23 March 2008
Hope Everyone Had a Nice Easter
24/03/08 05:57
Good morning everyone! Today is a holiday in British Columbia, so no mail, school or garbage pickup. They do something strange here with the garbage schedule. I may have already told you this before, so if I have you can just skip over it. Whenever there is a holiday, there is no garbage pickup, which is normal. But instead of shifting you a day for one week and then back to your original schedule the next week, you stay on the new schedule. For example, our pickup day had been Friday, however since Friday and Monday are holidays they won't pick up our garbage until Tuesday and until the next holiday our new pickup day will be Tuesday. It makes it very confusing to keep track of what day is garbage day, which is probably why the City keeps sending out new garbage/recycle schedules.
I am back to working a normal schedule at NCO, Wednesday-Friday 5 am-1:30 pm. It was hard to put in an 8 hour day after the last month of only working 3.25 hours a day and then going to my workshop. On Tuesday I had a first aid class and spent way too much time kneeling on the floor, checking for breathing, doing CPR, artificial respiration and other first aid stuff. My knees were sore for the rest of the week.
Doug went home early from work as he was not feeling well. He spent the rest of the day and all day Saturday in bed. He was feeling better on Sunday so he made it to Barbara's for Easter. It was a small group, just Barbara, Mike, John Doug and me. John is a friend of Mike's and they perform together sometimes. In fact they have been playing at Fairwinds, a gold course just north of Lantzville. Their last gig there is April 11, so we (Barbara, Doug and I) are making plans to go out for dinner and listening to them play.
A friend of mine, Marilyn called me on Saturday. She asked what I had been up to and I started to laugh. I had been out weeding in the garden and I knew what all you Minnesotans were getting, snow, snow and more snow. Well, I shouldn't have been so cocky. Guess what it started to do yesterday afternoon, yes it started to SNOW! Luckily not enough to stay around for long, but it was a reminder that we are not out of the woods yet in regards to cold weather. In fact they expect colder than normal temperatures for most of this week.
However there is still a lot of flowers and shrubs blooming. I have included a couple of pictures of our rhododendrons from out in our front yard.
More BC History to Celebrate 150 Years
Beautiful British Columbia is also known as "Lotus Land." The reference comes from Homer's Odyssey, in which a band of soldiers lost their will to do much of anything when they come across a languid, indulgent land of lotus eaters. Journalist Allan Fotheringham is credited with coining the term in the 1970s. But BC's offbeat reputation began long before that. Take Amor De Cosmos for example. He was born William Alexander Smith. But he legally changed his name to something that means “Lover of the Universe.” He was our second premier. Our 27th premier lived in a castle. That would be Bill Vander Zalm of Fantasy Gardens.
BC has represented a “fantasy garden” for more than a few utopian communities. There were the Doukhobors near Grand Forks and Nelson. There was Metlakatla—an ancient Tsimshin village that became an Anglican commune. And there was also Sointula, an idealist community of Finns. Sointula means “Harmony” in Finnish. Brother Twelve and his Aquarian Foundation could have used a bit more harmony. The notorious mystic and his sadistic mistress, “Madame Z,” built a “City of Refuge” on Valdes and De Courcy Islands. It was a place for his disciples to escape the coming Armageddon. Armageddon never arrived, but the colony self-destructed when Brother Twelve’s followers revolted.
Sounds like there wasn’t much lotus on the menu…in the City of Refuge Despite BC’s nickname, we don’t grow all that much lotus. But we are famous for another, laidback crop. Tommy Chong is one of its most famous proponents. And he lives right here…in lotus land.
Doug's thumb is just for scale.
Pictures of the ocean from outside of Lantzville. Yesterday started out nice and sunny but as you can see it was pretty gray and dreary when we were there and then of course we had snow later.
I am back to working a normal schedule at NCO, Wednesday-Friday 5 am-1:30 pm. It was hard to put in an 8 hour day after the last month of only working 3.25 hours a day and then going to my workshop. On Tuesday I had a first aid class and spent way too much time kneeling on the floor, checking for breathing, doing CPR, artificial respiration and other first aid stuff. My knees were sore for the rest of the week.
Doug went home early from work as he was not feeling well. He spent the rest of the day and all day Saturday in bed. He was feeling better on Sunday so he made it to Barbara's for Easter. It was a small group, just Barbara, Mike, John Doug and me. John is a friend of Mike's and they perform together sometimes. In fact they have been playing at Fairwinds, a gold course just north of Lantzville. Their last gig there is April 11, so we (Barbara, Doug and I) are making plans to go out for dinner and listening to them play.
A friend of mine, Marilyn called me on Saturday. She asked what I had been up to and I started to laugh. I had been out weeding in the garden and I knew what all you Minnesotans were getting, snow, snow and more snow. Well, I shouldn't have been so cocky. Guess what it started to do yesterday afternoon, yes it started to SNOW! Luckily not enough to stay around for long, but it was a reminder that we are not out of the woods yet in regards to cold weather. In fact they expect colder than normal temperatures for most of this week.
However there is still a lot of flowers and shrubs blooming. I have included a couple of pictures of our rhododendrons from out in our front yard.
More BC History to Celebrate 150 Years
Beautiful British Columbia is also known as "Lotus Land." The reference comes from Homer's Odyssey, in which a band of soldiers lost their will to do much of anything when they come across a languid, indulgent land of lotus eaters. Journalist Allan Fotheringham is credited with coining the term in the 1970s. But BC's offbeat reputation began long before that. Take Amor De Cosmos for example. He was born William Alexander Smith. But he legally changed his name to something that means “Lover of the Universe.” He was our second premier. Our 27th premier lived in a castle. That would be Bill Vander Zalm of Fantasy Gardens.
BC has represented a “fantasy garden” for more than a few utopian communities. There were the Doukhobors near Grand Forks and Nelson. There was Metlakatla—an ancient Tsimshin village that became an Anglican commune. And there was also Sointula, an idealist community of Finns. Sointula means “Harmony” in Finnish. Brother Twelve and his Aquarian Foundation could have used a bit more harmony. The notorious mystic and his sadistic mistress, “Madame Z,” built a “City of Refuge” on Valdes and De Courcy Islands. It was a place for his disciples to escape the coming Armageddon. Armageddon never arrived, but the colony self-destructed when Brother Twelve’s followers revolted.
Sounds like there wasn’t much lotus on the menu…in the City of Refuge Despite BC’s nickname, we don’t grow all that much lotus. But we are famous for another, laidback crop. Tommy Chong is one of its most famous proponents. And he lives right here…in lotus land.
Doug's thumb is just for scale.
Pictures of the ocean from outside of Lantzville. Yesterday started out nice and sunny but as you can see it was pretty gray and dreary when we were there and then of course we had snow later.