Monday Morning Musings
Posted on September 9, 2019 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet
The aftermath of Dorian
Mea Culpa.
I want to start off with an apology, something for which Canadians are famous. Mostly we apologize for trivial things but every once in a while, a full blown, heartfelt apology is warranted. I mentioned in this column last week that I was a flawed human being. It didn’t take me any time to prove this once again as recently as yesterday.
Hurricane Dorian caused massive destruction and claimed countless lives, especially in the Bahamas. Occasionally our Maritime humour gets in the way of common sense and good judgment. I cannot take credit for this but someone re-arranged the letters of Dorian and came up with donair and referred to the storm as Hurricane Donair. I thought this was funny and did a post on Facebook showing the picture of a donair. It didn’t take long for a few people to call me out on my insensitivity mentioning the devastation and loss of life. There is nothing trivial about a hurricane. I immediately took the post down and apologized to the people I offended.
Two of my siblings have cottages. Yesterday, my brother and I decided to spend the night down by the ocean. We packed up some supplies and went down in advance of the storm to batten down the hatches. When we arrived late afternoon, the hurricane was starting to make its presence felt. The surf was up, trees were down and the power was off.
Miraculously, the power came on just at the start of the U.S. Open women’s final. We munched on storm snacks and watched Bianca Andreescu battle legendary tennis figure, Serena Williams. We were able to watch for about an hour and were not surprised when the power went out again, this time for good.
My brother was able to get the game on radio. Have you ever listened to a tennis game on radio? Neither have I. It is not quite as gripping as Danny Gallivan or Foster Hewitt calling a hockey game on a Sunday night back in the 60s. Correction. It was very gripping and intense. Especially in candlelight. One of the beauties of radio is that you are forced to use your imagination which is not such a bad thing from time to time. The monotony of the sound of a tennis ball bouncing from one side of the court to the other was interrupted by frequent roars. With a pro-American crowd, you always knew when Serena won a point.
Bianca prevailed and in true Canadian fashion, apologised for winning! “I know you guys wanted Serena to win, so I’m sorry.”
I’m in the final throes of having my fifth book published. There was a glitch with the cover forcing me and my team to go back to the drawing board. I hope to have a new prototype in my hands by the end of the week and if all goes well, I should have hard copies available later in the month or on line through Amazon. The book is called: “Eat, Sleep and Walk: Stories From the Camino”.
One of the more astonishing things that happened during the hurricane was receiving an e-transfer for Simone. I had my cell phone charged up and could still communicate with the outside world. This latest donation brings the total to over $7,600. I am extremely grateful to all of you and I know Simone and her family are humbled by your generosity.
Have a great week.
Comments