For everyone who has heard “It’s your age,” this article is for you. I have reached the age when this diagnosis has been applied to whatever thing I might be grumbling about. I must explain, though, that this conclusion has not come from my doctor. She is very […]
When we give a star rating to a business or a play or a product, often that is all we do. Much of the time, we don’t analyze why we gave that rating or justify it. If we do give an explanation on sites such as Angie’s List […]
I’m sorry that I was resistant to your request for information this morning. It came as a surprise that you would call in response to my feedback on your clinic’s email questionnaire. I was suddenly confronted with that recent evaluation and not fully prepared to justify it on […]
Things That Make Me Say “Gah!”: 1. Car commercials. 2. Politicians running for office. 3. Corporate phone menus. 4. TV shows with laugh tracks. 5. That little Chrome rainbow circle that never stops. 6. Surprise airline fees 7. Government red tape 8. Just missing the bus 9. Fake […]
In my wanderings around the city recently I have come across a few interesting buildings. Here are three of them. The first is the LeMarchand Mansion on 100 Avenue, and it is a Heritage Building. It was opened as apartments in 1910 but now is used for professional […]
When I first started this blog in 2010, WordPress provided me with a perfect platform. I didn’t have the skills to create a website, and WordPress made it easy for me. I was able to upload text or to create text directly on the site and soon thereafter […]
When I was getting my hair cut last week I had a bewildering conversation with my hairdresser. She is a friendly, chatty young woman who talked to me about all sorts of things including how she had once been forced to run down the hallway of the mall […]
When I first got out of bed this morning, I opened the curtains to see that the sun was a strange colour and the sky was an orangey-grey. Then I opened the door and the smell of smoke was startling. This is what I saw at 7:15 AM: […]
Two unusual things happened today. The first is that when I woke up I realized I had had a good night’s sleep, and the second is that I suddenly got a lot more followers on Twitter. I don’t think those two things are related. The Twitter Followers The […]
When I was a teenager in school, I vaguely remember being taught about the Continental Divide in Geography class. I even remember the teacher’s name; it was Mr. Bright. As I recalled it from my school days, the continental divide was singular. Just one. On my drive through […]
When I left Winnemucca, Nevada on Wednesday the local radio station described the area as Buckaroo Country. I thought about that for a while and decided that it probably did not mean that all the residents are cowboys, but they do probably have cowboy affiliations. They certainly listen […]
When I was in school in England, we were taught in Geography class about patterns of human settlement. We learned that linear settlement occurs when houses and shops are built alongside roadways. Nucleated settlement occurs at roadway intersections or at significant resources like seaports or river crossings. At […]
Sega has stopped selling a video game because one of the voice actors has been arrested for cocaine use. Normally I would not care about this or even know about it, except that my oldest son pointed out that the distinction between an artist and their art has […]
I have had dry eyes most of my adult life and, as a consequence, there are multiple bottles of eye drops in my home. I have medicated eye drops, artificial tears, drops for allergies, anti-redness drops, drops for people who spend too long on the computer, and multi-purpose […]
Pump it up, until you can feel it Pump it up, when you don’t really need it* Last summer I noticed that I was going to the gas station about once a month to use the air pump. The flat tire symbol (_!_) on my dashboard was lighting […]
In March 2018, I deactivated my Facebook account and I really haven’t missed it. Occasionally, when talking about something they had read or posted on there, family members have said: “Oh, I forgot you aren’t on Facebook anymore.” Otherwise, its absence from my life has been largely unnoticed. […]
It is brutally cold right now and many people are going to endure terrible conditions both on the streets and at home. Every year, some homeless people die, and this year is worse than most. Folks in Alberta don’t talk about global warming much. We might talk about […]
Today we drove from Idaho Falls, Idaho to Winnemucca, Nevada, which is roughly 445 miles (716 km). This is a long unexciting section of the journey with very little to look at. The most challenging part was making sure I didn’t run out of gas during the hundreds […]
Today we drove from Shelby, Montana to Idaho Falls, Idaho which is 441 miles (710 km). The roads were bare and dry, the weather was good, and there was very little traffic. We listened to more episodes of The Strange Case of Starship Iris and Dear Hank and […]
Yesterday we had two bikes stolen from our garden shed. One bike was expensive, one was not. Regardless, I’m upset. We are good people who live good lives. We work hard, pay our bills, and we don’t take what doesn’t belong to us. Most of the time we […]
I am a snowbird who travels south for the winter. When I get there I have a bird of paradise plant on my patio.
