Choice

Posted on 09 February 2024 by Isabel Gibson

It can be good, bad, or irrelevant.

Choice is good when it gives me entirely new options I don’t have at home, or when it gives me variations that matter to me:

  • Things left out, like fragrance in detergent or lactose in milk
  • Things left in, like real chocolate in candies or caffeine in tea
  • Different sizes, like large ones for bulk savings or small ones for portability

Choice is bad when it overwhelms me with options at the end of a lengthy initial provisioning trip and I have to decipher new categories to find what must be here (Mustn’t it?): regular, original, plain Kleenex, dagnab it. Neither ultra soft nor anti-viral; nor yet a tissue infused with greasy (sorry, soothing) lotion. As the residual option, “trusted care” might be what I’m looking for, but the graphic suggests it’s either a heart-healthy option or something to give your sweetie for Valentine’s Day, soon upon us, so who knows?

Choice is irrelevant when it offers me options that don’t appeal to me and that can’t possibly appeal to anyone: flavours of peach, ale, and habanero. And not just singly: combined in one tray of defenceless bratwurst.

And yet. Someone is buying anti-viral Kleenex and peach-ale habanero brats. Maybe together. Just imagine.

Thank goodness no one gave me the job of selecting a reasonable range for choices. Thank goodness no one person has that job.

 

Posted in Laughing Frequently, New Perspectives, Thinking Broadly | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Sparkles

Posted on 09 February 2024 by Isabel Gibson

Driving down an unremarkable avenue for the Southwest–a broad street flanked by bungalows built on concrete pads–and squinting against the sunset in its dying flare, I looked up as movement in the trees caught my eye.

With the breeze flicking the very ends of the fronds and the setting sun lighting them up from behind, the effect was unlike anything I’ve seen: little golden bits frolicked around the tree-tops.The conditions had to be just right, with low dark cloud providing the backdrop and narrowing the sun’s beams.

It wants a video–which may yet be coming–but a drive-by, through-the-windshield, phone photo will have to do for now.

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Flora | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Puddle. Big Puddle.

Posted on 03 February 2024 by Isabel Gibson

Artificial lake? Don’t be silly, Isabel: It’s too small.

Slough? Again with the silliness: It’s too artificial.

Pond? Less silly, but somehow not right. A puddle it must be, although that brings to mind Dick and Jane splashing through much smaller bodies of water:

a small amount of water or other liquid,
especially rain (my emphasis)
that has collected in one place on the ground

Or on the asphalt, I guess.

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Posted in Laughing Frequently, Photos of Built Stuff, Thinking Broadly | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Sun Tacticians

Posted on 03 February 2024 by Isabel Gibson

I have endless memories of being held up or lined up for a family photo, squinting into the sun. I have just-short-of-endless photographic evidence of same.

It started early.

It never stopped.

It came full circle.

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Laughing Frequently | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Epitomes, Archetypes, and . . . Pigeons? Yup.

Posted on 03 February 2024 by Isabel Gibson

I am the pigeon.

Well, that sounds a bit pretentious, dunnit? One bird, laying claim to being the epitome of an entire type? An individual claiming to be an archetype? Go on wit’ you.

And yet . . . “I am a pigeon” doesn’t quite seem to capture the affect. The serenely self-confident stance. The sublime disregard for any nearby plebes, avian and human alike.

No, we had it right at the outset. This is the pigeon.

 

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Laughing Frequently, Photos of Fauna | Tagged | 10 Comments

Dew Drops on Hot-Tub Covers and Turtles on Warm Rocks

Posted on 26 January 2024 by Isabel Gibson

A heavy dew overnight leaves thousands of droplets on the hot-tub cover. After years of science classes I can say that I know where that water comes from, although I’d be hard pressed to convert that vague intuition into a clear explanation. Much of what I think I know is like that: not wrong, but not detailed enough to be helpful.

A small pond hosts at least 40 turtles, counting only the ones out sunning themselves on the rocks and the concrete edging of a pond in the middle of an urban neighbourhood in the middle of a desert. After years of casual observation I can say that I know where those turtles *must* have come from–from someone seeding that artificial pond with baby turtles–but I’d be hard pressed to convert that assumption into a conviction (I’ve seen a lot of artificial ponds with turtles in them). Much of what I think I know is like that, too: not unreasonable, but not confirmed.

If pressed hard, I would say that I’m pretty sure that neither the droplets nor the turtles fell from the sky. So that’s something.

 

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Laughing Frequently, Photos of Fauna | Tagged | 10 Comments

A Bridge Too Cold

Posted on 26 January 2024 by Isabel Gibson

How cold was it?

This is how cold it was: I saw a face in a bootprint in the snow and I DID NOT STOP for it. I couldn’t face (sorry) taking off my thin glove one more time–and my phone camera responds only to my bare finger.

Back in Edmonton on a quick trip for a family event, I was managing my exposure to the Great White North pretty well, dashing between the car and the hotel, the car and the yarn store, and the car and various restaurants. With a low of -16C it was cold, for sure, but nowhere near as bad as the -36C of the previous week. The issue was my gear: my gloves, specifically. They were intended only as liners and wouldn’t have kept my hands warm even if I’d kept them on. Which I didn’t. The bridge was calling, as it has before, and before that, and before that.

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Built Stuff | Tagged | 15 Comments

The Shortest Distance

Posted on 19 January 2024 by Isabel Gibson

I’ve learned something:
I can go home now.

That used to be the joke (OK, the joke-let) when I was still working. Maybe even when I was still employed. Certainly when I was spending most of my day at places I would have been happy to go home from early. Somehow it never worked out that I did go home early, even though I learned some things: sudden insights into technical disciplines that were terra incognita to me. Insights that have either vanished completely for never being needed again or that have been integrated seamlessly into my understanding of the world. All to explain why I don’t have a handful of nifty examples.

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Posted in Day-to-Day Encounters, Laughing Frequently, Management and Work | Tagged , | 10 Comments

One of the Certainties

Posted on 13 January 2024 by Isabel Gibson

Think of it as paying for my salary.

The speaker? A teacher in Saskatoon, in December 1980 or January 1981.

The speakees? Recently relocated Albertans, chafing under the unaccustomed weight of a provincial sales tax.

The logic? The Government of Saskatchewan had presented the latest increase to said sales tax as a health-and-education surcharge. The subtext wasn’t subtle.

Be cheery when you pay this:
It’s for good stuff.

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Posted in Politics and Policy, Thinking Broadly | Tagged , | 8 Comments