Dec 1/ 2025

 Hey. You know when you have that dream about being on a filthy construction cite, the building is huge and you have to get to the other end but you are in bare feet and there is so much dust on the floor you can't tell where the nails, pieces of scrap metal cuttings and broken glass shards are, there is only one option, you have to wake yourself up. Now that you're up you decide to go down stairs to use the washroom. I mentioned you're up, but you haven't fully recovered from night brain. You feel cold but it is the middle of the night in early December, it should be cold, maybe not this cold ,but it should be cold. There's absolutely no light in the house, not even the glow usually present from the digital electronic devices. That's when you realize it's so cold because the power has been out for the last few hours. This is not a good start  to the day but you're not going to turn back now, besides, now you've worked up a real need for that washroom. You've navigated this same set of stairs at least 4 or 5 times a day for the last 45 years, you can do this in your sleep. Oh, really? There's two things you can do in your sleep, one is dream, the other is sleep. You step out to probe with your foot, your heel barely catches the first nosing and your foot makes a kamikaze dive to the next tread and your toes hit in the position of a ballerina on point, except you're not wearing the shoes. Wow! The pain streaks through your ankle, up your shin, and into your knee, causing it to buckle. You are now in a swan dive toward the bottom of the stairs. This happens faster than good old Roy Rogers can draw his six shooter. Funny, even as a little kid I got suspicious after his 9th or 10th or 15th or 16th shot during those gun battles. Even at this speed your brain surprisingly has some time to ponder coming results. There are decisions to be made. You quickly decide which tread to choose to plant your hands on to slow your decent. You've chosen wrong, your body is way too far forward when your hands hit the tread. This is when Albert's equation comes to mind and you calculate how much force, the mass of your head, at the velocity it's travelling, is going to be produced when hitting that concrete basement floor. The answer is not good! Your brain is still working at super sonic speed when you remember the broken noses you suffered as a wee child. You remember them using...wait for it...Ether!, to put you under while doing an ok job on your nose, and , and, I broke it 3 times in 6 weeks. There's no way this nose is going to hit first, you snap your head to the side and sacrifice your cheek. Hey, at least the concrete is carpeted. Turns out , all that one quarter inch of pile does is add a rug burn to the injuries. Do you remember what it felt like when your face hit that floor? Yeah...me neither, but it could happen.

Loved

November 1 2025

 Happy November to all.

Last night was the annual give candy to the kids who come to the door night. We had 42 kids visit, 4 of which are next door neighbors, two to the west and two to the east. We had planned for fifty so there's hardly anything left for me. There was a pack of 8 teenagers I'm not sure you would be comfortable opening your door to them any other night of the year. We had the usual princesses, spidermen, mutant ninja turtles, ghosts, witches and goblins and a few I'm not too sure what, or who they were, and one 6 foot cat in the hat I'm pretty sure was a parent. That was a pretty good idea because then your kid doesn't have to suffer from a dad or mom tax.

I am looking forward to the end of the month when Mike, Len, Rob and I are flying up to Calgary for a get together with Lou and Marty. It will be the second time this year the six of us will be together as we were together for the golf tournament in September. Marty has come to Regina on his own this year as well, five out of six is a great time too. 

Loved

October 1 2025

The school year is a month old now and I have a new purpose in life. Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I can look forward to driving to the site of my old high school, Campion College, to pick up Beata from her classes. I am driving her to dance class each day for now. Once her dance classes are finished I will be driving her home from school, where with any luck I will run into one or two or three of the other kids. They all have busy lives now so it's a bonus when we get to see them. 

The garden is pretty much done for the year I have some harvesting and cleaning up to do before it rests for winter. I may draw out some plans for next years planting while this years garden layout is still in my head. I make a few changes every year so now is a good time to plan. 

That's all for now

Loved 

September 1 / 2025

 It was a beautiful day on August 30 as a large group of family gathered at the Kedleston Cemetery to bury Tony's ashes. The celebration was very touching, after a number of stories were shared about Tony, the family members each touched the urn, to leave a fingerprint of the lives he had touched, before it was lowered to it's resting place. Then we each took turns shoveling the dirt before Cory replaced the grass patch. After the cemetery we drove five minutes to Jason and Didi Holt's property at Kedleston Beach and enjoyed a great afternoon with family. It was one of those moments that will live forever in our memories.

Loved

August 1/2025

 Happy August 1st.

We have a big event to look forward to at the end of August. A farewell to Tony on August 29th at the Kedleston Cemetery. It's going to be a good month .

Loved

Happy Canada Day!

 It's a beautiful morning to start off Canada Day. We are looking forward to a great month, the upcoming weekend is the annual get together Len and Kelly host and we are expecting guests from away!

 I expect to get out in the garden today and do some yard work. It seems like I've been raking every day in June. Mother nature is quite the lady, she will lay down a blanket so thick it could smother the fires of hell and then coat the earth to mimic the clouds of heaven. Of course, if you're an atheist, it's just Manchurian Elm seeds and Poplar fuzz.

Have a great Canadian month

Loved

June 1 / 2025

 Some of my neighbors joke about me having the cleanest driveway on the block. I have a good snow shovel but it doesn't get all the snow so I sweep what it doesn't pick up. During spring summer and fall I sweep the leaves and berries that fall from the neighbors trees. Now I keep it extra clean on purpose, I can hear the Mrs. Kravitzs on the block telling their husbands, "Ed's out sweeping his driveway again". One time I was getting ready to put a coating on it and to get the best bond I was using a shop vac to clean it. The neighbor from across the street came over and said, "Ed, we don't mind you sweeping your driveway to keep it clean but we have to draw the line at vacuuming." It was a great line, a good laugh. The truth is I enjoy cleaning my driveway, it's meditative for me, in the winter I clean two others on  a regular basis and a third when the neighbors are away. When I was laid up for 42 days after exploratory surgery on my kidney in early January I figured I would just have one of those driveways that people just drive on and pack down three or four inches of snow. I was pleasantly surprised to look out one day to see my neighbor shoveling the snow for me. They actually kept it clear for me until I was able to exert myself again.

Loved

May 1 / 2025

I met Pat McCashin 30 years ago, summer of the year dad died. He was doing a job for a friend of mine at the time and was looking for someone to help him with the job. I was unemployed at the time and needed the work. He went to Campion high school so he knew of Tony and Lui and it turns out his sister Peggy and Marie are best friends. We became a team for 27 years, and a good one, he never advertised, all our work was from word of mouth. We worked for six of the top home builders in the city on a regular basis and others when we were available. If his wife hadn't retired in 2022 we might still be working, he still gets calls. We became great friends. So when he called me yesterday to help him pick up lumber for his deck I was happy to do it. He didn't expect me to stick around and help but I was happy to. By lunch time we were finished the portion of the deck he was hoping to finish that day. I suggested we go for lunch and then pick up some more lumber. By 2:30 I was putting the saws away as he was driving the last screws. I can't say we weren't tired, I'm only 74 but he's 77. It was a great day. 

Just in case you're wondering, I still have 8 fingers and both thumbs. They're all full length too.

Loved

April 1 / 2025

 It has been said, "Beware the ides of March", but I say, watch out for April 1st. It is a good idea to hermit until noon. I don't know if 'hermit' has ever been used as a verb before, I'm trying to set up a thread for this entry. "When I first wake in the mourning I feel like I'm 18 years old, it's only when I try to get out of bed I feel my real age." I like that saying but I can't take credit for it because I know it was spoken by grandma Antonini a few years ago when I was still a teenager. She would have been in her 70 s when she said that, I know how she felt, I wonder if she had heard it somewhere. So, when Jessica asked us for advice for her gift for Rob's 60th birthday I had to think hard. First of all, Rob is doing pretty well to be taking advice from me but I tried to think of advice I'd heard through the years. The 'Golden Rule' is the first thing I thought of, the Bible tells us the man himself, Jesus Christ spoke it. However, it takes only a little digging to find out, some guy from China, who went by the name Confucius, said it a mere 400 or 500 years before Christ. Then I thought maybe a few thousand years before that some cave mother, while cooking up some saber tooth tiger ribs, saw her son punching his little sister, grabbed him by the hair and said "how would you like it if somebody was punching you". Then I wondered if that's how male patterned baldness started as evolution's way of protecting men in battle. Whoa! I better stop digging, I'm getting deep in this rabbit hole.

Loved

March 1 / 2025

 Down by the station

Early in the morning

See the little puffer bellies

All in a row

See the engine driver

Turn the little handle

Puff puff toot toot

Off we go

We have lost another puffer belly, our train is getting shorter

Rest in peace and love Mary Ellen

Loved

February 1 2025

 Another winter month over and I can truly say I'm looking forward to brighter days.

Loved

January 1 2025 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy birthdays to Chris and Carol.

Years ago our brother Rob decided to walk over to Tony's to visit him every Sunday, then the rest of us here in Regina joined him and we named it our "Church". We continue the practice to this day. I usually drive to Len's and we walk to meet Mike and Rob on the way to Len's and we walk back to Len's together. We then visit for a few hours before going home. The final Sunday of 2024 we decided to take "Church" on the road!

It was 5:20 a.m. when Rob turned his truck onto Wilkie Road, I walked out on to the street to save the few seconds it would take to pull in and out of the driveway. Within seconds I was in the truck seated and belted in, you might say I was excited, you'd be right. We were out of the neighborhood and heading west on the Trans Canada by 5:30. The sky was so clear we could have been like the early explorers and used the stars to guide us, we had Siri "Turn left in 644 kilometers". We made a pit stop in Swift Current for a necessary break and to pick up tastier drinks than water to go with the 16 sandwiches and bucket of goodies Len had packed us for the trip. "You knuckleheads done? Turn left in 400 kilometers". We didn't pay much attention to Siri after that. It was 12:20 when we pulled into the drive at Marty's house in Calgary. It wasn't long before the 4 of us were in the lobby of the Sky Point Hospice and as we were signing in our nephew Martin greeted us and a minute later we were at the bedside of our sister Mary Ellen. She had warned us after our hugs and kisses that she could fall asleep at anytime and it would be quick. Memories shared and laughter made for a terrific visit. We had been visiting for a good 40 minutes before the nurse came in with some medication, we decided to hug our goodbyes then visit until she dropped off. A few seconds after Marty gave her the last hug her eyes drooped, I didn't even get "are you falling asleep" out before a quiet "yep". She had warned us, it was sudden, she was sleeping. The goodbyes turned out to be perfect timing, as she would text me the next day "perfectly orchestrated by someone bigger than us". That's Mary Ellen. We hugged Martin goodbye and at 1:35 we signed out of the hospice. We headed to Lou and Marie's for a short visit, Marie had made us a fresh Caesar salad to go along with some pizza Lou had ordered in. We drove Marty home and by 3:30 we were back on the road. We didn't see a single snowflake on the highway or in the air on the way to Calgary or on the way back home. We had a wee bit of fog as we neared Regina and at 10:45 I pulled into the driveway at 14 Wilkie Road. We couldn't have had a better trip. 

We always enjoy church but this was by far the best church of 2024.

Loved 

P.S. We finished the sandwiches around 9:30 p.m. we didn't get through the bucket of treats though.