Arrivederci or Pasta La Vista, Baby!
We are leaving for Italy next week. This is a bucket list, once-in-a-lifetime trip that’s been in loose planning stages for years.
…Personal Life
Life Got Lifey This Week
I almost didn’t post a blog today. I had several ideas, all of them bad. And it’s the idea that’s the most difficult part of being a writer. Once an experienced writer gets a great idea, the words spill out like too much water overflowing a cup.
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Down in the Weed
This is the story of a helpful friend, sleep-deprivation that became a little desperate, and my huge mistake in judgment. I can laugh about it now, a little. But it sure wasn’t funny at the time.
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Small Town Journalists Report the News in Person
Fake news doesn’t just sprout from national politics and pandemics. It happens in a small, lakeside town, too. Here in Port Stanley we have a mystery in the harbour. And you won’t find the truth from the Internet.
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Sleeping Like a Baby…with Colic and a Full Diaper
Have you ever had something in your life that felt so big and overwhelming, that the thought of talking about it made you feel like you might explode? Of course you have. We all have. And that’s what this post is about. It’s the reason why I haven’t broached the subject here, or on our Gracefully and Frankly podcast, or with anyone except those closest to me, and one nice woman I recently met.
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Container Gardening Experiment Yields Mixed Results
Does anything taste as good as something you’ve grown in your own garden? I don’t think so. We planted broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes in container gardens for the first time. And we enjoyed a bountiful harvest of – tomatoes!
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Indestructible, Practical Tupperware
A few years ago, I bought a colander at a vintage market out of pure nostalgia. It’s the same as the one my mom had while I was growing up. And it looked none the worse for wear. That’s because it was Tupperware.
…A Little Hummingbird Told Me
We had concerns about hummingbirds. Where were they? Why weren’t they coming back to our yard after seeming to enjoy our eateries last year? We had seen two scouts early in the season, but that was all.
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Pride – In the Name of Love
Recently, the couple at the center of this story told it, and I was there. I’m retelling it here, albeit without some specific, identifying details, because it isn’t my story. But I have two reasons for wanting to share it. 1. I think it’s awesome. 2. It shows once again that, in the words of my former KOOL-FM colleague Brian Bourke, “criminals are stupid”.
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Kloss 2 Cross Another Great Lake for Mental Health
At age 24, our friend Jason Kloss became the youngest person to swim the 65 km crossing of Lake Huron. His grandfather had completed that swim three decades earlier. Jason raised $22,000 for cancer research and his life changed forever. He met a beautiful reporter, my former colleague Avery, who was covering the event. They just celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary, and they have a five-year-old daughter. And now he’s set his sights on Lake Ontario.
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Dancing to my Own Beat
A happy flashback happened again last Wednesday, as I popped into the washroom at Milestone’s where I’d been having lunch with my friend Laurie. Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ was playing overhead and it transported me back to drum lessons, and how that song was the only one I came close to mastering.
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Moving Toward Mindfulness with A New Writing Venture
I’ve referred to Stoicism several times on this page. I consider myself a student of the philosophy; I don’t think anyone ever has it “mastered”. Life throws too many curveballs for that to occur. And I’m very much a work in progress.
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The Good Old Days Depend on Your Perception
“Kids today! (Hitches up stretchy pants to just below armpits.) They just don’t have the moral code we had when I was their age. Why, back in my day…”
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My Baby Brother and His Big Birthday
This is a rerun from 2018. Yesterday was my brother’s birthday! So in honour of him, I present this look at our lives as siblings.
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Vacation Notice and Father’s Day
We are off on a motorcycle trip! We are traveling Cape Breton’s Cabot Trail for the second time. It’s a bucket-list ride for our friend Tam, and we’re happy to do it again. It’s been (gulp) about 13 years since our first time around it.
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Breaking Down the Wall of Sound
Traffic. Construction. Lawn Maintenance. Barking dogs. The world has gotten noisier. You might think that someone who wears hearing aids wouldn’t notice.
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