Love may be blind but lust has a pretty sharp eye

My very own aphorism!

What does a sexy linguist wear on vacation?
A diphthong.

What's invisible and plays hockey?
A ghoulie.

Why was the cannibal expelled from school?
He was buttering up his teacher.

My favourite recent headline: Lawyers challenge Harper's same-sex position —CBC online

Today's thought: Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Words words words

From Jann Arden's "Good Mother"

I’ve got money in my pocket
I like the color of my hair
I’ve got a friend who loves me
Got a house, I’ve got a car
I’ve got a good mother
and her voice is what keeps me here

Feet on ground
Heart in hand
Facing forward
Be yourself
I’ve never wanted anything so bad...so bad

Cardboard masks of all the people
I’ve been
thrown out with all the rusted, tangled
dented god-damned miseries
You could say I’m hard to hold
But if you knew me you’d know
I’ve got a good father
And his strength is what makes me cry

Feet on ground
Heart in hand
Facing forward
Be yourself
I’ve never wanted anything so bad...

***

I hope you are well.

L

Her Honour The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta
The Honourable Dr. Lois E. Hole, CM, AOE

or Lois...

I just finished making the Thank-you ad for the family to be published in the Journal and the Calgary Herald. It started out with a long-ish list of people who donated their time or services and add a longer list of people who went above and beyond to make the last few months something to be remembered.

In the end though, the ad holds nothing but the thanks of the family. There truly were too many people to thank, too many people who didn't want thanks, too many people that we didn't even know needed thanks. There were too many people touched by this event and by Lois' legacy. I think teh simple thank-you suffices.

I still get shivers when I do something involving Lois, I still discover new dimensions to how she touched my life, I still regret being unable to express the inexpressable and I really wish I had of asked her over for tea like I planned when we first bought the house.

Because you see, we all learn from our experiences, often without realization that learning has taken place. I learned along time ago from Lois' daughter-in-law that wealth is relative and the 3 bucks in my pocket is way more precious to another that it ever should be to me. I learned when I spent my first week working out of Lois' office that wealth and power aren't really synonymous with ambition, jealousy and unending moral compromise. I learned from working at Hole's that strength & confidence is actually one of the keys to charity. In the past month I have learned so much about myself, about the perceptions of truth that we all hold as a society and about the importance of strenght and the insidious eroding power of fear.

I learned a lot.

Kate, Lois' granddaughter, wrote a poem for her memorial which clarified some of what was racing around my mind.



...
I am not afraid to cry.
I will be strong of character
Strong of conviction
Strong of ethics and morals and values
And I will be strong in my beliefs.
...

We need to be strong and to be true and from this great things can come. To live up to Lois' legacy, we need not do great things, we need only to think, to learn, to listen and to do...


"and I said to myself, what a wonderful world..."

So this dyslexic walks into a bra...

I haven't felt much like writing, or anything else, lately. As you've probably heard, Her Honour Lois Hole, Alberta's Lieutenant Governor, died last week, and her death has hit me hard. She was an extraordinary woman, and I will miss her.

So, completely inappropriately, here's a melange of other stuff to amuse you. Perhaps after the memorial service on January 18 I'll be able to prepare a more fitting response to Lois' passing. In the meantime, if you want to read a beautiful tribute, click here.

And now, without further ado, my Friday blog.


• What do you call a fish with no eye? A fsh.


25 Most-Played Songs on My iTunes as of today

Tiny Thing, Jenson Interceptor
Fire Lake, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
I Drove All Night, Cyndi Lauper
All Hell For A Basement, Big Sugar
This Little Girl, Gary US Bonds
Without Me, Eminem
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Gene Pitney
Crazy in Love (featuring Jay-Z), Beyoncé
I Did It for Love, Harlequin
Get Closer, Seals & Crofts
I'm Your Baby Tonight, Whitney Houston
Don't Stand So Close to Me, The Police
How Do I Make You, Linda Ronstadt
Pour Some Sugar on Me, Def Leppard
Wednesday, Tori Amos
Summer Breeze, Seals & Crofts
Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon, Urge Overkill
Brand New Lover, Dead Or Alive
Summer Night City, ABBA
Welcome, Heather Nova
Billie Jean, Michael Jackson
Hush, Deep Purple
Steppin' Out, Joe Jackson
A Sorta Fairytale, Tori Amos
What You Waiting For?, Gwen Stefani

(please don't comment on my execrable taste: I already know!)


A new outlook for the new year, courtesy of Dear Abby

JUST FOR TODAY, I will live through this day only. I will not brood about yesterday or obsess about tomorrow. I will not set far-reaching goals or try to overcome all my problems at once. I know that I can do something for 24 hours that would overwhelm me if I had to keep it up for a lifetime.

JUST FOR TODAY, I will be happy. I will not dwell on thoughts that depress me. If my mind fills with clouds, I will chase them away and fill it with sunshine.

JUST FOR TODAY, I will accept what is. I will face reality. I will correct those things I can correct and accept those I cannot.


• Doctor to patient: "I've determined the cause of your illness. You have Tom Jones disease." Patient: "That sounds bad. Is it rare?" Doctor: "It's not unusual..."


Steinbeck's hometown to shut down libraries

SALINAS, CALIF. - The cash-strapped hometown of author John Steinbeck will close down its library system, including a branch named after the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, starting in early 2005.

Cutbacks in state funding, rapid growth of the city and rising heath-care costs have forced the city council of Salinas, Calif., to slash $8 million from its budget over the past year. It faces a similar cut for the 2005-2006 fiscal year.

Earlier this month, council voted to shut down its three libraries by spring 2005, after residents rejected in November a number of tax increases aimed at funding city services.

"The reality is that we live in a blue-collar community where people are struggling, and they're afraid of new taxes," Salinas Mayor Anna Caballero told the Associated Press. "I don't think they realized the enormity of what we were facing."

Steinbeck once described the region, which is dominated by produce farms, as "pastures of heaven" and memorialized the area in many of his works, including the 1952 novel East of Eden. Located about 160 kilometres south of San Francisco, Salinas also goes by the nickname "The Salad Bowl of the Nation."

A large number of Salinas's 150,000 residents are poor farmworkers and immigrants who regularly visit the three branches – The John Steinbeck Library, The Cesar Chavez Library and The El Gabilan Library – for books as well as for other resources, including citizenship information, literacy courses, English-as-a-second language material, after-school programs and to access the internet.

Library officials estimate that almost 2,000 people make use of the library system on an average day. The closings could leave Salinas the most populous U.S. city without a public library. About three dozen people employed at the libraries will lose their jobs.


• "If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot." —John Bunyan


L

New Year Notes...

We had a limited budget Xmas this year and it actually was a bit funner ..."fun funner funnest" ...

Actually we blew a tone of moola on climbing stuff including a year's pass to Virg. Went climbing and took some pics. But hopefully the investment will be worth it. I actually seem to be feeling a bit better as I get more exercise... who'd a thunk eh?

Doug's in... mostly. So far he hasn't complained but we'll see.

Anyway... just a note to start 2005.