We’re on a front porch in Sewickley, PA, an idyllic place of mature trees and century homes, a town as similar to Dundas, Ontario as you might imagine, here on the edge of Pittsburgh, a city you’d also be forgiven for confusing with Hamilton. Both have that rugged steel history around a fine waterfront and remarkable […]
A porch (or two) with a view Read More »
The world is supposed to end today. Yawn. (Or at least the end will finally get started.) According to those who believe in the so-called Global Coastal Event, there will be a massive earthquake in California. It’s a planetary alignment thing. Today. Thursday May 28, 2015. After the earthquake, all the other horrible stuff will
The end of the world and other fears Read More »
There’s little left to say about the theft of My Bride’s and my computers while in Ottawa, except that, as we all know, things can always be worse. Yesterday we learned that friends who work in Thailand had not only their laptops, but their passports (with critical visas), ID, wallets and anything else of any
White gloves, doppelgangers, and Glenn Gould’s piano in Ottawa Read More »
It’s the other morning and it’s cool and Child #3, the African girl, is wearing purple mittens as we, all three children and I, walk down the sidewalk to school. Child #2, the boy, is wearing shorts, ready for the beach. Child #1, the other girl, the oldest, laughs at them both. The next day
So what do you do with a couple of hot computers? Read More »
Barely in the country from our family holiday in Germany, and not really fully unpacked in our Hamilton condo, the kids continue to live in what is their never-ending Holiday Land. They’ve been back to school this week in Canada, sure, sure, but just for three days, before tomorrow morning, right around sunrise if Yours Truly is
Formal wear at Rideau Hall, naked in Dachau Read More »
We’re on the 6.46 am train from Salzburg to Munich, somewhere near the German-Austrian border, with Bavarian countryside and snowy Alps and children curled up and asleep, The Children’s Mother nodding off too, a couple of days to go in this family holiday, this, what has turned into an annual European respite while returning to Canada from Africa.
Planes, trains, and not peeing our pants Read More »
The best time to talk to your nine-year-old boy about women’s plumbing and these sorts of sexually delicate territories is when he’s asleep. This is what every trying father discovers after said boy lays splayed on the living room floor pretending he’s having a baby. Yes, my son Jon was in obvious pain – it seems no epidural
Sexually delicate territories Read More »
He’s a father I’ve known for some years, a lawyer, a father of two boys and two girls. On his way out, leaving for good, he handed me a book I had once lent him – Listening to Your Life by Frederick Buechner. I said no, keep it as a gift, please, let me sign it for you. I
