Thursday, January 12, 2006
Jan. 12 Responses
Thanks Mark for your participation in ground breaking (and barrier busting!) work on amending the Building Code(s). Working with such detailed text is second in the mind numbing scale only to the Tax Act! There is a new National Building Code currently being rolled out which I suspect has continued this evolutionary process. To see a shining example of "barrier free" construction, visit Calgary's own Rotary Challenger Park in the city's northeast (just off McKnight and 36th St). It is a relatively unknown $15.0 million purpose built sports facility, incorporating the latest barrier free concepts to accommodate use by everyone in our community! Look forward to reading your continued musings., CD, Calgary
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Well Mark, maybe there was no $50,000 cheque for each of us for our many years of "public service," but it was great to be appreciated today - and great to see all of our "comrades in arms" again!, MI, Calgary
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Thanks for including me in your musing list. Could you please take me offthe distribution list? I am trying to manage my email volume and wouldprefer to follow your musings via the website. Thank you!, MD, Vancouver
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Happy New Year Mark and All. The early part of Dec. '05 we were without internet in between servers, and then when we finally got it, I was off to Arizona for Christmas. Today I was able to sit down and read your musings. Wow, a month's worth. A muser, the one that called her Grandmother like a cockroach reminds me of a conversation I had with an Aunt who asked about someone in my family. Before I was done, she said, "Remember, when you point one finger at someone, you have 3 more pointed at yourself." I guess she took my update as complaining. I love the person I was talking about and wasn't meaning it to sound bad. There was also a relative (a couple of years ago) in my family that I hadn't seen since I was around 10 years of age at most, and when I was leaving to go back to California I said to him, "until we meet again." He said, "Well, I have brain condition, I don't have long to live." I rolled down my window and poked my head out in the cold night and said, "Is that right?! What is it? You can't leave yet, I just met you." A bubble in a vein, started with an "A". Aneurysm? Can't remember how to spell it. I looked at my youngest sister in the driver seat, knowing she was late for something and gave her a little frown. I whispered to her that nobody told me this. She gave a sigh when I unbuckled my seat belt and exited the car. He was taken aback when I walked up to him, gave him a hug and a kiss on his (facial) cheek. Gave him another hug and told him I remember the last time I saw him. He lifted me onto a horse, also gave my brother and I a boat ride on the lake. When I pulled back, his mind was searching the memory, and when he found it, he asked me what I thought of that. I said, "Happy thoughts. Good childhood memories." He hadn't realized it wasn't just another babysitting job, he had made an impression on a step-niece. He actually had tears in his eyes for that validation. I said I love you and that my only regret is that I had forgotten you in that time since and I wished I had gotten to know you better. He said it wasn't my fault: he chose to stay away from the family for reasons of his own. Later I found out the family thought that he was a nuisance and weren't very nice to him. Last December when in Arizona I was driving my mother home from shopping in Tucson, the subject of Mike came up. We spoke nothing but good about him. She told me of what he was going through with the family and the events leading up to his last days. She had a message from him a short time before his death. He said that she, my brother and I were the only ones that he felt really cared about him. I cried. The next morning, I heard on the travel trailer door a scratching sound. I put on my coat and carefully opened the door and there stood Tracer, Mike's bloodhound mix. Those eyes and the wrinkles above them, the wagging tail, the smile. I knew he was telling me "Thank you" from Mike. I put my shoes on and sat on the step and hugged and pet Tracer (Short for Tres Arroyos) I told Tracer to tell Uncle Michael Merry Christmas and that I miss him. I received a wet, sloppy kiss. Oh yuck! *LOL* I then went to the main house and wished my Mom and Dad a Merry Christmas. My only surviving (on my side of the family) Grandmother and only Godmother will be 89 next month. I know broken Spanish and she knows broken English. Every year I wonder if this is her last year so I go visit at those two main Holidays, TG and Xmas. Many times it's been touch and go because of her ails. This year I'm adding Spring on the agenda. She is blind for many years now but still mentally and verbally feisty. She doesn't let people forget she's still here. I love that about her. I give her massages, and shaking the bed real hard making her bounce, I yell 9.5 earthquake, Mamanina! Do you remember California earthquakes? I love to hear her laugh. Sometimes I'll play guitar for her. She'll sing a song in Spanish and I'll howl like a coyote and that makes her laugh. I mean really laugh. She forgets things from one minute to the next and has to be reminded. It can be painful if I let it, but no, I must be strong and loving. My other cousins come to visit from California and some of them eye her possessions, and some of the "stuff" have turned up missing. I walk past what's left and go straight to her with hugs and kisses and give her updates on my family. I love you, Mamanina.My brother suffers from schizophrenia and it has put a strain on my family. I'm the only one that goes out of my way to visit him and listen to his outrageous stories. Sure, it tries my patience and I get short with him sometimes, but in a way it helps him to focus on what's really real. It makes me smile when he apologizes for his behaviour the next day and I say, "There's nothing to forgive, Xavier. I love you." Everything's cool. So, everybody out there, I know we live in very trying times and it's hard to trust strangers, be kind. A warm smile, a "hello" in passing, a handshake during an introduction, a hug and or a kiss in farewell can make a world of difference in someone's life. Especially the elderly. If your heart is good, it will show. Set an example for kids, too. Invest some time in them for if they live long enough, they may become our leaders, ALP in the high desert.
. . .
Well Mark, maybe there was no $50,000 cheque for each of us for our many years of "public service," but it was great to be appreciated today - and great to see all of our "comrades in arms" again!, MI, Calgary
. . .
Thanks for including me in your musing list. Could you please take me offthe distribution list? I am trying to manage my email volume and wouldprefer to follow your musings via the website. Thank you!, MD, Vancouver
. . .
Happy New Year Mark and All. The early part of Dec. '05 we were without internet in between servers, and then when we finally got it, I was off to Arizona for Christmas. Today I was able to sit down and read your musings. Wow, a month's worth. A muser, the one that called her Grandmother like a cockroach reminds me of a conversation I had with an Aunt who asked about someone in my family. Before I was done, she said, "Remember, when you point one finger at someone, you have 3 more pointed at yourself." I guess she took my update as complaining. I love the person I was talking about and wasn't meaning it to sound bad. There was also a relative (a couple of years ago) in my family that I hadn't seen since I was around 10 years of age at most, and when I was leaving to go back to California I said to him, "until we meet again." He said, "Well, I have brain condition, I don't have long to live." I rolled down my window and poked my head out in the cold night and said, "Is that right?! What is it? You can't leave yet, I just met you." A bubble in a vein, started with an "A". Aneurysm? Can't remember how to spell it. I looked at my youngest sister in the driver seat, knowing she was late for something and gave her a little frown. I whispered to her that nobody told me this. She gave a sigh when I unbuckled my seat belt and exited the car. He was taken aback when I walked up to him, gave him a hug and a kiss on his (facial) cheek. Gave him another hug and told him I remember the last time I saw him. He lifted me onto a horse, also gave my brother and I a boat ride on the lake. When I pulled back, his mind was searching the memory, and when he found it, he asked me what I thought of that. I said, "Happy thoughts. Good childhood memories." He hadn't realized it wasn't just another babysitting job, he had made an impression on a step-niece. He actually had tears in his eyes for that validation. I said I love you and that my only regret is that I had forgotten you in that time since and I wished I had gotten to know you better. He said it wasn't my fault: he chose to stay away from the family for reasons of his own. Later I found out the family thought that he was a nuisance and weren't very nice to him. Last December when in Arizona I was driving my mother home from shopping in Tucson, the subject of Mike came up. We spoke nothing but good about him. She told me of what he was going through with the family and the events leading up to his last days. She had a message from him a short time before his death. He said that she, my brother and I were the only ones that he felt really cared about him. I cried. The next morning, I heard on the travel trailer door a scratching sound. I put on my coat and carefully opened the door and there stood Tracer, Mike's bloodhound mix. Those eyes and the wrinkles above them, the wagging tail, the smile. I knew he was telling me "Thank you" from Mike. I put my shoes on and sat on the step and hugged and pet Tracer (Short for Tres Arroyos) I told Tracer to tell Uncle Michael Merry Christmas and that I miss him. I received a wet, sloppy kiss. Oh yuck! *LOL* I then went to the main house and wished my Mom and Dad a Merry Christmas. My only surviving (on my side of the family) Grandmother and only Godmother will be 89 next month. I know broken Spanish and she knows broken English. Every year I wonder if this is her last year so I go visit at those two main Holidays, TG and Xmas. Many times it's been touch and go because of her ails. This year I'm adding Spring on the agenda. She is blind for many years now but still mentally and verbally feisty. She doesn't let people forget she's still here. I love that about her. I give her massages, and shaking the bed real hard making her bounce, I yell 9.5 earthquake, Mamanina! Do you remember California earthquakes? I love to hear her laugh. Sometimes I'll play guitar for her. She'll sing a song in Spanish and I'll howl like a coyote and that makes her laugh. I mean really laugh. She forgets things from one minute to the next and has to be reminded. It can be painful if I let it, but no, I must be strong and loving. My other cousins come to visit from California and some of them eye her possessions, and some of the "stuff" have turned up missing. I walk past what's left and go straight to her with hugs and kisses and give her updates on my family. I love you, Mamanina.My brother suffers from schizophrenia and it has put a strain on my family. I'm the only one that goes out of my way to visit him and listen to his outrageous stories. Sure, it tries my patience and I get short with him sometimes, but in a way it helps him to focus on what's really real. It makes me smile when he apologizes for his behaviour the next day and I say, "There's nothing to forgive, Xavier. I love you." Everything's cool. So, everybody out there, I know we live in very trying times and it's hard to trust strangers, be kind. A warm smile, a "hello" in passing, a handshake during an introduction, a hug and or a kiss in farewell can make a world of difference in someone's life. Especially the elderly. If your heart is good, it will show. Set an example for kids, too. Invest some time in them for if they live long enough, they may become our leaders, ALP in the high desert.
