Conversations with my mother: learning to say goodbye
My Rosie
Tessa: Hi mama, how are you?
Rosie: Hi Tessie, not dead yet!
Tessa: That’s good. What are you doing?
Rosie: Jokelee and I are eating a big bowl of ice cream and I’m having a second piece of pie. To hell with the diabetes. Now that I know, I’m going to live it up.
Tessa: I’m sorry mom.
Rosie: For what?
Tessa: To hear about what the doctor said.
Rosie: Oh what the hell. He told me I looked great for my age and that he had never seen anyone be so healthy for so long. I’ve been lucky. We all have to go somehow. I’m 84 for godsake.——-(Long pause) Don’t be sad. I’m so glad you have Dave.
Tessa: Me too. He really loves you.
Rosie: He does? I love him too. I love him so much I’m going to take him with me when I go.
Tessa: Oh mom. No you’re not.
Rosie: Oh yes I am. Are you coming home now?
Tessa: I’m coming home mom.
Rosie: For how long?
Tessa: As long as I can.
Rosie: I have to go now. Dancing with the Stars is on. Whoopeee..
Filed under Conversations with My Mother
Forced Relaxation has me thinking about Mia clogs
I’m beginning to develop a forced relaxation routine. I get up, take Reub around the block, have coffee and breakfast with Dave, call various family members to see what disasters are currently unfolding and then sit back and relax in my forced relaxation bubble.
After spending some time looking for work, Reuben and I do some yoga. After yoga I think about my clogs. I just bought the world’s most fabulous clogs. They are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever owned, even more comfortable than Birkenstocks which we all know are seriously comfortable shoes. Actually come to think of it, I got one of the worst blisters in the world walking around New York in my Birks and as I recall I spent quite a bit of time looking for bandaids to help me out. Anyways, at the end of the day nobody can beat the Swedes at shoes carved from one of the world’s greatest natural resources, wood. I thought I would have to break these shoes in but no. They fit like a glove from the moment I put them on.
My primary worry at this point is whether I should quickly invest in another pair. I know I’ll be kicking myself two years from now when my clogs are all worn out and I need a new pair and I won’t be able to find the exact ones I have which are incredibly sassy in a farmish earthy kind of way. If you’re wondering what clogs I’m talking about they’re called Mia and I got them at the Urban Barn. I will take a picture of my own pair once Dave returns with the camera. For now you can check them out here.
Filed under Random Musing
Live web cam of Eagles on Hornby Island
This is quite cool. Check out these eagles on the live web cam.
Filed under Random Musing
Michael Douglas and his cell phone star in Wall Street
Filed under Dave's Pictures and Ma Movies, Random Musing
Real Canadian Superstore disturbs bubble of imposed relaxation
Hello, I am not a marijuana plant
So off we got to Real Canadian Superstore to go and investigate plant pot situation which is critical. Above all a pot must look good and because I happen to be of dutch descent and therefore cheap, it must also be inexpensive . A dutch gardener like me wants it all.
All I can say is that the Real Canadian Superstore parking lot is probably not unlike dodging snipers in Sarajevo at the height of the war. If I ever plan on going into live combat I’ll start simulation practice by venturing back into that perilous territory.
What’s more I didn’t get my good looking cheap pot there either. The trip, quite simply, was not worth bursting my serenity bubble.
Filed under Random Musing
How do seals sleep? Diary of imposed relaxation
What does Chewbacca have to do with seals and starlings? To find out, read on...
That’s when I had a thought. And the thought was, how do these guys sleep? I went to a session at the Northern Voice conference last week and Dr. David Ng spoke. He’s a geneticist but mainly he’s a science educator with a particular interest in making science accessible to kids and people who don’t know alot about it.
He talked about how we tend to embrace and value things of a cultural nature and he explored the idea that how science is communicated stops it from being adapted into popular knowledge and culture. He used a few examples to illustrate. He showed us a picture of a starling and asked a room full of people to identify it. In a room of 60 people only a handful could identify a common bird. Then up came a picture of pokemon. And everyone laughed and responded to that because everyone knows pokemon. He also used the Star Wars character Chewbacca (memory fails me here but I thought it was him).You would have to be sleeping under a rock to not know Chewbacca. Out of a room of about sixty it turns out only one person was sleeping under a rock and didn’t have a clue who Chewie was.
This brings me back to the seal. Dave said seals sleep on rocks. I posited that seals don’t sleep. Erica said they were mammals they had to breathe air. Who knew? Well, it turns out they do sleep for short periods of time. They float beneath the surface of the water and will unconsciously surface to breathe.
Anyways, that was my thought two days ago. Thanks to my relaxation program I know how seals breathe. Thanks relaxation. I wonder what thought will come my way today.
* if anyone is interested in the gap between science and culture Dave Ng and his students have a great blog called Terry..there’s lots of interesting stuff on there.
Filed under Random Musing
Where do great thoughts come from? Diary of a forced relaxation
I was at the park today walking Reub. We like to roll on the lawn and he likes to sit and think. So do I. While I was thinking of nothing I started thinking about how I was thinking of nothing. Then I wondered what other people thought about. For example, how do great thoughts come about? How do great thinkers think great thoughts. I’m not a great thinker so I’m not expecting any great revelations.
When I am thinking, I make lists. When I finish making the lists, I rehearse the list over and over again in case I forget something. Yesterday it occurred to me that I’m not even making lists anymore. No grocery lists, exercise, dog walking, to do, book reading, recipe making, call mom, brother, sisters, nieces lists. Nothing. Right now there are no lists. Which means I’m thinking nothing. I’m wondering if something great will come of thinking of nothing?
This brings me to the subject of great thinkers and domestics. Do great thinkers clean, cook or do domestics? Do they carry on like normal people, because if they do, I have no idea where the time would come for great thinking.
Every day I look at my plants outside. Every day I realize they’re growing and I wish I could actually watch them grow. That’s my thought for today.
Filed under Random Musing
How on earth can I be tired after 9 hours sleep?? A diary of imposed relaxation
Today I’m so tired I can hardly stand up. I have bags under my eyes and everything is dragging me downward, like the universe wants me to fall down and have a big nap. There is no possible reason why I am this exhausted. I have had 4 nights of 8 to 9 hours sleep, preceeded by some bad hockey. Or maybe it’s like Sara my hairdresser said, that we have mono. Or maybe it’s that ridiculous bike ride I went on yesterday. All up hill. Who knew? I’m usually a passenger in a car when I’m doing those hills. Those hills are hard. At one point I thought I was going to fall off my bike. Then I thought I might call Dave to come and pick me up except I forgot my cell phone. Then when I realized that the last part of the ride home which I thought was downhill (where did I get that idea?) was in fact uphill. I actually considered stabbing myself in the head and feigning injury. Brother. I may as well have been climbing Everest without my oxygen tank.
Filed under Random Musing
Condofire 