On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

Geneviève Bergeron (b. 1968), civil engineering student.
Hélène Colgan (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Nathalie Croteau (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Barbara Daigneault (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Anne-Marie Edward (b. 1968), chemical engineering student.
Maud Haviernick (b. 1960), materials engineering student.
Maryse Laganière (b. 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
Maryse Leclair (b. 1966), materials engineering student.
Anne-Marie Lemay (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Sonia Pelletier (b. 1961), mechanical engineering student.
Michèle Richard (b. 1968), materials engineering student.
Annie St-Arneault (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Annie Turcotte (b. 1969), materials engineering student.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (b. 1958), nursing student.

Geneviève Bergeron (b. 1968), civil engineering student.
Hélène Colgan (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Nathalie Croteau (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Barbara Daigneault (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Anne-Marie Edward (b. 1968), chemical engineering student.
Maud Haviernick (b. 1960), materials engineering student.
Maryse Laganière (b. 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
Maryse Leclair (b. 1966), materials engineering student.
Anne-Marie Lemay (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Sonia Pelletier (b. 1961), mechanical engineering student.
Michèle Richard (b. 1968), materials engineering student.
Annie St-Arneault (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Annie Turcotte (b. 1969), materials engineering student.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (b. 1958), nursing student.

- Back to the normal job search practices this morning.

- Successfully postponed the CPAP machine swap-and-payment date to next Tuesday in anticipation of finances falling together properly for that occasion.

- Continuing to watch lectures from Typewknd participants on YouTube. I am nerding out about type design this weekend.

- Tentatively scheduled to attend the monument installation for my late friend from Pen and Paper Workshop, Naomi Wilanski this Sunday morning upcoming.

- Missed today's City Planning Committee meeting being broadcast via YouTube.

- Other stuff to be added.

1. My parents took my siblings and I to visit Louisberg as part of our family road trip to Charlottetown and back in 1979. That was part of my introduction to the Mik'ma'ki provinces. I don't remember much about the fortress now, and that leaves me with a guiltier feeling than I might otherwise have upon reading this news.

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/news/article/rising-sea-levels-threatening-300-year-old-french-fortress-in-nova-scotia

2. Yes, that was the same road trip that included my first visit to Parliament Hill, at my father's behest, to view the remains of John Diefenbaker in the Rotunda of the Centre Block. It's disturbing how I've only ever been inside the Centre Block to pay my respects to dead politicians: Diefenbaker, Trudeau the Elder and Jack Layton, thus far. It's a habit I'd like to break, preferably for far more joyous reasons.

3. Yes, I just referred to the provinces east of Québec as "the Mi'kma'ki provinces". It describes their relationship to each other geographically and politically regarding Indigenous presence there, and that label also correctly includes Newfoundland Island. (Newfoundland and Labrador are intersectional as different regions of that province fall into Mi'kmaq, Innu and Inuit traditional lands.)

More thoughts on other matters later.

Naomi's funeral was held this morning.

I attended via Zoom, like some two dozen other friends and relatives. The Pandemic in Progress was certainly part of why. The travel time to and from the cemetery was also a factor. Ottawa is a very large city, so local public transit's current limitations meant a two-hour-in-each-direction travel time between where I currently live and the cemetery.

Anyway...the service was short, and I have a sense of her family and other friends being robbed of precious things by the Pandemic here too. siderea has discussed such things at some length in recent weeks and months: the loss of ritual, of community, stolen away by the need to protect one another. So have others, be they friends, family, or strangers to me, across the world. The rituals of shiva in particular, in this funeral's context, came to mind.

It's not the tradition I was raised with, but I don't much care about that. Unearned pain has been suffered here by too many already. And in order to move past my resentment, to master it and cast it out, I must first admit that it is here. In my heart.

And I miss my friend. One more among several, already gone.

Thank you, Naomi, for bringing what you could and what you did to my life.

In happy remembrance of friends past and present with birthdays and suchlike today...and in sombre remembrance of strangers I never got to meet. For there are anniversaries.

The Crimes of 2001.

The Coup in Chile.

The first broadcast of CBC Radio's Tapestry.

The birthday of a long-dead friend, Leah Adezio known on LiveJournal as "Pikachette".

The anniversary of the wedding of Steve and Laura Roby (Laura being also since passed on), both also friends of mine.

The Great Canadian Handshake (in Space in 2006).

So much to pay attention to. And attention must be paid.

I cannot promise that I will never forget. But, for as long as I can remember, I hope to show respect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-51-L

Francis R. Scobee
Michael J. Smith
Ellison S. Onizuka
Judith A. Resnik
Ronald E. McNair
Gregory B. Jarvis
S. Christa McAuliffe

Per ardua, ad astra

Details here:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/checkup/bringing-back-stuart-mclean-s-arthur-awards-who-would-you-nominate-and-why-1.4609176

For whatever help it gives anyone in my friendlist right now: tomorrow will be the 15th anniversary of my father's death. I still miss him, despite the passage of the years. The day remains the birthday of others whose well-being and wisdom I value. There is a balance in this.

I wish you good tidings, whatever you're celebrating or commemorating.