The moon was a perfect cradle last night with a bright venus directly to the right of it.  The Australians rave about their good star gazing but we can sure rival them some nights!

While walking around Deer Lake last Saturday and looking for signs of spring,  I took this photo of a tree which has budded out.  I think it might be some kind of willow.

With our snow fall last week, I found some snowdrops in the snow. 

Unfortunately, another neighbourhood lawn which was a mass of wild blooming pale pink and blue crocus did not photograph well in the snow.  

Another sunny day!  Whatever happened to our rain?

The  bright star in the southwest that I thought was the planet Jupiter is actually Venus.  Last night it was huge and tonight should be brighter yet. It is supposed to be at its most brilliant on February 19.  If we have skies as clear as last night, it should be quite a show.

With our good weather yesterday, I went for my first bike ride this year. Some of the trails near my place still have snow along the sides but the sun was warm enough so that is was still quite pleasant.  This year I plan to move from the flats to a few hills, but not just yet, ... soon though.  I will have many new places to explore.   Here are some of the many places to bike in the Lower Mainland:

 http://www.hellobc.com/en-CA/SightsActivitiesEvents/AirLandActivities/Cycling/Vancouver.htm?media=cpc&referrer=google-adwords&CMP=KNC-NA&HBX_PK=cycling%20vancouver&HBX_OU=50&gclid=CN2tnZvb55gCFSMSagod_Bqy1A

My favorite of course because it is flat, is Stanley Park - before the height of tourist season,

http://www.hellobc.com/en-CA/HelloBCBlogs/BritishColumbia.htm?LOCID=646&CATID=105&CT=1&FXMID=%7C2%7C1%7C

   

I think I might be, in fact I know I am, a middlebrow.  I just learned that term from Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason.   I find it mildly insulting.   

The word middlebrow was coined by Virginia Woolf - here is the lowdown:

Virginia Woolf on Middlebrow

Virginia Woolf explicitly articulated her derision of the middlebrow in an un-posted letter-to-the-editor of the New Statesman about a review of a book of hers that omitted the word highbrow. That letter was posthumously published in the essay collection The Death of the Moth in 1942.^[2]

Virginia Woolf distinguishes middlebrows as petty purveyors of highbrow cultures for their own shallow benefit. Rather than selecting books for their intrinsic value, middlebrows select and read what they are told is best. Middlebrows are concerned with how what they do makes them appear, unlike highbrows, the avant-garde men and women who act according to their indelible commitment to beauty, value, art, form, and integrity. Woolf said, “We highbrows read what we like and do what we like and praise what we like”. Likewise, a lowbrow is devoted to a singular interest, a person “of thoroughbred vitality who rides his body in pursuit of a living at a gallop across life”; and, therefore, are equally worthy of reverence, as they, too, are living for what they intrinsically know as valuable.

Middlebrows, instead, are “betwixt and between”, which Woolf classifies as “in pursuit of no single object, neither Art itself nor life itself, but both mixed indistinguishably, and rather nastily, with money, fame, power, or prestige”. Their value system rewards quick gains through literature already designated as ‘Classic’ and ‘Great’, never of their own choosing, because “to buy living art requires living taste”. The middlebrow are meretricious — which is much less demanding than authenticity.

It is noteworthy that while Woolf criticizes those members of the middlebrow, she wrote for middlebrow publications, such as The New York Herald Tribune Books section. Her literature has been classified as middlebrow, easily-accessible, and feminized — the very threat she claimed would provoke her to “take pen and stab him, dead” for such a label. Middlebrow audiences finance the works of the highbrow, and most artists must appeal to the wide audience for success...

Getting back to the Jacoby book, she obviously considers herself to be a highbrow.   She has the same ideas as Ayn Rand, that only intellectuals are capable of ruling the world.  

Jacoby has set out to prove that America's demise is due to past anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism movements brought on by fundamentalist religion, a fear of too much education, and today by the influence of infotainment (I wonder if this includes blogging) and sound bites.

Anyway, I will continue slogging through this book.  

Oh, the perils of multi-tasking!  The newspaper today reports that a 65 year old woman in Sudbury, Ontario ran over herself.   She got into her van, started it and put it into reverse; at the same time as she reached for an ice scraper, she opened her door to attempt to adjust her seat and fell from the vehicle.  As the van continued in reverse into a snowbank, she was struck by the door and knocked under the van where the wheel ran over her head.  Luckily, she was not seriously hurt! 

Here are a couple of photos circulating via email of a Saskatchewan snow storm on January 26th:  

I am sooooo glad to be living in a now snow-free Vancouver!

I went on my second walk with the Meet-up Group on Sunday.  This time we went from Commercial Avenue westward on the Central Valley Greenway Trail to Science World and on to Granville Island along False Creek. It would be nice to have more path markers and even a few mile posts as we lost the trail a couple of times.  

This is some of our group walking just past Science World near the new Olympic Village.

It was a beautiful sunny day.  (I had had my lunch on my deck in a T-shirt.)  So, I wore jeans and a light jacket.  Unfortunately, as we got near the water, there was a cold wind blowing - I think they call it a sou'wester, and by the time we reached Granville Island, I was frozen to the core. 

After a bite to eat at Granville market, we took the Aqua Bus to Hornby Street and walked another almost two miles to the Stadium Sky Train station.  I certainly logged my 10,000 plus steps yesterday!  

Our next walk starts from Granville Island and continues westward towards Jericho Beach.  If we go a little further, we will have effectively walked Vancouver from its eastern boundary to its western boundary.  

Here is a link to the Greenvalley Trail website:

http://vancouver.ca/ENGSVCS/streets/greenways/city/cvg_sections.htm

For some reason, this link is not working.  If you copy the link and paste it in the address field at the top of your screen and remove www.blogger.com, it should come up.  

 

Is former president George W. Bush really this stupid?  Here are some his quotes:
'The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country.'
- George W. Bush

'If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.' 
- George W. Bush

'One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.'
-George W. Bush


'I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.'
- George W. Bush

'The future will be better tomorrow.'
- George W. Bush

'We're going to have the best educated American people in the world.'
- George W. Bush

'I stand by all the misstatements that I've made.'
- George W Bush

'We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to  Europe . We are a part of Europe'
- George W. Bush

'Public speaking is very easy.'
- George W. Bush

'A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.'
 - George W. Bush

'I have opinions of my own --strong opinions-- but I don't always agree with them.'
 -George Bush

'We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.'
- George W. Bush

'For NASA, space is still a high priority.'
-George W. Bush

'Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children.' 
-George W. Bush

'It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.'
- George W. Bush

While he admits he was just an average student, he did get a BA from Yale and an MBA from Harvard. I thought these schools had high standards.  And, he was Governor of Texas and worked in business.  It takes some speaking ability and a few smarts to do that.   He also defeated Al Gore who is a very intelligent person.  How could he possibly have said things like this?   

Isn't this democratic process of voting supposed to produce the best of the best candidates for high positions.  I can't remember if it was the electoral college or the popular vote that tipped the balance in favour of Bush but either way, the people in both areas should be predominantly level-headed, common sense folk who want the best candidate elected.  What went wrong?  How did such an apparent 'dud' get elected?

I am currently reading a book by Susan Jacoby called The Age of American Unreason.   Maybe it will give me some answers.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

Shakespeare

Strange fits of passion have I known

And I will dare to tell,

But in the Lover's ear alone,

What once to me befel.

When she I loved looked every day

Fresh as a rose in June,

I to her cottage bent my way, 

Beneath an evening moon.

Wordsworth

Yesterday, there were snowdrops in bloom in the West End.  If and when I ever have a garden again, I will plant snow drops in and around purple heather (the kind which is now in bloom).  They look spectacular together.  

Valentines Day wouldn't be complete without my favourite stanza by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seem to lose

With my lost saints - I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

The USA

I have always liked travelling in the US and from time to time have thought or daydreamed about living in New York City, Boston, or San Francisco or almost any place on the West Coast. I have admired the idea of Yankee knowhow and the American ability to be so successful at business (at least until recently).  

Today I read this article from Newsweek which praises Canada.  

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&attid=0.1&thid=11f6c93477f2193f&mt=application%2Fpdf

It is good to know that we have managed to do some really good things.  And it gives me confidence that we can probably pull out of this current recession/depression a lot more quickly than the rest of the world.   Makes me proud to be Canadian!

PS - it is just a short, non-technical article by a very good writer.

Conditions at Cypress last night were almost perfect.  The snow was great, the weather good, and the crowds sparse.  With the almost full moon peeking through the clouds from time to time, the skiing couldn't be better.  We are so lucky to have this kind of recreation less than an hour away for most of us in Vancouver.

There is a thing going around the internet with a site where you can find the hit tune on the day you were born.  

http://www.joshhosler.biz/

The hit song when my father was born 106 years ago was Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home.    He liked popular music and could sing and whistle a lot of tunes but I don't remember that being one.  His favorite I think was "Side by Side".  

I mention this because he was a lot more than a man who rode the rails in the depression.   And, as I am saying this, I am wondering how he would have wanted to be remembered.

This is a photo of a photograph of my Dad taken in the early 1920's. He is in his early 20's as well. I know he is younger than his greying hair would suggest as he had his nose broken in his later 20's.

His suit and tie and haircut could have come from any era. Only his straight nose dates this photo. This was probably taken by a photographer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he was living at that time.

He was born and grew up on what he called a rocky farm in Nova Scotia in 1902. Second youngest of many children of the first marriage of his father, he was probably booted out at the age of 16. While nothing was ever said, I have the impression that his father was hard nosed and unyielding. One of the first and almost only arguments I remember between my Mom and Dad was over the fact that my Dad would not spend the time and money to go back to his father's funeral in 1950.

Upon leaving Nova Scotia in 1918, he made his way to Milwaukee as he may have had some relatives living there at that time and I think there were no restrictions on Canadians then. He lived in rooming houses and worked as a labourer in factories and spent most of his time boxing and studying and partying. My Dad loved to dance and to drink so I know he spent much of his free time at parties and dance clubs. He talked about going to night school and learning advanced math like calculus, especially while we were in high school and grouching about home work. He also made an effort to learn to speak German as he lived in mainly German boarding houses. Most of all though, he boxed and loved to fight. He rarely bragged, but when occasionally he did, it was to tell us of the matches he had with contenders. He also spent a great deal of time watching his weight as he could fight as a bantam to a welter weight depending on the scales that day.

There must have been hard times in Milwaukee in the 1920's. While my Dad was a hard worker, he was often laid off from work and needed to find another factory job. Sometimes between jobs, he would have to live on the money he made boxing. He made $3.00 if he lost a fight and $10.00 if he won. He could pay his room and board with $10.00/week so he had incentive to win.

When the depression hit, there was no work at all. Two of his brothers had gone to mine in Northern Ontario after the war and were making 'good money'. So my Dad like many others hopped freight trains and hitched rides from Wisconsin to Northern Ontario where he finally found, more or less, permanent work.

 Flowers make me happy.  Last week I threw out all of the old Christmas plants and brought home a handful of daffodils.  Each morning I would have my breakfast while watching the emerging daylight turn the daffoldils a pale yellow.  This week I have some fresh tulips to brighten my day.   It's Sunday, I have fresh flowers, good music and my cat.  I have it all!

 

What Kind of Dog Am I

 

My last four days of work went rather well.  My supervisor decided to quit snipping and snarling and on the whole I was left alone to complete the tasks on my plate.  My supervisor returned to the somewhat friendly large poodle with sequins and bows that I had known at the beginning.  Maybe I had just needed to snap back more often to establish an equilibrium in my job but is it not really in my nature to act like that.  And at my age, I don't really want to change, at least not in that way.

About a year and half ago, I took a part time job in an office with five people - three front office and two back office.  It was my job to help the back office with back-logs and to cover for stats, sick days and vacation.   The back office consisted of the large poodle and a lovely cocker spaniel.  The front office had a friendly black lab as the head honcho, his assistant was an aging blue heeler who, although originally a fine dog, had been kicked once too often by horses, and an afghan whose job was to liaise with the outer world.

In the course of time, the black lab and the heeler decided that the afghan was too aloof and a little slow at catching on to exactly what was expected of her, so they shooed her away.  Eventually (a couple of months ago), they found a pit bull to replace the afghan.  This pit bull attacked her job with a vengeance.  Just about the time when the pit bull had run out of targets, the cocker spaniel went off on sick leave, which meant I started working full time.

The pit bull managed to form a pack with the large poodle as an enthusiastic member and the blue heeler tagging along.  This roaming pack soon found me huddled in my corner trying to keep my head down.  Needless to say the attack was successful and I am now home licking my wounds and wondering what kind of dog I am.    

 

I either walked out of my job today or could have been sent home.  In over forty years of working I have never done anything like this.   Even though I have given my notice, or because I have, the stress levels are still increasing.   I have a supervisor that gives me nothing but negative reinforcement and hovers and nitpicks continually!   She has refined the idea of micromanagement to a real science.   I was given a very long, dirty, nasty job and she had it in her mind that she would watch me closely, keep me inputing as fast as I possibly could and let me know each and every time I slowed down or made an error.  When she asked to look at the first page of my work even before I had a chance to check it, I asked her to back off and give me space.  The best thing about this is that I might get out of this job five days early.

I am so looking forward to not going to work for awhile.

In the meantime, I get to blog.   

This is a link to a Vancouver web cam.    http://www.katkam.ca  

The camera is above the Burrard Street bridge between False Creek and English Bay.  It usually points south westward towards the Planetarium.   I often check it if I am going to Stanley Park or English Bay or the Westend because the weather can be clear and sunny there while it is raining in other parts of the city and vice versa.   

Now that I will be a lady of leisure, I need to look for a lot more entertainment.  A few years back, a group of us tried to find free and nearly free activities to do in Vancouver.   Over about six months we found things to do virtually every weekend, and sometimes on week nights, that did not cost much but were still entertaining.   The best were concerts in parks of which there was one somewhere almost every weekend in the summer and the Art Gallery which was 'by donation only' on Tuesdays.  I don't know if these are still available now.  I will have to start looking.  

Last weekend, I tried a walking group for the first time through Meetup which falls into this category of inexpensive events.  The weather was perfect for walking.  We met, (there was a group of about 12), on Commercial and followed the Central Valley Greenway Trail eastward.  When finished this trail will be a walking/biking route between Coquitlam and Science World.  While it is still a work in progress, the part I walked was paved and ready for light standards and landscaping with a few small pockets of excellent landscaping already in place.  I left the group at Gilmore Station after just over an hour of walking.  Everyone else carried on further eastward.  The group was interesting and the walk not too strenuous (all flat land); I will certainly go again.

The link for this group is    http://walkers.meetup.com/129/grow/

I will post this now and check the links to see if they work.

 

Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants is a good read.  The author, who was born in Vancouver but now lives in Chicago, created a page turner somewhat like 'who-done-it' novels.  You keep picking up the book to find out what happens next.   It is the reminiscence of a 93 year old man from his nursing home.  The story is told in the same manner as The Princess Bride where the story evolves in snippets going from present to past and back again.   http://bestsellers.about.com/od/fictionreviews/gr/water_elephants.htm

A three ring circus came to our northern Ontario town in the late 1940's by train.  On the Saturday morning there was a parade of performers and animals (which included three grown elephants and a baby elephant) down Third Avenue, our main street, to the circus site which was on a field near the Pavillion which was on the other side of our river.  I can remember sitting on my Dad's shoulders to watch the glamour and excitement.  We later went to the performance and watched high wire trapeze artists and acrobats standing bare back on horses and clowns and dogs.  But it was the parade I remember most and the fact that there were actually lions and tigers and elephants in our town!  Water for Elephants brought back these memories.

This book also gave me something else to think about - As we age and our children develop lives quite apart from ours, what exactly is our obligation to them - socially, financially or emotionally.  Can we allow ourselves to morph into something that is not predominantly a parent figure.  There are some responsibilities we will always have, but for the most part can we go off and do our own thing without having to explain our actions.  And, even if we slow down and maybe make a few 'bad' decisions, is that any reason to give our powers over to our children - i.e. "it's time you went to a nursing home".  If they are independent and we are independent, why not do whatever makes you happy and fulfills your desires regardless of the consequences, providing of course you do no harm in general.  

On another note, as I was driving down Highway 1 yesterday on the way into town, there was a young man staggering along on the right hand lane.  I called 911 and was put on hold for about seven minutes before I got through to the RCMP.   The first emergency operator had to stay on line with me and listen to continuous "your call is important to us....".    This was mid afternoon on a sunny Saturday.  I wonder how long one has to wait at peak times.  This is another indication I guess of how our essential services are deteriorating.