Consumables or Trout Bait?

It has been a while since I posted anything so I thought I would just post some random thoughts. The snow has had us so preoccupied every waking minute between shoveling, plowing and spreading environmentally friendly ice melter that poof! the holidays were over. It is now a thrilling 9 degrees C and the sun is blazing so brightly it almost hurts my eyes to look at it. Yesterday we took the deprived pups for a 4 mile walk at Royal Roads. It was so incredibly beautiful it made me ache inside. We still look at one another and say “Can you believe that we live here?”
We were fortunate to have friends from Seattle come to visit over the holidays. It really felt like a celebration when they arrived. We temporarily forgot about the 60cm of snow piled up along the driveway. We watched the birds at the feeder (an occasional squirrel and deer as well). Diane had a small holiday party for her curling team. We went to a wonderful Boxing Day party despite the snow falling.
Work is work. I know we are fortunate to have jobs but it does not make it any easier to drag myself away from our forest home and my 4 furry children. The dogs were stir-crazy during the month when they could only follow the tunnels through the snow in the back yard to do their business. Montana, our child with weight issues, went to the vet yesterday for a check up and she has gained some weight. An 11.4 kilogram Jack Russell is large by any standards. And so the walking on the weekends begins.
We never make New Years Resolutions. We do look at our privilege. We are grateful for everything we have. So this year, on New Years Eve, we decided that our goal for this year is to limit our discretionary spending to consumables. Looking around at our life, we really don’t need more ‘stuff’. If we do purchase a ‘stuff’ item, we will stop to question ourselves; is it a trout item or something that we will be using for at least 10 years? We call trout items those things that appear in front of you, usually bright and shiny to catch your attention. They are a hook. You don’t know much more about it than it is attractive at the moment. Before you know it you have swallowed it, you’re hooked, just because it was interesting for a brief flash of time. We have vowed to make this a trout-free year. We are working on making the exceptions discussions to be hashed out and not jack-rabbit responses to stimuli.
This week we will watch the inauguration of Obama. I certainly have hope for his time in office but I’m not naive about what he will really be able to do. I hear rumors about the reversal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. It makes me hopeful for people I know in the US military who struggle with this on a daily basis. I’m so tired of the States and the hiding in the dark on this issue. Canada has been so refreshing. I love living here. I will visit the States on occasions, but Canada is my home. I miss my friends and the community we had there. But I would not trade this for that. (See Heather, it did not take me long after the snow melted to lose the “What was I thinking?” whine) So we will plan vacations with friends from the US and Canada and hope that somewhere in between we will build our new community.

We won’t consume like trout this year and in 2010 we will consume even less than in 2009.