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Saturday, December 25, 2004
A belated Happy Solstice! Oh, and it's Christmas today. Much of the world has Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Pere Noel, whatever. Not here in Canada. Here we have Snowy Pete, the Christmas Lumberjack, known in Quebec as Pierre de la Neige. With his trusty moose, Jacques (the same in both languages), and his albino beaver, Saskatchewan (whom the province was named after), Pierre spends the year cutting down trees in preparation for the big day, Christmas. He brings plenty of logs for good families to keep their homes warm until the spring thaw, and good children often get little hand-carved toys and ornaments.
Snowy Pete is usually described in lore as a big, brawny man so when the malls hire their Petes in the days leading up to Christmas, they often have their work cut out for them. Fortunately there are professionals who make a living playing the character, and sometimes real lumberjacks will chip in and help out when there is a Snowy Pete shortage.
One thing there isn't a shortage of is plaid, especially plaid flannel. You see it everywhere around Christmas in Canada. There is even an official Snowy Pete tartan that's used, but people like to throw in different patterns and colours just for variety.
Legend has it that Pierre was once a normal lumberjack toiling in the forests of Northern Canada (it's never been made clear if it's one of the territories or provinces, there is a lot of argument whether it was Manitoba, Quebec, or his current home, the Yukon). Normal except in that not only did he work harder than any other lumberjack, he had the kindest heart of them all. One year at Christmas, the worst blizzard in a century hit but Pierre refused to stop cutting down trees. The wood was needed to heat homes, hospitals, and orphanages he said. He kept cutting and cutting, working his way through the forest, and was about to finally stop for the night because he was getting way too chilled. At that moment he came upon a cabin deep in the woods, with no lights on in the window but obvious signs of habitation.
Knocking on the door, a young child answered. She was the eldest of seven, no older than 12 if a day. Her widowed mother was bedridden with pneumonia, and they were all huddled together trying to conserve body heat. Letting out a howl of outrage that such a family be left to such a fate, Pierre ran back outside and started cutting down tree after tree. Ice formed on his moustache as he laboured, frost formed on his beard. His toque became more encumbered by snow and the plaid of his flannel became unrecognizable under the increasing whiteness of wintery deluge.
Laying down his axe and carrying hundreds of logs in his mighty arms, Pierre went back to the cabin and started a fire in the fireplace and another in the stove, then he collapsed. The exhaustion and hypothermia were too much. Such a sacrifice! Too much of a sacrifice to let it end like that, with Pierre dying by the fire. The Spirits of the North gathered around Pierre, and he started to glow a warm, comfortable glow. His pitch black hair and whiskers turned a sparkling snowy white. His toque turned luminescent and his flannel clothes softer but more durable. In his hands a new axe began to form, the handle out of flawless pine and the head out of ice, but hard as steel and warm as Pete himself.
Getting up from the floor, Snowy Pete went over to the bedridden widowed mother and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Just like that, her pneumonia was gone. Silently he went over to the door, but before leaving he turned around and looked at the family. "Merry Christmas," he said, "take care of each other, bring happiness to all you encounter and peace to the world."
As he stepped out the door, a moose and an albino beaver came to meet him. Lifting the beaver up on the back of the moose, Pete turned to the house one more time, gave a wave and a wink, and vanished into the snow.
And so it is that to this day Canadian children everywhere look forward to Snowy Pete coming by and leaving firewood for their homes, and try to be good all year so they can get a little hand-carved wooden toy.
Now I must go, so I leave this tale with a hearty "Joyeux Plaisanter" and a bit of a wink of my own...
posted
by Tabby at 12/25/2004 05:15:00 p.m.
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Tuesday, December 21, 2004
It's December in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada as it is in the rest of the world, but December in Edmonton brings snow. Lots of snow. So why the hell was there HAIL yesterday? Real friggin' hail in the middle of December! The wind, sure. Maybe there isn't usually 100 km/h wind in December, but there was yesterday. Really freaky weather, and it just did a hit and run. Over in minutes it seemed though the after effects appeared to go on for hours.
One man died because of the wind. He was on a lake with a snowboard and either had a small parachute or kite (last news I read was unsure on this) letting the wind propel him. The problem was that he had a lot less wind when he started, and this weather came on so very fast. Apparently he lost control and was slammed into the side of a church, something you don't want to be doing in a car at those speeds let alone with no protection at all.
posted
by Tabby at 12/21/2004 04:20:00 a.m.
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Thursday, December 16, 2004
I'm waiting for my "lunch" to cool. I put that in quotation marks because it's after 7:00 pm right now, but any meal during a shift at work is lunch as far as I'm concerned. And I'm very concerned about a whole bunch of stuff these days. Let's not worry about that though, and let me tell you how much I love my new mp3 player. It's great, and it's a challenge too. I got 100 free music downloads with the purchase, but the source, emusic.com, doesn't have all the selections I would like. So it's become a quest to find those hidden treasures, bands and singers I'm not familiar with but have music I can enjoy. There's been a few of them so far, but nobody who has really WOWED me yet. That's okay, the music has still been fun.
Not that I didn't get to listen to great music that I wasn't familiar with before. I had been listening to my radio previous to buying the mp3 player and had it permanently tuned to CKUA, one of the best and most eclectic stations in Edmonton (try giving it a listen online sometime). This just gives me a chance to enjoy the tunes without having to listen to a DJ, which is fine on that station because they're not as obnoxious as the disk jockeys on commercial stations can be, but I just want to control my listening pleasure a little more at times.
posted
by Tabby at 12/16/2004 10:33:00 p.m.
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Sunday, December 12, 2004
So the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that banning same-sex marriage is discriminatory. Yay! Once again I'm proud to be Canadian!
Of course the expected whining from conservative and religious groups about all this is going around, and there are those who want a referendum held. Hmmm. A referendum to determine if we should continue discriminating against a group of human beings. Sounds just peachy keen to me. The whole point of having a constitution and not having a pure democracy is to protect the rights of everyone, not just those a majority of voters deem worthy. If we put this up to a vote, then everything votable, and I'd be pushing to see a referendum on ending the tax-exempt status of churches amongst other things. If you put basic human rights up to a vote, then you are asking for a response in kind.
posted
by Tabby at 12/12/2004 05:48:00 p.m.
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Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Crap. I thought I was done with training after this week, but next week I have someone else. I don't mind training every so often, but too much of it wears me out, frays my nerves. I get impatient at times because things need to get done, but I can handle it for relatively short periods. This will be one of the longest periods I've ever spent at it, and dang it, I don't want to. I like space when I sit at a desk, dagnabit!
On the plus side it's getting bitterly cold now. I know that's really not a plus side, but I wanted to try and be a little positive. Hey, I haven't written much this month and I know my legions of fans have been impatiently. All... Ummmm... Does anyone read this regularly? Probably not daily, but weekly or monthly? Or do you drop by every so often to see if there's anything new and (ahem) interesting? I do my best to update! I just can't do it from home that much because there's Neopets to be played (speaking of which, why not click up at that image in the top corner and sign up, it'll be fun!) or Richard Branson's Rebel Billionaire to be watched! I'm a busy woman with a busy life, you know.
posted
by Tabby at 12/08/2004 10:14:00 p.m.
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Sunday, December 05, 2004
Yes, I'm still training. I was thinking this morning on my way to work that if my trainee were to call in sick I'd be able to write something here for the first time in a while. Much to my surprise, she actually called in sick. Not that I'm surprised, because I had to leave early on Thursday and I'm still feeling a little nauseated. Of course I had plans this weekend. Maybe next, I don't know.
This is ironic. I finally have a chance to write and now I'm not feeling up to it. This is a single day shift in a sea of evening shifts, so on top of the nausea I'm very tired right now. Next week the training should be done, so I'll hopefully have more time.
posted
by Tabby at 12/05/2004 11:06:00 a.m.
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The
critics are calling
I
Was an Atomic Robot Jungle Vixen...
"Very
cool!" "Awesome!" "Good times!"
"Inspires
me..." A Critic - I
respect
"Cool.
And miles more exciting..." Someone Else -
You
might not know
"I
totally love it!" Whoo hoo! -
Posted
somewhere
"All
I have to say is... Cool!" Another Critic
"I
like the look..." An Opinion - YACCS
Comments
"You
think I have time to give you a quote? You're out of your
mind!" Wil Wheaton -WWfreakin'DN!
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