I’ve been finding it difficult to focus on my column this week. Last Friday we received news that a much loved friend and musician had passed away. Chris Reed didn’t even achieve the revered status of joining “The 50 Club”. We’ve all been blindsided….totally stunned and still trying to absorb the news. I had to read his brother’s official FB announcement three times before it sunk in who he was really writing about. I thought for sure I was mistaken….but no, and then I burst into tears.
I want to thank everyone who responded to my most recent column. It is all too easy to lose focus when dealing with a long standing medical condition, to get lazy, to ignore the very real danger you face because you don’t want to appear weak or needy. I will continue to write about health issues from time to time, both physical and mental, so “stay tuned “.
This week’s offering will be a bit more easygoing, and I hope that you enjoy this week’s melange of letters, numbers, punctuation marks and images.
Last week music. This week a new topic. No…..not COVID. There’s enough written about that already and it’s a subject I’m starting to grow weary of. We’re in the middle of a worldwide “situation” that requires diligence, clean hands, keeping a distance of 6.5 feet (when did two metres becomes six feet…..that’s a fail in math class?!) and a disguise when showing your face (or 1/3 of it) in public.
“Heeeeere’s Fall”…..my favourite time of year! Yes, I’m an autumn baby (and so are my kids) so maybe a yearly “rebirth” is what I’m feeling. The season of autumn, to me, is the sensation of new beginnings. The air is lighter, fresher and crisper. We can sweat off a rather thick and muggy, “I can’t even think I’m so hot” summer. The lounge lizard days are behind us. We’re back to work. A new school year begins. The lush vegetation is offering us the fruit of its summer labours, ripe for the picking and ready for us to savour. The trees slowly paint a riot of colour against striking blue skies, something Tom Thompson captured so perfectly in so many paintings. Drives through the country are invigorating and somehow more liberating.
We at DBAWIS will be on hiatus from this afternoon, when this column drops, until we return on Monday, September 11th. (Editor’s Note – I will be reprinting a column on Monday because it is relevant more today than ever).
That’s quite a while, in these troubled times. Kind of makes you wonder how different our world will look by then. After all, it’s certainly seemed like every day for the last few years has been an endless, nauseating, roller coaster ride. Fires, floods, droughts, plagues, economic turmoil, murder hornets – kind of frightening to think what might be next.
The pass between Pays Plat and Cavers at the top of Lake Superior is nearly 11 km long divided almost evenly between uphill and downhill escarpments with grades approaching 8% on many sections so those who are weak stomached or decide to skimp on new brakes for the car need to turn around and go back to Toronto.
The Ojibwa called the area Baawitigong, which roughly translates as place of the rapids, and was used as a central gathering spot during the region’s whitefish season on the St. Mary’s River which has rolling rapids and feeds the city that now stands there.
Like many, I’ve suffered from depression and anxiety since I was a young child. Poor old Joe Btfsplk, the Al Capp ‘Lil Abner’ character who lived under a cloud at all times, had nothing on me. I had an ulcer by the time I was ten years old, and toyed with the idea of suicide throughout my teens.
” I have a medical condition…!” Or, why are some people so f***ing stupid?
This week’s column is about a subject completely different from what I originally intended to write about. THAT subject will be addressed next week.
Anyone else notice that things have been a little different over the last few months? Anyone else have an uneasy feeling about their environment lately? Anyone else evaluating the respective responses of the various levels of government to ” the new normal ” ?
Bullseye Records of Canada
