The Fireman

A firefighter was working on his station's engine outside when he

noticed a little girl next door in a little red wagon with little ladders

hung off the sides and a garden hose tightly coiled in the middle.

The girl was wearing a firefighter's helmet, and the wagon was

being pulled by her dog and her cat. The fire fighter walked over to take a closer look.

"That sure is a nice fire truck," the fire fighter said with admiration.

"Thanks" the girl said. The firefighter looked a little closer and noticed

the girl had tied the wagon to her dog's collar, and also to the cat's testicles.

"Little Partner," the fire fighter said, "I don't want to tell you how to run your rig,

but if you were to tie that rope around the cat's collar too, I think you could go faster."

The little girl replied thoughtfully, "You're probably right, but then I wouldn't have a siren."

My mother is the most wonderful woman to have walked the face of earth.

Worrying about worry. I'm still getting downwound from Central America (which means I'm peeling like crazy).

My mom was in Hamilton on Tuesday for more tests – their GP saw something he didn’t like in the kidney neighbourhood – but I haven’t called yet – I will later today when I’m sure they’ll be awake. I think just having all these tests scare her. When I was talking to my brother, though, they’re telling me that things aren’t that bad. Earlier, Dad and Mom told me “not to run away” from bad news. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but….”. Then my brother tells Mom and Dad that I’m really worried. Then Mom and Dad tell me not to worry. Then I try to explain that I’m only worried about what I don’t know and I don’t know whether to worry or not. So everyone means well, but I’m still confused.



Take the words “major surgery”. What does that really mean? Yes, an open-heart quadruple bypass is major surgery. And stitching up a cut is minor surgery. When J-kid was born, he had to be delivered by C-section because he was “in distress”. A hundred years ago, they would have lost both me and him during childbirth, but 15 years ago, it was a matter of snip, cut, rescue and stitch. And I was up and walking the next day with a healthy baby. (Thank God for Demerol). So was that major? And all they said later was “difficult delivery”.



I suppose it could have been life-threatening, but so is driving a car. Our health system is really quite broken – it seems like Doctor A didn’t know about Doctor B who is waiting on Doctor C who’s receptionist didn’t do the filing that day so the test results are missing. Sometimes methings the only thing life-threatening in Ontario is Health Care.

Accidental Clean Sweep

Got back from Costa Rica Monday night and spent yesterday bemoaning my now-lost-forever hard drive with years and years of pictures, all my school (work) stuff… . Backing stuff up is just so much extra work when there’s games to play, y’know. Mind you, it also took a good few hours to plough through all the email spam; another hour or so to get frustrated over the software that uploads pictures to my blog – which also looks like it might become deceased.

I really should get a life away from this machine. There’s a tiny whisper in my ear that says – “oh well…it was just stuff”. And as I gaze around the paper pile that decorates every cranny of this house, I have half a mind to say “oh well, it’s just stuff” and pitch it.

Until I get to the first little drawing that J-kid did when he was four; gaze, sigh, and with that motherly coo…”Ahhhhhhhhhh, isn’t that so cute ?”

…and put it into the “TO SAVE FOREVER AND EVER” pile, which by now, is substantially larger than the “GIVE AWAY” and the almost non-existent “GARBAGE” pile.

Perhaps what the house needs is the power supply to fry. Certainly solved the junk on the computer problem quickly enough, didn’t it?

Hi, honey - I'm home!

Never carry more cameras than you have shoulders.

And don't have sunburnt shoulders.

...but 10 days would be perfect

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

A Week is not enough

Liberia, Costa Rica. Leaving after a week of being spoiled. Lots of playstuff still to do, but not enough playdough. Spent this morning in the Pacific Ocean, taking a zillion pictures of the howler monkeys - and one special Mom with her baby. Yesterday, Palo Verde gifted us with crocs, iguanas, anteaters and birds of brilliant feather, the fruit of the pecan, and the traditional rice and beans fare of our Costa Rican hosts.

A bit of shopping in Playa Coco, the must-do aerial tour in the dry forest, the sunburn................of course, you need to sleep after a sunburn, so I think just another couple of days here would be ideal. Hoping to get home to the smell of spring - something indescribably heartwarming to us lucky enough to have four seasons.

Says it all

Listening to the kids

This week I had one child pitching thumbtacks across the table, another threw a glob of wet papier-mache goo into his "sweetie"'s hair, and all the regular stuff that goes with teaching. Then I found these, and remembered that I really do love working with kids more often than not.......

From Yahoo's Elementary Lesson Share


"Love is that first feeling you feel before all the bad stuff gets in the way."

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."

"You have to fall in love before you get married. Then when you're married, you just sit around and read books together."

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you."

"On the first date, they tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go out for a second date."

"You should never kiss a girl unless you have enough bucks to buy her a big ring and her own VCR, cause she'll want to have videos of the wedding."

"Be a good kisser. It might make your wife forget that you never take out the trash."

"Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too."

"Don't forget your wife's name... that will mess up the love."

Two off the wall movies ....

Still exhausted after putting on a pair of socks, these last few weeks of unlucky health has had an upside - "Almost Every Night at the Movies" - via our cable company's Movies on Demand service.

This week's biggest surprises were : Jerome's Secret, set in Acadia during the American Revolution, and Love that Boy, wherein an overachieving college girl falls in love with a 14 year old boy.