A Dark Hour in Barrie

If there was ever an appropriate time for one to be dim, it was yesterday. It was okay for everyone to be dim......dimming your lights that is.

This morning I read the newspaper to get caught up on the events that took place in the world. How the big city buildings were plunged into darkness for an hour. How accoustic musical events took place, no amps. How the Prime Minister's house did not darken for the hour.

We actively took part in the second Earth Hour (apparently there was one held last year, but, just as with newborns, it was still in development stages). This year was quite a different matter. The people of the world chose to have a voice in what happens to our planet, turning out their houselights for just one hour, and lighting candles.

All in an effort to try and save our poor planet....our planet which is stretched beyond all means trying to keep up with an ever growing demand on power consumption.

At 7:55 pm, we had darkened the house, donned our warm clothes and headed out for a walk. At the corner, a family had their outdoor fireplace burning, and a mini Earth Hour party was happening. We continued our walk and noticed house after house in darkness.....a few candles glowing in the windows.People stood inside their houses and watched outside, waving to people as we walked by. We snarled silently at the homes who either didn't give a hoot about the whole thing or just plain forgot.

We walked for a half hour, then returned home and lit the candles on the main floor, and sat in the dim light and quiet. It was rather nice. No computer. No TV.

It didn't end at 9pm either. When the hour was over, we didn't suddenly jump up and flick on all of the lights. Na uh. We left the candles on, especially the front window candle...the one that (I hope) sent a message to all who could see it. For the remainder of the evening, we were careful about our lights, not flicking things on at random.

In the end, the whole experience was positive, in fact it was inspirational. Just think if we could do this all the time...one hour each night. Shut it all down. We have 8760 hours in a year. Doesn't sound like much does it? Take away 365 hours and just think what a difference that would make, not to mention our electricity bills.

I guess that's the bottom line. Be aware and make small changes.

.....'cause if we don't do it, nobody will.

Peace

Earth Hour 2008

Got a candle or 2? Then light them tonight.

Do your bit with the rest of the world to get off the grid for 1 hour.

....tonight

........8 to 9 o'clock

............don't forget to sign up => http://www10.earthhourus.org/


I'll be there.....not here.

A Little Cheese with your Spaghetti?

Mealtime is our nice evening time. It's the time when we arrive home from the gym, hungry, talkative (sugared out), and ready to eat. Usually My Sweetie cooks. He is the better cook, and so I let him do what he does best.

Last night was spaghetti. Spaghetti always bring back a certain fond memory, and a few of my readers will recall what I am thinking of. Maybe I'll even recount this little story in this post. For now, let's get back to dinner.

The pasta was made, the sauce was ready. We were sitting at the table with fork in hand ready to go. Then the famous question.....would you like some Parmesan cheese on your spaghetti? Sounded like a good idea. So I picked up the container, and tried to shake out some cheesy flakes. I shook and shook and shook. One tiny little flake fell onto my plate. Most of the cheese had formed a ball, so nothing was getting out.

Until My Sweetie decided to shake the living bejeezies out of it.

The bottom cracked open...and there was flakey bits everywhere! All over him. All over the floor. All over the table.

And, what else does one do at a time like this? One laughs hilariously!!! Belly laughs for sure.

Which brings me back to a time many years ago. It was summer, we were wearing shorts, and we were at my MIL's house for a family gathering. Spaghetti was on plate for dinner.....wait, let me correct that....spaghetti was in lap.

While the plates were being handed out, My Sweetie's portion somehow slipped off his plate and landed in his lap....teeming hot pasta, landing on his bare legs.

People were yelling, scooping, cleaning.....not My Sweetie.

He was off of his seat like a rocket. He propelled himself to the upstairs bathroom, stripped out of his shorts, and proceeded to try and save his groin and private parts. He didn't care about the rug or the chairs.

Would you?

To this day, we still convulse in laughter at this story (heck I am laughing now!)....not laughing at My Sweetie though. No. But for some stupid reason, recounting this story is sure to bring a tear of laughter to our eyes.

But to be honest, I am not sure why we crack ourselves up on this one.

Easter Greetings

Happy Easter, although it feels more like Christmas here, temperature-wise.

It was good to have a long weekend. Part of it was spent shopping, going to a ladies afternoon party, and Spring cleaning. Of course, there was the usual catching up on sleep.

I still have a few posts up my sleeve...just have to find the right time to post about them.

*beware the chocolate Easter eggs*

Heads or Tails

For blogging regularity, I decided to give Heads or Tails a try. This weeks topic is 'favourite room in the house'.

This may seem odd, but my favourite room is the basement. Yes, the basement.

For me, the basement is my hub of activity. Many things happen there.

Laundry gets done there (groan).

Scrapbooking happens there (ahhhh).

American Idol, and all of my other shows are viewed there (woohoo).

It's also the place where kitty, BJ, and I have a regular date. It's a regular routine for us. After dinner, I go downstairs and turn on the softer lighting. The gas fireplace is flicked on. I sit in my Mother's chair, and curl up in a warm blanky. Within minutes, BJ will come down, stand by the ottoman, and promptly jump up, plop himself beside me, and stay there for the evening.

purrrrrr

Memory Background

Someone had asked me to possibly share a bit about Natalie, who was the picture in memoriam the other day. I started to type an email, and then realized that this would be suitable for a post, so here it is.

Natalie was a colleague with whom I worked many years ago. I didn't know much about her, except that she was nice and very smart. Time charged on. I went on to other places in the company. So did she. I hadn't seen her in quite awhile. I happened to be glancing through the newspaper on the weekend, and here was Natalie's face staring back at me through her obit. It was a little eerie to say the least.

But, that was not the first time that has happened. Deja vu they say. One of my favourite gym Managers passed away years ago. She was only 35 I think. Again, I stumbled upon her face looking back at me from the obit.

I still have both of those obits.

The obits with the photos.

Erin Go Bragh

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Aye, it's a wonderful day today eh? It's a wee bit chilly outside, but that's okay, because it's St. Patrick's Day. All negative things take a sideline on this day. Dig into your closet, and pull out your piece of green and don it for the day....even if you're not Irish!

As you can see, my blog is all greened out, so don't be shy. Don your green! It'll make you feel great.

Now, I'm not going to go into the history of the shamrock or the story of St. Patrick. Y'all know how to surf the Web. But, I will of course inject my personal affection for St. Patrick's Day.

You see, my dear Mum was of Irish descent. Her Mother (my grandmother) came over from Ireland, and HER mother was descended from a family of orphaned children.

Needless to say that we always acknowledged Green Day (not to be confused with environmental stuff). I remember going to school on March 17th, with green ribbon in my hair, and a sprig of real shamrocks pinned to my school tunic. Living in an ethnic area, I was one of probably 8 young lassies who showed up wearing something green....then spent most of the remainder of the day trying to explain why.

Tonight is BodyJam at the gym. I'll be working out wearing my green, and it will be a rocking good time.

Have yourself a really fine St. Patty's Day!

Memory

In Memory of Natalie

1957 to 2008

tHE gOOD sIDE OF sTRESS

As you know I have been describing why I had been absent for about a month. Health, stress, work, blah blah. Now, it's not like I feel that I owe an explanation to the teacher, because I don't. I just wanted to get it off my chest.

You by now have figured out, hopefully, that there has been a great deal of stress around here lately. Oh my yes to stress. What is also important to note is that when it comes to work, I somewhat enjoy working in that type of environment. It sounds strange, but that's me.

About 8 years ago, I worked on a highly visible project. All eyes were on it. There were unrealistic deadlines, and fast paced decisions affecting all of us involved. I remember one of those deadlines required us to spend all night at work. I literally had gone into work at 8am and did not return home until 6am the next day. I recall driving home and seeing the sunrise. It was unreal.

That surreal feeling revisited me a few weeks ago.

It was Friday around 5pm. I was asked if I could travel to the US of A on Monday. My head spun. I began to sweat. I tried desperately to get out of it. I really did not want to go. I WAS TO TRAVEL alone! Between this stress and the person with whom I was messaging saying it was urgent that I come down, I found myself receiving managerial authorization to travel...pretty darn quick. Within an hour, my plane ticket was bought and my hotel was reserved.

The weekend was spent packing and getting things ready. Monday would be a long day of course, and it was. It took 9 hours and a non-direct flight to land in warmer climes. At the transfer point in Atlanta, it was 70 degrees. I was in my winter garb, while others around me were in shorts and sandals. I felt a bit odd, but mustered my self together for the next short flight.

Oddly enough, once I got to the hotel, and settled in, things were not so bad. I actually started to enjoy everything, even though it was work. I ordered room service (mostly because I was too pooped to eat in the restaurant). I swam in the pool. After work, I went to relax in the hot tub (note to self - get one of those for home).

It was good to meet the people with whom I had only communicated on the phone, and, not to sound vain, but I think it was also good for them to meet me! I found out where our very own Canada Geese go in the winter time. I saw a few robins, and peonies, and grass. With all of the snow that we've been having this year, this was a welcome change.

When I arrived home, My Sweetie had balloons for me and a welcome home trinket. I think he missed me. He really really missed me.

(I missed him too...and of course BJ).

What I learned from this was that it's not so bad to travel for work. You just have to put a positive spin on things and try to enjoy it. Don't sweat it. Relax and enjoy the ride.

I did.

There is another part to this story...about some of the people I met on the 4 flights.

You'll just have to tune in....wontcha?

No More Computer For Me

During my blogging absence, I was feeling under pressure, from many sides.

First, work has been, and still is, quite stressful, with many meetings, long hours and numerous deadlines. At the end of the day, I was quite happy not to be bothered with a computer of any sort.

Second, I spend a lot of time tinkering with html. Maybe tinker is the wrong word. To some, I am considered a computer geek (I sure feel like a geek in so many other ways), and I draw on my past 20 years of work experience to assist a volunteer project. Sometimes this can be time-consuming. It is volunteer after all, but sometimes I was feeling as though it was a second job minus the pay cheque.

Third, Facebook. While I do like the product, I really hate it when people nudge me to make my move on Scrabulous. Sometimes it is just not possible to be 'on' and playing all the time. Gosh, retirement looks really good sometimes.

So, I made a choice. No Facebook. No blog. No reading anything online. No email.

I just wanted to work on my crafts, sit by the fire with kitty, or watch TV. That was all there was to it. It felt really good to be able to detach from the online world. In as much as I am an online freak, and spend most of my waking hours in an online environment, that detachment was very important for me.

But there was always a tug in the background. Woo hoo...what's happening on Facebook....woo hoo what's happening on email...woo hoo what's happening on so-and-so's blog. So, I am back, and maybe with a new purpose for this blog. We'll have to see.

Oh, there's more. In fact the best part I guess.

But it will have to wait til tomorrow.

David Archuleta is going to sing on AI.

Nite y'all.

Update - Chikezie is my new fave!!!

...More

ALert! In order to protect moi, there will be a variety of anagram-type words throughout this post.

My wok situation had been very challenging last year, and this year started off in similar fashion. Last year, my wok was less than challenging. Okay, some parts were challenging, but for the most part, not. This year, I had hoped that things would change, and change they did....for the better.

You see, the olden golden days, where a bossperson is tasked with keeping you busy with wok, no longer exist in my world. In my world, and maybe this is the same in your world, I have to continually find my own wok to keep me busy...and employed. Luckily, an opportunity presented itself, one which will keep me wokking at least until October. With any luck this will open other doors, so that I no longer have to keep searching for wok.

I remember the olden golden days so well. Those were the days of 'real' $ raises. And wok value. Those were the days when mangers actually gave a hoot about their sheep.

Sometimes I long for the olden golden days, however, in many ways I am now one of the olden goldens.

postnote - if you were actually able to follow the trend in this post, then great.

baaaaa

Oh Snow!

The view at the front of our house....just buried in snow.
The hills are alive with the sound of snowblowers! How environmentally unfriendly is that?

Winter has a hard grip on us this year. The first dump of snow happened on Novemeber 7th, and, except for a few windows, we have had continual snow ever since. Thank goodness for good neighbours and snow moving vehicles, because we have certainly had a few good snowstorms. The large scattering of snow that we had yesterday was heavy and BIG! Man!

It blew all night long, causing parts of the highway to be closed and numerous accidents(not surprised re the number of accidents....some folks won't slow down no matter what the conditions are).


Just me.....not quite a beach bum picture, but rest assured the bum is cold!


Don't mind me...I'm just the third boot! I thank my whiskers that they didn't make me get out and shovel!

p.s. - Barrie got 45 cm of snow (that's 18 inches y'all)

Where Do I Start?

It's tough trying to recap a month of basically nothingness, nothingness which seems like nothingness to other people. That nothingness kept me pretty busy.....busy enough not to update my precious online diary.

So here goes.....installment number 1 of nothingness.

Sicko.

I never get sick. My Sweetie visits many people, and brings home all kinds of bugs, and somehow I don't seem to trap any of them in my system. But about a month ago, I nabbed a big one.

Previous to getting the BUG, I had a particularly difficult Pump class. It left me quite tired and wasted. I chalked it up to not eating enough during the day. That evening, however, I developed a fever, accompanied by aches. I remember eating my dinner in my jammies, and feeling like a sick cow.

The next day was a slow day at work. I was able to work, but my head felt like a pillow, and I ended up taking a couple of naps during the day. The fever was now learning to live quite peacefully within me, and was taking up residence. That evening, and the following four days, I was down and out with the flu.

I knew it was a hard one, because it took all of my energy to type a small email to my team saying that I was not going to be at work. You see, working from home allows one to work even when they are sick, so if I sometimes feel under the weather, I can usually still operate at work. This time I could not. I was done. Spent.

Even when the BUG subsided, and I was on the mend, it was still a drain for about a week trying to get tasks done.

Anyway. that was that. My health returned to normal. I was able to get back to my regular gym routine, and life was good again.

Tick.

I Exist

Well, it's been so long since anything has been posted here that Blogger couldn't load my page! Alas, it finally located It's About Time, and it (and I) exists.

So where have I been you may ask? Sick? Busy? Tired? Fed up? Busy?

My answer is probably a bit of all of that. To write about everything here would be too lengthy and draining for me, but trust that this will also provide fodder for some future writing subjects.

I guess you'll just have to be patient and see what appears on future pages.

Let me just say that busy has certainly been an understatement. Even my unfavourite term 'crazy busy' does not come close to ,easuring how busy 'busy' really has been.