Author Archives: Gillian

Continuing Saga of the Oil Tank

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I told you that the tank was right outside my bedroom window…
…yes, this was taken from inside my room looking out.

I guess this morning the removal guys were poking around trying to find the stupid thing and they only heard one “clunk” of metal on metal… (which explains the mild expletives I heard whilst trying to drag myself from bed) The reason is that the tank was so rusted that the pokey thing they were using kept going straight through.
So this is what a hole looks like when a 300 gallon oil tank has been removed… note to self, do not use the stairs on the west side of the deck…

Same old same old

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Is anyone else noticing a trend with current political advertisments? How many times a day can I see the same ad. I mean its not the same ad the whole time, its just all three parties have the same ad. Blank screen (maybe with blurry photo of other leader behind), short, simple sentences displayed overtop (because short, simple sentences is either all they can manage or all they think the general Canadian can manage), with a female voice over. Is that all you can come up with? I thought the Conservative interview ads were bad, but at least they were different. Well, I guess there’s only a week left of watching them.

Recent Additions

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Soooo, last Friday, somewhat spur of the moment, I took the bus downtown to a certain little shop on Broad St and… had a hole put in my nose. Now don’t get me wrong, this was far from unthought out, I’d actually been thinking about this for about 3 years. So here is me in all my gloriousness. 🙂 It is kind of fun, even though, for some reason, no one notices because it “suits you so much that it just fits.” I would say I like the recent addition.

Win a trip to Liberia

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Okay, so I lied. I really do have more to say about the Canadian election. I’ve been sitting and watching TV for all of 10 minutes and I have already seen the new NDP election ad twice. I’ve only sat through two sets of commercials. Now, I kinda liked the old one. At least it was clever. This one seems a little too pleading, too much like he’s scraping the bottom of the barrel for votes.

Now about the free trip… The NDP is giving away a trip to Cyprus, Liberia, The Bahamas, Malta, Vanuatu or Panama. Why these countries, you’ll have to go here to find out! What they won’t think of next.

Curiouser and Curiouser (or The Saga of the Oil Tank)

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One week to go in the election campaign, and I actually have nothing of substance to say. Yes, I’m still reading all of the fantastic political blogs out there, watching CPAC, listening to CBC, all that stuff, but it seems like no one has anything new to say. Stephen Harper is still in his high tower, impervious and untouchable, Jack Layton is still whining “vote for me, the Liberals are scary, there is a third option,” Gilles Duceppe is still… oh who cares, I can’t vote for him anyway, and Paul Martin is still blissfully unaware of how badly his party is doing in the polls and seems to think he can still win. So where does that leave me? Well, I’ve narrowed the vote to two candidates and past readers of this blog might be very surprised at who one of them is.

So, since there is nothing new under the sun in the Canadian political field, my attention turns to more pressing matters. Like the fact that it is not raining outside right now. I sincerely doubt that, unless you live in Victoria, you will understand the true import of that statement. So I will say it again. It is NOT raining right now! And no one in this whole city is more thankful than me. Not only because it means I don’t have to wear my fabulous rain pants everytime I exit my dwelling, but because it means my house smells better. Smells better you ask? You heard (or rather read) me correctly, smells better. You see, it seems that in the 1960’s when people used oil to heat their homes, the oil tanks were buried in backyards. Then, when they switched from oil to gas heat, they merely took off the connecting pipe and forgot about the tank. Forgot about it, that is, until a record rainfall of about 26+ straight days. Last Thursday night, there was a slight oil smell in the house. By Friday, it was pretty much unbearable, so much so as to prompt my landlords to call in the gas company. They checked everything out and said it was all fine, no leaks, no CO or CO2 emissions anywhere in the house… blah blah blah… It was only when the fire department came to check it out for us that we discovered the possible existence of an oil tank in the yard. Now you can see where this is going. Saturday morning I awoke to a “BLEEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEEEEEEP” sound directly outside of my window (which I had left open the night before because of smell). There was a guy with a metal detector in the yard right beside my window. Yep, found it. It seems that with the rising water table, the oil has been seeping out and causing the place to stink to high heaven. Lovely. The good news? It stops stinking when it stops raining for a few hours. Hence my excitement that it is not raining right now. The other good news? The tank comes out of the ground tomorrow.

Resonating

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Spirit of Creation, you
Fill all space as sound waves do.
Your music makes a chamber
Of my soul, resonating,
An organ-filled cathedral.
Bass pipes thunder; trebles sing.
When old spaces shrivel up,
Shrunk wineskins, crushed paper cup,
You seek new vessels to fill.
So, reverberating now,
New spaces blossom: you will
Rush in, wide wind, holy fire.
Filling, not consuming us,
With thankful joy, high desire.
Come Holy Spirit.

(from “The Last Word and the Word after That” by Brian McLaren)

I know her!

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So I was doing a bit of surfing around, as I do, seeing what else I can find out about federal political policies and all that, as I do… and what should I come across?!? I went to high school with her for goodness sakes! How crazy is that?!? While I know there isn’t much chance of getting elected (NDP in southern Alberta?!? Yeah right), good luck Melanee!

My Life is Complete

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My life is now complete.
I have witnessed, in person, living flesh, Jack Layton say that it is “your health card, not your credit card” that will get me health care.
Thats right, the big Dipper himself was in Victoria this morning, at UVic (in the smallest room possible in the Law Building). I’m still not sure why I went, maybe to see if he could possibly convince me to vote for the NDP. I must say, his environmental, educational and health planks of the platform are quite good. I’m just not sure how they are going to pay for it all.
At least the NDP say something about education. The Conservatives say nothing about education, the Liberal’s platform is less than encouraging (reduce tuition overall please).
I’ve never been to a press conference thingy before (whatever you would call these campaign stops). It was interesting. In my hesitation over whether or not I would shake his hand, I missed out and he walked right by. What do you say to a politician when you shake their hand? “Good luck” But if you’re probably not going to vote for them, isn’t that a little hypocrytical? “Nice to meet you” A little bit callous in the type of environment we were in. You can see my dillema. And so I missed out.