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 […]
The recent news that one of my favourite resting-and-reverie spots was to be cleared to make way for something big and modern, reminded me that I took a few photos when I was there in January. So, here for your viewing pleasure and perhaps for posterity are the pictures I took. A developer has snapped […]
Clinkers are bricks that have been over-fired and have become misshapen. Clinker bricks used to be discarded by Edmonton brickyards but the owner of a hardware store saw value in them. In 1927 he used them to build his house. James Rutherford built a house eight short blocks from where I live and it is […]
Inertia: 1) a tendency to do nothing or remain unchanged 2) a property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless that state is changed by an external force. (via Lexico) When I first began my 14 days of quarantine after arriving back […]
Given that we find ourselves living in the future and that the future does not include toilet paper, I feel it my duty to explain the tow rag. Back in the days of sailing ships, the sailors did not have toilet paper. What they did have were rags. Cloth rags. After having completed their daily […]
It took three attempts, but I finally got my online request for a refund from Air Canada to be accepted into their system. The first two times, that little wheel kept turning backwards and finally kicked me out. The third time, though, I got through and felt as though I had won a lottery prize. […]
As I was telling him the saga of my need to return to Canada before the border closed, my cab driver from Edmonton airport to my house said, “Your country called you home.” I thought that was a pleasing way to think of it. I had originally planned to return in May but when COVID-19 […]
This stereographic photo viewer, or stereoscope, is on display at the Stevenson House in Monterey, California. Robert Louis Stevenson lived there in the latter part of 1879, and the house was one of several that my niece and I saw during our tour of the adobe buildings in the city last December. The Stereograph was […]
As Oliver Hardy once said to Mastercard; that’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into. He didn’t actually say it to Mastercard, but he would have if he had my recent experience. To tell you this story, I have to provide a little background. I travel regularly from Canada to the United States, so I […]
Humans have invented amazing things, but some inventions are so ubiquitous that we overlook them. Today I am focussing my attention on one invention that owes everything to the ingenuity and industry of ancient civilizations. I am thinking about bricks. Ordinary, everyday, bricks. They have been around since 7000 BC and we have had fired bricks […]
In 2017, some UK family members and I enjoyed a ride on the Bluebell Railway. We were on one of several steam locomotives on a railway line that was closed by British Railways in 1955 but preserved by enthusiasts and still running today. We took the train from East Grinstead to Sheffield Park and were […]
A little while ago I was visiting with some family members and my nephew noticed my phone. It was an iPhone 5S and it worked just fine for me. My nephew commented on it and made me take a second look. I can’t remember what he said, exactly, but I remember thinking that perhaps my […]
