Posted on March 12, 2018 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Yearbook from Antigonish High School – 1970

 

” We love you AHS, oh yes we do,

We love you AHS, oh yes we do,

When you’re not winning, we’re blue,

Oh AHS, we love you.”

( Popular cheer leading refrain in 1970 )

 

It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.

We hear this expression quite a bit and it rings true most of the time. But try telling that to a group of young children who may be going to Disney for the first time this March break.

When I look back at my own fleeting running experience, preparing and training for the Boston Marathon was every bit as important and satisfying (most days!) as the big event itself. Speaking of the marathon, I have a lovely framed picture from Boston of myself and Charlene Druhan cheerfully waving and smiling at the camera. A recent guest to our apartment commented on how fresh we looked. I informed them that we were only at the half way point in the race. A picture at the end of the race would not have been nearly as dignified as Charlene literally dragged me across the finish line.

For a group of us, the next destination is a 50^th reunion of the last graduating class of the former Antigonish High School in 2020. And why have we started the journey so soon, you ask? First of all, it will take us a considerable amount of time to track down former classmates. The organizing committee has had a few meetings and we have spent the time poring over old yearbooks from AHS. What a trip down memory lane. It seems that just about every grad photo elicits a story which spins into other stories. There is no question that the journey will be every bit as satisfying as the destination with this endeavour.

Sadly, many of our classmates have passed away. Fifty years has a way of doing that.

Secondly, some of us are not as efficient planners as we once were and need double the time to get things done!

Many of the stories from these meeting revolve around former teachers. This is not meant to be a disparaging comment but when I think back to my own educational journey (a Catholic education), we feared the nuns every bit as much as we feared the Creator!

So, if you graduated from AHS in 1970, or were a grade 11 student in 1969 who chose to go to University from grade 11 ( an option back then ), work or elsewhere or were a grade 11 student in 1970 who did not go on to the new Regional High School ,we’re looking for you. You can sign up on our Facebook page ( AHS 50 year reunion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1586438914724621/ or get in touch with any one of the following committee members: Debbie (Cameron) MacDonald; Robert Sers;  Anne (Gillis) Moeller; Ann (Hatchette) MacDonald;  Bruce MacDonald;Eleanor (MacDonald) Brosha; and yours truly.

Retirement is amazing but if you’re anything like me, some days you wonder if it wouldn’t be less hectic to go back to work. It’s pretty bad when you have trouble trying to schedule a coffee with a friend. I think I need an Administrative Assistant! But truly, it is good to be healthy and busy. At the end of the day, I think most of us would like to “empty the tank” before calling it a day.

I will be enjoying the company of Katherine Reed for lunch sometime soon as she is the winner of the most recent Week45 contest. She identified the link between one of my new advertisers, MacIsaac Funeral Home and the line “it is a new undertaking for me…”

Have a great week.

P.S. On Saturday, I watched the drama unfold on television. No. I’m not talking about the amazing comeback of golfer, Tiger Woods. I’m talking about the debacle known as the Conservative leadership convention in Ontario. Looks like Christine Elliot is not “going gently into that good night.”

Donald Trump and now Doug Ford. How did we get here?

Posted on March 8, 2018 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

” The hills are alive…”

 

Did you watch the Academy Awards last Sunday? Neither did I.

It’s not that I don’t like movies although I could hardly be accused of being a movie fanatic seeing that one of the last movies I’ve seen on the big screen was ET… not a rerun but when the movie was first released in 1982. That’s a slight exaggeration of course. Don’t ever choose me as a partner in a trivia game to answer questions about Hollywood, unless it’s about Frederick’s, the naughty lingerie store!

I have a fundamental distaste for the Academy Awards and most other award shows as they are usually displays of glitz, glitter and self -aggrandizement. Many celebrities have mistakenly taken the hashtag #Metoo as meaning, “the spotlight is on me.” All this and the incredible display of wealth. It would be safe to say that tens of millions of dollars are spent on the Academy Awards show and the wardrobe budgets alone could feed a small impoverished country for a year.

I do have a couple of favorite movies from a bygone day: The Sound of Music and The Shawshank Redemption. These days, I choose to watch movies and television series in the comfort of my own home using Netflix. And we have a popcorn maker. I’m a pretty cheap date.

How about you? What are your favorite all time movies?

In the past couple of years, I have become a big fan of the local Antigonish International Film Festival. Trivago recently rated it as the second most popular attraction in Antigonish next to the Highland Games. How big a fan? Surely you remember the famous ad from 1979 when Victor Kiam proudly announced that he liked the Remington shaver so much that he bought the company. Well, I like AIFF so much that I’ve joined the organization.

The films screened by AIFF are educational and cause one to think. The topics are wide ranging and there is something for just about everyone’s taste. Last season’s lineup was sensational. I think I saw close to a dozen movies over a couple of days. With the cost of a pass ($20), that works out to about $1.65 per show… cheaper than a half a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Planning the Film Festival is a year round endeavour. Of course, the Festival could not be held without financial support. It has a long list of supporters including businesses, government and individual donors. And every year, these entities need to be approached to renew their commitment for this first rate event.

So…. Are you at loose ends? Are you looking for a bit of money to finance your next vacation? AIFF is looking for someone to be in charge of sponsorships. Most of the legwork takes place in May and June. If you are interested, give me a shout and I’ll give you the details.

How many of you saw the 1993 blockbuster, “Free Willy?”

There’s a sequel coming up called “Free Lennie: The Story of a Man’s Escape from a Vegan Posse.” If you haven’t read my last two posts, you won’t have a clue what I’m talking about.

And to encourage you to do just that, I have a new contest. In my most recent Monday Morning Musings post (March 5^th.), I made note of my new advertisers. Somewhere in that post, there is a reference to one of the advertisers. Did you pick this up? Message me. If you’re correct, we’ll go and have lunch. If you live in Calgary, you’ll have to fly me out but I’ll still buy you lunch!

(For those of you who subscribe by e-mail, you’ll have to visit my website at www.week45.com too see the ads.)

Have a great weekend.

 

Posted on March 5, 2018 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

New threads from India. Thanks, Smita.

 

It was unintentional. It was bizarrely coincidental.

As I write this, it is day four of the vegan posse siege. I have been unable to leave my apartment as hordes of angry vegans stand outside my door chanting slogans and occasionally tossing cubes of tofu at my windows (no eggs allowed!).

Last week, I wrote a cheeky piece on veganism. I AM seriously looking at my diet as a way to deal with arthritis pain. Thanks for all of your pain remedies, btw! The day before I posted the story, I saw a poster at the library advertising a vegan potluck. I chuckled as I had already written my piece. How coincidental I thought. I did not check the date of the event but made a mental note to check this out and attend to learn more about the subject.

And so, I published the story last Thursday and found out that the potluck had indeed happened the day before… the very day I spied the poster from afar. If I was part of the vegan posse, I would have drawn a straight line between their potluck and my story.

It is actually quite ironic because last year in India, I consumed more tofu than I had in my previous 65 years on this planet. Mind you, most of the time I didn’t know I was eating tofu as it was part of some amazing dish I was eating. It’s all in the preparation as most tofu adherents would know. I plan to attend the next vegan potluck but may have to come in disguise!

Some of you may have noticed something new on my website: advertising. It is a new undertaking for me as several businesses here and in the Strait area have agreed to advertise on Week45. Please take a moment from time to time and click on their banner which will take you to their home page. I have one more space available if anyone out there is interested. Thank you to Highland Hearing, Trimac Toyota, The Maples  (Retirement Living), Success’N Planning, MacKinnon’s Pharmasave, MacIsaac Funeral Home and EMM Law.

Do you remember “soap on a rope?” Of course you do because you’re an old fart like me. I was quite startled to discover, during my lengthy research on the subject (30 seconds on Wikipedia), that SOAR has been around since the late 1940’s. It was created by the English Leather Company. Yes, the same company that makes the men’s aftershave that I wore for years hoping to lure young women when I was single. I think it made a better insect repellent!

For my younger readers, here’s what you need to know about soap on a rope. The user is meant to place the rope loop (which is attached to a bar of soap) over their head or around their wrist to prevent the soap from falling to the bottom of the shower floor. I can see SOAR making a very big comeback with the Boomers. We will be purchasing it by the bushel. We’ll hang it around our neck so that we remember where to find the soap. Hell, we can wear it all day long and it can double as an aftershave!

And why, you ask, am I bringing up this arcane item? The first Christmas gift that I received back in the 1982 when I started a 13 year stint as Administrator of the CACL Workshop was from Ignatius Delorey. It was soap on a rope. I was to receive several of them that year causing me to wonder if my showering techniques needed improvement.

Iggy passed away a few days. Once he discovered that I played guitar and could hum a few bars of Charley Pride, we were friends for life. I would see him coming down the hall way and he would be imitating strumming a guitar and singing Charley Pride. He had a wonderful, cheerful presence. I left CACL in 1994 but bumped into Ignatius several times over the years. These encounters followed a similar pattern started 36 years ago. Rest in peace my dear friend.

Have a great week.