Canvassing

    Now that it's federal election time in Canada, I've been canvassing for Bruce Levy, the N.D.P. candidate here in St. Paul's. (It helps that the campaign HQ is close to my house!) I've been putting leaflets into mailboxes--and giving some to passersby--through the southwest corner of the riding, where our greatest strength is.

    Bruce is a retired diplomat, who used to be Canada's ambassador to Sri Lanka. (That must have been a challenge, what with Canada's vocal Tamil community who aren't happy about the government's heavy-handed suppression of the Tamil rebellion.) Ingrid, his wife and de facto campaign manager, is very friendly.  She gives me a ginger ale when I'm finished every day!

    I've had an ambition of walking a mile a day, and lately I've been managing it! (And yes, my feet are rather sore.) It's still cool for April, and the other day I felt cold in the front but sweated in the back...

    Putting all those leaflets in mailboxes reminded me that our rusty mailbox needed replacing.  Moira bought one and I screwed it in today. (It isn't quite level.)

    Lately we've been watching stuff on Kanopy. (It's free and all you need is a library card!) Two weeks ago we were watching Lonesome Dove yet again, then we saw Ken Burns' documentary American Buffalo.  I just finished watching Burns' documentary about jazz. (Wynton Marsalis dominates it the way Shelby Foote dominates Burns' Civil War documentary.)

    Right now I'm reading Susanna Moore's Paradise of the Pacific:  Hawaii Approaching for my History Meetup.  19th-century Hawaii had a lot of "third world" problems.  Sandalwood was a lucrative export to China, so they chopped down the sandalwood forests so quickly that the tree was largely gone by 1830! (That reminded me of the buffalo in America.) Later they came to depend on sugar exports, leaving them vulnerable to American tariffs.

    Tonight I started watching Titans on Kanopy.  It's a docudrama about the businessmen who founded Hollywood.  A good story, though the music's heavy-handed and annoying.

    This Saturday, since it's Easter weekend, my Classic Music Meetup will be playing religious music.