Photos from the Minden Times Facebook page

Minden is one of several communities that have experienced flooding this spring. If you follow my blog, you’ve probably noticed I blog a lot about Minden, Ontario. I grew up there, and return several times a year to see family and friends. It still feels like home, and it is upsetting to be so far away from it right now. A State of Emergency was declared on April 20th, not a lot has changed since then. A lot of the town is still under water and officials from Parks Canada suggest that it will take at least a week before the water recedes.

Minden hasn’t got as much press as bigger towns experiencing flooding, but people are definitely hurting. People are angry, too. The local MP, Barry Devolin, took a week to come by to survey the damage and Parks Canada is currently on the defensive about the extent of their responsibility (i.e., they’re claiming no responsibility). Not that I’m saying Parks Canada is responsible, but I’ve never seen flooding like this in my lifetime, and this is the first spring thaw since the cuts to Parks Canada went through. Parks Canada oversees the Trent-Severn Waterway (TSW), of which the flooded Gull River is a part. Some people have suggested that the TSW is experiencing more flooding than area waterways that are not part of the TSW. I can’t say for myself, as I haven’t had the opportunity to visit Minden since the flooding started, but I can see why people are suspicious.

Regardless of whether blame can be assigned, lots of insurance policies will NOT be covering this type of flooding. Overland flooding is not often part of home insurance policies. People are finding this out the hard way and they will need help. Please consider helping. Since lots of scams pop up in the wake of disasters such as this, donations are encouraged to be made directly to the township:

Township of Minden Hills

7 Milne St.

P.O. Box 359

Minden, ON

K0M 2K0

Or donations can be made online with debit, credit cards, or PayPal HERE.

Please donate soon, as each dollar raised by the township will be matched by the Ontario government!

From here

I can’t help but believe we won’t recognize you in a couple years.

I hope this isn’t so. I hope we won’t let it happen.

Love,

Em

And tomorrow I turn 30. Time flies.

I’ve got a couple clothes done already, but I’ll post those a bit later on. So far, Dishie seems to be a nice dishcloth yarn. Much softer & prettier than the usual Sugar & Cream department store stuff. I don’t know how it will stand up to dish-washing, but we’ll see.

We adopted him when he was 4 months old, but I thought it’d be cute to show how much he’s changed since he was really little.

then…

and now…

And then all this other stuff came out about Magnotta. Most disturbingly, that he was the (alleged) asshole who was torturing and killing kittens a few years ago and posting the videos online. That made me very mad. I’ve blogged in the past about how much animal abuse infuriates me, especially this online bragging bullshit. I had written about the Kenny Glenn case, and it was fairly similar. Well, up until about 2 weeks ago it was similar, anyhow. With Magnotta, the online campaign to identify and locate him was pretty impressive, but clearly it wasn’t taken seriously enough by authorities. And we now know what that can (allegedly) lead to.

The thing is, it’s not like we didn’t know that it can lead to murder. This isn’t a surprise.

For many individuals, animal abuse escalates unless something or someone intervenes. It’s been documented in research and is apparent in many legal cases. Just this year, it was revealed that Tori Stafford’s killer (McClintic) had microwaved a puppy when she was a child. It starts there. And the internet is making it easier for these fucked up individuals to share, to inspire, to brag, and encourage others.

But it’s also making it easier to find them. And people are willing to volunteer their time to do so, as Magnotta’s abuse videos demonstrated.

This asshole killed a bunch of kittens – and judging by a bunch of photos of Magnotta with terrified-looking dogs – he probably killed a bunch of dogs too. And who knows what or who else he’s harmed. It’s time to take it seriously.

Law enforcement, policy analysts, teachers, parents, social workers, peers, random people watching videos on the internet – everyone needs to take animal abuse seriously.

They’re not “just animals”. This abusive behaviour is a serious red flag. Quit fucking around and use it as such.

You know what REALLY sucks? Tonsillitis coming back two weeks later, blowing your whole May 2-4 and knocking you on the ass again.

I’ve been on antibiotics for most of May. Antibiotics screw up everything else in my body, so it’s been rough. The dr says I’m a candidate for a tonsillectomy. I don’t know when I’ll have time to get that done, but it seems like a really good idea. I guess we’ll see.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot of stuff is, but I’m not even sure why. I had used it as a place to unload for years, and I now I don’t. I want to, but the lack of privacy kind of kills it. I think that’s what it is, anyhow.

And that bothers me.  Most of the things I’m going through right now make me want to share, simply due to the fact that they’re difficult and I know other people go through them too. Or have gone through them. Or will.

I’m just afraid, and yes, it’s fear, that I’ll post the wrong thing and it will come back to haunt me. It’s not that I’m doing anything criminal or even that I want to rant about particular people, it’s just a lingering fear of things coming back to bite me in the ass.

And I have no idea where this came from. There wasn’t any incident or post that has bitten me in the ass. It’s just an idea that has crept up on me over the past year or something. I used to share a lot of very personal things, and I was OK with that. Maybe I’m getting older. Maybe I understand the (potential) consequences. Maybe it’s where I work now or something else that’s changed… but I just keep abandoning posts before hitting “publish” lately.

(Except for knitting posts. I like sharing those.)

I guess it’s something to think about.