The museum was free that evening. After the fireworks, we went inside to warm up, eat some of our snacks and rest our feet. There was an exhibit upstairs about the Canadian Arctic Expedition. We wandered thru and took our time. At some point, the fair and industrious Trudy looked at me and said, “We […]
Yearly Archives: 2012
Fireworks Spectacle
Sun, 12 Feb 2012, 07:18 PM (-06:00)
On the evening before the Winterlude fireworks, Dad and Khadija took us to eat at Chez Fatima in Gatineau, Quebec, across the river from Ottawa. After the feast, they drove home, and we walked the few blocks to the Canadian Museum of Civilization. There on sloping, snow-covered lawns leading to the edge of the Ottawa […]
The Two-Hour Ice Sculpture Competition
Sun, 12 Feb 2012, 05:21 PM (-06:00)
The contestants in Ottawa’s Winterlude two-hour ice sculpture competition were arrayed around what in warmer times must be a bubbling-spraying fountain. There was ice on the sidewalks, snow on the lawn and white flakes falling from the sky. When we arrived, the artists the carving had begun. Hints of shape were beginning to emerge. There […]
Banks
Sun, 12 Feb 2012, 09:53 AM (-06:00)
Ever notice this? I only say this as full disclosure. You see, I am not unbiased. With that said, here are some tools I’m using to understand the foreclosure fraud settlement deal… 1. The administration’s MO In keeping with my disclaimer above, here’s Scarecrow at Firedog lake articulating a cynical view on how the administration approaches […]
Coffee Time
Sat, 11 Feb 2012, 08:58 PM (-06:00)
When you cross the border, you go from the Land of Starbucks to the Land of Tim Horton’s. This isn’t a terribly original thought, nor is it entirely accurate, still there’s something here. There’s something reassuring about a Tim Horton’s coffee shop, some kind of gemütlichkeit that you just don’t find in a Starbucks. Although […]
Morning Luxuries
Sat, 11 Feb 2012, 04:44 PM (-06:00)
We shift now to our recent trip to Ottawa, a trip from which we recently returned. What follow are several stories of that vacation… I suppose we should have been disappointed that we slept in. The two-hour Winterlude One-Block Challenge had started at 8:00am, and we would arrive an hour later. But no, we were […]
Great Horned Owls
Sat, 11 Feb 2012, 01:56 PM (-06:00)
When we got out of the car, Trudy want into the house, and I went around the side to drop some bottles into the recycling bin. There was a hooting somewhere in the back. I mean a real hoo-hoo-hoo hooting. The kind of clichéd owl sound you might hear on a cartoon. I stood silently, listening […]
B
Fri, 10 Feb 2012, 11:22 PM (-06:00)
My story seems to be stuck in Kentucky even though I returned almost two months ago. There’s so much other stuff to talk about—riots in Athens as the schemes of Euro-bosses and technocrats seems to wash up on the rocks week after week, political calculus and triangulation in the United State that makes concessions to […]
Hockey
Tue, 31 Jan 2012, 11:12 PM (-06:00)
It was the end of the week. We were the only ones left in the lab. Steve was sitting at his computer. I was packing up for the long drive home. Somehow the conversation turned to hockey. Don’t ask me how. But there we were late on a Friday afternoon in Houston, Texas talking about […]
The Days Izzy Dreams For
Sat, 21 Jan 2012, 08:17 PM (-06:00)
Up before the dawn, 4:00. They hop out of bed at my first request, not dallying as they so often do. They whisper encouraging words and rub my chin. I like it when they rub my chin. Walk in the backyard to potty. So many other things to do, and they let me do […]