For weeks, I have been afraid to leave the house. I have been unable to walk on neighbourhood sidewalks because I am afraid of falling on the ice that has formed in too many places. I have also been unable to drive my car because of deep snow, or ruts in the snow, or packed […]
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 […]
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 […]
A little while ago, Mark and Patricia McCloskey pointed their guns at some protesters in St. Louis. One of those guns was a semi-automatic rifle, a weapon of war. The protesters were walking together past the McCloskey house towards the home of their city’s mayor in order to show their support for the Black Lives […]
Until today, my major concern in relation to Coronavirus was to avoid contact with other people. I did not want to bring the virus home and I did not want to carry it to the people I love and live with. Before I returned to Canada I spent a week in self-isolation. I didn’t leave […]
Those who fight and run away, live to fight another day. That little adage was always told to me with a little smile, a knowing wink, an understanding that sometimes the smart thing to do is to save your own skin. When I was a child, it forgave me for not being risk-taking or for […]
We had a cold day recently. It was just at the change in the seasons when fall turns to winter. There was a light dusting of snow on some rooftops, and the weather report had warnings of icy road conditions south of the city. Like most people, I put on some gloves and pulled up […]
Well, that’s it then. The war on terror is over and the terrorists have won. America is now officially in the hands of the terrified. Of course, the terrified are afraid of the wrong enemy. It is not Islam. The enemy is fear itself, and that is exactly what the terrorists hoped to accomplish—hence the […]
Last night I woke up with my heart racing. I had been dreaming about a big black hairy spider. In the dream, I was cleaning my stairs and saw a large, thick cobweb. It was more like a cocoon, really. Anyway, I was about to wipe it away when I noticed that inside it was […]
When the house is quiet, I hear sounds that I don’t recognize and cannot place. There are clicks and whirrs from appliances, creaks from wood expanding and contracting, and various other sounds that bother me. It is disconcerting when the fridge sounds as though water is dripping, even though I know it is not dripping […]
Judging by this week’s news, you could say that Alberta, Canada is overrun with gun-toting psychotic murderers, California is covered with snow, and Play-Doh toys are designed to corrupt children. The truth, however, is not quite so horrifying. There have been two Albertans who shot people this week, there is some snow in some parts […]
A friend of mine is applying for internship positions and has learned to expect some of the questions that are designed to reveal character traits. One of those is “Can you tell us about a challenging situation and how you dealt with it.” Her reply impressed me. She said that she had learned that she […]
Sometimes, if I don’t have something planned for my day, I do absolutely nothing. I sit on the couch and watch movies on TV while noodling about on my laptop computer. I suppose I could justify it by saying I’m networking and reading the news, but really I’m being totally idle, and the longer I […]
Snowbird of Paradise 