Angels among us

My husband and I went to a choral concert yesterday afternoon at a lovely Lutheran church in town here. I had never been to the church before, but I think I may have found one I can attend the occasional Sunday morning service, especially as they have services in German. That would be absolutely a wonderful thing to do. Most of the concert was in German, a lot was in Italian and a bit in English. It was purely the choir, no accompaniment of any kind. 30 voices. They are called the Oldenburg Chamber Choir and they hail from Oldenburg, Germany. They win national contests all the time and are considered one of the best in Europe. I bought both CDs they had on hand there (only $10 each). The singing was spectacular. They sing as one, and every one of them looked happy to be there; one in particular had a lovely smile on her face for much of the performance. An impromptu German folk song sung at the end, followed by a rendition of "May the road rise up to meet your feet" put me in tears. I was trying to sniffle very quietly. It was absolutely gorgeous.

The concert put the cap on a perfect weekend. I had my yoga teacher and her guy over for barbecue dinner on Saturday night. Dinner and a movie. We do this with another couple. We take turns picking movies (we all seem to have the same taste in movies) and do dinner & a movie at each other's homes, alternating. So my yoga teacher is such a sweetie, that I decided to have her and her guy over and it went very well. They are quite a bit younger than us, so you never know, but they are both years ahead of their age in maturity. It was an absolutely lovely evening, but we were up much later than usual (we are so NOT staying up late people) and are paying the price this morning, particularly with the choral concert from yesterday as well. But I have to say it was the absolute best weekend I've had in a very long time.

Pissing it all away

The revelation that the lastest winner of the Tour de France has tested positive for steroids can hardly come as a surprise. It is hugely disappointing, though. Can't anything be done honestly anymore? I'm not a cycling enthusiast, but I feel for those who are, and also for those who spent time watching the race. That time spent can now only be considered a collosal waste of time, given the results. Very sad.

Community

On my usual community walk with the dog, I go past a house which is very well kept and which has a pretty little well-tended garden which always reflects the time of year (i.e., Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc). It is owned by elderly people. They have a little dog which sometimes barks from the back yard as I go by. The man, who is about 70 or older, can often be seen sitting on a porch chair out front, painting pictures. I have never seen the pictures. Last year, whenever I walked by, he never looked up, but this year he is doing less painting, I think, so I did finally once manage to make eye contact with him so that I could say hello to him. Now I do so whenever he is outside, and he usually is. I find his presence very comforting and I look forward to going past his house, and I am always mildly disappointed when he is not there. He was not outside today. Sigh.

There is a German choral group touring north America and they will be in town on Sunday. I plan to go see them. They will do choral classics from operas and what not, some religious works, and also some German folk songs. Now would be a good time for my parents to be visiting.

Temper, temper

Our neighbours have company. First let it be said that we live on an incredibly quiet street. Only extremely rarely is there cause for complaint or annoyance. My husband and I go to bed pretty early, but that is beside the point in this story. So, the neighbours. Right next door. It is hot outside right now as it is I think most everywhere. So of course the window is opened wide at night. There is a 40-ish man and his roughly 10-year old son visiting. The son has a pellet gun, which according to our provincial, civic and federal authorities, is considered a weapon. The pair come out to shoot at a target fashioned out of a cardboard box on occassion. Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat ... on it goes. Sounds more like a slow, sick machine gun. It is not stunningly loud, but it is incredibly annoying. So, you look the other way when it's in the middle of the day, because good relations and all. Well, last night, they were playing with the damned thing at 11:00 at night. My husband got so mad, he said a very bad word out the open window at them. I was mortified. So much for diplomacy. My husband is a quiet, gentle soul, but oh boy, when his temper goes. It takes a lot to make it blow, but when it does, look out. Anyway, that was the last we saw of the company outside in the yard last night. A few minutes later Mr. Company's van car alarm went off ... Anyway, a bit tired this mornning.

Apparently lightning struck four houses in our community yesterday. It was quite the spectacular storm. Lightning, thunder, pretty much simultaneously. Awesome stuff.

Shining & Sparkling

I've been cleaning the house all morning. Took the dog to the off-leash with a friend, and when I came back, I thought, well, it's got to be done. I also cleared all the furniture but the bed out of one of the spare bedrooms, which means I can begin to prep it for painting now. The room is a ghastly pink and we've been in this house now near four years, and I'm finally getting 'round to painting it. Pathetic, isn't it?

I have a bit of a weird dilemma I've been trying to figure out. I subscribe to no one religion, but am deeply fascinated by any religion I look into and take time to study. I definitely believe in God, but I don't know what God is. Aquinas said God is unknowable, but he firmly rejected western religion's anthropomorphic perception of him. Me, I'm just not sure ... I would say I have some theories, but they tend to change with each new philosophy or theology book I read. Anyway, the dilemma. I probably subscribe most closely to Buddhism, but I'm such a long way off from "doing all the right things". Anyway, one of the tenets of Buddhism is learning to be content with what you have; not always wanting things to be different. This could take the form of acceptance that a hot day is a hot day and not wishing it were cooler (the wisdom being that when it's cooler, we'll be wishing it was warmer, and the cycle of longing never ends). On the other hand, there's so much work to be done in the world, and, indeed, on ourselves, does it not follow that we'd want to better things, change things? As long as so much suffering goes on, isn't it our duty to try to alleviate it, if we can? Surely we're not meant to simply accept that these things go on (i.e., homelesness, poverty, war, etc., take your pick). What bothers me is that it smacks of passivity. I know that's not what it's alll about, and I do understand it, but the dichotomy remains, all the same.

There, I've had my say. Now that my floors are dry I have to put the vaccuum and mop away and have lunch.

Mad World

Does anyone else think the world's gone nuts? I'm sure many thinking peole must do. I find it absolutely depressing what continues to happen in the middle east, how heat waves and tsunamis are killing people around the world, and, closer to home, our real estate values have more than doubled in four years, the largest of the increase to come in the last 8 months or so, to the point now where, if you're lucky (like us) and got in before the big boom, you thank the dear Lord for your good fortune daily, but if you're one of the unlucky ones looking for a place to stay, you're sol. Businesses are shutting down because there is such a boom we can't find near enough labor to fill all the jobs; other business must move on or fold their businesses because of skyrocketing commercial leases. A yoga studio I used to go to has had their monthly rate increased from $5,000 to $17,000 a month. There is no way they can afford this and are looking into options. I feel very badly for them. It is a beautiful studio, and they will unlikely find anything comparable that they can afford. Probably their best bet is to move to another city. There is a homeless crisis in this city, too. What is available to rent or buy is so inflated in price that many simply can't afford it. People move here because the jobs are so plentiful and when they get here they end up in homeless shelters because you can't get an apartment. The other day we were at our usual grocery store. They were out of so many things and this is an ongoing pattern. We asked at the customer service desk (though we knew it must be staffing problems) and sure enough, they said the warehouse had the truck all loaded ready to go out to the store, and there's no one to drive the truck. It all feels, very, .... I don't know .... sort of spiralling. It has a an out-of-control feel. Lastly, let me mention the magpies that live around here. I don't hear any right now, but generally they're all you hear anymore. You don't hear the robins, the finches, the sparrows, and other songbirds anymore. All you hear is the squawk of the magpies. Where are all our songbirds going?

Made some nice changes: where are they???

Hello everyone. If anybody knows what I'm talking about, i could use a little help. Made changes to my template. Have saved them, previewed them, republished, blah, blah, blah. But they are not showing up on my actual blog. Why?

Pirate Returns

Hello everyone! Just a super quick note to let those of you who used to visit regularly know that I'm back. I've forgotten how to do everything of course, so it may be a b it boring for awhile, but I'll do my best to spruce things up over time. I look forward to visiting you all.