Willomwist's Wanderings

This is Canada's Peace Tower. Pretty, isn't it? It was erected in 1927 as a tribute to the Canadian soldiers who died for their country in WWI.
Will someone please explain why Stephen Harper's administration has decided not to lower the flag atop the Peace Tower to honour the Canadian soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan recently? According to the Department of Heritage: there are some very clear scenarios for flying the flag at half-mast.

on the death of a Lieutenant Governor;

on the death of a Canadian Privy Councillor;

a Senator, or a Member of the House of Commons;

on the death of a person whom it is desired to honour.

Some of my American allies may not understand all of these positions. The Lieutenant-Governor is the Queen's representative at the provincial level. The Privy Council is meant to be an advisory body to the Queen. Neither appointment is particularly strenuous these days. Still one must serve one's country according to one's skills and talents and service is service. The Senate and the House of Commons, are not unlike your own Congressional houses. Surely Canada would desire to honour those who willingly risk and lose their lives in the course of the service which they render to their country..?

In fact, as the Opposition party, the Conservatives insisted on flying the Peace Tower flag at half-mast under not dissimilar circumstances. Now Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor wants us to believe that NOT flying the flag at half-mast is actually MORE respectful to our fallen soldiers. He says that Chretien was in error for ever lowering it in the first place and that the Liberals often applied the protocol inconsistently.

Interestingly, the first recorded instance of a flag flown at half-mast occurred in July 1612 in Canada. (although it wasn't officially 'Canada' at the time.) Lt. Cdr. Leland P Lovette wrote a book called Naval Customs, in which he states,

"the half-masting of colors is in reality a survival of the days when a slovenly appearance (untidy, careless) characterized mourning. Even in the British Merchant Service today there are recent cases of trailing rope ends, 'slacking off' of rigging, and scandalizing yards as a sign of mourning."

Apparently, Stephen Harper thinks himself above a centuries-old tradition. I'm sure that it has nothing to do with a desire to downplay a political albatross. Maybe he just isn't in mourning.

Today the love of my life officially becomes 38-years-old. And, so far, we have celebrated in high style! At 10:30 last night, Vaughan woke up because the earache he had been complaining of that afternoon had progressed to a pain in his jaw whenever he opened his mouth.

Are you all thinking what I'm thinking?

Why do kids always, always get sick on weekends or late at night? Mine waited until late at night on a weekend.

So, we trucked off to the Emergency room and, after an hour and a half, the doctor pronounced what I already knew. Unfortunately, pharmacists tend not to take my word for it and still require a doctor's prescription. Vaughan has an ear infection. He has Amoxicilyn to take three times a day and some Benzocaine ear drops that he can have about six times a day for the pain. What a little trooper. He's sitting upstairs right now with cotton stuck in one ear (the putting in of which causes him no small amount of discomfort) watching Barney and eating his Honey Nut Cheerios so that the antibiotic won't make him feel nauseous. Can you believe that he woke me up at 7:45 this morning - even after going to bed after midnight...ugh.

The birthday boy gets to sleep in, since it is his birthday afterall. Vaughan and I have some presents for him when he wakes up. We were going to bake him a cake, but I think we'll take him out for dinner instead. We're still working out our new family schedule, and it has been a hectic week. It still works out to bigger fanfare than I managed for my own birthday a little while ago.

On a completely different, and only slightly more serious note, someone asked me a little while ago what the war in the Middle East is all about. After determining which war was being questioned - you know, the one that started centuries ago, the one that started after WWII, the one that started in the 80's, the one that started when Bush failed to find Osama Bin Laden, or this most recent bombing between Israel and Lebanon, I offered my not-so-humble take on the whole thing. And now, fortunate readers, I share it with you...

Hezbollah kidnapped three Israeli soldiers and made some rather ridiculous demands for their safe return. In what amounts to the over-reaction of the century, Israel decided to bomb the crap out of Lebanon, where Hezbollah tends to hang out. Initially, Israel insisted that they would continue to bomb innocent civilians ('cause the only good Arab is one that's dead, right?) until Hezbollah dismantled and faced justice. They have since modified this stance, demanding only a significant change to the existing order and security for Israel. A wonderfully vague, almost bush-ian approach to war if ever there was one.

Most international leaders have, if not outright condemned, than, at least, sharply criticized Israel's actions. Yes, yes, both Bush and, I am mortified to admit, Stephen Harper are defending Israel. Certainly, Israel has a right to defend itself. That is not the point. It should be fairly obvious to any thinking individual that Israel was just itching for a reason to start this fight, and it has no clear objective, nor any reasonable way out. One might have hoped that Israeli leaders would have learned a lesson from the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq, but alas, no.

Look, this is ultimately the responsibility of the Western geniuses who carved countries out of the Middle East with no regard to current residents and centuries-old tribal conflict. You can't just give land to any one group of people if it is already inhabited by another group of people just to accomodate your own guilt and impotence. And if I hear one more time that there is no such thing as a Palestinian, I might have to slap someone. Palestine was a Syrian territory dating back to ancient times. However, what's done is done. Here's what we do now...

The US has to stop paying 20% of Israel's defense budget. If it wants to be a coutry, than it must stand on its own. In fact, stop pouring money and weapons into the Middle East period. Yes, they will fight. They're fighting now. No one is ever going to win if we keep evening the odds. And if no one wins, the freakin' fight will never end. Get it?? As unpleasant as this may be, someone has to win eventually if peace is to be achieved. Look at Korea boys and girls. Should we man another DMZ for the rest of eternity? Oh how I wish more people studied history.

Happy Birthday Tommy!
And happy August 12 everyone.

Sandfiles, more commonly known as 'no-see-ums', bite. In fact, just like the female mosquito, female sandflies require a blood meal before laying their eggs. Those little midges flying around your face are more than just a nuisance; they are potential itchy little red bumps all over your body.

They like to live under moist, dead leaves, and they don't like to venture too far from their chosen breeding ground. If you find yourself in the midst of a cloud of no-see-ums, walk away and eventually they will stop following you.

Sandfly bites are itchier, and they last longer than your average mosquito bite. Too many sandfly bites can cause a fever and rash. Scratching them actually prolongs their irritation. I can personally attest to this. On rare occasions, a whole lot of sandfly bites can cause kidney and/or liver failure and even death. They're what you might call toxic.

Sandflies are responsible for the spread of a disease called Leishmaniasis. It can cause open sores that leave permanent, often disfiguring scars. In its visceral form, leishmaniasis can cause coughing, diarrhea, weight loss, fever and enlargement of the spleen and liver. That form usually kills you if its not treated quickly. Fortunately, it hasn't really made its way to North America yet, although it currently affects about 12 million people in 88 countries.

If this information saves even one person the agonized insanity through which I am traversing right now, than my sufferings will not have been in vain.

Sandflies suck!!

Happy August 10 everyone.

Vaughan's birthday was July 28th. If you have been within earshot of him over the last three weeks or so, you will have already known this tidbit. Suffice to say that he has been a little excited over it.

We took him to Sesame Place on Friday afternoon. It's a theme park specifically for Sesame Street aged kids. We managed almost five hours before the thunder and lightening shut down the rides. Five very long, very hot, very boring hours for those of us who don't care for rides all that much. If you don't like rides and you are planning a trip to Sesame Place I have two suggestions: bring a sun umbrella because they seem to prefer blazing sun there, and bring a book or some knitting to occupy the time you will be waiting at a picnic table or along a curb while your husband and son are waiting in line to get on a 60-second ride. Oh, and for the love of god, pack a lunch. The prices at Elmo's Cafe border on obscene!
Otherwise it was a pretty good day. Vaughan had fun, and I suppose that was the point afterall. Sesame Place has a sunny day guarantee wherein they will provide you with free admission for another day if it rains for at least an hour while you are there already. We didn't wait the whole hour so we didn't partake of the guarantee. The good news is that Sesame Place also offers a one-time free admission for military families, so we'd already gotten in for free.

The next day we had a little party in the backyard. We invited the three boys who live behind us whom Vaughan plays with frequently, and the little boy that I was babysitting through last school season, Collin, and his older sister. I don't know why I should be surprised that his mother should invite herself and spend the entire afternoon in our pool without even bothering to bring a present for the birthday boy - but she still never ceases to offend me anew. It was a nice party otherwise, Vaughan and his friends mostly swam, ate pizza and cake with ice cream, opened presents and then swam some more. The rest of the grownups sat around in the shade, knitting, gossiping, drinking Coronas and so forth.

So, my baby is six years old now. He starts first grade in September. We went out and bought the supplies that the school has listed for him - two black marbled notebooks, two double-pocket folders, pencils with erasers and a sharpener, 24 crayons and a backpack to put all that crap in. Actually, his Gramma and Papa got him the backpack - with Lightening McQueen and Mater from the movie Cars. They also bought him a pair of roller blades because he was all psyched up over a hockey camp that our township was offering this month, but it has been cancelled due to a lack of other psyched up kids. They're going to offer it again this winter, which conveniently gives him time to get used to the roller blades.

His big birthday present involved two tadpoles which ended up being much more expensive and involved than ever were the scores of tadpoles that we caught when we were kids! Steve and Joe are their names, and they apparently require their own aquarium, and florescent lighting, and water filter, and live plants, and a themometer, and god knows what else. My tadpoles came from a sticky, nasty gully near our school and they lived in a ratty old wading pool in our frontyard - and if they had gone to school, they probably would have had to walk uphill both ways in a blizzard without shoes. Tadpoles today are just spoiled.

Happy July 31 everyone.

So, Tom got a job. See how easy that was - I was never even really worried about it, but I can promise you that HE had been on the verge of hysterical panic on the inside. I think the number one thing that women find attractive in a man is confidence - a guy who at least appears to know what the hell he is doing with just a touch of arrogance. It's my pet theory. It totally explains why we tend to like men in uniforms, or the bad boy persona.

Anyway...what the hell was I talking about...

Tom's job. He is an Admissions Counsellor at Strayer University in King of Prussia. We will have to learn to live with a little less money than that to which we have become accustomed, but, on the upside, he gets his own office! Ok, the downside is that he will be working from 9am to 6pm most nights, one Saturday a month, and, during the Autumn rush, he'll be working 10am to 7pm or later. KOP is about a half hour's drive from us if you don't include rush hour traffic. That doesn't leave much family time through the week. Many of you will think that I am whining, and I am, but I've totally been spoiled by the Navy.

If you're ever at a petting zoo, be sure to check all of the goats. While we were in Canada, we visited a place called Jungle Cat World. It's more of an exotic animal rescue than a zoo. It has a fabulous pet cemetary in which all of my childhood pets now reside for a healthy fee, so our family has a lifetime pass. I managed to rescue $20 from a goat while we were there. It had only chewed up the bottom left corner a little - airdried the goat slobber and it was spendable currency. Of course I spent half of it on bottled drinks for everyone after a day at the zoo in the blazing sun. Easy come, easy go I suppose.

Always check the goats!
(Pssst, mom, the tea is in the cow!)

Happy July 27 everyone.