obligations

We have a reception to attend this afternoon, in honour of the friend who passed away, a couple of weeks ago. Not looking forward to it, obviously.

I am also not looking forward to seeing her mum , not just because of the circumstances, but because her mum is totally insane. She is one of these people who love to stir people up and to utter controversial and inaccurate information; about anything, but now she can feast upon every detail, from her daughter’s last minutes to fabrications about the findings by the coroner.

I know it sound morbid but she loves morbid topics(it comes from her fear of her own mortality, obviously) and always upsets people.  My other friend from college called me to tell me about the phone conversation she had had earlier in the week with the mum; it was terrible, and upset my second friend dreadfully.

So I have instructed Harvey to simply greet her, but not to linger with her, and to mingle with the others instead.

Sad to have to orchestrate such events, but I KNOW what her mum is like and really hope that I am wrong about her expected behaviour.

We will hope for the best….

(and I have been going to Tai Chi often this week, in preparation; arming myself with relaxation!)

 

 

Blackberries in late summer

I cannot believe it has gotten to that time of year; the mornings are cooler and the blackberries are slowly ripening. They are about 3 weeks behind in ripeness because it’s been a cooler than normal summer.

Harvey picks a few, and magically finds the ones that ARE ripe, rather than the ones which LOOK ripe.

We had a little collie when I was a child; she looked like this

Her name was Fiona.

Fiona LOVED blackberries.

She would go out with us to pick them and we would give her a few , then continue picking. Then you would look  around and she would be eating them off of the bushes, carefully rolling back her lips so that she wouldn’t get prickled…lol!

Students!

When I was a student, I had the unfortunate luck to have a professor who shockingly confessed to his class one day,”I hate all students and young people”.

!

Now he either was hung over(in those days, this was quite likely as most professors seemed to have a tippling problem) or else was simply a nasty man who felt that he had to reveal his true feelings.

I remember being quite hurt and indignant, and glancing around the room, could see that my reaction was common. It was apparent that the more common reaction was anger, as his statement was certainly unprovoked; we were a docile bunch and obediently handed our assignments(I THINK it was some Lit class) in  on time.

So maybe he was annoyed about a previous class…

It was apparent from the way he marked papers and exams that he acted from malice towards some of the kids.

Those days, we didn’t react but simply accepted that he was a pompous , mean spirited old git and to watch out for him; ie don’t provoke with arguments in class discussions and keep ones head done, generally.

Now that I am older, I sometimes can see where he might have been coming from, but no matter, it was a hurtful thing to say and THESE days would have the students in an uproar.

PLUS if students have a prof who acts with such bias and malice, that behavior would be enough to have a hearing and probably a suspension.

So gentle reader, how about you? What tales do you have of mean profs or instructors?

waiting

So we are now in countdown mode; waiting for the tech guy to come(anytime between 3 and 6 pm)

Our old computers have no idea what is in store for THEM(kind of sad..lol)

I was thinking back to our early forays in cyberspace and how nervous and uninformed we were.

Neither of us had ever used a computer beyond a tiny course I took, about 2 years before we made a purchase. We were novices in every sense of the word( there were no kids needing computers for school in our household so simply no exposure at all)

My best friend from high school was even worse; her husband bought her a computer and she regarded it with high suspicion. She could not even be made comfortable sending and receiving emails until she landed a government job where  using a computer was part of the daily chore.

After that,  the whole experience became as simple as breathing, as is it for us…

A colleague at work said that he STILL had an early PC(If they could be called that) from1985!

1985 computer

He said that it even had an option for TV access….(and that he could play tic tac toe on the tv using it)

TOO funny.

So hopefully the next time I post, it will be from our brand new machines…

Inspired by My Favourite book, "Love in a Cold Climate" by Nancy Mitford

The family was important to Maman but she had a very loose hold on the important goings on, much to her own chagrin.

Children were not the centre of attention as they are in today’s society, We led our lives, the adults led theirs.

Sometimes we unwillingly were obliged to interact with relatives, but these times were usually of a brief duration and we were then released to pursue our own interests.

We were wild things, spending most of our free time out of doors, building tree forts and concocting vast imaginative worlds in which we played out long involved dramas.

We held court in our own way, amongst ourselves, and decided upon behaviour, all without a nay or yea from the parental unit(and that was NOT just because they had no idea what was going on)

As an example of our rather mature lives,

When she was 4, my sister felt that she was totally capable of independent life, and indeed, why WERE the parents fussing…(!)