8:59 p.m. - 2002-11-08
Slip Sliding Away
It was raining this morning when I woke up. Kind of pretty. Later in the day the jet stream slipped a few miles south and it began to snow instead. It must drive the operators at Canada Olympic Park - 1988 Winter Olympics were in Calgary - crazy. They thought they would be running the downhill skiing slopes by now, after creating a 50 cm base of snow using a mixture of Mother Natures' own plus some man-made stuff. Instead, alternating days of warm sun then rain make for a slippery slope alright, but sheer ice isn't really what skiers are looking for.
My sons thought they were off the hook too where yard work is concerned. Not so! It isn't my fault they stalled the leaf reclamation project until this late. This afternoon they got the final clean up done. Nice green grass underneath and evidence of the local squirrels' winter storage patterns. There are two black squirrels and one grey squirrel living in the tree in our front yard. It's fun to watch them play with each other up and down it's trunk and branches. There are hawks nesting somewhere nearby, but the squirrels seem to have them foxed for now.
The poplar in our front yard was planted the day we moved into this house, nearly 24 years ago. The developers for this area had bull-dozed everything in sight to take advantage of a red hot housing market - the media referred to the area as a nuclear blast zone as a result. Our sapling, at all of 5 feet high, was the largest growing thing on the street. It now towers over the house on the north side, blocking the arctic winds in winter and protecting the house from the full glare of the sun in summer. My Metis friend says it is a perfect sun dance tree. I'm not certain what that means, but I do know it's a great climbing tree. I've been known to perch up there out of sight for hours with a good book to read. Life up and down the street looks very different from that angle.
I looked at the newspaper and had an uh-oh! moment as I caught sight of the first story. It seemed to be stating that the Prime Minister was threatening to call a snap election right now. Now, it would be convenient from an employment perspective for that to happen immediately, but I'm just starting to feel healthy again. I contracted mononucleosis sometime during the last election at the end of 2000; it takes about a year to recuperate fully from that. Just as I was beginning to feel ok, I had a severe allergic reaction to some antibiotics at the beginning of this year that set me back to square one and caused some short term problems with my heart as well. Two or three solid months of unrelieved 14 to 16 hour days dealing with bureaucrats, politicians and their parties, a very cranky public, and the press would not be in my best interest right now. I checked the calendar, because the Elections Act dictates a minimum 36 day campaign, and realized that the earliest date a vote could take place would be December 17, with it a greater likelihood that it would have to be held December 23. Our Prime Minister is nothing if not an astute politician. He keeps his options open at all times, but I don't think he'd risk the wrath of electors and his own party members with a Christmas Eve election unless there was no other choice. I know I have heard nothing from Elections Canada on the issue, so I would also guess that they were not apprised of this "threat". Conclusion: someone in the press room must have been short of copy last night.
I decided to ignore the whole thing and continue driving out the dust bunnies. I cleaned out some closets and filled up three bags with clothing for the Good Will stores. A lot of people were very generous with hand me downs when the boys and I were struggling. It is nice to be able to pass that kindness on. Being sick and inactive for so long has increased my dress size by one size. I have every intention of paring that extra weight off, but there is no reason why someone else should go without in the interim. The odd thing is, most of the extra weight has accumulated around my bust and down into my waist. Now when the yoga instructor on my tape is saying "now touch your nose to your knee" I'm finding there are a couple of things in the way and I have to find a way to negotiate around them to finish the posture. It's just not a pretty sight. I'm using the thought of Christmas and the up-coming reunion as incentive to stay focussed on working out. I have some clothes I really love and I don't want to wear one size up. We'll see if my body's forgiven me enough yet to let go of its extra padding. Hope so.
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