This use to be someone's home

This use to be someone’s home

September 24, 2017

I drove by this house today on my way to a suburb just outside Edmonton and I passed a house well what use to be a homestead. The house had a detached garage and was just off the main highway, in a great location for one of the acreages just outside of the city.

Problem is that was all great and dandy back in the day however with the way the city and infrastructure has grown. It’s now a car lot, it’s housing hundreds of cars. There are cars as far as the eye can see, you can’t even get into the house or garage.

Not that it matters as the house itself is boarded up but still has the beautiful wrap around porch intact. I imagined back in the day it housed a family and had a wonderful view, that the family would play, rest or possibly just sit on a rocking chair and reminisce about all that has happened. How great of a spot they have there and just how proud they would’ve been of all that they have accomplished.

But now, it sits boarded up, vacant and just a memory of a family lived there. It makes me sad to see this, don’t get me wrong I understand that we must move forward with the times and the growth of the city. But to buy someone’s homestead and just have it sit, is just a constant reminder to that family that it no longer exists as a home but as a car lot.

Not sure that I can get behind that kind of change.

What's a CD?

What’s a CD?

September 14, 2017

So I like everyone else in the world has satellite radio, if you don’t I’m sorry to hear this as I can’t stand commercials and too much talking. I subscribed to the service years ago, I can’t even remember when but I can tell you it’s been worth every penny and I absolutely love it.

Today after I dropped my kids off at daycare I was switching channels as I couldn’t find anything to listen to. It was odd but all the songs on all of my favourite channels were terrible and I couldn’t find anything to land on.

After a few minutes of sitting at a red light I took a gander into my console and saw that I had a couple of rogue CD’s in there and I decided to put one of them in as I liked all the songs on them and wanted something I could sing along to and enjoy.

I took it out of the case and popped it into the CD player in my vehicle and let it start to play. To my surprise I started to listen to the CD and sing along with most of the songs and just had such a great time that I had forgotten what it was like to pop a CD into a CD player. In fact I had noticed that having a CD player in your vehicle is an option now, not a standard. I remember when having a CD player was the option and regular AM/FM radio was the standard. When did all this change?

I like having the option of playing my CD, I’m sure like most people I would burn CD’s to play in the car…these burned CD’s replaced our mixed tapes…yes I come from that generation. We have truly come a long way.

I know that I could just plug my phone in and use Deezer or Spotify or any of the new music hubs. But I like having control of the music I listen to, yes again I know I can create playlists on any on my multiple devices but what happened to what you get is what you get? I miss those days.

I ended up popping in my favourite CD, it was Maroon 5, Songs About Jane. I remember listening to this CD over and over and over again, it is my favourite CD. I didn’t know all the songs when I first bought it but I learned them and learned to enjoy them. I sometimes miss the good old days when things were much simpler. Less choices made things less complicated.

For now, I will enjoy my CD while I can as my next vehicle might not come with it and that will be a sad day for me as I will then have to keep up with my playlists. That in itself is a lot of work. How are all these things of convenience suppose to make life better when all it does is create more work for us?

To friend or not to friend, that is the question

To friend or not to friend, that is the question

September 7, 2017

Today I went out for lunch with my friend who I had written about who were friends with ‘the enemy’. One was on my side as she was one of the ones who had talked to me about the situation and the other one was the completely oblivious one to the sneaky and devilish ways of the enemy.

I wasn’t sure how it was going to go but thought I would bring it up and just throw all my cards out on the table. We sat down to lunch and ordered our food and drinks, did the normal pleasantries and then I brought it up.

I said to both of them that I didn’t want to interfere with their relationship with the enemy and that I am totally fine with them being her friend and besides this time I won’t be bringing her up or asking about her or anything. I know she asked about me but this wasn’t the time to bring that up. I just asked for the same respect back is all.

There was about a millisecond of a pause and the woman who is completely oblivious to the enemies wily ways wasn’t as receptive as I thought she would be. She became defensive and started to say that ‘she never said anything about me to her’ (which I know isn't true, but I let it slide) and she seemed as though she really wanted to get off the topic of it. The other woman who is on my side understood and definitely tried to help me explain things to her but the oblivious friend then turned aloof about the whole thing and we just switched gears.

That was when I saw it, she was sticking up for the enemy and this was the end of our friendship. I had let things go for too long and they were good friends and there wasn’t anything I could say or so to change that. It sucks when you can see these things happening and it kind of made me sad to know that it was over between us but I guess that was it. She had made up her mind and that was that, she had made her choice and I will respect it.

We finished our lunch together chatting about my kids and their kids and grandkids, plans for the summer and all those other things you talk to people about when you’re trying to fill the void of dead air. Once lunch was done, we said our goodbye’s and said we would make another plan to go out for lunch but knew that it was just talk.

I will miss my one friend as she was fun to be around, such a kindhearted and giving person and we had some good times together. I will always remember that about her...

I did end up with one friend out of the situation and I will continue to chat and make time for her as she really does genuinely want to be my friend and that’s all that matters. It just sucks that it’s over with one friend, but I will move on and maybe in time we will reconnect. For now I will respect her wishes and step back.