Stephen Bleile

The RPCA Post recently challenged us to join them in a M.O.N.day initiative: Meet Our Neighbors day. The residents of 35th Avenue took up the challenge. Our acronym was S.U.N.day: Stampede Ur Neighbors day!

Thirty residents and friends met in our front yard from 10 to noon for a stampede breakfast with BBQ’d sausages and coleman-cooked pancakes. There was also a birthday cake and loads of fruit.

Irene, an original home owner in the neighborhood pointed out that in her over 50 years of living here she had never seen a Stampede Breakfast on the street. From beneath stetsons and 10 gallon hats one family told us their kids were so excited to go to something right in the neighborhood.

Mike from up the road regaled us with live music. Barry, Jim and Pearl graciously allowed our party to spill into their yards and driveways. And we received great advice on how to cultivate our garden from Tanis and Glenda.

The funniest feedback we received was, “This was such a good idea.”

We appreciate the affectionate compliment but it behooves me to point out that there was close to nothing novel about the idea. The only thing that made it a “good idea” was that we did it and invited other people to do it with us.

So what are your ideas? What “nothing novel about it” idea could you put into play that might make your neighbors’ and friends’ day?

If you have an idea you want to try in the neighborhood you can contact me. I’d be happy to help you get it rolling.

Yours,

sb

From all of us who like the river, two-eyed fish, wildlife, and life-in-general I beg you to stop using that blue stuff to clean your toilet.  A past tenant put a blob of it in the tank so the bowl always got washed out with blue stuff.  I just pulled the blob out.  It was BAD BAD BAD.  Gilatenous would be a good word to describe it.  Or perhaps, if you’re into ghost busters, ectoplasmic.

Description aside it stained my hand deep blue.  This is no natural substance.  This CAN’T be good for the environment.  (Yes, what you flush ends up in the bow river eventually.)

Want a clean toilet without harsh chemicals?  I’ve heard baking soda and vinegar work wonders. (I think they even produce a bubbly cleaning action so you can “see it work” as the toilet cleaner my mom used to use claims is quite exciting.)

I sleep with a night guard in my teeth.  I use polident to clean it each night.  I huck a polident pill in the toilet in the toilet every now and then and it seems to keep things well in hand.

Speaking of hands, here’s a picture of  mine.

Invermere is an amazing place. We were there a few weekends ago because it is quite close to the Fairmont Hot Springs where we were enjoying a complementary night on our friends who really came through on sweet wedding present.

Honestly, every shop I went in to was amazing. We had lunch at this pub on the lake. All the food was hand made and the burger passed my exacting standards with flying colors. The bakery had amazing sculpted food and this super duper good bread. Ivermere is also home to Kicking Horse Coffee and we really enjoyed their cafe. -Way cooler than starbucks and not as expensive. (Dear Kicking Horse, If you would like to open up shop in Calgary please pick my neighborhood.)

And there was a deli.

We bought a few kind of sausage. As per my German roots I rather like all manner of sausages. The peperoni was incredible.

Unfortunately, the buffalo-whiskey something-or-rather was not.

And that’s when I got the idea that if I cut up the sausage and dried it out it would make a pretty awesome treat for the dog: meat cookies! You can see them on the cookie tray. Boy does Jasper ever love them!

As far as treats go I imagine those were rather costly, but it makes me wonder if I could buy some cheap ‘just expired’ sausage and make more for the ol’ boy.

Meat Cookies

Black ice with sections of asphalt, blowing snow, “I’m asphyxiating it’s so hot in here,” “I’m too cold, my fingers are ice cycles!” and a dog doing his best to maintain his sovereignty over the very small part of the station wagon allotted to him.  Yes, these are the things that make for a great road trip.

We’re driving me Mudder-In-Law’s newish station wagon and I’m plenty pleased about that.  The head lights work in this car; which is a site more (no pun intended) than I can say about the headlights on our car.  Plus, it has an aux port that I can plug my ipod into.  Yes!  I won’t be forced to listen to music on our journey which will inevitably be much longer than usual.  As I think I mentioned there is more ice than asphalt on the road today.

Our mission is to get to the family acreage just west of Edmonton where our holidays can materialize in a peaceful and pastoral setting that most would be jealous of.  Everyone else seems to be pretty relaxed apart from the occasional grumbling from the back seat.  Me Fawder-in-Law is showing pretty good restraint, but despite his best intentions he is, in fact, a back seat driver.

We pull into the drive way and are delighted to discover that the lock to the gate is frozen solid.  A few minutes later David, (aka Daffle. aka me Fawder-in-law) gets it working.

It is 11:30pm and we’re all in the house.  We left Calgary at 4:30.  Albeit we stopped in Red Deer for a sit down meal, but it’s still a long trip no matter how you dice it.

My big insight from the trip?  Well it’s this:  people who are not feeling relaxed like to tell other people to relax. I reminds me of that amazing bit of wisdom hidden in the lines by Mr. Shakespeare:  “Methinks thou doth protest too much.” (This is a misquote, by the way, but I really don’t care – there’s truth in it whether or not Shakespeare said it.  More on the misquote here.) I take this bastardized quote to mean: we complain about stuff we are guilty of.

Christmas Tip:  Study the people you are with. What do they complain about? Are they guilty of the same?  If they ask you to relax you can probably assume they don’t feel relaxed. Use this to your mutual benefit and figure out how to make them feel calm.

Christmas Tip: There is another powerful tool for understanding what people are REALLY thinking about themselves.  COMPLIMENTS. There is an ancient proverb that reads: The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives.  Yup, it’s easy.  Compliment people and see how they respond.  You can learn an awful lot about them.  You can even try it on yourself.  How do you react when receiving a compliment?

What if someone told you: “That was a great present you picked for me.”  ?   Would you say in your heart, “Oh, I’m really glad you liked it.”  Or would you say, “Oh, it’s not exactly what I wanted to get you!” OR, “If only you knew how much I wish we could get along… this gift is the only way I can show you love.”  (Or a mix of all.)  I’m not sure what you’ll discover, but you’ll learn something about yourselves and others.

We’re all squared away in our rooms now.  I’m writing because I’m really desperate to finish my 12 days in some sort of style and a miss just doesn’t seem like I’d be doing the countdown justice.  That and, well, this is a nice break from driving.  Flexing my creative muscle a bit does wonders for my personality.  Lucky for me, and everyone else, Tash and me Mudder-in-Law forced me to bring a guitar.  I suspect it will bring great peace and harmony to my heart over the holidays and will spare my family me asking them to relax.

I’m mostly done Tash’s shopping (The only person I have to buy for…) but I still have one thing I’d like to get her.

How’s your shopping going?   On holidays yet?

I hope all is well.

sb

(BTW Despite numerous attacks from suitcases and food that managed to launch covert ops from the bags they were hiding in the dog did maintain his spot in the car.)

Dear Wifey,

I should like to dedicate this private blog to you: the person God has used more than any other person to inspire me, affirm me, encourage me, and affirm me.

You walk me through the constant internal battle deep in my heart that demands I be like everyone else while simultaneously screaming that I ought to be just like me.  You, my wifey, help me believe that the latter is the best option of all.

There’s another word for what you do in my life.  You add respect.

Thank you for respecting me and for accepting my awkward love in return.

I love you, wifey!

XXXX 55555555 OOOOOO

Your totally, head over heels in love husband,

Steve

Proud.

I’m quite proud of my friends.

Not proud as if to say I did something to make them.  More like you’d talk about being proud of your Grandpa who served in the war.

I spent most of  my morning worried about how I was feeling.  Wishing I wasn’t feeling anything – especially hurt, a touch of anger, and wanting to be right.

Then I got an email from a friend.

Paul Hardy just spent a night at Hotel Des Mille Collines (aka Hotel Rwanda.)  Yes, the now infamous Hotel Rwanda -another poppy in a field too full of memories – “lest we forget” a genocide that wiped out roughly the population of Calgary in just four months.

And why was he there?  -to set up a system whereby women can make clothes for his new clothing line that will provide a sustainable income for them and their children.

It doesn’t take my mind long to connect that I have other friends who are doing things in Africa.

Shannon is launching a charitable foundation, Musikiva Canada,  to provide music therapy to at risk youth in Calgary and in Kenya.

Ralph is spearheading the good efforts of Hopetheopia – a project to develop long-term sustainable developments in Ethiopia.

Glenda and Charles are professional counselors conducting free counseling in Rwanda.  Trying to help people deal with war trauma that most of us would never understand.

Harry, an established Calgary Plumber,  is establishing “Plumbers Without Borders” after going to Africa and seeing the need for clean water.

Wow!  It’s too amazing.  What incredible people they all are.  And this doesn’t even touch what some of my other friends are up to in Asia, South America etc.  And these are just people I am in contact with on a, at least, monthly basis.  I wonder how many other super amazing people are out there doing amazing things?

I probably have some issues to deal with. Some Feelings to sort through and purge, but people like this help me to get focused on what’s really important.  They make me think it is possible.  We can make a difference.  And in the process, I think we will all be changed.

Hello Everyone.

I’ve had an idea:  Let’s put Rogers and Blockbusters out of business.  It would be great fun and it would be a sweet way to get to know the neighbors.

Here’s the thing.  On an average street, with average neighbors, and average life styles we can assume that there are a lot of people watching movies that they have either purchased or rented.

On average they are likely watching a lot of the same movies.  THE SAME MOVIES I WOULD SPEND $5 TO RENT.  This is how Blockbusters / Rogers make money.  They sell the same thing over and over again.  Their model works soley because neighbors are not organized enough to share their resources.

IDEA: What if you could set up some sort of system whereby people on your block would know what movies you and everyone else has.  Then, when they want to ‘rent’ a movie they could just cross the street and borrow it from you or  Mr. and Mrs. Smith  instead?

I’m sure some facebook app. could be designed… or maybe just a google doc to share the information? It could be pretty basic:

Mr. and Mrs. Smith have the following titles:  blah, blah, and blah.  Jimmie has the following titles: (blah, zip and zap.)

It’s really like napster… only you would actually be sharing a physical thing.  And THAT is certainly above board.

I think you could meet a lot of your neighbors, save some money, and even have quite a good time in the process.  Some entrepreneurial person might even make a buck off of said system.

If enough people did it we could even put Rogers/ Blockbusters out of business… or at very least force them to stock hard to find movies.

Here’s the excuse you’ve been waiting for to have some fun, live an adventure, tackle that little idea in the back of your head, take some quiet time for yourself, get people interested in your life, get interested in other people’s lives, make some money or perhaps get out of the pews and into the streets.

From June 14-20th I will be attempting to execute one idea per day that will stimulate my sense of adventure, impact at least one other person’s life, and hopefully create a few stories.

I invite you to join me here as I document the results.  I also invite you to try the same and share your stories with me.

Here are a few principles from my book (Before Your First Steps:  A Cure for Manic Boredom) that might help you get started:

1. Slow down.  Take 5 minutes to be still.  This will likely kill you; proceed to step 2 to get thinking about something.

2. Think about something you’d like someone else to do for you this very moment, or yesterday, or tomorrow.

>”Geez, I wish someone would mow the lawn.”

>”I would like an ice cream sandwich.”

>”I wish someone would invite me to do something.”

3. Think about something you could do to make someone else smile that wouldn’t take too long and would likely result in a smile.

>Pick up trash blown onto neighbors lawn

>Invite someone for dinner

>Comment on someone’s blog

4. Think about how you could impliment your ideas in number 2 for someone else.

5. Take one ideas from 3 or 4 and go try it! (Or use one from this list.)

6. Bring along a camera or notepad and document the results.

7. Post them on facebook or on this site.

8. Check out how my adventures are going.

P. 123
“He closed by telling us the real battle is won in the mind. It’s won by the guys who understand their areas of weakness, who sit and think about it, plotting and planning to improve. Attending to the details. Work on their weakness and overcome them. Because they can.”

Lone Survivor

Hi Team,

 I am putting the skills (wait, can i call them that? I'm not sure they're skills… um, well, at the very least the crudely fashioned tools) acquired to promote Better Than TV to promote Hopethiopia.  

This is a really great project involving creating awareness for a group of people that are setting up SELF SUSTAINING orphanages in Ethipia based on models studied around the world.  

More info to follow.