Taking a wee break from HellTerm2023 to visit my Dad over on the Republic of Vancouver Island.
Woke up to see finches and robins taking a bath in the pond that formed overnight in the driveway.
Dad wonders why we don't call it Armistice Day anymore.
Going out to get littler e. from the ferry now...
Peace.
And.
Poppies.
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16 comments:
GOOD question about the name of 11 Nov.
Republic of Vancouver Island...............interesting concept, but Province of Vancouver Island sounds just as good. Republic, we might need a president and countries with those, don't seem to be doing so well these days.
Enjoy the visit with our Dad.
Expanding on your idea, e.a.f., let’s become a province, rally and lobby to Ottawa to get them to pay for us to get started, and when those funds slow down, we start agitating to separate to get more money.
Hmmmmmm. Oh wait - that’s already sounding too much like Alberta. And Quebec before them.
I hope the remainder of this semester goes smoother for you, Ross.DJF
Went to the local Remembrance fiesta to support vets and assorted hangers-on, and especially the grandson, trombonist with the local HS concert band, featured prominently through the ceremonies (the band, not just Josh), and lots of roiling and boiling sentiments. particularly with the mixture of sincerity and platitudes about sacrifice and fighting for democracy and freedoms, the enduring sense that vets get lip service and little support, having to fundraise to fill needs while the promoters of empire who send them off as errand boys gorge at the public trough. My Dad missed most of the Second World War as he was doing electrical plans for landing craft and the Navy wouldn't take him until that was done. He did get into Radio School in April of '45, then kicked out as surplus to requirements as the war was winding down. By the time I got around to being subject to the selective service act, both his attitude toward soldiering and mine had soured as we followed the conflict in SE Asia and I had the opportunity to work with denizens of the Presidio while pulling graveyards in a Phillips 66 on Lombard St. in grade 12. thus bearing witness to the hurt and harm we were doing to ourselves as well as to the black pyjama crowd overseas. None of Dad's five sons served, and most of us moved with him to the Gulf Islands in March of '68, bringing with me a developing outlook of hostility to anyone using violence to achieve whatever ends. Yesterday tells me that we still are not evolving into anything worthy of the sloganeering, but I don't think we can ever recover from the sadness and loss of fellow citizens hived off from society to achieve dubious gains, mostly pecuniary, for the shades that inhabit the back rooms of society's dealings.
...and a wish of good cheer to you and your family, that you will come through this self-inflicted trial and see sunnier and more relaxed days.
I dunno eaf--
After all, with a republic we could have a whole bunch of states likeSouth Islenlightenmentimigish, Mid Islestillkindasortamillinigish, West IsleSurf'nturf'nfishiniginish and North Islewidernessaiginish and Almoststillaffordablehousingstan.
Or some such thing.
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DJF--
Ahhhh...So we start out provincial, hold the federation hostage and then go republic. Just might work - as long as there is no confounded bridge!
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Danneau--
Your stories and histories just keep getting better and better and more interesting...Why the heck did your Dad take you all to the Gulf Islands?!
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It was a great visit!...One hundred and twenty kilometres of round trip riding and only ~40 of them in the pouring/sleeting rain.
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There has been talk of a bridge before - all speculation and hot air from developers and politicians.
A bridge would happen if the provincial government decided to do another Whistler: promote, promote and promote, ad infinitum. Then vacate the Legislative Buildings and convert them to a posh casino with first class entertainment, accommodation and eateries. The bridge, like the sea-to-sky highway would have to be built to entice the lower mainlanders to “cross the bridge” for the weekend. DJF
PS this scenario would not happen. Never.
DJF--
I hear you, but...
Never say never.
After all, if the Falcon were somehow able to sweeten the political gristle pot and remake Mr. Rustad as his Snowman, pretty much anything could happen on the 'Developers Gone Wild' front.
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Yes, never say never. Never is a very long time and we've seen changes in the world that at one time were in that "never" catagory.
"developers gone wild". what a great name for a t.v. show. Of cousre we in B.C. have seen this play out in real life. Hells bells, if there is enough money to be made they will promote it until its a done deal.
As the population rises, we may see a highway through to Gibsons. at that point, perhaps a bridge, but the cost would be huge and taxpayers might see things differently. there are some amazing bridges in the world but will they come to B.C., lets hope not. Its nice to have Vancouver Island as is.
e.a.f.--
The Falconator has been going wild with Developers for quite some time now.
From 2006:
"...This year the new chairman of megaDeveloper Concord Pacific, Terry Hui, allowed all those who could afford it the opportunity to watch the English Bay fireworks show from his yacht while they no doubt sipped the bubbly and maybe even scarfed down a few high-end Hagen Dazs bars handed out by Mr. Campbell's current Minister in Charge of Paving, Kevin Falcon.
And the reported cost of this neo-atavistic excercise in political fundraising/creme-skimming?
Why, nothing short of a cool three thousand bucks..."
(and yes, I do have archives and I'm gonna use them!)
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Dad wonders why we don't call it Armistice Day anymore.!!!
It was when we decided to promote the military rather than peace.
As a young boy I remember when veterans of two world wars stood together on the 11th and said 'never again'
Those days are long gone.
TB
Hagen Daz bars? Nah! Oysters on the shell - nothing less for Kevin. DJF
Never again, indeed TB.
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Point taken DJF.
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Your posts on Dad.
https://pacificgazette.blogspot.com/search?q=dad
I sure wish there were computers around in 75', they were, two years later, but not like today. Obviously.
My Dad built a two vehicle carport around about the same time as the CUBE structure on Georgia. Similarity? No exterior WALLS. Not sure which structure came first, though, but I'm leaning towards Dad's.
NVG--
First box I really worked on was an Apple 2E in the mid-80's (swap those disks!)...My boss at the time, who I've written about before, wanted us to use it to keep a digitized database to track of all the cell strains we had archived in liquid nitrogen...Unfortunately, lazy and/or rushed gradual students like myself kept updating the printouts with pencil-scrawled entries that drove her crazy...Later, when I was a post-doc 1000 miles to the south working in the hotbed of all that had been the original nexus of in-garage home computer building in the '70', C. and I got to know a guy who was around when Woz was building the original Apple boxes...That guy later became one of the early employees at Pixar who worked on the first version of RenderMan which, in a lot of ways, made the 3D animation that we now either love or hate in movies possible...Anyway, when we got to know him in the early '90's this guy had just cashed in his Pixar chips and he was building a start-up in a tiny room under his front porch that was based on hyper-card-driven databases that were going to replace all the world's reference books...Boy, did he guess wrong...Which in the long run didn't really matter as he still had a whole lot of those Pixar chips left that were real, not rendered...As for this CUBE structure from days gone by that you speak of (as opposed to that new fangled monstrosity built for auditors and mad men exec-types)...I have no idea what the heck fire you are talking about!
https://blogborgcollective.blogspot.com/2023/11/which-came-first-westcoast-transmission.html
Ahhhhh....The Westcoast Transmission building on the wall-free pedestal...Got it!
Thanks NVG.
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