@#$%*&?%$*& week

You get these weeks sometimes when it just isn't worth getting out of bed. On Monday I looked up as I was drinking my orange juice and noticed something odd in the ceiling of the kitchen... You guessed it good old H2O seemed to have infiltrated in the joints of the gyprock... so I climbed up into the attic after having emptied the closet of all the winter clothing. Once up there I noticed that the plastic protection (Part of an old liner from a swimming pool, thick and plyable. I didn't want to take chances so I put it up in case since there had already been a leak there.) was full of water and it was leaking out. So I emptied it. Emptying something whilst lying on you side with less than 2 feet of clearance is not an easy task. You can't just empty it on the ground since that kind of defeats the purpose. Having emptied the pocket, I closed off the vent (it's the vent for the kitchen fan), shut off the fan so nobody can use it and put a plastic sheet under the whole thing. I figured that everything was ok for a while. Then last night I went up to check again and there was a big wet spot that was dripping down. Water seemed to have infiltrated beside the vent... hell and damnation and other choice French Canadian swear words. Of course it had snowed and was raining and there wasn't much I could do. It wasn't raining hard, but the snow was melting so there was a constant trickle of water. Today I tried to call the the company who had done the job 7 years ago and there was no longer any service at that number. Also called at least eight other companies and either they weren't answering the phone or they refused the repair since they already had too many jobs lined up to finish (It was a very wet summer.). There was even a roofing company called "Couveurs toutes saison" (all season roofers) with 24  hour emergency service. Oooops, nobody answering the phone... hows that for false publicity. Finally I gave up the phone, went to my nearest friendly hardware store, bought a bunch of roof patching gunk in these handy cylinders for caulking, went up on the roof which had dried out a bit since it had been sunny in the morning and caulked all around the vent with a heavy hand. While I was at it I caulked everything else that sticking out of the roof whether they needed it our not. Lo and behold, of course, as I was finishing the job it started to rain, sometimes you just can't win! Hopefully this will do the trick. Now all we have to do is dry out the ceiling and hope it doesn't come down, it's already sagging a bit. Sometimes having a house is a royal pain in the butt.

Poor little politician

Poor little Mario has been having a hissy fit these last few days. He announced that he will not appear on "Tout le monde en parle" a talk show that puts celebrities on the the hot seat, because in the last election they were not nice to him... He said that the show's host, Guy Lepage, had it in for him and wanted him to look foolish. He has also accused the Liberals and Lepage of rigging the show so that Charest would look good. Of course Mario has no proof of this and is now backing away from his initial comments, while the Liberals are chuckling and Lepage is seething at the slur on his integrity.
Look Mario, the Liberals don't need to plan to make you look like an idiot, you already do quite a good job of it by yourself. Suck it up, and stop whining, it only makes you sound like a spoiled brat not a statesman.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae

Ninety years ago tomorrow on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month the carnage that was the trenches of the First World War ended. There are hardly any of the brave youngsters that fought in that bloody conflict still alive to talk about it and soon the only thing left will be the rows upon rows of white crosses that mark the places of those who will forever sleep amongst the poppies.
We must never forget those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, for they gave everything so that we may enjoy what we have today. Let the politicians also not forget them, so that they may not squander today's youth in such a bloody undertaking for nothing.

LEST WE FORGET

Squabbling children???

Not even one week into the election campaign and already the politicians are squabbling like a bunch of unruly school children in a school yard. Name calling, fisticuffs, vandalism, it's all there for us to see. The ADQ is accusing the Liberals of pulling down their election signs to put up their own in their place. (Election signs are a blot upon the landscape anyway, who wants to see a blown up photo of a grinning politician repeated ad nauseum up and down our roads? We still haven't gotten rid of all of them from the last time.) In a political debate the Liberal Finance minister called her debating partners from the ADQ and PQ, "cons" and "polissons" and the leader of the PQ said that the leader of the Liberals was lying through his teeth. (Mind you there is some truth to the allegations I suppose, but you are not supposed to say it out loud.) In fact they are even fighting inside their own party. At the investiture of a PQ candidate, fisticuffs broke out when the supporters of of the incumbent didn't like the fact that the PQ executive had foisted another candidate on the riding. (The incumbent had pissed of the powers that be in the party, so out he goes, even if he had been there since 1996... doesn't pay to piss off Pauline Marois the head of the party.)
Is it any wonder that politicians are about as popular as a root canal. I've seen more maturity in my 13 year old students.

Two down, one to go.

Well if you have to be in election mode, you might as well go all the way. Our "premier ministre" has just declared a provincial election for December 8th. First we elected Stephen Harper as the Canadian PM (thankfully in a minority government, keeping him on a short leash), then we have been immersed in the presidential election of our southern cousins (who showed the good sense to elect Obama after having elected Bush two times) and now back we go to a provincial election, less than two years after the last one. Mind you, I can understand why our PM, Charest, is doing it. He has a minority government, he is way up in the polls, the other parties are in disarray (especially the right wing ADQ) and shit is about to hit the fan with the economy since there is a recession to the south. (Caused by greed and stupidity that was not checked by the powers that be.) So here's to election fever, I'm so sick of the BS and the promises that I know will never be fulfilled, that I think I'll take two asperin and hide my head under the blankets...