Where I spend my days…

When I was in Victoria, Sandi and I were talking about where I work, and she said that she couldn’t envision it…

“Why don’t you blog about where you work??” she said.

So this blog post is for her, so now she will know what I mean, and so will all of you!!

This was my favorite picture of the day, maybe of all time, isn’t it just AMAZING??? And  it smells spectacular!!!!

Here is Campbell River Garden Centre in full bloom and totally beautiful, a perfect opportunity for some amazing shots…

So without further ado…here is where I work.

We are getting a whole new look on our website soon too, so I will let you know when it is updated :)

Enjoy the pics…

Living in the here and now…

No matter what I say or how much I type it…

I am still not doing it.

I think today, I have kind of accepted the fact that maybe, just maybe I might be here for a while.

I have said from the beginning, when I made the decision to sell my house, if I wasn’t gone before  the end of summer this year, I would have to stay here. It wouldn’t be fair to Colton for me to move him the last part of his schooling. I really thought I would be gone by now. I am not.

I am just WAITING for everything to happen. When the reality, is it might not, at least not the way I expect it.

So from right now, today, this minute…I am living for right now.

I live in Campbell River, I have no plans past that as of today. When I sell my house, I will decide where I am going, if anywhere.

Right now I find myself growing and doing some much needed self re-evaluation. Everyday. I become stronger and more sure of who I am, what I want and what I can accomplish.

I am learning patience, which I have never had in my life. I have always just jumped headlong into everything in life, sometimes that is a good thing, but not always. I have learned from all my crazy adventures, but right now life and the Universe is telling me to take it slow, think things through all the way. I have to do what is best for my kids right now, not just what is best for me. The Universe is making me wait, telling me that it’s not all about me, it’s about us as a family.

A friend of mine asked me the other day, “what do you really want?”

I thought about it…and you know what? I don’t know.

I want to be closer to my family, to William, to Hannah…but do I do that at the expense of my son? How much will it affect him to take him out of his school, from friends he has had all his life, and throw him into the last two years of his teenagehood with no one he knows?

Will he live through it?  Of course he will. Will it affect him forever? Maybe.

I am not sure that is a risk I should take anymore.

A year ago when I first decided this was what I was going to do, it was different, it gave him three years to be in a different environment. Now I am just not sure that it is going to be what’s best. The year passed in a flash…as will the next two. It isn’t that long to wait. To move on with my life, when he is done school.

Once again, I can’t predict what is going to happen.

So I have decided I will no longer have any plan. I will take everyday for what it is. I will live my life to the fullest just the way it is now. I will love with all my heart.

I will give my boss a heart attack and tell her that maybe her wish has come true, and she is stuck with me for a few more years…

My Mom will be thrilled that I am not moving in with them :)

But just so you all know…I have NO plan.

Which means about a million things… anything could happen has never been more true a statement in my life, than it is right this minute…

Except this time it’s different, I have no expectations of what will come, and therefore won’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen. I will live one day at a time and enjoy every minute of the journey that I am on, the people I will meet, the people I already know and love, however much I see them or not.

I will make a conscious effort to make my life great, with what I have been given and the blessings that already exist on a day to day basis, that sometimes I overlook, while I am too busy looking ahead.

And seriously…I will start working out. Random yes, but I am done with the muffin top and the battle is now ON bitch :) I will win, this and all other challenges that this life throws at me, and I will embrace them with both arms, living hard and loving my life, here…now…just the way it is this very second…

Happy Thursday friends…xoxo

Excuse me, did you get your license from a Cracker Jack box?

Because its NOT REAL…and you need to go take your drivers test and get a real one.

I have thought this in my head a million times…today I am sure it was true.

It all went well in Vancouver, people are maniacs and drive 150 km in an 80 km zone…but that is fine. People seem to pay attention, and go around.

No incidents.

But I get back to Vancouver Island, and all hell breaks loose.

It is like my Mustang is a magnet for fucking stupid.

I nearly got hit TWICE, yes TWICE, and I was not even five minutes off of the ferry. I was in my own lane going STRAIGHT. How the hell do you not see me in the lane beside you?

My car is bright fucking PURPLE and it is sunny out…WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

Do they think they are imagining things and there really isn’t a classic car driving beside them…so they may as well just drive into it?

I DON’T GET IT…

*But people I am telling you, if you are the one that hits me in my Mustang because you are being stupid and not watching what you are doing, if you are talking on the phone, or have your cute little dog in your lap, and smoke into me…

You had better make damn good and sure you fucking kill me. Because if I get out of that car, it isn’t going to be pretty, you are not going to like it. I will NOT use a filter, and you are going to get a punch in the head.*

Just saying.

Now I am not a violent person, but I am getting pretty sick and tired of people doing everything in the world except DRIVING when they are driving.

I am sick of watching out for you as well as me, once and a while is fine, but it is all the damn time now. People just don’t watch what they are doing, at all.

Also, why do you feel the need to tailgate someone? I just don’t get this. I will get out of your way as soon as I can, in any situation, but if I am boxed in, and traffic is bad, you are not going to get past me, and if you do, you will be the car in front of me ahead, whoopie shit. I will catch you at the light dumbass. Why do you need to be touching my car’s bumper, cause seriously…again see above paragraph*. It isn’t my fault you are an impatient asshole.

Don’t make me remind you, it isn’t worth it. Really.

What could be so damn urgent on a sunny Saturday that everyone is in a hurry to go nowhere? Wouldn’t it be better if you actually made it there alive, I think so.

I wish I could post this for the whole world to see, I wish that people would just slow down and pay attention to what they are doing.

After the drive home, I am seriously reconsidering selling my truck. At least it is big, and people seem less ridiculous when I am driving it, because I am bigger than them. I mean, if you hit me, you still need to see above paragraph*, that hasn’t changed. You will just have more time to get away from me,  because I am higher up…like that is gonna save you.

You can always hope I guess.

The ride home was uneventful once I got out of Nanaimo.

I went the Old scenic highway, it was a beautiful day and a really nice cruise.

Gave me a little thinking time, and I listened to some older country CD’s I haven’t heard for ages. It cheered me up from the earlier clusterfuck that is Nanaimo, nothing like a good country song to put stuff into perspective now is there?

I plugged Jo Dee Messina into the CD player…love it. There is an awesome Mustang tune on there that I forgot all about…It’s called Too late to worry now…

I haven’t listened to it for years, I am really music challenged right now so I went and dug up some oldies…I am thinking I need to get the newer one she has put out too, great album, good summer tunes. It makes me feel like spring is here and summertime is coming!!!

When we got back to Campbell River, we had just come through a bit of a rain storm, the car was pretty dirty at this point, I am to lazy to drag everything out to wash the car when I get home, so I decide it’s time…

Today was also Jezebelle’s first EVER car wash. I don’t even usually USE water to wash her. She is a fairweather baby and doesn’t usually get dirty.

Well this weekend she did.

So we went to the hand wand carwash and got all the debris off of the sides and the bottom of the car.

Next week comes the wax…it’s time.

I have some detailing to do on her. The valve covers got a little bit screwed up in the Daddy incident, and it has been too long since I took a day and worked on stuff, last year I neglected her a little, so this year I make up for it…no more bad Mustang Mommy…I am full on back in!!

No more slacking off, no more excuses. Canadian Mustang here I come!! Paypal will be smoking by the end of the summer.

So all in all it was a great weekend, whirlwind, but fun…

A sign of the summer yet to come!!

Now if only people would learn how to drive…

Peace ♥ Out…

Let us bend over a little bit further shall we?

Image via Wikipedia

Because it’s not like we aren’t taking it up the ass enough already….

BC Ferries will be allowed to raise the rates over the next four years…

On the major routes…like from the Island 18%…

On the minor routes…like to see my parents on the Sunshine Coast 37%…

Are you KIDDING ME???

It costs me about $60 to take my truck and myself across on the ferry NOW. How the hell can they justify that?

And the new ferries that we just shelled out for, sit in the freaking docks, while we ride back and forth on the old piece of shit ferries that are 35 years old.

I am thinking that the CEO’s need a little punch in the head pay cut? Why don’t we try that instead of sucking the life out of the people trying to get back and forth from the Island. It will kill the economy on VI more than it already has now.

Tourism will stop. More than it already has.

The cost of living will go up. Which is just awesome considering there is no work here.

Now I know how beautiful it is here, I totally get that part of life on the Island.

But can anyone blame me for wanting off of this rock? My family is all down on the mainland, as is my boyfriend. It will be absolutely unaffordable for me to go and visit my parents from here. Never mind taking my kids down with me. It is cheaper to fly, except…I can’t fly with my dog, or my Mustang.

It will be a sad day when it actually costs more to live here than it will in Vancouver. Or when we can’t even AFFORD to go to Vancouver.

When does the greed end? When will there be an alternative to the ferry, another choice? How can they charge so much money for transportation that is like our highway?

I just don’t get it. And the sad thing, is how do we, as the people that live here or travel here.. stop it? What avenues are there for the normal person that this is affecting to take? To protest, or to change it from happening?

We have no choice…no voice at ALL.

So much for living in a fair and democratic country…some days I really wonder.

No wonder he is smiling...

David Hahn (President of BC Ferries) gets paid $984, 000 a YEAR…yes that is right…a YEAR…

I make between $19,000 – $22,000 a year… do the math there.

So David…how about YOU pay the $60 for me? And the $20 for me to have a lousy hamburger and a coffee on the way over…how about that buddy? Even just one time, you should give us all at LEAST one free ride a year, just for putting up with your crap.

It’s not like you are earning your fucking money running the BC Ferry Corporation is it?

Maybe you should go back to being one of the peons of the world…you know, like me…or the family just down the street from me, who’s kid is sick and has to go to Children’s Hospital on a regular basis…or the teenagers all over the Island that just want to go to a concert on the mainland, or shopping for the day. Or the regular working Joe that wants to live on the Island but has no choice but work on the Mainland so they don’t have to uproot their families and move…

How about you get your shit together and do your job, make the BC Ferries a viable and reliable business, that has to justify their actions, like showing us where all the money you are sucking out of our pockets is going…preferably somewhere other than straight into yours…

Or here is a novel idea, how about using the new ferries that just sit in the dock all winter, it’s possible we wouldn’t be quite so pissed that we are paying for them through the freaking ass if we actually got to USE the damn things….

I should apply for a job in management with BC Ferries…God knows someone there needs a good ass kicking.

I am just the girl for the job.

At least we would know that there is someone on our side, with a voice, that gave a shit….I sure don’t get that feeling now. And I am pretty sure I am not alone.

Let’s stop sticking it to the little guy whether we want it or not…how about that?

Maybe it’s time you turn around for US David…lets see how that goes for you….

Peace ♥ Out…

When pretending just isn’t fun anymore…

Well as everyone knows, there was a horrible earthquake in Japan yesterday. My heart and positive thoughts go out to all those affected by this life changing tragedy. Totally terrifying.

It hits pretty close to home for us living on the West Coast of Canada. We are in an earthquake zone, we could be in exactly the same situation at any time. The last time I wrote a blog or maybe it was just a comment on Facebook about being ready for an earthquake, I was amazed at how much joking and poo-pooing went on about it.

I wasn’t joking.

I have an earthquake kit ready. I have water. I have two spare cell phones fully charged for emergency, we have camping gear. I have it all where it should hopefully be accessible. I also don’t care who thinks I am being silly. I am actually thinking, I need to get more stuff ready. I need more water, and to have a cash stash. Which means maybe I am not as ready as I think I am. Travelling back and forth to the Mainland worries me too. If anything happened, my kids are so far away, I would have no way to get home to them. They have a plan for if anything happens, and a couple of places to go…still doesn’t make me feel totally secure.

Of course, they think I am being ridiculous…and that is a direct quote.

Maybe I am. Too bad.

The Capricorn part of me is a realist, which is bizarre and totally contradictory to the Sagittarius side of me, which is like…phhhfttt don’t worry about things so much. The Capricorn and Sagittarius fight on a pretty continual basis. Especially about stuff like this.

When we were in Tofino, we were joking about all the Tsunami signs that they had everywhere. Outwardly, I joked…inwardly, terrified.

Last night they had a Tsunami warning…for real. From the earthquake in Japan. The warning was lifted this morning with no adverse affect from the earthquake being reported.

Photos by William

But holy batwings Batman….that is scary shit. It  really is. Where we live on the East Side of Vancouver Island, a Tsunami wouldn’t affect us…we are fairly from it…

But we are NOT far from the Earthquake being a huge and inevitable occurance. It is NOT a matter of if, it is a matter of when.

Everything happening with our earth right now, with the wars, and the insanity that is going on all over has been predicted. Well maybe with the exception of the Charlie Sheen fisaco…I mean who the hell could have predicted that…but everything else, taking place, was…

I know…if you are skeptical or not a believer of prophecy then this is all poppycock to you. But  can you really deny it? Isn’t there a little niggle in your gut that is telling you you are maybe a little wrong?

Now I am not religious in ANY way. I don’t practice organized religion, it’s just not my thing. But it doesn’t mean I don’t believe in higher power. Organized religion says this is all happening because the world will end and those worthy will be the only ones left, and that Jesus is coming back to take you home, or something to that effect. Again I am not religious, so I am vague on the story, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, I will adjust said sentence accordingly.

I believe the world will change. I believe there will be totally devastation and only the strong will survive. I believe that there will be a cull of human life, there is no way it can be otherwise with what we have done to the planet and each other for thousands of years. I personally don’t believe I am going to be chosen by God to go home with him…sorry.

Hell I don’t know if I am going to be a surviver, neither do you. Sinner or not. And if you think just because you live a clean and healthy life and pray everyday, you are going to get out alive, I would recommend maybe you step it up a notch.

EVERYONE needs to open their eyes and get ready for the inevitable. Now I don’t mean just ignore all your bills and don’t pay your rent because the big one is coming and we are all gonna be shit out of luck anyways.

I mean get ready. Really think about this. Don’t avoid it because you think it won’t happen to you.

Have a plan. With your kids, with your family, with your friends.

TALK ABOUT IT.

Can’t you see that it can happen? That it is going to happen?

Skirting around it, won’t make it go away. I am amazed everyday by the people I talk to that say, well ya, I have thought about it but….

BUT WHAT?

Do you think that anyone is going to help you out when they are busy fighting for their lives and family? Do you think they have gotten their survival kit ready to share it with you because you were too busy being in denial to get your shit together?

I am gonna say probably not my friend.

If you are counting on the goodness of others, or the love of your neighbours…think again. Now I am not saying that people aren’t going to come together and help each other out. Of course they will.

But the truth of it is….if it is between my kids having something to eat and your kids having something to eat. My kids are gonna win. No matter what I have to do to insure that happens. People don’t think that there is going to be a situation where it will get that desperate. I hope it doesn’t. But it could…you need to be prepared for that.

We ALL need to get prepared for that.

I think maybe it overwhelms, and that is why people do nothing. But you know it is really as easy as just starting. One thing at a time. Make a conscious first step. Go to the hardware store and buy a storage container. Bring it home, and decide where in your house, or shed, or shop would be the best place for it, somewhere you would be able to get to it, no matter what.

And then get a list of what you will need. There are lots of resources online, here is a list that will get you started.

Start slowly, buy one or two things everytime you go shopping, it doesn’t take long to get what you need. A lot of things you will have around your home already. Put them in the kit. Have them all together. Just make that first move.

Get your kids involved, talk to them about it, make sure they have a clear plan of where to go and what to do. They will be 10 times as afraid as you will be, especially if they are alone. They need to know what to do, and if you involve them in the process of being prepared, they will feel more secure and sure of themselves.

Have a kit in your vehicle. This was a big one for me, travelling the Island alone so much. Our freeway can be somewhat isolated and it would be hard to get to a town if anything happened. I have everything I would need to stay warm and fed for at least a day. Trust me, I really hope I never have to use any of it. But I have it just in case.

So maybe this weekend would be a good time to get everyone together, for 20 minutes, for an hour, maybe for the afternoon. Make a plan, talk to your family. Be prepared.

There is nothing we can do to stop the inevitable, whatever it ends up being, or what it is that you believe is bringing it on. Angels will not swoop down and save your sorry ass when it does. So be responsible, be ready.

Take that first step so that when it does happen, and it will….

You are one of the survivors, no, that you are a FAMILY of survivors. Everything you can do to contribute to that will help, no matter how small it is…

Because once again…it’s all gonna be about you and there probably won’t be anyone there to bail you out.

Think about that…

And make a move…

Here is a great site for more info…Get Prepared!!

 Peace ♥ Out…