site whatever.

Some filler for a few laughs.

writer:

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

How Leo are you:

You are 73% Leo

How Leo Are You?

Seduction style:

Your Seduction Style: Ideal Lover

You seduce people by tapping into their dreams and desires. And because of this sensitivity, you can be the ideal lover for anyone you seek. You are a shapeshifter - bringing romance, adventure, spirituality to relationships. It all depends on who your with, and what their vision of a perfect relationship is.

What Is Your Seduction Style?

SNORT: Driver:

You Failed Your Driver's Test

You only got 5/10 correct. If you have a driver's license, it needs to be revoked!

Are You a Good Driver?

mythical creature:

You Are a Mermaid

You are a total daydreamer, and people tend to think you're flakier than you actually are. While your head is often in the clouds, you'll always come back to earth to help someone in need. Beyond being a caring person, you are also very intelligent and rational. You understand the connections of the universe better than almost anyone else.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

I miss my car.

It took me a while to get back to the fun of driving. I'd gotten used to it being more of a tool than a possession, more of a needed thing than an identity. I even got to a point where I poked fun at those who did have an identity because of, or sometimes in spite of, their car.

I learned to drive in a toyota corolla in the midseventies. Rather I learned to love to drive in that car. I'd been driving tractors (badly, we won't mention the JD up the tree just now) a chevy truck of my father's with three on the tree that hated me, a fact I'm still convinced of some 30 years later, but when Sam let me take the wheel of that little brown toyota I fell in love with driving. I had no fear. I spun that little car through sand dunes and over gravel, revelling in the sensation of skimming over the pavement, caught in the hum of the tires under the country sounds on the radio. Driving got to me.

I've been horse crazed my entire life, so it only stands to reason that I'd be nuts about Mustangs. Still, I teased and poked gentle fun at the II on my hubby's car. He'd done a bit of playing under the hood, though and when he finally let me drive it I got pretty fond of that car pretty fast too.

My love divided then, between the slick handling of the toyota I remembered and the sheer let's do it power of that little Mustang.

Then we got practical. We got an Aerostar. *sigh*. Still a standard though, so that was some relief. After that, it was a succession of cars for transportation. Economy and price were the deciding factors.

Finally the Tempo pretty much died. I found a Supra at a decent price, getting it from the young fellow who needed to sell one of his two cars before his dad did it for him for half his asking price.

And I fell in love all over again. Here was the perfect blend of my two previous loves. The handling I remembered together with the speed. It was bliss. Driving to school was a pleasure that offset the need to go somewhere as the Aerostar had not done.

It died last summer. I killed another one (not quite the same, being an automatic, read the Mountain Dew post if you want to know how) and now drive a Dodge Spirit.

Here's the bumper sticker that the blog thing says should be on my Supra:

Your Bumper Sticker Should Be

Anything worth taking seriously - is worth making fun of

What Bumper Sticker Should Be On Your Car?

Here's the one that I get for the Dodge Spirit:

Your Bumper Sticker Should Be

Squirrel - it's what's for supper

What Bumper Sticker Should Be On Your Car?

Le sigh...sort of says it all, doesn't it?

It was inevitable

I've been trying hard not to turn this blog into a mommy blog, or a knitting blog and reading back through my posts...well... I failed. So I might as well give in and write about knitting.

A while back I started reading (with great delight to find her blogging) The Yarn Harlot. Finding Steph posting on the net was like discovering an old friend. I used to read her on the KNITlist and often read her posts outloud to my family. That is when I could get the words out without falling outta my chair with laughter. Trust me, if anyone of you has ever read the skating while knitting adventure and didn't laugh then you just plain don't have any sense of humour what so all.

Her blog isn't quite as madcap as some of those posts used to be (I wonder if she's planned a book of those) but it's full of wonderful inciteful posts that will leave even the non knitter muggle thinking, I guarantee you that. She hardly needs more publicity :P I can barely get to her site some mornings over coffee because her non believer ISP has difficulty believing -that- many people want to read a knitting blog.

So in the interest of throwing up my hands and surrendering to one of my quiet passions here's a copy of a letter I recently wrote to Steph aka TheYarnHarlot.
Hey Steph,

Yet again I've read something in your blog that has inspired me.. gofigure :)

I tend to focus on the little throwaway stuff you toss in more so than the big check this out ones :) so a while back you mentioned acquiring Sea Silk. I promptly went to the link, checked it out and after a while (cause I tend to have wonderful intentions but a gold paved road) went back and found the link again and bought some.

I have to say, my initial take on it when my son picked it up for me (at the wool shop, in the city, where he had to go out of his way across town to get it for me...what a good boy he is...which would be said with a great deal less sarcasm if the daughter of the owner wasn't his age and a gorgeous doll that makes him nearly stammer when he talks to her LOL) was wow.. oh WOW it's even prettier than in the pictures. Yeah I know, it always is but I'm always surprised. Living life as an optimist has its perks :) .
Then I felt it. YUMMY. Smelt it..double YUMMY...

then... and then... oh the pain... I started to wind it on my ball winder.

Not so yummy.

It was a mess. It tangled and twisted and was generally a pain. Okay so it's me I decided and took up the other skein after fighting with the first one for two days. This time I told myself to besure to examine the skein ... find the right end and not try to wind from the middle out. That was what I was sure was the problem. Not so much.

Second skein same as the first. (will you forgive me if I say that sounding like Davey Jones? :))

I called the wool shop and whined and whimpered. They said they'd get in touch with handmaiden. A goodly time passed. Days, weeks even and I spent hours on the couch untangling the silk and ended up with about 6 balls where I had to break it.
This was intended to become a hairpin lace shawl so I wasn't too overly concerned with the breakage but the stuff that was too tangled that bothered me as I hate to not have enough. (hence my stash suitable for insulation of a bedroom according to hubby)

Long story short, by the time they got back to me I'd started and completed 3/4 of the lengths of lace so wasn't interested in their return the skeins and get new ones solution.

Even more cutting to the chase...

The shawl is nearly done, border to be crocheted on today.
And now after all that longwinded moaning, my question... any ideas on how much I can block this? And how to do so?

How has your seasilk experience been? I'd like to do more with it...not totally turned off it from the winding but definitely will be fortified with various libations to the knitting gods before I attempt another winding.

tRu

FYI the shawl was recieved with much gimmeegimmeegimmee of the recipient. Promptly put on and cuddled. Made its debut on a cruise and was pronounced perfect. So a happy ending nonetheless.

In the Just when you thought it was safe department

I've only recently (ie in the last year or so) become a prisoner of my cellphone. Sure I had one years ago. We had one of the radio phones that was like a suitcase that you carried with you and believe me we had some elaborate charging system for that 10 mins of usage at a time. *GRIN*. Then we had the Motorola 650 which is one of the toughest phones we've ever seen. Hubby actually ran over ours with a semi, not once but two or three times. On pavement and on gravel. he'd get out of the truck to do his bihourly brake and load check and take the phone with him to call home. Inevitably he'd set it on the back tire to thump his tires and occasionally he forgot it there. After retrieving it for the third time it became a family joke that we needed to invest in Motorola and that he oughta get a job in their R&D department for destructibility.

I progressed and picked up a V100. ( http://mobile.softpedia.com/phones/Motorola/Motorola-V100.shtml ) A cute little laptop wannabe in opaque blue plastic. It was intended I believe mostly for use as a handsfree and had a convenient little beltclip and nifty headset thingie. When you opened it up it had a tiny little keyboard but it was cute, and I got it for cheap ($50 I think) too bad that the cellphone service provider I used wasn't so cheap on the text messages.

After a while of not having one personally but hubby using the MIKE phone sytem (yet again Motorola go figure..that whole stock option thing I guess) and being able to talk to him when he was on the highway, all over the states and Canada we started looking for cellphones that worked for us.

Eventually we decided upon the Solo system. ( www.solomobility.ca ) Solely for the 10-4 capability. So we joined the current decade as my snarky children like to point out, and bought Sanyo 2300 phones. I tricked mine out with a MyTego tigerskin (www.mytego.com) and away we went. Soon we picked up one for the 10 yo, because it's handy for riding. The horses are all used to the phones ringing and talking and when you're collecting cattle in the foothills it's great to not have to shout around the bushes and over the hill.

But now... this is going a bit too far... http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/ref/nfc-phone.htm?cid=rss1 I have enough trouble with lost/misplaced cellphones, debit/credit cards without combining the two.

Yikes.

The Tooth Fairy Cometh

My children were young when my marriage reached its end. After everything was said and done they ended up living with my ex husband. It wasn’t the way I wanted things to be, there were things that were worse and things that were better but we made the best of it. Weekends were spent with me, school holidays and summer holidays.

My ex was not the sort of man who believed that children should believe in fairies so while he bowed to convention regarding the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus he simply was not going to play the tooth fairy game. My eldest was the only one losing teeth at the time and I convinced her that since the Tooth Fairy was a lady that she would find her way to my house easier than to her dad’s and so she should save her fallen teeth to put under her pillow at my house.

All went along well in the tooth fairy department for a year or two. The eldest has brought her teeth to my house with unfailing regularity, and had convinced her younger sister to do the same. Number 2 daughter is a spirit unto herself however, and one day she decided to test mom’s theory about the tooth fairy. She announced that the next tooth she lost she wasn’t going to wait till the weekend visit, she was going to put that tooth under her pillow that very night.

I was blissfully unaware of the crisis my eldest faced that night until later. By now she knew that her sister was going to be disappointed as she’d secretly tried this very thing herself, only to find the tooth still there in the morning. So she waited till her sister was asleep and snuck into her room replacing the tooth with two shiny quarters from her own allowance.

She told me the story the next weekend and I tried hard not to cry. Nevermore than in that moment did the guilt and selfishness I’d felt about the divorce rise up to confront me. Nevermore than in that moment when I saw her innocence draining away. I rewarded her with a dollar for her kindness to her sister, hugged her and told her how proud I was of her. She went out to play and I sat and cried.

Believing in the tooth fairy was one of the childhood dreams that are so precious and I had let that be taken from her, I berated myself. I was immensely proud of her though and through my guilt I found a glimmer of hope that some of what I was teaching her was the reason she’d been so compassionate towards her sister.

A few weeks later, she hugged me good night and whispered in my ear. “Mommy, I lost a tooth today.” She showed me the tooth proudly. “Do you think the tooth fairy will come if I put it under my pillow?” Her face was earnest, eager for my answer and innocent of all sarcasm or guile.

“Yes, baby, I’m certain she will.”

That resonates

One of my favourite reads started back blogging a time ago and I'm glad. Sometimes she's funny, sometimes she's sad. And sometimes she makes me squirm in my own skin when she rales about things that make her nuts and I know that I do them.

Sometimes however, simply, she resonates.

Like this post, entitled "Goal" and it's simply a plaque type picture that says. "Love like you'll never get hurt."

How terribly honest.

How absolutely terrifying.

How immediately I rejected that idea. And I doubt that I'm alone.

yet...there's a nagging honesty there, something that made me stop, pause and look over my shoulder as I ran screaming from that proposal. Why shouldn't one? Why shouldn't someone go into a relationship without all those anxieties and nasty memories of how someone trod upon your heart?

But then all these other branches of thought open up. Do you really want to lead with your heart? Time and time again. Isn't it just asking for someone to step all over you if you don't learn from past mistakes? Isn't it a repetition of the cycle if you repeat and repeat and repeatedly take up with the wrong kinda guy? Or for that matter.

And yet, that honesty nagged and nagged. I've had many people prejudge me by the fact that I looked like, sounded like, thought like someone else. I've seen people not celebrate various holidays because this person or that person did this or that or the other thing on that holiday. I mean really, do we need to outlaw breaking up on Christmas? Sometimes though, people need to just get over stuff.

I've heard sad story after story about how someone let someone go, walked away because of past experiences and not wanting to revisit those feelings. And to tell the truth I've had a moment's pause here and there myself about people.

I wish that everyone coming into my life had the same open chance that others have had. That's just not the way of it though, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Each experience colours my ability to trust, love, believe the next time around.

I wish I could have that goal. In not just love, either. People deserve a chance to be who they are. Correction, I wish I could have that goal as an achievable goal.

What's your goal?

mountain dew, not just for drinking anymore...

So.. a few days ago I'm returning from an evening visit with my daughter (we went and saw a really dorky movie called You, Me & Dupree...normally I like owen wilson but meh...

I'm driving the sorta supra. It's a year newer than the old one (which we're still not talking about what happened to btw) but it's an automatic. It's still a fun enough car to drive and gets from point A to point B well enough but it's an 'automatic'. It's hard to explain but there's something about driving a standard. It's difficult to explain but there's a sense of being in control. It's like your brain goes to mush when you drive an automatic and you make silly decisions.

Anyway, i'm on my way home. Driving down the main thoroughfare and I see a sudden blurup of flame shoot up from the left side of the hood of the car, and then in my rear view mirror I see a flame shoot out from the car and a trail of sparks.

And yet, the car is still running. There's nothing odd about the sound of the engine and I'm not totally sure I didn't imagine it. I drive a bit further, and there it is again, a fillip of sparks behind me and still nothing indicating that anything is wrong. The car has not lost power, there's no more flames and before a chorus of facepalming and what the hell were you thinking starts, consider this. I was in traffic on a fairly busy road. Averaging 100 kmh. And it's not like any of the other drivers were in any way inclined to move the hell out of the way so I could pull over to the side of the road.

Oh, wait, there we go again, another flashing trail of sparks. Alright, it's time to find an exit. Off I get...still rolling at a regular speed, no hiccuping, no more flames. A quick phone call home on the cell and the concensus is, drive it as close to home as I can get it. It's cooked already is the thought.

Getting off the main road drops my speed to about 60 kmh. Now followed by an odd coloured plume of smoke I'm still moving with traffic and the car appears totally oblivious to any sort of issue. The smoke is not blue, indicating burning oil, nor is it a billowing cloud of white steam that would probably mean a blown head gasket. It's just smoke.

yeah yeah, I know... still no clue.

I am starting to feel uncomfortable and uneasy and all I want to do is get back onto the highway where I can keep up my speed. Miraculously I make every light but one at the very edge of the city and that seems to bode badly for the now starting to chug car. Then, the traffic is moving again and believe it or not, so is the car (and me).

But it's the beginning of the end. The dash has finally gotten a conversation going wth the various computerized controllers and is sending a flashdancing set of signals that are basically telling me to pull the hell over and get the hell outta the car. Apparently that was far too easy to do 20 minutes ago.

A few miles more, a hill or two and the gallant little car is coasting to a standstill at a conveniently located roadside set of selfweigh scales. I call home again and give my location.

Now this car is previously owned and some previous Special Person has had the incredibly annoying idea that removing the radio is as simple as snipping a few wires and yanking... causing a recurring short in the dash that as an interesting side effect requires the headlights to be turned off by unclipping an aligator clip from a wire under the dash. (And no, that was not the source of the yet to be declared problem) As I open the hood, in the dark, unlit area I've rolled to a halt I notice a glimmer of light. Curiosity certainly will kill the cat... I had to know what that flickering was so I walked around to the other side of the car and there we have it folks... a fire. Right there on the back underside of the engine on the passenger side.

I ducked into the car, grabbing my purse, cellphone, insurance and registration, a litre bottle of Mountain Dew with a few sips gone, and a camera case full of cameras and dashed to a safe distance. Setting this stuff down I flip open the cell phone and holler, "I'm on fire!!!"

"You're what now?" Hubby's distracted voice cuts through. "I'm trying to find ..." I'm not listening anymore.

"I mean the car's on fire, not me." Somehow I thought this was an important denotation to make. Now I'm back at curious and circling closer to the car, Mountain dew in hand...

Side note: On any given date or time, the back seat of my car holds anywhere from 3 to 10 half finished bottles of water. The girls are always grabbing a few bottles to take with us when we go to the horses and despite our constant nagging to the contrary, leaving them in the backseat unfinished. This time apparently, they decided to change things up and there were no bottles of anything in the back seat.

"I'm trying to put it out..."

"Let it burn..." I know he's thinking fire insurance, however I'm thinking ...my supra...

"Yeah..yeah... I'm putting it out ..." Splash! Sizzle...splash splash splash...sizzle sizzle sizzle..billow of smoke now scented with the unbelievable scent of hot burnt mountain dew.

Yuck!

So there I sat, for a little while, till hubby and son pulled up in son's chevy pickup. Which he repeatedly and annoying pointed out was running. and a chevy... meh...

Custom make a quiz...

... and receive lots of spam :) or maybe not

So far I'm not but...we'll see I guess.

Anyway... want to know what your friends really know about you? Your significant other? Set 1 to 10 questions about yourself or some other equally scintilatingly interesting topic and send the annoying link to all your friends. Thereby challenging them to admit to you how much or little they know about you. ;P

Here's the link to mine...see how you rate about knowing the unicorn (aka me).


http://www02.quizyourfriends.com/quizpage.php?quizname=060912201530-520122&

Hee... it suddenly occured to me that some people reading this might not even know that my pseudonym, long before the notion of an online nickname entered my mind, was UNICORN.

I've used it since I was 13, a very long time.

irish directions

The Quiet Man is the one movie that always makes my very changeable favourite 10 movies list. Not only is it a 'John Wayne' movie, it's also a 'John Ford' movie and a 'Maureen O'Hara' movie. An Oscar winning (for cinematography) 'classic' that almost never was. It is also one of the most visually beautiful movies I remember seeing.

The tone of the entire movie is set for me in the first 10 minutes of the film. John Wayne arrives in a small Irish town. He asks directions to the town of Innisfree of the conductor of the train. A simple enough scene, rather mundane in the way of starting a movie but the dialogue is unforgettable. I begin to smile as soon as the conductor and the engineer begin to fight about whether the fishing is best to the east or the west and the helpful lady with the daughter who'd be glad to show the nice man the way were she here always makes me laugh out loud at JW's reaction. But the sequence that sums up the entire movie for me and how it makes me smile and feel good is the one that goes something like this: "Do you see that road there?" JW nods eagerly, sensing an actual bit of useful information forthcoming, "Don't be taking that road, it'll take ye nowhere near Innisfree."

No matter what mood I'm in that line will draw me into a Brigadoon like state, where the world is suspended for an hour and a half and I live in a world where horse races can decide the fate of a relationship and the anger and animosity of a life long hatred for someone different from you can be turned off to share a wager on a fight.

It's an old story, a 'taming of the shrew' so to speak, love will conquer all and the like. The characters are caricatures of the Irish. The rowdy brother; the stand offish men in the pub until they discover JW's true connection to the place; the little Michaleen; all stand against time to how the Irish have been percieved and portrayed through the years. Remember the Irishman in Braveheart? A little off, talking to God all the time but a lovable character nonetheless. It's difficult (for me at least) to dislike someone with the lilt and charm of the Irish in their voice. So even the villians of movies end up being a little bit loveable.

Years ago I was calling about a groom position at a breeding farm. The lilting tones of an Irishman greeted me over the phone. We chatted for a bit about my qualifications and he invited me to drive over for a face to face interview. While giving me directions he uttered this sentence:

"Do you know the road that goes by McDonald's?"

"Yes," I quickly answered, pen at the ready to take down the directions.

"Don't be going on down that road, it won't bring you anywhere near here..."

My laughter was barely muffled and it was a longish pause before I was able to compose myself and get the correct directions from him.

Upon meeting this delightful man I began working for him and one day he was showing me his racing history, some of his souveniers from his years and years of participation, first as a jockey, then as a trainer and now as a breeder. In the corner, tucked away under a jacket lay an old beat up saddle. He saw me looking at it and explained that it was a souvenier from a movie he'd been an extra in years gone by as a boy in Ireland. The saddle had been used in a race in the movie.

My ears perked up, could it be? Sure enough, he'd been a young lad living in the town that became the fictional Innisfree in my favourite movie. He told me stories about Ward Bond and how the locals had been agog at the man's ability to consume alcohol and still function (no small praise coming from an Irishman), how attentive JW had been to his family and how Miss O'Hara was so beautiful she'd taken his breath away. Listening to his accented tones still strongly Irish after his many years in Canada, I was swept away.

Today, we were a little unsure of where we were. So we stopped to ask an older man, who was sitting on a chair in front of an antique shop, for directions. He stumbled to the car and clung to the door frame for balance. After listening to him tell us not to go that way as it won't take us where we wanted to go we drove off, my smile somewhat fixed as I tried to not breath in the alcohol fumes still hovering around the window.

Finally I turned to hubby and remarked, "trust me to find a drunken Irishman in the middle of nowhere to ask directions from..." He chuckled and nodded and said, "well at least he didn't tell us where the fishing was best."

The words of a child.

Today we took a drive south to visit Jack, #4's 'horse to be' once we get him all paid off. We've been working with him for quite some time and he's become a pet as much as a horse to ride.

It's been a while since we've been able to get there to work with him. Added to that, Jack is entering what amounts to the teenaged angst age group for horses and we weren't too sure of his reaction to being summarily hauled in from the pasture, saddled and ridden. Horses typically have ages where they respond (or don't as the case may be) to certain things amicably or not. Usually what you see as a 1 and 2 year old is what you'll eventually get but there's that ...deadfromtheneckup... time period around 3 to sometimes as old as 5 when they are just cantankerous and unwilling and unpredictable. You know, teenaged angst time.

Jack was a little flat eared and hunchy when hubby got on so we didn't push things. The girls wanted a ride so I led them around on him. I was hot and tired and a little crankily myself with one thing and another, and to tell the truth, trudging around the corral leading a reluctant horse was low on my list of things to do today. #4 enjoyed her ride even if she's a little jaded about being led, being accustomed to being allowed to ride him unaided. Then it was #5's turn.

She clambors up with a little assistance from my knee. She settles into the saddle and picks up the reins. Jack and I start out and her voice trills out, "Mommy when I ride a horse I feel like I'm flying."

"Do you?" I replied in a somewhat surprised tone. The words were clear and the sentiment one I identified with immediately.

"Yes, flying through the air, all by myself."

I couldn't help the smile and sense of wellbeing that rushed through me. I repeated her words to the hubby, adding that I sure could understand that sensation. It didn't really matter that it was hot then, or that I was cranky or grumpy about things external.

To ride a horse -is- like flying. It's something that can't be explained to someone who doesn't get it, whether they've ridden or not. It is something that can be shared in a glance and a sigh but not with words.

The first time I flew my girlfriend tried to prepare me for the take off. She said, "it's like galloping on a horse but instead of running out field, you simply lift up into the air..."

#5 can be a conundrum of emotions and odd behaviours at times. She's got some habits that can set your (well mine anyways) teeth on edge in an instant but that moment then...those are the moments that matter. There's something so brutally and beautifully honest about a 5 yo's enthusiasm and it gladdens my heart that she could tell me so very very clearly, both in the way she spoke and what she said that she understands.

I've often joked that the reason she's the youngest is because God has a sense of humour. At times like this, I see his other reasons too.

I know I've said it before, but as far as you run, you can never outrun your genes.

A few evenings back I was sitting happily watching (read playing Darkthrone) tv and the phone rang. It was my older sister. She lives "back home" in the province and relative area to where we grew up. She married a local boy as did our two older sisters also married locally as did our brother Not me...I moved to Calgary and married a man from England. I've since divorced him. But for the eldest (her husband has passed) they're all still with their highschool sweethearts.

Suffice to say I'm the black sheep. The odd duck and the 'what is that kid thinking' element of our family. Doesn't mean I'm not one of them at heart.

The conversation started out in a normal way, a bit of joshing and goodnatured self dreprecation about our age and weight.

Me: "Hey, how are you?"

Sis: "Old and wrinkled."

Me: (laughing), "well you should have stuck with the family plan of fat, that way the skin's stretched out and the wrinkles don't show."

Sis: (also laughing) "Yes well I've plenty of both to go around."

We exchanged family news, catching each other up on the respective grandkids and children. The talk turned as it often does to who died, who wasn't dead yet and who had already died but I'd forgotten when she'd told me. Now to be totally fair, we aren't totally obsessed with death but the community -is- dying. The young'ns are escaping and not returning and that's sad for people like my sister and myself frankly, even though I can't believe I'll ever live there again. Not only that but she works in a funeral home as part of the catering staff (the woman makes one hell of a pyrogy let me tell you :P and her cabbage rolls are to well..die for ... even if they are her mom-in-law's recipe) so she does tend to mark time by funerals.

Sis: Nick B. died.

Me: (totally shocked the man was still alive) "Uh...wasn't he like 938 years old"

Sis: (laughing) Not quite.

Me: Truthfully, I thought he died years ago.

Sis: No that was ...

And the conversation turned to who was related to whom, and how Nick B. wasn't who I thought he was (he was I just truly did think he'd died years ago I wasn't mixing him up with another old man :P but it's fun to chat about who's who with my sis so away we went).

Somewhere in this long standing conversation (only the people we talk about shift generations or sometimes families) it takes one of those leaps that only do when people know each other well enough to let happen and just run with it.

Sis: S... were you ever in an accident? (somewhat startled tone as it had just leaped back into her mind, and also being the reason she'd called me).

Me: (knowing full well that she meant there and in the time we'd been discussing, a time when I'd been a young teen fool and she'd worried about me more than my own mom did...not because she cared more but because she was closer to my generation and what sort of stupidity teens were capable of). "Yes. I mean no not back then, but here in Alberta yes..." (see as much as I like to play with her mind, there's some things I won't twist about with her)

Sis: Well D. P. (who by the way would have been about oh...3 years old when this particular accident did occur)said you were in the car with B when that happened.

Me: (having a semi tempertantrum flashing back on the reason I wasn't in the car with B. who up until about 2 weeks prior to that had been my first boyfriend) NO. That was some bimbo with bigger boobs than mine and thanks for reminding me of that shithead.
(all said in a tone that she would know to be jokingly)

Sis: Well D.P. said. (dog with a bone, that's our family. We get an idea in our heads and it sticks, right or wrong).

Me: (pointing out the age difference between D.P. and myself ...frankly he's a little suck :P and a tattletale) (oh and we always call him D.P. to differentiate between him and our brother D.) I think I'd remember being in that accident. (it had been one where truly the three in the car had been extremely lucky ... they'd crossed a highway in front of a semi carrying logs to the local mill. It's a blind curve and they had a stop sign but they were also young, stupid and who knows possibly a little drunk although I can't honestly remember if they were or not, or if any charges were laid.)

Sis: Well that's what I thought but D.P. said you'd dated him. (Time you see, is relative to our family's need to connect events. Yes, I had dated the boy in question for the entire school year prior to that summer. And yes I was rather bitter that two days after playing "I Wouldn't Want to Lose Your Love" (by April Wine) to me on the phone this boy had taken another girl to the April Wine concert and had never called me again. Sure it was 30 + years ago but some wounds are easily torn open it would appear.)

Me: Thanks for reminding me of that. (the devil? he's got nothing on sardonic remarks around us).

Sis: You're welcome. (see? Not only do we have sardonic down cold but we own stock in sarcasm as well.)

We're goofy now and giggly, sharing things as we never did when we were younger. The age difference between us negligible now that we are both grandmothers. We see the world through the same glasses now, bifocals that let us see both near and far of the situation and with a little bit more patience and a lot more ability to let things be, instead of youthfully trying to mold the happenings in our lives to what we wanted rather than what was to be.

When I was a young adult (in age, at least if not in brain) she'd seemed impossibly old to me. Stuck in her ways and unbending in her beliefs. We fought a lot then. She wanted to mother me, to replace somehow the mom I'd lost at 16. I didn't begin to understand her reasons, why she couldn't be my sister and stop trying to boss me around. How I wish I'd taken a moment to think and realize how old she'd been when her own mother had died and the woman who was to become mine became a part of her life. We'd fight nearly every time we'd talk on the phone but to her credit she didn't stop trying. When I walked away from the family for nearly 5 years she held onto hope that I would return, looking for me now and again and crying with relief when I finally called home, alone, divorced, without my kids she never chastised beyond why ever didn't you call?

We fought a lot. Our conversations never ending without one or the both of us in tears. She wanted so badly to help me with my life. I wanted so desperately to be accepted for the decisions I was making. Finally one day I realized, actually had what amounted to an epiphany :) that I didn't have to fight so hard to be accepted for them, I simply had to believe in them. I stopped defending them to her. When she'd challenge me on something I'd decided, I'd remark on the weather. And to her credit she took the hint. Our conversations became tolerable, then even pleasant. Now I look forward to enjoying a good yak with her about who died.

I guess this post could also have been entitled, "time heals all wounds" but really it's not just time. sometimes it's a remark about the weather that does it.

Resolutions...not just for New year's day.

In an attempt to post more often I'll be putting up the odd Q&A (well hopefully odd, unless my muse takes another sabatical or twelve).

Scooped this one from a blog I recently discovered from another blogger's blog list. (wow can you really use the word blog that many times in a sentence and maintain your sanity?)

Another blog q & a

10 years ago today I was: heavier, unemployed, in post partum depression and blissfully unaware of it.

5 years ago today I was: also heavier than I am today, heh, also unemployed and also in post partum depression only I and everyone around me was dreadfully aware of it.

1 year ago today I was: Still shaking after being robbed at gunpoint earlier in the month. I'd quit the job and was signing up for school.

Yesterday: I was drinking a slurpee (cranberry) that my manager at the bank decided everyone needed one of.

5 snacks I enjoy: mixed nuts, particularly brazil nuts, hazelnuts, cashews and almonds; raw carrots; crisp apples and old cheese; popcorn; fresh fruit.

5 songs I know by heart: Two Little Boys, Runaway (Del Shannon), I Cross My Heart, George Strait, Last Kiss, Don't Be Cruel (ELVIS), Can't Help Falling in Love (also ELVIS).

5 things I would do with $100 million dollars: Buy each of my 5 kids a house, set each of them up with trustfunds with ridiculous conditions and tell them "sink or swim I gave you a life jacket use it wisely". Buy land. Invest in a friend's business. Take a cruise. Have a blast doing little favours for people.

5 places I would run away to: The mountains. Up north somewhere. The deep south but I'd need a guide to keep from getting something squishy to eat or offending someone. Australia. Morocco.

5 things I would never wear: Thong bikini. nuff said.

5 favourite TV shows:CSI, American Justice, Big Brother, Passions (the soap opera)

5 favourite toys (actual you know, toys, that little kids play with not XXXTOYSXXX): Spirograph. That drawing tool where you could trace over a picture and draw it with the other end, larger or smaller. Yoyo. Slinky and building blocks, megablocks, lincolnlogs, leggo, erector sets, what ever I could stack and build shapes with. Oh does anyone remember little daisy shaped plastic bits? rather like the connector things?


5 *moments*: Settling into the saddle of a new horse, the little frisson that races up your spine. Taking off in a plane. The first time you make love with someone and realize it is really lovemaking and not just sex. That brief moment just before...well you know... When you know, in your heart, that what you're doing is the absolutely right thing to do at that particular moment.


Your turn.

Sometimes I need to listen to myself.

Recently I was talking with someone about their love life. I tend to be a bit of a snoop in that regard, I like to think it comes from being a writer, as to be a good writer one must be a voyeur of sorts. But on the flip side somewhere along the way certain people have found me easy to confide in and have even told me later that my listening and inevitable advice has been helpful.

Anyway, I found myself listening to a sad tale. My friend, and I wish I could say that both parties in this relationhip were my friends, but sadly that's not the case, is feeling somewhat frustrated with his significant other. I like them both. I enjoy both of them as people but only with one did I make *a connection*.

This is hard, as my immediate response is something that was said to me a long time ago by a friend of mine. "You're mine and he's not, and therefore regardless of the circumstances, you are always right and he's always wrong." She went on to add, "unless you're being a big fat idiot."

I listened and nodded and hugged and generally was a sounding board for my buddy to get out what he needed to get out. At the end of it I found these sage words leaving my lips: "...love isn't slavery, subservency or superiority. it's not two people coming together to make one. it's two whole entire people, coming together to make a sum far greater than two."

There's so many old saws that come to mind, 'if you love something set it free...', 'if you can't love yourself, no one else can...', and my favourite...'who wants to belong to a club that would let me into as a member?'

I've always said that people that need someone to *complete* them didn't understand the concept of a relationship. Only I wasn't listening. I was busy saying all the right things just not doing them. I was busy searching for someone to finish me, to add the edging and embellishes that I wanted or thought I needed to complete me.

What I needed was already inside me. I simply had to allow it to be enough. To be what -I- needed, rather than what others were telling me I needed. I don't need fringes and tassels and a fancy lace edging to make me special. I already am. If only I'd believe it.

I'm considering this an affirmation that I am enough. For me. Anyone else can figure out their own standards or levels of enough.

Turning the Other Cheek

You know how people turn the other cheek, swallow the insult that cuts to the very quick of their heart because well... nice people do just that. Parents do that. Friends do that. Sisters do that. Coworkers do that. I'm DONE doing that.

I no longer am a nice person. I no longer will let others' wishes, desires, needs, wants, gratification whathaveyou, come before my own. If I'm not important enough for the common courtesies of wishing happy birthday to, being concerned when I'm ill, accepting that my feelings are also hurt to someone then they can go find someone who is. If they were important to me and that's how they think then I was obviously mistaken about their importance to me.

And I'm going to recognise that fact a hell of a lot sooner now because I'm going to be examining EVERYTHING with a fine toothed comb from now on. Everyone will be suspect until they PROVE their worth to me. I'm not going to sit there and expect humanity from people. I'm not going to assume that because I simply would NOT treat someone else that way, that they won't treat me that way. Quite the opposite, in fact. I'm going to assume that they are going to do as dirty to me as they can and defend against it. I'm going to be a lonely miserable suspicious person but damn it I no long will sit there stunned into sobbing tears at the level of inconsideration with which I was treated. I'll be well prepared for it. And I'll do everything in my power to do it first because I'm DONE.

I'm not apologizing for my desires anymore. And you know what else? I'm done explaining just how very simple they are. Because they are; they are the lowest level of respect and consideration for another human being that can be expected. Obviously that's my problem right? Anything that comes that cheap in effort isn't worth it.

So what I need to become is a high maintenance bitch. A person whose ass simply begs to be kissed. I will expect diamonds, even though I hate those hard brittle gems. I won't look for the fire and life of an opal anymore. I want diamonds and gold because when I'm done with whoever gave them to me, I can sell them for money. From now on it's about ME.

I've been accused of being selfish before, man they got nothing. They want selfish? They'll see SELFISH.