Agenda Camp, Windsor, Sunday, October 19, 2008

OK, so Agenda Camp was yesterday. So sue me. I filled in the title first thing in the morning, thinking I might blog through the day but then I ended up taking notes for two sessions and editing them for upload and I was too tired to write anything when I got home after dinner with Paul.

The “camp” format grew out of a bunch of techies camping out, brainstorming and debugging in a sort of marathon fashion. It has morphed into something called “open space technology” which is explained pretty well here. You can see the results of our day here. There are links to stuff on You Tube and something caller “Twitter” which I haven’t investigated yet.

I have mixed feelings about the experience. I’m not sorry I went and I’m attending the live broadcast of the show tonight though the line up of guests for the panel leaves me tepid. I think the publicity for the event could have been better and the attendance reflected that. I was disgusted that not one representative of any level of government (i.e. elected official) bothered to attend to listen to the ideas of a bunch of ordinary citizens though they are rescheduling the City Council meeting normally held on Monday nights so the whole gang can attend the broadcast with live cameras! I mean they could have drawn lots and the guy with the short straw would have had to give up a Sunday, fer chrissakes!

There were some real activists as well as a couple of people with actual clout, a couple of interested retirees and a complement of the expected unemployed oddballs of whom I am doubtless one. I don’t know if I made the wisest choices among the available sesions but – in another sense and judging from the videos – it may have made little real difference.

I don’t suppose anyone rode out on any but the hobby horse they rode in on and I don’t think that was anyone’s expectation. Part of the theory is that two conflicting ideas can sometimes ultimately lead to a new plan. The problem of implementation remains as well as the problem of disagreement as to what exactly should be implemented but I’m not sure there are orchestrable “solutions”. I suspect it’s more of a cyclic thing and time will bring what it brings economically, culturally and politically in an organic fashion.

I did have a chat with Steve Paikin which was interesting in terms of what he perceived (or at least voiced) about me. He’s far too polite to actually call me a “nasty old bat” as others of my acquaintance have been wont to do (in only the nicest manner, I assure you!) He said I was a Conservative and he’s right though it rather surprized me to recognize it. I always used to vote Conservative as did my father and probably the rest of my family for that matter. We were, after all, Orangemen of Toronto-the-good! Even as a youngster I admired John Diefenbaker. Mr. Paikin made the point that we cannot go back to the simpler economic times; we must live in the times where we find ourselves. (I paraphrase. It made sense and was much less a statement of the obvious in context.) However he phrased it, I experienced a sort of paradigm shift and realized that part of me really does long for a return to a simpler time. I “know” that isn’t possible but I hadn’t fully realized how deeply I have fallen into the trap of age that deplores the present and fears the future. Intellectually I don’t really expect the world to listen to me or any other aged “sage” but viscerally I do experience the world as going to hell in a handbasket and wish I could turn back the clock. Perhaps I can retain my new awareness and stay off my soapbox (for awhile at least).

I had my usual complement of personal f*** ups beginning with a flat tire on the scooter and meandering through mistaking tea for coffee (Yuck! I hate tea!) among a table of identical carafes and putting my back out using the walker for the first time. (I needed some way to manage my computer, purse, etc. from room to room and floor to floor.) Got an enormous laugh out of the “swag” – a grey, rubbery “squishy brain”! At a conference about the failing manufacturing economy in Ontario someone pointed out that it was made in China! Maybe they can just peel off the labels for the next camp. I like it anyway and the cats who will be the eventual beneficiaries will love it.

I have now to dress and make my way back to the city for tonight’s broadcast. I’ve deliberately taken it very easy today as my back has been problematic and I’d like to stay awake for the evening. I am so very tempted to take my knitting. I usually knit while watching The Agenda, after all. I do not, however, want to carry it along with my purse and am taking neither (still hors de combat) scooter nor walker for the simple stroll (OK, limp) in and out of the gallery.

Aha! It’s beginning . . .

but smaller companies need to get on board. We’re becoming a big block of consumerism . . . .

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-museums-finally-accessibility-visitors-disabilities-seriously?utm_medium=email&utm_source=18329205-newsletter-editorial-daily-10-14-19&utm_campaign=editorial-rail&utm_content=st-

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Well, we’ve done it. Last of the required material went to KIAC yesterday. All that’s required now is to wait patiently to learn the roster of residents for 2014 in late July of this year! I now have no further excuse to put off doing my tax return . . . except for travelling to my son’s tomorrow for my granddaughter’s birthday.

The biggest challenge may be to resist beginning the piece I plan for the residence period if I am accepted. I jump the gun that way. Many, many steps to take before that is appropriate. I have been playing with Artist’s Trading Cards in the meantime.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Well, what do you know? I’m not dead yet. A friend posted on her blog after a long absence and it occurred to me that I, too, have something new to talk about.

Not a lot has changed here at the lake since I last posted upon return from our cross continent adventure. Well, that’s not strictly true. We have aged. We have sadly lost several good, furry friends. We have slowed our pace. But life on the whole goes on and is good.

I am finally on track to lose some weight in a manner that will change my eating habits for the rest of my life, the only way it was ever going to work. It’s early days yet but I do see subtle changes and a switch seems to have flipped in my brain that allows me to see this through.

But the subject of this post is another matter. I received notice awhile ago of a call for application for an artist in residence post in Dawson City, Yukon and I haven’t been able to let go of it. You can read about the programme here.

My daughter and I have been discussing the possibility of applying for conjoint residencies for four weeks in the spring or early fall of 2014 and we would seem to have decided to go ahead with the madness. She has her project fairly well thought out and I, just last night, may have settled on a theme for my own.

I would be inclined to go for the maximum, twelve week term but she is loath to be away longer than four weeks plus the two weeks’ travel time so that is what we will be applying for. We will take this one step at a time but the deadline for application is April 1 of this year so we have to take the first, big step right away.

Let you know how that goes.

Home, sweet home

We’ve been home almost a month now and I am pleased to say that I feel I have managed to retain some of the sense of relaxation I discovered on th road. I am sadly back on the full complement of pain medication. Spending long hours in a truck may not have been good for my health but it sure gave me a break from the pain of the degenerative disc disease. I am if possible even less able to stand or walk for any length of time so chores are accomplished in tiny, frustrating increments.

Ed’s away right now at the semi annual swap meet we attend north of Barrie every June and September. I had decided before we got home that I wouldn’t be going this fall. Not only am I reluctant to go anywhere but it was too soon to leave the dogs alone again and too much to ask of my beleaguered daughter. I miss Ed and find myself going up and downstairs far too many times a day, letting dogs in and out, but I am quite enjoying a few days of solitude.

I spent a week (of two prescribed) on a diuretic to reduce the severe swelling in my legs and feet, going off it when it became clear that the side effects were outweighing the benefits. Fortunately I dropped all the excess fluid. My legs still swell but recover overnight, a chronic situation but one I can handle. I would obviously profit from weight loss but dare not risk the extra I inevitably gain following any effort to reduce.

I got all my regular maintenance done on the truck and myself with the addition of a couple of new tires, ball joints and an alignment (on the truck!) I wasn’t expecting plus the necessity of replacing my printer which balked sensationally at the suggestion it print on transfer paper.  I am beginning to whittle away at the credit card debt I accumulated on our trip, a job that will require all my self control and the remainder of this year.

I thought about going up to Kitchener for the Knitters’ Fair tomorrow but doubt I will. The weather is rather damp and gloomy and I shouldn’t incur more expenses.  I will probably eschew the American Sewing and Needlework Show later in the month as well though I’m keeping my options open. I will make it as far as London a week from Monday but will attempt to exercise restraint. For the most part I am more than happy to remain in my pleasant cave.

I am reorganizing and sorting and doing the sort of chores one is moved to do in the fall which ought to be the “new year” as far as I am concerned. I am oh so gradually beginning to bake and cook again after a brief hot spell when turning on an oven seemed sacrilegious. I am so grateful to have missed the extreme heat here earlier this summer! I have even been preparing more or less “proper”meals for myself while here alone and went so far as to make hamburger buns (in the bread machine) yesterday.

My daughter and I have been talking about cooperating on her currently dormant etsy site and perhaps selling some unique bags. I have completed one and have a couple of ideas for others from “vintage” fabrics. I like making bags but have far too many of them, this could be a practical outlet for my compulsion and it won’t cost much to try. Perhaps we will be noticed by Regretsy and become infamous!

I need to get organized for Christmas ere long, filling in great gaps in my gift list in spite of  months of purchases and fabrication.

So I am pretty much where I usually am at this time of year, perhaps a little “poorer” but happy enough. “Content” I believe would be the appropriate word. How many people can claim contentment with their lot?

Home again, home again, jiggety jig!

It’s Sunday morning, August 14. We got in late Thursday afternoon after driving late into Wednesday night, sleeping awhile at a roadside rest stop in Michigan and speeding home Thursday, stopping only briefly for breakfast, lunch and other necessaries.

I’ve been in rough shape and not getting much done. Laundry barely started, no groceries acquired yet . . . and little else to account for the intervening days.

Most of the stuff is out of the camper but not all. My scooter is stuill mounted on the back of Ed’s truck so I’m not going far in mine though I did drive into Merlin for breakfast yesterday so I haven’t forgotten how.

In that connection, we left Kitty and Diesel inside the house with Barney and Rexie and Ulster outside while we escaped for an hour and a half and came home to find Kitty and Ulster missing. Kitty had gone through the screened front window in the living room, an eight foot drop. Eventually Matt found them on the road east of here when he went out in my truck after Kelly had, just missing them. (A neighbour called to report sighting them.) Ed was hours walking down the beach looking for them with no way to let him know they wre home. The fence has to be replaced and that was to be done yesterday but it didn’t happen, of course, and it’s been raining all this morning after a thunderstorm in the wee hours. Clearly Kitty cannot be let out unsupervised and Ed and I cannot go anywhere at the same time until the fence is secure.

My legs and back are awful so I get little done. Kelly teied to make an appointment for me with my GP but was told I would have to go to emergency and get an ultrasound if I suspected clots. I am loathe to do so in part because the rash from the black fly bites is masking what symptoms may be attributable to something more serious. The celebrex makes skin conditions more severe and I cannot skip that right now or I’d be bedridden. That doesn’t sound like all that bad a prospect just now and I might retire to the boudoir if I don’t get something accomplished soon. I’m sleeping well but that just means my back is worse when I do get up.

The dryer had issues and the one load that made it in didn’t dry so I got that restarted yesterday but that’s as far as it went. I really do hope to complete that chore today at least.

Apart from yesterday’s breakfast and a pizza Thursday evening, meals have been cobbled from canned goods, granola bars, cheese and stale bread from the camper fridge. The bread really ought to have been mouldy by now. Since it wasn’t, I can only assume it is incapable of sustaining life but it supported cheese. There are fresh eggs. I need to stock up but not badly enough to drive me out yet.

My daughter and I have put away yarn and sorted other purchases to their areas of usefulness if not quite put them away. Once I finish the laundry I can retire to my studio and ignore the rest for a time, perhaps quite a long time. Tomorrow I will have to call for appointments of various sorts and actually begin to peer out at the world if not actually venture past the door.

Caught up with e mail and feeds I care about and thought to make a closing entry here in case anyone wonders if I’d fallen off the earth. I didn’t though it felt a bit like. I don’t know if I’ll have caught the bug and will continue with the blog. I tend to think not but we’ll see. I know I have several ideas for fibre projects I would like to begin and I have a few such commitments I must honour soonish. I must really focus on regaining health and some function. Things would actually be simpler if I could resort to a wheelchair but this house isn’t remotely navigable that way so I have to maintain some degree of mobility. The last two days that hasn’t been particularly appealing.

I’ll be in touch . . . eentually.

Tuesday Evening

We arrived at Ed’s daughter’s Sunday evening and have been visiting here since with her, her husband and their three children. Tomorrow morning we all head into Thunder Bay for breakfast in Finnish town after which they will shop for goceries for their weekend camping trip and we will head toward Sault Ste. Marie, stopping near there tomorrow night before going the rest of the way home Thursday.

Today has been alternately sunny and raining with s a steady wind but has cleared up this evening so I hope we can look forward to fair weather. It will be increasingly difficult for me to be patient  the rest of the way as we near home. I know myself.

Supper tonight was a birthday party for Ed whose birthday is September 1. He got lots of baked and preserved goodies as well as Finnish coffee so our pantry is beginning to be restocked.

Ed says we could visit Edna and then hit the Listowel sale on the way home Monday but I am broke and know I am too much done in for further travel. We found a couple of yarn stores and two or three fabreic stores listed in Thunder Bay. The big fabric store I remember from my very first visit here is gone now. I doubt I will visit any of them. A fuel stop and one at a bank and we are on our way as early as reasonably possible after a pleasant breakfast. We wouldn’t be lingering long in any case with the children aged five, almost three and nine months!

I am so anxious to see our furries and Barney will be so glad to be home!

Another weekend

Upon realizing how little really appeals to us to keep us longer in the west, we decided to head for Thunder Bay and Janet’s before her weekend trip instead of after. We left our campsite this morning, breakfasted at a truck stop “family restaurant” and headed for the Manitoba border. We should be in the Bay tomorrow night or early Monday. After a couple of days’ visit, we shall return home – as before stated – either through Michigan or by way of Huntsville.At the moment, Barney and I are in the truck in the parking lot of the National Museum of the Royal  Canadian Army on the Shilo military base where Ed is enjoying military vehicles and artillery.I’ve spent a lot of time in the truck, more even than usual and that is a lot. It’s not horribly uncomfortable but it is difficult for me to get in and out of which often makes waiting here preferable to the alternative. Since the development of problems in my lower legs and feet, I have been careful to wallk more but – if that were easy – the problems would not have developed. I shall certainly have to pursue diagnosis and treatment of probable clots when I get home. Something to look forward to! Saskatchewan surprized me with its terrain even though the rolling hills eventually did give way to the iconic prairie. Looking at the map, I was surprized at the amount of water. Even here in the south the sloughs are numerous and the northern portion appears to be made up of equal amounts of land and water. Manitoba looks familiar, a lot like southwestern Ontario, in fact.                                                                                 ************************************* It is now late on Sunday evening, August 7 and we are settled in Janet and Ben’s basement for a night or two. We bypassed most of Winnipeg, camping last night just east of the city and coming straight through today, leaving the campground before 8:00 and stopping only briefly for breakfast and lunch. With the final time change, we got here at 7:00 p.m. and visited awhile with Janet, Ben, the children and Ben’s parents who were here. Ben’s Dad has been helping with staining the house’s clapboard. I’m very tired and we’ve decided to head home directly from here or as directly as a night in Sault Ste. Marie and a day’s drive through Michigan will allow. As much as I would like to visit Edna and, perhaps my son and his family, I know when I’ve had enough. We will likely leave here Tuesday morning and should arrive home late on Wednesday if all goes well. Perhaps I will get up to Toronto for an afternoon with Kelly soon to see Sean, Sherry and the children but we won’t see Edna until Thanksgiving. I’m not happy about that but the drive to and from Huntsville is more than I can face right now. I am looking forward to home, pets, family, friends and my studio. I have loved the vacation but am ready to be home. What a wonderful concept, “home”. Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. That is true but how dreadful not to have a home to go to! Home may be what and where you make it but the idea of a safe haven to which to retreat is a precious one. Tonight I am grateful for home and the prospect of seeing it very soon.

Time and time again

I’m speaking to you tonight from Indian Head, Saskatchewan where we are at a KOA after trying several campgrounds closer to Regina that were filled up with workers from the city. The fact that it is Friday may not have helped. We got this site only after being told this camp was full when someone opportunely (for us) decided to move to share with their extended family.

Slept well last night and began today in a leisurely fashion in part because of an early thunderstorm. When the sky cleared, we found breakfast nearby and headed east again.

We stopped at a museum outside Moose Jaw, another old time village, this one on a much smaller budget than Calgary’s. The centrepiece was an unfinished boat, the creation of a Finn named Tom Sukanen who built it early in the last century with the intention of sailing back to his homeland by way of the Saskatchewan River, Hudson Bay and Iceland. The poor man died in an insane asylum and is now buried near his ark. When I first misread the listing in the tourist guide, I thought it referred to a sunken, unfinished ship but it turned out to be Sukanen’s unsunken, unfinished, Finnish ship. (Move over, Tom!)

It is interesting that Moose Jaw is built primarily in a little valley with newer portions extending up onto the hills around so that there are now both an upper and a lower “Jaw”.

Moving right along . . . as we did to Regina where we browsed an area called “The Village”, a sort of quieter version of Toronto’s Beaches with lovely shops where I found more yarn as well as some paper products (for collage and mail, not housecleaning). Supper was tacos from a street vendor for a pleasant change. 

Once settled in, I interrupted my e mailing to watch a brief appearance of the Northern Lights. I haven’t seen them since I was a kid and didn’t expect to see them this trip what with short, bright nights further north and wouldn’t have expected them at all this far south. Worth a few extra bites!

We crossed another time line when we entered Saskatchewan yesterday but this province does not observe Daylight Savings Time so its Central Standard Time  corresponds to Alberta’s Mountain Daylight Time. All that means that there was no change at all and we are still two hours behind Eastern Daylight Time. Manitoba will be on Central Daylight Time, putting us ahead the one hour and Ontario will bring us back in sync with home.

I still think time is essentially meaningless and still don’t have a clue what “time” it is most of the time . . . but I suspect it is time I went to bed.

As I was saying . . .

 

. . . actually I haven’t a clue. There’s wifi at this campground but the owner is away and the person in charge doesn’t know the password. So I can’t check what or when I last wrote though I think it might have been my first night in Edmonton?

 

Left Edmonton yesterday morning without regret though I never did meet up with my lost love. Perhaps that was for the best. There were promises to visit that I don’t expect fulfilled. I can close that chapter, I expect. In reality it and a few others have been closed for years, really.

 

Didn’t really take to Edmonton though to be fair, I didn’t see much of it and that mostly road construction and traffic.

 

Last night we were in Bowden, south of Edmonton, in a strange little roadside “rest stop” that offered full services (but not internet). Ate meatloaf and salads from Sobey’s deli with South American red wine for dinner. Slept well and breakfasted at a Smittys’ in Olds, a town down the road.

 

Headed into Calgary which I immediately liked better than Edmonton for no logical reason though I also found it prettier. We went to the Heritage Park Village, the largest such display in Canada, similar to Greenfield Village and with an attached automotive museum, “Gasoline Alley”.

 

Pets not being allowed, I played my little old lady schtick and managed to have Barney babysat by the Manager and a half dozen or so enrapt minions. They admitted he had not been in his cage and was out for a walk when we arrived to claim him. He’s really going to be impossible to live with! He’d already figured out he could pick up chicks, hanging out at laundromats with Ed while I do the washing.

 

We had a good if  fairly quick look at the village and a thorough tour of the museum where I snapped my favourite vehicles:

　

 

I found a quilt store, reputed to be the largest in . . . a long way, but I didn’t buy anything and I was tired and hungry so didn’t pursue yarn shops. Apparently missed the best of those earlier in the day when we sailed by Lacombe.

 

We’ll head for Medicine Hat tomorrow with a detour to drive through Dinosaur Provincial Park in Canada’s “badlands”.

 

Ed’s auditioning Saskatchewan as I write and has found a couple of shops for me in Regina. We don’t seem to do most of the typical tourist things. At least neither of us is addicted to sports halls of fame or posh galleries so we mostly manage to get along at least as well as at home. The quiet evenings I the camper or – weather permitting – outside are pleasantly relaxing. When we first pulled in here, there was a horsefly that tried to carry Barney off until I beat him off with the end of the leash but it seems otherwise as close to bug free as we’ve seen, a great relief.

 

Tonight’s dinner was A&W a la carte again and the remaining third of a bottle of Johnny Walker Red is calling me to . . . er . . . knit. I’ll post this with an update next chance I get.

                                                 ********************************

So, now it’s Thursday evening, August 4, and we’re in a motel in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Last night’s campground proved a trifle odd and I kept expecting parades of Schmoos. With the exception of ourselves and one other gentleman, the residents all appeared to be long term and would be termed “homeless” in the sense of no secure residence. In a province of tailer parks and manufactured homes, these were the forgotten. The all had dogs who ran loose, proving they were accustomed to calling the place home. While we had elctricity, the on site water hook ups didn’t and, as I said, the wifi was inaccessible. Ed said he was glad he’d showered the last morning in Edmonton and passed on the facility. When Ed  disses the decor you’ve got to wonder if there are walls and, indeed, he said there were “sort of”. I settled for my emergency wet wipes and voted for the motel tonight.

Today redeemed Alberta with a visit to Dinosaur Provincial park and magnificent vistas of the Canadian Badlands I can only poorly suggest.

We lunched late this side of Medicine Hat at a Husky, calling it supper, and continued as far as Swift River, planning to go into Regina tomorrow and probably camp just the other side of there tomorrow night. I hope to have a leisurely start tomorrow as I slept poorly last night. It wasn’t the fault of the campground but my own ailments including the black fly bites that have begun acting up again for no apparent reason after most of them appeared to have healed.

I’m going to go and stand under a hot shower until further notice.

Mallin’

Tonight, Monday August 1, we’re back at Glowing Embers, the campground west of Edmonton. It proves to be one of very few such in the immediate area. I heard from my friend last night and we are staying around to try and get together with him tomorrow.

I did do my laundry and we dined on leftover KFC from yesterday’s lunch. This morning we found a Denny’s for lunch and then explored the West Edmonton Mall.

The Mall is certainly impressive and it was a pleasant six hours or so of browsing. I think I liked the carnival ride area better than that at The Mall of America (in Minneapolis). One fountain in particular caught my fancy. We bought a few gifts and I found some tops for myself.

By the time the mall got really busy I was more than ready to call it a day around 3:00. We had supper at an Outback and came back here to settle in for the evening.

Ed and I don’t seem to do cities well. The driving in unfamiliar places with heavy traffic gets us both stressed. Te

There should be plenty to entertain us for the evening in a city like Edmonton but neither of us seems to care much for the standard tourist activities and I am learning to quit when I get tired as I won’t enjoy anything else anyway. I will post this check e mail for tomorrow’s plans and knit until bedtime which comes early when you reach fogey status.

The weather today has been lovely the sun warm but with a cool breeze. I hope the rain doesn’t return in time for our next stop in Wetaskiwan, probably Wednesday. There are several attractions there for Ed before we continue to Calgary.

Janet and her family have plans for the weekend of the tenth through the fourteenth so it looks like we’ll aim for Thunder Bay on the fifteenth. That gives us time to see the sights along the way without rushing for an abbreviated visit before they leave.

That’s as firm an agenda as we’ve had on this trip and it’ll do for now.

I hear a sock calling me.