Winter Sun?

R.a.n.t. of week 03/17/13

Last month we asked Phil how long of a winter we could expect. He replied, "Not much more", then scurried back into his den to laugh at us for a while. Perhaps, however, the majority of us were asking the wrong Phil. Weatherman Phil Connors gave a much different outlook. "When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope." Oddly, not everyone believes in this. One of my best friends loves the bitter cold winters. No, we don't talk about the weather much, leads to many fights.

I sat freezing in a cold car this morning (trying to warm it up), when the song 'Winter Sun' from Bond came on. During the song a poem is read. The first part reads;

I have seen moon and
blossoms, now I go.
To view the last and
loveliest, the snow.
- Bond Version

With all due respect to my favourite quertet, I'm getting a little sick of the snow. For me the reverse is true;

I beg the last
of this years snow,
to view the blossoms
why don't you go?
- J.A. Scott Version

Getting back to the temperature; today's average was -2°c (27°f), a year ago it was 17°c (63ºf). Talk about a radical difference. Any possibility we can warm this place up? I've got an idea. Let's all leave our front doors open. From what mum used to tell me, it'll heat the entire neighbourhood.

The poem continues;

A frozen dream,
a heart undone.
Forever burning,
under the Winter Sun.
- Bond Version

Honestly,  I can't improve upon this, because it describes me to a "T". From any of my frozen (or stagnant) dreams to my heart being (romantically) undone. I just hope it won't burn forever in the 'Winter Sun'. Maybe just a slight modification?

So my frozen dreams
and heart undone,
can burn again
under the Summer Sun.
- J.A. Scott Version




Blog Notes: I sat in my cold basement to write this. Creativity deserves inspiration.
Additional: Read both parts of my 'Summer Sun'  poem together so it makes more sense.

For more info on Bond - Check out their official website HERE

Bed Bugs - Fun For The Whole Family!

R.a.n.t. of week 03/10/13
A few weeks back I was complaining about a trip to a water park called the Wilderness. To be fair, it was a rather silly complaint. However, in that r.a.n.t, I mentioned another problem I've had with the same location. Following is the rant I promised.

Wanting to have one last family trip with my father who's battling with cancer, we opted for the Wilderness. As all of us siblings (5 of us) have children, a water park was an ideal place. We rented two 3-Room 'condos' to accommodate our entire family. However we ran into two problems, the second only discovered because of the first. It was a four day trip, but my son started to get sick on the second day. We did what we could to help him feel better, hoping he was just exhausted from too much fun. He was sent to bed early that day but we made sure to keep checking on him. In the evening, after we returned to the room where he was resting (my step-mother sat with him during the day), I went to check on him again along with my sister. It was then she spotted something on the sheets. With him now getting worse, he was burning up and that just rang the dinner bell for the bed bugs. Upon closer inspection, we counted at least ten. If those were the ones we could actually see, how many were there we couldn't? Immediately we had him get up, shower and change clothes. The rest of us were mortified and the rest of the trip was shot.

As a side note, this transpired a few months before I was going on my European vacation (Not with Chevy Chase). Can you imagine how I felt each night as I slept in yet another new bed? Bed bugs were continually on my mind. If it wasn't hoping I didn't sleep in another bed bug filled bed, it was fear that despite my precautions, I might have brought some home from the Wilderness and while I was travelling abroad they were multiplying in my bed at home waiting for me. But I digress, back to the story...

We called housekeeping, the front desk and anyone else from the staff who would listen to us. They offered us another room, but by this time I didn't want to stick around. Plus I wanted to take my sick son home and get him resting in his own bedbug free bed.

Bonus Photo

A week after my Wilderness visit, the bed bug bites began to show (which is the typical length of time). I circled them all in green marker. Sorry for the poor photo.

Do you feel my family should have been compensated? If so, how?

Mucho Dank, Mon Ami

R.a.n.t. of week 03/03/13

This weekend I was asked by a young Karen girl when I'm going to start learning the Karen language. You see, in our area, we have a lot of Karen speaking people. What is Karen? Wikipedia explains:
The Karen languages are tonal languages spoken by some three million 'Karen People'. They are of unclear affiliation within the Tibeto-Burman languages. The Karen languages are written using the Burmese script.

It was a cute, but valid question. However, in this case I have several reasons why I'm not learning the Karen language. Keep in mind, that's not to suggest I don't want to. I've had a long history of wanting to learn foreign languages. In grade school, I had several class mates who spoke Spanish and I was always asking them how to say various things. I even had a sign language friend who I tried to glean whatever I could from him. A few things I still remember, but certainly not enough to speak fluently in either language. By the time High School rolled around, I was into German. Not only did I take German as a foreign language course, I bought an English/German dictionary for home so I could continue to study outside of school. But this was during a time in my life where I was going through a lot of family problems (parents divorce) and I spent less and less time concentrating on my studies. Everything suffered, including my German, to a point I was so lost from the class, I had no idea what anyone was saying a few weeks in. From then till today I have made small attempts at trying to learn German again, but to no avail. Sometimes I think my brain is just not wired to learn a new language. That and finding an adequate amount of time for the studies.

When I was younger, I used to dream of having a 'super power' which enabled me to understand every language known to man. How awesome would that be? You could literally speak to anyone! Additionally, there would be the added bonus of listening in on people speaking foreign languages, when they mistakenly think no one can understand them.  



Mucho Dank, Mon Ami
Ta èe a kaw pa nyaw di lèh. (What does that mean)? - Karen
To anyone unaware of what the title of this article says I'll spell it out for you.
Mucho (Much) - Spanish
Dank (Thanks) - German
Mon Ami (My Friend) - French

It's a phrase I created to be funny whenever the subject of foreign languages comes up, and/or I want to confuse the person.

Milwaukee's Snow Day 2013

Stopping at a park during a Milwaukee snow day.

 

The trees were heave with snow.

 

The branches were icing over.

 

Lake Michigan was choppy.

You can see the Lake crashing over the break waters. Also you can see how the Lake has iced over.

A closer look at the iced water.

A closer look at the water.

Milwaukee's Historic Water Tower on a Snowy Winter Day

Hope you appreciated this photo set. Make sure to leave your comments below.

What is your favourite photo?

A Social Blight

R.a.n.t. of week 02/24/13

This weekend I was invited to a friends for dinner, along with two other couples and our children. It was the first time I've visited since he moved into the place. The evening was wonderful! After dinner the kids played outside while the rest of us chatted. For a while the girls talked in a group while the guys did likewise. During dessert, all us adults talked together, reminiscing about old times or relating tales of things we've recently done that not all of us have been included in. You couldn't ask for a better evening. For a brief moment, I felt I was living a 'Come Dine With Me' moment. Beyond the dinner, what really impressed me was how gorgeous their home is. The view they have is lovely *, even the drive to their home is impressive. The décor and design of the house was breath-taking. Certainly homier and more comfortable than my own.

Now that I'm done explaining that, you are probably wondering what my rant is this week. Perhaps it's jealousy, right? No. Not on my part, and I'll tell you why. I was also at another house this weekend. The drive to this house was along a main city street. As I walked upstairs, the steps creaked and the view outside was of the house next door. The family had a guest staying because his house was without working plumbing, so the apartment was fairly crowded. What's amazing is they were all seemingly content. How so? Because their house is considerably better than living in a Burmese refuge camp, where many of them are from. Granted, I don't speak the Karen language, but I heard several stories interpreted to me about some of the things they have experienced. I would have a hard tell writing them here without tearing up.

So no, I'm certainly not jealous. Jealousy is a social blight which unnecessarily destroys ones own happiness and joy. And what's the point of being jealous anyway? We all have things someone else will covet. It could be our health, finances, faith, relationships, endurance, talent, the list goes on. Instead of being jealous of others we should be appreciating what we ourselves have. And if you think about it, the more we work on appreciating what we have, the more others are likely to be jealous of us.




* The photo above may or may not be a view from my friends house. I'll let you decide.

Laodicean Tub

R.a.n.t. of week 02/10/13

As those who are fairly close to me know, or if you keep up with me on Twitter or Facebook, I've been trying to lose some weight. Usually this consists of weekly Weight Watcher meetings, food tracking and attending Blast Fitness where I mostly run the track. After my time at the gym is complete, I like to sit in the steam room for a few minutes. Once in a while, I like to treat myself to sitting in the hot tub, as I did last night. Right away you are certainly thinking how miserable and awful it must have been. Au contraire mon frere, it was the one highlight of the evening. But as I sat there I got to thinking of my recent visit to the Wilderness of this past weekend. I've had problems with this place in the past (see bedbugs in a future r.a.n.t.) but I was willing to give this place another fair shake. I'm happy to report, overall the trip was good. Cue the ranting bit.

Why is it there must always be a dozen or so kids in the hot (cough) tub at any given moment? It's bad enough the water was lukewarm at best, but to deal with the rugrats on top of it. Why was the water lukewarm? It seems people like to have the section leading to the outside, open, even in the dead of winter. And it was a popular place indeed. I'm not so sure what the appeal was, but people love it. So I can't really fault the Wilderness for that. What's interesting to note is the lifeguards came within 30 seconds whenever a child younger than six was in the pool with its parent, to shoo them out. What about the other kids? They have an entire water park designed just for them. But no, one little girl wants to do flips in the hot tub. One little boy wants to practice his breast stroke. Another child looked like he was considering a cannonball if not for my stern look. And kids don't know how to simply walk from one end of the tub to the other, they must splash and spray everyone they pass. It half made me wish a 'hot tub time machine' actually existed. No, not for me, for the kids. Nothing would have delighted me more than to transport every single child a week into the past.

Do You Ever Have Déjà Vu?

R.a.n.t. of week 02/02/13

♫...then put your little hand in mine. There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb.♪
I just want to smash my alarm clock sometimes.........

Sorry everyone, this entry seems vaguely familiar for some reason. Oh good grief. I just looked over my past r.a.n.t.'s and noticed I already did an entry on alarm clocks a few weeks back. I have to admit, I was thinking earlier I had written about this topic but couldn't really remember when. It felt like simple déjà vu moment so I shrugged it off. How many times has that happened to you? You are standing somewhere about to perform some task when you get this feeling all over like you've already done it. Or it feels like you are in the exact same situation as you were once before. It's an interesting feeling to say the least. As a science fiction nerd, I could write all sorts of stories describing this. Oh wait, I did. In my series Writers Block. The main hero Erick, is talking to his friend about feeling he experienced a form of déjà vu in the early morning, but as though he was realizing it for the first time. Later in the story he realizes why. As it turns out, during the course of the story he's forced to time travel and accidentally meets up with himself in the early morning. He convinces himself he's having a dream. Suddenly he realizes he's experiencing a true form of déjà vu.

Kind of silly I know, but you try to explain déjà vu. The most annoying thing about this is not knowing exactly what it is. Certainly you must have experienced this before. When did this happen to you?


"Do you ever have déjà vu Mrs. Lancaster?"
"I don't think so, but I could check with the kitchen."