Past Deadline: The Upsides to a Down Week

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Here is the holiday edition of Past Deadline, published in The Perth Courier on Oct. 10/13.

The upsides to a down week

Last week, I gotta tell you, the planets just weren’t aligned. It was one of those weeks when the smallest issues seemed like the Worst. Things. Ever.

The whole week felt like when you have a jar that won’t open and rather than take the time to apply the strategies you know (Try a wet cloth! Tap the bottom! Use a tool! Call Dad!), you’d rather smash it against a brick wall.

Fortunately, no jars were injured in the making of this column.

Every day last week felt like a stereotypical Monday. Some frustrating work-related issues made me want to smack my head against the aforementioned brick wall. (Again, I refrained.)

There was pain, though. One evening Girlchild and I went to the track behind the high school to get some exercise, and I ended up with a sore knee for no apparent reason. It’s lingering. Stupid appendages. Why is there always something going on with my appendages?

So, I’ve been hobbling around the house looking for sympathy. “Why does my knee hurt?” I whined to my adoring children. “It’s because you’re getting old,” they said without skipping a beat.

Right. That.

The fact I am practically ancient must be why I experienced some annoying forgetfulness this week, too. (Caution: Sarcasm ahead!) Regular readers may recall the passion and enthusiasm I have for packing school lunches. Next to shoving shards of broken glass jars under my fingernails, it is my favourite thing to do.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was the morning I walked into the kitchen to find the lunches I had carefully packed the night before still sitting on the table – unrefrigerated. Oh, unbridled joy and bliss and glee, I get to repack most of it! Hurray!

And I hate wasting food.

Speaking of elderly, I am going to blame the cat, in part, for this forgetfulness. Although I love MacGregor dearly, he has not been helpful on the sleep front lately. In fact, one night I found myself thinking: “Gosh, wouldn’t it be awesome if I didn’t wake up to the sound of MacGregor barfing in the night?”

I don’t miss our upstairs carpeting for a second, especially with a barfy cat around, but things sure do echo loudly in the hallway with it gone.

On the morning after my silent plea for a quiet night, I awoke surprisingly well rested. Nice! I made my way down the dark staircase, grabbed a coffee, looked at the newspaper and then headed for the stairs again to start the wake-up drill for the kids.

That’s when my foot hit the cold kitty barf. Ew and double ew. Make that quintuple ew, because he hit five steps. How I managed to miss it on the way down I will never ever understand.

But at least he didn’t wake me up in the night, right?

And that’s what this column is about. In honour of Thanksgiving, a few things for which to be thankful.

First, I am thankful for occasionally being able to sleep through the night. Cleaning up trouble is always easier in the morning.

I am thankful for not falling down those barfy stairs.

I am thankful I have food to pack for the kids, even if I have to pack it twice.

I am thankful that, despite occasional frustrations, I have a job. Or two. Or 17.

When I think about people I know who are going through some serious health issues, I am thankful for just having a sore knee.

And I am thankful that I have a family around to tell me I am old and decrepit.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Speaking of Geology…

The aforementioned Murphys Point Bike Loop definitely “rocks,” but if you’d like to take in a little geology and some cultural history without riding a bike, make sure you take a look at “Introduction to the Geodiversity of Perth.” This booklet, another OHTO project, was published in Autumn 2012 and gives you a tour of an outdoor museum right in the heart of downtown Perth! It is also tied to the Wilson geology exhibit at the Perth Museum on Gore Street. I wrote about it here.

Click the image to download the booklet – and enjoy!

Murphys Point Bike Loop

Here’s a really neat project! I was hired by Ontario’s Highlands Tourism Organization to do some editing and layout work for this geological bicycle tour: The Murphys Point Bike Loop, by Bradley Wilson. If you like cycling, rocks and scenic tours, then this booklet is for you!

Click on the image below to download a PDF of the tour. It will also be available at locations in Perth, including the Perth Museum on Gore Street.

Past Deadline: Pretty Rocks and Geology Speak

From the Oct. 18 “Past Deadline” in The Perth Courier.

Pretty rocks and geology speak

 When I was a kid (oh here she goes again), I found a pretty rock. I loved rocks – I always looked for ones that had sparkly bits or interesting stripes or, if I was really lucky, I would find one that had tiny fossils in it.

I remember having this one tiny rock, though, that was predominantly white and pink but with many tiny specks of silver throughout.

I can’t remember where I found it, but I vividly recall how I lost it.

One day, I was playing with two sisters who lived down the street. They had a babysitter that day and I joined them for a walk downtown.

As we meandered down Wilson Street, I clutched my pretty rock. We had just crossed in front of what is now Metro (I.G.A. back in the day), when the babysitter asked if I would like her to keep my rock in her purse so I wouldn’t lose it.

Seemed prudent.

And then I forgot completely about it and never saw my pretty rock again.

I now know the little specimen was probably a piece of apatite or feldspar with mica sprinkled throughout. I also know there was a time when I wouldn’t have been the only one happy to find it.

Which brings me to the present. One of the coolest things about doing the freelance work I do is the opportunity to take on new and different projects. I am always learning – sometimes complex things that involve a whole different vocabulary.

A perfect example of this is geology. I was exposed to geology in a cultural history context when I worked at Murphys Point Provincial Park as a student, and this has continued on with my involvement with the Friends of Murphys Point Park. Hopefully you’ve heard of the amazing historic gem located at the park – the Silver Queen Mine – which is one of the Seven Wonders of Lanark County, you know!

I have been down in the mine a kazillion times to see its sparkly mica, feldspar and apatite, and each time I notice or hear about something new. The park staff are constantly learning about the site, which operated as a mine in the early 1900s.

In the Silver Queen Mine at Murphys Point. (Stephanie Gray photo)

Recently I had the opportunity to do some work for the Ontario’s Highlands Tourism Organization, which has a recreational geology component. I found myself working with terminology such as parallel glacial striae and foliated mafic rock and mosaics of calcite crystals and finding ways to tie it all into the human experience.

Rocks, after all, are everywhere. Murphys Point tells the story of how the first settlers struggled to farm the rocky Canadian Shield land only to come to embrace it during a small-scale mining boom, which is when they would have been happy to find pretty rocks like the one I had.

On the weekend I had the opportunity to take in the opening of the gorgeous new geology exhibit at the Perth Museum, featuring some exquisite examples from the collection of Dr. James Wilson (circa 1850) of Perth, who discovered and named the mineral “Wilsonite.” I then accompanied a group that included several geologists on a tour of the Silver Queen Mine.

They speak in tongues, those geologists, when a group of them gets together in a mine. Despite the fact I have visited the Silver Queen a kazillion times, seeing it with a group of geologists is a different thing entirely.

It’s really cool to watch people who have a passion for a subject when they are in their element.

As for me, I still love pretty rocks, even though I don’t know all the big words. And I love my job(s) for exposing me to such wonderful things.