The real tragedy of funerals, of course, is that the guest of honour doesn’t get to enjoy all the familial good times. On April 11th, my grandmother died. It was one of those unexpected-expected deaths: you kind of knew it was coming, someday, but you didn’t know it was going to be today.
Two days ago, at about 8:30 in the morning, my mom called me at work. It took me a few seconds to recognize her voice; she sounded very, very down. Before she said it, I knew what she was going to tell me. My grandmother had gone into the hospital the night before. Now Mom was …
Love, Ol’ Number One
To: The local rock radio station Hi guys, Ok, I think it’s official now. I’ve heard “The Black Parade” often enough for one lifetime. Time for you to find another song to overplay till I automatically switch stations on hearing its first few bars. To: The great toe on my right foot Look, it’s been, what, three …
Easter found us at my inlaws’ farm, enjoying a chilly spring day with my wife, her parents, and her sister and her family. Mr. M, who is two and a half (if I recall correctly), entertained us all, especially with his hoarse and throaty shout-out to a ceramic Cookie Monster figurine. (“Coooooooookie Monster!”, quoth the …
For my birthday, my darling wife bought me Lego Star Wars (the original series one) for our PC. She also bought a second joystick so we can play the game together. I tried it out last night. I sat down to play for 20 minutes while I waited for a TV show to start. Two hours …
We’re getting Hollywood snow right now. Big, fat, fluffy flakes, the kind that look like they’re made in a tank on the back lot and sprayed over the guy and girl in a midnight kiss at the end of a Christmas-themed romantic comedy. Fade to black, roll credits.
We got quite the dumping in the last couple days. Not as much as those Newfoundlanders that had to first find their cars, then dig ‘em out, but still, we got a fair amount of snow.
Calgary We arrived in Calgary about suppertime, and found S & J’s house without too much difficulty. They live in a relatively new part of town, and there are a lot (a lot) of streets in the area that start with “Valley”. Both of them had taken Monday off, and so we would have two …
Sometime before Christmas, my darling wife went online, to the VIA Rail website. She punched in some dates, a starting point and a destination, and said “Show me the monkey!”* Then she said, “Holy crap, it’s cheaper to take the train to Edmonton than it is to fly! Even on Westjet!” So she ordered up …