With her two Grandmothers
With her Daddy
With her Aunties
With Mommy and Aunty
Mom and her Daughters
Jabbering and Playing with Her Foot
Dark but Cute as She Plays with her Aunties
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Thanksgiving Photos
... and two video clips at the end.
Jabbering and Playing with Her Foot
Dark but Cute as She Plays with her Aunties
Jabbering and Playing with Her Foot
Dark but Cute as She Plays with her Aunties
Betwixt
It's not easy being comfortable at this time of year. The weather was torrid when we cooked the turkey last Friday, but we didn't want to run the AC in October. Now it's cold and damp, and we don't want to turn on the heat yet. We try to wait until the end of October, but we never quite make it. It was easier in the previous house when we had a fireplace to use when we didn't want to heat the whole house. Alas ...
Meanwhile, my headache continues to bang away at me, even after two strong Advil early this morning followed by two strong Tylenol later. But I've been slogging away at Thanksgiving pictures anyway, and I think I'll post them now. That will make three posts in one day, so you'll excuse me if I head into hibernation for a while? It's cold enough after all.
Meanwhile, my headache continues to bang away at me, even after two strong Advil early this morning followed by two strong Tylenol later. But I've been slogging away at Thanksgiving pictures anyway, and I think I'll post them now. That will make three posts in one day, so you'll excuse me if I head into hibernation for a while? It's cold enough after all.
Reprise
Late last November, I wrote a post that I called Stupid Pills. The day had begun with a fiddle lesson that went badly, and it went downhill from there. The next day I woke up sick and wrote Clinging to my Raft. I was quite ill, but I actually took some solace from the realization that part of the previous day's problems might be attributed to the fact that I had been getting sick rather than simply losing my competence.
Yesterday, almost a year later, I had another poor fiddle lesson. Oh, it wasn't as bad as last year's, and the rest of the day wasn't fraught with misadventure, but I clearly wasn't with it. I was out of sync all of the way through the lesson. I felt that way even on my trip in and thought about last year's fiasco but dismissed the notion that something might be going wrong with my body because, other than feeling out of sync, I was actually feeling alright. Therefore, I put my misfiring down to a bit of an after-Thanksgiving-weekend reaction, a hangover of sorts if you will. No, not that kind of hangover!
Today, I woke up with a headache and sore throat. I'm not deathly ill, but I find it remarkable that, once again, performance issues preceded the actual onset of illness or at least the realization of that illness. And, once again, I find it somewhat comforting to be able to pin a reason to my rather weak showing yesterday.
Not only that, but this short blog was decidedly difficult to write. Sometimes it flows; sometimes it's a struggle to write one decent sentence.
Yesterday, almost a year later, I had another poor fiddle lesson. Oh, it wasn't as bad as last year's, and the rest of the day wasn't fraught with misadventure, but I clearly wasn't with it. I was out of sync all of the way through the lesson. I felt that way even on my trip in and thought about last year's fiasco but dismissed the notion that something might be going wrong with my body because, other than feeling out of sync, I was actually feeling alright. Therefore, I put my misfiring down to a bit of an after-Thanksgiving-weekend reaction, a hangover of sorts if you will. No, not that kind of hangover!
Today, I woke up with a headache and sore throat. I'm not deathly ill, but I find it remarkable that, once again, performance issues preceded the actual onset of illness or at least the realization of that illness. And, once again, I find it somewhat comforting to be able to pin a reason to my rather weak showing yesterday.
Not only that, but this short blog was decidedly difficult to write. Sometimes it flows; sometimes it's a struggle to write one decent sentence.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
The MMP Referendum in Ontario
I offer my following opinions about the Ontario MMP referendum for the benefit of any Ontarion that happens to chance by before Wednesday's election. It's a dumb blog in a way because it's too long and uninteresting for the average passerby but not really long enough to explain the referendum really well. I'll do my best to hit the highlights and assume that any Ontario elector would know enough to fill in the blanks. I'm doing this because I don't think we've been provided with very good information, and I'd like to do my bit, albeit rather late in the day. It's confusing but worth following if a resident hasn't really digested this stuff yet.
Ontarions go to the polls tomorrow to elect their provincial government for the next four years. As far as I can see there are two unique things about this election. The first is that the date was set approximately four years ago. Up until now, elections have been called arbitrarily by the party in power at a moment that they deem opportune — opportune for them, of course. The second is that we also have a referendum to vote on.
The referendum is to determine whether we want to embrace a different model for electing members of the legislature. It's called MMP which is short for Mixed Member Proportional. In a nutshell it's an attempt to elect representatives more fairly. I love the concept and was all for it until, with the election on our doorstep, I decided to look at the proposal more carefully. Now, I don't like it.
Basically and briefly, the idea (if this referendum were to pass) is that we would elect 90 members of parliament in the traditional way: that way being that whoever gets the most votes in a riding would then represent that riding in the legislature. It follows that the party that wins the most ridings forms the government.
There are several problems with this first-past-the-post system, but a major one is that, because there are at least three parties in almost every riding in Ontario, someone can be elected with only 40% or fewer of the votes. By extension, a party can win a majority of seats and form the government by gaining only 40% or less of the total provincial vote. Under this system it is also possible for a party to get, let's say 10%, of the total vote but not win even one riding and, therefore, not be represented at all in the legislature. It doesn't seem right.
And so, on Wednesday we will be offered the option to change the system. Unfortunately, I find this proposal terribly awkward and unattractive. Under the MMP referendum proposal, we would now vote twice: once for the local candidates and once for our general party of choice. Ninety of the 129 legislature seats would be filled by these candidates. The other 39 seats would be filled by a new group of at-large members.
I don't mind the idea in general, but I don't like how it plays out in this specific proposal. I don't mind the concept that an additional 39 seats would be filled by a second at-large, party vote. But there's a twist that I don't like. You see, in a way, the second party vote would trump the riding vote. Let me try to explain that as briefly as possible with the following example that for the sake of simplicity assumes a two-party system. Yes, I know we have three fairly major parties and a number of minor ones, but I really want to keep it as simple as possible.
Let's say that Party A elects 60 members from the traditional riding votes, but Party B only elects 30. However, let's also say that in the second ballot, the at-large party ballot, the electorate decides to split the vote evenly by giving both parties exactly 50% of the vote. It would mean that Party B would be given an overwhelming share of the 39 at-large candidates, and here's how.
It's because the second vote kind of trumps the first, for it's the second vote that will be used to determine as much as possible the actual number of seats that each party will obtain. (It's confusing, I know, but stick with me here.) If the electorate really split the at-large vote 50/50, then one half of the whole legislature of 129 and not just the additional 39 members should go to each party. Party A, therefore, would only get 5 more members (of the 39 remaining) to bring them up to 65 total seats, which is one-half of 129 (or as close as we can get) while Party B would get be granted 34 (I assume) of the at-large members to give them a grand total of 64 seats.
It doesn't seem right to me for one party to obtain an overwhelming share of those 39 at-large seats when the vote split evenly between the two. I fail to see how this particular MMP system solves more problems than it creates.
If the proportional presentation were to only apply to the 39 at-large seats, I would most likely feel differently. What I mean is that if the two parties (in the above example where each received 50% of the at-large vote) were to split the 39 at-large members evenly, I'd vote for it, for that system would allow for some fairer distribution and representation but still weigh local riding votes more heavily. But I can't buy into this extremely odd proposal, and I'll be voting NO.
Ontarions go to the polls tomorrow to elect their provincial government for the next four years. As far as I can see there are two unique things about this election. The first is that the date was set approximately four years ago. Up until now, elections have been called arbitrarily by the party in power at a moment that they deem opportune — opportune for them, of course. The second is that we also have a referendum to vote on.
The referendum is to determine whether we want to embrace a different model for electing members of the legislature. It's called MMP which is short for Mixed Member Proportional. In a nutshell it's an attempt to elect representatives more fairly. I love the concept and was all for it until, with the election on our doorstep, I decided to look at the proposal more carefully. Now, I don't like it.
Basically and briefly, the idea (if this referendum were to pass) is that we would elect 90 members of parliament in the traditional way: that way being that whoever gets the most votes in a riding would then represent that riding in the legislature. It follows that the party that wins the most ridings forms the government.
There are several problems with this first-past-the-post system, but a major one is that, because there are at least three parties in almost every riding in Ontario, someone can be elected with only 40% or fewer of the votes. By extension, a party can win a majority of seats and form the government by gaining only 40% or less of the total provincial vote. Under this system it is also possible for a party to get, let's say 10%, of the total vote but not win even one riding and, therefore, not be represented at all in the legislature. It doesn't seem right.
And so, on Wednesday we will be offered the option to change the system. Unfortunately, I find this proposal terribly awkward and unattractive. Under the MMP referendum proposal, we would now vote twice: once for the local candidates and once for our general party of choice. Ninety of the 129 legislature seats would be filled by these candidates. The other 39 seats would be filled by a new group of at-large members.
I don't mind the idea in general, but I don't like how it plays out in this specific proposal. I don't mind the concept that an additional 39 seats would be filled by a second at-large, party vote. But there's a twist that I don't like. You see, in a way, the second party vote would trump the riding vote. Let me try to explain that as briefly as possible with the following example that for the sake of simplicity assumes a two-party system. Yes, I know we have three fairly major parties and a number of minor ones, but I really want to keep it as simple as possible.
Let's say that Party A elects 60 members from the traditional riding votes, but Party B only elects 30. However, let's also say that in the second ballot, the at-large party ballot, the electorate decides to split the vote evenly by giving both parties exactly 50% of the vote. It would mean that Party B would be given an overwhelming share of the 39 at-large candidates, and here's how.
It's because the second vote kind of trumps the first, for it's the second vote that will be used to determine as much as possible the actual number of seats that each party will obtain. (It's confusing, I know, but stick with me here.) If the electorate really split the at-large vote 50/50, then one half of the whole legislature of 129 and not just the additional 39 members should go to each party. Party A, therefore, would only get 5 more members (of the 39 remaining) to bring them up to 65 total seats, which is one-half of 129 (or as close as we can get) while Party B would get be granted 34 (I assume) of the at-large members to give them a grand total of 64 seats.
It doesn't seem right to me for one party to obtain an overwhelming share of those 39 at-large seats when the vote split evenly between the two. I fail to see how this particular MMP system solves more problems than it creates.
If the proportional presentation were to only apply to the 39 at-large seats, I would most likely feel differently. What I mean is that if the two parties (in the above example where each received 50% of the at-large vote) were to split the 39 at-large members evenly, I'd vote for it, for that system would allow for some fairer distribution and representation but still weigh local riding votes more heavily. But I can't buy into this extremely odd proposal, and I'll be voting NO.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Another Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving weekend in Canada has rolled around once more, and our little family is together again. The girls have flown in from the left coast to be with us and the Wee Smudge on her first Thanksgiving. Another first: the little one's French grandmother will join us from Montreal. We haven't previously done this joining together of both sides of the family for a holiday. Hopefully, it will go well and be the first of many.
It was blinkin hot yesterday when we pre-cooked the turkey, and it's cooler, cloudy and rainy today. Thankfully, tomorrow, the day we will celebrate (although the official day is Monday), is predicted to be dry, not too hot and partially sunny. Sounds fine to me.
We've had many fine Thanksgiving feasts, including some recent ones at the cottage with Cuppa's sister and family, but they mostly all blend together — except for one.
And that, my friends is the story of the one Thanksgiving that clearly stands out in my memory.
It was blinkin hot yesterday when we pre-cooked the turkey, and it's cooler, cloudy and rainy today. Thankfully, tomorrow, the day we will celebrate (although the official day is Monday), is predicted to be dry, not too hot and partially sunny. Sounds fine to me.
We've had many fine Thanksgiving feasts, including some recent ones at the cottage with Cuppa's sister and family, but they mostly all blend together — except for one.
It was my first year of teaching. I had been at it for a month when I suddenly realized that I had yet to give a test to any one of my six classes. No doubt I had at least some assignment marks but no test results. So ... in my young foolishness, I decided to remedy that on the Friday before Thanksgiving weekend by presenting all six classes, close to 175 students, with tests.
I soon discovered that was not exactly a good plan!
Not only was it a bad plan to test every class on the same day, but I really didn't yet know how to construct a decent test. Therefore, each was too long: too long to write and too long to mark.
Result: I spent the whole, three-day weekend marking my little, tired brains out. I think I finished late Monday night, just in time to roll exhaustedly into bed to rest up for the resumption of classes on the next day.
Just to show my state of mind during this markathon, let me share this true anecdote with you. I finally and at long last got to a very wonderful paper and exulted over this student who showed such a great grasp of the material and who was able to pen his or her thoughts so concisely yet lucidly. It was perfect! One hundred percent! However, when I tried to record the mark, I discovered that silly me had actually marked my own marking scheme. Can you believe it? The problems didn't end there, of course, for I had to deal with six very unhappy classes who protested vigourously on the next day. Because the tests were poorly constructed, the results were not good, to say the least, and class after class howled its displeasure.
I soon discovered that was not exactly a good plan!
Not only was it a bad plan to test every class on the same day, but I really didn't yet know how to construct a decent test. Therefore, each was too long: too long to write and too long to mark.
Result: I spent the whole, three-day weekend marking my little, tired brains out. I think I finished late Monday night, just in time to roll exhaustedly into bed to rest up for the resumption of classes on the next day.
Just to show my state of mind during this markathon, let me share this true anecdote with you. I finally and at long last got to a very wonderful paper and exulted over this student who showed such a great grasp of the material and who was able to pen his or her thoughts so concisely yet lucidly. It was perfect! One hundred percent! However, when I tried to record the mark, I discovered that silly me had actually marked my own marking scheme. Can you believe it? The problems didn't end there, of course, for I had to deal with six very unhappy classes who protested vigourously on the next day. Because the tests were poorly constructed, the results were not good, to say the least, and class after class howled its displeasure.
And that, my friends is the story of the one Thanksgiving that clearly stands out in my memory.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Passing Thoughts
We are an odd assortment of entities, we humans. Of course, while at some level I understand that I number among the odd ones, I don't really believe it in my heart. My driving, for example, is nigh unto perfect. Really! This allows me to observe peculiarities in others, and I here and now address my keyboard to briefly recount one of these.
To wit: we live near a two-lane highway. The problem with a two-laner is that not everyone prefers to go through life at the same speed. Since I am not the fastest driver in the world, certain other drivers insist on passing me. Of course, I try to help them out when I can. Every so often, for instance, the blessed highway builders have added a special passing lane that is long enough for others to pass me in comfort and with ease, for if we chance upon one of these, I stay in the slow lane and allow others to pass.
However, when the gas pedal is under the other foot, so to speak, it doesn't always work out as well. You see, just as I am not the zippiest driver in the world, neither I am not the ploddingest one. Sometimes, therefore, I am the one getting stuck behind a turtle (sorry Dave), and it is I who looks to take advantage of one of these designated passing zones. Alas, it doesn't always work out as well as I would hope, for not all others are as considerate as I. (Remember if you will that I count myself as one of the few non-odd humans, and one of my finer traits is that I am considerate.)
In point of fact, more than once I have putted along behind a slow driver, but as we enter the passing zone s/he will suddenly depress the gas pedal and begin to speed like a bat of out you know where. This presents a conundrum, for I know that if I don't pass, the same driver will slow back down to a leisurely crawl just as soon as we get back to two lanes, and I will be stuck again. It's beyond my ken what goes through their brains, but I have found myself in this predicament more than once.
And so ... I am forced to hurtle into warp speed in order to get by the turtle-become-bat-soon-to-become-turtle-once-again and end up exceeding the speed limit by not a small margin. Someday, I will probably be hauled off to the hoosegow for my efforts. It's just not fair, I tell you. Not when I'm so sincere, considerate and wonderfully un-odd.
To wit: we live near a two-lane highway. The problem with a two-laner is that not everyone prefers to go through life at the same speed. Since I am not the fastest driver in the world, certain other drivers insist on passing me. Of course, I try to help them out when I can. Every so often, for instance, the blessed highway builders have added a special passing lane that is long enough for others to pass me in comfort and with ease, for if we chance upon one of these, I stay in the slow lane and allow others to pass.
However, when the gas pedal is under the other foot, so to speak, it doesn't always work out as well. You see, just as I am not the zippiest driver in the world, neither I am not the ploddingest one. Sometimes, therefore, I am the one getting stuck behind a turtle (sorry Dave), and it is I who looks to take advantage of one of these designated passing zones. Alas, it doesn't always work out as well as I would hope, for not all others are as considerate as I. (Remember if you will that I count myself as one of the few non-odd humans, and one of my finer traits is that I am considerate.)
In point of fact, more than once I have putted along behind a slow driver, but as we enter the passing zone s/he will suddenly depress the gas pedal and begin to speed like a bat of out you know where. This presents a conundrum, for I know that if I don't pass, the same driver will slow back down to a leisurely crawl just as soon as we get back to two lanes, and I will be stuck again. It's beyond my ken what goes through their brains, but I have found myself in this predicament more than once.
And so ... I am forced to hurtle into warp speed in order to get by the turtle-become-bat-soon-to-become-turtle-once-again and end up exceeding the speed limit by not a small margin. Someday, I will probably be hauled off to the hoosegow for my efforts. It's just not fair, I tell you. Not when I'm so sincere, considerate and wonderfully un-odd.
Monday, October 01, 2007
A Memory Triggered
We took a drive down to the Kingston area on Sunday to begin to scout out possible wedding venues for the girls next year and found a good candidate (below) on Wolfe Island.
As we drove around town I recalled our little family holiday almost fifty years ago. It was probably less that a week long, more like four or possibly five days. From Montreal, we visited Eastern Ontario, specifically Kingston, Brockville and Cornwall. I imagine it was a bit of a nostalgic stroll down memory lane for my parents who had lived near Kingston for a few years. You see, for a short time, Dad had been a minister in a nearby town and mom had given birth to me in the Kingston General Hospital. My maternal grandmother's clan also hailed from around Cornwall, and mom had spent a lot of time in that area as a girl.
The highlights of the trip were probably supposed to be visiting tourist attractions such as Old Fort Henry in Kingston and the Robert Moses Dam and cruising the Thousand Islands. But I also remember the hotels at which we stayed. I remember the Revere Hotel in Brockville (pretty darn sure that was the name) and one in Cornwall whose name I forget, but it was probably my favourite because it had a very special elevator.
Until then, I had only ridden in elevators that were operated by white-gloved, uniformed women in department stores like Eatons in Montreal. But this elevator I could drive all by myself. And drive it I did. What a kick! I would seize any opportunity to get on the contraption and push the buttons that would take me downstairs to the lobby and back up. I probably drove everybody crazy! You can tell that I was a deprived child.
Yesterday, as we drove around Kingston, memories of the little hotel there suddenly popped into my head. "Of course, it's long gone AC; it wasn't a very grand place way back then after all." Then, about thirty seconds later, didn't we drive by Hotel Belvedere. By golly, that was it! The very same hotel. (Photo from their website, from the side and looking better than it did straight-on from the front.)
I wouldn't have recognized it by sight, I don't think because fifty years ago, I believe we got there in the evening and left early the next morning. But once I saw the name, I knew it: Hotel Belvedere. Partly, I think I remember the name because I kept souvenirs from this trip for a few years: matchbooks and those typical hotel soap bars to be exact: items with the hotel's name in other words. Strange souvenirs, I know, but we didn't get out much, and I'm sure there would have been precious little money for normal souvenirs.
So, that's the long version. The short version is that yesterday, I drove by a hotel in Kingston that I stayed at for one night about fifty years ago.
But we have the better part of a year before the wedding becomes a story, so permit me to proceed to more banal thoughts: at which I excel.
As we drove around town I recalled our little family holiday almost fifty years ago. It was probably less that a week long, more like four or possibly five days. From Montreal, we visited Eastern Ontario, specifically Kingston, Brockville and Cornwall. I imagine it was a bit of a nostalgic stroll down memory lane for my parents who had lived near Kingston for a few years. You see, for a short time, Dad had been a minister in a nearby town and mom had given birth to me in the Kingston General Hospital. My maternal grandmother's clan also hailed from around Cornwall, and mom had spent a lot of time in that area as a girl.
The highlights of the trip were probably supposed to be visiting tourist attractions such as Old Fort Henry in Kingston and the Robert Moses Dam and cruising the Thousand Islands. But I also remember the hotels at which we stayed. I remember the Revere Hotel in Brockville (pretty darn sure that was the name) and one in Cornwall whose name I forget, but it was probably my favourite because it had a very special elevator.
Until then, I had only ridden in elevators that were operated by white-gloved, uniformed women in department stores like Eatons in Montreal. But this elevator I could drive all by myself. And drive it I did. What a kick! I would seize any opportunity to get on the contraption and push the buttons that would take me downstairs to the lobby and back up. I probably drove everybody crazy! You can tell that I was a deprived child.
Yesterday, as we drove around Kingston, memories of the little hotel there suddenly popped into my head. "Of course, it's long gone AC; it wasn't a very grand place way back then after all." Then, about thirty seconds later, didn't we drive by Hotel Belvedere. By golly, that was it! The very same hotel. (Photo from their website, from the side and looking better than it did straight-on from the front.)
I wouldn't have recognized it by sight, I don't think because fifty years ago, I believe we got there in the evening and left early the next morning. But once I saw the name, I knew it: Hotel Belvedere. Partly, I think I remember the name because I kept souvenirs from this trip for a few years: matchbooks and those typical hotel soap bars to be exact: items with the hotel's name in other words. Strange souvenirs, I know, but we didn't get out much, and I'm sure there would have been precious little money for normal souvenirs.
Oh my! Writing that brings to mind that there were, indeed, other souvenirs. I remember now. I also collected pennants from that trip. I'm pretty sure there was one from Old Fort Henry and probably from the rather new St Lawrence Seaway and probably one from the Thousand Islands. I now remember that they hung on my wall for several years.
So, that's the long version. The short version is that yesterday, I drove by a hotel in Kingston that I stayed at for one night about fifty years ago.
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