Brandon and his best buddy at Cultus Lake

Purple with a Mix of Red

Here's a picture of my son's graduating class photo from Grade 7. He's the white boy, in fact, he's the only white boy in this picture. And there's nothing wrong with that. Caucasians in our area are the minority, we are most definitely a mixed population of sorts. Sometimes it's a good thing. Sometimes it's a bad thing. But mostly we live amongst each other, we become friends and we just ignore colour.

A few days ago a friend on my Facebook (never met), a Latino from New York, posted a comment about how funny it was to see "white people dance". I commented back and said "I thought you were white, so what colour are you"? What do I know ... her profile picture looks like she's white with a tan. And instead of laughing HA HA HA, they laugh back JA JA JA.

She responded back: I'm purple with a mix of red.

So there you go. If you didn't know. I responded back that purple was my favourite colour.

I'm still awaiting her response on my overuse of the letter "u" in my Canadian spelling.

Anyways, Brandon, who is now in Grade 8 and taking first year French, has a teacher who is Spanish, and who also teaches the Spanish language class. Brandon has been to Francophone school from Grade 1-4 and knows it quite well. His homework is a bit of mystery, since it appears she is teaching incorrectly. In French, all nouns have a gender - they are either masculine or feminine. The gender of some nouns makes sense (homme [man] is masculine, femme [woman] is feminine) but others don't: the words personne [person] and victime [victim] are always feminine, even when the person or victim is a man! Spanish teacher is sending assignments home that do not follow this simple rule.

I soon learn that Brandon often "dummies himself", pretends not to know the answers, because HE KNOWS THEM and doesn't want to be a smart-ass in class. He already feels he's the go-to kid when the teacher points for answers. I have to say, when I hear things like this it really pisses me off ! Brandon doesn't want me to say anything .... don't draw attention to him.

Sadly, it's true. From experience, if you complain to the school about a teacher, that teacher will soon learn about it, and the next thing you know your kid's grade went down from an A to a C.

Not being too discouraged, when you think about it, lots of kids are signed up for "ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE". And they're not even purple !

Strawberries and Doomsday .....

I can't help it. To this day, when I see or have strawberries, especially when eating them, I think of doomsday. This, in part, by a Charlton Heston movie called the Omega Man. You know, one of those biological warfare type scenarios where mankind is wiped out but only a few survive ... and there was this one scene when he discovers a woman eating from a jar of strawberry jam (stuff long gone and like GOLD), but he doesn't turn her in, oh no ... he swipes her spoon and enjoys the last lick. Now I may be mistaken, this could be another film, but I'm betting it starred Charlton.



Anyways, it was refreshing to have strawberries early March, even though they came from California, a place one wonders how things could still possibly grow under such air pollution and gas emissions. They did seem a tad big, like a growth serum was injected into them. Yum.

No ... my hands didn't develop a disease of rare blistering warts. These are small vine tomatoes grown in New Zealand, distributed by a company in smallsville, Delta, British Columbia. I'm allowed to call it smallsville because I grew up there.

Odd how the packaging will tell the consumer, inspected in Canada, packaged in Canada, distributed by Canada ... and in small print: grown in N.Z.

I promise! I'll take care of it ......

We ... or I should say, He ... bought a fish tank last week. I don't mind it much, I like fish. I even have a favorite (out of the six ... two of each kind). And while I enjoy watching them on the kitchen counter, I also find myself enjoying feeding them ... and feeding them .... and turning their lights off and on and caring for them ... and feeding them ... and their water is murky. Just took two days. Two days was all it took for me to be the caregiver of 6 fish.

And last week they were talking about a dog!

Life is a State of Mind

I love this picture of Brandon. It minds me of the movie "BEING THERE" starring Peter Sellers, as Chance, a simple gardener, has never left residence until his employer dies. His simple TV-informed utterances are mistaken for profundity when he's taken in by "Shirley MacLaine", who rescues him from a slight car accident and takes him home to their wealthy and influential estate for recovery.



At the end of the movie, we see Chance walk out to tend to a sickly plant in the pond, after dipping his umbrella into the water at least 3 feet down, he walks upon the water, while the eulogy of his "rescuer-now-friend" is being read in the background, we hear his last words:

LIFE IS A STATE OF MIND

PS: This was Peter Sellers last movie before he died in a London hospital just after midnight on 24 July 1980, aged 54.

Pictures of the New House .....

I'm such a WHORE-DER .....

I just can't see myself allowing these things to go on CraigsList....I just can't. NO! NO! NO! We've had these dolls since you were a baby. We displayed them in your bedroom, didn't let you play with them, get them all sticky and wrecked. We cherished them. One of them has your name, so cute. And look, even one of them comes from Royalty, with a long wedding gown, one I hope you'll wear one day.

How could you sell them like this?

Easy, mom. They were never mine.

Sabrina School Pictures at French School, 1-3-5

Add on: Picture of my brother, Keith Allen ... when he actually attended school. This might be in grade 8 or 9. Friends include Doug Halvorson, Kelly & Jackie Labinsky, Pat Roman.

Safe Boating Test - Really?

In Canada we are now required to be tested and licensed for operating pleasure craft with a motor. The guidelines are based on minimum requirements set by the Canadian Coast Guard and what they believe people should know in recreational boating.

Okay. We should know some important terms, such as what a draft is, where port is, starboard. ya-da ya-da. Then there's the criminal code of boating; can't operate in a manner dangerous to the public, can't operate while impaired, etc.

Buoys.

Lights.

Then, there's the quiz:

Question 4) If a breakdown occurs, what should the operator do?

a. alter speed as appropriate.
b. speed up to get back as fast as possible.
c. call the Coast Guard via a "MAYDAY"
d. abandon ship.

I'm sure most of this makes sense ... if you're in the middle of the sea, or on the Great Lakes, but because I ALWAYS boat at Cultus Lake, my answer is (B). Which, of course, is the wrong answer. It just so happens to be the one I do .......

since there's no way in hell I'm gonna' row back.