Wee Geordie

I recently bought a new puppy. The last thing I really needed was another animal as I already have far too many, but I had been missing my darling big, black, woobie Hounslow terribly. It's not that I expected that he could ever be replaced, but I needed something to fill the hole he left in my world. Hounslow of course was a black lab. I've owned many over the years, but this time I opted for something different, a border collie. I already have a border collie named Emma and she's about the smartest dog that ever walked the earth. In any case, I scoured the web searching for the perfect dog to add to my canine crew. First I searched the SPCA and the Border Collie Rescue Society. No luck there as they won't adopt out Border Collies to homes with children and I have three rugrats 3-4 days a week. So I went through all the pet adds in the buy and sell. We ended up choosing a puppy from a family up in Bridge Lake. The pup's parents were both champions of sheep trials, and while I own no sheep (thank god) I thought that it would be nice to have a dog with winning bloodlines. Not only that, but he was a steal for a purebred at only $250 (Emma cost me $350) and they delivered him right to our doorstep. We named him Geordie.
All went well for half a week.
Then Geordie met Jeffie.
It was not a fair match.
Jeffie outweighs Geordie by at least 50%.
He's bigger.
And meaner.
And has huge claws.
I'm talking about a cat who once sent a grown man to the hospital to get stitches.
So my bargain basement border collie has turned into a nearly $1000 investment. He's been to the regular vet once, and a specialised (read exceedingly costly) veterinary opthamologist twice. He's going back to see her in January. At this point in time we don't yet know if he will need surgery, as Jeffie's claws apparently went right through the iris. And the cornea. And then the lens. Poor Geordie has a cataract, which the vet says may heal on it's own as he is so very young. Thankfully the cornea is almost completely healed. So to all those out there who read my blog please say a little prayer to whatever gods or deities you believe in that my little puppy will heal his cataract all on his own without surgery. We appreciate your kind thoughts.

Read more...

Another Little Rant...

I went to see Apocolypto on it's opening weekend. I wanted to go see Blood Diamond, but my friend Nic refused as he doesn't like war movies... I guess he didn't know what Apocolypto was about. In any case. I went to the movie despite the fact it was directed by Gibson (who I have to say has revealed himself to be a less than impressive person in recent years). Overall I thought it was a good movie. A bit too bloody perhaps. One thing really bothered me though. Before the movie starts there is a quote: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within. ” The implication being that the reason the Mayans fell to the Spanish is because their civilization was in decay. I cannot say whether or not this is true (it's not like I was there and I am not an expert on Mayan civilization past or present), but I suspect that a civilization as complex and advanced as the Mayans was not conquered due to any internal moral deficiency (or the moral superiority of the Spanish), but rather due to the new diseases introduced by Europeans, and the superior weapons technology they possessed. It set a bad tone for the movie, even though you don't see a single white face (at least not an obvious one) in the movie until the end. The atrocities perpetuated against the aboriginal peoples of the Americas can not be justified by claiming native civilizations were self-destructing. It's simply not true.
o.k.
I feel a bit better now.

Read more...

Just a Little Rant

Can someone out there please explain to me why it is people put little quotes at the end of their e-mails? Honestly, I really don't understand why. I mean, I'm not stupid. I get that it's supposed to provoke deep thought on the part whoever it is who gets the email. But have you ever noticed that it's the people who forward emails that say crap like "if you pass this on to all your TRUE friends you'll win a million dollars, and if you don't forward this to everyone in your address book in the next 5 seconds Santa Claus will die" or something equally vapid that end their messages with a deep thought? There it is, at the bottom of the email: "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable" -Sydney J. Harris (I should probably know who this person is, but I don't). Honestly. I mean really. What. The. Fuck.
People who pass on retarded emails like that should be barred from having "deep thoughts" as part of their email signatures.
O.K.
I'm going to bed now because it's 1:30 in the morning, and I'm sick. And tired.

Read more...

The Weather Outside...

Oh the weather outside is frightful... This week we had the first snowstorm of the season. In less than 24 hours, more than 18 inches of snow fell. It was also pretty darn cold out for Deroche at a chilly -13° C. More than -2o° C with the windchill. I stayed at home for 48 hours straight (unheard of in normal circumstances). 48 long, boring, can't-even-get-to-the-store-to-buy-milk hours. Don't get me wrong. I like snow. Snow is one of the few things I miss about Northern Ontario (where I lived for 5 LONG years). Of course, when it snowed there it had the annoying habit of sticking around for months... Still, every time it snows here it creates absolute havoc. People panic, drive off the road and flip their cars. In our defense, the snow in the Lower Mainland is nothing like the dry, powdery stuff that falls in the rest of the country. Oh no. We get wet, slippery snow, frequently followed by freezing rain (as if the weather gods suddenly remember that it's not supposed to be cold enough to snow in lotus-land). To make things worse, cities and municipalities have tiny budgets for snow removal, and if we get a really big dump of snow there aren't enough plows to keep the roads clear. I have, however, come up with a fool-proof method of ensuring it doesn't snow again this season: I am buying a pair of winter boots. The second I spend good money on something, it's guaranteed that I will not need whatever it is I have bought. You can all thank me at the end of the snow-free-rest-of-the-winter.
I have included a picture of my back deck. I suppose I really could have put the patio furniture away sooner. In fact, the reason it probably snowed in the first place is that I left the furniture out. If I had made the effort to put it in the barn, there would have been no need to do so, because it never would have snowed...

Read more...