What I'm NOT Writing About

What I have not been writing about ... but would like to be blogging about. So many things. Seemed like a good idea for a post. At the time.

I wrote a lot about tasers and the controversy surrounding them back in late 2007 - early 2008. Maybe I overshot because I seemed to get burned out on the subject. Even though the issue remains highly relevant and still in the news.

I see my arch-nemesis [okay maybe that's a little unfair - after they all only one of my many nemeses] have published yet another report ranking high schools in the Province.

Uh huh. Begs the question, of course, of what factors they are using to rank said schools.

And makes me wonder why I me we ... the disability community ... doesn't try a similar study. We could rank high schools (and middle schools and elementary schools) on how well they educate and include students with special needs in the Province.

Uh huh. 'Nuff said there.

I see that whole "freedom of speech on the internets" issue is still alive and well ... at least in Nova Scotia. I wrote on it before. The saga continues. I have stuff to say about that. Too bad I have neither the time nor the energy.

Just like I haven't managed to comment on the fact that we continue to offer help to Haiti. Which no doubt would have been part of that follow up post I always planned to write.

Oh yeah, one more thing - got a quick glimpse of a headline in that goofball journalistic wanna-be of a magazine, Canada Free Press (how dare they name #$@!! after my country?!) telling all the world that Earth Day is Nakid Communism!!!.

But hey, don't trust me, we have proof!

Proof, I tell ya!

After all "It is no accident that April 22, Earth Day, is also the birth date of Vladimir Lenin, an acolyte of Karl Marx, the lunatic who invented communism as an alternative to capitalism".

Yeah, whatever. Happy Earth Day, idiots dudes.

So yeah. Anyway.

Like I said, it seemed like a good idea at the time. This post, that is.

A quick way to cover ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... five of the many topics I would like to be blogging about at the moment. Or in the past little while. But now. Now it looks kind of depressing. Sigh...

Oh well, we do what we can.

Catch ya later. I will be back. For real. Some day.

That's a promise.

Right now, I'm sure there's some place I'm suppose to be. Something I'm suppose to be doing?

A Good Day

I had a good day today, I did.

Went into the city early this morning to give a presentation on the issue of guardianship. I mentioned previously about working on a putting together a guardianship kit for parents interested in obtaining guardianship of their adult children with disabilities.

I'm pleased to say that the kit is almost complete. Almost ready for public consumption. Almost.

Too bad it's *almost* considering I no doubt could have sold a few today. Probably quite a few by the sound of it.

I was asked by HACL to give a presentation on guardianship. The room wasn't all that big so they capped registration at 45. And the room was full.

Took along a friend who had obtained guardianship of her son last year. With my help. Took along another friend who had also obtained guardianship of her son last year through Legal Aid. Met up with two other parents at the seminar who had obtained guardianship of their children yesterday. With my help. Yeah, I think I see a pattern developing here.

It was great to have the other parents there as they could speak first hand to my contention that this could be done without hiring a lawyer. Provided you had the right kind of help.

The session went well - I really enjoy doing this kind of thing.

The room was very appreciative; I repeatedly fielded the question of when exactly the kit would be done.

In fact, one of the parents who came up to speak to me at the end told me he thought I should leave now. So I could finish the kit. I told him I would kind of like to have lunch first. He was amenable to that but really wanted to know when it would be done. Two weeks? he asked. No, not two weeks. When then? Clearly getting that the man was not going to give it up, I told him one month. He seemed happy with that and went on his way.

Proceeded to lunch with my two friends. Not being in any hurry to get home, we took the ferry across the harbour and enjoyed a leisurely lunch with a nice view of the water.

It was a little bit like the The Three Musketeers Ride Again - once upon a time, many, many, many years ago, the three of us had formed a cross-disability parent support group locally. Interest waxed and waned (although we definitely did have some fun along the way) but the three of us were the core group, the Three Musketeers.

Moseyed back home, joined the family for supper.

And then headed out to the movies with one of my friends. Sent the kids to see The Last Song; my friend and I went to The Bounty Hunter.

The movie was a nice distraction, far from an outstanding movie but I've been having really bad luck with movies lately so ... yeah, this one was a nice end to a good day.

So You Think English is Easy?!

You think English is easy?

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.

There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.' It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ?

Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?

We call UP our friends.

And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.

People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

A drain must be opened UP because it is blocked UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.

It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP .

When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP...When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!

H/T to Tera

Budget 2010

So our relatively newly minted NDP government brought down its first budget this past Tuesday.

And I tried to figure it out. I really did.

Wednesday at lunch time I saw down with the paper. And read. And read.

And ultimately decided that she is probably right. Or, more accurately, I think I agree with her end result but not necessarily her reasoning.

The HST goes back up from 13% to 15%.

And yet I find it hard to get too upset about that, given that was it feels like it was 15% forever and it doesn't seem all that long ago that it slowly made its way down to 13% over the last few months.
[Yeah, sorry about that music. My bad.]

I still think of it at 15% now anyway ...

So, yeah, what she said.

ADMIT IT: You don’t even know how much HST is anyway.

You keep forgetting whether it’s 13 per cent, which is the current rate, or 15 per cent, which is what it’ll hit July 1, thanks to a two percentage point bump announced Tuesday as part of the NDP budget.

Yeah, yeah, you think about HST constantly. Because every time you pay for something there’s this amorphous little blob of money added to the total. But you don’t have a sweet clue whether you’re paying an extra 39 cents or an extra 45 cents on a $3 pair of socks.

Hold on. Do we even pay HST on socks?

Taxes up. That's not so good.

But wait - there is a rebate for "low income" earners.

And new point-of-sale rebates on diapers, children's clothing, children's footwear, and feminine hygiene products. Okay. TMI there, perhaps.

But I think it's good that we're finally removing the provincial sales tax from kids' clothing and such.. I just wish my children still qualified as kids, you know? No more diaper purchases here (thank goodness!).

And then there's something about provincial income tax going down.

The poverty reduction credit of $200 per year will go to about 15,000 people with total annual income of $12,000 or less. It’s available to individuals or couples with no children whose main source of income is welfare.

And about 18,000 seniors who receive the Guaranteed Income Supplement will no longer pay provincial income tax.

And up.

People at the other end of the income scale — those making more than $150,000 — will see a new marginal tax rate of 21 per cent. The increase is expected to generate $59 million for provincial coffers this year.

The current top rate is 17.5 per cent on taxable income of more than $93,000. The 17.5 per cent bracket will now apply to incomes from $93,001 to $150,000.

Both at the same time, apparently.

But higher-income earners will also get a tax break. The province is eliminating the high-income surtax for people making about $83,000 or more, a move that will save 30,000 Nova Scotians about $27 million.

The surtax saving will range from $56 for people making up to $90,000, to $849 for those in the $125,000 to $150,000 range.

Depending on who you are.

So. See why I'm confused?

But the more I ponder it, the more I think the NDP would have been panned no matter what they did.

After all, they are characterized as tax and spenders, right?

Tax the rich. Tax the middle class. Tax the corporations out of business. While letting program spending run rampant.

So if they followed that scenario, they would have been panned as being "true to form". (Never mind the little technicality that we've never had a NDP government in Nova Scotia so I am not quite sure how there can actually be any "form". To be "true" to.)

In fact, if they increased taxes (anywhere, at all) they would be in trouble.

But if they didn't do something about that ever-growing debt and deficit they would be "fiscally irresponsible".

So what's a poor government (cough, hack, choke) to do?

Why, a little bit of everything, of course. Cue the music ...

Increase the tax. While you simultaneously decrease the tax. Stick it to business. But make sure you give them some tax breaks at the same time.

And yet, at the end of the day, when I think about the US and the size of their budget deficit ... well, it was all spend, spend, spend and stimulus time, wasn't it?

After all, it's all good fun until someone gets an eye poked out ...

Which leaves me thinking that, maybe, in the grand scheme of things, just maybe we are doing will be okay.

But I'm not really sure. I'm much too confused.

Purple People

Life Through a Purple Haze

Wow, I can't believe that Purple Day is tomorrow. And I haven't even posted on it yet!

Not because I've forgotten about it or we've just been sitting around on our purple bottoms -no way!

It's just that we've been too busy doing stuff for Purple Day.

Last Saturday was spent at our local Mall with a Purple Day table. We sold bracelets, handed out lots of purple pins, ribbons, cupcakes as well as information on epilepsy and had some great chats. It was so cool to see people walking around the mall wearing the Purple Day pins and the epilepsy ribbon. Especially since the vast majority of them had never heard of Purple Day before.

And besides painting both blogs purple, we've had our local Village Council proclaim March 26th as Purple Day, we have three local schools (elementary, middle and high school) participating and a local day care is involved in the Purple Day Bunny Hop.

Oh yes, the Blue Jay will also be selling purple cupcakes (with the help of some of her friends and the resource staff) at her high school tomorrow, there will be special PPP draw for the kids wearing purple at the middle school (grand prize being a Purple Day Cake for that student's class) and, yesterday, the Kids on the Block landed at the elementary school to put on a presentation for the Grade 5s at the elementary school.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Now for any of you wondering what this Purple Day is and what all the fuss is about ... you should have been here last year! [Just scroll down through that last link]

Just teasing ... Purple Day is about a very special young Nova Scotian. It's about speaking up and stepping forward. About not being afraid. About bringing epilepsy "out of the shadows". And about what one person can do when they make up their mind to something.

9 year old Cassidy Megan didn't want to tell her classmates that she took seizures. That she had epilepsy. She was afraid they would make fun of her.

But when members from the Nova Scotia Epilepsy Association came to Cassidy's classroom and did a presentation, it empowered her to speak up for the first time in front of her classmates and admit that she had epilepsy.

And yet Cassidy went beyond that. She realized that people needed to learn more about epilepsy, "especially that all seizures are not the same and that people with epilepsy are ordinary people just like everyone else". She also wanted kids with epilepsy "to know that they are not alone". And with this realization, Cassidy became a spokesperson for epilepsy.

She went to the principal of her elementary school and asked if they could create and celebrate Purple Day ~ a day when everyone would wear purple to increase awareness about epilepsy. With the help of her mom, Cassidy began contacting politicians, celebrities, non-profits and corporations, asking them all to spread the word about Purple Day and epilepsy.

And with that, Purple Day was born.From students in classrooms around the world to Paul Shaffer on the Late Show with David Letterman, people wore purple to spread the word about epilepsy on March 26, 2008. Cassidy was interviewed by news outlets across Canada and was even featured in a South African epilepsy newsletter.

Last year, we brought Purple Day to the Annapolis Valley. And to the combined approximately 700 students at a local elementary and middle school. And like I said above, this year we expanded it a little.

How can you fail to be be awed by a story that starts with a 9 year old Nova Scotian girl and ends with purple tea parties and pizza parties, purple cocktail parties and fundraising events, purple art shows and pool competitions, a Calgary City Hall Purple Day Proclamation Celebration and a purple-lit CN Tower and Niagara Falls?


So on behalf of the Blue Jay and our family and the 300,000 Canadians and 2.5 million Americans and countless others around the world who live with epilepsy each and every single day, we offer a very heartfelt thank you to Cassidy.

I wonder how many people are aware that epilepsy affects more than twice as many Canadians as those who live with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis combined or that one in 100 people has epilepsy? I wonder how many people are aware of many epilepsy issues?

Well, thanks to Cassidy Megan, I am sure the answer is many more now. And that number is growing every year.

The Olympic Spirit - I Believe

There was so much I wanted to post when the Olympics were on but it just didn't happen. It was really rather sad I thought, just one lonely Olympic post.

But then. Then I was saved.

Because following hard on the heels of the Olympics was the Paralympics.

And I realized the obvious ... that the Olympics weren't over, that I hadn't missed anything. That the Olympic spirit lived on.

Because lest we forget, the Olympic spirit is not just about the Olympics. Far from it.

The Olympics, the Paralympics and the Special Olympics. They all encompass what makes the human spirit great. Inspiring, even.

Because whether it was Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette's performance two days after her mother's death; Lauren Woolstencroft, a little girl born with no legs below the knee and no left arm who came home from school and retreated to the basement every day, determined to teach herself how to skip, who went on to win five alpine gold medals at this month's Paralympic games or Loretta Claiborne, the middle of seven children in a poor, single-parent family, born partially blind and mildly retarded, unable to walk or talk until age 4 who has twice placed among the top 100 women in the Boston Marathon, won medals in dozens of International Special Olympics games and holds the current women's record in her age group for the 5000 meters at 17 minutes (ironically, as a child she used her speed and strength to protect herself in fights against cruel classmates) ... it's all really about the same thing.

Believing in yourself.

Believing in your dreams.

And. Never. Ever. Giving up.

With which I have some personal, first-hand experience when I see my oldest daughter pump her fist with the world's biggest smile on her face when she finishes in the top three (let alone first place) in a Special Olympic swimming event.

Or when she tells me that someday she will swim in the National Games.



I believe her.

For the simple reason that she believes in herself.

STOKED!

Thank goodness for my handy dandy site meter!

Mulling through it this evening I noticed that someone had spent a fair bit of time and quite a few page views on Free Falling for just coming off a Google image search.

Curious, I clicked on their entry page. And reminisced through this post.

Reminisced to the point that I clicked back over to Kaboom.

Not sure exactly why I went there, perhaps just to hear the Killers once again. But, boy, was I glad I did!

Did you know that Lt G Capt G Matt is blogging again?!

Better even than that (hard to imagine, I know) .... drum roll please ... KABOOM (the book) is out.

Finished. Published. Ready to rock and roll. And, of course, read.

So yeah, if case you couldn't tell, I'm stoked!

Because even though I just ordered (and am awaiting the arrival of) six books from Amazon, now I have another one I need.


As in. I. Need. It. Now. Can't. Wait.

Must. Find/ Money. Tout suite.

Update: If you're not familiar with Kaboom and are wondering what all the fuss is about, this is your required reading. Because it starts at the beginning of his deployment. No, you can't start with what he's written today (he's no longer in the military) and work backwards. That simply will never do. And don't think you can simply sneak off and do that and I'll never know the difference. I got my eyes on you.

More Mini-Me

The good news is that I'm busy.

The bad news is that I still don't seem to be blogging.

I took the week "off" work - meaning I'm not going into the city for a day of work and I'm ignoring the work I would usually do at home, as well.

But it's far from a week off...

I took a break from the paying work (which I can ill-afford to do) because I just have too much STUFF to do. And the plan is to get it done this week. So far. So far, so good.

Everyone is familiar with those Legal Will kits you can buy, right?
Personally I don't have much use for them. I figure they might be fine if you have a very straight-forward situation - I am dividing all my assets between A and B - but not if it's much more complicated than that.

But that aside, I am in the process of attempting to creating a Legal Guardianship kit. Guardianship has become a big issue in the disability community in Nova Scotia with the advent of the RDSP (Registered Disability Savings Plan). Although personally I think it should have been an issue long before now.

At any rate, it's an expensive proposition for parents contemplating getting court-ordered guardianship of their challenged young adult son or daughter. And it struck me that it shouldn't necessarily have to be so.

Particularly in cases where the young adult is very low functioning, it should be relatively easy for parents to do this for themselves. Without a lawyer. And without what for many families is a prohibitive cost. But with, of course, a little help from their friends. Because we all need that, right?

And so it that I am now knee deep in precedents for such a kit. Nothing like good clean fun.

And then, of course, it is income tax time again. Being self-employed, that means adding up a lot of receipts. Did I mention that there are a lot of receipts?

Then there's other stuff going on as well, like attempting to help my other half deal with a situation where even though he has worked in an industry for 30 years, he is now required to take a 4 hour test to become certified. Which, as unappealing as that might be, grows exponentially worse when you dropped out of school as soon as you could. And have a learning disability. Yeah, so that's fun.

So such is my life at the moment. Busy, busy, busy.

Notice I've conveniently neglected to mention the health issue ... it's still there but quite frankly I'm too busy to pay much attention to it at the moment. Unless it becomes particularly demanding. Which it does on occasion.

Still though, reading this morning's newspaper accounts of the rapes of women and girls (as young as 2 years of age) in Haiti made me want to ...

To say nothing of our priorities being so totally screwed up ...

Well we won't go there right now, will we? No, we won't. Because we have the luxury of neither having the time or the energy. Which must seem like quite the luxury to those desperate abused Hatian women.

So yeah. This is what you get at the moment.

Mini- me.

'When You Thought I Wasn't Looking'

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator and I immediately wanted to paint another one.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you feed a stray cat and I learned it was good to be kind to animals.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you make my favourite cake for me and I learned that the little things can be the special things in life.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you make a meal and take it to friend who was sick and I learned that we all have to help take care of each other.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you take care of our house and everyone in it and I learned that we have to take care of what we are given.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw how you handled your responsibilities, even when you didn't feel good and I learned that I would have to be responsible when I grew up.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw tears come from your eyes and I learned that sometimes thing hurt but it's all right to cry.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw that you cared and I wanted to be everything that I could be.

When you thought I wasn't looking I learned most of life's lessons that I needed to know to be a good and productive person when I grew up.

When you thought I wasn't looking I looked at you and wanted to say "Thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking".

~ Author Unknown ~

Running Walking Scared

I hate to be a whiner.

Or, perhaps more accurately, if 'n I'm going to whine, can I at least have some cheese with that?

Blogging remains light. Both here and at the other blog. And that bothers me because, after all, it is me, so of course I have things to say. And yet, as much as that bugs me, it's really the least of my concerns.

In the past 24 hours I found myself trying to express (with conviction, nonetheless) the same thought, albeit for very different reasons, to both my husband and a good friend. Namely that although there is much in life we can't control, the one thing we always do have control over is our attitude, how we choose to respond to what life throws at us.

Sounds rather noble, doesn't it? Ain't I smart?

The problem is that I'm feeling a mite hypocritical at the moment. Because although I tried to give myself a rather stern talking to this afternoon on the very same topic, I seem to have trouble taking my own advice heeding my own words of wisdom. In other words, apparently I am having a bit of difficulty adjusting my own attitude to what life is throwing at me at the moment.

Not to put too fine a point on it. But. I. Am. Scared.

And wimpy. And whiny. And more than a little bit cranky too.

I haven't been feeling well lately. That you know.

What you most likely don't know is that I'm not exactly starting to feel any better. And I could very easily freak myself out just a little and start to believe that things are actually getting worse. But I would really rather not go there.

Which leaves me here. Wondering if I should create a new blog label. "Warning - Whining Ahead".

And struggling to control my own emotions. To not "freak out", so to speak.

I go back to see the specialist in May. And my plan had been is to simply wait it out until then. Keep on keepin' on.

Which is what I will do suppose. Seeing as how I don't seem to have many other options at the moment.

And yes, yes, I did question whether this was an appropriate blog post. And then, after giving the matter the careful consideration it deserved, decided ... to hell with it.

It's my blog. I'll cry if I want to.

'She's All Washed Up'

It being the 6th day of March.
And this song playing on the radio this morning.

It is now our theme song for the day.

**Now renamed 'Canadian Dream'.
What? You gotta problem with that?**



Well that and this one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIT KAT!!