About a year ago, my dentist offered me a choice. He could replace a missing tooth with either a Maryland Bridge or a flipper. He explained the disadvantages of each, and neither option sounded desirable, so I demurred. I remember saying at the time that I could not understand why he was explaining reasons for […]
This time last year I bought some masks to use while removing some mold. I only really needed one, but they came in a box of 10, so I had nine left over when the Coronavirus arrived. They were N95, the Cadillac of masks, and the ones recommended for medical professionals. As such, they were […]
Every now and then I come across someone online who is mistrustful. They don’t trust the government, or the World Health Organization, or the traditional media, or the Centres for Disease Control, or even fact checkers. I can understand why someone would have their doubts about some of the actions of these institutions, but we […]
There are a lot of workers in Alberta who are without jobs right now. Aside from the cutbacks due to Covid-19, the resource industries are in decline. In January 2017 there were 297 active drilling rigs but by June 2020 there were only 11. (Government of Alberta) That number has gone up slightly since then, […]
Just suppose for a moment that you want to find out the price of a new car. Not a loan for a car; just a car, outright. But, when you ask, the dealership does not give you a dollar amount. Instead, they ask you first to tell them how much money you have saved, how […]
Everywhere we go in any city in the western world, we are being video-recorded. In stores, outside banks, at intersections, and anywhere near a doorbell camera or security camera. We have become so used to it that we don’t even think about it any more. Yesterday, though, I was given a reason to think about […]
A couple of weeks ago I reconnected with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I had stopped using them in early 2018 and 2019 and restarting those connections has kept me away from this blog. It has also kept me from reading other, favourite, WordPress blogs and I apologize to those bloggers for my absence. I probably […]
The snow, ice, and cold weather have kept me indoors for a few weeks, so I started looking online for boots that would make walking safer. I have had a couple of bad falls, so I have become nervous about walking on sidewalks, especially since not everyone clears away the snow from in front of […]
So, how are you filling your days now that it is winter and the election is over? Me, I’m just killing thyme. (Ba-dum-tss!) Before we had a huge snowfall and the temperature dropped to minus double digits, I managed to take the herbs out of our garden and put them in pots. My plan was […]
Like most people, I’ve been watching the US election results trickle in over the last few days. It is a very close competition in some states as I write this, and the media exaggerates this by referring to it as a race. So, it is exciting both because of the significance of the vote and […]
Information is coming at us from all sides. We get news from traditional media, and news from non-traditional media. We get tidbits of stories from our friends and family in person, and we get them from strangers on Facebook/Twitter/Reddit/QAnon. Some sources clearly have a bias, some claim to have no bias, and some have a […]
I don’t go to the grocery store very often these days, but when I do, I like to be able to get into my car when I leave. Today, someone parked so close to my car it is a wonder they didn’t rip off the side mirror. Admittedly, my car, the green one, was parked […]
On 80th Street in Edmonton sits a large brick building on city land next to the light rail tracks. It is clearly disused now, but it still stands tall and stately. I first noticed it because I approached it from the north and my eye was first drawn to the graffiti above the loading bay […]
A woman I don’t know just gave me the finger. The one-finger salute. She flipped me the bird. She flipped me off. She was walking past my driveway in the alley behind my house, and the security system whistled to let her know she had been seen. In response, she made that gesture towards the […]
I had a long telephone conversation with a police officer yesterday. I didn’t call him, he called me. No, I was not in trouble but he did want more information about a report I had submitted online. We have had periodic problems with people who roam the streets and alleys at night looking for things […]
This is no-see-um season in Alberta. As the popular name suggests, these bugs are invisible until they are actually flying in front of your face. I don’t even know their official or scientific name. They are simply no-see-ums. They are so small that they can get through fly screens. And, they bite. The females feed […]
At 2:30 AM last night. I was having a bad night because I had insomnia, so, when my next door neighbour’s motion-sensor light came on right outside my bedroom window, I noticed. In fact, I noticed enough to get out of bed and look out of the window. I didn’t see anything, so I went […]
I interrupt this series of posts about murals to (a) apologize and (b) vent a little. The apology is necessary because I have no idea how my posts appear on your electronic device but I’m pretty sure my last couple of posts were a bit haphazard, graphically speaking. They looked more-or-less OK to me before […]
Now that many of us are staying home to limit the spread of COVID-19 we have more time to be aware of the comings and goings in our neighbourhoods. In fact, because so few people are out and about, the people who do walk or cycle by our houses are more apparent than they would […]
Until COVID-19, I had a system for moving money from Canada to the USA based on my expectations of income and expenditures in each place each month. Then the pandemic hit and I suddenly found that my plans and expectations were dust in the wind. Now I have a balance on my US credit card […]
