Two years of Covid semi-isolation has been a mixed blessing. I have enjoyed feeling safe and secure but also felt myself become increasingly agoraphobic. The long Edmonton winters and icy sidewalks made it difficult to get out for walks, and my social life was reduced to visits with my immediate family and increasingly rare meetups […]
Last week, I was idly looking for useful things to do when I opened the cupboard doors in my TV stand to see what I could clear out. (I’m experiencing a combination of Covid isolation and a late-life decluttering urge.) Inside the TV stand were some DVD’s that had been out of sight and out […]
The City of Edmonton decided this week that everyone should wear masks indoors in public places as of August 1. There are some exceptions, such as when eating and drinking, and for those with medical conditions that make wearing masks impossible, but for the rest of us when going to the store, masks will be […]
Edmonton has an annual celebration of gardens in bloom, and some of my neighbours are good candidates for recognition. We have a very short season, so figuring out what will bloom within that time takes some research. Also, we are cursed with clay soil, so I know that local gardeners fight an ongoing battle with […]
When the comedian Colin Quinn said “Never trust a socialist with a summer home,” I laughed. It’s a good joke. But, I am a socialist with a winter home, which amounts to the same thing, so that joke got me thinking about my kind of socialism. I learned socialism from my parents when I was […]
Recently, the CBC came up with a five-part podcast series about the neighbourhood in which I live. It was focussed on a few slum landlords and one in particular who has been responsible for a lot of community problems. CBC was right to draw attention to this, but I was really disappointed by the implication […]
Recently, our nearby 7-11 store closed. The manager had had enough of broken windows and threats to employee safety, so they decided to move. This came as a big surprise to us because we thought 7-11 stores were eternal. Obviously, we were wrong. Our neighbourhood is, mostly, a very pleasant one, with tree-lined streets and […]
If you are watching the news and thinking we should keep out immigrants, please have a chat with your friends and neighbours. Most, if not all of them, are or were immigrants, or they have ancestors who were immigrants. Immigrants are us. When I see crowds of people waving signs or chanting to build walls […]
Imagine that you are going to be away for a long period of time, and so you ask your good neighbour to take care of the house for you. He says “Of course! No worries. I’ll be happy to.” Then he says, “By the way, we’ve got guests coming for a short stay. Can they […]
Yesterday, Sunday, I was setting out at 8:30 in the morning to go to my sister’s house. She has recently had a back injury and I was going to help her to get ready so that she, her husband, and I could go to visit family in Monterey. As I stepped out of the door […]
Oh, the joy of the dump. No, not that kind of dump. The municipal dump. The waste disposal site. Today I took some trash to the dump. This trash has a history that raises issues of honesty and integrity and ethics, but mostly it’s just trash. Recently, we had some work done at the house. […]
When I moved to this condo in 2009 I spent the first couple of years just settling in, and then it occurred to me that I wanted to get to know a few of my neighbours. I also wanted to know what decisions were being made, so I started going to the monthly Home Owners’ […]
$260. That’s it. That’s what your excess miscellany is worth. In order to earn that, you must spend weeks sorting things out, carrying the sale items to your garage, and pricing them. You will have to get the help of friends to move the big stuff and you will have to borrow folding tables. You […]
Flags cause wars. At least, that’s what my Dad used to say. Once when my parents were visiting me in Calgary from England, Dad asked why there were so many national flags around the gas station. This was back when Petro-Canada was a crown corporation and Canadians were very proud of it. I explained that […]
I have new neighbours upstairs, and I noticed them because they were a little loud when they first moved in. Things have settled down since then, and now I am only aware of them when they drop something heavy on the floor. So, it came as a new surprise to hear one of them yelling […]
I have new upstairs neighbours. When I heard them moving in, I thought that I would drop by and offer them a welcoming gift; maybe home-baked muffins or a potted plant. However, I find that I now have a new problem. Well, two problems actually. The first problem was that on the day they moved […]
Snowbird of Paradise 