Photo Finish Friday: Cousins

Leah sent me this photo a few weeks ago and I have been wracking my brain ever since as to where the heck those rainbow flip flops came from. I am not a flip flop person and as I suspect that this was in the early '80's, I don't think I even owned a pair of flats back then. That is cousin Wayne in between Leah and myself. You can tell my legs hadn't seen the light of day in a long time too. Actually I look pretty pale all over next to Wayne.


Have a good weekend all.

PFF is ...well, this week it is all Leah's fault (I didn't even take the photo).

Silly Summer Parades and Canada Day fun

We went to the Silly Summer Parade on Whyte Ave this year on Canada Day. Here are a few photos.

 A Knight in shining...goalie pads?

Norwegian trolls

And from Brazil...

for Jay our Cynical Bastard

from Brazil we go to the dogs

to balloons

the Punjabi Cultural Society

to very trusting souls

I think s/he was a bee?

Heart & stroke Foundations "Big Bike"

The Hallow e'en Festival people reminding us that summer is short.

We missed the first part of the parade, looking for a place to park. The secondary reason for going was to check out a shoe store, sadly it was closed.

Hope everyone had a great celebration no matter what you did. I might post again with fireworks later.

Do you have more than one persona?

I think we all do. I have the face that I use when I have to deal with the public. You know the one, charming and pleasant, helpful, somewhat friendly. Well, that is my job, or at least part of it. I work in the rental office of my apt. complex and have to deal with my neighbours all of the time.

My other face is the one I try to portray here. I say try, because I am not a very good writer and don't know how well I do at conveying myself. I am friendly - to an extent. I am helpful when I can be. I do try to not be a bitch, but my that is hard sometimes! I don't really like a lot of people, I never have.

I was very hesitant taking the job, I don't really want to know all of my neighbours. I like to keep to myself and now, I may have to move! We'll see if this guy turns into a stalker, or if he takes the hint.

He is a new tenant that moved in a couple of months ago and up until two weeks ago, he had been dealing with the manager. Well, he came into the office while I was working one evening to get information and I was my usual charming self. Short of being rude, I couldn't get him to leave after I gave him the information. No big deal, the job is rarely busy enough that I can't chat for a few minutes.

He apparently spoke to the boss the next day and then came back the following evening to drop off the forms. Again, short of being downright rude, he wouldn't leave. He lives in my bldg - one floor up and one suite over from me!

Two days later, I am out with Sibu taking pictures and watering my pots (I have poppies that have re-seeded themselves) when he pops out on his balcony and starts to talk to me. Fine, he'll just say hello, how's it going and go away. No such luck. I was taking pictures and trying to ignore him and he just kept chattering along. He has a beautiful dark grey Persian cat, so I took a picture of it. Then made my escape inside.

The next day or so, I was working on the pictures and decided that I would see how this printer does printing out photos, by using his cat's photos. That way I wouldn't be as disappointed as if it were something I wanted for myself. Then, I made the mistake of giving them to him. Well, he had to come down and get them, rather than letting me hand them up over the balcony. That way, he could give me a hug. Remember when I said I don't like people? I really don't like touchy-feel-y people! Our family are not big huggers, I do hug family and some friends though. Then he had to touch my arm (the one in the lympho sleeve) to ask how it was. WTF?

I couldn't get rid of him, again! I thought, well, if I start digging weeds, he will go.....no, he had to get down beside me and help. So, then I had to offer him water, I think that is the first time water has passed his lips without scotch to chase in a long time. About this time, I am getting a bit beyond irritated, so I decide well, if I water my plants he will go. No, he had to stand right beside me, while I was watering, making silly remarks about how I had better not splash him. Then the dip-shit, because I hadn't taken him up on splashing him, decided he should get me wet. What, are you 12?

I was telling the boss this a few days later....she told me that he was asking her all kinds of questions about me and that he thought "we made a real connection". Oh GREAT! So, far, every time I have gone outside, he has popped up on his balcony, now if only I had a big stick, we could play "Whack-a-mole".

Seriously though, I don't want to spend my entire summer inside! I am going to have to make a roof/cover for my swing so I can at least sit out there without having him staring at me. I have ignored him twice now and if I have to I will just be rude. I think he was trying to get my attention last night when I was out talking to friends, by whistling, the short noise you would make when trying to get the dogs attention. Uh, if that was him, that is no way to get my attention, I am not a dog and do not respond to whistles. (I am too old to get many wolf whistles these days, so I just assume when I hear one that it is for some young person in the vicinity.)

If necessary, I will pull out the third persona, the one I try to keep buried very deeply. That is the one that can verbally tear you to pieces, make you wish you had never been born, let alone met me. The one that can wither all hope within a 40 miles radius. Okay, so maybe I exaggerate a bit, but, I can certainly make him wish he had chosen somewhere else to live.

I really hope it doesn't come to that, I don't like that I am capable of that kind of meanness. It is a weird kind of comfort knowing that I have that in my defense arsenal though.

I hope everyone has a good stalker free weekend.

Time speeds up

Or at least it seems to. We have all at some point in our lives noticed the phenomenon of this. After all, wasn't it just last month we were celebrating spring, how can it be New Years already? Well, maybe not spring, but you get the picture.

Remember as children, the year seemed to stretch forever, summer especially? You could hardly remember everything you did in the past year, you were able to do so much more than you can now.

You managed to get in skating and making snow forts having snow ball fights, making snow angels, then before you were tired of that, you got to see the snow melt away. Then you were anxiously awaiting clear roads so you could get your bike out and the freedom that gave you. You explored the trees across the road, down by the reservoir where you waited for the pussy willows to show up and looked for wild crocuses in the field.

Then there came summer! Wow, you could spend hours in the cool shade of the trees by the water, finding driftwood and the odd bottle or bottle cap. You could walk over to the swimming pool, the reservoir was dangerous, you didn't swim there because a neighbourhood child drowned there. If you didn't feel like either of those, the schoolyard was a couple blocks away and they had jungle gyms and monkey bars! The real ones, not these mamby pamby things kids play on nowadays! Nothing but good hard packed dirt if you fell! And boy was it hard!

If you had a quarter, you could walk to the corner store which was on the other side of the school yards and get a pop, then take the bottle back and with the refund and the change left over from the pop, you could buy candy.

At some point over the summer, the Wally Byam Caravan would pull into town and take over the two schoolyards! I don't know if I spelled the name correctly, I think so. It was a group of campers that traveled together and they would set up for a few days each summer and then be gone! They were mostly from the U.S. but I think there were a few from Canada as well. My Sister and I (as shy as we were) would go and look at all the different trailers and license plates from all the different states. We would marvel over the Airstreams, they were so shiny and pretty and we would even meet some people.

There was so much to do in summer, you looked for garter snakes in the field, we even found one once and where one had shed it's skin. You had to look for those stink bombs too! Sing silly songs and learn to call seagulls, make squeaky noises with the long grass and try to learn to whistle with your fingers.

Then the days would get shorter and colder and mom would take us shopping for school clothes and we would start school. You would help make your costume for hallow e'en and run around getting candy, quite often in snow, certainly in the cold. Then you would start in on making snow angles and forts and having snow ball fights. Help with decorating the house for Christmas and shopping and baking and getting out of the way for Mom and Dads big party! The party was held between Christmas and New Years and involved all the musicians Mom & Dad knew. My sister covered the party in more detail in her blog over at Bag Lady's Blather.

That was what a year used to be like, now it is more like:

Winter, grumble, grumble, hate cold.
Spring finally! Damn more snow! Start seeds, plant seeds.
Water plants, deadhead flowers, wish you had a house again.
Oh, was that summer, put away the outdoor furniture.
Winter, ugg Christmas crowds! I'm not ready! It is New Years!


So, how fast does the year change for you?

Happy New Year everyone, I hope it is all you want it to be and more.

Good Morning.