tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59258844525107089922024-03-13T08:02:42.896-02:30I'll Rant and I'll Roar!Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.comBlogger229125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-14165198383797757282015-11-24T15:38:00.000-03:302015-11-24T15:38:07.050-03:30A wonderful grand memory...
I haven't been blogging much this year. It's not due to lack of fodder, God knows, but lack of time. But yesterday, as Ron Hynes was being laid to rest, I remembered a story that after 33 years still makes me laugh. Therefore, I decided to make the time to get it written down.
Here it is...
In 1982, I was a third-year nursing student, a Nurse Intern as we were called then. In my class was a Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-56418855084269673312015-01-19T03:43:00.001-03:302015-01-19T03:45:59.049-03:30UnityIt is 3:25 a.m. Monday morning as I write this. Day One of my dear Dad's wake is done.
It concluded at about 9:15 p.m., at which time my brother Doug told my other brother, my sister and me that the priest who will be officiating at the funeral wants some Dad-related anecdotes that he can use in his homily. He knows Dad, but not as a father, so that was what he wanted.
WELL!!!
We went Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-60577629634597335912014-07-08T10:06:00.002-02:302014-07-08T10:09:23.298-02:30Herbicides, pesticides & vaccines - a message for those who consider them 'evil concoctions'...
It’s been a good long while since I ranted about anything, but tonight, I’m rarin’ to go. My latest rage? It’s aimed right directly at the jugulars of those tree-hugging bastards who, in their politically correct way, have decreed that tax-paying home-owners can no longer use herbicides (or pesticides) to keep their properties weed- and insect-free. (These are the same tree-hugging Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-39817329429389831292014-04-17T22:49:00.001-02:302014-04-18T00:12:40.389-02:30Lawn shovellers... What are ya AT?!?!?
I DO realize I'm far from perfect.
I have daily, if not hourly, reminders, don't worry, of my overabundance of fallibility. But, like all of us flawed mortals, I sometimes can't stop myself from judging others, and the group that is in my laser-vision crosshairs this week is... wait for it...
Those Idiots Who Shovel The Snow Off Their Lawns Every Spring
They drive me insane. Flat-out, Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-75240621841714262542014-01-29T22:28:00.000-03:302014-02-04T10:24:57.137-03:30Paying the price for a knee-jerk reaction...Well, if 2013 was 'The Year of Being Crucified by Bell', then 2014 is very quickly turning into 'The Year of Realizing that Rogers is 100 Times Worse'.
WHO would believe it? I can't believe it, and I'm living it.
The saga, so far, is this:
Back in April, I bought an iPhone 5 from Bell Aliant. That didn't go so well, as I detailed at the time in this blogMargarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-55159672909005468662013-12-03T23:15:00.002-03:302013-12-04T01:04:55.892-03:30Christmas parties & the lost art of conversation...I went out for a birthday dinner the other night with a life-long friend. She was born in November, and I arrived in December, so annually, we'll take ourselves out someplace nice to celebrate each other's day. A very nice tradition that I hope goes on for dozens and dozens more years to come!!
At one point in the evening, the conversation came around to how often it is seen Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-67926413957512497902013-11-30T00:58:00.001-03:302013-11-30T00:58:20.854-03:30An online chat with Bell Aliant, or "how to suck the joy of life out of yourself in 5 minutes or less..."
An illustration of yet another fruitless conversation with a Bell Aliant employee.
One more reason why I can't get Bell out of my life fast enough to suit me...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thank you for your patience an online representative will be with you shortly. Your wait time is approximately 0 minute(s).
You are chatting Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-65392295171596858032013-11-26T23:28:00.000-03:302013-11-26T23:45:21.314-03:30It's been a long time coming - Bell Aliant & I have broken up
Bell Aliant - you are dead to me.
After all the nightmares I've had with them, first with the Great iPhone Rip-Off of 2013, and throughout the entire span of our time together with crappy internet service, this very morning, the straw that broke the camel's back occurred, and that camel fell right down on top of my last nerve. I said, "Enough is enough!!!" and called Rogers.
The Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-34287997679187707112013-11-21T21:32:00.000-03:302013-11-21T22:25:14.917-03:30Christmas Pudding Day!!Today my house smelled like a Christmas wonderland, and there's only one reason for that - today is the day I made my Christmas puddings. Well, to be completely accurate, one will be a Christmas pudding while the other will be our Easter pudding.
For something I make only once a year, I have to say, quite immodestly, that I do a helluva job.
Here is how they came to be:
All of the Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-89405516431986842402013-10-29T00:03:00.000-02:302013-10-29T00:03:52.611-02:30Lady Gag. No, I did not forget the second 'a'...So, Miley Cyrus does her thing at the VMAs, gets a world of attention, and then the mundanely predictable happened.... some other half-wit star, in this case Lady Gaga, gets her nose out of joint because of all the deflected attention and ups the game, getting stark naked on stage at a gay bar in London.
WHO did NOT see this coming?!?! The only unpredictable variable in this very Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-66110559710467735512013-10-23T21:31:00.000-02:302013-10-24T21:36:31.286-02:30The latest NDP antics - Political theater at its most amateurishI am almost incontinent with delight over the current NDP debacle. If this makes me a bad person, then I'm the devil incarnate.
First of all, I am no political animal. My field of expertise is tax-paying. When I see happening what I see happening from time to time, among people for whom I not only pay salaries, but in one instance, have representing me in the House of Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-77809141889984728432013-09-26T22:29:00.001-02:302013-10-23T13:30:32.743-02:30"No worries there"... The rise, and (hopefully) eventual fall of that dreadful word, 'Newfie'Recently, there have been all these polls, asking Newfoundlanders whether or not they are offended by the term "Newfie". It absolutely stuns me to learn that about two-thirds of us think it's just dandy. Well, that's really just two-thirds of people who agree to participate in polls on NTV News, or take the time to answer pollsters on the telephone. I'm hoping that's a tiny Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-20452764172025692272013-09-25T16:14:00.000-02:302013-09-30T20:50:43.909-02:30Bell Aliant strikes again!!! It's not like this came as a surprise.
Last Monday, I was home, surfing the Internet from time to time, having to reboot from time to time because of increasingly frequent loss of my connection. While this might bother / annoy / enrage / bewilder some folk, to me, it was business as usual. I have become so inured to the vagaries of Bell Aliant and their products and service that it hardly Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-86982564122609749162013-09-25T08:53:00.000-02:302013-09-28T20:48:02.172-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 13 - The End of the VoyageMonday, September 25th, 2006
Hello from the Terra Nova Field!
Well, we've finally arrived!!!!
According to the skipper, our official "EOSP", End of Sea Passage, was at 5.24 a.m. NDT. That's all well and good, but when I was outside around 8 a.m., we were still steaming along, passing by other rigs that normally aren't close by, so we WEREN'T at our location, despite what the Old Man Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-89537719493534244832013-09-24T06:00:00.000-02:302013-09-29T07:22:25.097-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 12Sunday, September 24th, 2006
Greetings all!
Let me start off by saying..
WE HAVE A WINNER!!!
Mr. Don Linfield is the lucky winner of the "What's different about these pictures?" contest! He was – UNBELIEVABLY – the only entrant, but fortunately he identified BOTH things that were different about the photos. The first thing is that one compass is indicating that we're going east, and the otherMargarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-38156249270458123722013-09-23T18:25:00.000-02:302013-09-28T21:14:08.950-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 11Saturday, September 23rd, 2006
Hi again!
I'm back!
Nicer than yesterday.
Not as nice as tomorrow…
I'm glad no one unsubscribed. I would have felt really bad about that!!
Well, we made tremendous progress yesterday, about 225 nautical miles in about 25 hours. That's 259 statute miles, or 416 kilometers, whichever language you happen to speak. I think that was one of our best days yet. They Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-80609463881471767412013-09-22T00:54:00.000-02:302013-09-28T21:19:24.388-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 10Friday, September 22nd, 2006
Just as I was about to click "send" last night, we lost our phones and Internet link because of the thrusters again, so here it is, Saturday a.m., better late than never!
M.
______________________________________
Hello there!
Well, we're all back in the pink today and if it wasn't so hard to read, that's the color I'd use!! The green was hard enough on the eyes, Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-89742984217253315072013-09-21T16:25:00.000-02:302013-09-28T21:21:42.440-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 9Thursday, September 21sr, 2006
Hello once again, from about 10 feet further west than we were yesterday.
To quote Kermit the Frog, "It ain't easy being green." Remember yesterday, when I commented on how surprisingly fast this thing could move around? Well, today, the pitching (front to back) and the rolling (side to side) has slowed right down, but is way more pronounced, so the wheeled stuff Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-19155688488717838452013-09-20T15:45:00.000-02:302013-09-28T21:24:18.264-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 8Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
Good day, landlubbers!
Those of you whose email is formatted to HTML may be wondering why this text is green. Well, that is because I'm a gal who likes to coordinate, and green is the prevailing 'hue' of a number of my fellow sailors today. Those of you formatted to 'plain text' emails don't know what you're missing!!
They tell me we're getting the last of Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-10465077668848393212013-09-19T11:40:00.000-02:302013-09-28T21:28:46.834-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 7Tuesday, September 19th, 2006
Hello again, all! (...and Happy Birthday, Dave!)
Well, it's been a pretty quiet day today. Not much going on at all. The main topic of conversation (now that the Canadian Idol suspense is over) is about the weather. It's been a rough day today; high winds and seas, big waves, rocking and rolling. I don't know if there were any hurricanes recently that we're now Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-3877361777183743762013-09-18T08:46:00.000-02:302013-09-28T21:31:02.852-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 6
Monday, September 18th, 2006
Hello again from the high seas!
Well, here we were, sailing along, minding our own business this afternoon, when suddenly I find myself in the pitch black dark! They were testing those pesky thrusters again, and the main power generator went kaput. This is following one of the key service generators going kaput at three this morning, but I didn't know about that atMargarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-41488887750541895992013-09-17T10:35:00.000-02:302013-09-28T21:32:56.451-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 5
Sunday, September 17th, 2006
Hi everybody!
No drama to write about today, fortunately. I don't think my last nerve could take it!
Well, you probably haven't finished reading the one I sent yesterday, so I'll keep this one short today. I can get a little wordy from time to time, you may have noticed.
We had our weekly emergency drill this morning, a simulated abandonment by lifeboat. That Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-50985587325614258172013-09-16T10:47:00.000-02:302013-09-28T21:45:16.363-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 4
Saturday, September 16th, 2006
Hello once again!
Whenever I wonder why the heck I work out here, it's not long before some drama or other occurs that makes me glad I'm alive. By that I mean glad to have survived the drama. The turbulence on the plane? OLD-OLD-OLD news. Here's the latest in my trans-Atlantic saga…
Picture this…
You're in an empty room, probably about the size of a bathroom Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-36953856224815135912013-09-15T20:16:00.000-02:302013-09-28T21:57:26.712-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 3
Friday, September 15th, 2006
Ahoy, landlubbers!
Well, all day I've been waiting to get a chance to write this email and tell everybody that the pictures I planned to attach were of Land's End, the last time this ship / platform would ever see dry land again (theoretically). Then, just a few minutes ago, I received my second map-of-the-day, only to realize that all the great snaps andMargarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5925884452510708992.post-45720830356531344222013-09-14T22:12:00.000-02:302013-09-28T22:00:55.882-02:30The Sail Home Newsletter, 2006, Day 2 - Bon Voyage, Rotterdam...
On this day, seven years ago, I was lucky enough to be on an oil platform for its return sail to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
This past July, I posted all the emails I had written to family and friends during the sail to Rotterdam, The Netherlands. At that time, I didn't know if I would be on board for the return trip, too, but the gods smiled, and there I was!!
The first of the emails Margarethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10440192198040977144noreply@blogger.com0