365: Red; March 26, Velvet and Ice

Last year's leaves, this day's snow. 

365: Red; March 25, Red, White and Blue: a metaphore

Some years ago, my youngest met a very nice young man at a wedding. In Texas. Not many months later, she saw this young man again, and then again at a second wedding a year later, and then again on a stopover in his city during one of his rare visits there. Said young man is a pilot in the US Air force and was, at the time, stationed at the base in Del Rio, which is five miles north of the Mexican border, in Texas.

I found out said young man not only existed but was starting to look like a permanent fixture by round about means: my daughter told me she'd got her first credit card. I gave her the "pay it off in full every month," speech, at which point she said yes, she had $600 on the card but would pay it off in full. Several questions followed: "HOW did you get $600 on there already? "I bought a flight and rented a car."
"What? A flight to where?"
"San Antonio, and then I'm driving to Del Rio."
"WHY are you going there?"
"To see my boyfriend."
"WHAT boyfriend??"
"David. He's a pilot in training. He's stationed in Del Rio."
....

Anyway. I've recovered. David is lovely. They're engaged and wedding is in planning for next year.

The thing above: David sent this from Afghanistan, where he has been for six months, doing his second tour as a reconnaissance pilot. At the top, an officially-folded US flag and at bottom, a certificate attesting to the flag having been on board and flown in my and my spouse's honour on February 10 2014, and signed by David and three others.

It's the most extraordinary gift I am sure I will ever receive.

I am bemused to note the red part of this flag is hidden inside a locked case. I know it is contrary to think this way but it represents the spilled American, Canadian, Afghan, and British blood and how much of that reality I think we are not really aware of. It's ironic the red isn't showing, as it is a significant part of the whole.

This thing was made in and travelled from Afghanistan to New York and then to my city. The glass did not survive and the surface of the matting is scarred, all of which contributes to the overall irony.

365: Red; March 24, Leftovers

These are the leftovers, or perhaps more accurately, the survivors of the chaos and hell fires (ok, not hell; just a really hot oven filled with flames and smoke).

Everything's better with red wine.

365: Red; March 23, Not burning it down

Sometimes the best laid plans just totally go to hell. Such was the night of the Beef Wellington.

Every possible thing happened to slow down getting dinner on the table, starting with a dog suddenly developing a very weird pain, followed by fog filling the kitchen thanks to lovely fatty beef with a lovely buttery crust starting to smoke, followed by a delicious dinner, followed by said dog becoming really uncomfortable just as the real, shredded coconut topping for the real, from-the-nut, coconut pie caught fire in the oven while everyone poured over the dog.

This is the movement one makes whilst waiving the new, not-yet-burned oven mitts under the fire alarm in an effort to have it quit screaming. What you don't see is three other people extricating a flaming pile of burned coconut from the oven.

365: Red; March 22, Early Celebration

We did a very Canadian thing today... headed off to Canadian Tire for stuff we needed - or at least told ourselves we did - and did that other thing one does there; we wandered up and down the aisles of on-sale items.

March. Three and a half months early, Canadian Tire is getting it's Canada Day party on.

Stock up now, folks... these will be $1.00 each on July 2.

365: Red; March 20, Death, Vindication, Rebirth

These are the shoes worn by the presenter at a talk given by someone I consider a close and loved friend. Two years ago, never in a million years did I imagine I'd ever be in the same country, let alone the same room, getting a hug from this guy. Life is bizarre and unpredictable.

I met my friend at a talk by another person, Christine Shelska, who was speaking about the Discovery Institute in the US. This is the group that has repackaged the ridiculous idea of creationism and calls it "intelligent design" and is foisting it on the minds of young children and changing the textbooks to boot. Ok. I'm done editorialising. My friend was at this talk. I could not believe he was there, that I could get anywhere near him, let alone shake his hand, and I was beyond stunned when, after this talk everyone was heading out for beers and I was invited along.

You will have heard the patriarch of the Westboro Baptist Church - otherwise known as the most hated family in America, or the God Hates Fags people. If you don't know about this family, click that link and read Louis Theroux's article. Louis has done two documentarys on this family and knows them very well.

My friend is a child of this madman. My friend suffered, as all his siblings have, harsh beatings and much abuse at the hands of their father, but worse, grew up in a highly skewed, weird, mind-bendy religious family. My friend literally ran from the house he grew up in at the stroke of midnight, the day he turned 18. He has struggled and been bitterly sad, and he has distrusted, self-medicated and struggled to be normal in a world that he was taught to loath and be terrified of.

In 2001, everything changed. The short story is this lovely, peaceful, soulful, sweet, honest and loving man - who is absolutely everything his father was not - has become one of the most influential and best known voices in the secular, humanist and atheist communities but also leads the charge against bigotry  and hate towards the LGBT community. I'll let you read up.

This is Nate's statement following the death of the man who was his father:
http://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/pages/PhelpsPR

I'm very happy to know him.

365: Red; March 18, International Supper

After having spent a week with my sister and her Mexican spouse in Vegas, I had a massive craving for the food we'd eaten a lot of. Mostly I was craving cilantro. That stuff is good!

On this table, pico de gallo, which is tomatoes, garlic, avocado, lots of cilantro, lime juice and salt; diez millios, which I've certainly misspelled, which is chuck steak sliced very thinly then marinated in orange juice, some Mexican spices and lime and then grilled on the BBQ; papaya, roasted butter nut and acorn squash, salad, which was full of Indian spices and coconut; beer from Montreal and Scotland, and wine from Australia. So the UK napkins were fitting.

This is my crew, which includes one I date, three I made and an orphan we love.

365: Red; March 17, BUSY.

Being in my middle years - ok, middle aged - keeping my girlish figure has become a lot more of a challenge.

I saw a film recently, which I think might have been partially funded by a company that manufactures blenders and juicers. The subject of the film, also a person in middle age, was 60 pounds over ideal weight and was obviously not healthy, so switched to a diet of juice - densely rich and very nutritious juice, however.

I figure this is a good practice, so I've shifted to juice with ground nuts and yoghurt for breakfast and sometimes dinner. It's fine for the most part but on busy days, it doesn't always fill the entire gap... enter the solution; vegetable juice - good - and chips... not so much. But after two weeks of mostly juice, they were DELICIOUS. Oh. And I haven't lost a pound. Probably the damn chips.

365: Red; March 16, Brief Thaw

I know some people are right fussy about the state of their cars and seeing this would horrify them. But see, I have this dog and she likes the park, a LOT.

We had a brief few days of thaw that turned the mounds of snow we had into six inches of slush with rivers running down the hills and pooling in great puddles in the low spots.

I suppose I could have walked the kilometre to the park to save the clean up. But I didn't.

Whatever. It's leather. It'll wash. Dog had a blast.

365: Red; March 15, Lunch Break

A couple times a year, I teach a day-long photography class. I enjoy it a lot and I'm always happy to see the work my students, who are usually new to digital cameras, produce by end of day.

I lunch alone though. My voice is shot by the end of the day, so I take the 45 minutes to my self. Hot water and lemon. Just like some old lady.