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