Posted on April 7, 2014 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Masters Week

 

 

It’s my favorite sports event to watch on television. If you are a golfer, or a former golfer ( like me ), there’s nothing like watching The Masters golf tournament. I will go out on a limb: my two choices for a winner are Adam Scott ( in the picture above ) or Matt Kuchar.

I have great news. Bernice MacDonald, photographer extraordinaire, has been added to the program for the fundraiser on the 24^th. She will be showing some of her amazing photos up on the big screen. And one lucky person will receive one of her photos. You will be able to choose the one you want. There will be other door prizes as well.

Five of us gathered at the Prissy Pig on Saturday and swapped stories for an hour. It was a great time. Everybody has so many stories to share. We all agreed on the importance of writing some of this down for posterity. It seems that everything is so fast and fleeting these days. We are blitzed with snippets of information that pass across our screens and are relegated to  “trash.”  I am planning to have another get together at the end of the month.

Speaking of stories, I have two that are fresh off the press. The first one is true. Let me clarify. The circumstances surrounding the story are true. I still don’t know how the story “officially” ended so I concocted my own. A couple travelling home from Calgary for a family emergency, arrived at the airport in Halifax. The instructions were to pick up a vehicle that had been left in the parking garage with the keys under the gas cap. They managed to do this and travelled to the family home in Pictou county. One small problem.  They took the wrong vehicle!  Seriously. The story is called “Taken For a Ride.”

Do you have any idea what a $1200 phone bill in 1976 would equate to today?  Apply an annual inflation rate of 3% over 38 years.  I will tell you the answer but you’ll have to read the story “ Wrong Number” to find out. When I started my teaching career in the fall of 1976 in the Peace River country of Alberta, I had a two bedroom apartment. For the first month, five other guys lived with me. Two of them had serious relationships with women back east. There was no Skype, texting or e-mail back then. The phone was it. Find out what happened when the first phone bill arrived.

Here’s a new fundraising idea. You host a party at your house. I will be the guest. I will bring some stories and my guitar. You collect a donation from every person who shows up. We donate the money to the Hot Meal program. If anyone is game to try it, let me know.

Easter is fast approaching and if you’re looking for gift ideas, I have two: you could buy tickets for the fundraiser or you could get a personally autographed copy of my book to give to a friend or relative.

I submitted 54 stories to my book editor on the weekend so we are officially off and running with book #2.

Have a great week.

P.S.  Take a look at this Youtube video by JP Cormier and consider how lucky you are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq0X0bwMprQ#t=151

 

Posted on March 31, 2014 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

FREE BREAKFAST

 

 

Breakfast at Tiffany’s ?  Hardly.

No. Your eyes are not deceiving you. You will have an opportunity to sit and shoot the breeze with me this Saturday ( 5^th. )  at the Prissy Pig at 10:00 a.m. and have a chance to get your breakfast for free. I frequent the PP on Saturdays from time to time. I take the NY Times crossword puzzle from the Saturday Herald with me and enjoy the buffet. I thought it might be fun to sit around and talk about story ideas. If more than one person shows up, I will pick a name and the winner gets their breakfast for free. If no one shows up, I save myself $10. Either way, I can’t lose!

Speaking of stories, I have been in discussions with my book editor, Clare and the wheels are in motion for my second book. The timeline will be the same as last year. I plan to have the book printed and ready to go by early November with an official launch in December. I haven’t thought of a title yet. If you come up with something that I end up using, you will receive a fabulous prize… maybe a signed copy of the first book off the presses.

I saw something recently about “new math.” Do you remember back in the late 60’s and early 70’s , all the rumbling about new math?  What in the hell was wrong with the old math? I remember when my own children were in school.  Assisting with math could be intensely frustrating. I admit clinging to the past when it comes to certain things and math is one of them. Luckily, the good Sisters pounded the times tables into my head so that I can still do mental arithmetic and calculate percentages with relative ease. Younger people may wonder why I would get my knickers in a knot when a simple click on a mobile device can give them all the answers they need. I guess it’s not so much as getting the right answer as it is about making the old brain work. Have you ever wondered if technology went down for a few days?  Most people would not be able to function.

I thought I would have a bit of fun at the expense of “new math” so I wrote a story called, “ It Doesn’t Add Up.”

Still in the lineup are the following stories: “ Everything You Wanted to Know About “ ( my take on sex education ); “Grin and Barrett” ( The MacDonald family’s impromptu visit with the premier of B.C. in 1973 );  “Making a Difference” ( how one person can change the atmosphere in a room ); “Travels With Tony” ( a tribute to a great friend from Alberta who passed away recently).

Hope you have a great week and keep your antennae up tomorrow. It’s April Fools Day. Don’t let anybody fool you into believing that it’s Spring.

 

 

Posted on March 24, 2014 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Me and David Duval

 

 

Back to reality. It is so nice to see the snow again and to know that a major storm is coming our way on Wednesday.

Can one person make a difference? Absolutely. Last Thursday when I was leaving Florida, I saw one person single handedly change the atmosphere in the departure lounge at the airport. We all know what it’s like when our vacation is over and we have to face the reality of going back home to work and cold weather…. especially if it’s an early morning flight. Multiply that by a couple of hundred passengers and you get the picture. A man who was running a newsstand was like a bolt of unbridled joy. I was his first customer of the day and I haven’t experienced anything like this in some time. Coming up soon, “Making a Difference.”

Have you ever walked up to the front door of a sitting Premier’s house and asked to
enter to have a beer and sing some songs? I didn’t think so. But that’s exactly what happened one Victoria Day ( the holiday ) in Victoria ( the city ) British Columbia. Political science junkies will remember that Dave Barrett was the Premier at the time. My father was out for a visit and a me and a few of my siblings took him to the Victoria Day parade. Mr. Barrett was the parade marshal. Well one thing led to another and before we knew it , we were on the Premier’s doorstep. What happened next will surprise you. It certainly surprised us! “Grin and Barrett” will be published soon.

I still have two other stories in the lineup for editing. “Everything You Wanted to Know About” is my take on sex education…then and now. Any seven year old with access to a computer can find out more on the subject in 5 minutes than many of us learned in our teenage years. Both of these scenarios are disturbing for very different reasons.

Attention people of Scottish origin. “ Right Up Yer Kilt” is a story about a golf trip to North Carolina to a high end golf resort. You have every reason to wonder what I was doing at such a place. You’ll have to read the story to find out. The last night of the trip, we were having dinner in their signature five star restaurant. I was wearing my kilt. I was with seven “type A” lawyers from Vancouver and … there was alcohol involved. I’m sure you could write the story with this limited amount of information.

Peter and I had a great time in Florida watching the pros play at Bay Hill ( golf ). I gave Adam Scott a few pointers on Wednesday before official play began! He went out and shot a course record tying 62 the next day. I was impressed at how he handled the throngs of autograph seekers. I also had a brief chat with David Duval after he finished his practice round last Monday. Non- golfers won’t find this the least bit interesting be he is one of a very small number of professional golfers (4) to have ever shot a 59 in competition. ( for 18 holes ). I told him about my 59 which I shot for 9 holes at the age of 10. He had a good chuckle.

Golfing should begin again soon around here… once they remove a foot or so of snow from the course.

Have a great week.