Category Family
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 […]
Another Sunday Stroll
I have occasionally rhapsodized here about the joy of living in Ottawa with its hundreds of kilometres of walking trails and who knows how many hectares of urban forest. Okay, somebody knows the exact numbers for both but I’m not going to look it up. I was raised with acres, I have no idea how […]
September Again
It has been the same ritual every September. I ask my daughter how her first day of school went. It may It have been good, it may have been indifferent, but she always manages to tell me “I hate school.” For eighteen straight Septembers that was our ritual. Until last year. Suddenly she was excited […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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