WriteVille
I don't know about you, but...
I yearn for the brake of natural consequences to slow the spinning of a world that has been pushed to the brink by the reckless (and feckless and deadly) pushing and shoving of a coterie of very bad actors.
And so, as I pedal across Lotusland each morning, I find myself cheering on the ever rising petrol prices that are visible on the big boards at the bright and shiny cluster of gas pumps at Oak and 25th.
Yesterday the big boards blinked out $2.13 a litre.
Which gave me a little thrill of consequence realized.
Until.
I also realized that I, too, was starting to spin.
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Where the heckfire have I been?...Started a new administrative job at the beginning of the year and thought I'd take January off from the bloggodome...That stretched out a little....What changed?...Well, as I pedalled home last night the open skies and a brisk westerly at my back felt like...Springtime.
Butchered header and subheader?...This!
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And so, as I pedal across Lotusland each morning, I find myself cheering on the ever rising petrol prices that are visible on the big boards at the bright and shiny cluster of gas pumps at Oak and 25th.
Yesterday the big boards blinked out $2.13 a litre.
Which gave me a little thrill of consequence realized.
Until.
I also realized that I, too, was starting to spin.
______
Where the heckfire have I been?...Started a new administrative job at the beginning of the year and thought I'd take January off from the bloggodome...That stretched out a little....What changed?...Well, as I pedalled home last night the open skies and a brisk westerly at my back felt like...Springtime.
Butchered header and subheader?...This!
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Dunbar and 16th heading east? Its been a while since I've traveled, out that way, except there was the visit to Urban Yarn
ReplyDeleteIt's a daily trip for me NVG. Hope your own daily rambles across the water are continuing apace.
DeleteI was worried that you took your last bike ride to the sky, as so many of my former rugby types have scored their last try, as the older they got, the better they was! (it was a glorious one!)
ReplyDeleteCheers, a very well welcome back to the blogosphere!
Thanks eaf. Spent a whole lot of time watching one Sevens game after another with the real rugby type in the family, our Dad, a couple of weeks ago.
Delete'thanks eaf' (Rossk). Just for clarification here, is eaf the same person as Evil Eye
DeleteSheesh--
DeleteSorry to both eaf and EE are two very different rugby types!
Thanks NVG.
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Similarly to E.e. I was wondering where you’d gone and so now glad you’re back. I think that was your longest brake, break since I’ve been coming around and it had me thinking what the…
ReplyDeleteLongest bloggodome break, indeed, Graham. Have been doing lots of biking though, including a number of those 100km weekends to and from the Republic of South VanIsle.
DeleteThe election of an American president is too important to be left to Americans.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it is.
Great to have you up and running, and pedaling Ross.
Thanks Graham. C and I took a quick trip down to Seattle a few weeks ago to visit our surrogate American parents (who helped us out a lot when we lived down there a long, long time ago). After arguing a long time with ourselves, we decided that the good president and his super-fine administration were not going from checking in on someone close to us who recently had a hip replacement. The lines were short at Peace Arch, but things were ominous as a small clutch of kitted out agents of a certain borderous patrolling kind walked back and forth between the cars and surrounded individual ones as a group before asking the folks inside to roll down their windows and show their papers. This all happened before those cars got to customs booth. Even as an old guy with pale skin and white hair, I found this unnerving as it was clearly meant to be nothing more than an act of intimidation.
DeleteCongratulations on the rise up the ladder old boy. I was plenty proud of myself when I figured out your sensibly prolonged absence from this space.
ReplyDeleteBeer!
DeleteTo be honest, it's really the curse of sliding sideways into middle management, which is something I did a pretty good job of avoiding for a whole lot of years. This time around though, I got talked into it by younger colleagues after deciding I wasn't quite ready to retire.
When I read the announcement (your description of which is somewhat modest) I figured you might be a tad busy. Happy to see you back. Even at an understandable reduced pace, you provide much food for thought.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lew!
ReplyDeleteOnce things settle down a little more, day job wise, I'm also looking forward to getting involved with Norm Farrell's truly excellent Canada West Forum series.
Good to know you are OK.
ReplyDeleteone never knows nowadays. The dark forces are everywhere!
Thanks JP - one never knows, indeed.
DeleteHope all is well with you and yours.
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OMG you are back. It was awful. wondered if you had taken off for parts unknown having a late mid life crisis or had exited stage left. Then I thought some one would have known and put out a message. /so here you are alive and well with a promotion.
ReplyDeleteTo clarify, EE is usually Evil Eye. e.a.f. is another blogger. If I recall correctly we both lived in Richmond as children, but trust me, we are not the same person.
To make up for your "departure" I read Empty Wheel twice. It sort of worked. Welcome back, now to read this post and the comments.
Correct. I spent my first 8 years on #5 Road until 1963. I went to Sidaway Elementary in those "Duck and Cover" years. Our house on the peat was called "Saggy Manor", still stands (well sort of) but has tilted to a precarious angle on a property that hasn't seen much for at least 25 years!
DeleteRead the article, interesting. 1967, year I graduated high school and started U.B.C. along with a lot of other kids from Richmond.
ReplyDeleteReading the article was interesting in that it was what was being experienced by others in North America and some of the kids fried their brains on the different drugs. As I was reading and thinking none of this makes sense, its all so disjointed, no one has a path forward, every one is an expert but no one knows what they are doing and then it dawned on me. that is how the current American government is handling everything. This time its adults, last time it was kids. Then the Vietnam War got more intense or we just saw more news about it, but I'd say the U.S.A. was about as fucked then as it is now. Well the difference is the climate is worse, the ocean is hotter, the President is nastier and dumber.
Welcome back!
Sorry for the screw-up to you both - I saw the fifth letter of the alphabet and rugby and jumped to conclusions...And while I've got you both here, how do those scrums actually work in the Sevens game?
DeleteThose scrums in 7's? Fast, very fast and Oooo those shins!
DeleteCongrats on the new job. I also wondered what happened.
ReplyDeleteSorry about that Chuck - I shouldn't have left you all hanging. However, I really didn't expect to take such a long break from yelling at the keyboard.
Delete.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteTroll removal, above.
DeleteCongrats on your new gig at Hotel California. That goes for me to, but only three days a week post retirement. (a sciency type threatened to chain me to my workbench)
ReplyDeleteGF--
DeleteGetting to do stuff you like for three days a week?
You win!
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Glad to see you blogging again. You are an important source of insight and information for me.
ReplyDeleteNo more question as to why you boomers have made such a mess of this place.
DeleteOops!! I forgot to add my name to my post.
ReplyDeleteThanks Eleanor.
DeleteHow are you feeling about the Federal NDP Leadership race these days?
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Anon 11:11: I first voted in a provincial election back in 1979 when voter turnout was 79 percent. I've never missed a provincial or federal since then. I always vote for the most progressive candidate every election. Now turnout is somewhere between 58-61 percent, so somebody or some one isn't voting. The olds vote. I'm father to three millennial daughters who also vote in every election and they tell me that their friends are mostly dumbasses who claim to not to who to vote for so they don't vote. So if you want to point fingers and attach blame, maybe you should have gotten off your ass and voted.
ReplyDeletemr perfect
An Angus Reid survey of past NDP voters … get that, past NDP voters … found “fully one-quarter … say the party is irrelevant (24%). More say its best days are in the past (40%).”
ReplyDeleteAnd that was before the party chose a radical left extremist for its new leader.
Hey look at that, Harvey thinks A. Lewis is a radical left extremist, what a surprise. That sounds very much like a poilievre type smear and I’m sure it will be the first of many. Meanwhile we slide further into the morass created by right sided governments and we flirt with further right and authoritarian type government.
ReplyDeleteLewis’ thoughts and policy proposals are attempting to right some of the wrongs we have experienced, to even things up for regular working Canadian’s and to rein in the almost total sell out to the oil and gas industry. It’s no surprise that those with more than enough in life are fearful of someone who might get the chance to attempt to do something better, to try to make our corner of the world a bit more equitable for all.
Canada has slipped in the overall Happiness Ratings and we can all see that those countries that are consistently at or near the top are doing a far better job of making sure people aren’t getting left behind and providing better education, healthcare, elder care and comprehensive cradle to grave social services. The wealth is spread around more and there is an emphasis on a full life and time for enjoying life and family and the outdoors. Yes, that means higher taxes and especially on those who are very fortunate and who have benefited greatly from living in such a society. However the greed factor is lower in those countries and they realize they don’t need to be beholden to the corporations and that there is more than enough to go around.
Avi Lewis is thinking more along those lines and on that point I would agree. Canada does have more than enough and we should not be leaving people behind and we do have enough to help far more of our people. We could quite literally have it all.
Western Canadian Select 90.53 +3.24 +3.71%
ReplyDeleteMan,I remember when being RAD was cool!
ReplyDelete