Checkered Lounge Pants

This magic moment. So different and so newww. Was like any otherrrrr.. "This Magic Moment" is the title of a song written by lyricist Doc Pomus and pianist Mort Shuman. It is one of their best known hits. It was first recorded by Ben E. King with The Drifters and it reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. It was rendered anew by Jay and the Americans in 1969 and ranked even higher, hitting number 6 in early 1969 and earning gold record status. Well in this case..my magic moment is finishing my Xmas shopping. So like okay, its not like I have a big ole family surrounding me here in Windsor, or, tons of relatives living anywhere nearby, to shop for. Au contrare mon ami, Christmas cards, gift cards and stamps comprise the majority of my Xmas lists but, I am notoriously last minute, in all aspects of the Holiday Season hullabaloo. I find it hopelessly commercial and bleakly spiritual concerning the heart of the Christmas celebration. I recall the hair standing on the

Yall done the Xmas shopping?? I plan to start mine tomorrow. I just spent the last week in Boston visiting my son and daughta-in-law. The rain fell all the way on the drive eastward but the real challenge was finding their new home when I got there after midnight. My google search never indicated the community development was some 2 miles off the main street and isolated in the wooded suburb of Woburn, but more aptly situated in the adjoining community of Reading. Long story short..I flagged down a cop and got directions to find the place. Boston is sometimes called a "city of neighborhoods" because of the profusion of diverse subsections. There are 21 official neighborhoods in Boston used by the city. We shopped for some new skins for my car and followed up with a sprint out to Foxboro and the New England Patriots home field, Gillette Stadium. I checked out the pro shop and decided to scout any memorabilia at Marshall's back in Stoneham. I hogged all the time I could in

Just riding out a Colorado low..winds been howling off the lake at over 80kms per hour all through the night and most of the following day. Awoke this morning expecting the white stuff, but nothing yet. The weather network reports +4C so snow wont survive that mercury reading. It is (the snow that is) better off to settle in BC with their sub-zero forecasts (settling in at -5 tonight) for a white Xmas. Nevertheless, we are better suited to navigate the flurries than west-coasters. BC blog follower Gerry Desharnais took off to Puerto Vallarta last weekend, so he timed 'er right. LOL. I could do without the power grey-outs that accompany these lake gales here, on the Erie shores, though. We just finished cleaning up from my beloved Val's 43rd birthday on Sunday. We had company, John and Sue, came in from North Bay and shared in celebrations. Our neighbour Tim took them on his family's greenhouse tour at Seacliffes Greenhouses and sent the gals home with potted Poinsettias for

Remember remember the month of November, and the Gunpowder Treason and Plot..or at least the last week. Man it h as been hairy out there in newsland. Tiger holes himself up at home after wiping out at fire hydrant and hitting a wood (uh-hum) hazard and "because of his silence, Tiger will become a laughing stock in the eyes of his audience, and so will the products he endorses". Latest report from US Senate claims Osama Bin Laden was found a month after 9/11 in Afghanistan and lost to Pakistan while US is going to send in more troops. CN checkmated the Teamsters into a strike so the Canadian government will do their bargaining and become the latest enabler allowing CN's chronic predatory employee abuse to continue. OMG..Saskatchewan gave away the Grey Cup. University of Calgary gave away the Vanier Cup. Four cops gunned down in Washington state. Serena Williams, Iran nuclear capabilities, health care, jobs, China, blood gold in Africa, Walmart..whew. I am glad the month is

Hey there!! Its been a while since we chatted on the blog. I just have not felt the urge to blog for almost a month. I hedge posted earlier in the month with a pasted November 11 memorial service out of the Winnipeg Free Press, but whenever I started to sign in to CLP site, I just lost the blogitis that usually settles over me, until I shake it off doing the last spell check while the jpegs files are downloading. Is that blogger block?? The news hasn't changed outside of the evolution of the issues that have been front and centre for about a year. My curiosity was spiked today when I read an article that elevated ( http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/bureau-blog/dions-wife-goes-rogue/article1372858/ ) Canadian politics to the heightened drama of US sensationalist politics. The article, called "Dion's wife going rogue?", relayed the story about a politicians better half getting tagged as a rogue when she critiqued her hubby's short lived career after a coup d'

Winnipeg Rifles Regiment member Cpl. Dave Anderson on the honour guard to remember the fallen on Remembrance Day at Vimy Ridge Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba this morning. I'll be in touch.

It's closing in on midnite and I just dont seem to be bed-ready. My beloved Val called it a night sometime ago but I was watching the Monday Night football game because I have a pool with my son in Boston, and, we are down to a tie-breaker on tonight's game, to decide the weekly winner. My Sweet Pea and I threw our passports in the glovebox and a few gauchies in a bag and headed to the outpatients to get my shoulder stitches removed, early last week. We agreed to an impulsive trip and left a "journeys beginning" decided by the post-op outcome. The diagnosis was good so we made a run for the border. We took a ride to St Louis and had a great time. I cant drive with my arm all slinged up so Val did all the driving and we stopped whenever she felt tired. Speaking of tired, did you hear about the plane that over shot Minneapolis. Northwest Flight 188 from San Diego to Minneapolis overflew the airport by more than 150 miles, out of radio contact with air traffic controller

So like I was sitting here in the porch surfing the web when my beloved Val said "Is the dog home alone???" You see, the neighbour folks asked us to dog-care whenever they are gone if we deem the need. She deducted somehow, that their vehicle had left sometime the day before and never came home. "I don't know, go see!" I answered. I'm just chillaxn since I finished my latest medical procedure from the injuries I sustained in my accident. My shoulder had been plated last week and I have some 30+ stitches holding all the pieces together around surgical steel, so my mobility is highly restricted for the next several months or a year (or maybe more depending on the insurance coverages..but that's another story). I have endured hours and hours of physicians, surgeons, occupational therapists, physio-therapists, rehabilitation therapists, xray technicians, nurses, lawyers, police, reports, exams, hospitals, clinics, therapies, complications, medications, appar

Micheal Moore originally wrote on October 09, 2009 that Obama had to "earn" his Nobel. After composing and publishing the letter, his wife persuaded him to reflect on his knee-jerk response. The following is Mr. Moore's follow-up letter to his initial reaction on Obama winning the Nobel Peace prize. The original letter appears below that: Saturday, October 10th, 2009 Friends, Last night my wife asked me if I thought I was a little too hard on Obama in my letter yesterday congratulating him on his Nobel Prize. "No, I don't think so," I replied. I thought it was important to remind him he's now conducting the two wars he's inherited. "Yeah," she said, "but to tell him, 'Now earn it!'? Give the guy a break -- this is a great day for him and for all of us."I went back and re-read what I had written. And I listened for far too long yesterday to the right-wing hate machine who did what they could to crap all over Barack's bi

What brought troops to Afghanistan? How did armed coalition forces get to here from 9/11? http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamaswar/ I'll be in touch. ps. Happy birthday to Gerry in Coquitlam, B.C.

Hmmm, where did the summer go?? She just flew by eh? I will tag this my "healing summer" or my "crash summer" or just "summertimmmme and the living is easyyyyy" LOL. My folks dropped in for a visit and, leave for home today. That, along with Da Gar visiting on his Hawg, and my run to Boston to see the new grand kid made for a sweet summer..hey, that's it! Why commemorate the summer to tumbling on my Hawg when I can commiserate a closure with a "Sweet Summer"? O yaaa! Global climatic gaffes and political slip-ups aside, it was a gorgeous season in my region. The harvest is here and the crops are plentiful and the bounty abundant. I have been hitting the fruit stands like mad filling up my Dad on his beloved tomatoes, and, scoring big on the ingredients to inspire Mom to cook up a storm of homemade favourites like cabbage rolls and pies. My neighbour organized a tour of his families massive greenhouse operations and the folks were guided on a

Expense abuses rampant at OLG: documents Shared via AddThis Quite frankly, I wonder why all the surprise about the conduct and the opulence in this "culture of entitlement"!! This behaviour is common course and general practice in the board rooms, limos and private jets of the vast majority of corporations. The only appalling aprehension, in this instance, is the realization THIS cash string is tax dollars instead of investors dollars. I dedicated almost a decade to negotiating contracts with national and multi-nationals and the entitlements were far more excessive and obscene in the private sector corporations than crown corporations, I was dealing with. This culture is one of the executive communities dirty little secrets, that's not so secret anymore. I recall a story from my associates, about one of the multi-nationals, when we were together berating the paradoxes of cost cutting in the field operations while senior level managers were gallavanting around the continen

"Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno will be the first Malaysian woman to be caned under Islamic laws applicable to Malaysia's Muslims Kuala Kangsar, MALAYSIA (news media Agencies) A Muslim model who is to be caned for drinking alcohol said she is planning a pilgrimage to Mecca, and seeking solace in prayer as she prepares to face her punishment this week.Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno will be the first Malaysian woman to be caned under Islamic laws applicable to Malaysia's Muslims, who account for 60 percent of the 27-million population." Can you freakin believe this? I was news gathering today and found this article in an arab news service I frequent: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/08/23/82618.html . I have seen the video clips of Taliban justice being dispersed but it seems so close to home in newsprint. Journalism has not died or denegrated to e-news after all, I guess. Why didnt somebody think to use this brutally invasive deterrent on the greedy bankers. The floggin

Funnel cloud over Vaughan (North Toronto). Bettina Reid / CTV News Josh Wingrove Globe and Mail Update Last updated on Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 Southern Ontario residents will soon begin picking up the pieces after a devastating thunderstorm rolled across a large stretch of the province Thursday night, generating several tornadoes that destroyed homes, tore up roofs, flipped vehicles and left at least one person dead. At one point, Environment Canada had issued a tornado warning extending 500 kilometres between Peterborough and Windsor.

I just cannot imagine Canadian politics ever getting as entertaining, nor as ugly, as US governance. Have you caught any of these town hall meetings on health care? I would have never believed people would get so covertly hoodwinked in believing free medical services sponsored by democratic administrations are an infringement of liberty and freedom. The hostility reminds me of my experiences in Union halls filled with angry workers at negotiation time, revving up their emotions to strike an employer, who has been brutally denigrating their work lives and workplaces.......when its for free health care, in terms of the benefits for all Americans in renewing the value of all the money that is appropriated within the insurance industries interests. I heard an sample of an media clip on a US radio, with a supposedly Canadian terminally ill patient pleading she had to wait 6 months for ANY MEDICAL ATTENTION. As a Canadian, I have never waited 6 months for any medical attention including the

My dream kept visualizing my beloved val scratching the wall. "Shhhhh.....stop it" I whispered in my dream. Now the scratching sound was a kicking sound and again I whispered "Shhhhhhh....stop it Val". Now the sound turned into a banging. Hey this ain't no dream! Someone is banging on my kitchen window!! When I got up, I saw it was my neighbour. He was signalling me to go to the door. I stumbled from the kitchen to the back door and when I opened it he said, "Do you want to go fishing?" What time is it?" I asked. It was 6am and he wanted somebody to join him fishing for walleye. "How long do I have?" I mumbled trying to mentally move from dreamland to waking up. I had 30 minutes to meet him at the boat. I fumbled for the coffee pot and shuffled for my clothes. I had a travel mug full of coffee in one hand and my license in the other hand, running to the boat in 30 minutes We fished with down riggers for 5 hours. The weather was nice but

I rolled in to my driveway at 1:30am. On my departure from Boston, I had planned to stop for the night in a motel, but found myself homing in on Buffalo shortly after stopping for gas and a sub to satisfy my dinner grumblings. I was only an hour from the border so renting a room seemed unnecessary, when, I could make a serious run for home in 3 hours or so. Well... the sluggish line at the Niagara Falls border kept me thinking of the colloquialism "slow boat to China" and added a few hours to that, and it weren't long before the sun was going down and, I still had the best part of 3 hours to go. The image of a barrel came to mind a few times. Nevertheless, like I said I got home at 1:30am. It is good to be home. My beloved Val flew in 2 days later from Winnipeg and we spent the long weekend lounging around resting up from all the visiting and touring etc. I produced a few videos from the pictures I collected and promised copies of the videos to family and folk and threw t

Breakheart beach!!! They took me to Breakheart Beach. There, closure on my previous post. Ha Ha. It's 90F in Boston and humidex will drop you in your tracks, so Bostonians head to the beach or the ocean. We did it both. Kevi n and Audra loaded me and the kids up and went to the beach and followed the next day with loading me and the kids up and driving to the ocean. "What did I prefer?" was asked of me several times. Hey, the ocean has some really unusual driftwood and stuff washing up on shore in low tide. Nevertheless, the beach was a 20 minute shuffle from door to surf, and decent scenery too. I liked them both. And to all you Fenway Park enthusiasts, I did a drive-by twice, and went down Lansdowne Street side of the Green Monster one night during the Sox/Athletics game. I resisted the temptation to attend a game, saving it for my next visit. I had a great visit and my son and his wife are the best hosts , and, the best tour guides I have ever had.....and I have travel

What comes to mind when you think about Boston? Bruins, beans, Paul Revere, Orr, Red Sox, Fenway Park, Larry Bird and the Celtics, or tea parties??? I never really gave it muc h thought until my son got marrtied and moved to Boston. I drove there last week and been spending time with his family but never really gave it much thought until he said to me 5 minutes ago...."What do you want to do Dad?" Sooooo, what do you think I should do in Boston, eh? It is 90F and the sun is beating down. I think today is a good day for the beach. "How about the beach?" I reply. Guess, we will find out

" Pakistan and India in terror vow A total of 166 people died in the attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 India and Pakistan will work together to fight terrorism, the countries' prime ministers have announced. Meeting in Egypt, they said the fight against their "main threat" should not be linked to wider peace talks. However, India's Manmohan Singh later said no dialogue would start until those behind last year's attacks in Mumbai (Bombay) were "brought to book". Relations between the two countries deteriorated after the attacks in which militants killed more than 160 people. India has accused Pakistan-based fighters from the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba of carrying out the attacks. Pakistan has admitted they were partly planned on its soil - and vowed to do all it can to bring the suspects to justice. Prime Ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan and Manmohan Singh of India made the pledge after meeting in Egypt. The talks on Thursday - on

I grabbed 3 steaks and a bag of veggies and hopped in the car on Sunday and drove out to John's in Dresden. Ya see, last time I talked to John, he said he bought a tractor. "You trade in the John Deere garden tractor for a new JD?" I asked. "Nope. I bought a new Cub Cadet (International Harvester before a series of merger/acquisitions) with a front end loader, a 60" mower deck, a 3 point hydraulic hitch and a rear and side mounted power take off powered by a diesel engine," he replied. Now, I have blogged about John's 150 year old Victorian house a few years back, and his two storey monstrous garage earlier this year so, I figgered, I gotta see this tractor for myself. Well, I saw it and got Val to snap some pictures which she has to download yet so I poached a reasonable facsimile jpeg from the website. It is one stalky, burly, well equipped, fully functional, exciting "toy". LOL. The strange thing that struck me on the drive home, later that

Can you believe Lance Armstrong is in third place in the Tour de France? Talk about coming out of retirement eh? Its only the 8 stage but that is amazing. the question that comes to mind is "Why the heck did he retire?" After 4 years of sitting on the beach Lance not only returns and is riding a third of the way into the race, he is in third position overall. Notwithstanding he broke his collar bone in March while racing in Spain. That is amazing when considering the gruelling demands to complete all 28 stages of Le Tour, never mind competing as a leader. It seems to hard to believe. I really thought his comeback was scuttled when I saw the media release announcing he broke his shoulder last March. Hard to believe. I am attempting to reduce my pain medication dosage. The last few days have been harsh. I hope it passes quickly. The preceding prescribed medication was making me feel like I was never wounded most days. That perception rapidly fizzled when I modified my medicine

How have you been? The week went fast for me since my last post. The week was filled with visiting with my buddy from Vancouver, as I reported in my last post, after he dried out. We did some touring so Gerry could get an idea about the county of Essex and we spent one day in Windsor and stopped by the Thunder Road Harley Davidson dealer and the Caesar's Casino for a spell. With my beloved Val's help, I walked away with a $2.40 (she doubled my $1.20 jackpot..LOL) windfall from the penny machines. I had wished for a week of good weather to compensate for the wash-out our guest had been welcomed with on his ride through Detroit, and my wishes were answered for the most part. Gerry is not much of a "yard-bird" but we had good enough weather for patio lounging everyday for Val and I, in the morning, while Da Gar performed his "rituals" (the term Gerry uses to refer to his computer antics). He routinely surfs the websites that his gamer tendencies insist, and sha

We drove in to Windsor Wednesday night to meet Gerry at the McDonald's outside the border crossing from Detroit. He had text messaged earlier to say he was in Ann Arbor and waiting out the rain, and, might spend the night. It seemed like a good idea to me. I drove the Detroit interstate many times and I didn't relish the thought of a rainy ride for a stranger to Detroit and the Ambassador Bridge crossing. Nevertheless, the phone rang an hour later and Gerry was through customs and hunkering down, waiting for us to guide him the remainder of the journey to our cottage home on Lake Erie. I had promised Gerry's Mom an update on MSN when he called, so, I quickly banged out a note to Mrs. D. on the computer and we took off. I found him soaking wet and spooning on a strawberry sundae in MickeyDs. The weather never let up for the 40 minute ride home so we were all glad to get Gerry and his Hawg parked and changed into dry duds. We sat up and gabbed until the wee hours of the morni

"The Royal Canadian Mint said Monday that $15.3 million worth of gold missing from its vaults could have been stolen. The gold was reported missing last fall, but officials at the mint said they had hoped they would find that an accounting error was responsible. A review conducted by auditors Deloitte and Touche, however, recently concluded that the gold wasn't simply forgotten during inventory. "The unaccounted for difference in gold does not appear to relate to an accounting error in the reconciliation process, an accounting error in the physical stock count schedules or an accounting error in the record keeping of transactions during the year," the company concluded in a report released Monday. Christine Aquino, director of communications with the mint, said that many possible scenarios are being considered. "We're not going to speculate on the cause just yet," said Aquino. 'We're not giving up on this. We're going to pursue this rather v

"A smile is a sign of joy. A hug is a sign of love. A laugh is a sign of happiness. And a friend like me…? Shit, that's just a sign of good taste! " LOL LOL LOL....that is a copy of an email I got from my good buddy, Union brother and colleague, and fellow retiree, Dennis Wray. I just impulsively howled a gut laugh until my mending ribs hurt, when I opened the email. A week earlier I was text messaging with Denny when he sent me the website for the Golf and Country Club, he and his wife Bubba belong to. The Pine Ridge members were conducting a golf competition heralded the Ridger Cup. It is formatted, I presume, on the same principles as the Ryder Cup and the daily reports posted on the Club's website were priceless. I won't post the pictures without permission but, I will post the website of the club and the home page includes Denny's team that played in the tourney http://www.prthegroup.ca/ . Email me if you cant pick Denny out and I will ID him for any ema

I got home from my first examination with my shoulder physician since my arrival to the ER after grounding my bike and the whole hood was in a black out. The sky was full of black thunderheads and lightening bolts, on the drive from Windsor to my lake shore home. Shortly after leaving the clinic, the neighbour called to say his kids were home alone in town and needed a visit. My beloved Val dropped me off at home and proceeded to Kingsville to check on them. Several hours later I was sitting in darkness with candles and flashlights on standby. When it was evident the black out was going to last all night, we decided to rent a motel a nd spend the night. Val stopped and booked a room on her way back from Kingsville and we stuffed a bag with a change of clothes and tooth brushes and bolted from the darkness of our home. We were welcomed to the motel room with the TV blaring the news of twisters in the county and the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Micheal Jackson. The "Angel and the Po

Hey... today is a very fruitful day for choosing one of a number of rhetorical symbolistic features to explore in my blog. Today is Father's Day. Today is the longest day of the year. Today is the first day of summer. Today is a gorgeous day weather wise. Today is Sunday. Today is the first Sunday Val is unemployed. Today is the final day of Denny's ritualistic Ridger Cup. Today is supposed to be the final day of the US Open. Today is the best I have felt since my wreck on May 06. Take your pick. Which symbolic feature should I explore in our CLP blog. You know what? I won't explore any of those features. Father's Day would be the most valuable to chew on for a paragraph or two, or, summer's first/longest day, but I think we should venture somewhere else. Do you feel adventourous for this post? How about if I don't even explore our fruitful Sunday? Let us go to another day. How about Friday? O Ya, Friday. Windy Friday!! I woke up to gale force winds, in the midd

Point Pelee National Park. Drove up to the entry gate last summer on the Hawg and was planning to do a cruise through the park when the ranger implied the drive thru was not worth the entry fee. Humm....flash forward to the weekend and I am back at the gate with John and Val and we were not to be denied. Point Pelee is located on a foundation of glacial sand, silt and gravel that bites into lake Erie, this spit of land is slightly more than seven kilometers long by 3.5 kilometers wide at its northern base. The Point was a thriving bee-hive in the 60s when developers pitched the location to Michigan middle class families as an idyllic location for summer cottages. The watershed shoreline of Lake Erie throughout the Point Pelee parkland was inundated with bustling summertime vacationers that put their liquidity towards cottages and beach property for the family. Today many birdwatchers from abroad visit the park in spring. One attraction, apart from the sheer numbers and variety of bird

Can anyone coach me on using a scanner with the computer? I have about a zillion medical receipts to copy before I send the originals to the insurance guy for refunds. The computer and the scanner have my prescribed meds to thank, for me keeping patience in the hours of attempting to work the technology, but I QUIT. At $80 a printer cartridge, I really didn't want to photo copy all the stuff but as of today, I'm scanner illiterate, and I concede. Unrelated, last night my friend Joe called and asked me to ride into town in the morning with him. He planned to watch the Red Bull air races on the Detroit River. My beloved Val made alternative arrangements for my gimpy chores and I was free to bolt. Joe and Simon and I slipped into downtown Windsor and settled in to the riverside park sojourned for the race day events. Joe had prepared to avoid the race day admissions and vendors by attending the pre-race practice rounds and the plan was a complete success. We were rewarded with fro

Sup? How r u? How is the weather in your neck of the woods? I watch for the sun peeking out every morning to have my coffee on the patio before I start my physio routine. I send out a text message every weekday reporting on the daily forecast in our lake shore home. Through the course of the day, I get text replies that cover the continent and the consensus seems to conclude an abundance of weather anomalies that disgust the majority of my morning contacts. Sup with that? I had my last session with my home therapist and got her passing grade today. My test challenge was covering 10 feet of floor space from the sit down position at my kitchen table and returning to the same position and "its not a race" she said before sounding the start indicator. I covered it in 11 seconds and the norm for an able bodied student(?) is 10 seconds, all the while thinking this was far from my image of new millennium medicine AND IT WAS A RACE. With that test completed in the positive conclusion

I just got off the phone after chatting with my Mom and she signed off by saying, "Have a good Father's Day!!" "Whens that?" I responded, with my mind reeling on this years unusually sneaky approach of my "Dad's special day". "Tomorrow," she answered without hesitation. The first thing I did, after hanging up the phone, was check the calendar for the June Sunday expropriated for the Pop honour. I have two weeks to get Pop's card. Speaking of special day s, today was a spontaneously special day. Do you have those? Those days that start out with an inherently good sunrise and seem to present you with one unsolicited good fortune after another. I had two of those this week. One was last Thursday. The day John Moore-Gough (pictured left) decided he was going to pick me up and drive over to Kingsville and hop the ferry and treat me to a tour of Pelee Island. The Island is heralded as "Canada's Best Kept Secret". It is the sou

What a great week!! Val and her sister spent the week touring the county and smiling and laughing and gabbing the way only sisters will do. Val's sister flew home today and I miss the company already. I know Val will be sad too when she gets home from the drive to London airport. Add that Val goes back to work tomorrow, and, I miss all the attention too. I was double mother henned 24/7 and now its all gone :( Back to reality eh? My physio-therapist berated me this morning for regressing on my breathing exercises this week and I have to spend the day gaining back the healing ground I lost. Failing to do so will stall the prescribed efforts to lose some accumulating fluids and ultimately conclude with a procedure to drain the fluid, that, I cannot bring myself, nor want, to describe. Nonetheless, the yard looks really good. The Palmer sisters trimmed, mowed, raked, bagged, planted and landscaped the yard along with the flowers and planters from Seacliffe greenhouses, and a few post l