Posted on December 11, 2014 under Thursday Tidbits with one comment

I’m a basket case when it comes to sweets

    And so it begins. Two weeks and counting until the big day and temptations abound. This is kind of a lousy time of the year to stop eating sweets, but let’s face it, there’s no good time if you have a sweet tooth. I might take a serious run at this gift basket on Christmas Day. Luckily the temptation will go away on Boxing Day when my son, Peter and I head out on our big transcontinental trip.

It didn’t take long to get feedback on yesterday’s story called “Just Ask a Woman.” It sounds like I am preaching to the converted. Most women have intuitions that don’t require expensive surveys, especially when it comes to children.

I mentioned the other day that I was working on some new stories. This is hardly startling because I’m always working on new material. So, when was the last time you thought about your spleen, or your toenails? How about a molar, your kneecap or your sacroiliac? We rarely think about body parts until something goes wrong with one of them. In other words, we take our bodies for granted. Like many others of my ilk, I spent summers as a child at the beach, long before it was fashionable to wear sunscreen. I played golf for the better part of 45 years and was exposed to harmful rays of the sun, especially with a depleted ozone. As a result, I accumulated some skin related problems over the years and ended up under the care of a dermatologist in Halifax. “Skin in The Game” is a lighthearted look at a fairly serious subject.

I will be signing books once again this Saturday from 10:00- 1:00 at the 5 to $1.00. Now I know full well that not all of you are Scots and don’t object to paying sales tax. For those of you who do, you can also buy books directly from me and save yourself a wee bit of tax. Just give me a call at 902-870-1125. Don’t you love having to add the 902 when dialing? You’d think we lived in New York. I mean, our population is dropping. If anything we should be eliminating a digit or two.  There was a day we used to call the operator and give a two digit number to get in touch with a friend.

Stay tuned for “Deck Orations” this weekend and coming up next week is “Taking Its Toll.”

Have a great weekend.

Posted on December 4, 2014 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

PLEASE JOIN ME THIS EVENING AT PEOPLE’S PLACE LIBRAY AT 7:00 P.M. FOR THE LAUNCH OF MY NEW BOOK:

“WEEK45: FAMILY, FRIENDS AND FOIBLES”

REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED.

Posted on November 20, 2014 under Thursday Tidbits with one comment

The diet starts…. today

 

 

“The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,” according to the gospel of Mark ( 14:38 ) . I easily fall into this category. The picture above reflects my total lack of willpower. It is the last dessert I will consume until Christmas. When you’re on vacation, the temptation to eat sweets is pretty powerful. The only good news is that I shared this enormous chocolate fudge sundae with Betty.

Some final observations about our trip to Florida. Americans know how to do client service and it’s not just an isolated event. They are in a ferociously competitive market so pricing and service is everything. I now have a better appreciation of the challenges facing the tourism industry in the Maritimes. Gas , food and lodging is very cheap in the U.S. The Americans must get quite a shock when they cross the border. Combine this with the lingering effects of 9/11 and you have a perfect storm for people trying to make a living in this industry.

I am reluctant to say this because I avoid controversy like stir fried tofu but I continue to be perplexed by the gun culture south of the border. We were eating in a nice restaurant and the hostess was chatting it up with us. Not sure how we got on the subject but she was incensed that she had received a ticket for having her handgun on the dash of her car while transporting her young daughter.  Sorry, but I just don’t get it.

Did you observe “world toilet day” yesterday? When I first heard about it, I thought it was a joke so I went looking to “get to the bottom of this.” Turns out that there is day with this name and it was instituted last year by the United Nations General Assembly to address sanitation in third world countries. This is no laughing matter. Good sanitation is one of the many things we take for granted.

I have a new retirement strategy…  besides lottery tickets. Just about every day of our vacation, there would be someone out on the beach with a metal detector and a sieve looking for coins and other priceless treasure. Some of these guys spend hours upon hours walking back and forth. Conceivably they could walk all the way to Louisiana. Think I’ll give it a hook next year. If I don’t come back, you’ll know that it worked.

I’m working on a few new stories. We have very good friends from Scotland that we see every year at the resort. Neil is quite the story teller and he regaled me with a tale of him and two buddies who went on a day trip to Orlando. They had a car rental. It didn’t have GPS nor did any of them have a particularly good sense of direction. Of course they got lost and ended up at the front gates of Disney. ( I did this myself last year and understand completely their consternation. ) It was when they went to fuel up the rental that things got crazy. They couldn’t find the mechanism that releases the gas cap. I’m still searching for a name but “Petrol Panic” might do the trick. Coming soon.

Have a great day.

P.S.  A few people have contacted me about my new book. These are people who want to come to the launch but will be out of town that day. ( Can’t imagine how something else could be more important! ). So if you simply can’t wait until December 4^th. ( 3^rd. in Port Hawkesbury ), you can pick up a copy at Brendan’s Fairway. You can track me down and I will sign them. Good Christmas present and reasonably priced at $20.