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Kindness Revolution

We have had some very sad times as of late in our world.  Shootings of children, polictical unrest and many other incidents both globally and locally.  It seems everytime you turn on the tv, radio, or look at the internet you hear very disturbing stories about people and governments running amok. 

My friends and I have had many conversations about change and what we can do.  I think people are genuinely concerned, afraid, and want our world to change.  The impetus of change is not violence, it is kindness and taking responsibility for our actions and encouraging positive change on local and global levels.  It also rests on parents to teach their children right from wrong and to be caring individuals. With response to violence i.e. gun violence, lobby your politicians to change gun laws. Exercise your democratic rights by voting.  Advocate peace. 

We can and do change our world, even in small ways, one random act of kindness goes a long way and the effects of it can be far reaching with a ripple effect.  Just think how different the world would be if everyone did one kind thing a day.  One act kindness may not have a profound impact on the world, but sometimes it may positively impact one human being and change the way they look at things or give them a moment to think about it and they in turn repeat the cycle. 

Today I was on my way out of a coffee shop and an EMS rig pulled up and one of the paramedics went inside to get coffee, had I been inside at the time I would have bought them a coffee as a thank you for the hard difficult work they do.  Instead I knocked on his window and said "Thanks for all the great work you do all year."  His face lit up and it made me smile knowing that I had a positive impact on someone today. 

Just some food for thought. 

Nighttime photo ramblings

Random walk photos

Tell me are your Christmases like Martha Stewart or Clark Griswold Challenge

I am issuing a Christmas Story Blog Challenge, tell me what your Christmases are like and if you don't celebrate Christmas tell me about your funniest holiday. Are they Martha Stewart-like i.e perfectly decorated tree, table settings and wassail bowl, or are they more Clark Griswold-like  ie. the cat shorting out the Christmas tree lights, farting relatives and never ending mishaps? Tell me your funny Christmas anecdote.

My Griswold-like Christmases started early in my life with one year my dad nailing two trees together to make the Charlie Brown Tree we had look fuller, another was when they had the top of the tree tied with string which was attached to a hook to the ceiling above the tree because it kept falling over. But I have to say I always have the best memories of when I was a kid and decorating the tree and great Christmases. One would have hoped that over the years that Christmases would have become less Griswoldish, but the trend continues, albeit not every year.  Here are a few of my memorable adult Christmas tales.

When Motorcycle Man and I got married we were excited about our first "married" Christmas.  This was when we could start our own traditions and we looked forward to it.  Keep in mind we lived up north and it was really cold at Christmas, so Christmas trees when you got them were pretty frozen.  A few days before Christmas we went off to trudge through the bush to find a tree, but the snow was too deep and we decided to go to a commercial tree lot instead. Off we go to the tree lot and we are browsing through the trees looking for the perfect tree.  This is kind of hard when  they have the trees tied up with cording around them, you really can't see the tree fluff factor or if you are picking a Charlie Brown tree.  After much browsing and complaints of it being cold, standing out there (it was -25) we finally picked a tree.  Off we go to home with the tree tied to the top of my Chevy Sprint, that was a sight to behold the tree was almost longer than the car.

We had to saw off at least 2 feet because it was too tall and then  popped that baby in the stand.  We had to let the tree thaw out because it was frozen. Motorcycle man was checking it for rodents because you just never know if there is a rogue critter hanging out in a warm Christmas tree.  A few hours and a few rum and egg nogs later we started stringing lights.  Motorcycle Man and I have extremely different approaches to light stringing.  He is a minimalist, whereas I am a blinger - the more lights the better.  He is organized in his approach and I am lets get these babies on the tree. He also does not like blinker bulbs, much to my chagrin, I just wanted to put it in for a little bit. I also tend to go back and thread lights through bald spots were there isn't quite enough and in the end it is like taking apart a light strand puzzle (knots). We happily got our lovely tree decorated and had a few too many egg nogs, but the tree was perfection. 

Fast forward a couple of days to Christmas day, we were having family over for dinner and cooked the perfect turkey, had all the yummy food and then of course everyone was in the turkey coma after dinner.  Soon it was time for everyone to leave.  After we had cleaned up and were snuggling on the couch looking at the tree I saw some flickering reflections.  I commented on how pretty the reflections were and then they started to increase (no it was not my mind hallucinating or too much egg nog).  I got up and decided this needed some further investigation, on closer inspection to my horror our tree was crawling with SPIDERS - YUP the only thing to do at this point was to scream, flap my arms and do a little dance of "OH MY GOD KIRK THERE ARE SPIDERS ALL OVER THE TREE!!!!"  He thought I was kidding, but I wasn't.  The tree was seriously infested and even a can of Raid was not going to do the job and we probably would have suffocated from the noxious fume cloud from the volume of Raid we would have had to have used to kill them all.  I guess the spiders hatched out because the house was warm and dry.  I am shivering just thinking about this. 

Our beautiful tree that we had taken hours to decorate was de-decorated within 20 minutes flat.  Ornaments and lights were heaped all over the floor and the tree was unceremoniously chucked out the front door into the -40 night  and 10 feet of snow - TAKE THAT SPIDERS!!!  That was our first married Christmas. 

There have been a few Martha-esque Christmases in there, but for the most part the Griswold-esque Christmases seem to outnumber the Martha's. 

In 1996 there was a blizzard and we were living on the floathome in Victoria and spent most of the holidays shovelling snow off our house so we wouldn't sink. Friends had come for dinner on boxing day and ended up being stranded at our house for 3 days because the city shut down due to the volume of snow.  Thank goodness I had cooked turkey and had plenty of stuff in my freezer.  I truly believe there are more Griswold-like families than there are Martha-like families.

So come on and tell me about your holidays, are you are Martha or a Griswold?

Christmas in Scooterpie land

I spent the entire day christmasing the house. I admit it, I am a tinsel junky. I don't even try to have Martha Stewart trees or decor, because I am truly more like the Gridwold's from Christmas vacation. I love my eclectic tree and its homemade ornaments from my daughter & the ones I have been collecting for years. This year I wrapped the candy cane tinsel garland on the tree that my motorbike was decorated with when Motorcycle Man and Scooterpie Jr gave it to me Christmas Eve. My tree tells the story of us, from our wedding ornament, my daughters handprints to our beloved dog Muggie and now Grand Duchess Roo. My daughter is baking gingerbread cookies and it feels like Christmas.

Saturday morning walk on the WestSong walkway

The BEST thing about living on Vancouver Island is that there is always somewhere lovely to walk.  Victoria and the surrounding communities take walking seriously have a network of walking trails and paths.  I am very lucky because less than a 1 minute walk from my house is the WestSong Walkway which stretches from West Bay harbour to Victoria's Inner harbour.  It is a great walk and I can usually walk my portion of the walkway in about 45-50 minutes.  PupZilla however is not quite ready for such a long distance, so we go for about 30 minutes tops.  Today it was unseasonably warm and we have been getting a lot of rain and it definitely does not feel like December.  Hello global warming.  Over the last few years I have noticed the trend of October, November, and December being relatively mild and then along comes January, February, and March and that seems to be when we are getting winter.  Today we actually had a little sun, so I took Pupzilla out for a good walk and she is snoozing in the livingroom with Scooterpie Jr right now.  YAY walkies!!!!! 

She is cute and she knows it, she looks angelic doesn't she? Don't let the cute puppy exterior fool you, she is PUPZILLA, the 8 pound fluffy ball of terror.

Flowers in winter.

My neighbourhood

I live in a very eclectic community.  The architecture is very diverse from old homes to new modern styles, as well as floathomes in the Westbay Harbour.  Every day I take Grand Duchess Roo out for her puppy burn off some energy walk and usually carry my phone or camera -  Enjoy!

Loved the Christmas ornaments.

This used to be one of the funkiest houses in Esquimalt and was decorated with a sea motif, but alas in the name of progress and high density housing it is being torn down.  Progress sucks.

This is called a Monkey tree. 

This is WestBay Harbour where our old floathome was moored, the picture is looking up towards Victoria's Inner Harbour.

This is the floathome called the Pink Dishrack, the story behind the name is that when the marina was just new and there wasn't much infrastructure mail was sorted and put in a pink dish rack for the live aboards to come and collect.  This house was moored directly in front of us and it was a funky little house.  Our house was called the 'Resting Cloud'.  I miss floathome living and am still digging around in my pictures to find some to post.  I have to say though with the storms we have been having and the wind I am actually pretty happy I am a land lubber and happily warmly ensconced in  my dry, non-moving home. 

Times have certainly changed in the marina, now the little funky floathomes have been replaced by 'Monster' floathomes.  They are cool, but they are not as individual or as funky as the ones that used to be moored in the marina.