Where the Sun Don’t Shine

This is the north face of our local ski hill. The tower you can barely see holds the relay-stations for TV and radio.

It may be slightly exaggerated to say that the sun never touches this side of the mountain – but standing there this afternoon, it was a suitable illustration to what I was thinking at the time.

I spent the better part of my workday dealing with 3-4 school bullies and taking care of another young boy. It also involved me talking to all students in Grade 7 about my own experiences (from Junior High) as the one being bullied and why I act like a hawk when I see/hear or just suspect bullying among my students… In front of you who are reading this, I’ll make no secret about where I would want to ship these kids and sometimes it takes all of my restraint to act professionally when dealing with bullies.

Now I feel as if that Mac truck not only hit me – it also backed up to do the same thing once again.

There’s a bottle of Roodeberg chilling in the fridge, which I intend to uncork in a bit.

More on Snow

… that cancelled my trip.

After about 30 km of driving in white-out conditions and on a road slicker than loon-sh*t (people from the Yukon and NWT will know what I’m alluding to) I had an uncomfortably close encounter with a grader. There can’t have been anything more than centimeters between my driver’s door and the outer edge of the plow on that yellow behemoth – and that’s when I decided it was time to turn around. No meeting with the Migration Authorities can be worth the risk of having a serious accident. I consider myself to be a seasoned driver in winter conditions, I have studded tires and have practised on ice tracks to correct skids – but I’m not the only one on the roads.

I may take chances in a lot of other situations – but I’m not done enjoying nature around me and taking pictures of the things I see, so playing Roulette in traffic is not going to happen.

Can Someone Stop This Carousel?

It feels as if I’m constantly slipping further and further behind with everything… We’re into our 3rd or 4th week of systems trouble at work – logins fail, catalogues “go missing” or the terminal is just sitting there chewing. It’s been called systems failure, communications problems and even ” a glitch” – but the fact s of the matter is that everything takes at least twise as long to accomplish.  Problems like this is merely annoying when it comes to my teaching. I have any number of tried and tested lesson plans (naturally under my user name on the main frame…) which would be handy to just check over and then print. Now I’ve had to re-create some from memory – that is when I haven’t been able to access my catalogue!

Far worse is the effect all this has on my duties when working in administration. We’re in the middle of preparing financial statements for the last 8 months…

there are budget changes for the next three years that has to be entered…

I desperately need to read through whatever manuals there are for the various software programs I’m supposed to work with…

I take heart in the fact that I haven’t lost the ability to notice the fantastic show Nature is putting on every day this time of year!

Tomorrow I’m off on another trek towards the coast. This time with a teenager for his initial interview with the Migration people. Wish us luck!

Worn Out

… are the two words that best describe me today.

On Friday I drove close to 700 km for an appointment with the Migration Board for -H- and today I made the same trek with my new guy -W- so he could have a first meeting with his lawyer.  Of course it would have been expedient if these two appointments could have been arragned for the same day, but… Like the lawyer explained – we’re on different teams and the Migration Board is not known for being accomodating at the best of times!

In any event, there has been some recent developments in the cases of my youths. -H- has been denied asylum and the interview we went for on Friday was about him returning to Iraq. I’m not going to go into great detail in regards to that – suffice to say that we’re hoping for some kind of miracle right now. That his Mom and uncle can make it to a country where they can obtain refugee status and then send for him, for instance. The Migration Board are not granting refugee status for anyone from Iraq these days – but they aren’t sending any people back either… Go figure!

The other youth I was trustee for, -B- was given a new trustee after he had been AWOL twice and spent a few weeks in a lock-down facility. I was prepared to carry on, but at the same time we felt that he might do better with someone else, someone whom he hadn’t tricked and lied to…

Enter -W- another 16 year-old boy from a North African country, orphaned in a car accident, placed in a child care facility, mistreated and finally sent out of the country by a kind employer and a smuggler. That’s about what I know at this point… I have no clue what his chances are to be granted a visa, but the least we can do is to hope!

This is a picture from the other night when I was walking around town to clean out the cobwebs in my brain.

Oops!

Visiting Dad and B – good food, laughter, lots of coffee and an opportunity for Loki to explore a house not quite childproofed.

I get to take pictures of B:s wonderful garden, eat strawberries and just sit with my Dad on the porch.

Life is sweet.

More to come

Am spending a few days in my “ancestral home” but can’t get my mobile internet to work… I will however get it fixed tomorrow, I think!

On Flooring and Other Matters

By lunch today, I had my kitchen back together – and now I’m wondering if it’s time to paint the table and chairs…

… it sort of looks as if it’s all sprouting from the carpet. Sigh! That means I’d have to do something about the kitchen sofa and the sideboard as well.

In any event – Loki has discovered that he can go sliding on the floor now. He made a perfect four-paws-and-one-nose-landing  under the sideboard earlier and couldn’t quite understand why the fun stopped so abruptly. I’ve also discovered that taking pictures of a puppy in action is nigh on impossible. A bunch of blurry images of something black moving is mostly the result so far. He’ll slow down eventually – but I’d like to have some shots from this age as well…

The sun was reflecting on a car window outside and gave rise to these shadows. Yes, there is an irritating spot on the wallpaper in the lower left qudrant of the picture.

It’s always sad to come across the first ones of these – a reminder of how short our summers are.

I’m listening to the tributes to Michael Jackson on the TV. Stevie Wonder was just on and his singing sent shivers down my back. I haven’t been a big fan although I’ve sort of understood his greatness and what he’s meant for other people of color – but this is intense. Now if only the hucksters and snake-oil salesmen would disappear and not get a chance to make money on his memory…

Update:

Why do I feel that it was so wrong to let Michael’s daughter – 11 years old – finish off the tribute? Why do I feel as if the hucksters and snake-oil salesmen are very prevalent inside the family?

In Canada…

…I would have been off from work, celebrating Canada Day along with everyone else – not sat through 6 hours of mind-numbing interviews with candiadtes for a position at Senior High.

Happy Canada Day to all of you who will be partaking in the celebrations – and to the country I constantly miss.

At the Pen

Reindeer usually run counter clockwise in the pen, but sometimes when there’s a lull they will turn in the other direction. The people here are mother and daughter, both accomplished as herders.

The branding is done via a set of cuts in both ears. Each herder has  his own combination and families often have brands that are somewhat similar.

The calves are caught using a long pole with a sort of noose at the end. Traditionally everyone used a lasso but it seems to be less and less common. I suspect because it’s quite hard to throw the lasso and catch the animal around the legs.

The next generation herder got to carry Grandpa’s pole back to the truck, feeling important and proud.

Testing, testing

I am having trouble uploading pictures I want to post… I’ve tried every trick I knew and then some – I may have to change from F*refox to something else. Any suggestions?

No, not IE.