Visas and toll gates, oh my
Did you vote? Well, did you? I voted. My kids voted. LOML voted. Some of my friends voted online for the very first time. Some of my young friends are excited because this election was the first time they could vote, and they did. If you were eligible and didn’t vote, you won’t have anything […]
Why I love my road
You see, roads are not something you want to talk about before municipal elections because roads are historically a line of contention of whether one gets elected or not; in other words, the case of ‘what’s in it for me’. So now as the dust settles—can’t resist a bad pun— and that our local Hillier […]
The forlorn and the lonely
Today is reality check day for municipal candidates. This is the last Times edition published before next Monday’s municipal election, so on page six this week you’ll have found the paper’s recommendations about how your vote should be cast. The sting of being passed over by The Times is an advance warning that Monday’s outcome […]
Working out, work in progress
November is just around the corner. Yeah, it is, and it’s celebration time for me. Eight years ago I told all y’all I had joined a gym, The County Club. At that time, I’d reached an all-time record “high” and an all-time record “low”. Highest weight ever, including my pregnant-with-eleven-pound-babies weight. Lowest level of fitness […]
Confession of a County loyalist
There is a lot to be said for living in the County. However, I sometimes wonder whether we fall under the pleasant illusion that the air is rarefied here and outside our boundaries lies only bleak wilderness. But the truth is that there are all manner of interesting places outside the County within easy reach. […]
Dearly beloved
Life is an adventure, or so I’ve heard. This weekend we were in the GTA to attend our youngest son’s wedding. Imagine, Thanksgiving Weekend at a wedding. Most of my life I thought Thanksgiving Weekend was all about turkey with all the trimmings, eating too much, drinking too much, a sink full of dishes to […]
The whim of genealogy
Slate heavy skies, the centre white line, an even greyer Scoharie Road rises before me. It’s late morning. Sunday. The car radio and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Volume cranked. There’s a silhouette ahead and I veer to avoid shaggy-headed turkey buzzards, two of them actually, unbothered, standing firm against threat of traffic. The vultures will not […]
Adult entertainment?
I saw the ad the other day: “Sharon and Bram – 40th anniversary farewell concert.” Hard to believe the children’s entertainers have been at it together for 40 years; equally hard to believe they’ve lasted 40 years. (Well, they haven’t lasted intact for 40 years. They were originally Sharon, Lois and Bram until, sadly, Lois […]
That’s not what I asked for!
It’s been one of those weeks. A week when the column just about writes itself. Actually, it’s been a week when there has been no doubt in my mind that I would write about “why women don’t tell”. The problem is I know lots of men who didn’t tell, but I’m not writing about them. […]
You’ve got – personality!
Which one of the four basic personality types are you: average, reserved, self-centred or role model? I’d like to say I’m ‘role model’, if only because the other labels sound either bland or downright negative. But having learned what it takes to be a role model, I doubt that I’ve got the chops for it. […]