Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The Perfect Person

My mother in law, who was on a drive with us towards Las Vegas, commented that a perfect person will not make mistakes. My reply was "to the contrary, a perfect person is someone who makes a lot of mistakes, but never repeat the same one twice". I felt these words of wisdom. So, I captured them here.


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Location:Clearwater, BC

Blue Loon Grill, Clearwater, BC

We just stopped in the Blue Loon Grill restaurant in Clearwater town in British Columbia. We were on our way from Jasper to Kamloop. The experience was soul lifting.

The lady was so welcoming and funny.she treated us as family. They did have everything the claim they do. The reason she gave us is the "pony express" did not come. We did not understand at first. Then we understood that she meant "the train". Clearwater is in the middle of nowhere and getting food and supplies is very difficult.




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Monday, July 18, 2011

West Coast Drive ... Again

In less then two hours, we are on our way to a new lomng trip. We are planning to drive to Las Vegas while visiting British Columbia. The tetative sleep overs will be in: Jasper, Kelowna, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Hanford then Las Vegas. The return is not planned but might include Utah, Montana and Calgary. Let's see if the plan holds!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Friday, July 8, 2011

What a deck

We have been working on our deck for a while now. It started with expanding it eastward. Then we had to choose the railings, the color, the style... we had a dream about it, a vision how it should look like. It is turning out to be nothing like what we have imagined it... we had to compromise throughout the process because we cannot find the material we want...

The worst part is that we did our homework. We shopped around town for what exist to do everything around it. We choose railing from Home Hardware. It was on display. High quality black aluminum balusters that are curved in the middle. The railing is beautiful cedar wood that complements the color of our house. When we wanted to buy them. the salesman said he knows nothing about them. He does not know the price, if they are in stock nor if we can order them. He looked at us as crazy people because we are asking to buy something on display. He claimed they have been on display for ages and no one asked for them, so he cannot understand why we want them!! Anyway... like everything else in this town, ignorant sales people who do not know what they are selling have the upper hand.

Another problem is the color. I asked for Walnut Brown solid paint and I got milk podding color. So, I have to buy new paint. Maybe I will ask for red cherry hoping to get the cedar color. I still have to figure out the formula they use.

Something else happened that made me think. A friend sales lady, who works at Rona, tried to help us to choose a faucet for the basin we installed in the garage. We needed an inexpensive one! Something that serve the basic minimum. On our own, we chose one that cost $79. The sales lady decided to help us because we are dear to her. Or so she hinted! After explaining to her what we want, she decided that our choice is not the right one! She showed us another one for $180... she can make it for $160... big saving. We said no. Then she showed us another one for $140 that will become $125! Another big saving. We said no. After 20 minutes of offerings, she tried to convince us to buy our first $79 choice! and we bought it. This made me wonder, was this sales lady friend trying to help us? or rip us off by convincing us to buy what we do not need to have her commission? Or was she just trying to show off? The funny part is that Ron and I took us less than 15 min to choose and carry 9 huge railing boxes, a whole set of plumbing gear and select and buy the paint. While with this lady, who tried to help us, we spent 20 min trying to choose a faucet that we have already chosen! Is this friendship or what?

This made me think: is my fault?... Why did I allow myself to give her 20 min of my time? This will be my focus on my next meditative reflection. I can't tell if I will share my findings with you!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

New memory: the train trip

This is another memory. It came to me when I was planning a trip to British Columbia and one of my options was to ride a train between Jasper and Vancouver. I started thinking about all the train trips I have taken. Some of them were fond memories.

My first experience with trains was in Beirut with what we used to call the tramway. It was an intercity electric tram that moved around the downtown area. I remember riding it couple of times between Bab Edriss and AUB. I remember I had to run and jump in because it would not stop and that the tariff was less than 5 plasters.

My second ride on a train was with my family. I think I was less than 10 years. I am not sure if my sister was born. The trip was from Beirut to the old city of Aleppo in northern Syria. It was a 13 hour trip. It was a tidy trip. The benches were wooden and hard to sit on them for a long time. Ihad fun with it because it was a new adventure with my father which I really liked. The trip within Lebanon was relatively short. I remember passing through Lebanese towns that had Syrian driven car. It was the first time I knew the towns of both countries inter winded together. Aleppo was a magnificent city. We stayed at the Baron Hotel which is supposed to be the. Set hotel I those days. The Aleppo castle was magnificent.

Other encounters of train in my childhood was in our summer house in the village of Balechaih. The rail road used to pass less than a mild from our house. We used to run towards it to flatten our coins. The engineer would throw hot water on us to keep us away. I remember once we took it to another town few Kilometers away called Zahle. And we did not find a ride back. We had to take a taxi... and it was a massive eventful night that deserves a separate post.

Outside Lebanon, I rode a train in Thailand around 1992. Sana was pregnant. We had an overnight train from Bankog to Mai Che in the north. The bed were very small and the toilet extreme. It had cockroaches. It was an experience that Sana did not like.

Then were the train adventures in Europe. We loved this experience. Most of our transportation during our European trips were on trains. We used the Europass to travel between France, Italy, Germany, Austria and all the towns between them. the most famous one is the over night one we took from Paris to Nice. The next memorable one was another overnight one from Paris to Frankfurt. The most adventurous one happened in Germany were we tried to take a short trip and save on the ticket and we were caught. This cost us a day ticket for a 2 hour trip.

The last train trip was a return trip between Gran Baum in Austria and Venice in Italy that extended to Munich.

Should I take a train trip to Vancouver?

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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Fool on a Hill

I just finished watching Dinner with Schmucks. And this resonated with me‬‏.




McCartney said the song relates to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:

'Fool on the Hill' was mine and I think I was writing about someone like Maharishi. His detractors called him a fool. Because of his giggle he wasn't taken too seriously ... I was sitting at the piano at my father's house in Liverpool hitting a D 6th chord, and I made up 'Fool on the Hill.'[r]


Detect language » Arabic

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Memories: Lists of Houses I lived in

Here is the list of houses that I called home, since my birth. These are places I lived for more than 1 year in. I skipped those I lived briefly.
  1. My father house in Medhat Street, Jamal Building, Al Zarif. From 1958 - 1979.
  2. My grandmother house in Matni Street, Souad Mohamed Building. 1958 - 1975, when my grandma moved to a new house. I used to spend a lot of time in that place.
  3. My grandfather house in Baalcmeh, where I was born. I lived there most of the summers from 1958 til 1982. Then it was owned by my aunt, Mona.
  4. AUB Dorms, Newmen's 613, from 1979-1981 then 1983 till 1985.
  5. Mitsubishi Compund, 1981 till 1983.
  6. ACS Building. From 1985 till 1988.
  7. Ibn Kaldoon residence Building, Zinj Area, Bahrain. From 1988 till 1989.
  8. Silver Sands, Dubai. Apparment 313. A corner triangular apartment. From 1989 till 1993.
  9. Alhamriyah vills, Dubai. With the private swiming pool. From 1993 till 1995.
  10. Mirdiff Villa, next to the best neighbours ever. From 1995 till 1997.
  11. Alsatwa Villas. From 1997 till 1999.
  12. Jumeira Villa. From 1999 till 2004.
  13. Wolverine Villa, 2005 till 2006.
  14. Windsor Drive, 2006 till 2008.
  15. Woodward Lane, 2008 till today.

Other places I stayed in: Grandma house in Reifoun and Soik Elghareb, Summer houses in Abadieh, Sawfar and Ain Eljdeedeh. Houses in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, London Ontario, Kitchner, Kingston, and few other locations.

Memories: My father's building, 1960-1974

The memory posts I did made me try to re-imagine how my father's building looked like back when I was a toddler. I redrew it. I did one picture that shows how it looked like before my dad did the expansion, around 1960. The other one after the renovation and expansion. Sometime around 1970. This 4+1 story building was demolished in 1991 and a new 11 story structure was erected in its place.
My impressions of the building circa 1960...

... and how it became around 1970
Few things to notice:
  • the car in the first picture, this was my father Peugeot 403, model 1958, that he had. It survived the years till around 1974!
  • The three trees: The Akadinia on the left. The one that saved my life. The palm tree that never bore dates and the pine tree that was cut in 1977 to build a protected garage.
  • The bird cage on the roof of the 1970 picture.
  • The stairs that appear from the stairwell window.
  • The drabzeen, i.e. the railings, around the building and in the stairwell.
  • The pigeons in the second picture.
All of them will be the topics of future posts.





Detect language » Arabic

Evolution: Lynn Margulis

Lynn MargulisToday, through a Facebook friend, I discovered Lynn Margulis. She disputed evolution and defended her idea that evolution does not happen gradually, but in a leap. She is a remarkable woman. Her first article was rejected by 50 scientific journals, and accepted by only one. Now, that article is considered a landmark! When will scientific and academic arrogance seize to exist to allow proper evolution, or leapution, of human knowledge?


Reading about her made me wonder about few things: why I am not exposed to women of her caliber? I meet a lot of smart women on daily basis, but I rarely meet a woman who thinks in the absolute like her. Am I in the wrong circle? Should I be working somewhere else? Is it too late? I wonder.

Back to Margulis. She based her theory on one simple fact: there has been no evidence for biological gradual evolution from a the bacteria form to human form for the last 542 million years. This made me think: would she have reached the same conclusion if life form has existed for trillion centuries. Isn't 542 Million years trivial in that scope. Isn't like a sneeze in the life of the universe?

How does relate to De Chardin? He talked about an evolution from a geosphere to biosphere. Was it gradual or was it a leap?

Margulis idea adds value to divine creation. If we consider God to be an energetic being, and not a physical entity, can we say that this energetic being is driving evolution? According, to De Chardin, evolution has a purpose. Is this energetic being driving the evolution?

One last idea: I just forgot it ;)

Friday, July 1, 2011

Memories: Our Old House

House Plan as I remember itMy youthful house was on the third floor of my grandfather's house. I talked about it roof pool in a previous post. Now, I like to talk about as I remember it until I was 3 years old. That is barely before my brother was born.

As I understood later, my father built that apartment on the roof of his father building. I do not know for sure when. Was it before he got marries or in the period he got married and before I was born. I remember mom mentioning she had to live with her in-laws briefly. This is a period I need to check out.

The apartment was a single bedroom with a large living room and a dining area that overlooks the roof pool. The kitchen and bathroom were relatively small. The bedroom had a huge window that overlooks El Zeini building and a balcony that is squeezed behind the Shatila Building. The window is closed behind thick curtains in winter and is wide open in summer. This eliminates any privacy. We can hear the neighbors conversations as if they were in the next room and many times we enjoy the music of their radios.

The stairs that leads to the apartment is massive. It is made of 6 different stair sets. The first one had 13 steps, while all the other 5 had 11 steps. I used to count them every time I go up or down. We did not have an elevator, so counting them was a way to kill time. The stairway had huge open widows that would fill the stairway with water when it rains. I used to hop the stairs in both ways, up and down.

The bedroom was made up of two twin beds. One for my mom and another one for my dad. Their frame is made from strong cedar wood. Before my brother came, they put them next to each other so they make a huge king bed. I used to sleep with them. Now, I wonder if I witnessed the making of my son without me recognizing it. Another topic to check out!

The living room consisted of a large dining table with 6 chairs. They laid it to the west wall so that the can use the rest of the room space as a causal sitting area. The seats were made up of one sofabed and two armless chairs. I spend most of my time there. These chairs are still used by my parents till today, after renovating them couple of times. This is quality!

The living room had more seats. This was a forbidden area. I was rarely allowed to enter it. It is a middle eastern habit. The living room is for the guests only. It has to stay clean and neat. Its a kids-free zone. It had two doors: one that opens to the dining area and another one that opens to the main entrace, which was kept locked most of my toddler life. The living room had a wide window that goes from one side of the west wall to the end. The sunset view from that window is breathtaking. I do not understand why they did not enjoy it!

To walk from the dining room, i.e. my play area, to the bed room, I had to go through a corridor that leads to the Kitchen and the bedroom. I still remember every inch of this space. The revolving door that is always kept open. To me, it was a challenge. I never knew knew how to use the door stoppers. They were supposed to be high tech for those day... but never worked. Facing this door was a basin and a huge mirror. This mirror made me see myself grow. I still remember the first time I was able to see my face on the mirror without having to stand on the tip of my feet! It was a landmark that my mom talked about for many years later. Even when I became taller than her. Just next to the mirror, there was the kitchen door. Always open. Fridge on the left, and a stove in the front. A huge window kept the smell out in summer. In winter, my father installed a huge fan, he calls it "esperateur" that I was repeatedly told to switch if off before I go to bed. Its switch was high for a todler. Used the tips of my foot. I found it motivating to withness how tall I am getting by noting how high I had to push myself up.

Crossing two doors, I get to the living room. These two doors were the main air condition control of the house. My father used it to control the flow of the air across the house by opening and closing them. Closing the kitchen door while opening the door next to the bathroom ensured a smooth breeze from the balcony without getting the smell from my mom's cooking. Opening both doors and the pool door, ensure a windy passage of air that cooled the house even in the hot weather. My father called it "corrindor".

This whole house was my play gorund shared by no one, until my brother was born.