Four very different events have caught my attention in the last few days: 1. AXE THE AUDITOR. Alberta's Auditor General has been told that his contract, which expires next April will not be renewed. Coincidentally (maybe), he has just released his report into the losses taxpayers suffered as
When I started this writing project in May, my first post was an explanation of our decision to sell our vacation home in southern California. That didn't happen quite as quickly as we had hoped - this place has a very short selling season, and now Canadians are
In 2005 a British author named Lynn Truss wrote a book titled "Talk To The Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today." Though arguably somewhat whiney and thin (an essay stretched to book length) and tending towards the obvious, the book made the point that it
I mentioned in Post No. 9 that we converted half our vehicle inventory to electric this spring. If you live anywhere other than Alberta, the chances are that you've wondered if the switch to an electric vehicle makes sense, or is starting to make some sense. If you
Prepare for an examination of a public health policy by someone hardly qualified to add insight to such a complex discussion. At best I am a member of the "public" to whom health policies apply. I am not an immunologist, an epidemiologist and certainly not a doctor. But
After 3 weeks and 3,400 km we are home again. This is why we travel, said my wife: for the pleasure of coming home. We mostly went to places we'd been before and it hasn't been that long since we were last in B.C.
One of the unintended consequences of retirement is that you are no longer able to take vacations. Your whole life is a vacation! Stay up late, sleep late, lose track of the day and date, go from one exciting leisure activity to the next! That is your life. Well, it
In William Shakespeare's 1591 play Henry VI, Part 2, a minor character named "Dick the Butcher" spoke words that, like so many of Shakespeare's words, continue to be part of our popular culture today. Dick said "The first thing we do, let'
Last week the government of Alberta floated the idea that Alberta will consider establishing its own system of immigration "permits" to control who gets to come here. The reasoning behind this is that although immigration is the responsibility of the federal government, the costs of social programs used
I think I'm pretty good at retiring. Tried it twice, nailed it both times. Being retired, that was harder. Much harder. In 2015 I retired from the practice of law after 34 years. Gave up my license and desk and walked away. 10 months later I was banging
Many years ago (40 or more) a Charlie Daniels song came on the radio as I was driving. Blair was strapped into his car seat in the back, 2 or 3 years old. I heard Blair singing the words describing a fiddling contest between Johnny and the Devil taking place
Our young friend Ella and her sister Penny scored scholarships to play NCAA Division 1 Water Polo at a university in Northern California. They are they only people from Stony Plain playing on one of the 34 Div 1 teams in the US, and so far as I can tell