Boomerang shows us what is important

Good news. HedgeRow House has done a roaring non trade and both the red tent and granny's nickers have disappeared. Today I was faintly disappointed, whilst wandering past with two companions, that there was nothing to show them. The house, which has displayed the weird and wonderful over the past few weeks, looked distinctly mundane and normal.

Earlier I walked with Gregoire, Marjorie and her dog, Boomerang, round Egg Lake not too far from our house. The weather was spectacular, with sunny blue skies but a slight chill in the air and we ambled by the water with the snow-capped mountains in the distance and a myriad of ducks and seagulls, busily feeding and splashing in the lake. Boomerang was so excited, wanting us at every opportunity to kick the ball for him to chase and return. Well I say "ball", its been chewed to high heaven and is a hunk of plastic that does not bounce or roll in any way, shape or form. However its clearly one of B's prized possessions, so it comes along on the walk and soon gets a lot of attention. Boomerang doesn't share the ball even after being chased for several minutes by two other dogs, eager to add said "ball" to their toy collection.

I just like to watch dogs enjoying themselves, running in to the lake, scratching the earth, taking almost a childlike joy in the simplest of activities. It reminds me that it is sometimes good to view life as a child, unfettered by adult cares and worries. We're so much caught up in hectic schedules and issues over which we have no control. Time out to kick a ball and chase and catch. OK, I'm not going to go barrelling into the lake at this time of year, that's taking it a wee bit far. But you get my drift.

Switching gears a bit, Gregoire and I went in search of replacement patio doors this weekend. Ours have seen better days, and there's accumulated dirt between the double panes so we've decided to replace them. We walked down the aisle at SpendAstronomicalDosh (SAD) Hardware store and before we could say, "Those are the doors we want," we were button-holed by a SAD assistant. This was odd because usually you can never find any help in that store, for love nor money.

Well it turns out he was not your average salesman. His opening words : "You could buy them, but I really wouldn't. They have problems with leakage and in five years you'll need to replace them." This piece of honesty took us aback. Then he explained that he'd only just started there, he was really a jeweler by trade, but dammit he likes things to work and most of the windows there were not up to snuff. He pointed out a decent brand telling us where it was made and what it would tolerate or not. I got to thinking, if I ever wanted a piece of jewelry, I'd like it to be done by him. Anyway suffice to say, we got the information we wanted, didn't waste time on sub-standard windows and walked out the store, happier rather than SAD customers.

Lastly today. Kyoto. The consensus from the rest of the family is that Kyoto is so flawed that it is not worth implementing. They think it is worse than no legislation. I'm reading up on this a bit more. Until I hear that there is a compelling alternative on the table that can be signed off by all the world's major polluters, and hopefully all nations, I'm sticking with the stance that Kyoto, whilst far from perfect, is at least a start and better than no accord.