Valentine’s Days – Fiftyish

The Car Guy and I recently celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary. If you count this Valentine's Day, and the ones before we were married, we have participated in Valentine's Day observations more than 50 times! But 50 is a such a nice round number to talk about, so here are my thoughts about this epic …

My 52 Friends Plan for Retirement

We lived overseas (UK and the Middle East) for 5 1/2 years. When  it was time to return home to Canada, we were entering a new phase of life - we were retirees! It was a leap of faith. We could only guess whether our new economic situation was going to be adequate in a …

Saying Goodbye to The Fisherman

I recently read the book "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory" by Caitlin Doughty. It is a witty and thought provoking look at the history of caring for the dead and how the process has been sanitized by today's funeral industry. The author explains the process of cremation in some …

Lest We Forget

Calgary's Field of Crosses Each year, from November 1 to 11, over 3400 Memorial Crosses are placed in a park along Calgary's Memorial Drive. Each cross represents a soldier from Southern Alberta who died in active duty during Conflicts and Peacekeeping Missions from 1899 to the Present. The Car Guy and I walked the length …

Not a Sweet Tooth – a Chocolate Tooth

I started my Not Fueled by Chocolate Diet and Exercise program in April of this year. Six months into the project - I've come to the realization that it is going to take a lot longer than six months to achieve my goal! That means I still can't have a stash of dark chocolate in …

Where is Your Codex Vitae?

Is Codex Vitae a technical term for a part of your body or does it sound like a disease?  To answer that, I'm going to start you with Twitter, drag you through YouTube, and deposit you in a Book. Twitter - What do you Seek? Twitter receives a lot of criticism, but like everything else …

Canadian Thanksgiving

Canadian Thanksgiving is today (the second Monday in October).  It is a celebration of thanks for a good harvest - and it occurs earlier in the fall than American Thanksgiving because Canada's climate is colder and our harvests end earlier. At least, our farmers hope they end earlier, but the early snow we've had here …

Dark Days

It comes with no warning. Days of being sad. Energy tank on empty. Dark, dreary, heavy days. Overwhelmed. Too much, too many. I've been down this road many times before. It always passes. It is seasonal or hormonal or just being sad. It isn't depression, but it is a gift that helps me to understand …

Ghost – Looking for Puppy Faces

Puppy Faces Today - our Daughter and her Husband got a dog! Puppy Faces Before the Dog Came Along: Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. - Winnie the Pooh (by A.A. Milne) - Six years ago I wrote a post called …

Upside to Absent-mindedness

For some reason there is a malfunction, some disconnect, between my imaginary hello and, well, my actual hello... Just know this: if you have ever passed me in the hall and I appeared to ignore you, it actually wasn't like that at all... - Stuart McLean, The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks - An imaginary hello. Yes, …