happened upon this scene
while out on a walk today
i’m not sure what happened
but it couldn’t have been good.
—
“every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen.”
-amy winehouse
Aug6
Tag Archives: cars
May25
subtlety.
“it pays to be obvious,
especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.”
-isaac asimov
Jan13
‘Donuts. Is there anything they can’t do?’ – Matt Groening
image credit: wwll vintage gas ration ad
i love my carpool. there are only two of us, but any more than one living thing in a car at the same time, and i consider it a pool. on most days, we drive together to and from school, in our cars with character – mine is ‘diablo rojo,’ and m’s is ‘sharfonda.’ driving together has many benefits: not only do we save money on gas, and help preserve a smidgen of the world’s energy supply, but the company is wonderful.
we are very much alike, and talk about everything. and make up poetry and tell stories and laugh and go off on tangents and share philosophies and cry and sing. and get lost occasionally, as neither of us has an innate sense of direction. we compare our students, ‘m’ teaches english and poetry at our high school and i, on the opposite end of the spectrum, teach kindergarten in our lower school. even so, we find that many of our student and family and teaching issues are very similar, and we listen and support each other and offer advice. our drive usually takes us about 45 minutes, if all is well along the way, and we don’t end up in some place we hadn’t planned on.
but – on some days, things happen. life may be challenging, we are worrying about someone or something, there are issues on the road, there is a tornado watch, a blizzard, a rain squall, or construction events, or we feel like we are driving through a video game, and we have had it, and need some extra support.
we discovered our cure one day, when it had been a particularly challenging drive. and m suddenly yelled out, ‘quick, turn in! it’s a tim horton’s and we need to go there now!’ i was behind the wheel, and diablo rojo did as requested. as we entered the drive-through we decided that we needed (and deserved), a few ‘tim-bits’ (delicious tiny donut holes), to help us make it the rest of the way and to instantly give us a pick me up. we quickly scanned the menu options:
Timbits:
10 pack – 1.50
20 pack – 2.50
40 pack – 4.75
we decided it was a 40 timbits kind of day.
and we were soon on our way, making up timbit haiku and laughing once again.
image credit: http://www.newswire.ca
Chef Andrea Nicholson, of Top Chef Canada, with the Tim Hortons Timbits cake she created.
Nearly four feet tall, the cake contains more than 1,500 Timbits.
for chef andrea, it was a 1,500 timbits kind of day, must have been a tough one.
—
But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
Nov24
crashing into kindness
with the day’s sudden onset of a 7 minute mini white-out, a few slick portions appeared on the local roads. soon after this winter-tease display tossed out by mother nature, i happened to encounter one of these slick spots firsthand. it was on a little bridge leading back from the library towards my cottage.
‘black ice’ is a phenomenon known to those in the northern climates – innocent looking, shiny, invisible, traction-less, and extraordinarily slippery. this was the day that black ice and i crossed paths on the bridge, and as i tried to brake, my car continued to move forward, and i slammed smack into the car stopped right in front of me.
after the crash, we drove ahead and popped out of our cars to assess the damage. i was happily surprised to find that we were both fine, and that our cars had somehow each suffered nothing more than a scratch on our bumpers.
the extraordinary surprise came when i soon realized that i had smashed into one of the happiest, friendliest, people on the planet. he was smiling, and kind, and calm, said he was happy nothing bad had happened, he understood why it happened, and that it had happened to him before. i apologized profusely and he shook his head telling me not worry about it at all.
he gave me his card, and as we talked, i found that we both work with young children. he, working with children in the foster care system, pursuing a masters in social work to continue helping in that field, and me, with my kinders, trying to teach them about life. he told me to keep in touch, that we may be able to help the children in some way, or who knows? it was just like crashing into santa claus in his sleigh. and with a jolly chuckle and a wave goodbye, we were both off on our way once again, and felt somehow better for having met.
___
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances – Aristotle
I didn't have my glasses on.... 