This is the time of year for remembrances. For the past few weeks, I've been reading and hearing about soldiers - distant and recent past, as well as present - and reminded of their honour, duty and sacrifice, and the freedoms I have because of them. This year of course has been all the more... Continue Reading →
Item #5 – Denali Mug
Mugs are familiar keepsakes from tourist locations and travels everywhere. I have a few, but this one is my most precious and the oldest. As shown, it comes from Denali National Park, the centre point of my 6-week road trip in 1993 from Vancouver, through Yukon and around Alaska, and back through Alberta to home.... Continue Reading →
Beautiful Sunset
May there only be enough clouds in your life to make a beautiful sunset. As I enjoyed night after night of glorious sunset while on vacation, I was reminded of this wish, setting off reminiscences random and old. This blessing was delivered by a favourite teacher in Grade 3. Actually, he was a student teacher... Continue Reading →
Item #4: Highlighter
Alternate title: the purloined pen. I've had this highlighter since 1991. I keep it now for sentimental reasons, but also out of astonishment - it still works. The highlighter comes from the lab where I worked. Back in those days, highlighters were a standard tool for project chemists, reviewing data outputs and identifying key results... Continue Reading →
Childless by Choice
I am childless by choice. I am not childless because of lack of opportunity or failure of circumstance to enable me to attempt conception, childbirth and motherhood. I have consciously chosen not to have children, and by extension have made choices in my life that eliminated motherhood as one of its characteristics. I have no... Continue Reading →
Solo travels
"The average solo traveler is a 47-year-old female." I guess I've been 47 for much of my life, or perhaps I'm just reaching the median, with dozens more years to go. I've always enjoyed solo travel, especially on the road - behind the wheel, miles clicking north south east west, tunes blaring (and being sung... Continue Reading →
Item #3: Jumping Dog
You've probably seen one of these before: a plush, mechanical dog that walks a few steps, slowly sits down and then - WOOSH - does a backflip, lands on it's feet and starts again (occasionally, it lands on its side or head, and then just flails its legs about until you rescue it). In earlier... Continue Reading →
Phone Pomodoro
I use this tool often to help me manage time and focus on tasks requiring attention to detail, such as reading, writing or editing a longish document. It is highly effective, and I often recommend it to others. In essence, the tool keeps track of time so that you focus on a task for 25... Continue Reading →
Confessions of a Kickstarter
As an avid Kickstarter-er, I was both intrigued and disappointed by this campaign. This is either a very clever scam marketing ploy. Or a case of the internet gone wild. I'm not sure who is to blame - the campaigner or the supporters. It is pretty typical to see people get carried away sending funds to... Continue Reading →
Item #2. Stork figurine
It was the summer of 1979. We had moved to Souris, PEI, at the beginning of July, and all of us kids were getting used to small town living. Pop worked at MacDonald Pharmacy in town - one of those stores that was much more than a drug store. In hindsight, it reminded me of... Continue Reading →
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