Sailboats and Sea Breezes

Sailboats and sea breezes--
Not fire drills and snow freezes




On the two freezing mornings before our vacation we put on boots and scarves and carried our 25-pound dog down six flights of stairs, due to false fire alarms set off in a neighbouring building that shares a fire alarm with us. Echo has arthritis and can't do stairs. We do, too; but our arthritis isn't as bad as his. Still, our knees were not happy.

Oh, joy.

You can understand why we were especially happy about escaping all that going to San Diego in mid-February.

Seaport Village - Coronado Bridge

Two crows outside Upstart Crow!

 Marina at Seaport Village

Marina

My writing patio

Pacific Ocean at Point Cabrillo

  Aeronautic and Space Museum, Balboa Park

 Robinson R44 - Aeronautic and Space Museum, Balboa Park

Coronado Bridge, from Seaport Village

 the most spectacular sunset ever

Five More Minutes

1:30 am.


Bedroom






Me:               Trips over something in the dark.
                      Ouch!
                     Turns on bedside light.


Husband:      Wakes up.
                      Can I have five more minutes?


Me:               No. You can have five more hours.
                     Hastily turns off light.

Pre-Spring Begins

Today, December 21, is the Winter Solstice.

It is the shortest day of the year.

Sometimes, I feel that I just want to sleep until Spring comes.

But then I remember that tomorrow the days will begin to lengthen. Only by 2 minutes a day, but by early January it will be noticeable.

So I prefer to think of this new season as Pre-Spring.

In only three months, Spring will be here...

Have a very happy Holiday Season!

October Leaves

The leaves of October...

KLM's New Lost and Found

I enjoyed this short video showing a new feature of KLM's Lost and Found Department. When you watch it you will see why I find this so appealing.


In Dutch with English subtitles.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK-T_t166TY

Thanksgiving Day, and a Question for Teachers and Parents

Happy Thanksgiving Day to Canadians!


We celebrated early by going to a dinner party on Saturday night at a friend's house, where we had great food and even better company.


Yesterday we went to a Sukkot (harvest festival) party at another friend's house. It was fun trying to decide which of the many samples of chocolate cake was the best.


Here's a link to a wonderful-sounding film (I haven't seen it yet), a comedy written and produced by Israeli Orthodox Jews about Sukkot. It's named "Ushpizin."


http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ushpizin/




Today, Monday, is also Columbus Day (or some other named holiday) for Americans. I guess we all want to have a long weekend in October.


I get why Columbus isn't a politically correct person to celebrate. Here's a link to a video parody by John Oliver and Last Week Tonight, entitled, How Is This Still a Thing?


http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/10/13/columbus_day_john_oliver_and_last_week_tonight_ask_how_is_this_still_a_thing.html


My question to American and Canadian parents and teachers is:


When I was in Grade Five, Columbus was considered a great explorer. What do teachers teach kids about Columbus today? (I need this for some background for one of my projects. I'm not writing about Columbus.)


Thanks.

Vacation in Kingston

Last week we were in Kingston, Ontario. We visited with our friends who live there, walked along the lake, and just relaxed.

On the way there, we stopped to take a picture of The Big Apple, a site I've seen often but never photographed. This appeals to my love for quirky things. It's a restaurant which specializes in apple pie, oddly enough. :-)

We had beautiful, sunny weather every day except one, when it poured.

I love looking at the sailboats in the harbour, no matter the weather. M and I would fantasize about which yacht we would like to own. M liked some of the motorboats; but for me sails are essential.



Best of all, I did lots of writing on my next work-in-progress.