First of all, I wish all of my readers a Happy New Year, and may 2009 AT LEAST be better than the last three months of 2008! We watched the ball drop in Times Square, as reported by Anderson Cooper and that irreverent, loud-mouthed Kathy whatshername from the “D List”. When the clock struck midnight, many of the frozen ball drop watchers of course broke into a chorus of “Auld Lang Syne”, which prompted me to ask the question “What’s up with THAT?”. Learning machine that I am, I had to know the history of Auld Lang Syne. According to Wikipedia, my “I’m-too-lazy-to-really-look-into-this” information source, Auld Lang Syne was originally a Scottish poem, written by Robert Burns in 1788, and put to the tune of an old folk song. The poem borrowed from earlier poems, and the phrase Auld Lang Syne pre-dates the Burns poem by about 200 years. It means, literally, “old, long, since”, or loosely translated, something like “long, long, ago,” or “days gone by.” Apparently, singing this song on New Year’s Day began as a Scottish tradition and spread around the world from there. Fascinating, eh? But all of you probably knew this trivia already.
Up north, we had the one-two punch from a crippling wind storm last week. Winds gusting to 100km/ hr. blew through the Muskokas wreaking havoc on power supplies and knocking down huge trees everywhere. In our rental bungalow, we were only without power for a little more than a day, and while that is nothing compared to the five days some folks up north suffered without power, it became a problem for those of us who could not pump out our basements. The house we’re living in temporarily is very cheaply built, and among its many other faults, it floods whenever there is a thaw. Short of the fact that it IS heated, it is about as bad as the cottage we knocked down in Katrine. This last thaw was quick and severe. We had about 2 feet of water in the (partially carpeted) basement, and no way to pump it out until the electricity was restored. What a mess! On top of this, we had to scramble to find a generator for our new home, because our generator on order has not yet arrived. Temperatures in the Muskokas quickly dropped from highs in the mid-50s to well below zero on New Year's Eve, and we needed to keep that house heated. To add insult to injury, our plumber has essentially disappeared and this has severely impacted the building project. As my mother-in-law often says “At least nobody’s in the hospital.” Yet.
2008 was hardly a banner year for the world, and as Israeli ground forces push into Gaza, it looks as if things are aren’t going to get better for the first part of 2009. Still, as we hoist our tumblers of reasonably priced pink sparkling wine from Australia (champagne has become far too expensive) “audaciously” we hope for a better future, one in which our leaders do not suffer from chronic myopia and purely political motivations…
Up north, we had the one-two punch from a crippling wind storm last week. Winds gusting to 100km/ hr. blew through the Muskokas wreaking havoc on power supplies and knocking down huge trees everywhere. In our rental bungalow, we were only without power for a little more than a day, and while that is nothing compared to the five days some folks up north suffered without power, it became a problem for those of us who could not pump out our basements. The house we’re living in temporarily is very cheaply built, and among its many other faults, it floods whenever there is a thaw. Short of the fact that it IS heated, it is about as bad as the cottage we knocked down in Katrine. This last thaw was quick and severe. We had about 2 feet of water in the (partially carpeted) basement, and no way to pump it out until the electricity was restored. What a mess! On top of this, we had to scramble to find a generator for our new home, because our generator on order has not yet arrived. Temperatures in the Muskokas quickly dropped from highs in the mid-50s to well below zero on New Year's Eve, and we needed to keep that house heated. To add insult to injury, our plumber has essentially disappeared and this has severely impacted the building project. As my mother-in-law often says “At least nobody’s in the hospital.” Yet.
2008 was hardly a banner year for the world, and as Israeli ground forces push into Gaza, it looks as if things are aren’t going to get better for the first part of 2009. Still, as we hoist our tumblers of reasonably priced pink sparkling wine from Australia (champagne has become far too expensive) “audaciously” we hope for a better future, one in which our leaders do not suffer from chronic myopia and purely political motivations…
“We two have paddled in the stream
From morning sun till dine
But seas between us broad have roared
Since auld lang syne."
From morning sun till dine
But seas between us broad have roared
Since auld lang syne."
May we all brave the roaring seas.
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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