Bringing Home the Pool Table

Here at our clubhouse we are setting up a pool hall and games room. I am in charge of the games room. We have been given three tables for our use. One is brand new and we have to set it up. One is already set up and the third is another story.

This friend of the club donated his snooker table as long as we had it out in two days, It is one of those old beautiful slate 5 by 10 tables. It weighed a ton. Three slabs of slate each weighing 400pounds and everything put together with huge bolts. Five of us with my van went to the house and were greeted by a nice lady who directed us to the lower floor around two turns on a narrow stairway.

We looked at each other and agreed to get it home. Everything went well until we tried to move the slate top. Old bolts set in epoxy glue faced us and after many tries we managed to get it free. The climb up the stairs was tragic as the weight and close quarters were challenging and as I was the fifth person all I could do was supervise. We managed and after 6 hours we managed to put all the pieces in the van. Tires were flatter and every inch of the van was full.

We drove carefully home and unloaded the table. A $8000  table was ours. He also gave us all the equipment and numerous cues and chalk etc. As we sat for a while drinking cold water we all agreed that we brought the table home and we will never let it go with our help. Talking to the crew today I was informed that volunteering with me is  a dangerous undertaking as we all are stiff and sore but happy.

Views from Our Balcony

Our bungalow has a walkout lower level and above it is a nice size balcony. It is large enough for a barbecue , two small tables and four Muskoka chairs. In the winter and the leaves are gone there is a wide open space to view the creek and protected area.

In the spring the view changes and we receive a protection area for our privacy and most important to become home to much wildlife. Birds ,squirrels, rabbits and racoons abound. In the creek we have a family of mallards and other animals. At night fireflies light up the grassy area and we are always entertained by nature.

We love our home and immediate area and feel fortunate to have found our retirement oasis.

Wonderful Wedding

Saturday past Theresa and I attended a wedding for our Grand daughter and her new partner Jamie. It was a family get together like few from the past. One hundred and sixty people who came together to celebrate this special day. We met people that we never saw for many years and as our friends and family mingled it was so great to experience that feeling which comes from renewed friendships.

The minister was a lady who we knew from previous weddings and she had the ability to hit all the right buttons to make the service personal and so meaningful. I often feel large weddings are out of style because of the costs involved but after this particular ceremony I felt that all the work and pomp was absolutely worth every effort for these young people .

Weddings are special as they expand our extended family and make us look more and more like Canada and the cosmopolitan matrix of its people.We now have representatives of many diverse culture, religions and ethnic backgrounds and our people have gained a inclusive attitude with few if any prejudices.

This was the third wedding among our grand children and we still have five more to go. I look forward with  great anticipation for the next family wedding.

Trees and Birds are Back

The last two weeks has seen a magical transformation in our area. Our trees budded and blossomed and right during this time the birds came back in large numbers. Our two apple trees were stressed this year from unseasonal weather during January and February. This stress did not have a huge effect on the blossoms and now the fruit growers are saying that they are looking forward to a bumper crop.

In our community we are restricted in as far as bird feeders are concerned. My neighbour Ed and I follow through anyway and place our feeders in the trees where they are difficult to see and the birds flock to the welcome feed. I love the finches and the orioles but we have only seen a few orioles so far.

We have many red winged blackbirds and they are very aggressive and tend to drive away the little birds. Only the robins will stand up to them. Watching the birds has been one of our favourite pastimes

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Mothers Day

Every year when Mothers Day comes around I have memories that pop up to keep Mom alive in my life. It is 42 years since Mom passed away but it does not seem that long ago. When I talk on the phone to my siblings our conversations usually get around to some Mom stories. Jeannie and Carol have great memories of their mother and shared some of them with me while I am completing my latest book.
I asked the family to pass on a few pictures of Mom and Dad as I have very few. I was amazed that in this day we would not have many more photo memories of our parents. When we were youngsters I cannot remember a camera in our home until they became common everywhere.

How I wish I had a picture of Dad building that monstrosity of a hay baling machine or some of the unique toys he built for our backyard. A few pictures of Mom appeared in the mail and I was astonished to see Mom in six or seven and she looked just great. Mothers Day has become a commercial event  for some but in reality we celebrated Mothers Day as a family day and all eyes and attention centered on our Mother.

Mothers have come a long way and the picture of Mom's in the home all day long is not really the picture of motherhood today. Moms contribute to every walk of life and have shone to be good at nearly everything they try. I know that given the opportunity for an education my Mom would have been a leader in a myriad of fields. Look what she accomplished with limited resources and a work load that three women could not master today.

Mothers Day does stir up memories of Mom but I see her now as a leader of a family and a person that made it possible for her children to make a positive contribution to Canada and society in general. Mom was truly a Super Mom.

Coach Darcy

My granddaughter Darcy is the coach of an elite midget hockey team in Guelph. This weekend her team won the gold in a tournament representing her large area. It is the Lower Lakes division and it is an excellent division for future elite women hockey players. Darcy has a five man crew in her coaching team and she is the boss. Next year she is going to be the coach for the Guelph Midget double A team. This was a great achievement and we are all very proud of her.

Darcy was a very good player but while she was at university she mad a choice for coaching. She now is in teachers college for a two year post grad degree and this coaching is her entertainment and passion. Theresa and I love to see her coach and the manner in which she get every ounce of energy from her team.

Next week Darcy takes her team to the Provincials and we will be there to cheer her on. Women's hockey has come a long way and the crowd today at the rink let everyone know that Ladies hockey is here to stay.

A Friend

Most people believe that they have friends. Most of the people believe that they are a friend to several  acquaintances. I have several friends or used to have several friends. As I age the number diminished to a very few. Today I lost a dear friend who has been close for around seventy years. Alex { Chuck Brown } passed away after being sick for a time.

We were boys when the most important thing was preparing for our fishing  trip on the weekend. We used bicycle power to take ourselves out of town to country streams to catch speckled trout. We knew every stream that was home to these tasty little fish within 15 miles of our home. Preparation was really quite simple. Peanut butter sandwiches, a fruit and a bottle of Pepsi made up our lunch and a can of worms for bait and we were off for Mill Pond or McKenzie's  early Saturday mornings during the spring and summer.

We just hung out together at first but later we attended Teachers College and roomed together. We bonded in so many ways. Sports and activities became our spare time routine and then the girlfriends. Our fore some became blended into a friendship that was absolutely wonderful. We got along and rarely argued. We did have one obsession and that was our marathon crib games. Every noon after lunch we would play a few games of crib. We used to record the winner and believe it or not we got into numbers way over a thousand . We used to have a bet on who would be the winner after the first day after graduation. It never happened.
 During the summer months after graduation Chuck and I became dancing fools. In Cape Breton there were dances somewhere every night of the week. Somewhere. With Dad's half ton we traveled the country roads to find a square dance or go to the Venetian Gardens in Sydney on Saturday Night. The cost was a dollar and was steep but we loved to dance and it was the best. Gib Whitney and his orchestra were the best and we got to know a few girls from there and it was fun.

Our friendship was such that we talked about everything. We had similar fathers who loved to fish and we discussed their work as miners. Alex got to go down in #3 pit for some weeks in the summer  but I only had the opportunity for one week. We really appreciated our dad's after that. Summer went bye quickly and soon we were to be separated as I traveled to Quebec for employment.

During the next fifty years we made our own lives getting opportunities to meet during the summer and feeling as we had never been apart. After we retired I used to stop at Alex and Marge's summer home every time Theresa and I passed their place.Life was sweet and we became childhood friends again reliving the past and loving our time together.

Chuck became sick about a year ago and it really caused me great stress because I knew he was not long for this world. I became a closer friend to Marge as I wanted to cling to the part of our friendship that would continue. As I got the daily reports from Marge I realized just what I was losing. A lifelong Friend that could not be replaced. I have lost many of my close friends as of late and I do not like it. Chuck was special because he was from the old school and he crept into my brain and wouldn't let go. Chuck

was far from perfect but for me he was just right....he was my friend.