Am I a crackpot?

Sent to me from an old friend and fishing buddy.

An Elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, but the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. 'I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.'

The old woman smiled, 'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?'
'That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.'
'For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.'

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

So, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the
flowers on your side of the path, and send this to any or all of your
Crack Pot friends within 5 minutes and see what happens! Don't forget the
Crack Pot ! that sent it to you!!

On the more mundane side, Wife and I are sat snugly indoors catching up with little tasks, watching the rain fall over the Narrows, while according to friends up in Nanaimo, it's been snowing a fair bit.

Wet and wild

Bit of a breezy day today out in the Straits and the Narrows. Lots of whitecaps being driven north by the wind. Plenty of sediment being stirred up, and a fair few logs bobbing around. Not a day to be trying to get anywhere fast on the water. Not if you wanted to keep your hull in one piece. Some of those logs weigh over two tons.
Took Dog for a hike in the woods while Wife got our place ready for our two (and Mother in law) to visit from the UK. While crossing Canada we heard lots about the damage done by various beetles to trees, noting that it was an offence to take untreated logs or bark from province to province. Took this photo to show what the larva of these nasty little so and so's have don to the local tree population. On this particular specimen they've chomped rather decorative channels through the inner bark and killed the tree in the process. It's not the only one by any manner of means, within twenty paces of entering this particular patch of woodland I could see at least four or five similarly damaged trees.

Hopefully the recent frosts and snowfalls will cull the culprits so the pest populations won't be as large next year. The forecast is for snow by the weekend, which our kids are looking forward to. Even if it means a hike to Mount Washington to go 'Snow Tubing' which sounds like fun.

Have been busy over the past few days going to various functions and friends houses, so the Novel MSS has been lagging behing schedule a little. Got to work out a game plan for my new job too. There's a lot to be done, and only three of us to make a dent in the tasks at hand. I know there are quite a few challenges to be faced, but I reckon I can crack it if I put my head down and graft.

I haven't looked forward to Christmas and New Year like this since I was a boy. God bless Canada.

Chuffed

Feeling mildly pleased with myself. Friend in trouble and in danger of getting kicked out of Medical School - I spent the past 36 hours writing a bunch of begging e-mails to all the people I could think of, called in favours, begged, made promises, sold my soul etc.

Result is that with a little (A lot) help from my friends, and people that I did not know were friends, we raised enough cash to get my betroubled friends Medical School funding back. All she has to do is follow through and sieze the opportunity.

Today I feel as though I'm on the side of the Angels. It feels good.