Checkered Lounge Pants

"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...