Lost it - AGAIN

Geez Louise!

I lost my poppy again. It seems like every time I walk into a gym to officiate a basketball game, it slips off. I lost my first poppy in a school gym. Took my coat off and when I put it back on again after the 3-hour game, it was gone.

Bummer.

I have to call a local legion or call Veteran Affairs and see if I can get a whole box of them. Seems like I go through a poppy every 4 or 5 days, so I need an ample supply.

Or maybe, someone is following me around and is trying to thwart my efforts by stealing my poppy when I'm not looking. Hmmmm....a red poppy thief! It's a conspiracy.

BTW, remind me to tell you about my conversation with the pimply-faced dude on the transit two-days ago. Our conversation was just classic and it was all about the poppy.

Got a new one!

I went to a games night at my friend's house last night. As I was playing with her daughter and a couple of the other kids who were there, I pranced by a container that held a poppy, along with other junk, such as bobby pins, pennies and elastic bands.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

I picked up the poppy as if it were a delicate flower and in a hushed tone, I turned to my friend and said:

"Can I have this?"

She gave me a strange look, I guess wondering why I was treating the poppy so reverently.

"Yeah, go ahead."

I immediately told the kids to bug off, then I bolted towards the coat closet and pinned the poppy on my collar.

I'm back in business kids!

Almost lifted one from Sturgeon Falls

Last weekend, I was in Sturgeon Falls at a high school (30-minutes north of North Bay). Nice town and everyone's fiercely Franco-Ontarian. Meaning that their first language is french, which is weird living in Ontario.

At this high school while in the physical education office, I saw a red poppy stuck to a bulletin board. For just a split second, I thought about lifting it (a more elegant way to say steal). I looked at it and looked at it and was wrestling with my desire to have a red poppy again and the fact that it's wrong to steal.

After a few seconds, I decided not to take what isn't mine. What stopped me? One, I'm a Christian. Second, I thought of karma (watch one of my favourite shows My Name Is Earl to see what I mean). Third, there was a photo of happy children stuck on the bulletin board right beside the poppy. After seeing their smiling faces, I knew that lifting it would be wrong.

So, I tearfully said goodbye to the poppy and left the phys ed office. I'll get my replacement poppy some other way.