who better to quote? ;)

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those that matter don't mind." —DR. SEUSS

a full moon the night before?

Had a really strange day yesterday. A near collision with a grey SUV while on my bike in the morning had me swerving into oncoming traffic, a sudden storm left our neighbourhood without power for over three hours in the late afternoon (horrible when you're counting on electricity to keep you cool!), AND I started my period again even though I just finished one last week.

But what really freaked me out was the bike incident because at one point I knew I was going to get hit, and I experienced that odd phenomenon where time slows down to a standstill, and the injuries the bike and I were about to receive flashed right before my eyes. I think I even yelled. When the guy in the vehicle did finally see me there was maybe an inch between us at most, and while the oncoming traffic wasn't the slightest bit happy to see me either, at least they SAW me! So my hope for today is that it's COMPLETELY uneventful. ;)

another hot one

At an almost record-breaking temperature today!

families

"All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." —LEO TOLSTOY

I've always liked that quote, although I don't think I agree with it. While the latter may well be true, I suspect that there are as many ways for families to be happy as there are different ways of being a family. At least, let's hope so. But I've been thinking more about families and family life ever since posting about Father's Day and reading the responses shared by you. The consensus seems to be that there is no "normal" family, or that the screwed up family is the norm. And if that's the case, should we even really use the term "dysfunctional" when talking about family? I mean, if it's more typical for a family not to be functional, wouldn't that make the term in relation to family obsolete?

At any rate, it got me to thinking. I grew up (like many of you perhaps) watching The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie, and always felt wistful seeing those shows because while I knew that my own family wasn't like either one of those in even the remotest sense, I always thought that other families came closer to the ideal. And even though I realized at the time that those shows were cloyingly sweet, I still assumed that most other families scored at least a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 in resembling the closeness of those TV families, whereas my own family scored a measly 1 at best. But maybe I was wrong. And that, strangely enough, I find comforting. Ah, but if only I'd known while growing up!

first day of summer

(But thankfully cool enough to feel like spring!)

So to mark the changing of the seasons, here's a poem by my favourite poet, the incomparable Mary Oliver.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass.
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Oliver, Mary. New and Selected Poems. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992.

lend me your ear

hopeful thought

"The next message you need is right where you are." —BABA RAM DASS

a day late again

If my relationship with my mother is complicated, then the relationship with my father is relatively simple; we don't have one. At least, not one that's meaningful. After the birth of his first child, my dad decided that he wasn't interested in parenting after all, and so he didn't. (My mom and dad were married for almost 25 years before finally divorcing, in my opinion, about 24 years too late.) I grew up with him rooming in the basement as if he was a boarder, and I can count my memories of him from that time period on one hand. A couple of my siblings are completely estranged from him, a couple of them have sporadic contact, and I probably talk to him about twice a year (on Father's Day, and around his birthday which falls close to Christmas). Every year, like yesterday, I wonder why I even bother, but then go ahead and call him anyway. He usually seems pleased that I at least acknowledge the biological bond on this particular day, but after running out of things to say within ten minutes, we go back to our own lives.

Needless to say we don't have a "normal" (whatever that may be) father-daughter relationship, but then I don't know any better. As the youngest child in the family I sometimes think that it was probably harder on my older siblings, but I'm not sure. Why else the surge of anger every year at around this time? What I do know is that we were all affected, and that we didn't have the benefit of being witness to what a loving union is like. And that, I believe, is the best and most useful gift any parent can bestow on their kids: modelling a healthy relationship.

What I'm starting to realize though is that my dad is getting old (he's 81 now), and with him in frail health, I wonder how I'll react when he passes away. At this point I think I'd react to his death as if he were a stranger, which he is, and I'm beginning to question whether I need to resolve my feelings about his lack of parenting before he dies. Because if I don't, will whatever is unresolved come rushing back?

What about you? What is your relationship with your dad like? Care to share?

there are more of us

After writing about Stayfree pads the other day (and if you enjoyed that wait until I fill you in on how crazy my menstrual cycle is becoming—believe it or not but I sometimes get TWO full periods in one month!) I happened to surf a bit and found this opinion site where 7/10 reviewers agreed that Stayfree should have stayed Scentfree. I feel vindicated. ;)

not done complaining yet

(and because it's kind of related to yesterday's Monday's post)

So last night I wanted to send my friend Krissa an eCard, and when I got to the site that I always use, discovered that they had changed the set-up and not for the better. What was really easy to navigate before suddenly wasn't, and what loaded properly before, now didn't. Grrrr!

But it got me to thinking that this happens with websites and different consumer products all the time. I can't tell you how often I've used a product for years and years and then ended up hating it after they've "improved" it. A specific example? Stayfree pads. The best pads around as far as I was concerned and then, poof, seemingly out of nowhere they decided to add deodorant to every single one. Tried one package and thought they stunk to high heaven. The problem though is that they scented ALL of them and no longer offered any without the (IMHO) offending odour. Now I understand that companies change their products once in a while to get new customers, but why alienate the ones you already have? In this case specifically, why not offer customers a choice and have both scented and unscented pads available? As it was, I discontinued a product that I liked very much and have yet to find something as good. But enough of feminine hygiene products. ;)

The other day I saw my soymilk with the label "new flavour" and I felt like yelling (but at whom?) that if I'm already buying the product it's obviously because I like the OLD flavour. So if you ever want to see me break out into a visible sweat, just hand me a favourite product that says NEW AND IMPROVED. Aaaack!

And, um, sorry about the unsent card Krissa. :)

is it me, or is it hot in here?

bigger is not necessarily better

(a post where I gripe and grouse because that's what I do at times)

As some of my faithful readers know, I wasn't too happy when I had to open a Google account for the new version of Blogger. And because I can sometimes be a grumpy old sourpuss, my password reflects that I did not do this willingly. Snort.

To date I'm still not impressed with the whole takeover and personally do not believe that the acquisition by Google has improved this site all that much. At least, not for this particular blogger. One of the annoying things for me now is that I have to sign in every single time I access my blog even if I was there a minute before. According to Google this has more to do with my own security settings, but all my tinkering in the Tools/Internet Options/Security categories has been to no avail. Cookies are enabled and I've given express permission to always allow them on both the old and new Blogger sites. My logon is also set on automatic but that doesn't make a difference either. Maybe Google is personally offended by my password? LOL

No, I don't like the new set-up. I miss being able to search all blogs by just going to the navigation bar and frankly, I don't think Google is especially user-friendly or customer-oriented. Going to their "help" pages hasn't personally been very helpful for me as I find that if your question doesn't fit their pre-set categories then you're SOL. And what happened to being able to email customer support? Nope. Not on Google. All you can do is join a group and hope that someone will answer your question there.

But I think the bigger issue behind my irritation is the increasing tendency for sites and businesses to be gobbled up by larger entities. It's merger this and merger that and pretty soon everything becomes homogenous. Take grocery stores and newspapers for example. Once upon a time many of them were independently owned and operated. Now big conglomerates own almost all of the smaller grocery stores and that limits our free choice. And how independent can our local newspapers really be when one or two corporations have bought most of them out? No, I don't like this trend of big monopolies at all. And that includes you, Mr. Google. But I better shut up now.... ;)

dutch-canadian humour

My sister sent me a list her daughter found on Facebook that made me laugh, and I thought I'd share a few of the items. Unfortunately though it probably won't make much sense to anyone who isn't Dutch, snort, and some of the items are definitely stereotypical, but I thought I'd post it anyway. ;)

You Know You're of Dutch Descent When

- you never trust that the yogourt or margarine containers contain what the label says
- most North Americans (other than those of Dutch descent) can't pronounce your last name
- you know doughnuts have nothing on oliebollen
- you know the only speculaas worth eating are the windmills because they're good luck
- you put sugar on bread with margarine
- you love Maggi in your soup, even if it doesn't need it
- you can say the Dutch 'g' that a lot of others can't pronounce
- you use untranslatable words like appelflappen and gezellig
- you're asked for your last name and you spell it instead
- you can say achtentachtig prachtige grachten without sounding like you have a hairball in your throat
- you brought beschuit met muisjes to school when you had a new brother/sister
- you have so many coupons they keep building up and there are too many to look through
- there is a calender in almost every room (including the bathroom) and at least one of the calenders is a 'birthday/anniversary' calender
- you are too cheap to pay for cable cause you can get 4 channels for free with bunny ears
- you have a special knife that you only ever use to cut cheese and you call this knife a kaas mes
- you like coffee that's way too strong
- you hear all the 'new ways to save energy' and you yawn and say "I've been doing that all my life!"
- you're not allowed to have both meat and cheese on the same sandwich
- you go sightseeing and only attend things that have no charge
- you have 500 rolls of toilet paper in your house because they were on sale!

mary's back!

Mary who? Mary Tyler Moore of course. And I picked her up tonight. No, not in person silly. But the eagerly anticipated The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Complete Second Season DVD was anxiously awaiting my arrival at the library—woohoo! Maybe that'll lure me away from Flickrland.*

* haven't gone there yet, but checked recent activity via email ;)

heeeeeeeelp!

I've been floating around in Flickrland for HOURS now, and I can't get out! There's too much to do, too much to see and too much to search. And searching is almost as fun as, well, list making. Aaaaack! Like I need another computer site to get addicted to. Somebody come get me? Seriously. I've got tons of other things that I still need to do today. :))

smile more?

Alrighty! So here's another photo (final one, I promise) to round off the collection. And may I just add that these pics unfortunately do not do me any justice (no way is my forehead THAT big), and are therefore not to be used to infer level of attractiveness. Hear me? Snort.

botox: just say no ;)

Oh the things I do for my readers! Snort.

These two pics were inspired by Dakota's excellent post about what women are encouraged to do in the name of beauty. In response I've decided to mount my own pro-wrinkle campaign using the pithy slogan in the title above. Anyone care to join me? :))

and because Dakota asked nicely ;)

Here are two pics to give you an idea of what my hair looks like post haircut. Mind you, it was cut about two weeks ago and as you can see, it's already starting to go wavy in the back. And I'm still waiting (quite impatiently) for it to go silver. Go, silver, go!

p.s. do you know how hard it is to take your own pictures? ;)

wanna know how smart you are? ;)

Take this test to find out! I took it a few weeks ago, but seem to remember that the key was to read each question SLOWLY and figure out EXACTLY what they were asking. Armed with that piece of advice you'll do just fine. And if not, well, I ain't liable! Snort.

wanna peek inside? ;)

If, like me, you love houses and taking walks at night to get a better glimpse inside people's homes (okay, not too many of you probably go that far, LOL), then this site is for you. No more having to sneak around and feel like a peeping Tom—these folks want you to look! :)