We will never know the REAL STORY....

Ahead of us, on a winding, slightly hilly two lane highway, we could see a shape ahead.  We couldn't make out what it was.  I thought it was someone pushing a bicycle, since the incline was steep for biking. Then I thought "No, it is someone pushing a stroller." We all speculated, as our driver Rose slowed down and amidst much chatter between the five of us, decided to pull over ahead of this person.  

We were five friends on our way back to North Rustico, from Cavendish, PEI, where we had spent a few glorious hours on the beach, and had a picnic in PEI National Park.

When we finally came upon the person ahead of us, we realized it was a young man PUSHING a huge suitcase, topped by a small backpack.  What the heck? We are in the middle of nowhere, between Cavendish and North Rustico.  What was he doing PUSHING a large suitcase? He wasn't even HITCHHIKING!

Turns out this twenty three year old young man was from Osaka, Japan. His name was Tsubasa Wada.  He had come to Canada to study English in an international school in Toronto. He had been in Canada for about a month and was returning to Toronto, after a three day stay on the island.  He was catching a 7:00 pm WestJet flight out of Charlottetown, back to Toronto.  But Tusbasa was WALKING!!!!!! It was 2:00 in the afternoon. He NEVER would have made it.

His English was basic at best.  Rose said, "Joanne, tell him to hop in and we will give him a lift to the nearest gas station."  So he threw his HUMONGOUS suitcase into the back of the Ford Escape, and took my place.  I hopped into the trunk, along with his suitcase. It was a short ride to North Rustico, and I was quite happy to oblige.

While we were doing this, Rose checked out the mileage to Charlottetown on her Garmin, and said "Why don't we JUST drive him to the airport? It's only 44 kilometers from here." We all agreed that was a great idea.  I informed him that I wouldn't have to teach him to hitchhike after all.  He was getting a lift.   He was so thrilled, all smiles and so thankful.

We dropped off one girlfriend at the cottage, so I could get out of the trunk, and we headed to the Charlottetown airport.  Rose couldn't believe THAT was the airport, when we got there, since it is your typical small town, East Coast airport - one small building! 

During the drive, we had time to chat with Tsubasa. Inquiring as to WHY he was in walking from Cavendish to Charlottetown, yielded the following answer.  He had come to visit a friend, and that friend couldn't drive him back to the airport.  Huh?  Some friend, that would leave him WALK his way back to Charlottetown. No help getting a cab,shuttle, bus or lift? He had been on the road for two hours, and NO ONE had stopped and inquired as to whether he needed a ride, help, or whatever.  That is so sad!!

Anyway, this story is getting too long. Suffice to say, we had fun, we did a good deed, and hopefully that sweet young man will remember the FIVE, sixty-something women who picked him up that beautiful, sunny day. We gave him a bottle of water, two granola bars and each a BIG HUG!  He would make his flight with four hours to spare.

We five are ALL mothers, and four of us, grandmothers.  We will never know his REAL story. However, no one wants to see their son, or grandson, daughter or granddaughter in such a predicament, in a strange, new country.  We did the right thing!  Besides, he was just SO FRIGGIN' cute!!!  

Life is FULL of OUCH and AWE moments!

What are some of my OUCHES?   Snow on my favourite walking trails in mid-May.  Having to wear a winter coat in MID-MAY.  Scraping my car windshield in mid-May.  Notice how ALL these ouches are weather related?

OUCH: Vimy dropping a boom in my living room. It wasn't his fault. He wasn't able to get out on one of our long hikes, to do his business, because of the rainy weather.  We all know dogs prefer to do their business elsewhere.

AWE:  Well, kind of.  I sat not six feet away from the bomb, and ate my dinner.  I only noticed it on my way to close the window curtains later on.  Sometimes it IS okay to have very little sense of smell. 

OUCH:  I had a very bad tooth infection recently, which lead to three days of popping tylenol, then getting heavy duty antibiotics, and being told my options were an extraction, or a root canal and crown.  Approximate cost, out of my pocket, since I don't have dental insurance?  $1,500.00

AWE:  Being able to AFFORD that root canal and crown, and NOT having to opt for the extraction, as my only choice.   

OUCH: Going out for a drink with a friend, to a pub that has a reputation for being a bit of a dive.  I didn't even want to take Jiminy, since my car can be seen a mile away, and I didn't want anyone to know I was in that pub.  Isn't that terrible? 

AWE: Finding it to be a cosy, friendly place where having put $5.00 into a gaming machine, I won $90.00 right away! Plus walking away with that money in my pocket. :)

OUCH: Doing a twelve kilometre hike in the pouring rain.  

AWE:  Hiking in that rain with my eighty year old dear uncle, doing only a thirteen kilometre segment of his 335 km pilgrimage.

AWE: Receiving a long hand written letter from an old friend.  

AWE: Receiving regular long distance phone calls from an old boyfriend from your university days, thereby keeping in touch the old-fashioned way... 

AWE!!!  In my neighbourhood, seeing three bright gold helium birthday balloons, tied to a front entrance railing.  One was the number ONE and the other two.  TWO zeroes that is.  Someone is celebrating 100 years on this earth!  How awesome is that? That person was born barely six months after the end of WW1.  

Fortunately, for me, life has been a series of many, many AWE moments.  I think if we look hard enough, we can take many of those OUCH moments, and make them AWE ones. Here is wishing you many, many of those AWE moments.  

Why is it that...

we Canadians are SOOOOO polite?  After two months with an infected finger, I decided to go to an after-hours clinic.  I apologized to the young physician for taking up valuable time with such a banal issue and she replied, "We are paid to do this. YOU are the third one to apologize for coming here tonight".  Since they only take 15 patients, I guess that means 20% of us are typical Canadians, that is to say, polite AND apologetic? 

Vimy, after he has dropped a bomb on someone's lawn, feels he has to aerate the lawn as well?  The front paws are fast and furious, as he digs up the grass, e-v-e-r-y SINGLE time.

Vimy has to bark at every little sound in the street, especially when Sophie is just going down for a nap, so we both get banished to the basement? :)


people will stoop to scoop their dog’s poop, but leave the bag behind on the ground?  If you can do that, why can’t you take it with you, until you come upon a garbage can?  FRANCHEMENT!

you can always manage to find something to break, or if NOT break, screw up in some way, when you are visiting family or friends?  Somehow, I managed to get the cover of the Magic Bullet into the receptacle, but in my usual klutzy way and without realizing it, notched it in incorrectly.  I have NO idea how that happened.  My daughter was able to remove the capsule type cup cover, AFTER fiddling with a knife for half an hour.  It works, but I broke a notch on the rim, so you have to keep your hand on the cover, it so it doesn't pop out.  Only me!!

babysitting nowadays involves so much technology? A baby monitor that is a camera, a machine that makes white noise, another machine that warms up baby bottles, to name a few?  Technology is great when it works well, but NOT when you spend a half hour trying to figure out why you can't see your granddaughter sleeping in her crib. Well, in this case, it wasn't my usual bungling when it comes to gadgets of any kind.  The camera had been perched on a pile of books that had toppled over, and the video camera ended up upside DOWN on the far side of the dresser.  That explains why I kept seeing what looked like an upside down closet.  IT WAS!!  I crept into her room, found a less precarious perch for the robot camera, which I managed to do without tripping over anything, and also without waking up a VERY light sleeper. 

As a postscript to my mug shot with a bottle of French's ketchup, which was spread all over the national news online, the Saturday before Easter - here are a few comments from friends that made me laugh out loud!  Merci mes amis! Je vous aime.

💖💖💖💖💖💖

"Did you know that Heinz ketchup has a CONTRACT out on you? Yeah, death by stoning!  STONING BY TOMATOES. That is, if they can KETCHUP to you!!! 

+ versus - / Love versus Hate

I was wondering what to blog about this week, since I haven't had any real misadventures.  I can hardly count my budding daffodils being covered in snow as a misadventure, now can I ? However, I can thank my cousin's daughter, Christine, and her post "DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY!", for my ramblings this week. 

I know we live in a very NEGATIVE world, where we hear nothing but bad news all day long, from all over the world.  It is hard to keep your perspective and remain upbeat, against this constant bombardment of catastrophes, horrors, disasters, and vitriol.  I also realize that as we age, we tend to complain more.  Is it because we feel entitled? Why aren't we expounding on what we "LOVE", instead of lamenting about every little thing that we DO NOT like?

Case in point? One of my neighbours with whom I stopped to chat for a few minutes yesterday, brought me up-to-date on his wife,  who had had a heart attack this winter, had a stent put in and recovered.  However, she had just come out of the hospital this past week, after ANOTHER surgery.   I remarked on how wonderful it was that she was out and about, and seemingly well.  "Weren't we fortunate to live in a city, where our hospital has been ranked by the American magazine Newsweek, as being fifty-third of the top one hundred hospitals in Canada, and TOP in NB?"  His reply?  "Oh yes, the doctors, but some of those nurses!"   I tried to continue in a positive vein, adding that we have a shortage of nurses and it is a very difficult job.  He wasn't having any of it.  On and on he went, complaining and lamenting. I knew he was worried about his wife, but why couldn't he just be THANKFUL, and happy for the outcome?  I had had enough at the point where he complained about having to bring his wife her breakfast, because they didn't know how to boil an egg!  Can you believe it?  My retort?  "Well, do you have a $100,000 medical bill, for the care your wife received? You would if you lived in the US."  He didn't like that, and turned away, adding, "I worked for thirty nine years and paid my taxes for that care." Well, good for him, but so have many people.  I wanted to, but REFRAINED from throwing in my own parting comment, "Thousands of Canadians have never had children, nor driven a car, but they paid their taxes for our schools and roads.  You don't hear them complaining."  NEGATIVITY BEGONE!!    


This is but one example of ALL the negativity I have noticed. Why am I more aware?  It is because I myself have been guilty of this negativity.  It can be contagious.  I was having a pity party around Easter time, lamenting to myself that I hadn't been with either of my adult children at Easter, in at least seven years, if not longer. I was dwelling on what I DID NOT have, instead of appreciating what I DID have. What DID I have?  I enjoyed a delicious Easter dinner with two of my wonderful brothers, two great sisters-in-law, my darling eighty-five year old mother, my adorable youngest nephew, and a dear friend, all gathered around the table.  The delightful presence of several deer on the front lawn after dinner, and enough chocolate to open our own "Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory!", and it was like I had been given a slap up the head!  Negativity ... BEGONE!

Yesterday I attended a very unique event.  I went to a birthday party, however it was NOT just ANY birthday party.  It was a birthday party for twins.  How old are these twins? NINETY years old!  I felt so privileged to be able to join in this life affirming celebration.  Positivity, 💞 and joy, as four generations gathered under one roof, permeated every corner of that room.  NO NEGATIVITY here!

LIFE is such a gift, and we must celebrate it every day, in EVERY way.  Forget the long, hard winter.  Forget your aches and pains, physical and mental.  EMBRACE the good health that you do have.  Focus on the good in your life, what you HAVE, not what you don't have.  Talk about the good.  Do for others.  Be positive and just as importantly, do what makes YOU happy!

True confessions of ...

a supply teacher in your typical, Canadian elementary school, as follows:

Walking down a primary school corridor, at recess time, when the children are getting dressed to go outside, is like running a gauntlet! Heaven forbid, you should be trying to grab a quick snack AND make it to the washroom.  That is one LONG corridor. 

Madame, can you zip up my coat?
Madame, can you help me find my mittens?
Madame, are you eating the skin on that kiwi? I nodded yes.  GROSS!
Madame,you can't eat kiwi.  Oliver is allergic to kiwis.  ME: Where is Oliver?  
He's upstairs. 
WHAT? Forget that.  I continued to eat my kiwi, miraculously making it back to my classroom, and to the washroom.  

Kindergarten:

Carly:   I was in a daycare where they spoke French, but then my mother moved me to another one, and they don't speak French to me there. But I THINK I am getting the hang of it. 

Sam- I puked at home yesterday.  But it didn't hurt my belly.  It only hurts in the belly for babies and I am not a baby.  (I had to send this brave little one home an hour later; he was as white as a ghost and had a fever. :(

Anna-  I don't know why my little brother likes me.  ME:  He is your brother.  He loves you. 
NO! I don't know why he BITES me!  (Oh dear, I guess my hearing is going.)

ME: Do you know what this letter is Brittany?  Brittany: HELL, no!

While waiting for the bus at the end of the day, little Cole says, "Look, I am doing slits!"  He meant "splits", but of course, that is hard to say when your two, top front teeth are missing. 

Grade One: 

After I admonished Tristan for throwing objects around in the classroom during indoor recess, he justified his actions by telling me, "I play basketball!"

Eric, after bumping his head under a table, albeit lightly it seemed to me, declared twenty minutes later, "I see stars!"

Grade One French Immersion:  Makayla:  J'ai écrit ton nom. When I repeated her sentence, correctly saying "J'ai écrit MON nom.", she giggled and said, "You TRICKED me!"  

ME:  Get your agendas and line up at the door.
Sadie: We don't line up.
ME:  With me you DO!
Sadie: Yup, and YOU'RE the boss!

At dismissal time,when the children board the bus, I always say good bye in six or seven languages, which elicites glares, stares, comments, and repetitions.

Yesterday, however, I wished them a "Happy Easter!  Joyeuses Pâques!"

Xavier, with a smile and glancing back over his shoulder, replied:

I don't DO French! 

Well, on that note, and whether you do DO French or NOT, Happy Easter - Joyeuses Pâques - Feliz Pascuas... to all my faithful readers. May your 

EASTER be a symbol of hope, renewal and new life.

Can I pick 'em, or can I pick 'em???

I have been working for two different school districts for over three years now. I have made mistakes, like showing up at the wrong school (teachers had the same last name!), thinking I was booked one day, instead of two.  However,  I avoided what had never happened to me before, UNTIL this week.

I ended up DOUBLE booked.  I don't know why.  I became aware of my mistake the night before, when I saw I was replacing a principal in an English school and a Grade One teacher in a French school, both the NEXT day. Well, I can wear a LOT of hats, but I can't wear them in TWO different places at the s-a-m-e time. 

I had to cancel one, so I cancelled the principal assignment. My reasoning was that with the current supply teacher shortage, far better to be filling in for a teacher, who has his/her students all day, than a principal who has mostly administrative work, and little teaching.  I would have filled in here and there in many classrooms.

It TURNED out to be a V-E-R-Y long day indeed.   As I said, I can really pick 'em.   I ended up with two, thirty minute yard duties, which is a lot in one day.  I not only replaced a teacher and her morning duty but I also replaced the lunch room supervisor, who was absent that day.  She isn't a teacher.  I replaced her, but I didn't get paid for replacing her.  Remember what I said about wearing many hats?  There is a prime example right there.  Not only that, the principal doubled my lunchtime duty, from the fifteen minutes I would have had as a teacher, to the thirty minutes the supervisor had. Remember, I can really pick "em"!  It gets better!!

At 1:50 my sweet little six and seven year olds were ready to board the buses to go home.  Well, a delay is announced.  Then another delay, so the children are told to take off their tuques, mitts and put down their school bags.  Another delay announces they should remove their snowsuits, as their departure time is NOW unknown.  What was going on?  WE were in major LOCKDOWN, albeit a soft lockdown.  A man had barracaded himself in his home a few houses away from the school, with weapons, and the "SITUATION" outside the school had become very grave.  

To the kids, it was a bit of a lark. They didn't understand why they couldn't go home, but made the most of it, playing games, visiting each other in their classrooms, reading, writing, colouring, and  dancing to music on YouTube.   One said, "Are we sleeping here?  That would be cool!"  WHAT? I don't think so! Another little one declared, "My Dad is picking me up at 5:00,"  I didn't tell her, "No, sweetie, your Dad is NOT picking you up." 

From the lobby, we teachers could see flashing police car lights, and all the school buses lined up to pick up the kids, with the only occupants the bus drivers inside.  We also saw parents waiting in their cars.  The police (along with the SWAT team) had warned the former and the latter, that they MUST REMAIN in their vehicles. 

 "I am hungry!"was the complaint that began to be heard. The children were hussled into the gym for a snack, then back to the classroom, or allowed to remain in the gym. I took my little ones back to class. 

It is now 4:30.  My Vimy has been alone for nine hours, but thankfully friends put him out for fresh air, in mid-afternoon and Handy Bro went to pick him up, bringing him back to "mon oncle and ma tante's place", since I didn't know WHEN or IF I was getting home.  :) 

It is now 5:00 pm and we have been told there is no change in the "SITUATION".  The cafeteria staff will serve the children spaghetti, with or without sauce, for supper, soon. By now I am really tired, but the children have oodles of energy and are just so sweet.  One IS tired, and crawls into my lap. :) 

Suddenly, the principal makes the announcement that the children will be allowed to board the buses and go home in twenty minutes. ALLELUIA! What might have sounded like mass pandemonium at this point, was just really a HUGE, collective sigh of relief that pulsed through the entire building, upon hearing this announcement.  

Kudos to staff, students, parents, support staff, police officers, all of whom numbered in the hundreds, who were calm, cooperative, helpful and did their JOB! In retrospect, it was truly wonderful to see.

I got home at 6:15, dead on my feet. I still don't have all the details on the "SITUATION" that caused the "LOCKDOWN",  but hey... I  don't need to know.  Everyone is safe, and that is what matters.  I have learned that whenever I think, as a teacher, that I have HEARD it all, SEEN it all, and DONE it all, something happens to remind that I HAVE NOT! I am forever learning.  

WHAT on earth...

would I blog about these days, if I couldn't blog about the weather?   We are entering our sixth month.   It is enough to drive anyone around the bend.

This past Wednesday was a SNO-DAY, but only in the English District.  I guess there was a different forecast for the French District?  I lost my supply day that had been booked, but I really didn't mind.  The snow never started falling until 2:00, by which time all primary and elementary kids in French schools had had time to get home. The English kids had never LEFT home.  However, the snow came fast and furious, coupled with very high winds.  In less than two hours, everything was a mess.  High school students in the French District? They were dismissed at 4:00 pm but the buses weren't allowed to leave.  Road conditions had become extremely dangerous.  Some students never left school to return home until 7:00 that evening.  Such is winter in NB!

So why did I head out as soon as the snow started falling at 2:00 pm?  I was booked for a teeth cleaning in mid May, but that appointment fell during the same week that I wanted to accept a four day teaching assignment. So two days earlier I had called my dental office, wanting to be put on the cancellation list.  I was told there were over two hundred people on that list.  I nevertheless made the request, hoping that in those six weeks before my scheduled appointment, I would be lucky and get called.  WELL, someone was looking out for me, or the office secretary liked me, because I was called T=W=O days later, hence the reason I was heading out in a storm.   I jumped a HUGE queue here.  GOOD KARMA!!  When I got to the dental office, I asked who had called me in and promptly went over to give the lady a big hug!!

In spite of the storm's full fury, I was in a real cheerful mood, heading back into town. My dentist had said my teeth were great!   Even the sight of twenty or so cars trying to crawl up Tetagouche Hill, slipping and sliding backwards, didn't dampen my mood. I was just so happy I was going in the opposite direction.  I made a pit stop for a few groceries, although I couldn't see a thing, there being nothing but blinding whiteouts all over. I was still riding a wave of a gratitude over my GOOD KARMA day.

I was less than a kilometre from home, when I spotted a purple haired young woman, walking almost in the middle of the road.  NO hat, NO mitts, NO scarf - obviously not dressed to be walking out in such wicked weather.  I couldn't just leave her there.  THAT would have been BAD KARMA.  She happily hopped in when I stopped to offer her a lift.  She lived about a kilometre back.  I had to turn around, and since driving was becoming increasingly treacherous, I immediately thought, "OMG, what if I get stuck in some driveway? I don't have CAA. Hell, I don't even have a shovel in my trunk!"  Thankfully, I didn't get stuck.  

We had a very lively conversation on the way. She was from the Chi originally, and you know how salty their language can be.  You know the seven dirty words you can't say on television, (mostly four letter expletives) per George Carlin?  Or that you couldn't, back when?   I am sure my passenger hit a good six out of those seven forebidden words.  Her last words as she got out of the car? "I am sick of this "CO$%SU$%?*# weather!"

I smiled, and continued to smile, as I backed out of her driveway WITHOUT getting stuck.  She had only expressed what I was thinking in my head!