Posted on July 3, 2014 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

181 Days of Gratitude

 

 

This is what 181 days of gratitude looks like.  Every single day since Jan.1^st. of this year, I have taken a few moments to write something that happened that day for which I was grateful. It could be as simple as putting my feet on the floor in the morning to scarfing down a piece of M.F.’s world class lemon meringue pie.  What are you grateful for today?

It was a terrific long weekend with warm, sunny days. Great weather for the beach, the pool and for Canada Day festivities.  And speaking of Canada Day, we had to take a pass on the pancake breakfast that morning. We would have loved to have gone to the Legion and hoed in to some pancakes topped with maple syrup. And why weren’t we able to drag our sorry asses down to Main Street? Because we had a house showing at noon on July 1^st.! We found out the day before and had to roll up our sleeves early on Canada Day to get the house ready.

In story telling, you need to have what is known as “context.” In other words, sometimes you need a little backgrounder in order to understand the story. To truly appreciate the subtleties of the next story, please go back and read “Hide and Seek.” If you’re not familiar with my sight, just go to the home page and enter the title in the search bar.

I was up at my usual time ( 5:30 ish ) and started my part of the staging “drill” by cleaning the kitchen and hiding everything. By the time my wife and granddaughter got up, I was ready to start the vacuuming. Only one minor problem. We couldn’t find the vacuum cleaner. I can understand misplacing a ring or even a cell phone but a vacuum cleaner? We looked everywhere and I mean everywhere. I even private messaged a painter who had been doing some work at our house.

We like this particular model as it is a “stick model.” It is light weight and easy to manoeuver. We have an older model which is big and clunky. I was just about to start in with the older model when I heard a giggle from upstairs followed by Betty’s tell tale hysterical laugh. I must leave you in suspense until the story gets published next week. Please feel free to guess all you want. The story is called “ Taken to the Cleaners” and will appear next week. Might even be a Casket story.

This Saturday, I will be publishing a story that appeared in last week’s Cape Breton Star called “ No Cake Walk.” It’s the tale of a trip I took to Iona a few years ago to deliver a three tiered wedding cake. When I look back, I think that was when my hair officially started falling out.

The rabbit story is in the final edit stage. “ A Hare Raising Experience” is Phoebe’s story and how she passed through a few set of owners before settling in with the current owners who keep the rabbit ( wait for this )…. in the bathroom.

It’s shaping up to be a nasty weekend but should be excellent story writing weather.

Have a great weekend and best of luck to Candace on her wedding day. Betty and I were married the day after a hurricane. We survived that storm ( and a few others along the way! ).

Posted on July 1, 2014 under News & Updates with 2 comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY CANADA DAY FROM WEEK45

Posted on June 30, 2014 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Me and Constable Mike McKenna at the Antigonish Art fair

 

 

The picture above was taken just a few minutes before the opening ceremony at the Antigonish Art Fair last Friday at Chisholm Park. It was beautiful evening and a large crowd enjoyed a multi cultural evening of entertainment and food. The star attraction, though, was the local art community. Approximately 30 artists were on hand to showcase their works. There will be four more events in this series. The next one is Friday, July 11^th. during Highland Games week. Come and join us and stop by to say hello. I will once again be the emcee for the show.

I enjoy going to the Farmer’s Market. I rarely buy anything but I like having a coffee and just chatting with folks. It is the quintessential meeting place. I never fail to get a new story idea. So, I was at the Market last Saturday and this lady I know stops by the picnic table where I’m sitting. She’s carrying a large bag of beautiful “fresh from the garden” carrots and an abundance of greens. I was admiring the haul and was surprised to find out that this harvest was not for human consumption. It was for her ”foster rabbit.” I’m not making up this next part. The rabbit lives in her house… in the bathroom. I don’t remember too much more of the conversation as I started to write the story in my head.

I often wonder if I’ll run out of story ideas. I don’t think so.

I need just one more person to sign up to bring me to 500 “likes’ on my Week45 Facebook page. I am told that this is a milestone for a business. I am going to offer to write a story for lucky #500.

Tomorrow is Canada Day and I hope you will take time to think about how lucky you are to live in this great country. It is difficult to watch the atrocities in the Middle East where there seems to be little respect for life,  among the fanatics.

And speaking of being grateful, I, for one, am very grateful to live in Antigonish. I think it is one of the most amazing small towns in Canada.

My “gratitude jar” is officially half full. ( The pessimists would say half empty! ). Every day for the past six months, I have written a small note at the end of the day, expressing my gratefulness for something, and have deposited it in a jar. It doesn’t have to be something profound. I know one entry was expressing gratitude for a lemon meringue pie that was given to me by M.F.

Can you believe that it was 33 years ago on June 28^th. that one of our national heroes died? Terry Fox continues to inspire us. We all know people who are struggling with cancer today.

Please. No whining unless you have something serious to whine about. The weather doesn’t count.

Happy Canada Day to all of you.