Thursday, April 05, 2007

Spring hasn't sprung, yet

It's really April 5 today, isn't it? I can't be sure, because when I woke up this morning there were two inches of snow on the ground. It's bitterly cold here in London, Ontario now, and according to one of the guys in the office, we're supposed to get up to 8 inches of snow by tomorrow. I'm afraid to check the weather forecast for myself, in case he's right. How depressing is this?

Pretty damn depressing. I want to see forsythia bushes in bloom, crocuses (or croci, if you prefer) and daffodils adding splashes of colour closer to the ground, warm breezes and sunshine. I am so tired of winter that my usual state of equanimity is at risk and I'm likely to say a bad word or two and perhaps write a nasty letter to the people who are promising global warming and failing to deliver. Just kidding. Don't send me any nasty letters, please.

OK. Now that I've got that out of my system, let me update on where we stand with the proposed Walk the Talk website. If you don't know what I am talking about, scroll down a couple of posts to the 'Walking the Talk' post to read all about it. We want to build a 'clearing house' information website, with all volunteer help, to make a difference to the disadvantaged in our society, specifically the homeless, teenage runaways, unwed mothers and addicts. I am exploring whether we could or should use some sort of Wiki software for the project or if some organization that has commercial solutions for what we want might consent to donate the software for our cause. I'll keep you posted.

I am very serious about this project, but I cannot do it alone. I will need lots of help. LOTS OF HELP!! Sorry, didn't mean to shout at you, but it is time to get involved. Sign up at our Yahoo Group to find out what this is all about and volunteer your services in whatever capacity you feel you might be most useful with. We don't have any clearly-defined chores yet, but we will have at some point, hopefully relatively soon, and much work and dedication will be needed.

I had a telephone conversation yesterday with a friend of mine who, along with his wife, has been involved with various charitable groups for years, either as a paid employee or as a volunteer contributing time and/or services. He told me that, based on his experience, many people claim to want to help and contribute and make a difference to charitable causes, but when it is time to actually do something they are suddenly unavailable. Let's prove to him, and to me, that we can be the exception to the rule.

While we are trying to figure out how to proceed, join our Yahoo group, make suggestions, offer to help, and comment on suggestions and experiences posted by other participants. Let's get some correspondence and some excitement going.

I don't want this to fail. I will keep everyone posted.

Please leave comments on these posts too, if you care to. Let's hype this up!

4 comments:

  1. Why so frigid a spring?
    Must be all that "global warming" AlGump and the tree-huggers keep pushing on us.
    A good focus for your charity would be collecting an emergency store of resources for when the bottom really does fall out of everything, because sooner or later, it will. We both know the party won't go on forever. The world is not coming to an end, but I'm pretty confident in saying Western "Civilization" already has and just doesn't know it, because collectivists like the aforementioned one have lived up to Kruschev's prophecy:
    "We will bury you so gently, you won't even know you are dead."

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  2. Like you, Galt, I am not terribly optimistic about the short and medium term, but hope that in the long term things will improve for a generation or two until the cycle starts all over again.

    Our organization will likely be more a disseminator of information than anything else, but we will certainly try to steer people to make intelligent, well-informed choices if we can.

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  3. Good for you to invest in a charity.

    My forsythia is blooming on the terrace. I brought some branches inside so the inside flows to the outside.

    It is my favorite first sign of spring. We had a couple of snow flurries in NYC, though in the last days....

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  4. Thanks, MotherPie. I love Forsythia bushes. They are my favourite signal of spring and I love the bright yello colour.

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