I used to be a Crocs guy. They were my casual shoe of choice for a long time. By the time I moved out here to this hilltop for retirement, coming on five years ago now, my shoe wardrobe consisted of a whole array of $450 Allen Edmonds work shoes of all kinds. I would say I was 70% into black with the others all oxblood maroon. I found those colors were the most appealing…
I’ve just read an interesting article about a third state of being. That would be something other than dead or alive. It seems biology is getting turned on its head by the realization that when living cells die they do not just go to dust as the old expression goes. “Dust to dust” might have to be stricken from the vernacular as we further develop our scientific research and thinking about this supposed third state…
Strong Like Bull I just had my annual wellness visit today and I’m glad to report that all is….well. From what I can tell, this is nothing like annual physical that I used to get in my working days. This consists of a series of assessments that seem designed to reassure me and my doctor that I’m still bumping along as I age and that they cannot be blamed for not having asked me all…
Ive heard about the Cabot Trail for years and it always sounded like such a romantic place. Even in my recent research when I looked up John Cabot, I came away with the impression of a Medieval Marco Polo adventurer who came looking for the Northwest Passage to these chilly environs and at least left with a place named for his explorations. The reality seems instead to be that John Cabot did whatever landfall exploring…
The Joy of Travel It’s 1am at the Toronto Airport and it’s been a helluva trip so far. After spending a week watching the news about the threatened Air Canada pilot’s strike, we got a reprieve in the wee hours of Sunday morning and were assured by the airline that all would be well. I joked to my traveling friends that now all we had to deal with were normal airline delays. Ha, ha, ha.…
Strange Dreams Like most people, if I do dream every night, I only remember those dreams once in a while, usually when I wake up in the middle of one. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about or trying to analyze my dreams, but last night my little Buddy who gets very grumpy when he is awoken, woke himself up and started growling loudly enough to woke me at about 3am. Sure enough,…
Lightning Strike We are all packed and ready for Nova Scotia on Monday, but we may or may not have that option after all. A few days ago, we got a notice from Air Canada that they are trying to avert a pilot’s strike that is set to begin on Wednesday unless they can all come to terms. By Canadian law, they have to give a 72 hour notice if the strike is going forward.…
Life in Reverse My friend Tom is on the road north and will, within a month or so, land back at his starting place in Australia. He is the son of two Czechoslovak parents who left the country as the Communists took over with Soviet assistance in 1948. They left with their two young sons via Italy and eventually landed in Perth, Australia in a refugee camp. It was there that Tom was born into…
Turning Thirty Today is my youngest son’s birthday. He was born in 1995, so he is technically turning twenty nine today, but as we all know, that means he is starting his thirtieth year. I don’t know how much of a milestone that feels like to him, but it feels a bit like a milestone to me. Thomas was born in the middle of the decade of endless possibilities to me. I started the Nineties…
Death on the Hilltop No, no one has died…yet. Last night I got a strange email from someone I didn’t know. It began, “I haven’t met you yet, but I have been living in the neighborhood since 2013.” It was from a woman who claimed to be in our neighborhood and who was forwarding an email that had been sent a few weeks ago by her husband. It went on to say, “My husband realized…