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

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!

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)