Musings
About retirement… and random other things!
These blogs first appear as weekly columns in the Red Deer Advocate
My service dog has special needs
I wholeheartedly agreed when my daughter approached me with the idea of training her own service dog. She would benefit so much from having a service dog, I thought, and just committing to the responsibility for its training would be beneficial. I imagined the dog leading my autistic adult daughter onto a bus, making their way together to a park...
Well supplied by Canada
I was absently eating my bowl of crunchy granola one morning when the box on the table in front of me caught my attention. Might sound strange to have a box on my table as a matter of course, but I seem to live among an array of goods and supplies for the various projects underway in and out of my condo. Everything is at the ready to grab and go,...
Dogs are marking new territory
The backyard wrestling came to a quick halt when my dog and I had to sit, stay, and watch the drone hoovering overhead. Right, I remembered, the Condo Board said they would be using a drone to determine the state of everyone’s roof shingles. Pretty nifty way of doing things – saves someone going up and down the ladder to the roof of each condo, I...
Pounding the heck out of this retirement thing
There are substantial amounts of dossiers declaring the neuroscience behind the premise that many of us are getting retirement all wrong, and they are very convincing. We are addicted to being busy, we haven’t deprogrammed our ‘achiever brain’, we are caught in a usefulness trap. I’ve been pouring over this type of article a lot lately and have...
What I learned while couch surfing
I’ve found myself freeloading with my friends and family quite a bit lately. They politely call it visiting, and we did all share our usual great chat and fun outing at each location. Whatever the term, these sleepovers uncovered a phenomenon that was unbeknownst to me in these various relationships that I’ve held most of my life. A glimpse into...
Thinking of Joan this Seniors Week
It was so great running into Joan. I had been watching for her for a few weeks, since I didn’t have the opportunity to stop and chat last time I caught a glimpse of her. Today, though, the slight and elderly lady stood in the sun with her usual smile. There was a lot of traffic zooming by her in the hectic parking lot, but she had lots of space....
Protect your attention
When I was scrolling through the e-affirmations that arrive in my inbox each morning, I glanced down the usual reminders about living in the moment and grabbing an attitude of gratitude. I stopped at one prompt on the list I hadn’t ever seen before. It read ‘Protect your Attention.’ My attention immediately went to the guy in the truck who honked...
There’s no place like home
You know that heart-pull feeling of nostalgia you get when you think about your childhood home? Or the deep stare you cast its way if you happen to be able to drive by it? I recently had the chance to step right inside my mom’s childhood home and I found myself absorbed in every room, imagining her as a young child and teenager in that very...
I thought I was having a nice time
I took on a freelance project for a school division south of Calgary recently and had enjoyed my time interviewing students and visiting schools. I checked into the hotel and asked around for a place to have dinner, deciding on a small locally owned Mexican restaurant. They brought my beer and I got a headstart on the next day’s work by going...