the remains of the day

the weather in this part of ontario is exceptionally mild and quite warm for the time of year so mr clippy and i have been making the most of it and have been enjoying some nice walks in the woods.

today we took our lovely dog bella with us.

you may notice from the photos that we are walking apart and would seem to be not quite in step with each other.

out of synch even.

there is a reason.

en route to the woods mr clippy was driving and i was as ever, the co-pilot, the extra eyes and ears.

a valued and trusted role and one that should never be taken lightly.

we waited at the intersection, about to turn right.

he was looking to the left for oncoming traffic.

there was a break in the traffic and he began the turn but, unfortunately, he was a tad hasty and hadn't checked to his right again.

therefore he didn't see the cyclist who had come up suddenly trying to beat the DO NOT WALK sign and was going like the wind in front of our car.

inches in front of our car.

!!

i may have screamed.

i was a little shook up.

the cyclist and i made eye contact for one brief moment before he sped away and there was fear and loathing in his eye and no doubt panic and fright in mine.

mr clippy hit the brakes, HARD, and said a few very bad words.

then he said a few more very bad words.

being sunday i thought they were in particularly bad taste.

then

he proceeded to blame the cyclist for almost killing US!

whereupon i of course informed HIM that HE was in fact to blame.

and i was incensed enough to employ the phrase, '100% to blame."

this was not well received.

in fact had i just stabbed him in the back with a large pitchfork, he said, he could not have been more hurt.

that i never took his part and that in my eyes he was always wrong in these situations.

it was always HIS fault.

?

well.

who's the one in the driving seat?

trying to kill me, throw the dog through the windshield and run down unsuspecting (dumb) cyclists on a lovely sunday afternoon!

not me.

in mr clippy's world the cyclist was and evermore shall be in the wrong because he tried to beat the light!

i could not agree less.

the first rule of driving i patiently (it seems to annoy him when i'm patient) informed my other half is to 'first do no harm'.

the discussion continued and became, sadly, somewhat heated.

we 'debated' the issue quite noisily for the whole of the journey to the woods and for a good way around the path.

until the dog began to look sideways at us and made a little whimpering noise.

 i of course could not be swayed.

when you're right, you're right.

right?

after i while i refused to argue discuss the matter any further.

i maintained my self-righteous stance that had i not been in the car and warned him, he'd have hit the cyclist and in a court of law he would lose.

and probably get sent down.

for quite a while.

years even.

locked up.

and the key thrown away.

and i would never visit him.

the family would disown him.

he'd rot.

i may have gone too far.

after a while of walking one behind the other, each deep in our own thoughts, with only the crunch of the leaves to break the silence between us and with nervous glances of the dog from me to him, mr clippy mumbled aloud something about being glad that i couldn't be on a jury if he was ever on trial.

i'll take that as his apology

I'll take mine to go

still reeling.
it's been 3 days but the shock is lingering.
i thought that the pain would have subsided a little but this morning as i sipped my first cup of coffee,
wham!
it came back like a bolt from the blue.
just when you think that it's over.
there it is again.
it was saturday night.
in niagara falls.
it was the festival of lights, the opening ceremony.
it was a warm and balmy evening, the people were out in droves and everyone was happy.
and no event is complete without a cup of coffee to hang on to.
i'm sure you would agree.
so that's when we went into here.

not somewhere that i would usually fraternize as i like my coffee just - with coffee.
and some cream.
just to take the blackness away that's all.
no maple, mint, mocca, chocolate, frothy foam, latte, frappe or otherwise.
just the coffee please.
i ordered 2 cups.
one for me.
one for oldest son.
he asked for a venti vanilla latte.
i said, 'what size?'
see, what do i know?

i ordered the tall thing on the picture above the counter.
i was confused.
and a little intimidated.
the name escapes me now.
the taste lingers.
warm, insipid, sickly and when you get to the bottom,
yuck!

12 bucks!
yep.
12 bucks!

for two cups of stuff that doesn't even resemble coffee.
i felt like i'd been ravaged.
and not even kissed first.
i get the bucks part.
i don't get the star part.

i don't know when recovery will kick in.
i don't know which is worse.
that they charge that.
or that i just gave them my money and didn't say a word.
?
i forgot to check to see if there was a prize in the cup.
surely that was what all that money was for.
and
we just threw them away.
shafted!

if only i could.....

i offer my sincere apologies and a warning for the (very) bad language, the violence and the depiction of cannibalism at the end.
but, be honest, haven't you always wondered WHY somebody hasn't done this to gordon before now?
love it.
i fell off my seat laughing.
:-)

a rose by any other name

when i was a kid i was known asTricia or Treesha.
but
being the awkward, attention seeking child i was, i wanted to be PAT.
never patty.
or patsy.
just,

pat!

?

how boring is that?

i can't believe i thought it was cool.

it was just that it was 'different'.

i have four brothers and everyone of us had a nickname growing up.
pud, deacon or stiss, buck which became huck, honk and mag.
guess which one was me?
?

HONK!

huh?

i hated that name.

i have no idea why i got it or where it came from.

does this sweet and innocent child look like HONK to you?

my parents didn't correct this horrible, hurtful habit in my brothers.

THEIR own names were mrs. pud and fath.
(our last name was rice so you can see a connection there?)

my 2nd oldest brother was the one responsible for nicknaming everyone in the family.
he randomly decided on the name you were given and was relentless in using it.
soon everyone else joined in.

everyone in  the neighbourhood had their own nickname.
kids, adults, shopkeepers, teachers, friends and neighbours alike.
after a while no one knew anyone's real names.
if you said 'there goes Mr. Smith?'
the reaction was, "who?"
then
'oh right, you mean bandy andy.'
the next door neighbour had grown up during the depression and suffered rickets as a child i believe.

hence his nickname.

in our street sensitivity to others' feelings was a weakness.

tub, jake, neg, tardis, basher, bandy, dolphis are some of the ones that still come to mind. you'd have to ask deacon, whose real name was michael, what the relevance of most of those names were.

he assigned them according to some strange connection between the person and an inanimate object or character which was usually apparent only to him.

i remember one day a visitor to the street, a nicknameless outsider, asked, 'why do you all have such weird names?'
nobody knew why.
it just was.

i got so fed up with being called honk that i would scream.
and then, being boys, they just stopped calling me by any name at all.
i was just their sister and girls had little value then.
so to pat.
i wish i'd stayed as treesh, or tricia.
but i refused to answer to that anymore.
they should have called me contrary mary.

my parents, mrs pud and fath,  continued to ignore my request for 'pat'.
to my mother i was patreesha.
the i sound was pronounced as an ee.
(that was our geordie accent).

my grandmother wasn't a geordie.
she called me 'pratisha'.

when i worked in the nursery school with the little kids i was known as miss pat.

one little guy  trying to blurt out something exciting that had happened to him called me 'piss mat'.

my friend's husband, when he's not referring to me as 'clippy', which as you know is rhyming slang, i.e. clippy mat, pat, still likes to call me piss mat.

don't anybody tell him about Honk.

he'd have a field day

if you have a nickname, i'd love to hear it. :-)

a day for Owen

you might think this is the pillsbury dough boy.

but it's not.

it's Owen.

or

Owie as we like to call him.

 pronounced 'oh-wee'.

he's 6 months old

 he's waited for his aunty jenn to come over from england so she can be his godmother and so today is his christening.

now this is sort of a before picture.

he got the christening outfit a couple of months ago and this was him trying it on for size.

he's a big lad so we werent sure it would still fit him now.

but it does.

he just grew into it a bit more.

and we shall have several very cute pictures of him today wearing it.

we think he's just about got his first tooth.

and he smiles the whole time.

really.

 

what a little angel.

:-)

the twilight zone

it's 5.15 a.m. and i've been up for half an hour.
but i've just taken some powerful ( i hope) pain killers so my time on here will be short.
thursday i was in the dentist's chair for 2 hours while he re-did a root canal, that i'm pretty sure he's redone before.
i think he gave me seventeen needles to numb my mouth.
i think they just wore off at 4.30 this a.m.
either that or somebody, or a horse, or a mule, kicked me in the side of the head as i slept.
i woke up in sudden and startling pain.
my face is swollen.
okay, i'm just looking for sympathy and you are probably asleep and can't give me any.
i've been reading your blogs while i wait for the drugs to kick in.
i think they've started.
my toes are a bit numb.
how long will it take for them to get to my head?
before they get there i just wanted to mention that jenny, my lovely daughter, is home from england.
she's my canadian child.
the only one born here.
the other two were born in england.
they both live here.
she lives in england.
it's a funny world isn't it?
she's here for a 2 week visit.
i'm sure it will go by in the blink of an eye.
surely, not that fast?
but it always does.
time goes by really fast when you are geting older.
except.
when you are waiting for pain pills to kick in and do their stuff.
oooh my legs are feeling all floaty.
we're getting there.
and my fingers are missing all of the keys on the keyboard.
might be time to go back to bed.
before my head goes numb.
i was googling images for dentists but i just can't seem to upload them.
then i thought i'd insert a pic of jenny but can't do that either.
strange.
what on earth am i doing up at 5.23 for gawds' sake?
back to bed.
:-)

what i do on my days off

Life is full. i thought I would share. me and mr clippy have several hobbies which i thought you might want to know about. it's how we stay young, you know?

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my daughter in law KEE is on mat. leave and where she finds the time to do these jib jabs i don't know. but they crack me up.