Happy Canada Day

I know it's not Canada Day until tomorrow but with it being on a Sunday that means we can party all weekend right? I hope you all have a great weekend and to all my Canadian Blog followers 
                                           
                Happy 145 Canada !

Update to the Slippery the Seal Story

fromCTV Youtube clip

Obviously as I said in the last story the seal wasn't Slippery (he's long gone) but others we had were off to St. Louis. Atlantis,Cri Cri, Nunavut and Peanut are the names of the seals .Sad news apparently the seals were traumatized by the move to St.Louis in the air conditioned truck and two of the four seals have died .One other is ailing and being treated in Indianapolis. Mayor of London Ontario Joe Fontana has said twelve year old Nunavat, and eleven year old Atlantis have died. Cri Cri who is nineteen is ill.CriCri is being treated for severe exertional or capture myopathy,it us a (disease of the muscle) a non infectious disease of muscles characterized as damage to muscle tissues brought on by physiological changes, usually following extreme exertion, struggle and or/ stress. Peanut seems to have weathered the fourteen hour trip with no ill effects.


Update Cri Cri passed away this morning June 13
Rip Cri Cri, Atlantis and Nunavat.

(Credit to Kaitlin Lee-CJBK reporter for  tweet of story and update information.)

People who inspire others to be even better

    When I was in grade nine I went to a high school where I knew no one. I remember coming in the doors and not even knowing where to find my classes. I was shy and probably seemed standoffish because of it. Let’s face I was not a cookie cutter person either. I was quirky and didn’t quite fit in. It was on the second day of school, I met Rose.

       Did you ever have one of those friends, that when they came in the room it was better for it? That was Rose. She was one of those people, that other people were drawn to like bees to honey. She was kind and inclusive of all. She showed me where things were in the school and became my friend as well as introduced me to her sidekick Lucy(who also became my friend). School was better with Rose in it.

       We were both in music and choir and she had the most beautiful operatic voice you’d ever hear. The teacher thought with lessons she could certainly be an opera singer, but Rose had other plans to what she wanted to do.  Rose wanted to continue helping people.  When I ate lunch it was with Rose and her friends who became mine. She made my high school experience and my life better just by being in it.

       At the end of grade nine, she was the one to encourage me to ask out the boy I liked, to the Sadie Hawkins dance (where the girls ask the boys) even though she also liked him. She knew that we liked each other, that is how giving she was. The night was fun despite the fact that my date broke his leg six weeks before and had just gotten his cast off (but that’s another story).We lost  touch when he moved away. A year ago he got in touch through Rose, and we remain friends.

     Rose was fun and told many a joke. She made everyone smile. Faces would light up when they saw her.

All through high school she was one of my closest friends. So much so that when I married after school, she came to my wedding and then was there for the birth of my first child. Life got busy and I lost touch with her though I heard she married and moved out of province and then suddenly she was on Facebook. It was like there was no gap in time we talked regularly; although sometimes two weeks would go by or even a month we’d talk about our lives our children. She loved her husband and felt like I do about mine, that he was her soul mate and best friend. She was so proud of her son and daughter. We talked Wedding details leading up to her daughter’s wedding, as I had just gone through a wedding for my daughter. Distance didn’t matter. She lived on the opposite side of the country and I really didn’t have the funds to visit though I wanted to. We just continued to talk on Facebook chat and in messages, sending each other pictures and often reading their messages I heard her voice from school in my head.

A week and half ago she posted her last message to me on my birthday.

“Happy birthday sweetie-pie! You're the best! Good health, happiness and God's blessings for you on your special day”

        I will treasure those last words forever, as two days later she died, though I didn't know until yesterday. They say that people live on forever in words and deeds, and if that is true, then I know my dearest friend will live forever in our hearts. for she was all things, a wonderful loving wife, and mother to two wonderful individuals, a mother -in-law and the dearest most  loyal friend a person could ever have.Anyone who ever met her would consider her their friend.

        My dear friend Rose you will be missed, my heart breaks and tears flow from my eyes, selfishly knowing I will not see your lovely face for awhile;I know someday I'll see you again.Until then dear friend  I love you and I will always speak of you.

RIP Rose July 29, 1959-May30,2012

(Rose at graduation)

For Rose because she was our Angel.

Goodbye Slippery we'll miss the seals enjoy your new home

In January 21, 1958, London, Ontario, Canada's city council approved a plan by the PUC plan to turn part of Springbank Park into a $150,000 amusement park for children. In March, a deer enclosure construction began. A contest was then launched by the board of education April 15, 1958 for elementary students to name the park. In May, construction started on the sea lion pool (seals) and the Old Woman’s Shoe. In June, The London Free Press announced 13-year-old contestant Mary Okkerse from North Dorchester school’s $25 prize-winning name: Storybook Gardens. Thus Storybook Gardens was born,today only the Old woman's shoe and other amusements remain there are no animals.

When I was a child we would visit Storybook Gardens and enjoy visiting with the animals and the aquatic animals. My favourite even in to my teens and beyond was Slippery the seal .I loved the way the seal bobbed on the water dove and then would sit on his perch. When my daughter was born we took her to the park showing her the seals. She too enjoyed the seals. both my daughters did. Years went on and the park changed they installed playground equipment then a maze and other amusements. 

It was decided earlier this year by city council that the old barns and old aquatic centres really were not the best place for these animals and they decided to find new homes for the animals divesting the park of all animals. So today we said goodbye to our beloved Slippery legend as the seals Atlantis,Cri Cri,Nunavut and Peanut were sent to the St. Louis zoo to live out there days. Enjoy St. Louis we loved our seals so we hope you all will too. Below learn why our city loved our Slippery so much .It’s quite a story.

thanks to the late Chris Doty for his film above which I got from youtube. Obviously it wasn't Slippery they moved but other sea lions but we will still miss them.
check here for sad update to this story http://sheilaghlee.blogspot.ca/2012/06/update-to-slippery-seal-story.html

#BlackOutSpeakOut- Blackout blog to protest Bill C38

If you are visiting June 4th then you will be unable to read my posts. My blog will be back to normal Tuesday June 5 until then it will be entirely whited out to protest Bill C38.

Bill C38 will overhaul environmental protection and fisheries laws, streamline reviews for major natural resource projects, make it more difficult for Canadians receiving EI to refuse work, and gradually increase the eligibility age for Old Age Security to 67 from the current 65, among dozens of other changes.There are too many changes in one bill and that makes no consultation for this bill.