Day 164: Riding the busk

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might have picked up on my soft spot for buskers. Okay, very soft spot, more like the Pillsbury Dough Boy’s belly button.
Today, I was in busker heaven.
I encountered the first musical interlude while admiring the magical Christmas windows along Yonge and Queen Streets where families [...]

Day 163: God bless the child

The nightly newscast I watched years ago used to open every telecast with these words: “It’s 11 o’clock. Do you know where your children are?’
I’m not sure why they did that, but it scared me back then and still does, especially when you read some of the frightening statistics.
Did you know that, in 2007, there [...]

Day 162: Lost and found

Today turned out to be sort of a “spring cleaning in winter” type of day. Everywhere I went, I found myself picking up stray newspapers, discarded coffee cups and one water bottle.
In the office ladies’ room, a coworker caught me gathering up the bundle of paper towels that had landed all over the floor as [...]

Day 161: Two for the road

The hazard of writing this blog is that some days I find myself so busy scribbling away in my notebook that life itself literally passes me by.
So today on the bus I put down my pencil and decided to take a look around. It was packed, so there was lots of life to see, let [...]

Day 160: Old man winter

Winter sucks. There, I said it. Yes, I know, those lovely snowflakes look beautiful on Christmas morn’ but by Boxing Day I’m more than ready to welcome spring.
The only time I truly appreciate winter is when I watch Weather Channel reports of hurricanes or tsunamis or landslides off in some tropical part of the world. [...]

Day 159: Siren song

Walking home from the store today, I was about to cross at the lights when I heard a siren nearby.
I hopped back onto the sidewalk and saw the ambulance’s flashing lights approaching from the south. I wouldn’t have thought to mention this as a good deed except that two other pedestrians decided to bolt across [...]

Day 158: Have a rice day

I’m getting better at remembering to pick up an extra item or two on each weekly visit to the grocery store and placing it in the food bank bin they handily position at the entrance.

The tough part is figuring out what to get. I was going with Tetra-Pak milk for a while, then peanut [...]

Day 157: The we generation

When I was 12, my top priority at this time of year was counting down the days till Christmas holidays. Not so for the three girls I met today after church.
They were standing behind a table piled high with candles that they’d carefully wrapped in purple tissue paper and pink yarn.
Each package contained four Advent [...]

Day 156: Smartie pants

The cashiers in each store I visited today were taxed to the max. I know the economy is supposed to be in a slump but you certainly can’t tell by the long lines at the checkouts. Maybe those most worried about the credit crunch are resorting to “retail therapy.”
I tried to make an extra effort [...]

Day 155: High school daze

Late posting, sorry guys. I was out late at my niece’s convocation ceremony. She graduated from high school last June but they hold the official diploma handover in November.
It was the same routine when I graduated — from the same school as it happens. It was so strange being back there after all these years.
The [...]