Category Family
Ghost At The Door
Families frequently have secrets. Sometimes not even deliberate ones. Once upon a time of my mother’s “secrets” scared me. Or should that be scarred me? In the summer of 1967, when I was 11 years old, my family lived in Montreal. It was Canada’s centennial year and the centrepiece of the celebrations was Expo ’67, […]
The Truth About Cats
To say I have a love/hate relationship with my daughter’s cats would be an overstatement. It’s not really that extreme most of the time, though I do think they would be very tasty if barbecued. The black and white one might as well be brain dead, he is too stupid to come inside out of […]
The Last Holdout
When the National Hockey League locked out its players at the start of the 2012-13 season I was annoyed. And not just because billionaire owners were having trouble coming to terms with millionaire players. I was annoyed that they would wait until almost the beginning of the season to begin contract negotiations. These people don’t […]
NewYear’s Eve
It’s the end of a year. Time to reflect. What was good about 2015? What wasn’t? I’ll be spending New Year’s Eve like I have every New Year’s for the past 28 years or so, getting together with a small group of friends to talk about the year and pray for each other. We actually […]
Christmas Tree Decorations
The Christmas tree seems to be a little more lopsided than usual this year. Ordinarily I would say that was my fault. The division of labour in my family is that I get the tree and ornaments out of storage, set up the tree and attach the lights. My wife and children then place the […]
They Ate Their Horses
I published this post on Remembrance Day last year, but wanted to publish it again because for me it brings the First World War home personally. Today we remember. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the guns fell silent. The bloodiest war in human history to […]
Small Town Medicine
Hospitals are not my favourite places, neither to be in nor to visit. I’m not a fan of being sick, nor spending much time with sick people. For the most part, with my family and friends being healthy, I manage to avoid hospitals. I’ve convinced myself that when someone does get sick they really don’t […]
The Waiting Room
I’ve been in this room at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute before; at least I think it was the same one. Seven years ago. Waiting for the heart surgeon conducting my mother’s operation to come and tell me how it went. That was a long day. Her surgery began at 8 a.m., and it […]
My Mother is Politically Incorrect.
It may have something to do with her age. My mother is 87 after all. As we get older we seem to lose some of our filters. We say things that we might have only thought but not said when we were younger and perhaps more concerned with other people’s opinions. Mind you, I don’t […]
Back To Mer Bleue
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, the leaves haven’t changed colour yet, and we had an hour between engagements, so we headed back to Mer Bleue. Last Sunday we had walked one of the forest trails. Yesterday, with less available time, we chose the boardwalk that goes over a marsh and peat bog. It was […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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