Posted on July 31, 2014 under Thursday Tidbits with 2 comments

The second viewing stand at The Landing

 

 

I never tire of walking around The Landing. My granddaughter and I went for a nature walk the other evening. A six year old has so many questions. A 63 year old has so few answers!

Going for a walk is one of life’s simple pleasures. There are lots of others too, many of them experienced as a child. I fear that many children these days will never experience the things we did. Back in the day, we were thrown out of the house and we had to manufacture our own fun. There was no adult supervision. Today, a parent can be charged for leaving a child unattended in a park. So sad.

The other day on my way to work, I found myself kicking a stone. We used to do this all the time.  I wrote down as many things as I could remember from my childhood and wrote a story called “ A Few of My Favorite Things.” Do you remember sitting at the beach and digging a hole all the way to China? Did you ever build a fort in the woods? Do you remember what spruce gum felt and smelled like? When was the last time you waded through a field of tall hay or perched in a tree surveying your universe? This is a story any one of you ( of a certain age! ) could have written.

I attended a party out in the country a few weeks ago and offered to be the designated driver on the return trip. I’m sure you’ve all encountered the macho male who thinks ( mistakenly ) that he can drive, with a few drinks under his belt, better than his sober wife. My friend luckily wasn’t one of these people.  As it turned out, I did not have to be the DD. There was a funny sequence of events when my buddy’s wife almost got caught for speeding on the way home. There is always a rush of emotions for about ten seconds when a Mountie car goes by and you’re not sure if you’ve been speeding or not. Your heart rate goes up. The palms start to sweat just a bit. You stare in the rear view mirror waiting to see if the red roof light will go on. While all of this is unnerving, the thought of getting a ticket when you’re the designated driver, is almost too embarrassing to ponder. “Ticket To Ride” examines those precious 10 seconds in detail.

I have met some of the loveliest people through my writing. Every week I get a handful of e-mails from people who confess to liking my material. While I am grateful for the compliments, I get a big kick out of their stories.  Don’t hesitate to drop me a note. I answer all correspondence and I’m always on the lookout for new story ideas.

Have a great holiday weekend.

Posted on July 29, 2014 under Storytelling with one comment

Don’t you wish that Mondays looked this good?

 

 

“…but whenever Monday comes, you can find me crying all of the time.”

Monday, Monday   – The Mamas and the Papas

Would anyone strenuously object if Mondays were cancelled?

If you are a working stiff like me, there’s only one thing worse than a Monday and that would be Sunday evening.  The mere thought of Monday as Sunday night draws to a close is almost enough to ruin a perfectly good weekend.  You start thinking about Monday morning just after Sunday dinner and immediately there is a slight gnawing in the pit of your stomach.  You know that you will have the crummiest sleep of the week on Sunday night.

You peer at the clock and realize that you must get up.  The only thing between you and civility is a brown bean from Columbia, finely ground with boiling water poured slowly through.  God forbid that you rise two minutes later than normal, because the remainder of the day will be completely out of step.  It’s going to be bad enough.

You arrive at your place of work and all you can think of is the next cup of coffee.  You know that this is the one which just might propel you into the day.  The one that might give you a chance of being a civilized human being.

You look in the waiting area and see someone waiting.  That client.  The one who seems to show up early on Monday morning, or late Friday afternoon as you prepare to lock the door.  This person has arrived very early, without an appointment, and he wants to see you and only you.  He is standing between you and the coffee maker and you wonder quietly if it is a crime to run someone over before high noon.

You lurch through the morning like a novice driver trying a standard shift for the first time.  You jerk back and forth and sputter, trying to find the elusive cruising gear.  It never comes.

Invariably there is an equipment malfunction every Monday.  Your computer freezes and your printer refuses to print.  There are more swear words uttered on a Monday than during the remaining days of the work week combined.

What does Monday taste like?  It has the texture of dried out liver.  It smells like a dead skunk on the side of the highway.  It sounds like finger nails being dragged down an old slate chalk board.  It feels like a bad hangover without the benefit of the party the night before.

So I say, let’s do away with Monday.  Extend the work hours from Tuesday to Friday.  And if this is not possible, then start work on Monday at noon time.  Give people a chance to find the strength and inner peace to face the week.  Trust me.  This won’t harm the economy and might actually save lives and conserve millions of dollars for the health care system.

Let’s begin the week a few hours or a day later and let Monday unfold gently.

 

Posted on July 28, 2014 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Sunshine Sue’s Shoes ( say that 3 times! )

 

 

It was another glorious summer weekend. As usual, there was lots to do…too many things to do and not enough time. Sounds vaguely familiar? Yes. This was the subject of my story “Feast or Famine” which was posted on the weekend. If you missed it, go back and take a look. All of my posts are archived and are easy to find using the search bar.

So, how about those sneakers belonging to Sunshine Sue, one of our featured performers at the Antigonish Art Fair this past Friday?  It was an amazing evening. Over 800 people showed up and enjoyed the entertainment, the food and of course, the art, which is the whole point of the fair. It was definitely a family affair as there were oodles of small children along with parents and grandparents. The entertainment was first class. There were so many highlights it seems unfair to single out any act but I think if you conducted a straw poll, I believe the young Filipino singers and dancers would easily be at the top of most people’s list. As I said after the performance, we are very lucky that this group of people has decided to call Antigonish their home. We are the better for it.

I received a lot of interesting e-mails this week. One was from a lady from Northern Alberta whom I met a few weeks ago at the gazebo prior to the start of that evening’s “Art in the Park.” I’m not certain how we got on the subject but we chatted about the delicate balancing act that is known as marriage. She started telling me how she and her husband maintain the scales of justice in their household. I asked her to put this in writing, which she did. It is absolutely hilarious. I may ask her if I can edit it and use it. Basically, they have a “tit for tat” arrangement. He collects old cars ( and car parts) which she thinks is frivolous. She, in turn, spends equal amounts of money on clothes. She had accumulated so much clothing that they changed the deal . Every time he brought home another old car, she could get a new cat. This lost its lustre with her husband after cat number 4. And on and on it went. One of the great joys of writing is hearing other people’s stories.

We travelled to Guysborough town last week to see an excellent concert with Steve Wright and his family. I had a chance to catch up with some old university friends. We chatted about their home town and how beautiful it was in the summer. They have all the amenities a community could hope for including a top notch performing arts venue. One of them lamented that what the community needed most was people. They are suffering a common plight. Outmigration. The region desperately needs new business to keep it alive and well. I’m not sure what the answer is. Any time a new industry appears on the radar screen, it seems that there are many people who don’t want it in their back yards. We all want our families back from Alberta but they need work with good paying jobs to keep them here.

July is just about in the rear view mirror. What a blur.

Hope you have a great week.