BarbWriter

This is my final entry to Blogit. I'm sure the few readers of "my stuff" won't even know I'm gone since I haven't posted anything in this space for over a month. When I first put my money down on the site I really expected alot more response but perhaps I chose the wrong subjects that didn't interest readers much. When describing my own ordeals and those of my son, I tried hard to bring to folks a better understanding of mental health issues facing both the disease-stricken individual as well as... Sign in to see full entry.

I hate snakes. Those long crawly, slippery (at least they look slippery) things that haven’t the sense enough to be visible most of the time. Even today, I by-pass the reptile section in the city’s zoo. I suppose my fear stems from a lack of familiarity with these creatures. They say if you touch them and get to know them, they can be quite delightful pets. Yuk! I had only two experiences with them; one benign and one malignant. Let me explain: Until I was 12, I lived in a small Ontario village... Sign in to see full entry.

“I just read an article about the hurricanes in Florida...” “Oh, I went to Florida last winter and it was wonderful. I stayed in a house trailer my friend lent me and all I had to pay was transportation and food.” How often has this happened to you? You start describing something and your “listener” jumps in with his own verbiage, leaving you completely annoyed. Most of us do it at one time or another; others always do it - something I’ve expanded on in my booklet Who’s Talking? Who’s Listening?... Sign in to see full entry.

My second youngest son - and third oldest - is vacuuming my apartment while I sit here getting out of his way and blogging. Thinking about my journey to the west. Yup, after two years of not seeing my second eldest son, I've scraped up enough moola to make the trip. What a time making hotel reservations, though! Seems alot of hotels use a "hotel reservations" service composed of alot of employees yapping to alot of people who want to know which hotel to go to and how much it will cost. Well, I... Sign in to see full entry.

The demon is after me. It dogs my footsteps as I rush into the bedroom to make my bed. It hammers on my head as I do the dishes. It's even there in the bathroom when I brush my teeth. It extends an iron arm across the computer screen to keep my thoughts from going there. The only way to escape it is to race from the building and into Nature's arms. As I walk along Church Street, the demon gradually recedes and then disappears altogether. I wish I could live in the outdoors all day, every day but... Sign in to see full entry.

The dog said it. The small white poodle was leading a couple of older ladies along the lakeshore path. With a happy expression and tail wagging in sixteenth time, he dragged them toward me as I was passing. I bent down to pat him as he delightedly sniffed at my pant leg and then looked up into my face. We formed a momentary bond just then. "Hello there, fella," I said, not knowing if he was a miss or mister. "He has to say hello to everyone he meets," his owner said smilingly. I thought: "If... Sign in to see full entry.

THE ENEMY COMETH The first thing I saw were the ropes. They dangled in front of my front window, gently swaying in the breeze off the lake. And then they tightened as the men at the bottom climbed into their platform and were hoisted up and up and up until they reached the 16 th floor. It was quiet. Not the noise I was dreading. But the silence didn’t last long. I looked out later to see the two men exiting their cart and standing on my balcony. One of them jammed a piece of wood against the... Sign in to see full entry.

He does good and not so good, at times. When he’s shopping with me he doesn’t seem to know where other people are. I’ve seen some dirty looks aimed his way when he turns around and unpurposely bumps into another shopper. It can be pretty embarrassing – for me. At times I’m wary of taking him with me at all. But then, there’s a positive side to it. At the outset of this inimitable but desultory exercise called getting in the food, he looks at my shopping list and says: “I’ll get the dairy... Sign in to see full entry.

I can understand where women in former male-dominated workplaces are coming from. When they apply to become firefighters, police women, doctors, lawyers, they are not just rising to a challenge. They also want the better pay cheques of their male counterparts. And why not? Some of them have the total responsibility of raising families, just as the men do. If they don’t have families many of them have debts they must pay. Invoices have no sexual leniency, after all. And, apart from higher pay,... Sign in to see full entry.

Ray called collect this morning. Haven't seen or heard from him for over 10 years. Last time was when we played tennis over at an Oakville park and that was when I was working so it has to be that long ago. I remember him as a blond, handsome, fit guy of maybe 35 or 40 who beat me handily at the game. He'd put a spin on the ball and I missed it every time. "When you see my racqet turn, you know I'm putting a spin on it," I remember him chiding me. At some point, he said he had an obsessive... Sign in to see full entry.