November normal
On the Prairies, we are. From the moment we stepped out of the airport, hopped into the rental car and headed west, it was easy to see we weren’t in Ontario anymore. From Winter- peg to Brandon is about a two-hour drive. The landscape is so flat it’s almost possible to see Brandon from the […]
For the sake of remembrance
It is mainly this morning when I attempt to mind-connect recent events. I sit in the company of my simmering woodstove as a mean November clatters at my window. Just beyond, a robin is perched on a branch of a buckthorn tree. The bird awaits gusts of wind to fetch the fine endtwigs that hold […]
High stakes drama to cheap soap opera
Julian Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for six years now. And the standoff about his tenure there continues. Assange—who founded Wikileaks and attained fame when he published a bundle of top secret US intelligence cables, and then from his post in exile managed to post a bundle of documents […]
In the moment
By the time some of you read this, I’ll be on my way to Brandon, Manitoba to spend some precious moments with our new grandson. I can’t believe November is just around the corner. I’ll be wondering what the heck happened to October? How did it get to be one day until November? Didn’t we […]
Vital signs, vital info, vital mesage
Into the turbulence of the municipal election period drops the The County Community Foundation’s 2018 Vital Signs report, available online or at local library branches, its second such report. The Foundation issued a first report in 2013, and a progress report in 2015. The Report is a ‘state of the community’ snapshot, condensed in about […]
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. […]