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01:24 - 01.11.06
All Souls Night
The earliest part of this morning was a fairly close repeat of yesterday, dear diary. The exceptions were that I gave my youngest a heads-up wake-up call before leaving, which he responded to quite grumpily. Fair enough, but I knew I might not be able to contact him again until after the time he needed to get up to go to work himself. The temperature was still a very chilly - 20 or so Centigrade, but there was no high wind like yesterday's. When I arrived downtown, I went straight to the closest bus stop - with a good wind shelter available - but the scenario of having to wait 20 minutes for the next connector bus played out the same way all the same. There was a point about 15 minutes in where I felt my toes start to go numb - very bad sign. I watched people I knew from various assignments in the building behind the bus shelter, pour off their own busses; flooding into their workplace of the day. In the bus shelter, there were several young adults waiting for the same bus as me. Some were in real Hallowe'en costumes and were ready to party. If transit planners really wanted to encourage and increase regular ridership, they would be catering to this group instead of leaving them literally out in the cold so often. After all, it was obvious that for all of them they viewed the time in between busses as face to face time - social networking at it's finest. The only introduction one needs is an acknowledgement that one is going to be taking the same bus. It is the one time that people freely mix without self consciousness, based on the premise that misery loves company. In a city where business casual dress is the norm, one never knows whether their seat-mate is a homeless person going to their minimum wage job or a company president making enough money that they could buy a bus or ten with their yearly salary. Add in doctors, lawyers and undercover cops and there's always the potential for a life altering encounter of some kind. Very Aquarian - busses are.

Arrived at the drop-off point near my son's home then trundled down the half shoveled, half-snow and ice-covered streets. A woman was standing next to a car just before my son's home when I approached my destination. It was almost as though she had been waiting for my arrival. She made one of those off-hand comments about our weird weather, as she crossed the walk just in front of me. On the drive home I asked my son about her, relaying my impression of the "casual" meeting. He chuckled and noted that that woman and her husband were the old-style kind of neighbours who knew everything about everybody else's business who lived within a few blocks radius of their home. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since it means that if ever something out of the ordinary happens that set of neighbours will know and likely act on their observations.

My grand-daughter was a happy baby in the morning so we played, sang, read another chapter in our story and watched the first half of Muppet Treasure Island. My grand-daughter loved the pirates and their songs. She was sitting on her own without realizing it for quite some time. Not only that, she was singing along and swaying in time to the music so her sense of balance is pretty good too. When she lies on her back, she moves by either rolling over and over to where she wants to be or does a series of legs pushes that are known as active "bridge pose" in yoga. Bridge pose looks really easy until one tries to sustain the position. Then one receives a very precise measurement of how strong one's abdominal, gluteal and quadriceps muscles are. My grand-daughter has exceptional muscle strength in that respect. Before she pulls herself up or walks though, she is going to need to develop equally strong muscle strength in the muscles that oppose the ones she uses now. Balance Grasshopper.

The afternoon, after our shared naptime, was an entirely different story. Teething pains kicked in with a vengeance, making my grand-daughter one cranky little being. I tried moving her all over the house changing toys and positions to try and distract her from the discomfort, to no avail. I did manage to get a load of wash done, but that was mostly because she was throwing up her oatmeal and milk both on herself and me. Hope the neighbours didn't see that. I'm so used to being covered in various bodily fluids produced by little people from my years as a mom, that it doesn't really throw me much. Does make people on the bus cranky at times, since not all adults are child oriented. Fair game. Tried all sorts of strategies to calm the pain in her mouth, from chew toys to cold cloths to warm milk, but nothing was enough to calm her for very long. Her parents don't want her given any type of drug except as a last resort, but it also isn't right to not relieve pain that is extended over a long period. Some discussion of that occurred over dinner tonight. Traffic was backed up because the trains literally froze in their tracks at rush hour tonight - Happy Hallowe'en and a side of Mr Mercury retrograde, y'all. My daughter-in-law actually arrived later than my son as a result and there was no point trying to leave for my home right away, because of the gridlock. Passing the time talking and sharing a meal was a better way to spend it. The only thing that concerned me was that no one was at home to dish out Hallowe'en (Samhain) treats to all the wee ghosties. Didn't really want to come home to find little tricks played on us as a result. Not with the type of neighbours we have on each side of the duplex anyway. My son's nosy neighbours would be a much nicer addition to my neighbourhood.

On the way home, my son and I chatted about institutionalized religions and their followers. The ones who tart up their bullying and threatening behaviour as spiritual entitlement based on membership in their own personal cabal. The reason was that my daughter-in-law is still really distressed at the actions of some of her fundamentalist christian - so-called - family, who commissioned a headstone for her father's grave that basically stated that if the observer didn't hew to their particular branding of the Jesus product, then they would rot in h***. They hadn't consulted the immediate family about that or the fact that they brought in one of their church leaders to baptize her Dad into their faith while he was in a coma before he died. He niether knew of the assault nor had he given any indication of interest or consent. The offending family members used that baptism-by-force, as their justification for underhandedly having that headstone installed. Then they had the gall to have the bill sent to my daughter-in-law's family for payment. Do these people really believe the almighty and omniscient is so stupid and blind that what they do to hurt others isn't observed and noted for future reference - you know like judgement day? Do unto others and that little parable of The Man's about who was the true brother of the man waylaid by thieves. I believe the moral of the story was the true brother of the injured man was the one who cared for him as if he was caring for his own child or family without thought of thanks or reward. Not those who took advantage of the injured man in his time of vulnerability for their own benefit or self-validation. Hmm. At home I started housework as soon as I hit the door and my youngest helped out when he arrived about an hour later. He ordered pizza on the premise that we needed it. Not many tricksters out by the time we arrived home though, just very sad and lonely cats. Time for bed now - good night dear diary.

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