7 Quick Takes (IV)

1. As you can infer, I'm sure, Nick and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Saturday. We took the bus back home and I realized that twilight is about the one time of day that I'm at all pleased to be in an urban environment. The lights do it.
That night, it was a blood moon.

2. I worked Saturday and Sunday in preperation for Heritage Day. As I think I indicated previously, I had hoped to avoid it, but to no avail. I had particularly wanted to go to a church here in Fort Mac that morning, as a co-worker's sons were leading worship. Instead, however, I was working at the Park, in part because the other maintenance/labour-type coworkers had both come down with physical maladies (dehydration sickness, thrown back). Despite that fact that it most emphatically was not my job, I wound up doing a lot of the preperation. Fortunately, two of my staff-mates called in their boyfriends to help me. I really struggled not to be resentful that weekend.

3. Heritage Day was busy, of course. I was a runner and also the guy in charge of washroom cleaning and garbage pick-up (my usual role during events). Part of the responsibilities of the runner is to sub out the volunteers for their breaks, which lead to my leading a child-bearing pony around for twenty minutes. The pony's name was Crackerjack, and he quickly learned that I was not very experienced in pony-leading. He went as slow as he could go, and tried to sneak bites of grass as often as he could. Troublesome pony. The donkey, Chocolate, wasn't much better, as whenever she was unattended she'd trundle her little cart right in my way.
Due to the traffic Conversion Diary will bring, I should explain Heritage Day: at the Fort McMurray Heritage Park, a museum/park where I sometimes work, we host assorted events. Our largest event is Heritage Day, in which we invite cultural groups to come in and express their heritage through dance or music or vending art and food. We also have lots of games for the children and a petting zoo. Maybe this weekend I will make a whole post about this day.
Anyway, it was quite exhausting.

4. That same weekend (on the Sunday), my father returned to Fort Mac, bringing my mother and our (elderly) dog. That's right: the family is now officially moved to Fort McMoney, Alberta.

5. Due to my working through the weekend and the less-than-ideal weather after it, I got Tuesday off. Good thing, too: I needed it.

6. On Wednesday, I was walking down the street and a homeless man gave me a book. It took me a while to figure out what he was trying to communicate to me. He had received a book from a Chinese woman but didn't intend to read it. Did I want it? I took it and thanked him, but it was a while before I realized that he really didn't want money for it. He simply wanted to give it to someone who would use it. I am very use to being propositioned for money (or food, or empties) here, and I admit I was somewhat startled to be given something by those who usually ask for something. It might have had something to do with the fact that I had said "Good afternoon" to him earlier that day, of course.
Incidentally, I said he received the book from a Chinese woman. What happened was that she, a complete stranger, approached him with a shopping cart full of clothes. She asked him if he wanted them. He said he'd take them, as a friend of his (a woman there during his retelling) could use some new clothes. In the bottom of the cart were the book and some kiddie card games. The woman said that some of the clothes were new; they'd never been worn. I am very intrigued by this. Did the woman realize she had too much stuff, including clothes she'd never worn, and so decided to give them away to those who could use it--not to the Salvation Army, but directly to people who needed it? Or did she go out and buy the stuff expressly to give away? Or some other possibility I haven't thought of?

7. And on the topic of books, I am currently reading Spenser's The Faerie Queene: Book Three. In second year we (that is, my Renaissance Poetry & Prose class) were required to read the first book, and I found it terribly difficult. This past academic year I was required to buy books three and four, but then the books were dropped from the reading list. I was intrigued, however, by the premise (a lady knight, or "martiall Maid", seeking the man she is destined to marry but has only ever seen in an enchanted mirror, all as an allegorical tale demonstrating how she learns what it means to be the Knight of Chastity). After having read far more Renaissance texts and, even more importantly, Middle English texts (in the original), Spenser's "antique" language seems far less daunting than in second year. I am quite enjoying it, actually.

And that's seven! Look at that. It was a busy week, and so the seven takes were easy to fill.

Be sure to check out the Quick Takes Queen.