make every day an earth day, not just a fancy slogan

Is there only one day where we recognize the earth and all its environmental massive diversity might have some unresolved issues? I'm not even who to believe has the most inconvenient truth or who is the most right about what happened to climate change, good or bad, hot or cold, unseasonal or not. The planet probably goes through cycles of good days/centuries and bad just like everything else in life.

So take time to enjoy a walk in the sun poking through rain clouds. Notice how light is beautiful and everything sparkles on a glistening sunny/cloudy windy day. And likely there will be another one to follow this one.

Either way, here's hoping it's not going to be some brutally ridiculous end of the world as we know it tomorrow. Maybe it's accelerating spiraling downwards, maybe it's getting slowly better. All I know is that there's a lot of planet to absorb all that pollution and guess what, it's not perfect, but at least things are changing.

It's like learning to ride a bike, our knees are take a lot of punishment. Yet they heal and we learn to balance. It'll take a while but the earth will balance out as well.

So haul out and tune-up the old bike instead having to drive everywhere for small errands and simple pleasures. Traffic jams and stress are unheard of when you're cruising along a bike path or bike lane. It's all about habits and cultural shift of mindset when trying to make the place better.

The planet isn't doing well for all the industrial progress. At the same time, people are making a small dent here, a huge dent there.

Take for instance that 11 year old (likely with help from her parents, teacher, marketers & publishers) who painted a book's worth of birds. Olivia's Birds is a simple idea of fund-raising. It seems to be making a fair sized dent from a small effort and snowballed into over $200,000 towards helping sick birds from the BP oil spill in Florida. That is one little girl who cared. Good on her and isn't she just a media darling of a poster child.

What if her whole class pitched in? The whole school? Exponentially that's a lot of children who are aware something is wrong and they have an solid example of helping fix it. Maybe a few of them will stick to it and make a huge difference when they're older. Maybe they will figure it out a little quicker like around the Alaskan ship-wreck that is still not growing anything today or the Ukrainian radio-active mess 25 years ago.

Maybe it's simpler when you're young to have less cares and want to help out sick birds but why stop when we grow up? There's some pretty small things to do and give back to the planet for all the resources we take from it.

So don't just fill, but over-flow the recycling bin for what it's worth. Or at least try to reuse stuff when you can. Or you could always make your building sustainable -- Small dents, big dents.

Ever heard of LEED? It's a honourable award for an architectural firm to make a large scale building project eco-friendly. It isn't anything special after the building is opened, just a plaque at the front of the building.

Yet from saving trees on the lot and reusing materials from the old building and proper disposal of toxic materials, to recycling gray water, energy efficiency and skylights, it's an ambitious idea. It might be more expensive to build; such a building likely pays for itself in the long run in energy savings and sustainability.

It's just a wild guess that those architects around the world who decided to do this, probably hugged a tree once in a while, or at least respected it when they were young. They probably rode their bikes through fields too. If you can learn from that and make your own home a bit better, great.

If they can also make a huge difference in how buildings are making a smaller impact on the environment, why stop there? It's a ridiculous balance of legislation, grants, co-operation and innovation but doable. It just takes longer than learning to ride a bike. Some people get all excited about ecological impact, foot-prints and consumerism.... yaddah yaddah until deaf ears it falls on. Kinda like losing inner equilibrium and balance.

That LEED thing didn't happen over night. It probably took tons of planning, problem solving, and raising of standards. Huge building projects aren't exactly the best thing to experiment on so designing probably went slow. Some super smart people are trying to plan out and make the earth a better place too.

Those people just need some encouragement and patience. In the meanwhile, hug a tree. A tree has seen decades and it's still here. Those crazy iPads or PDAs or whatever, they come and go. A tree can grow for centuries.

So take a moment and hug a tree. It sounds like crazy hippies' talk, but remember when you were a kid and could stare up into a huge peaceful tree? It's worth protecting for the amount of animal, plant and soil life it supports. No wonder environmentalists thought it was a good analogy for the planet.

Why not notice the earth every day? It's like smelling the roses once in a while, noticing the small stuff.

coalition? don't matter, get'ter done

Half-way into the election campaign, politically correct, petty political shots and perfect promises, party platforms all compete for our votes. All boast of what to do after they get elected to help communities which elected them. How quaint, however, it's getting tiresome after many elections. Because it seems like we've done this every other year for nearly a decade, it's time for a change. Just like last time.

The simple saying 'get'ter done' is said for a reason. It's a great concept yet we all struggle at times and need a helping hand.

Despite who gets elected, do us a favour and act for the greater good. Not for the party's greater good. Not for a sweet job. I hope they get more done than just sit around in sub-committees planning. I'm impatient so I would love a short and sweet plan to set succeed, so shock me and get'ter done.

Isn't that what they do before elections? Make up convincing platforms for change. Not many campaign promises with solid 12 steps plans to actually happen without a three year projection. Odds of that half-baked plan working challenge even R2-D2's ability to calculate success probability, especially when there's an election every two years... okay maybe the cycle will be broken. Yet it's still a major downer for me if they start with great intentions, only to be blown away before full completion.

For a listing of the political promises to see for yourself, check out the Canadian Press summary which comes out every few days through google news. Some of the promises are so practical it hurts. Note the ratios of new promises per party. Their platforms seem real optimistic with studies and surveys and ideas. When you look at how much money they want to spend without saying how to raise it, who foots the bill other than taxes and jobs created? It's easy to be socialist without saying how to pay for it all.

Some of the political ideas are great, but last only as long as the campaign competition. So do promises and plans just get put into storage like shiny Christmas decorations and recipes for next election?

Not being in their shoes, I try not to judge politicians too harshly. I've failed at times to explain their lack of logic. They don't seem to consider wearing my shoes when huge changes impact my life and everyone around me. They should try well-worn sneakers and work boots once in a while. Not trendy but serviceable for the common folk.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to be working with the opposition and common folk who elected them? There are some wonderful ideas which fade after the election is over like supporter signs on the lawn. Why can't politicians just.... all get along? Left or right of center, who knows, they might be able to pull off some major reform or simply be civil and not block bills that might cause an election to swing in their favour to win control.

If they want to control the country, spiffy. If there's some joint coalition, whatever that political jargon means, just do something already. Maybe there's some solid reasons to not have too many chief bakers in the kitchen. Maybe I'm simplifying the whole concept but I thought it was how a minority government gets anything done - by co-operating and making compromises with the evil enemy, the ominous opposition leaders. Aren't they elected people who also want to do great things for the country and its citizens.

Peace, order and good government is what Canada was built on, not half-baked cookie dough. They built Rideau Canal almost 200 years ago and despite set-backs, it was engineered so simply and solidly that it still works. So keep rising to the occasion and orderly build upon good governing - which I hope includes being fiscally responsible and spending within reason.

Whoever is in power after this election stands could do great things, or end up with half-baked cookies and budget plans. If standing by their promises to get plans into action, against the huge odds, do it anyways. Even R2-D2 has been known to be wrong.

Pro-action sounds nice but difficult to under-take. Sweat equity is painful and muscles which haven't been used in a while get sore easily before endurance builds up. Just as work-outs at the gym start to show satisfying results, so do plans turning into results. So politicians, please, shock me, I know you got it in you to get'ter done.

-- PLR --

p.s. check out the Voter Compass at CBC's website because it surprised me on the results for myself. I'm obviously going to need to do some more reading on political stuff...

Spring: Winter's Horse of a Different Colour

Spring came three weeks ago in with a lion's roar of a near-blizzard status snow-storm. Six inches dump of white later, I made a snow-angel of protest.

Driving to work in the morning, I fishtailed like a rally car driver in the slush, trying not to ricochet off the parked cars -- just for fun.

Trying to celebrate the beginning of spring, I went out for iced lemonade with a friend at the Second Cup coffee shop. We had to sit inside as the patio chairs were  covered in snow.

So was the path around the pond near UofC when I tried to go for a nice spring walk. Not remembering I'd need snow-shoes, I decided against wading in snow-drifts around a pond full of snow and devoid of ducklings.

So I waited a week like most people in Canada if they don't like current weather reports. Temperatures jumped north of freezing point; melting icebergs in prairie rivers heralded flood warnings; spring was in the air.

Rabbits metamorphosed from white to brown, girls dug skirts out of closets, guys looked forward to working on cars outside, children jumped in puddles, people's smiles defrosted.

Weather up here isn't just an inconvenience for city politicians to squabble about whether to melt more money with snow-removal. Economic delays for everything from spring sales, outdoor festivals to house construction, shingle and landscaping businesses.

Now as I look out my window, I'm frustrated as inconvenienced molting rabbits as another generous sprinkling of icing sugar settles on my fence and shrubbery. Crocuses that popped up during round one of false spring are still frozen alongside the house.

Last night after a few hours of choir practice I attempted to make a snow-man, on top of my car. My friend looked at me like I was crazy for trying to make a snow-man in spring-time. Or maybe it was because I thought four inches was enough snow piled on top of the car for a miniature snow-man.

Frosty would have an icicle's chance in my rainy sun-soaked hometown of Victoria, BC. Four false Calgary springs later I still ask myself why I'm not finding rainbows and daffodils popping up as Japanese cherry blooms drifting down streets in early March. Tourism Victoria probably started annual daffodil counts to gently poke fun of the rest of Canada buried in Antarctic precipitation.

As I complained, my mom pointed out if there's a foot of snow on my lawn I don't need to worry about mowing it. Thanks mom.

Used to eagerly go for knee-pads and roller-blades in my closet to cruise downtown along the waterfront in April. Now less eagerly I debate whether to regain normal gas-mileage by jettisoning sandbags from my trunk along with the snow-shovel and parka.

It's a little known fact, at least in the city, that a horse of a different colour refers to the horse's hair may change colour as they age. However if registration papers say otherwise, a dishonest owner may be trying to sell a different horse.

Another little known fact that in Canada there are only two seasons. It's not CFL football and hockey seasons; not prorogued Parliament coalitions (more on that tomorrow) and election seasons; nor BBQ and Boxing Day sale seasons.

If in Victoria BC there is short sweaty 125% humidity summer and always raining autumn. In the rest of Canada there is a short dry summer with drenching cold rain as bookends transitions to white-out winter.

So if thinking of buying a horse, be suspicious of colour change, as everything might not be as it seems. If booking a flight from Victoria or anywhere else tropical to Calgary in May, be suspicious and pick up a clearance rack parka, as the spring-time might not be as it seems.

-- PLR --

Spring Cleaning for Renewing my Writing

As I'm sitting here in the Good Earth coffee shop with an aptly named High Test, double shot of expresso in an Americano, I realize that won't help.

So as spring cleaning happens with the melting snow, I am deciding that I can't keep delaying the inevidable that I am really not getting anywhere, waiting for it to happen.

For lack of anything to get finished, I've been sitting on too many ideas over the past few months, blaming my lack of concentration and writer's block on too much work and not enough time or energy.

There's still about eight hours of day-light and more than enough time after work to get stuff together and see finished those ideas to completion.

One of my good friends was blunt enough to point out that I'm wasting those talents and hours of things I could potentially get done. Grab life by the balls and get'ter done. Thanks.

So why not get blogging? I see so much, hear so much, talk too much, observe and read so much. Time is long past due to write too much.

No shame in admiting that I have neglected my writing duty to find some truth in the daily events that have taken place. Yes the high test of the bitter truth in the coffee is that I can stare out the window at the brown grass exposed from the pure white snow blanket.

So time to wake up the writing mojo or spirit within me and rewrite my stories past some drafts that never felt good enough to publish.

It's a blog for heaven's sake, the ultimate freedom of speech. Thank God above that such freedoms exist. So look forward to some serious and not so serious writing.

At the same time, the coffee does seem to help kick start the cobwebs out of my mind. It's a good feeling to get the digital typewriter clicking again.

-- PR --