More bits and pieces

It's winter in Edmonton, everybody here should have noticed by now. We noticed the icicles on the roofs of some houses but not on others. It's a matter of insulation. I spoke to an acquaintance yesterday who said her family of four lives in a rented non-insulated house. When they heat, the heat goes up into and out of the roof. That means the main floor is permanently cold and the upper storey is rather hot - even a crabby roof keeps some heat in. Why would anybody with some brain between the ears build a house without insulation in Canada?! Just another case where harming the environment harms the people, too. It can not be healthy to live in this house.

Do you like art? I framed my brother-in-law's art today. He always adds a drawing to the gifts her gives. I love it, not only because my husband (really the brother of that guy??) is not artistic at all. Anyway, life would not be fun without art and surely there's a lot of good and bad art around. I am not going to discuss environmentally friendly and unfriendly art supplies though because I don't know anything about them. But there's art even in lots of things we take into our hands on a daily basis - or at least part of these things can be turned into art. And it should be appreciated. I started making notebooks/ journals out of scrap paper and paper that's been printed on one side only. I got some scrap fabric and buttons from a friend, cut out pictures from the newspaper, use cereal boxes for the covers, but had to buy the glue from a store. Now that I pay attention it is impressive to me how much paper goes through a household and what it is used for. I have so much paper I don't think baby will ever allow me the time to turn it into notebooks. I keep trying though. See what you have in your place that can be turned into something useful, exciting, artistic ... have fun.

Oh that Michael Pollan - I finished his book - so one more comment about it. The American lifestyle is the culprit for the way Americans eat. That's a big statement but he sounds pretty convincing and well I agree, especially when it comes to holidays! He says that Americans work long days, 40 hours and more per week, with two incomes per household, and have only a couple of weeks holidays. But they also have the spare time to watch TV or DVD, play video games, shop, and in the rare occasion exercise for some hours per day.  I think that's due to marketing telling you to indulge in the pleasures of life instead of spending time on household chores. Hold on a minute, chores is the wrong word when it comes to eating. Pollan's comparison was mostly with the French and Italians who spend hours on food preparation and eating, converse while doing so and eat less at the same time. They eat until they are full, Americans shovel food into their mouths until the plate or microwavable package is empty. The French were one of the first to cut down on the number of hours they work. I bet they are still more productive than Americans simply because they are not burned out and sitting in the office recovering from their free time or holiday rush. Europeans don't need to rush much during their holidays they get at least 4 weeks per year. You get why we want to live in Europe sooner than later, right. My husband just asked for unpaid holidays. He's not entitled to holidays during his first year, never mind he worked in other jobs before he started this one so he's worked for over a year with one week vacation. His boss granted him the week but said they don't usually do that - well, we don't care if we are the exception to the rule if it works for us. Oh, flexible working hours would be a real advancement , too. That will prevent a lot of rush hour traffic, frustration, emissions blown into the air for nothing ... I think I just lost my topic but I wanted to say this. Last but not least, stop caring about advertisement - it is never right.