Gaelic

So, another gray day fades to black.

This must be what it is like to live in Vancouver, only with snow and cold. I don't think I could take months without seeing the sun, and I don't think the wet, cool weather would be better than sunny, and cold. It might be fun to try it one year though. I have friends that live in BC and they don't seem to mind the weather, but none of them are terribly bright.

I finished reading “The Book Thief”, and I am glad that it is over and done with. You would think that a book written from Death's point of view on a poor German girl who just lost her family and grows up in Nazi Germany would be kind of upbeat and fun. It wasn't! It was an interesting read, but it's one of those books that you keep telling yourself that the happy part is coming, the happy part is coming, the happy part is coming. What does come every now and then are less horrible parts which I suppose might be happy...ish. Strangely enough, I would recommend you read it, but maybe the movie would be a better way to get the story. Hollywood has a tendency to make depressing stories less depressing. I can say that this isn't one of those books I will read every year at Easter to cheer me up.

Maybe it's the book that is giving me such a negative attitude to the weather. I was going to say that starting tomorrow I am going to change my attitude and force myself to enjoy what is left of winter. I'll start in two days, because it's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow. I like to start the "Happy" with roads I can navigate.

I know that spring is coming, a friend of mine saw a Robin freezing on a branch in his yard, and the city has stopped cleaning the streets of snow and have announced there will be a delay sweeping the streets of the gravel and other accumulated detritus from winter. There doesn't seem to be a connection between one and the other in the cities mind, I guess for them this is just down time. You know spring is coming because they have run out of the medium sized ROLL UP THE RIM cups at Tim Horton's, and soon the painted cartoons of happy customers drinking from winning cups will be washed from the windows. I'm going to sort of miss the crude penis's that have been scratched into the paint. However, the sure sign that spring is coming is that the TAXMAN has his hand out and God forgive you if you don't get HIS money in on time.

I have been wondering about something since I wrote the first line, and it has bugged me in the past, bugs me now and will probably bother me in the future. Whenever I type the word “gray” the spell check function on the computer highlights it and then suggests I write “Grey”. I learned that “gray” is spelled “gray” when I was in school, but it can also be spelled “grey”. They mean the same thing, or at least I think they do. It's possible that “gray” refers to a colour and “grey” refers to a mood. There are some words that are spelled differently in the USA. They tend to be lazier that Canadians when it comes to the English language and drop letters that seem to them to be excessive. Most words that have “our” like “colour” in the proper (Canadian) spelling end up being “color” south of the border.

Who’s to say which version is wrong or right? Well, let's just say that the Canadian spelling isn't wrong. You can set your keyboard to Canadian French, but not Canadian English. I could alter my in computer dictionary, but then I wouldn't get to shake my head when the computer says I should spell “Gray” the lazy US way, “Grey”. I suspect this is one of those times when someone will comment that not only am I wrong, but I am ignorant as well a closet racist, picking on the poor down trodden citizens of America. Maybe you are right; from now on I will spell “Gray” in a way that pleases everyone... “Graey”.

I think that's Gaelic.