Remembrance/Veterans Day Weekend

Another weekend done and gone and a beautiful one it was. The weather was absolutely gorgeous today. And it was made even better by the fact that I got to do one of my most favourite activities - canoeing!! The first time since the beginning of July. One of the women on the volunteer corps board has this tiny 16 pound canoe and together we went out to the canal and had a little paddle & walk. Of course we can't both fit in this tiny canoe together so we took turns. This woman is wonderful though. She's in her early 80's, recently widowed and oh so active. If I can only be as active as she is when I'm her age, I'll be so happy. Anyways, I'm already having dreams of next summer...so many canoeing possibilities!

Our poor beautiful house has been having some issues lately. Fortunately the weather has been nice or else we'd be in trouble. We're having furnace/thermostat problems. That is, they aren't working. It doesn't matter how high the thermostat is set (even 90 degrees - fahrenheit of course) the house won't heat up past 60 degrees (which is like 15 degrees celcius). Not so much fun when it's like 5 or 10 degrees outside and close to freezing at night. But someone's coming to look at the furnace on Friday and I have a block heater in my room so at least I'm set - it's just the rest of the house that must suffer. Our washing machine also decided to quit this weekend. Probably cause it's too cold ;) Anyways, it's only stopped agitating during the wash cycle but will still rinse and spin. So if we want we can at least soak and rinse our clothes. Again, we're too lucky as a new washer will likely be installed within the week. But our house always keeps us on our toes.

One of the more interesting things I did this weekend was go the National Holocaust Memorial Museum on Saturday. If you're ever in Washington, I highly recommend it. Not easy subject matter but so well done. It was just a wonderful way to honour Remembrance Day weekend. The permanent exhibit of the museum is on 3 different levels and you start at the top and work your way down. The top level is about the Nazi rise to power, anti-semitism and events leading up to the beginning of the Holocaust. The middle level is about 'the Final Solution' and the lower level looks to the future while also highlighting some of the heroes of the resistance movement. It's a lot to take in but I found there were certain visuals that really made an impact. The museum has a lot of video footage of the concentration camps and newsreels of the time. Also a lot of artifacts from the camps. You can go inside one of the cattle cars and they have displays filled with some of the artifacts that were taken from the people before they were killed. It really made for some good reflection for myself. Realising how we continue to be guilty of silence even today as there is so much violence, hatred and genocide occuring around the world. Near the end of the exhibition they had one quote posted that I had heard before but it never really hit home quite the same way:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out.

- Rev. Martin Niemoller

An important thought for us to take seriously. It was a very sobering experience.