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13:00 - 29.04.06 Stopped at the post office on the way to lunch to pick up the mail in that box. Most of it was for my youngest. Arrived at our favorite seafood restaurant and ordered. The conversation during lunch was interesting. My Dad talked a lot about the Alaska/British Columbia/Yukon trip he and his neighbour had taken last year. Apparently there were a group of busses that travelled together, so they made some interesting connections along the way. My Dad thought the German contingent did it up best though. The bus only carried 24 people. It had self-contained sleeping compartments in one half and the rest was given over to the common area. He said those tourists were on the wild and crazy side, wanting to try out some of the more adventurous opportunities available in the wilderness. He talked about their trip on the Whitepass Railway as well. Now my Dad is very used to travelling in the mountains, given the topography of our home base, but even he found this a bit overwhelming. It took about two hours to travel the route cut right into the side of the mountain, with a sheer drop of a couple of miles or so on the outside track. He said the railway gauge was about the width of a donkey's rear and the cars were like the old trolley cars he knew in the early part of his life - "tippy". The people on the sheer drop side of the cars were telling the people who looked directly into the rock wall of the mountain not to shift sides lest the whole train go sailing down into the canyon. Gives a new meaning to the lyrics "Free Falling". We talked too of family things and travelling in general. My one cousin's olive farm in New Zealand is doing well. He told my Dad the best time for travel there is our spring months or their autumn. My Dad still wants to go there, but the friend he travels with has a terminally ill young relative who they want to spend time with. Hard to lose someone in their teens even though most parents would gladly freeze their offspring at that age so that they can mature without the bitterness. Most of my guys were pretty easy mind you - at least until young ladies began to play the biggest role in their lives. Separation wasn't always that easy then. I updated him on the election stuff. He asked if it was really worth the headaches. Truth is I am beginning to wonder. Told him about the workshop for due diligence for occupational health and safety that I attended on Tuesday and the nightmares it has generated since. What really irked me with the last election was that my staff, electors and the students and staff at some of the polling places were put at considerable risk by the grandstanding of the two main political parties. Remember them trying to provoke incidents where the police would be called so that they could call the media and get their 15 minutes of fame. Cowardly but also risky. Last night my dreams were all about how to deal with the political parties involved, plus how to get headquarters to provide the resources to protect those people. Due diligence. At home just a contemplation of a recent tiff at one school down East. Over song lyrics for a school concert. Interestingly enough, I had also received an astrologer's article that dealt with the same issue based on the upcoming Saturn/Uranus oppositions or squares. The one that was active during the late 1960's, the impeachment of Richard Nixon, and the WTO riots in 1999. What was synchronous about the argument with repect to the inclusion of the song was that in the context of the '60's it would have been difficult to take it as anything other than a take off of the Lord of the Rings story and the anti-war movements. Right now the protest is over the implication of a religious bias. That does seem to be the grounds for most global disputes now - doesn't it? Just odd. My youngest is hovering in the background now. Needs to check his game faqs don't you know, so I'll leave you with this art site that tips it's hat to online artistry and get on with reading the newspaper. � � |