Pretty Flower

Pretty flower, I saw you showing off proudly while your companions, begonias and impatients, quietly giving up, unable to stand the frost of November nights.

Pretty flower, day after day you became more and more pretty, is it to soften my heart, when I was planning to let you die too?

“After all, geraniums are found in abundance on the shelves in spring and your big pot takes up a lot of space.”

And today, you are still here, after several nights of frost, you are still so pretty, I hear your prayer and I don't want to see you suffer anymore. I'll bring you inside and in the spring you'll find your place on my balcony.

Chichi and Diva

Let me introduce you my two cats, Chichi and Diva. At new-year 1999, I was invited to celebrate at my brother's place and I came back with these two little balls of hair.

They were so cute, we had fitted the spare bedroom for them. At night we started leaving the doors ajar , just so they could not escape the room, but they could hear the noises of the house and they could do all their follies of youth without disturbing us.

And during the day, the doors to our rooms were slightly closed so they could not enter and sleep in the beds. After one year we stop closing the doors.
After a few years, we moved to Verdun, west of Montreal, the apartment was smaller and they had lost their room. They slept in the lounge. I had found a job downtown and I had to take a bus at the corner of my street to get to the subway. That's about 500 steps and when I was arriving at the bus stop, I was so breathless, I thought I would die. Do I have asthma? Is it my heart? Is this the new apartment?

C H I C H I

Chichi was very endearing, purring and affectionate to us, but she hated visitors.
She was then very mad and was spitting on them.

D I V A

Diva had mitten paws. The opposite of Chichi, she was independent, adventurous.
She loved taking rides in the house and playing hockey with balls of paper.

The doctor prescribed me a bronchodilator that I had to use the morning before leaving for work. I realized that I had these ailments at the beginning of the week and I did not had to use my pump on other days. In joke, I was saying that I must be allergic to work because I always use my pump on Mondays.

One day I found myself unemployed and since I was staying at home, I was using my pump every day. It was obvious I was allergic to something at home. I had to get rid of my cats. A very hard decision, obviously I denied a few weeks and Henry had to reason with me. He also had great difficulty to get rid of them.

I phoned the SPCA, and they came to get them on one spring morning. They put them together in the same small cage. Chichi was so mad and was spitting, she hated so much this man who had grabbed her so suddenly to insert her into this tiny cage, and Diva rolled herself into a ball, she was so afraid, she was paralized with fear and she was hoping that Chichi wins the battle.

On paper, I asked that the cats were not separated. But Chichi was so bad with foreigners.......... I prefer not to think about it.

I got the swine flu shot

That's it, I got the swine flu shot, and I noticed some side effects.

• The jimmylegs : I had to wait 15 mins before they let me go
• Undue fear: I would not ride on the Grand Boulevard in case I find myself ill.
• Flatulence: A true slut, it's probably why it is called swine flu. It was really unpleasant and also smelled the skunk.


• Will I turn into a ...... ?

WE'LL SEE IN A FEW DAYS IF I'M STILL HERE

Swine Flu : The vaccine

It's been several days now that I question myself. Why are there so many people who deny the seriousness of Swine Flu. Should we believe the more optimistic? And if they were wrong? I am getting scared because there are so many contradictions.

Saturday at the hospital, the celebrant of the mass office had lunch with us and was telling us: - "There is no truth in what they say about this flu, it is the pharmaceutical companies who want to make money with their pill Tamiflu. And I do not understand why the diocese Gatineau is emptying holy water fonts, it's ridiculous. "

I was flabbergasted, that person has a position of authority as a minister of religion and in my opinion, he should not speak that way about something as serious and also he has no expertise. There were people aged over 80 years at that table. From what I understand, these people are at risk and they also are volunteers at the hospital. That the industry of religion is content to look after the souls. The Church is really not well placed to talk about the quick money that could make other industries. ... .. There is also that faith in the deity who will decide if he or she will be hit or not with the illness. This minister of religion was speaking personally but it makes me feel realy angry....

Lets forget this man, isn't it true that many people think like him, "Only Half Of Us Want Swine Flu Shots". Should we fear the vaccine?. I respect the choice of everyone not to be vaccinated and it's at their own risk, it's a personal decision, everybody is master of his person.

But everyone has the responsibility not to transmit the illness, isn't it? A classroom teacher, a hockey coach, a babysitter, a bus driver, a minister of religion, aren't they a vehicles for the spread of the disease? Apparently, if they ever catch it, they are contagious 24 hours before onset of symptoms. Isn't it a mark of respect for those around them every day? shouldn't they be vaccinated at least to minimize the risk of catching and passing.

I live with someone who almost died of meningitis and I'm going to be vaccinated. I don't want to let this disease to enter our house. It is true that the vaccine could cause side effects but I have no fear. I am certain that Swine Flu would be much worse, if I caught it.

What do you think about this?

In town without my car !

Tuesday, 22 september was "In town without my car !" day , 2009 edition.

On that day, my mother, who is 87 years old, went downtown for an very important appointment on University street. But she has not heard of that event. You know, even if she would have heard the news, she would not have understood the real meaning of this event "In town without my car !".

She has difficulty to walk and she must use the Paratransit service. They came to get her on time for her appointment but they were not there when she wanted to return at the noon hour because streets were closed. Well, it seems to me that someone of paratransit services could have advised her when she took her appointments, 3 days before.

There was no question that she takes the subway. She had to go outside the perimeter and try to find a taxi but this was very hard for her, she felt so much disoriented and besides that, she had problems to walk. From downtown to her apartment in the west, had cost her $40.00 of taxi. This is a lot of money for her.

"The main idea behind this campaign is to encourage the use of alternative forms of transport and travel and to raise awareness within the community of what is at stake with regards to long term mobility in towns and the risks connected with pollution."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_town,_without_my_car!

Does she care? my mother!

What is the idea of closing an entire perimeter to traffic. Does it really reduce traffic? Perhaps, in this perimeter, but what about all outside? My opinion is that it's even worse, because a car will have to make several turns around the perimeter to try to find a parking space becoming more scarce.

And turn the engine turns to go around, and oops! it is a oneway street oops! You have returned to your starting point, we'll try the other side!

Many people will comply, those who can travel with the Metro or have an easy route. But those who have no choice to take the car, consultants, delivery vehicles, persons with disabilities, is there an alternative for them? My mother could not take a "biki". It should also be a good idea to provide three-wheel bycicle Taxi like in Beijing.

The day without cars, it's just smoke and mirrors. If we really want to fight against air pollution and also improve the quality of city life, we should have make a free day of public transport for everybody. City administrators would be very surprised with the results, but maybe it's too simple.

Gelisa