Old House, New House

My Beloved and I have bought a house.

This is the first time in my life I have owned property.  I feel a bit hyper-ventilative about it.  I am a commitment-phobe.
The evidence in my life for this is practically nil - I have never been at a job for less than 2 years.  My long jobs have been 6,7 and 14 years, plus I have stuck with the carpentry trade for 21 years, sometimes concurrently with other jobs.  My first long term relationship was 17 years.  I raised a child - she'll be 26 this year.  Nevertheless, the idea of settling down for some long term future freaks the hell out of me and makes me want to bolt.

We don't get to move into the house for another 8 weeks.

I have lived in the too small, closet challenged, shopless house we are currently in for 25 years.  It is too small. It has no closets.  It has no shop or garage or facsimile thereof.  It has no spare bedroom.  (No, I don't want to talk about all the books and yarn that are taking up inordinate real estate in my little house, thank you very much.) My bedroom is so small that we actually have to leave it to get dressed.  But I lived here for 25 years and raised the Offspring here, so now I feel sad to leave.  I'll get over it I'm sure.

My little house actually belongs to my grandmother.  She had a bit of money and she bought it when the Offspring was a baby.  The deal was I would pay the mortgage and she would leave it to me.  Who thinks to get grandma to sign a contract like that?  Not me, that's who.  Grandma lived 3 blocks away.  She watched the Offspring when I went to work, I shovelled her driveway in the winter, she taught me to knit.  Now Grandma is 94 and spry as a 60 year old, but doesn't recognize anyone anymore and can't take care of herself.  Grandma's kids are already having nastiness over the whole thing, and the best I can hope for is that they'll sell it to me. But I've already paid the mortgage on this house twice, and it would be considerably higher now.

My dad and I built a deck on the front of it.  We gutted and rebuilt the kitchen and the bathroom together.  My first partner and I worked on the roof and built the fence together and we painted cars and did mechanics together in the driveway.   My Beloved and I renovated the basement to make a sunny office and a bedroom for an orphan we adopted, and we gutted and rebuilt the Offspring's bedroom.  We planted trees.

But it is very small. It has one bathroom.  It has no shop-type space. In order to make things we have to drag a bunch of tools out of the shed and set up in the back yard or the driveway.  We can't accomodate out of town company if the Offspring is here.  And it is in part the subject of nastiness in my mother's family.

The new house has closets. It has a garage (which will be a shop).  It has three bathrooms.  It is advertised as having six bedrooms, but two of those bedrooms are only a little bigger than a large closet.  It will have two spare bedrooms, so that our families and out of town friends can all stay at the same time. It is big enough to have parties and the yard is laid out so that we can have garden parties.  I don't have any pictures of it that I want to share yet, because at the moment it is someone else's home.   The things that made my little house my home are the things I did to it and in it, alone or with someone I loved.  Once I have done some things in the new house it will be our home.  One of the first things I am going to do is plant trees.  I want to look out my front AND back windows to see something like this every day:

"You Win Some...

And some you don't do so good."

Was a thing a friend of mine used to say.

Omar Khadr may not have been granted bail on Monday, but he was today and I am happy for him.  I am glad his lawyers, David Edney and Nathan Whitling fought so hard for him and I was pleased to learn today of all the people who have visited Mr Khadr and helped him all this time.  I know there are really great, kind people in the world (the blogosphere is full of them, as is my real life!), but I love reading about them in the mainstream media.

The NDP pulled off a nice majority in Alberta, which floored me a bit.  I continue to be guardedly hopeful.  I remember some business group musing during a BC election that they were willing to let their businesses go fallow indefinitely in order to thwart an NDP government.  I'm sorry, I don't have a link for that. I noticed on DeSmog Blog the other day that Licia Corbella tweeted that “The oil patch will pack up and leave."  Surely she was kidding?  Isn't that pretty much what they've been doing and trying to ramp up besides?  I hope the NDP in Alberta stick to their platform and are able to sort out the mess.  

Harper is still an asshole.  Now I might get targeted by some security agency for saying so, but not saying it doesn't make it any less true.  

Justin Trudeau has confirmed that he is just a conservative in liberal clothes by voting with the cons for bill C-51.  Honestly, what was he thinking?  I suspect he is more interested in power than in good governance.  

So, those are the big things.  In local things, I'm semi-unemployed, the Offspring is home from the east coast for the summer and my Beloved and I have bought a house.  There was a fire in downtown Prince George last night that destroyed two nice businesses and damaged a nice restaurant, but I hear they have all been getting plenty of offers of help and they are feeling more like beloved members of the community than tragic victims.

 The world is not an entirely horrible place.

For The Record

I think Omar Khadr should have been granted bail today.
I still think Harper is an asshole.
I am looking forward to the Alberta election results with a bit of trepidation.  I would love to see a big political reversal, but having lived through the last polling/election debacle here in BC I am afraid to be hopeful.

It is spring in Atmon, but I am knitting mittens.

Merry Christmas

I know, I know.  It's been a long time between posts.  I've been a bad blogger.  Its been an interesting year, which I'll maybe write about as it actually ends.

Tonight though, I just want to share something from the CBC, (which is also having an interesting year).  I have been listening to CBC Radio for many years.  I have enjoyed some changes more and some less over the years, but I have pretty much always liked As It Happens.  Every year I look forward to hearing Alan Maitland read "The Shepherd."  This year (maybe for the first time?) they linked it on their website.  If you have never heard it, it's a good Christmas ghost story.  I recommend it highly.

Merry Christmas.

On My Mind

I Have to Laugh, Otherwise I Would Cry

Paul Calandra has been making an especial ass of himself in Parliament.  He has been criticized and raked over the coals, and he has cried in Parliament while giving Canadians a non-apology.  It is to cry.  However, someone out there has the right idea.  Wikipedia now tells all the world that 

Paul Calandra (born May 13, 1970) is a Canadian clapping seal. He was elected to act like a petulant teenager on behalf of the electoral district of Oak Ridges—Markham in the 2008 Canadian federal election. 

In the event that the clapping seals and their adolescent minions find and edit that entry, I have taken a shot of it to preserve for indefinite entertainment.

And also for your reading pleasure, I give you Scott Feschuk  in McLean's with "Harper to world: We are angry, and we have adjectives."

"In his speech, the Prime Minister had a lot of harsh words for a lot of people. Harsh words for the Russian president. Harsh words for Islamic State fundamentalists. Harsh words for those who would oppose Israel, or fail to sufficiently support Israel, or ever raise any question about Israel. (Imagine how irked he’d be at those who’d dare misspell Israel.)Responding to overseas conflict, Harper’s declarations were amped up and unequivocal. This, for example: “We will not rest until the people of Ukraine are free to choose their own destiny.” But let’s be honest with ourselves: We’re resting. Plenty of talk, some sanctions, but otherwise: totally resting.Would we like Ukraine to be free? You bet. Are we willing to fire off some high-calibre adjectives? Absolutely. But let’s not pretend Vladimir Putin is standing over a military map, pushing his pieces around and thinking to himself: “I seek the prize of Crimea—but dammit, those feisty Canadians are holding the northern front with an entire battalion of empty threats!” "

Cheer up, fellow sane Canadians.  You are not alone.  Try to laugh about it. Surely we are on the upswing.   

Just Wondering

Why don't we start a new federal political party on the left (really on the left)? Have you heard of Indiegogo? GoFundMe?  I bet we could fund it in a week.