Life in progress

Monthly Archives: December 2013


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She’s Alive! EDDD 23rd, Navigator edition

The Christmas Ladder

The Christmas Ladder

Relatively good news, everyone. Linda survives. Minor concussion, with dizziness, fatigue, and blurry vision symptoms. Her biggest complaint is of a stiff neck. While not the best of Christmas presents, given how serious her icy fall could have been, I think we should all be grateful that it wasn’t worse.

So, until Linda’s symptoms abate sufficiently, I’ll try to keep her EDDD alive.

Right. The image. You may be witnessing the first ever Christmas ladder. Someone who is a working Mom and whose husband has been away on business got fed up with the commercialized nature of Christmas. So she said to heck with it, not going out to buy another tree, what do I have on hand?

Voila. Thus is born the Christmas ladder. A new tradition. If she had been a known artist, the Art Museum of Canada would have paid millions (of taxpayers’ money) to buy it and put it on display.

What are your thoughts on this new Christmas tradition?


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Ho Ho Ho! Navigator Santa’s coming to EDDD town

Wrapped by a former grade 1 felon

Wrapped by a former grade 1 felon

While the very delightful LindaGHill, blogger extraordinaire, recovers from her ice storm battle scars—wounded in action, or WIA as we like to say—, it falls to me to (wo)man the ramparts of this blogosphere bastion. The chain of command remains intact.

Right. So when I was in grade 1, a wee lad all of six years old, I had the venerable old Mrs. Thompson for my teacher. Not only did she strap me for talking in class, she actually once gave me detention for Valentine’s Day.

This little boy didn’t like arts and crafts. Mrs. T had deemed that my Valentine heart didn’t meet her standard for my mother, so the Thompsonator kept me after class until I got it right.

Mean old bat. No wonder I have issues.

As the image above shows, there is a reason why I didn’t like arts and crafts. I flat out suck at it. The image above is my most recent attempt at wrapping a pretty Christmas gift. It’s pretty, alright. Pretty gruesome job of wrapping.

So my question to you, fellow devoted followers of Linda, is whether or not the quality of the gift wrapping matters.

And happy 22nd EDDD to each and all.


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Ice Storm

I’m writing this on Friday night but scheduling it for Saturday, the 21st of December. If this goes live, it means I’ve lost my power due to a massive ice storm that’s coming this way. I lived through the ice storm in Western Quebec in 1998 – we went without power for three days. Luckily my mother was living in a subdivision close by which had all the power lines underground. This time I’m not that lucky.

I feel like I’m leaving a note to say, “If something happens to me…”

Anyway, it’s not that serious. I’ll just be without internet access.

AHHHH!!!!

Edit: Saturday evening – if this goes live tonight it may be because I’ve gone to the hospital to have my noggin’ checked out.  I’m feeling kinda dizzy as I write this, and from what I understand that’s not a very good sign after having fallen and hit it on a slab of concrete…

ice


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EDDD 21 – All I Want – Travel

It’s Day Six of “All I Want” and we’re almost at the finish line, my friends.

Today I’d like to know, if you could go anywhere in the world, for a visit or to live, where would it be?

After falling down three steps on an inch of ice this morning and almost cracking my skull open, I’d have to say anywhere in the Caribbean sounds nice. Until April!

The world is your oyster today – where do you want to go?

Blog post of December 21st, in honour of Every Damn Day December. Check it out!


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Is It Just Me?

Is it just me or does it seem like this is the worst time of year for colds? Every year at Christmas time, someone in my family gets sick. It’s awful when it’s me, because I’m the one everyone counts on to do all the shopping, the wrapping, and the cooking, on top of everything else. This year (knock on wood) it’s not me though. It’s Alex, my little guy.

If it’s just a cold, I’ll be able to keep him home. It’ll be rough, with sleepless nights and plenty of whining, but we’ll make it. If it’s the flu, off to the hospital we’ll go for a nice leisurely stay (for him, he loves the hospital) and for me it’ll be running back and forth for this and that, because they don’t have the equipment to feed him, they can’t get the formula he drinks, and they can’t make up his medicine without the recipe. They also don’t have his size in diapers. Oh, and of course they don’t have sign language interpreters, and none of the nurses, nor any of the doctors (so far) know American Sign Language. It’s loads of fun for Alex – he laughs at them when they try to sign to him – unless he’s very sick, and then I receive phone calls in the middle of the night asking for translations.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I? I certainly hope so. Wish us luck!


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EDDD 20 – All I Want – World Peace

It’s Day Five of “All I Want,” and today I’d like to ask what you would do to make the world a better place, if you could.

The wish for world peace, to feed the hungry, to end poverty and abuse, and to rid the planet of disease is an ideal for many of us. Some have a favourite charity; many like me find it hard to decide on just one.

We’ve all heard the adage, ‘Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he’ll feed himself for a lifetime.’ Given this, I’ve pondered what, if I could teach enough people, would make a difference in the world. I came up with one idea.

I would teach people to choose their battles wisely – to not sweat the small stuff, so to speak. For instance, if something someone is doing isn’t going to hurt anyone, simply let them get on with it in their own way. On a purely domestic level I believe to do so would create peace and harmony in homes, in neighbourhoods, and in towns and cities. To teach people to live and let live may not end wars, but it would certainly make many places in the world a better place to live.

What would you do, if you could, to make the world a better place? Would you teach the world a skill? Would you build a shelter in your own neighbourhood for people who need it?

I want to hear from you.

Blog post of December 20th, in honour of Every Damn Day December. Check it out!


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Adventures on My Paper Route – Kindness

I was treated today with a surprise! I received a gift from one of the people on my route. Not even a regular customer, she is someone I deliver the bundle of flyers to every Thursday. I’d never met her before.

This is so neat, I thought I’d share it.

Hot White Chocolate

It’s white hot chocolate powder on the bottom, with a layer of dark chocolate drops in the middle, and mini marshmallows on top. Isn’t it cute?

You’ve got to love it when the neighbours spread their Christmas cheer!


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EDDD 19 – All I Want – A Night On The Town

Okay! Let’s have some fun with Day Four of “All I Want”!

If you could go out for a night on the town, to do anything special – say to a concert to see anyone, dead or alive (although if they’re not alive, obviously in their previous rather than their present state) – what would you do? Who would you see? What would you eat? What would the weather be like?

I would LOVE to see Freddie Mercury perform with Queen in the front row of an open air concert on a beautiful night in July. With no mosquitoes!

How about you?

Blog post of December 19th, in honour of Every Damn Day December. Check it out!


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EDDD 18 – All I Want – Sharpen Your Senses

For Day Three of my “All I Want” series, I’d like to know in what way, if you could, you would improve one of your senses.

Sure, there are the five senses we all know, and if you’d like to pick one of those – great! I’d like to have my 20/10 eyesight back! But apart from sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, there are other senses which are less tangible. Intuition, for instance. Or perhaps a sharper sense of when your stomach is full, to make it easier not to overeat! (I’ll take that one too.)

So today I’d like you to put your thinking cap on and come up with something creative. And if not, there’s always the big five.

…Annnnd, GO!

Blog post of December 18th, in honour of Every Damn Day December. Check it out!


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EDDD 17 – All I Want – Talent

It’s Day Two of “All I Want”!

Whether it be for Christmas, or for whatever you do or don’t celebrate, what I’d like to know today is, if you could be blessed with the natural-born talent to do anything, what would it be?

I’ve always wished I could play the guitar, but not JUST play – anyone can learn. I’d love to be able to play with the passion of Brian May of Queen, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Eddie Van Halen; the list goes on and on. Talent beyond compare. Even to play the piano like Schroeder, in the Peanuts cartoon, would be amazing!

Now it’s your turn. If you could do anything really really well – so well that people would swoon – what would it be?

Blog post of December 17th, in honour of Every Damn Day December. Check it out!