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13:00 - 29.04.06
lunch musings
Lobster bisque for lunch. That and stuffed mushrooms with biscuits. Yum. That's what my Dad and I had for lunch yesterday. He wanted to borrow back my Mom's golf clubs and pick up the herbal medicines I had bought for him and his friends on Tuesday. Hence the extra trip out this week. In return he brought me his step ladder so I can wash walls right to the top, a couple of used deck chairs and some textbooks for my youngest for dealing with his new job. Fair exchange. He cut off one limb of my sundance tree for me because the neighbours were complaining about it. I decided that it was better I look after it than find my tree damaged by them one morning upon waking up. The problem with that limb? Well it does intrude into their air space, but their big belly ache was that they had to rake leaves in the fall. That's fine, but I have to pick up cigarette packages, used drink cups/fast food sacks, their doggie doo doo and other such litter that they expel from their cars in front of my home when they are doing their vehicle clean up. At least my "litter" is bio-friendly. Never mind. My Dad was saying his neighbours on the one side complain too everytime he parks the other neighbour's camper in front of his home. Apparently it isn't esthetic enough. Sometimes I don't think it would matter what you do - fault will still be found. In our local newspaper the assertion is that the re-instatement of a lot of the ancient by-laws is a cash grab by a certain elected official. Can't say but micro-controlling every aspect of one's own home is getting out of hand. If a neighbour doesn't like the design of that perfect-to-you bird bath one hunted for for a couple of years they can complain and have it removed. That's dumb. Why not invest that regulatory energy in something useful. You know like catching the pimps, drug and porn dealers circling our elementary schools. The upside is that I did get several buds off the cutting so that I can store them for future allergy medicine. Just have to find a place where the cats can't scent them out. A glass jar maybe.

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.

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