zipping across H2O

18 Jul 2008 from PEACEWORK's MySpace blog

Current mood: blissful
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

just when you think, "oh no, that was a split second too late or too early", feel yourself tipping over backwards already calculating whether it's going to save damage if you jump off and where the mast is going to go, you see the horizon tilting and the board turning into an alligator under your too fast and/or slow moves with your greenhorn cut up barefoot soles - THAT is when the sail catches you and the boom pulls so hard in your fists that the chalice in your palms will disguise your formerly fragile hands within two days. Shovels, that's what I have now. "Pull the gas in slowly now", he yells across the water, and my body tells me to step out both feet and lean into the wind to come up with the least against that pulling wind that carries me FOR FREE, while the board divides the gusty river with me on it. I f..g did it. I am wind surfing.

Yeeeeehaaaaa!

And when you're in it, it's fast. No thinking, just feeling it move you, feeling where it wants to be on the sail, moving, tilting, changing, adjusting your position, careful, not to hurt your feet on the router end.

The board so tippy, the possibilities of a freely turnable mast endless, the adrenalin rush under full sail doesn't compare to much other. There is no stable position on that board except under wind. Tip the mast to the front it turns downwind, tilt it back u go into the wind. What a fine line that is, and how little can throw u out of it... it's like dancing, though: don't look at your feet, just never let your sail out of focus. The wind is your friend, just gotta feel out how to ride it... wow, riding the wind. How lucky am I that other people invented all that already??

This whole mast-boom-sail-board-and-router-thing is such a genius cohesion, but actually very simple when you look at it. Brilliant, really. I love it.

Scott showed me how to turn behind the sail in tipping the mast over to the front of the board - in weak winds, but nonetheless - to-tal-ly cool. I haven't tried it yet, but just because of the stupid thunderstorms and the wind dying down yesterday.

Pride or some triumphant feeling in my chest. Standing on shore with the legs straight first since an hour and shaking. Maybe just coming off the a and trying to breathe, too. I knew all along that I wanted to do it and that I would like it. The first time I remember trying it, I was in an English class on Malta, with my mom and brother. We lived in families, they together in one, me in a different one. I remember the really big cockroaches on the streets at night, tea and toast with orange marmalade for breakfast and lots of salty water down my nostrils while trying to cross over to an island with my things over my head - I turned around... back? In any case, I never made it to the island, didn't drown either, though. We had access to some kind of beach club close to the school, where they had some boards. The ones I tried had the mast coming out of the lock while trying to pull the sail up, so I gave up pretty fast, not without wrecking my back. The whole thing was free, but no lessons and pitiful equipment - tasted like a cheap copy of the real thing then, and it makes me so happy to have gone with that instinct and kept on looking for it...

I remember my disappeared dear cousin Elmar inviting me for lessons, he spent a lot of time windsurfing when we were still all living in G... he is blond, so blond, his hair is so fair...

I never went. Now I feel like going to Mexico (where he was last seen) just to try to find him, do something instead of just sitting here. I am debating if a facebook page would help finding him... it's like admitting that he's lost when u start your search. It's like believing that u can still find him at the same time...

The younger sister of my grandmother (my mother's mom's sister) and her husband, my favorite uncle Mietek once taught me some sailing lessons in an optimist - I must have been a kid then, the wall was still up and everybody needed to get through these nasty border controls while traveling to Berlin or Szcezchyn, where the daughters of the couple live. I can still feel the water on my arse, while some blond almost-man pulled me back to shore off some lake, rope-attached to his motor boat, I was silently dying of shame while his stone grey-blue eyes stared into the open. I didn't speak Polish, and I don't remember him saying anything in German to me...

Except for the day when I managed to cut my feet up pretty painfully because I couldn't get it together in that kind of super wind and drifted around more or less wasting myself on trying to pull the sail up in the gusting winds, I caught myself thinking "yeah, aunt Renate and uncle Mietek would be proud of me now if they were still alive", when they were probably feeling really amused at best to watch my total failing which demonstrated sufficiently how I had not grasped any of the sketches on the chalk board concerning wind direction, turn line, tacking and so forth, that they wasted on me during that theory lesson.

It's all behind me now. If only my feet's cuts would stop burning... we used to jam in the morning, now it's more like: "What's the wind like, honey?"

Anybody heard the weather forecast?

After all that summer leisure I'd like to point out two things:

1. Merrickville residents saved so much water that the town is now raising the water fees. That sure is one hell of a policy in terms of motivation. Wrong signal, daddy-oh. Or are you trying to scratch up the lacking six million for the treatment plant? Meanwhile it can only appear decadent to flush your excrements with potable water instead of composting or fermenting to use the remaining energy...

2. I'd like to share Janet Stavinga's invitation to the next Source Protection Report SPC meeting (no idea about this abbreviation) on August 7th, @ 1pm in the Plevna community hall.

Janet is the chair of the Mississippi Rideau Source Protection Region located @

3889 Rideau Valley Drive, Manotick ON K4M 1A5
1-800-267-3504 ext 1147 or 1 613 692 3571

In the add in the Advance Weekender from today is a lot more interesting information and one can probably find out about that here
www.mrsourcewater.ca and here
www.ebr.gov.on.ca (u may wanna comment until deadline Aug 4th on proposed legislation detailing how to prepare technical assessment reports, registry 010-3873) and by emailing her here: janet.stavinga@mrsourcewater.ca,

but attend in any case, because "This meeting will be interesting as we hear from the Province as to whether or not uranium exploration is a significant threat to our municipal drinking water systems" (from Janet's invitation).

I can't wait to see whom they will send to tell those lies...

peace always, my friends, and a good night!

Weeds and the Suburbanites

(clicking on the title takes u 2 an interesting article about lawns)

Morning!

Somebody sent me this by email and I am smiling over the timing... I suppose, a lot of you enjoy the rain as you don't have to water your lawn, but it makes the grass grow so fast... well, I hope you'll find this conversation between GOD and St. Francis stimulating, too.... The photo shows my backyard. I didn't plant much and I never ever weed it, needless to say. I did put the stone walkway in...




GOD:

Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago?
I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles.

ST. FRANCIS:

It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers "weeds" and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.

GOD:

Grass? But, it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees; only grubs and sod worms. It's sensitive to temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?

ST. FRANCIS:

Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD:

The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST. FRANCIS:

Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it - sometimes twice a week.

GOD:

They cut it? Do they then bail it like hay?

ST. FRANCIS:

Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD:

They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?


ST. FRANCIS:

No, Sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.


GOD:

Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And, when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

ST. FRANCIS:

Yes, Sir.

GOD:

These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.

ST. FRANCIS:

You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD:

What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn, they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. It's a natural cycle of life.

ST. FRANCIS:

You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.

GOD:

No. What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST. FRANCIS:

After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.

GOD:

And where do they get this mulch?

ST. FRANCIS:

They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.

GOD:

Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?

ST. CATHERINE:

"Dumb and Dumber", Lord. It's a story about....

GOD:

Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.

Algonquin leader fined, jailed six months

Second uranium mining protester also fined but released on 'compassionate grounds'
Posted By Sue Yanagisawa Whig-Standard Court Reporter, posted 2 days ago

The lawyer for a uranium prospecting company, frustrated by an Algonquin-led protest that disrupted the company's plans for test drilling north of Sharbot Lake last summer, said it gave him "no pleasure to ask for incarceration."

Yet Neal J. Smitheman asked for exactly that this week, the maximum jail sentence possible in fact, and substantial fines against Algonquin leaders who refused to 'purge' contempt charges by formally promising not to interfere in the future with his client, Oakville-based Frontenac Ventures Corp.

Yesterday morning, Superior Court Justice Douglas Cunningham gave Smitheman what he had asked for.

After observing that "they have not only engaged in a full-scale occupation of the Clarendon site, they have counselled others to do so as well," and telling those present in the courtroom that "compliance with the orders of this court are not optional," Cunningham ordered Ardoch Algonquin First Nation co-chief Paula Sherman and community spokesman Robert Lovelace jailed for six months.

Cunningham said the sentences could be discharged at any point if the two leaders agreed to purge their contempt. Until then, however, he directed the OPP to take them into custody.

About an hour later, Sherman returned to the courtroom with lawyer Christopher Reid, who represents the Ardoch Algonquins, and Smitheman told the judge that he and Reid had reached "an accommodation" on her behalf that was "motivated on compassionate grounds."

Reid was blunter.

"Ms. Sherman is sole support for three children and she will lose them if she goes to jail," he told judge.

Consequently, she had agreed to enter into an undertaking promising to comply in future with the "letter and spirit" of Cunningham's Sept. 27 injunction. The injunction requires that Frontenac Ventures have "unfettered and unobstructed access" to its mineral exploration claim - about 30,000 acres of Crown and private land in North Frontenac.

It specifically bars the Algonquin communities living in the area and "persons unknown" from "interfering with, disrupting or hindering" Frontenac Ventures, its employees, agents or contractors. Having agreed on the record to future compliance with the injunction, a process known as purging contempt, Cunningham discharged the custodial portion of his order against Sherman and she was not sent to jail.

At the precise moment she was being dealt with in the second-floor courtroom, however, Lovelace was being placed in the Quinte Detention Centre transport van at the rear of the Frontenac County Court House. Chanting and ululating from a group of supporters, who had gone outside, could be heard faintly through the windows on the north wall of the court.

The sounds of outrage had been much louder, ringing in fact, an hour earlier when Cunningham's initial pronouncement of sentence was greeted by loud jeers of "Shame! Shame!" from the packed spectators' gallery. At its peak, a dark-haired woman from among the non-native supporters of the Algonquin leaned across the bar of the court, behind lawyers representing the attorney general, and berated the judge.

"This court is participating in the biggest public health disaster this country has ever seen. Do you understand that?" she yelled up at the judge.

Cunningham paused briefly, but didn't have her removed. Instead, he continued with sentencing, ordering that Lovelace pay a fine of $25,000, Sherman a fine of $15,000 and the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation $10,000 for past conduct. He set additional fines of $2,000 a day for every day they're not in compliance in the future and ended by ordering the Ardoch Algonquin statement of defence struck.

They are precluded from bringing any application or motion before him until their contempt is purged.

Reid, putting it in ordinary language after the proceedings ended, said "they are booted out of the court."

What that means in the short term, he said, is that his clients won't be allowed to mount their core defence in March when they return for a second round in these proceedings.

"The statement of defence," he explained, "challenges the constitutional validity of the Mining Act."

The perversity of the situation, he added, is that his clients are being punished for resorting to direct action instead of relying on the courts. But "they can't come to court now. Self-help is all that's left to them now."

At this point, Reid said he's talking to his clients about an appeal.

Cunningham, in explaining his reasoning for the sentence, said that the adoption of self-help flaunts the rule of law and can't be tolerated because "respect for our court system evaporates and our entire society suffers as a result."

His sentence, he added, had to send a message to others who might consider similar action.

Respect for the court system wasn't exactly inspired in the largely partisan crowd of spectators who watched as the two prisoners were taken into custody, however.

After Cunningham rose, those who weren't attached to Frontenac Ventures or the provincial Ministry of Northern Development and Mines stood en masse and applauded Sherman and Lovelace, some ululating, an expression in sound that can denote sorrow, celebration, honour, defiance or all of them at once.

Gloria Morrison - the wife of Frank Morrison, one of only two non-natives charged in the contempt proceedings - was seething in a quiet and dignified way. Her husband has attended the court case only intermittently when he's been obliged to but she's been a fixture since hearings began last summer.

The Morrisons own 100 acres of managed forest and marshland north of Snow Road, property crossed by the Big Antoine and Little Antoine creeks and a man-made stream, which all flow directly into the Mississippi River. They're opposed to uranium drilling and believe it endangers both the surface and sub-surface waters in the area.

They were devastated when they discovered that Frontenac Ventures had come onto their land without permission sometime in 2006, staked a prospecting claim that covers about 70 per cent of their holding, and that there was nothing they could do about it. According to Frank Morrison, the claim staking alone has destroyed the market value of the property.

It was Gloria Morrison who first alerted the Ardoch Algonquins to the sort of prospecting Frontenac Ventures was doing and asked them to get involved.

She's unhappy that her husband's case - like that of Christian Peacemaker David Milne - was severed from the main action against the Ardoch Algonquin earlier this week.

His Ottawa lawyers weren't provided in advance with essential documents by the Frontenac Ventures legal team, however. Consequently, his case had to be put over to March to allow for proper disclosure.

Gloria Morrison said she's been disillusioned by what she's seen since her involvement in this whole thing began.

At 57, she didn't have any experience with the courts before this, she explained. She had never even experimented with teenage rebellion or hippie culture: "I walked on green lights and picked up garbage off the street. I never smoked and don't drink."

She admits she had certain expectations about how things were supposed to work for law-abiding citizens. But after witnessing this case unfold, "it has not solved anything," she said. "It's painful and it has created a situation where many of us will follow."

Unlike Sherman, all of her children are grown and should it come to that, "I am fully able and willing to go to jail," Morrison said, "and no, I would not apologize either for protecting our air and water."

Reid was clearly upset by the outcome of the sentencing.

"I was expecting there would be a period of incarceration. I don't think anybody expected six months," and described it as "pretty draconian," he said outside the courtroom.

He was also unhappy with Sherman's predicament and the pressure such a lengthy sentence had imposed on her. "If her kids were now adults, she'd be in jail right now," he said, "but she can't deprive them of a mother."

As for the fines "you might as well make it $10 million, as far as the ability to pay goes for these people."

Bluntly put, Reid said, "Bob Lovelace is a political prisoner. He's done nothing violent. He hasn't hurt anybody. He's in jail because of his beliefs."

suey@thewhig.com
Article ID# 906107

Nuclear River or Bad Science?

TALK: NUCLEAR RIVER OR BAD SCIENCE?

This is your chance to come out and ask important questions!!!

THE MISSISSIPPI MILLS RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION (MMRA)
TALK: NUCLEAR RIVER OR BAD SCIENCE?
INFO: ARNIE FRANCIS arnie@istar.ca

Date/Time: Friday, October 12, 2007, 7:30 pm
Location: Almonte United Church Social Hall, 106 Elgin Street, Almonte

Here's a link to Google maps.

Cost: No admission charge – Free-will offering gratefully accepted.

This is a moderated information session which will include three perspectives as well as a chance for questions and answers. This uranium mining issue is proving to be a complicated and emotionally-charged debate in which many residents of Mississippi Mills are deeply engaged. The topic has been the subject of several news items of late. This moderated session will allow audience members to clarify their understanding of the issues and pose questions to the speakers.

Speakers:

Mr. John Kittle MSc has 2 years experience in nuclear physics research at Carleton University. As a resident of North Frontenac he will present his understanding about the dangers and consequences of proposed mining operations on the health of the Mississippi Watershed.

Mr. George White, President of Frontenac Ventures Corporation, the company that is seeking to proceed with uranium mining operations, will provide arguments that support FVC’s position that this uranium mining project is a legally- and environmentally-defensible corporate pursuit.

Mr. Paul Lehman, General Manager, Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority will provide the Conservation Authority’s understanding of the proposed mining project and discuss the possible environmental issues.

Prof. Don Wiles, of Carleton University’s Department of Chemistry, will moderate the discussion.

Manotick Home and Garden Show

Depressed with spring not kicking in? You could find a change of season in Manotick:

The Manotick Home and Garden Show will take place

Friday, 27th of April, 12 - 9 pm,
Saturday 28th , 10 am - 5 pm and
Sunday 29th of May, 10 am - 4 pm

at the Manotick Arena.

Kids under 12 have free admission, seniors need five and adults eight bucks to get in.

Dial 613 826 3222 to contact the organizators McLeanEvent.