It’s election time in Alberta. Yay? You are forgiven for thinking election time is perpetual these days, what with the non-stop campaigning that goes on. There’s seemingly no end to the pep rallies, town halls, leadership contests, policy announcements, billboards, radio spots, and television commercials. And don’t get me started on the social media memes. […]
Coffee Cove Seaside Retreat Part 2 – What To Do
Mention a road trip to Green Bay and your friends will envision cheeseheads, Packers jerseys, and shotgunning Schlitz faster than a spirit-crushing Favre interception. Understandable. But in this case, completely wrong. Let them have a couple more Schlitz and then tell them you were thinking more along the lines of sou’westers, kissing cod fish, and […]
Coffee Cove Seaside Retreat Part 1 – Where To Stay
Family can make you do the most unexpected things, in no small part because they themselves do the most unexpected things. Like moving to Newfoundland. Nobody does this unless they’re moving back home. Certainly not born and bred mainlanders, or so the legends (and more often than not, the facts) say. But I have an […]
There’s No Vaccine for Layoffs
You think you’re immune, until you discover you aren’t. In February 1995, god that’s nearly thirty years ago, I grew up in a hurry. Or at least my budding work persona did. I was one of five wide-eyed geology students freshly fallen from the Ontario turnip truck in the early weeks of eight month, co-op, […]
Rockwood Geo Pro 16BH – review
In early May of 2018, we purchased a brand new … checks receipt … 2019 Rockwood Geo Pro 16BH travel trailer. I’ve decided this is the recreational vehicle industry saying “hold my beer” to the automotive industry and its quirky tradition of introducing new models in the autumn of the previous year. This was an […]
2018 – Looking Back at a “Banner” Year in Blogging
On March 6, 2017 I emphatically declared “I Quit” blogging. Like most of my proclamations, it didn’t last. I didn’t jump back in immediately or whole-heartedly, but much like many failed attempts to wean myself off chocolate, I eventually relented, willpower being my least potent personal attribute. Now, nearly two years hence, I’m basking in […]
A Rediscovered Bucket List
Another new year is upon us and with it comes the ritual making of resolutions. Unless you’re me and gave up doing resolutions after the twin failures of 2015 and 2016. I’ve been resolution free for two straight years and see no reason to alter this uninspiring path going forward. Spilling my guts to all […]
My Unpopular Opinion and My Comeuppance
We live in an era where the secret to popularity is being unpopular. Need I trot out the President of the United States as proof? The man is president precisely because he is unpopular. It’s what made him popular. There is a sizable portion of the electorate whose sole motivation for voting a particular way […]
My Life Is A Song #108
So much of this series is grounded in my past. Makes sense, I guess. I mean, it would be pretty incredible for me to relate a musical yarn from the future, unpublished song included. I’m nostalgic, not magical. But there is a pronounced bias in my writing towards my distant past, and that concerns me. […]
My Life Is A Song #107
I didn’t truly understand that teachers are real people until I had school-aged children of my own. During my entire youth, teachers weren’t so much people as they were a spectrum of Sapiens-like humanoids crafted specifically for employ in the educational field. It rarely, if ever, dawned on me that they were regular people just […]