Checkered Lounge Pants

I got a call the other day from my friend Peter Kydd, a rail worker here in Windsor, asking if I was going home to Winnipeg for Xmas this year. "No" I said, "staying home this year". Winter storms are wreaking havoc on Xmas travellers this year, eh? Once we caught up on the rail gossip he signed off. The next 24 hours seemed to include a kaleidiscope of the harshness of Old Man Winter. Its started snowing outside and it seemed to be a string of crappy weather from coast to coast. I had hoped it settled down before Boxing Day. I got my eye on some sales. BRB...gotta get the shovel and do the sidewalk.... .....no sooner had I shovelled the walk, and, Xmas came and went, the weather m an changed the forecast from snow to rain. The snow disappeared, that covered the electrical cord to the lights in the little tree in my back yard, and is laying like a long orange snake (see pic on the right) winding through the yard feeding off my outside plug. Well, we had a white chr...

"Well it looks like we are going to have a white Christmas after all," Kevin said, "it finally feels like Christmas", regarding the heavy snowfall on the drive to his work this morning. That is pretty much typical for a Winnipegger that's moved to Essex County. I remember the first Xmas I had herein Windsor Essex County, and it snowed Xmas eve. Sweet Pea Valerie and I were in some kinda funk that we were going to have to experience a green Xmas (which is a bitter sweet phenomena for Winnipeggers, because, we dream of such a thing when living in the prairies, but go into culture shock when thrust into a green Xmas). I remember my folks saying, "it might be a green Xmas this year", when the snow had not yet arrived, on the prairies, at November's end. Have no fear of that, was going through our youthful prairie minds. Speaking of youthful...its my mother's birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Ma (do I recall an earlier blog regarding a gauntlet of D...

Fireplace is crackling (built a fire early today to ward off the dampness from the rain) and most of my Xmas shopping is done. The remainder on my Xmas shopping list has to be purchased in town (Windsor) and Thursday is "town day"on this months calendar. I couldn't wait for a haircut so I got Kevin to cut my hair the other day and he did a good job. Its pretty short, but the "mop" was getting annoying, so short is good. Speaking of good, my long time friend John arrived home from a mission to dig wells for drinking water in Liberia. His wife Charlotte sent us a few pictures of the adventure, but, this one is so typical of John Kuban. I would describe John in one sentence... "A man with a strong sense of determination and will, with a heart as big as all outdoors, and a very good friend to make in life". Welcome home John. I wish I could drop in to Lorette to hear the stories, sitting in your shop over a case of Blue. Speaking of a mission of mercy, I w...

POLAR BEAR DIP...... Hoooooooly Moly that was cold. I walked out on the stacked ice pack ( don't ask me why!!) yesterday and fell through when I stepped on the lake ice, 50 feet from shore. Good tha ng its shallow out there. Now having to plod through the broken ice and halfway back to shore, I had to turn back to thrash around and fish out my boots....wasn't going to lose them to the lake. By the time I was back on shore, my sopping wet clothes were starting to get pretty froze. Val said I was turning an ever darker shade of purple while peeling off the wet clothes in the porch. I had to promise Val that there would be no more winter swimmin' or Polar Bear dippin ' without supervision. Yo, did I just throw down a rhyme?? LOL . The day was not a total loss. I took Kevy job hunting, after dropping Val at work, since his layoff (greenhouses are inherently seasonal) and we stopped at the (Un)Employment Insurance offices (actually they are now called Service Canada) an...

So this is Christmas......house rules have prevailed and Valerie Sweet Pea's birthday is complete so on to the Xmas festivities. The weekend was quiet and reserved (Forbes and Suzanne opted to stay home in Sudbury, but Audra brightened our weekend) and now its tree time. We will get out our little munchkin tree and ceremoniously decorate it with Sweet Pea placing ALL the decorations in their proper place (her OCD kix in big) on the tree, while I observe. We spent Saturday morning at the local hockey rink watching the neighbour's Austin play in his peewee hockey game. It was mega fun. So many things reminded me of the boyz playing hockey back in the day. I got right into the game and caught Valerie and Alexis (Austin's sister) looking at me like a nut while I was cheering on the lil guys. I found myself recalling the winter I was coaching the kids (bantam) one year and losing my voice in the playoffs. Nevertheless, with a decisive victory for the Kingsville Kings, as the bu...

Hi Hi Hi Ho Ho Ho......how are things going? Have you done all your Xmas shopping? I have not even started.......GeeeeZ. I have a gauntlet of December birthdays to get through before Xmas. Just sent 2 cards off today with gift cards (from Timmies.....dont tell, k?) and Valerie Sweet Pea has a birthday on Saturday ( and neighbours threw a party 4 her last weekend ) so, house rules prevent me from any Xmas preparation until after birthday girl is celebrated fully. Furthermore, Kevys fiance is flying from Boston and Forbes and Susan are driving in from Sudbury for the weekend. Speaking of house rules, have you seen the crazy drama in Canuck parliament??? I saw a hasty interview with GG Jean from Europe and she was hardpressed to fill in the sound bite. Canadian politics have finaly outlegged US politicians for spinning fervour and misspoken rhetoric. Its very very difficult to keep your finger on the string of developments that lead to a coalition option for parliamentary governance. Ever...

I was exercising responsible news philtering, and surfin my media sources when I came across this in the Las Vegas Sun. Is this a sign that the green conscience of North America has seen behind the curtains of the Coal Industry's greewwashed "Clean Coal" campaign???? "Times they are a changin" as Bob Dylan sang. "Up in smoke Environmentalists say future of three proposed Nevada coal plants in jeopardy By Phoebe Sweet Sat, Nov 15, 2008 (2 a.m.) Sun Topics Coal Power Plant Debate The Environmental Protection Agency’s rejection of a permit for a Utah coal plant this week spells trouble for three coal-fired power plants proposed in Nevada. Environmentalists are hailing the decision, released Thursday by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board, as the final straw for new traditional coal plants. Utah’s permit was denied because it did not limit greenhouse gas emissions — and every new coal plant will emit millions of tons of the climate-change-causing carbon dioxi...

Helloooo, did you all have a good Guy Fawkes day? November 5 is the anniversary of the Gunpowder Conspiracy and Plot (and coincidentally my nephew Jeffy's birthday) in 1605. Sometimes I think some governments throughout the world are deserving of a successful Guy Fawkes mission. "Government should be afraid of people, not people afraid of government". I let you google the plot for further details. Kevy and I are baching it this week. Sweet Pea Valerie has gone to Winnipeg to see her family. I drove her to London to catch her plane on Thursday. Man, what a ride, some 18 wheeler operator was playing highway monitor on the trip out and tried to run me of the road while making a pass that he thought badly of. I see why they dont lets us bear arms in Canada. A touch of road rage and my possession of a loaded weapon would have been "lights out" for that rig. For some reason I imagine the scene in Good Will Hunting when Matt Damon asks the pretentiously obnoxious grad ...

If there ever was a picture that spoke a thousand words, for me this is it. Nuff said.

“Trick or Treat…. smell my feet!” echoed from the door this morning, when my Sweet Pea Valerie wandered in from a night-time of Devil's night gallivanting with her cronies. That will most likely be the nearest Chez Valyon on the Lake gets to a Halloween haunting from tricksters or treaters on this day of hallowed haunting. We have not gotten any ghosts or goblins since our migration to the rural countryside. I may have blogged that factual tidbit last year, n'est pas? (interactive image-print cut out stencil and trace on pumpkin for carving) Nonetheless, Kevin and I stocked the cupboards with some goodies just in the event there is a surprise-haunting visitor. It would be unconscionable to be empty handed if some Lil ghosts happened by our cottage. I was watching a revered talk show the other day on PBS hosted by Charlie Rose. Since retiring I have been a pig for news and the media spins concerning the labour and business world…albeit a labour editor is as rare in the media com...

Hummmm.....just reading my last blog post and wondered why I had never mentioned it was my Thanksgiving post??? Oh ya, I got all twisted up over crony capitalism.....or what I like to call "Dixie Chick stigma", but that's another story for some other forum. Speaking of meltdowns, I had a meltdown on Thursday last. I booked a foursome on the local golf course I frequent and fully expected to blow my game through the roof (and my partners) after several games of sub 20 handicap strokes alongside hours of practising short game fundamentals. WELL, triple bogey, triple bogey, double bogey, quadruple bogey start and blow me down. On that pace, I was destined for the worse game of the year and so much for my expectations of grandeur. They were purely delusional...LOL One partner, attempted consoling me, when, after enduring my whining and griping about practicing all week for naught, said to me, "even Ben Hogan said that there is such a thing as golfing too much". I g...

I am giving thanks for this weather.....28C on Sunday and I was sweating it out on the golf course...whew. It was sooooo good I did again yesterday to wear off some turkey calories. LOL I hit the local winery after the game and stocked up for dinner. Val had made cranberry sauce the night before. We dined with my son and my golfing friend, John, who drove in from Dresden. The meal wrapped up with the usual pumpkin pie, and, an ice wine treat from John. It was delicious. I am also giving thanks for the governments embracing principles that will save working folks pensions and savings. Pension funds and 401K lost almost 25% of their portfolios over the last 6 weeks. Many good folks university funds for the kids have dried up while corporate executives still practice lavish excesses. Did you hear the one regarding the retreat the globalized AIG funded ($450K) for its top sellers shortly after they were bailed out with $80B tax dollars?? Lehman Brothers was not so fortunate..... No one w...

Just a quick update before I run into Windsor to the passport office. I finally delivered Kevin's fiance's long promised hawg ride. Audra mentioned, on an earlier visit, she never rode a Harley before and giggled something about the vibration ( I think its a girl thing cuz I shiver over the pipes!) while I coached on the necessity of long pants and leather (yummy...LOL). We drove along the Erie shore, and, cracked the throttle returning back down the highway from Kingsville. We also got in an overnight camping at the local RV park, even though Val pulled the "duck" on us and drove home after dark to sleep in her bed (not that I minded having the sleeping bags all to myself...LOL) and closed out Audra's visit with a stop at our favourite local Asian restaurant (Kev and I really feasted like neanderthals at the buffet counter *smack smack..burp*) that we had recommended while on a junket in Quebec. Val and Kev have brutal work schedules through the next week so I sq...

Hi all, The weather has been very kind to us for fall. Kev's fiancee Audra is visiting for a few days. Val suggested we go camping so we camped out on the weekend and did an overnight er at the local campground. I just got back from gassing up the bike. I promised Audra a ride and all that s left to keep that promise is gettin her on the pad and crackin the throttle. Its the Gars birthday next week so I got to get a card in the mail (can you s[pot him on the drums at Union school?). I had a great time at the charity golf tourney I attended last week. They made $100K for Alzheimer's research. Nonetheless, its always nice to see how some of the priveleged class lives, but nuff about that for now. C ya all layer.

Just a quick note before I load everything up for a charity golf game up in Muskoka. The Union sponsored a foursome at a corporate fundraiser and asked me to attend. Imagine, a hacker like me golfing on some exclusive island course at $2K green fees. It freaks me out just thinking about it. We just got back from my last Rail Council at the Unions Education Centre. The CAW put on a social evening and squeezed in a retirement ceremony for my predecessor, the wily John Moore-Gough, and I. It was a fine evening. I brought Val along and she sat back and watched as John and I were presented with a number of plaques, clocks, apparel (I would be remiss if I neglected to mention my confreres de francais had slipped me a chapeau du Masters) and tokens of appreciation. The evening was special when I realized I was ending my professional activism at the very same facility that hosted the initial merger talks of my birth rail union with the Canadian Auto Workers Union. Ohhhh those were heady days....

Good Day eh (circa Bob and Doug McKenzie, eh)!!! I just spent the morning cooking up some pasta gravy. It seems we have an abundance of tomatoes piling up on the counter so I fired up the cook stove and filled a pot with my secret recipe for pasta sauce and have a 10 litre pot simmering with red gold. Yummy. Its nice to be back at home.... my post-retired colleagues asked me to attend a hearing in Montreal this week. I got home after midnight Monday after catching the red-eye flight into Windsor. It was nice to see Montreal (especially Old Montreal) again after being "away from the action" for the summer, but I don't miss the travelling. I was sitting in PET airport waiting to board my flight home , when I heard somebody shouting "BRYON" from the walkway. "I thought you were retired?" came the query from one of the VIA Rail bargaining team members stationed in Vancouver, who was en route home. I stumbled for an answer, when , sitting at the gate, it ...

Hey that's it for August, eh? Man that was fast. No worries though, cuz the season lingers here until October. Good thing, I have put less than 200 kilometers on the bike. I have put more miles on the mountain bike this summer. Its been an outdoorsy kind of summer. I even got my beloved Val out camping. It seems like we had company all summer, what with working with the landlord and family to cut down the overgrown trees, and, family and friends dropping by in July and August. Kevin got a job at a greenhouse here this week so it looks a though Kevy will stay with Val and I for a spell. Val and him are "thick as thieves" so I`ll have to be on my toes. Wassup with this listeria epidemic. Over two hundred recalls of meat with announcements of more to come, and, closing in on a dozen deaths in Canada?? Holy Moly, and I thought I had the privilege of patronizing a brand that deserved my business, when, it appears they are all the same Corporation. Bullocks on that. When I thin...

Lets seeee, whats new since our last gab? The house is almost fully painted, the bike is out of the shop, I scored an Arnold Palmer putter for 50 cents, my beloved Val is cuter than ever, and, I have a new daughter in law. Well almost. Kevin (my son) proposed to his hunney while her and her sons were visiting us from Boston. Audra was whisked to t he back yard one evening and on the shores of Lake Erie, Kevy asked her to be his wife. She said yes, and, that all but guaranteed a tearful goodbye when the visit was done. Chez Valyon on the Lake was a respite of vibrant resonance and activity with the guests. Shane is 8 years old and Davey is 12 months so I got to relive my old habits acquired when I was a single parent with my boyz. I can still whip up a lunch or dinner in under 30 minutes with limited resources in a flash while doing laundry and wiping sticky fingers...LOL. Chez Valyon on the Lake is a mecca for filling the day with adventures as long as the weather is cooperative, AN...

Helloooo or Yooooo Wassup as the hip-hop crowd say?? Its been a full week. Kevin arrived just over a week ago. I hardly recognized him getting off the plane. He was so skinny last time I saw him. Gramma had him well fed and looking..... well, as the neighbour quipped as we observed Kev painting the lawn shed, and I referred to Kevy as the little guy, "he isn't so little". LOL He is a good worker and he has been finishing a steady stream of chores since he arrived. We squeeze in some R&R most every day.....but his idea of R&R is much different than mine. Val and I have put miles and miles on the mountain bikes (the neighbour lent us a bike for Kevy) with Kevy insistance we "go for a bike ride" whenever there is a "dry time" or "wait time" in his schedule. I find myself choking up every now and then, when, my mind takes me to regretting the time I gave to work rather than my Boyz. It takes a second to give my head a shake and snap mysel...

Hi yall, Val’s birth mother was here earlier in the week. Vera and her husband, Wayne and daughter Shannon (right) drove from Winnipeg and spent three days with us. I had only met the family once before, but felt positive we would have a good time. I was wrong… we had a GREAT time. They were absolutely smitten with our clandestine, peaceful little bungalow on Lake Erie and Vera announced she wanted to move here, Ha Ha Ha. I was really impressed when I saw Wayne had brought his sticks (he had invited me for a golf game when we first met) so I set up some tee times and we stole two days for golf. Travel day came all to early, and, before I knew it they were heading off to complete their vacation. It’s been hot hot hot here for two weeks and no let up in sight with forecasts of +30 all through the long weekend. It’s all good, eh? That’s what living on the lake is all about (but thanks be given for air conditioning…LOL). We spent every evening outside with our guests and the BBQ got a goo...