The Ramblings and Wanderings

Posts Tagged ‘news’

I wrote this one years ago, but I still bring it out every spring when the roads open up and the construction season begins and since the Olympics are just around the corner in my hometown, and that means a lot of traffic and frustrated people. I thought I’d share it now.

My mother is a Traffic Control Person, also known as a flagger. You know, one of those people in the orange or yellow vest who stop you at construction sites.

Many people hate to see a flagger with a stop or slow sign in their hand step in front of their vehicle. After all, you don’t want to be 2 minutes late to get wherever you are going. Its such a pain in the butt to have to wait a few minutes, or to slow down when traveling through a construction zone. Many people tell my Mother that her job could be replaced by a bucket of sand, just stick the sign in that; who needs some person telling them how to drive?

The purpose of my Mothers job is very clear to her, even if you may not understand it. Her job is to protect the lives of everyone working in and driving through a construction zone.

Her job is to stop you from driving into a sinkhole, or from driving into a dump truck; its to keep you from going into head-on traffic when there are lanes closed.

Did you know that when a road is closed off, many crews will dump the load of gravel or dirt from the dump truck right in the middle of the road? Or that they will park heavy equipment in the middle of the hiway? When traffic is stopped, they know it only takes a minute or two to move it, so they leave it there, to make their jobs easier. So, what happens when you blow past that stop sign and drive right into a pile of dirt, or a giant backhoe? You just might die; you just might kill somebody else.

What happens when you speed through a construction zone? You put the lives of everyone around you at risk. People have loved ones working there.

Did you know that firemen and police officers have been killed by people speeding past a parked fire truck or police cruiser with flashing lights and everything going?

In some States and Provinces, a flagger can make pretty darn good money. Not in my Province though, my Mom makes 11 dollars an hour to step in front of moving vehicles.

Flaggers work long hours, often 12 or more.

They rarely get lunch or even potty breaks, many of these people have to pee into cans they keep in the back of their work trucks.

They stand out in all kinds of weather, including below freezing conditions, or extreme summer heat.

All day long, they get to listen to people yell at them, call them awful names and threaten them just for trying to keep those people safe.

My Moms job is to keep you safe and alive, but many people call her terrible names for this. They flip her the bird, they throw objects, like beer bottles, at her from their cars. There has even been a few times where angry men have gotten out of their cars, intent on attacking my mother because they didn’t want to wait any longer. My Mom is 50+ years old, she is 5 feet 3 inches and weighs 120 pounds soaking wet, thank the Gods for the guys on the work crews who have saved her from attack every time!

I don’t care if they’re making 25 dollars an hour; these people risk their lives everyday to make sure you get home safely and to make sure the guys working the construction zone get home too. There is not enough money in the world to justify losing my Mom to a drunk driver or speeding asshole.

I know, I know. Obviously these people are horrid, uneducated blue collar slobs who can‘t even get a real job. They MUST be drunks or something to wind up working in construction … Somebody has to do that job, would you prefer a job lottery? Maybe you’d be cleaning my toilets next week.

A few years ago I was especially relieved that my Mom had taken a few days off.

In March 2006, at about 11:40 pm, a speeding Camero came roaring through a construction site on the hiway in Kelowna.

The driver swerved around another vehicle, clipping marker pylons before swinging back and ploughing into a parked vehicle and the flagger.

The flagger was standing beside her work truck when he hit her.

She was squished between the two vehicles before being thrown across the hiway.

The car then slammed into a dump truck and a backhoe working on the crossing of Highway 97 and Highway 33.

The flag person was pronounced dead at the scene.

The flagger was a friend and co-worker of my Moms. She was 43 years old and her name was Theresa. She was a single mother of a teenage daughter, who now has no family at all. Imagine waking up to hear the news that some drunk driver killed your Mom.

Please, I beg you. SLOW DOWN, OBEY THE SIGNS, WAIT PATIENTLY, DON’T ROAD RAGE, DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE, TURN THE CELL PHONE OFF IN THE CAR

And don’t kill my Mom too.

Please folks, if you are driving around Vancouver during the Olympics be a good driver and be kind to the people whose job it is to get you there safe. Leave really early so you won’t be late, and if you are running late, then be late. Please don’t risk other people’s lives and yours as well to make it to an event (or even work) on time.

Thanks, Juniper

The Walking the Hedge 2010 Calendar!

Created by the gang at the Hedge, this scrapbook style calendar is a beautiful work of art printed on recycled paper.

It features fun facts, Pagan & other holidays, special dates, lunar phases, poetry, art, photography and much more!

You pay a $23.00 donation to Walking the Hedge (Canadian dollars, which includes shipping)

All proceeds go to the cost of the calendar, shipping and the cost of webhosting for the Hedge

Once you order, please contact Juniper by Email with how many calendars you ordered and your shipping information.

I am teaching a class for mysticwicks at their Circle of Teaching

it starts up Jan 11th, register with the CoT and message me to enroll!

Cottage Craft & Wild Witcheries is for anyone looking to integrate their spiritual and magickal practice with their daily lives, from the kitchen to the garden, from the family room to the wilderness. A magickal practice does not cease once you pass through your front door, whether you are heading inside or out, as such this class will bring the magickal into the mundane and teach you how to carry it with you wherever you go, be that in your home, a vacant lot in the heart of the city, or at a nature reserve.
Our goal is to explore creating both a Home-based and Nature-based practice of Witchcraft, the class will not be specific to any one Tradition (Wicca, Heathen etc) but provide a framework that you can use to create a workable practice of your own or build around any Tradition that you already practice.
This class will be accessible for those new to Witchcraft but will also provide a challenge for anyone looking to move beyond Paganism 101. It is written with the assumption that you have read at least one Paganism 101 book in the past, however.

Left click here listen now! Or right click and select Save Link As to download!

Click here to go the Podcast’s website!

Show notes:

Opening Segment

Opening song is an instrumental version of Diaspora by Juni and Bren.

Juniper and Brendan introduce themselves and talk briefly on their Pagan (and philosophical) Paths as well as discuss the layout for the show and what we hope to do with it.

The incense for this episode is Juniper’s Lucky Number Seven and the Tea is Kusmi Chocolate Chai.

Bardic Segment

Opening poem is a piece by Rumi and a sample from Jethrol Tull

Juni speaks briefly about YB Yeats and reads his poem The Dedication to a Book of Stories selected from the Irish Novelists

The link she mentions to the Rattle and Silver Branch Workshop is here

Bren reads a sad love poem translated from the Irish called Grief of a Young Girl’s Heart

Standing Stone

Opening music is selected from Imagined Oceans by Carl Jenkins.

Dr. Bren reads to us from Cicero’s Discussions at Tuscullum and talks about happiness and Ancient Roman philosophies on how a simple life of pleasure is ideal.

Rants, Raves & Reviews

Juni and Bren take a hard look at gossip and the rumour mill in the Pagan community and Brendan reads to us about the value of gossip and reputation in ancient times.

Garden Gate

Opening Poem is selected from Juni’s Hedgewitch’s Poem.

Juniper looks at house blessing and new home traditions with a critical eye and shares what she and Bren did to bless their new home.

Ask Dr. Expert

Juniper asks Dr. Expert about the origins of Drawing Down the Moon. An interesting discussion on magickal history begins.

Dr. Expert reads from Ronald Hutton’s Triumph of the Moon, Lucan’s Pharsalia and Plato’s Gorgias.

Closing Segment

Closing music is an instrumental version of Diaspora by Juni and Bren.

We ask a skill testing question that can earn you a free Walking the Hedge Calendar, tell you about our websites, plans for next episode and thank you very much for listening!

Left click here listen now! Or right click and select Save Link As to download!

Click here to go the Podcast’s website!

The Walking the Hedge 2010 Calendar is ready to be ordered and shipped!

Created by the gang at the Hedge, this scrapbook style calendar is a beautiful work of art printed on recycled paper.

It features fun facts, Pagan & other holidays, special dates, lunar phases, poetry, art, photography and much more!

You pay a $23.00 donation to Walking the Hedge (Canadian dollars, which includes shipping)

All proceeds go to the cost of the calendar and the cost of webhosting for the Hedge

Once you order, please contact Juniper by Email with your order number, how many calendars you ordered and your shipping information.

You can find some more previews of the Calendar in the Gallery, keep checking as more previews will be posted.

We will try our best to have it shipped to you in time for Yule/Christmas!

Just so you guys know, when you order the calendar it will go to a email called pugglesforu@hotmail.com to Susan Davies … Susan Davies is my Mom. We share a paypal account and have a shared bank acocunt that is attached to it, so don’t worry when you see that name!

I have been veyr busy getting the main Hedge site and forum updated and have had no time to write proper blog posts! I hope to get a few new ones up soon.

In the meantime …

I am adding the Hedge Blog feature to the main Hedge as a few folks voted that they wanted on in the poll. If you want you own Hedge Blog, please Pm or email me with the name you want for it and I wil get it ready for you. Then go to the member menu, click Add to my Blog and write away. There is a menu in the article submission form for Section (choose Member Journals) and then category (choose your Blog name)

If you already have a blog, with wordpress or blogger for example, and you want it embedded in the Hedge (like mine is) just let me know.
I am working on updating everyone’s permissions so you can submit articles. If its not working for you, try loging out and then login back in again, as you have to do this after you permission are reset for them to come into affect.

Myself and our Mod staff can approve artciles (we won’t edit them,  just spell check and make sure you’re not spam)

If anyone wants to be a moderator and make my life eaiser, please let me know.

If you are adding an article, ritual, poem etc etc and find that there just isn’t a right category to put them in, just choose the one that is closest and then add a request at the top of the text in the article and will will get that fixed up or you.

If you are adding a weblink and don’t find the right category, just let me know.

You can add categories to the gallery though!