By harnessing the unique powers of the Internet, I can conjure all sorts of strategies various degree holders assure me will absolutely convince my kids to go to bed when I tell them to and stay asleep until I wake up.
Coast, grant me the serenity to keep searching for one that works despite the pile of evidence I’m racking up that suggests none of them do.
It’s a nightly game of trial and error and the stakes are whatever value you place on your own ability to sleep. It’s a game I’m blessed to play of course, kids are adorably fulfilling gifts whether they’re being delightfully affectionate or screaming in the middle of the night.
Sandy’s been helpful lately. She’s an old orange pit bull my three-year-old son is convinced would eat any monsters that are in, or could enter, his room. Portable televisions help too and that’s why kids without tablets are going extinct. That’s still frowned upon in some circles, but I have a feeling those circles are comprised of yesterday’s parents who didn’t have access to today’s tools while enduring the trial and error bedtime games we put them through before we grew up and started playing our own.
Between the dog and Netflix, Jr’s pretty well covered. The one-year-olds are a different story.
Crimson and Clover are finding their sass and unearthing their independence. The beautiful enigma of the trial and error game is what’s lightning for one, won’t strike twice for the other. Different strokes for different folks applies no matter how much DNA is shared. They all need different things and their demands aren’t synchronized. None of them wake up at the same time. It’s a beautiful storm of frustration.
The moment that first, blissfully welcomed, chorus of unified snores chimes in, it’s an orchestral tuning for the night’s victory cigarette and my front deck puts me on a perfect perch to see another breed of blessed angst. White knuckled tourists who’ve lost their way.
Ucluelet boasts one of the most impressive accommodation rosters this Island has to offer. Tourists looking for the biggest bat in our lineup though are missing their turns and winding up steaming behind the wheel in residential neighbourhoods.
Good on Coun. Mayco Noel for pointing that out and seeking out input to conjure up strategies that will convince those tourists to head the right direction and get the sleep they need after braving Sutton Pass.
Coast, grant his constituents the serenity to accept that the search for one that works won’t strike gold overnight. All good plans hatch from incomplete ideas that often sound preposterous when first pitched. It’s a trial and error game and Noel’s right to put a ball in motion. Our main drag’s already congested and July is still two months away.
It’s congestion we’re blessed to have. If Peninsula Road was empty, our wallets would be too. Our thriving summer seasons are a gift whether our guests are delightfully fawning over our shorelines or slowing our commutes.
Noel’s suggestion to steer them off the strip before they hit our shops might be misguided, but it’s an idea that’s hatched a valuable conversation. Our opinions won’t be synchronized, but we need to talk about our traffic flow.
Following through on countless years of talk to make Main Street a one-way deal could help.
I’m still waiting for a sign at Bay Street and Peninsula steering visitors to the pristine parking lot on Cedar Road that we built for them in 2012, but still haven’t gotten around to telling them about.
The speed bumps council bought about 10 years ago, and have played around with throughout the decade, are still sitting in storage, despite urgings from locals, including Coun. Randy Oliwa, to put them to use in our community school zones.
A crosswalk around Murray’s would calm some nerves, but crosswalks can’t lead to nowhere and it’s tough to believe we’ve got the budget to splurge on a sidewalk.
There’s a lot to talk about and Noel should be commended for starting the conversation.
Let’s just hope they tell us when the meeting is this time and don’t rely solely on a Facebook post to engage their voting public.