Happy Solstice ...

Things on my mind today ...
By design, National Aboriginal Day falls on the solstice.
Whether by coincidence or not, Gay Pride celebrations coincide with the solstice.
A time of turning points and balance, marking the end of the time when the veil between the worlds is thinnest ...
Midsummer, Alban Heruin, Feast of St. John the Baptist, Gathering Day, Feast of Epona and others ...
Whether or not any of this has any meaning for you,
Bright Blessings

• Wednesday, I drove S to Olds on QEII, then W to 22, over the Crowsnest, across and up to Nelson, B.C. I got in early enough to spend a little time with the girls before bedtime, then Patty and I stayed up way too late yacking.
• Thursday and Friday, we were up early to get the girls off to school twice, prepared and loaded everything we were going to need for the morning into the van twice, had tea at the house with the Moms' group so they could give Patty a birthday present once, realized we didn't have keys for the van once, loaded it all into Epona and left a message for Jaime to please stop at home and swap vehicles on the way to school once, went up to the school for Sarah's Class 1 play once, went back to the house with Jaime in Epona to vehicles 'cuz he missed the message once, went to Raye and Ally's Fathers' Day/Last Day of School potluck in the Kinderhouse once, tidied up the classroom twice, moved the Class 1 things into the Class 2 room once, packed up the Raye and Ally and took them around town while we ran errands two or three times, went home and made dinner twice, visited the new house of one of the Moms from the Moms' group once, greeted and unpacked Barbara and Anailese, Chelsea and Bernie once, had dinner a couple of times, had a birthday party at the old church that's now a yoga space once (after gathering more than enough folks for a whole party at Patty and Jaime's house first), hugged and kissed and talked and chased and tickled and listened and read stories and played and laughed about a bazillion times.
• Saturday, Sarah, Raye, Ally, Barbara, Anailese, Bernie and both dogs came to wake me up. The rest of the morning was a bit rushed 'cuz it took them a while to get organized and I couldn't very well get up and get started before I was formally woken up! After breakfast, I drove home (same route in reverse, except that I took QEII all the way from Ft. McLeod), unpacked and collapsed.
• 1912 km. (much of it mountain driving) on 72L of fuel ... 3.766L/100 km. ... that's 62.5 mpg US/75 mpg Imperial. Not bad.
• Sunday I packed up and drove out to the lake for Fathers' Day ... I had a bit of a start when I came around the corner and saw the empty driveway ... I thought, "CRAP! It's in the city!?" ... but the cars were all parked on the other side of the road. Whew! It was a lovely day! On the way home, I stopped at Mary's for a minute (which generally takes me several hours).
• Birthday weinie roast yesterday got rained out and moved indoors ... about twenty women and Pete ... hot dogs and sushi (and other treats)
• I did not take a single picture.

Stuff and Nonsense ...

Daylight:

Length of day: 17:00
Hours of dark: 5:12
Sunrise: 5:06 am
Sunset: 10:06 pm
Start of twilight: 4:14 am
End of twilight: 10:58 pm

Current weather: Mostly Clear. 14°C (57°F), wind WNW 11.2 km/h (7 mph), relative humidity 67%, pressure 30.1 in Hg.

Forecast:

Today.. Sunny then mix of sun and cloud with 30% chance of showers late this afternoon. Risk of a thunderstorm. Wind becoming NW 20 km/h near noon. High 22°C.
Tonight.. Cloudy periods. 30% chance of showers early this evening with risk of thunderstorms. Low 9°C.
Thursday.. Cloudy with sunny periods and 40% chance of showers. High 22°C.
Friday.. Cloudy with 60% chance of showers. Low 12°C. High 22°C.
Saturday.. Sunny. Low 7°C. High 24°C.
Sunday.. A mix of sun and cloud. Low 10°C. High 22°C.
Normals for the period.. Low 8°C. High 22°C.

Drama belongs in the theatre ....

Too much going on right now to keep up blogging, apparently.
Nina has moved back in rather abruptly and that's all I'm going to say about that.
Mary and I charged about, doing errands and visiting the other day when her car was in for service.
Tomorrow, we fête Mona at the lake with a weinie roast (weather permitting).
I'm off to Nelson on Wednesday, for Patty's 40th (and Raye and Ally's 5th(?ohmygoodnessisthatpossible?).
There continues to be hippie herding.
And speaking of which, from Techdirt...

MPAA: The Grateful Dead's Success Was An Abomination Against Nature
from the one-way-to-look-at-things dept
One of the more annoying things we've found when discussing how the entertainment industry needs to adapt and change and embrace new technologies in place of their old business model, is the repeated claim that it's impossible to make money if the content is given away for free. Impossible is a pretty absolute statement -- and all you need is one example to disprove it. However, as we've shown, there are many, many examples of entertainers who have learned how to make more money out of giving away their content -- which seems to disprove the whole "impossible" bit. However, the industry folks don't seem to know how to respond to that, so they just keep saying it's impossible.

Witness this bizarre exchange between John Perry Barlow and the MPAA's Dan Glickman debating the future of the entertainment industry. Barlow notes that he made an awful lot of money as a songwriter for the Grateful Dead, which encouraged its fans to make tapes of its shows for free. Glickman immediately responds by saying: "It is ridiculous to believe that you can give product away for free and be more successful. I mean it defies the laws of nature." The problem, as always, is that Glickman has incorrectly defined his market -- which is a scary thought if he's supposed to be the leading spokesperson for that industry. He thinks they're in the business of selling content. That's not so. It's too narrowly defined. The entertainment business is in the business of entertaining -- and that can include many things that still involve giving content away for free for promotional value. We've discussed plenty of examples in the recording industry -- and Barlow's success helps prove that. In Glickman's own movie industry the examples are even more obvious. They should be selling the experience of seeing a movie, not just the content. However, when Glickman says things like the idea that giving away things for free is against "the laws of human nature," we wonder if this means he's never received anything for free in his life. Does he turn down the free soda offered with the slice of pizza in the corner shop? Free dessert with dinner? Why that's just crazy talk! Those restaurants must be run by anti-capitalist extremists. Their actions in giving away free food are against the laws of nature, and they must be on their way out of business.