blogging

Been there or Done that is the Monday Meme


Taken from  David B. who took it from Tablaqueen. Mostly because I am lazy.

Bold what you have done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity (Yep, gave away almost an entire house full of stuff when I came to Canada. In retrospect I should have kept a thing or half dozen.)
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain (not on foot. Will and I drove up Pike’s Peak once.)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch ( I am going to count writing because it’s arty and no one really taught me to do this.)
15. Adopted a child (I am half counting this because I am adopted myself)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (I refused. Her fingers were freakishly man like and I found her scarier in person than I did when Charleton Heston did his “Damn you all to hell!”)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (No, but I have seen Starry Night.)
20. Slept on an overnight train (I walked through Trudeau’s infamous finger car however.)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (guilty in spades.)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26 Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (and never will. Germ incubating at its finest is what a cruise ship is.)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Visited an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (Shania Twain – I was awful. I’d like to blame it on the music but I just cannot sing.)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain (as much as Rob and I kiss, we’ve likely got this covered.)
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class (1st degree black belt Tae Kwon Do)
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen (Delivered meals though)
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp (been to the museum in D.C.)
67. Bounced a cheque
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar (it’s disgusting)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (Sam the Chickenman. Worst Job Ever.)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (my wrist in 7th grade)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (not yet)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (three times in my life)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (The Fort Saskatchewan Record last Decemeber)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House (didn’t have time drove by it though on a tour bus.)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one (ad nauseum)
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone ( I wish I could say no to this one)
99. Been stung by a bee (and carry an epipen now)
100. Read an entire book in one day ( not in many years but once upon a time I was a demon bookworm)

Wow, I am so not interesting. What about you?

Gone Fishing


Gone fishing

Image by thekeithhall via Flickr

With the weather only marginally cooperative, we embarked on a field trip this morning to a place called Wildwood Ranch. The first time I heard the name a song from my childhood immediately sprang to mind called Wildwood Weed. It was one of those 70’s novelty songs.

 

The wildwood flower grew wild on the farm,

And we never knowed what it was called.

 

When I mentioned the name of the ranch to Rob, he smiled and made a remark about this song too and then quoted the last verse,

 

Then they drove away,

We just smiled and waved…

Sittin’ there on that sack of seeds!

Interestingly I had been remembering the same lines. Children of the 70’s, literally in my case but not as much in his.

 

The ranch was located about 40 minutes or so south of the metro. The students would have the opportunity to fish, hike and ride horses. Kids are funny anyway, but it’s always interesting to watch their “real world” personas emerge on these trips. School is such an artificial , and in some cases adversarial, atmosphere. Take them out of the class. Talk to them as though they were your nieces or nephews, and you’ll be surprised at how much like kids they truly are. Wide-eyed and open.

 

The ranch was obviously some type of summer/weekend camp. There were cabins, a rec and dining hall, and areas that were set up to accommodate structured group activities. We broke the students into groups for fishing and riding. They were naturally most interested in the horseback riding. I don’t imagine that many of them had the opportunity to ride horses often or possibly ever. I have ridden twice in my life. Once on another field trip about fifteen years ago and then again on a Jaycee outing around the time that Will and I were first together which was at least eight years ago. Normally I would have been enthused at the prospect. I would like to learn to ride properly. Rob knows how to ride and it would be fun to be able to do something like this together and teach Katy as well. I am not sure about owning horses though and one of the camp’s owners made the comment that horses were nothing but walking vet bills and hay burners. Better to just “put a bullet in ’em” when they took sick than to waste the money on doctoring them.

 

Fishing was the first activity for the group to which I was assigned. I haven’t fished since high school, but baiting a hook is apparently one of those “just like riding a bike” deals. I baited, cast and hauled in a blue gill of almost edible proportions in less than five minutes. With shame though I must admit that I didn’t remove the fish from the hook myself. An older gentleman who volunteers at the the ranch assisted me, which turned out to be just as well as the fish decided to protest its treatment by peeing all over the front of the man’s shirt. For some reason it never occurred to me until that moment that fish do indeed pee and that all the world’s waterways are fish urinals. Gave me a moment or two of pause until I relegated that thought to the “best not think about it” bin in my brain.

 

I baited quite a few more hooks and gave a couple of my own homeroom students casting lessons before it was time to head for the horses. I had decided at this point not to ride. The last thing I needed was to be thrown from a horse and break something. I have major life events coming up and a cast on any part of me would be a hindrance right now. Watching the kids mount and ride within the corral reminded me that I am a small town girl and not a city girl at all. I may not have grown up on a farm but a farm has never been a field trip experience for me either. Many of my relatives on both sides of my family farmed. Going to the farm was a weekly thing for me as a kid whether it was my Uncle Jimmy’s or one of my mother’s two older brothers or my dad’s various family members. Even my limited camping experience put me in the advanced outdoors men class in comparison to the majority of students on the trip. And I am not as amused by this fact as others might be. Growing up without opportunities to be out of an urban environment is not a good thing in my opinion. There is something about city-dwelling and even the artificial outdoors of the suburbs that is mentally and spiritually unhealthy.

 

The kids were suspended between exhilaration and terror atop the horses. The boys in particular watched the animals with suspicion. Wariness is probably not the best thing when dealing with such a sensitive animal but awareness is. Rob told me the story of how he was thrown clear over the top of a horse only to land sitting up with the reins in hand on the ground in front of it. He had been leading another horse behind and it had apparently gotten too close to his mount. No one was thrown though.

 

After a completely inedible lunch of pig meat and junk food sealed in a plastic bag, some of the children decided to put their pond-faring skills to the test. The jaded public school teacher in me briefly blanched a bit at the thought of being named in a lawsuit should one of the canoes capsize but thought perhaps no one would think to look for me in Canada. So, I gave a Willy Wonka shrug and eye-roll as I gamely gave instructions from the safety of the dock and watched them disappear one by one around the tiny island at the far end of the water. I wondered briefly if anyone would try to land and explore while remembering an earlier conversation with another of the camp’s owners about the fact that the island was covered from one side to the other with poison ivy, but decided it was too late to issue a warning.

 

I nearly fell asleep on the bus ride back. I haven’t been getting enough sleep again but happily insomnia is no longer the issue. I couldn’t wait to get back to school where I knew Rob would be waiting to pick me up. It’s nice to have someone with whom you can share your work day. Even if you just went fishing.

 

 

 

 


A Golf Holiday with the Boys


HAVRE DE GRACE, MD - JUNE 06: Lorena Ochoa (ME...

Image via Wikipedia

According to humorist and author, Dave Barry ,“Although golf was originally restricted to wealthy, overweight Protestants, today it’s open to anybody who owns hideous clothing,” but the sport as it is known today originated in Scotland when some kilt wearing peasants got the idea to adapt a similar game of probable European origin by digging a few holes to knock the balls into as opposed to just swatting it around a field of play. By 1447 it was already the favorite game of work shirkers as King James II was forced to issue a ban on the playing of golf (and football/soccer). The games, James complained, were keeping his archers from their practice. Even though James III in 1471 and James IV in 1491 each re-issued the ban on golf, it continued to develop in Scotland over the decades and centuries until finally 1744 the first-known rules of golf were put down in writing. According the American author, Bruce Lansky, ‘Golf has more rules than any other game because golf has more cheaters than any other game.”

My darling fiance tells me that the word golf is really an acronym which means, gentlemen only ladies forbidden but according to Brent Kelley at About.com this is not true. The word golf actually originates from the medieval Dutch word kolf which means club and was passed to the Scots, whose old Scots dialect transformed the word into gouf which by the 16th century became golf.

Rob and some friends are enjoying a golf holiday this week in a beautiful mountain setting. He has a timeshare, and they are spending the week tossing clubs, breaking wine glasses and arm wrestling. Not all at once and I am told that there is actual golfing taking place as well.

I’ve golfed three times in my life, if mini-golf doesn’t count and I am sure it does not as I can feel the glare of golf purists everywhere melting the screen as they read this sentence. It is a game that requires more patience than I was born with, which is none, or have managed to acquire since, which is not much more than none, and every time I have attempted to play I accomplished little more than to test someone else’s patience.

The first golf outing was with my father when I was ten. He had acquired an old set of clubs at a garage sale and dragged my next youngest sister and I to the nearby public course to test them out. I suspect he was testing Kate and I. My dad was determined to make athletes out of us and though we were both good ball players at that point, he probably realized that there wasn’t much of a long term future for girls who played baseball. In the early 70’s girls were eventually forced to accept the poorer softball substitute. Golf, as far as I know, doesn’t have a watered down girl version. Though I am probably wrong about that. All sports seem to have inferior girls’ rules versions. We played nine holes before Dad got tired of our whining and took us home. The clubs went into the basement and I think Mom eventually pawned them off on someone at a garage sale of her own.

The second time was a blind date with a 40 something farmer friend of one of my best friend’s husband. I was about 26 at the time. It would be no exaggeration to say that I have never played so well as that day. I can be great at nearly anything when properly motivated, and the motivation that afternoon was quick escape.

The third golf outing was a best ball tournament that I entered simply to impress a guy I was dating at the time. I even went to a driving range to practice beforehand. My sister took me. She had actually taken the game up in her early twenties. I don’t remember if I impressed the boyfriend or not. My guess is not and is probably related to the patience thing. Most men had little patience with my lack of said quality. I haven’t attempted golf since.

I admire people with patience although it seems to me that many people who take up golf aren’t. Maybe one practices the art of patience by taking up golf? I think though that there has to be less boring ways to learn a virtue.