It's the MOST wonderful TIME of the YEAR!

This is great, isn't it? The kids are back in school but it still feels like summer...the season is hanging on for one final gasp before the chill of autumn sets in. What joy to wake up to that happy sunshine and a clear blue sky above - it lifts one's spirits and serves to distract us from other things that may not be going well. Like the cottage!

Last night, I was dreaming about the fireplace we're planning to install. In my dream, I was telling someone that I was concerned that it wouldn't be efficient; that we'd still have to rely on electricity to keep warm. I was also worried about some global energy meltdown and not having a woodstove to cook on. Today, Lorenzo calls me and says, "I have some bad news about the fireplace."

Our insurance requires that a certified fireplace person completes the install. Lorenzo spoke to a fellow on Salt Spring who says that the fireplace pipe has to go straight up; it can't bend the way the original woodstove pipe did. We didn't know this. Furthermore, he felt that the fireplace we purchased is not CSA approved, whatever that means.

The bad news, is that Lorenzo worked very hard building a fireplace surround that would look fantastic once it's finished. The good news, is that the fireplace was bought at a salvage yard for $150. so, if we go back to the woodstove, we haven't spent too much money. And we could use it outside - which would be very cool.

The bad news, is that we might have to tear down everything and re-install the woodstove. The good news, is that we'll have a powerful stove that heats the whole cottage. The bad news, is that we won't have an open fireplace. Worse, is that a woodstove requires so much clearance space behind it. This is what drives us crazy. It has to be so far from the wall, that furniture placement becomes exasperating. I'm going to make some phone calls tomorrow and find out if we can get away with
pushing it closer to the east wall.

So, that's what we're up against right now. Lorenzo is planing to head over either tomorrow or Friday and stay for at least a week. He wants to install the built-in vacuum, the ceiling, and all the walls. He wants it to be ready for paint & flooring by the time he leaves, which is very exciting. I am so looking forward to emptying our basement of all the stuff we've accumulated for the cottage. Right now, it is like a maze of boxes and furniture stacked up against walls. It's a Craigslist haven for critters.

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The first week or two of school is always a giant waste of time, it seems. The students are re-arranging their schedules and they haven't even been given a supply list yet. My kids have been pretty tired the past two days - no more sleeping in until noon. I think they're in shock right now....poor precious little trinkets. I actually feel sorry for them - institutionalized all day, sitting under flourescent lights, eating their brown bread sandwiches.

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Looks like we're having a Provincial election in May. I've been asked if I'll consider running for the Green Party again. I don't quite understand how I managed to get myself into this. You know how when you're kid, you imagine yourself in different careers? I always saw myself as being a teacher. Next to be being a teacher, I wanted to be a musician, a writer, or an artist. I ended up becoming a teacher. I never fantasized about being an athlete, a doctor, a beauty-pageant contestant...and certainly I never envisioned myself a politician. It never entered the realm of possibilities - it was as remote and impossible to me as being a parking attendant.

So how did this happen? Well, I was asked to and felt morally obligated. But did I enjoy it? Not really. It is a tremendous amount of work. You have to obtain a hundred signatures from people in your riding which means standing outside of Safeway asking for endorsements. Some people are so rude. Others will accuse you of being: a communist, a pot-smoking tree hugger, a thief who's stealing votes from the poor NDP... you get the idea.

But more than anything, it is the paperwork and bureaucracy that I disdain the most. All these computer programs, and dealing with Elections Canada, getting an Official Agent, then having to hire an auditor....paperwork and headaches galore.
And then your phone starts ringing and it's the media asking to speak to you about a variety of issues, the majority of which are irrelevant. During a debate at SFU I was asked how I felt about abolishing the senate, which I happen to be in favour of. But it was late in the evening, I was tired. I wanted to get home to my kids. When my turn came, I said something like, "Keep the senate...abolish the senate...you know, in the face of global environmental collapse I don't think it's the most salient issue right now."  Yawn...

Then your in-box is stuffed. Wackos from all corners asking you for money. Tales of woe that rival Charles Dickens. At first, I pressed the delete button. But then I started replying to some of them because they always ended their appeals with "God bless you...my father who is suffering from rickets will be most grateful."  I started amusing myself with all sorts of responses: "Sorry to hear about Pops. At least he hasn't got Ebola. Now THAT would suck. As far as money goes, I'm down to my last million and I'm saving up for a pallet of Star-Frit choppers. But if you keep praying to God, who loves you and is looking out for you, I'm sure your father's tumour will melt, you'll locate the gold bullion the army rebels buried in the desert, and all will be ticky-boo in no time!"
Sometimes I was laughing so hard that I could hardly type. Not exactly the preoccupation of a serious political candidate.

And there's the rub: the environment cannot be a political issue. It is a non-partisan crisis that should transcend party-affiliation. This is why David Suzuki has never entered the fray - it violates his principles.

Then the debates are scheduled, and you're up against the incumbent who has an entire staff of people on hand doing all their leg-work. They arrive in neatly-pressed suits, leather brief-cases, lawyers on the side-lines taking notes. Those of us in the Green Party come staggering in from the bus-stop, soaked with rain, carrying our files in a paper bag, holes in our shoes....(sniff)
And I've noticed that most people who become involved with politics - regardless of what team they happen to be on - truly enjoy the whole process. For them, it's fun. They are invigorated by it. For me, it isn't fun. It's deadly serious, and I am incapable of couching my responses in diplomatic terms, waffling on a question that may serve to alienate a potential voter, etc. I did a debate at a Muslim community centre where the women were in the back of the room and clearly not expected to utter a single word. I was disgusted by how political correctness completely impeded any sort of useful dialogue. It sickened me. And I resented going to debates at ethnic-specific forums. The questions were always the same: What will your party DO FOR US?" I felt like saying, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." But that wouldn't have been very original.

If you can't show up to the local community centre, then why should we have to google-map our way to some far-flung mosque, church, or housing co-op? I think it's wrong. It is divisive, and implies that each group's political need or agenda is so specific, so unique, that it deserves its own special assembly.

And then there were the people who show up for every single debate. They have no life. They sit there, often knitting or fiddling with their hearing aids, barking out the same barely-coherent litany of discontent, over and over again. They'll take the microphone and blither on for a half-hour until people start passing out into a coma.

I wish we could all just take a lie detector test: Ask us all a bunch of questions - any question you want; the more controversial the better. Publish the answers, and let the voters decide. No debates, no meet-your-politician, no wine and cheese, and all that phony game-playing. No millions of dollars spent on campaigns, no trees chopped down to make up a bunch of useless fliers and signs that end up in a land-fill. Wouldn't that be nice? Imagine all the corrupt, power-greedy, ambitious bald-faced liars that would be squeezed out of the whole political enterprise. The lie detector machine would probably blow a fuse - sparks flying everywhere...Christy Clark running for the fire extinguisher.

There is a reason why historically revolutions are instigated by the young. Young people have always been on the forefront of social change, and that's the way it's supposed to be. The women's movement, the civil rights movement, occupy Wall Street, the Vietnam war...etc. The older I get, the less socially engaged I feel and I know that's dangerous. But I can't help just wanting to hide away on Mayne Island, growing my own organic vegetables, learning to make soap that doesn't have a bunch of sulfates in it...

Then I think about my kids. I can't hide. There's nowhere to hide, anyway - that's an illusion. But I have absolutely no political ambition - I would not want to be an MLA or a Member of Parliament. Who would look after my bunny?

But what if there was no Green Party. No Greenpeace. No Wildlife Federation. There would be no opposition to all the planet-killers out there.

I'll have to really think about this. The good news is, the Liberals are toast either way.

Ciao for now.