Musings
About retirement… and random other things!
These blogs first appear as weekly columns in the Red Deer Advocate
Making writing accessible
Image by BillionPhotos on Freepik I used to think it was only writers who were extra aware of the different markets that welcomed us in, but I’m coming to know that readers also share that priority. Readers have supported independently-published books for a long time now, so that’s not new. What is new (or new to me, at least) are the number of...
Small boxes of cookies, big buckets of memories
How many boxes of Girl Guide cookies have you eaten so far this spring? Don’t you love the moment you answer the door and realize it’s that special time of year, when you get to debate which is best – the chocolate or the vanilla. Or, for you outsiders, if this year’s supply will be those peppermint flavoured ones. Those ones are always a slight...
Is donating a Kindle odd?
I seldom re-read a book and I don’t like to accumulate things, so I jumped on the early days of kindle to ‘stock my bookshelf’ without adding things to dust. I now read a combination of gifted books, some borrowed from the library, some bought at the used bookstore and some on kindle – which means my kindle library doesn’t represent the extent of...
Life through a camera lens
On my birthday every year, my cousin sends me a photo of myself as a child, surrounded by siblings or grandparents, cousins or friends. Not sure where he has stashed the pictures, because each year I’m surprised that I’ve never seen them before. I think he has run out of photographs after all these birthdays, because he has recently taken to...
Searching for signs
Do you have apophenia? This is when numbers and patterns of numbers are considered to be meaningful when they’re not. I think I might have it, which makes me think I should stop consulting Dr. Google. But it also makes me wonder why someone else should have the right to tell us when something isn’t meaningful. I often see the same number repeated...
The sounds of spring
Ah, the beautiful sounds of spring are drifting through windows that the warmer days are allowing is us crack open. Chickadees are chirping in the trees that line the lane, and the bellow of geese can be heard from fields all around as they take a breather from their migration north. The snowbirds are grumbling about the snow that’s falling on...
Finding my pace
It has been a year since I retired from my full time career and I think, after some hit and miss, that I’ve discovered a pace that fits well with my time and energy at the moment. How lucky am I to be able to say that? I realize the adjustment is far from easy for some people. I get notes from people who tell me they’re enjoying my writing and my...
A lifetime of loving music
Fans sitting on top of a painted bus at the Woodstock Music Festival, Bethel, New York, 15th-17th August 1969. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images) The Museum at Bethel Woods, located on the site of the legendary Woodstock music festival, is working over the next five years to gather firsthand accounts of people’s experiences of that infamous...
A peak life experience is just around the corner
A total solar eclipse will happen on Monday, April 8th. I can’t say that I’m a huge astrophysics follower, but I am a big media event junkie and I’m hearing a lot about this rare event. People – many people – have been waiting for this for years. Those who have spent their careers in pursuit of astronomical knowledge earmarked this date decades...