It should come as no surprise that I subscribe to two different “word of the day” emails – I love language and jump at any chance I get to expand my vocabulary. Sometimes I already know the “word of the day”, and other times they’re so obscure I can’t find a use for it in my everyday life, but file it away in my brain for later use. Once in awhile a word comes into my inbox that is new to me and fits perfectly into my life – and today’s word is one of those.
Being a word nerd from a very young age (I was reading chapter books in kindergarten and read the Hobbit for a grade 2 book report when the rest of my class chose Clifford or Franklin books) means that I have a pretty decent vocabulary, and the fact that I took Latin and French in high school helps me figure out words I haven’t come across before. I have a predilection for words that roll off the tongue nicely. Some words just feel right as you say them, and others just always feel awkward and no matter how much you try to make yourself like them, you find yourself using them less and less. I have tons of words that fall into this category – I still try to use them but they never feel right.
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Words have a tendency of being tied up in their grammatical rules and losing favour because of that. I’ve often wished there was a way to look at words on their own, separated from all the grammatical constraints that can render them useless. It turns out there is a word for that. The fact that there’s a word specifically for the study of words and vocabulary of a language separate from grammatical aspects, means that I’m not the only one who wants this kind of information. We should start a club or something. There would have to be a ban on word games though, us word nerds can get super serious and uber competitive about Scrabble, Bananagrams, or Upwords, and that wouldn’t be much fun. Hrm. A word nerd club. I’m going to put that on my “great ideas” list that I never seem to manage to get to. How does one start a club anyway? Can anyone start a club? Related idea: a club for people who like to go off on tangents… or have ADHD… or both. I could totally be president of that club.
Squirrel! Wait… what was I saying?
Back to my word though. It’s a fairly recent word. though significantly older than grok was when I talked about it last month. Lexical dates from the mid 19th century, when I suppose people had time and the literacy skills to start thinking about words more. It comes from the Greek root lexikos which means “of or relating to words”. Not to be confused with the Latin root word Lex which relates to laws or ruling.
Lexical (lex·i·cal) adjective
Of or relating to the words or vocabulary of a language
Last year, I wrote about the Canadian General Election and how it seemed to go on forever. What I didn’t mention at the time is that our elections seem to go by in the blink of an eye when compared with our neighbours to the south. 12 weeks of election run up isn’t even close to the 60 or so weeks that the U.S. Presidential Election seems to last. I know it’s not the actual election until November, but the Primaries and all of the other things that go along with a Presidential election just never end. Even a dedicated political junkie like me is getting election fatigue.
It’s not just the fact that the election seems to be never ending and the jokes on late night television started sounding the same about two months ago, it’s that I cannot stand one of the candidates. Naturally it’s the one who gets the lion’s share of the media coverage because the world is a cruel place sometimes. At first, sitting here in Canada, I thought that Donald Trump running for the Republican nomination was funny, a lark if you will. Now, it’s March and it’s not funny anymore. Not even close. To hear the hatred spewing forth from both the man and his supporters makes me queasy. When he was just a blowhard with a lame reality show (The Apprentice), I could (and did) choose not to watch. Now that he is running for the highest office in the United States, I can’t turn it off.
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To those who say “You’re Canadian, the Presidential election doesn’t affect you” (though most of them say it far less eloquently than that), I reply that as our largest trading partner, the political state in the U.S. does affect us. In that vein, I’d like to offer the words of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau – when speaking to the Press Club in Washington DC in 1969. “Living next to you [America] is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” Our media is heavily influence by the United States, our economy is intertwined, and our position relative to them is unchangeable. We cannot move further away, and Trump is not a friendly or even-tempered elephant.
It’s not just that he’s a racist and has refused to distance himself or decline the endorsement he received from a former Grand Wizard in the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) (and by the way, thanks KKK for making the word wizard a bad thing by using it in your hate-filled organization), but that’s definitely part of it. It’s not just that he is a misogynist and that I disagree completely with his views on women. It’s not even that he regularly makes up ‘facts’ and that his supporters blindly believe him until somebody dares to question him and he claims that he was “misheard” or “misquoted” or “taken out of context”. It’s that he’s a bully and I absolutely abhor bullies.
I was going to use abhor as my word for today but it’s a little too popular for my liking. Then I went to detest, but it didn’t feel strong enough to express how much I loathe Trump and what he stands for. So I racked my brain and came up with Execrate – it’s a synonym of abhor, loathe, and detest but it’s a little less common and a little more fun to say. Plus execrate has a fun etymology – it comes from Latin (of course) exsecrat, which means cursed. Ex is a Latin prefix meaning not and the Latin word sacer unsurprisingly translates to sacred – so the literal translation of execrate was “to put someone under a curse” – which I find very soothing in relation to Mr. Trump (I really like the idea of putting him under a curse – maybe the Imperius curse.. hrm this has possibilities). Nowadays, execrate simply means “to utterly detest” which fits well with my feelings on the subject.
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It seems that practically everybody I know is either on vacation, planning for a vacation, or just back from a vacation. Currently my father is in Arizona, visiting friends of his and golfing, while I’m home shoveling the seemingly never-ending snow and hanging out with the adorable but slightly neurotic Bichon Frise.
Don’t get me wrong, Monty is adorable – but he’s also very stubborn and at 14, very set in his ways. He has cataracts and his night vision isn’t very good so when he wants a drink at 2 am, he stands at the end of the bed and whines until he is either lifted down to the water bowl or it is brought to him. I don’t really mind the nocturnal awakenings, because I like having him sleep with me. He knows it, and sometimes, if he thinks I’ve been too slow to get him water, he stays on the floor and sleeps either in his dog bed or in his ‘house’ (kennel with the door removed and blankets inside). To those who say a dog is incapable of plotting retribution of this sort, I’d beg to differ. This adorable Bichon is totally able to plot and exact revenge.
Yes, that’s an otter he’s resting his chin on, while he plots revenge.
Between dad “helpfully” sending me BBM messages with the weather in Arizona while we were in the middle of a cold snap that resulted in a frozen pipe in the basement, and my friends posting amazing travel photos as they go on their own vacations, I’ve been left with a serious case of wanderlust and no outlet for it in the foreseeable future. The last true “vacation” I went on was over 20 years ago. I’ve been on school trips since then, and a few business trips but nothing that could qualify as a vacation. I’ve got a travel bucket list that grows almost daily as I learn about another place that would be amazing to visit.
The top place on my travel bucket list has been there since I was 9. I was more than a little obsessed with the computer game “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” and played it until I finished the game and then went back and played it again, because I loved it and it was educational so my parents deemed it a good use of computer time. I kept tracking Carmen’s villains to Reykjavík, Iceland, and told myself that one day I would see more of the city than the 3 points of interest in the game. (Seriously, who goes to a bank as one of the first stops in a new place? Apparently V.I.L.E. henchmen do, all the freaking time.) I liked the way Reykjavík rolled off my tongue, and as I’ve learned more about both the city and country, my desire to visit hasn’t lessened. Recently, I learned that there is a craft distilling movement afoot in Iceland – the Eimverk Distillery produces both whiskey and gin – which makes it somewhere I *need* to visit.
Of course there’s always the dream of going somewhere warm and sunny to escape the cold and snowy winter. I went to Disney World with my parents when I was 8, but that was 2 years before I discovered that I actually like roller coasters and rides in general so I missed a lot. It was also before any of the auxillary parks opened – it was just the main park and Epcot, so there’s a lot more I want to explore there. I’m not big on sitting on a beach for more than an hour or two (mostly because of my pale skin and the fact that I have a family history of skin cancer so sitting in the sun isn’t high on my list of fun activities), but I love to swim and snorkel. I also like exploring new places, and am an absolute sucker for museums and local history, so I can always find something to do to entertain myself.
Vacation
I think the time has come to start planning a vacation of my own.. maybe with a couple of friends or solo. Either way, I need a break. I need to get away from the everyday stress and go somewhere where there isn’t just different work to do. (As much as I love the cottage, it isn’t exactly a relaxing getaway when there’s always something to fix / change / paint.) I’ve been reading studies on why it’s important to take vacations and how thinking about and planning vacations can actually increase your happiness. I’ve been under a lot of stress since mum died, and need a place to unwind that isn’t full of memories already. By all accounts, a vacation is in order! Now to save up and decide where to go.
Here in North America, vacation is commonly defined as an extended period of recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling. It’s akin to the word “holiday” in Europe. The word comes from Late Middle English, which (surprise surprise) took it from Latin. The Latin root word is vacare which means “to be unoccupied” . Whether this is relating to the house or the mind is anybody’s guess. I’d say a bit of both.
vacation (va·ca·tion) noun
(North American)
An extended period of recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling.
The number of days or hours per year for which an employer agrees to pay workers while they are not working.
A fixed holiday period between terms in schools and law courts.
The action of leaving something one previously occupied.
After a bit of a respite from Word Wednesday, I’m back at it again. I didn’t think I would miss it but I did. I am an unabashed logophile (more on that another week) and truthfully, picking a favourite word each week isn’t a chore, it’s more of a labour of love. I’ve been working on the craft of writing more this year and have dedicated some time each week for professional development – for the first few months of the year that means reading about writing. Currently, I’m in the middle of Stephen King’s wonderful book On Writing. While I’ve never been a huge fan of King’s horror novels (I still have a mild case of coulrophobia thanks to It – but only those with Pennywise makeup. other clowns aren’t objects of abject terror but I once rode 2 stops past where I needed to get off on the TTC because there was a guy dressed as Pennywise on the platform I needed to use) I appreciate the thought and hard work he devotes to his craft.
King devotes a lot of energy to the notion that writers must be, above all, readers. He says that it really doesn’t matter if the books are classic or even good. Indeed, he argues that “One learns most clearly what not to do by reading bad prose – one novel like Asteroid Miners (or Valley of the Dolls,Flowers in the Attic, and The Bridges of Madison County to name just a few) is worth a semester at a good writing school, even with the superstar guest lecturers thrown in”. I’m inclined to agree, though there are some books I haven’t been able to force myself to finish because the grammatical errors were so egregious that they muddled the plot. At the end of On Writing, King offers up a list of books that he has enjoyed – he says he’s not Oprah and this isn’t a book club reading list but simply a list of books that he has enjoyed and that have helped him grow in his craft. This got me thinking and I’ve been trying to stretch my reading muscles in the weeks since. (Yes I read the “And Furthermore, Part II” section before finishing the book – I’m a rebel like that). One book that I picked up recently and started reading (I typically have at least 3 or 4 books on the go at any given time – I pick and choose which book to read depending on my mood) is the 1961 classic Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. It was here that I came across the word I want to write about today.
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There’s no etymology of this word since it is out of the mind of Heinlein. I have many awesome and geeky friends who use this word often enough that over the years, I’ve figured out the meaning by osmosis. I didn’t truly grok it until I read the definition given by Heinlein in the book:
Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because of our Earthling assumptions) as color means to a blind man.
So now when a friend comments that they grok something, I can smile knowing that I’m in the know. I grok what it means to grok.
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As of today, there is one month left until Christmas, and only 12 days left until the beginning of Hanukkah. Tomorrow is US Thanksgiving and the traditional start to the holiday sales season happens Friday with the retail event known as Black Friday. Most of the people celebrate something in and around December / January so it’s a busy time of year. Between family events, social events, work related events, and school concerts my December calendar is looking very full indeed.
I have to admit that the holidays are much harder now since the death of my mum. She loved Christmas and the house would be bursting at the seams with decorations, music, baking, and presents (one year we had 3 trees – big one in the living room, small one in the family room, and a child / pet proof one in the basement). Dad on the other hand, has leaned more towards the Grinch side of the spectrum. He never begrudged mum all her decorations but we both knew if left to his own devices, there would be a lot less Christmas in the house. I’m somewhere in the middle. I like Christmas and love finding the perfect gift for friends and family members, setting up my nativity scene, and enjoy putting up the tree, but aside from that? I’m not big on decking the halls. Last year it was about 10 days before Christmas when we finally got the tree up (and that was because we had company coming over). I’m not sure when it’s going up this year.
The Christmas tree last year
I have a tradition of getting all the kids in my life (and there are a lot of them) who I buy presents for, books for Christmas. It’s much easier to keep track of reading levels than it is to figure out who likes Littlest Pet Shop vs Barbie vs Transformers vs Hot Wheels. I do that for birthdays – they’re (thankfully) spread out though the year. I get some books used (but in great condition) and some new – helps the budget and the earth. I find 2-3 books per kid and double check with mom and or dad to make sure they don’t already have it, then I put a post-it note with the kid’s name on it and wrap them in a marathon session. The bonus is that books are far easier to wrap than most toys – straight edges and they’re generally flat. This is about 2/3 of the total books for this year:
At least they’re small and stack nicely
All of this has me thinking about holidays and when holidays aren’t actually holidays. We celebrate 2 Thanksgivings here, although I only cook turkey for one. The US Thanksgiving is a social event with 6 or 7 people dropping by all afternoon and evening to hang out and watch football (starting, of course, with my beloved Detroit Lions game at 12:30). So it’s a holiday here, even if its’ not an official holiday in Canada. Today’s Word Wednesday, in celebration of all of this, is holiday. Holiday is defined as a day of festivity or recreation when no work is done. So I guess neither Thanksgiving counts as a holiday in my house – we’re doing outside work on Canadian Thanksgiving and I work before and during the games on US Thanksgiving. The word holiday comes from the Old English halidaeg which translates to ‘holy day’, reflecting that early holidays were religious observances.
Holiday (hol·i·day) noun
A day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspendedin commemoration of some event or in honor of some person.
Any day of exemption from work (distinguished from working day ).
a religious feast day; holy day.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get ready for tomorrow’s holiday.
Canada got a new Prime Minister today. Just 16 days after Canadians voted decisively for real change, Justin Trudeau was sworn in as Canada’s 23rd Prime Minister at Rideau Hall this morning. While not everyone is happy about this (but honestly no government will ever please everyone), I am excited for the change. I think that the gender equal cabinet (there are 15 female cabinet ministers – the largest percentage of women ever) that is also the most diverse cabinet ever is going to ultimately be a good thing. It’s not like cabinets in recent memory have ever been about putting only the most qualified people into the portfolio that most suited them. There has always been an element of regional parity in cabinet making which already hampers the “best person for every position” philosophy, and I don’t think that any of the 14 women chosen weren’t qualified for their portfolio (besides, the only portfolio that you really need prior qualifications for is Finance IMHO).
It has been said that Canadians don’t vote a government in, they vote one out – which I think is true. We’re a multiparty country that vacillates between two governing parties in cycles ranging between 8-12 years. Part of me, the political idealist who is mostly hidden, wants to think that this election wasn’t just about voting out a leader who had overstayed his welcome, it was about something much bigger – possibility.
The new Prime Minister being sworn in. Photo from @JustinTrudeau on Twitter
The possibility of a different direction for the country. One open and honest and accessible to everyone. My amazing friend, (I still can’t believe I’m her friend… I feel like she’s going to wake up and realize I’m nowhere near cool enough to be her friend) Amanda, wrote a heartwrenchingly honest letter to our new Prime Minister asking him to keep his promise to make transgender rights a priority. I feel like if anyone is going to be able to help Alexis grow up in a country that affords her the protection and respect she deserves, it is Mr. Trudeau. And if he doesn’t follow through on this promise, I will be right there with Amanda and all the other allies protesting and holding him accountable.
Already there has been change. Today’s swearing in ceremony was different from any other one in Canadian history – with the public being invited to the grounds of Rideau Hall and with Mr. Trudeau going out and mingling with the crowd. Another amazing woman I know, Amy Boughner, was fortunate enough to be able to go and she got to meet the new Prime Minister and get this picture of him when he was out meeting with the people who came out to witness this historic event.
Photo Courtesy of Amy Boughner
I was trying to decide what my Word Wednesday word was going to be, and flipped on the television coverage of the ceremonies, and the words “hope”, “change”, and “new beginning” kept coming up. I think the perfect word to encapsulate the feeling from today is possibility. So that’s my choice for Word Wednesday on this gorgeous November day. Possibility. It’s a word that has positive connotations, and I think it’s a great thing to have positive thoughts at the swearing-in of a new cabinet.
Possibility
Possibility is another word with Latin roots (I always come back to the Latin roots), coming from Latin to French to English – a fairly straightforward etymological progression. The Latin root word is possibilis meaning “able to be done”, which inspired the Old French word possibilite, from whence (yes, I’m aware that “from whence” is redundant, and I’m going with it anyway because it’s less awkward and Shakespeare used it) we get the English word possibility. Possibility – it even sounds positive, and full of hope and opportunity.
Possibility (pos·si·bil·i·ty ) noun
A thing that may happen or be the case.
The state or fact of being likely or possible; likelihood.
A thing that may be chosen or done out of several possible alternatives
Unspecified qualities of a promising nature; potential.
So there’s a definite possibility that next week’s Word Wednesday post will have something to do with the word whence, because it’s awesome and makes me happy, and there’s an air of possibility in the new government that took office today.
I’m not sure if this happens to everyone but every time I head to a conference, like the fabulous Blissdom Canada Conference, I return to utter chaos. It’s not necessarily the house (though it wasn’t as orderly as I’d left it), it’s more that my life seems to be tossed upside down by the new things I learn at the conference.
I want to implement things right away so that I don’t forget them. At the same time, I don’t want to jump into changes too quickly so I spend a lot of time thinking over (and overthinking) everything. I come home full of amazing ideas and wanting to keep up with all of the new friends I made. This being the digital age, that means a lot of time spent online. Given my ADHD squirrel tendencies, online time tends to devolve quickly into a never ending Facebook spiral with the occasional Youtube or Reddit interlude. Chaos, I tell you, chaos.
Meme based on the original Hyperbole and a Half meme
Inspired by all of this, today’s word Wednesday word is chaos. Chaos comes to us via 14th Century France , taking the word from Latin. The Romans, as they were wont to do, took the word directly from the Greeks. The Greek word in question was khaos which means: abyss, that which gapes wide open, [something that] is vast and empty. The modern definition of chaos, meaning utter confusion, came into being circa the 16th century and comes from a theological interpretation. The Vulgate version of the book of Genesis (circa 1530) used the word chaos to mean “the void at the beginning of creation”.
Chaos
It was the Roman poet Ovid who gave us our current meaning of chaos in his epic, Metamorphoses, when he juxtaposed Khaos with Kosmos – the ordered universe. So the modern meaning of chaos came to be orderless confusion. Which pretty much sums up my life right now. Orderless confusion and plenty of brain squirrels.
Chaos (cha·os) noun
Complete confusion and disorder : a state in which behaviour and events are not controlled by anything
The state of the universe before there was any order and before stars and planets were formed
Hopefully I’ll restore order to my little piece of chaos soon. Until then, I’ll be out chasing the squirrels.
I spent a lot of time this summer with my eyes turned towards the skies. Unlike last summer where it seemed to rain every time I went up to the cottage, and a lot of the time at home (which put a serious damper on the amount of time I could spend stargazing), this summer had less evening / nighttime rain. Mosquitoes aside, there wasn’t anything keeping me from going out on the dock and just staring up at the night sky. While I wouldn’t consider myself an astronomer, I do have a healthy appreciation of the heavens and love learning more about space (and not just from Doctor Who, although that’s pretty awesome too). Speaking of The Doctor, this week’s Word Wednesday post would not apply to anyone from the planet of Gallifrey.
The word that came to mind (mostly because I heard it on an episode of Antiques Roadshow referring to the astronomical tool, when I was trying to figure out what word I should use for this week’s post, is tellurian. The word tellurian has two meanings, one of which is an old astronomical device that I know of as a tellurion but can also be spelled tellurian (at least according to both the Antiques Roadshow and Wikipedia). I’m keeping with the more traditional meaning: a noun meaning “an inhabitant of the earth” (now does the Doctor Who reference make more sense? Probably not, unless you’re a Whovian like me).
Tellurian
Once again, unsurprisingly, this word comes to English via Latin. Though unlike some recent words it is a pretty direct link. The Latin root word is tellus which means “earth”. Interestingly I can’t come up with any other words with the same root, which is unusual for a Latin root. (That’s not to say that there aren’t. If you know of any, please let me know in the comments!) To use it in a sentence: While The Doctor is an alien, his companions have traditionally been tellurian in their origins. Though once they are in the TARDIS are they still able to be described as tellurian? They’re not really inhabiting the earth when they’re off exploring time and space except for all the times they explore earth in another time period. Maybe semi-tellurian should be a thing? While I go ponder that, I’ll leave you with the traditional definition and pronunciation guide.along with a picture of the Earth, taken from space (but sadly, not from the TARDIS). Happy stargazing fellow tellurians.
Home Sweet Home
Tellurian (te-loo r-ee-uh n) noun
An inhabitant of the earth.
adjective
Of or characteristic of the earth or its inhabitants, terrestrial.
There are certain grammar rules that seem to have been passed down through the generations as “thou shalt not” commandments, when, in fact, they are more “use in moderation and with intention” guidelines. Today, instead of picking a word to use, I’d like to write about one of the rules that governs how we use words, and why it’s okay to break it on occasion (and by occasion, I mean whenever you feel like it). The first rule was drummed into me by numerous English teachers over the years, and I blindly accepted it as fact, when in fact it bears more resemblance to fiction: Never end a sentence with a preposition. Switching a sentence around to ensure that you don’t break this “rule” leads to sentences that bear little resemblance to how people actually speak and think, causing overly formal, stuffy writing. Instead of the perfectly acceptable “Which team are you rooting for?” question at a Superbowl party, blind adherence to this so-called rule would have us asking “For which team are you rooting?” which isn’t horrible, but seems overly formal. There are times when changing the sentence structure to comply with this rule actually makes the sentence harder to understand. For example, “What did you write that paper for?” is a perfectly understandable sentence, while “For what [reason] did you write that paper” requires an extra word to be understood, and is very formal. Since the object of writing is to clearly communicate ideas, I’d like to propose that instead of saying “Never end a sentence with a preposition”, we change it to” Use prepositions at the end of sentences when they make grammatical sense”. So, go ahead and use a preposition at the end of a sentence, but if the sentence makes sense without the preposition, drop it. (So you don’t need to ask “Where are you at?”, because the word at is redundant. The question makes just as much sense if you ask “Where are you?”)
I did a little digging and found out that this “rule”seems to have originated in the 17th century, and not so much as a rule but as an observation on another writer’s work. Then again, the word preposition actually tells you where it should be in the sentence by virtue of the Latin words that make it up. (Looks like I will be doing a traditional explain-the-word Word Wednesday post after all!) The word combines the Latin word prae (pre) meaning before and ponere which means to place. So the word preposition literally means to place before. In Latin grammatical constructs, which have far fewer exceptions than English ones, a preposition is placed before the noun in a sentence (the main exception being the word cum, meaning with, which sometimes followed the noun) and sentences do not end with prepositions. That said, Latin is a language with more flexible word order than English, so I’m not sure that it wouldn’t have evolved in a similar pattern.
I’m going to leave you with a meme I found that made me chuckle
Word Wednesday – In search of the ghost of Tom Thompson
It’s been a busy week around here. I spent most of the day Thursday and all day Friday and Saturday getting ready for Dad’s 60th birthday party at the cottage. Thursday I put in a full 8 hours of work writing for clients, packed the car for dad and the dog to leave for the cottage right after dinner, and then went into town to get some supplies for the party (and a card for dad since I’d forgotten to get one when I got part of his present). Somehow, I managed to volunteer for a couple of hours AND get the errands done but it meant I was out until 10:45 pm which was longer than planned. Friday, I got up early, loaded the van with all the last-minute things like gas cans for the boat that can’t go in the night before, packed the cooler, went to the vet to pick up Monty’s special cookies, dropped a bag at home, picked up the ice pack I’d forgotten, and drove to the cottage stopping at Costco and for Gas and other party supplies on the way. I had lists on top of lists on top of lists, with photographs of said lists on my BlackBerry in case I misplaced one. It was supposed to be a quick in and out mission at Costco. Of course, if you’ve ever been to a Costco en route to cottage country on a Friday during the summer, you’ll realize the folly of my plan.
Actually Costco itself wasn’t the problem. Their debit system wasn’t working though which made for longer than usual lineups and very frustrated people in line. This despite having multiple employees walking through the line-up area announcing that the debit was unavailable but MasterCard or cash would work. I know I heard the announcement at least 4 times while waiting in line. Whatever was messing with the debit system also made the bank machine at Costco not work. People were given the option to put their carts to the side and go out of the store, across the street to a bank (and there were multiple banks available within a 5 minute drive of this Costco) and pay cash for their purchases or they could line up at the one customer service till that managed to have debit service. I didn’t need debit so I was fine but the number of people who screamed at the Costco employees astounded me. I mean, grow up people. Sometimes things happen, and yes, it’s annoying but I highly doubt the Costco employee you’re currently berating woke up and thought “hey you know what would be fun today, pulling the plug on the debit machine to completely screw over customers”, so cut them some slack. (OK the rant portion of this post is now over – I needed to get that off my chest though!)
Having made all the stops I needed to, I proceeded up to the cottage pulling over a few times because the rain was so heavy I couldn’t see the road. (PSA – when it’s raining cats and dogs put on your headlights people – yes your daytime running lights give you a little light but they don’t activate tail lights and those are kind of important when driving on the 400 series highways in a rainstorm!) The normally 2.5 hour drive took me a bit shy of 5 hours with the stops and the rain. I was frazzled when I got to the cottage. My uncle arrived a couple of hours later and we had some dinner which made everyone feel better. I asked dad if it had rained at the cottage and described my drive. He said it hadn’t yet. The speed at which a storm can roll in at the lake never fails to astound me. One minute there are scattered clouds, and the next it’s a downpour. This storm was one to remember too – the wind was whipping the water and the waves on the lake were moving from north to south at high-speed. At one point I could barely see the end of the dock because it was raining so hard. We lost power briefly but thankfully not for long. The rumbling thunder rattled the windows and the lightning lit up the evening sky. I went and sat in my bedroom with the dog, who, after years of being ambivalent about thunder and rain on the metal roof, has suddenly decided he doesn’t much care for it and would like to be petted and reassured please and thank you. I was glad I’d got all the essentials down from the van before the storm and was hoping the fierce storm would make way for a nice sunny day for the party. It did.
Saturday dawned with high heat, humidity, and lots of sunshine. I appreciated the sunshine as I spent six straight hours putting the last touches on the cottage, trying to clean the resin patio furniture, making beds at the rental cottage next door for guests who would be staying overnight, and getting appetizers ready for the party. Dad and my uncle also helped, moving stuff out of the way, vacuuming the cottage, and stocking the beer fridge. They also did some quality testing of each of the 4 types of beer we had in stock for our guests. We all jumped in the lake to cool off, then I jumped in the shower because my hair was legitimately gross from sweating so much while trying to make the patio furniture look less dingy (I swear, I’m just going to buy that plastic spray paint next time). We still had an hour before the first guests were due to arrive – except some decided to show up early. Naturally. For the next 6 hours I ran around like a mad woman – greeting guests, introducing people, getting drinks, making sure there was enough food, meeting and helping the caterer bring down the main course, cleaning up spills, putting leftovers in the fridge, finding containers for the leftovers when the big catering trays wouldn’t fit in the fridge, bringing the cake over from next door, and generally being social. As an introvert, that party was exhausting. Even with slightly less than 20 guests, I felt like I was always being pulled in a multitude of directions. I tried to escape for a few minutes a couple of different times but one guest in particular seemed to *desperately* need my help to find *something* the minute I closed my door (she also had no qualms about opening my closed bedroom door to ask me things – what if I’d been changing?) so I never managed to steal away for those much-needed recharging minutes alone.
All of that aside, the party was a great success. Much fun was had, the food was amazing, and the designated driver system I’d arranged worked as planned. Everyone got home safely and I fell into bed about 1:30 am exhausted. Of course I didn’t sleep well because I was over-tired. Which leads me to my Word Wednesday for this week and what I’ve been seeking since Sunday morning.
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Quietude – a favourite synonym of mine for tranquility. While this is a working holiday for me in that I have some writing to do for clients, it’s also a week for recharging my batteries by the lake. I’ve been more quiet than normal on Twitter, because I just don’t have the energy to do it right and I’d rather be quiet than simply broadcast tweets without engaging. I’ve got my colouring books and pencil crayons, a stack of books in a TBR pile on my nightstand, a kayak to explore in, a motor boat for trips further around the lake, and a Muskoka chair sitting on the deck that overlooks the lake. I’m off in search of quietude and know I’ll find it here. I love sitting and looking at the wind move the tree branches. Several of the pines I saw on my boat ride on Monday looked like they’d leapt off of the canvas of a Tom Thompson painting. Indeed, our cottage is only about 45 minutes away from one of the southern entrances to Algonquin Park where Thompson drew his inspiration from the Canadian Shield. Whenever I see a windswept pine tree, I am reminded of the print we had hanging in the house I grew up in, and of this great Canadian artist who managed to capture the places where rocks, trees, and water meet so vividly.
The word quietude is one of my favourite words, not just because it’s what I’m often seeking, but because it has a very simple etymology. It’s derived from the Latin word quietus which means (according to my trusty Latin-English dictionary) a stillness or pause; something that quiets or represses; removal from activity; especially: death. While death is somewhat extreme, I am enjoying the removal from activity, and the stillness of the lake. I’ve included a couple of pictures I took on our Monday boat ride up the lake that capture some of the quietude I find up here.
Quietude (qui·etude) noun
The state of being quiet or calm; tranquility.
The trees seem to just grow out of the bare rocks. There is so little soil that I’m constantly amazed more don’t topple over into the lake. I love this group of trees, close to the cottage of a childhood friend. Whenever I go by and it’s windy, it looks like they’re waving to me.
