Babies everywhere.
I heard a friend’s daughter, almost 2 whole years old, sing a Tulip song to me on the phone.
Such songs our mothers sang to us, not long ago those baby voices were us.
Mispronounced and two pitches high, squeaky charm did get us by.
This friend I talk of, one of many mothers, I’ve known for 20 something years.
It was our turn. Now it is theirs. Cheers to the children of all my happy friends.
My brother Geoff watched a documentary on BBC about a Pizzly bear.
Normally, polar bears and grizzly bears would have never crossed paths. Polar bears live in the Arctic, sleep during the summer and hunt during the winter. By contrast, grizzly bears live far south of the Arctic where the grass is green. They eat during the summer and sleep during the winter.
In 2006, the first natural bred offspring between these two species was shot dead by a hunter.
(Stuffed Pizzly, property of hunter. Photo from here.)
The find stunned people. Some raged against the Canadian government for allowing 500 polar bears to be killed for sport a year. (Hunting grizzlies are illegal, hence the legality of his catch was debated.) Most were alarmed by the visual, concrete proof of global warming.
We’re yet to find out if pizzlies would be the first of many mutant species that would adapt to this rapidly changing climate. We’re also yet to find if we, the human race, would change as the world changes, one freak show at a time.
5 minutes to 10 pm. I found a pack of wild flower seeds in a pocket of a jacket I hadn’t worn in years. Behind our house, the garden our land lord tamed into two square frames looked peaceful in the moonlight. I went out and got a rake.
“Plenty of sun and 1/4 inch deep” it read. I opened the pack intending to disperse it around the apple tree, but it was too dark to see. They may have fallen in one clump. I gently plowed the vicinity pretending to be spreading the seeds 1/4 inches under ground.
Bob came to smoke a cigarette upstairs on the deck. He exclaimed a few swear words. I think I scared him.
“What the heck are you doing down there?”
“Planting seeds!”
“You’re crazy!”
Well, we’ll see. In a few weeks or months, there might be a few colourful surprises.
Shocked and sad. I don’t know how valid the news is. I saw it on a news feeder. He’s a musician I looked up to…
The mum I work for got on a taxi.
She swore she saw it; a spider web, stretching from the driver’s shoulder to the window shield.
She saw the spider too, hard at work, but not any more hard of a worker than the taxi driver.
Why is it that there are classes dedicated to speaking, but not to listening? Listening is half the conversation, and if anything, more difficult to do well.
To listen well is to understand the speaker’s point of view, unbiased, using all you can to try to put yourself in his/her shoes.
Today is father’s day. Maybe we can ask questions, like what might be his favourite memory, and try to get to know him more by being all ears.
My 4 year old laptop wouldn’t start up, it hasn’t woken up since Monday. I think it’s time to say good bye to Sebastian.
Not sure if it’s lack of technology or a conniving business plan that gives computers such a short life span. 1 computer year doesn’t have to averages 20 human years?
The baby I look after has a good new toy now. I’ll probably take off the keyboard and attach it to the cardboard space fortress I’m making for him. Work is fun. I also make him baby food and touch and feel family photo display, also made primarily from cardboard, colourful paper and duct tape. After the space fortress is done, my next project is to make a hanging obstacle course. Yup, work is super fun.
As for a new laptop, I shall feel a little handicapped for a while until I can afford a new one. I’ll be borrowing computers here and there. Lucky computers aren’t difficult to find.
The first time I heard How High the Moon by Ella Fitzgerald was 4 years ago. She sang the longest scat I’ve heard. Ella instantly became my queen.After listening to it over and over again, I can finally sing along to it! Click here to watch it on YouTube!
I go to the library to rent Japanese books for the boy.
This book came as a surprise. It read like this (translated):
Title : “Who is it that Doesn’t Sleep?”
Could it be an owl?
Could it be a mouse?
Could it be a thief?
No, it’s a ghost. Night time is for ghosts.
Those of you who don’t go to sleep…
Fly away to the ghost world
You become a ghost and fly away.
Now I’m so scared I cannot sleep!
Two emergency bags ready to go. One for Paul, one for me.
We spread our collection of items out on the floor, and cached our supplies into two equal loads.
For those of you interested to know, I listed what’s in our bags down below.
One thing I thought would be good to do, was to write down instructions of, in this case, how to use fire sticks. They’re simple enough to use, but in times of panic and chaos, I think reading clear instructions would be something soothing to do.
Well, here’s the list, so far:
-Set of clean clothes
-Medical goods
-Toiletary; tooth brush, floss, sun block lotion, etc.
-My glasses
-Masks and rubber gloves
-Toilet paper
-Bandanas
-Food; dried fruit, powdered milk, nuts, tins, biscuits, etc.
-Bottles of water and water purifier that includes Ziploc bags. (You fill bags with dirty water, leave them out in the sun for a while. It disinfects germs and pathogens)
-Sleeping bag, and pads (bit of a luxury)
-Tent
-Space blankets (thin silver sheets)
-Batteries
-photo ID
-Loose money
-Torches (flash lights)
-Fire maker; fire sticks, lighters, matches, flint.
-Duct tape (good for lots of things)
-Map
-List of phone numbers and addresses
-Copy of car key
Shoes and big black rubbish bags (good for collecting water, raincoat, shelter, etc) are in the car.
Mm, have we forgotten anything? Oh yes yes, the electric lint remover.
