if it's not WWOOFing, maybe it's tweeting

~ This post has been a work-in-progress for five days; I began writing it on Monday, Jan 26 ~

First off, belated Happy Birthday wishes to Duane, who turned thirtysomething on Saturday! We sent you a card, Duane, but I was too cheap to use Xpresspost (≈$10 for a card!!!), so look for it in the next day or three. (Update: Apparently the card showed up Wednesday. Maybe it's time to buy another scratch'n'win.)

Day 48 of the Ottawa Transit strike, although it's really affected me, personally, for only 21 days...it's long enough already. Stop the insanity. (Update: OK, so threatened with back-to-work legislation by the Feds the day after they brought forth the "budgie" - nod to Air Farce's Chrétien-inspired skits - the city and the union agreed to binding arbitration at day 51. The good news is that buses will return to the roads in a week or so; the bad news is that there will be service on select routes only. Transpo's site says it may take up to 14 weeks for full service to return. I try not to utter obscenities as a rule, but to that news my response can be nothing other than wtf?!)

It hasn't helped morale any that we've been getting some decidedly Manitoba-like temperatures, albeit not quite as cold. It just makes one want to run away. (Update: it's warmed up, but we've received snow which makes running, not to mention walking, a challenge.)

Speaking of running away, we are. We spent some time with a travel agent a few Saturday mornings ago (Jan 10), but ultimately decided that we're a little leery of the economic situation - yes, despite the skeptic in me that thinks the downturn operates analogously to a self-fulfilling prophecy that someone in the upper echelons dreams up. Realistically, we're not in a position to spend a week at a posh resort.

The Ottawa Citizen's Reb Stevenson captured our dilemma in the introductory sentence of his article, "Wwhat in the wworld is WWOOFing?" To recap, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms is an organization whereby travellers enjoy free food and lodging in exchange for their help with chores, which can be "anything from weeding to harvesting to tending animals."

Enter Plan B: a telephone to James's snowbird parents in Texas. We actually booked our flights Jan 13, before the article appeared. I toss in that trivia to show how shrewd we are, how attuned to the collective unconscious.

Not sure about the weeding and harvesting--when we visited in Dec 2004 our chores consisted primarily of dishes and refilling jugs of water from the dispenser at the community hall--but tending animals is a possibility. My parents-in-law own a rambunctious male Shi Tzu puppy named Sasha (or possible Sacha, after Trudeau's son's nickname), and Sam, a gorgeous, aloof, ferocious, declawed cat, who is exceedingly discriminating in her affections (she loves brother-in-law Brian, who used to feed her, and my father-in-law, who feeds her now).

I'm not crazy about the pup, but I'm going to suck it up. What's a little woofing in exchange for some fun in the sun? And this time around, I am fortifying myself with vitamins, because there are few things less miserable than descending upon one's in-laws, 3000 km from home, with a raging sinus cold.

So while present circumstances may leave something to be desired, I'm content 'cause the countdown's on. We're "tweatin'" ourselves to a mini vacation. Two more weeks...and that's something to make a little noise about.