A river flows through it - our very own

Today we had 50 mm (2 inches) of rain in just a few hours. The result was a river of stormwater through our backyard.


Here are some pictures of our very own river starting from our neighbours' property and going out at the bottom of our yard. The dark thing in the middle of the third picture is our fire pit.

A response to "U of C wasting money"

On Feb 3 I posted an article published by the Calgary Herald, U of C wasting money.  My brother-in-law in Scotland, Reinier, sent me an email expressing reservations and defending the university's position. Reinier and I have had many debates and discussions on many things. I love him dearly, as he does me, and we have a deep respect for each other. We simply do not agree on some issues - this being one of them. With his permission I post his response here. The photos are nothing to do with the article or Reinier's response but were taken when Ingrid, Judith and I visited Glasgow two years ago. The one on the left is Judith, Maya, Reinier and Ingrid walking along the bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond. On the right is Fleshmarket Close in Edinburgh where Ian Rankin had somebody murdered in his book of the same name.

Hi Terry

I, too, expected you to disagree with me. But, perhaps, both of us are wrong to’expect’ these stances from one another. On second reflection, me, you, and people generally are far more complex in their emotions and reactions to life’s challenges than we would credit.

I know that the ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’ debates conjure the most bitter and emotionally-charged arguments. Your  blog entry and links to the U of Calgary and their SU webpage (I’m sorry! …don’t know how to do these links!) reveals an abundance of opinions regarding the rights and wrongs of abortion. 

The issue regarding banning the particular group, though, seems to be about the rights and wrongs of free speech. And the right – if that is claimed – of a group of people to confront very vulnarable women regarding their fucundacy or pregnancy. I believe that’s wrong - and if you go to the U of C website and read the comments I think you’ll agree that, at the very least, the pro-life campaign is problematic.

Of course you are welcome to publish my response. Like, you – even if from the opposite angle – I would welcome further debate. 

Fond regards,

Reinier

James has breezed back into our lives

I think the obvious place to start to catch up since February is with the biggest item of news first, which also happens to be the most recent. James has breezed back into our lives after totally disappearing off our radar for more than ten years. James, for those who do not know, is our adopted son, our sixth "kid", older than Miriam by three years. He will be the first to tell you that his policy has always been, "Don't call me, I'll call you." He backed this up by keeping his whereabouts secret even from the Security Police, CSIS, FBI, CIA, KGB... Nobody ever knew where James was except James, and God.

Last Saturday Aunty Bessie (about to turn 93 - has just memorised Pat Prinsloo's new phone number because she is pretty-well blind - don't ask me the number, I have it written down somewhere) asked me on our weekly phone call if we ever heard from James because she has been praying for him every day for ten years and it would be nice to know if her prayers were being answered. I told her I had not heard from him since before leaving for Canada in 1998 and at this stage did not expect to hear from him anymore. On Tuesday somebody named Steve left a comment on this blog telling me he has been trying to get hold of me about James. I replied and told him he had my full attention - I had been ignoring his "friend request" on Facebook. One email led to another. Apparently James had been looking for us and Steve tracked me down to this blog. On Friday Ingrid & I had an hour long phone conversation with James at the place where he has been boarding with Steve's mother for the last eight years in George in the Eastern Cape. Miriam and James were talking on Saturday; Mark took his turn today (Sunday). Everybody is very happy at the "reunion" - James so much so that he has given us all his contact info! Deo Gratias!

Other news...

Mark and Luisa "actualised" their Christmas present to Ingrid and me - a weekend of painting and DIY getting our house a bit more ready for all the relatives who will be visiting for the wedding in August. They did a great job and seemed to enjoy it; we enjoyed having them.

We all enjoyed getting together at Geoff and Miriam's for a braai (BBQ) to watch South Africa beat Australia in one of the recent Twenty/20s. Geoff has impressed us all learning the laws and terms of cricket as well as doing an excellent job with wors (South African sausage) on the braai. Afterwards they all jammed down in the basement where Geoff and Miriam have a really nice setup with drums, keyboard, guitars.

Final news item: it snowed. What's new about that in Canada you ask? Well, if you consider that the picture of the the mourning doves basking in the sun was taken March 1, and the pictures of the snow were taken April 6 & 7, then you can understand the communal depression that came over the people of southern Ontario as the snow hung around for another 9 days. Yesterday and today were just wonderful and I even saw dandelions. We'll be overwhelmed by weeds before we know it. Come on summer.

February was quite a busy month.

February was quite a busy month. 

Miriam and Geoff engaged

First off, on the 9th Geoff got down on one knee in the middle of a romantic plaza in Mexico and asked a comfortably seated Miriam if she would marry him. Apparantly her response was to rub her hands together with glee, say yes, yes, yes and give him a big hug. She is now wearing the diamond ring he offered her as an earnest of his intentions. Congratulations, Geoff and Miriam. We now have two engaged couples in the clan.

Thirty-five years married

On Valentine's Day Ingrid and I went to a dinner dance put on by Marriage Encounter in Toronto. This doubled as our wedding anniversary celebration which came up the following week - 35 years.  At the dance Ingrid and I won a raffle for the first time since coming to Canada over ten years ago - a basket with 2 bottles of wine plus some rather nice chocolates.

Stephen - quarter century milestone

Judith came home for Reading Week on the 15th. It was a pretty busy week for her and she even managed to get in some study "reading". It also worked out well with the timing of Stephen's birthday because it meant that the whole clan could get together for this quarter century celebration when, at precisely 16:00 on the 22nd Stephen crossed the line from the side where he was closer to twenty over to the side where he is now closer to thirty years of age - a moment of deep existential angst for Stephen which he now seems to have accepted with the maturity that comes with such milestones.

AUER House concert with Greg Klyma

Last night Ingrid and I went to an AUER House concert with Greg Klyma. Friends of ours, George and Monica, have taken to hosting house concerts featuring talented young singer song-writers in their home. We have been to four of these and really enjoy meeting these musicians, hearing the stories behind their songs, watching them play their instruments mere feet away from where you are sitting and, of course, getting them to personally autograph their CD's. Ingrid chickened out of repeating a friend's request to Greg to personalise the autograph to "Hard Kisser", the title of one of his songs...

Layoffs at work

On a more sombre note, this last week was extremely difficult at work where five colleagues were laid off due to the downturn in the economy and pessimistic financial projections for the short-term. Two of these good people had been working for the company since before I joined ten-and-a-half years ago. One of the things that I found particularly difficult was knowing that these were good, competent, hard workers. Once upon a time that was sufficient for one to be pretty confident about keeping your job but that is something that has changed in the last few months.

Wet basement

Our other negative for the month was that our basement took in water from the spring thaw and rain three times in the last four weeks. Two of those occasions coincided with Ingrid taking a day off from work - days which she had planned to use for things other than lugging a carpet wet-vac. We had been advised that we may need to rip up our back deck and reslope the ground at the back of our house. However, on the occasion of the last "flood" I had opportunity to examine the outlet from a rain downpipe that leads under the ground to a point lower down in our garden. There should have been water pouring out of there but there wasn't even a drop coming through. I am hoping that by redirecting the runoff from that downpipe I will avert future basement flooding and am now actually looking forward to the next warm downpour (temperature today around -13 Centigrade before the windchill.)

Viva The Sharks! Viva!

On a positive note I'm pleased with how my rugby team, The Sharks, have been performing in the Super 14. I should hasten to point out that the rest of the family support the Lions... Ja, well, no, fine.

University of Calgary trampling on free speech

The following is taken from today's online edition of the Calgary Herald

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/wasting+money/1246995/story.html

U of C wasting money

In pursuing trespassing charges against students who set up a pro-life display on campus last fall, the University of Calgary is not only trampling on free speech, it is wasting money on an expensive court case at a time when the global economic crisis has cost the university $78 million of its endowment fund. The money the U of C is about to fritter away on lawyers and court costs in its oppression of students whose only "crime" is publicly espousing pro-life views, could be better directed to research, infrastructure, scholarships for underprivileged students or other practical purposes.

The university's hypocrisy is appalling and not just because a university by its very nature is supposed to be a forum for free speech, dissent and debate. As the Campus Pro-Life club points out, theirs is the only group whose graphic display the university ordered turned inward so passersby couldn't see it. A bare 30 metres from the pro-life display, graphic pictures of atrocities inflicted on members of Falun Gong by the Chinese government were al-lowed to be on display with nary a word of protest from university authorities. The university clearly appears to be muzzling views with which it does not agree -- a shameful stance for any institution worthy of the name "university" to take.

Last November, the club received a letter from Paul Beke, the U of C's lawyer, claiming that the university is private property and has a right to control what happens on that property. The university, in reality, is a publicly funded institution, and students who have paid tuition to attend the U of C cannot be accused of trespassing when they're on campus. They also have a right to express their views, regardless of how unpopular those views may be with the administration.

A court must rule on the side of freedom of expression, for if students' opinions are successfully muzzled today, then perhaps tomorrow the university's professors need to start looking over their shoulders, too.

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