Life Lesson #1. The Businessman and The Son

There was a man who had built a successful business from the ground up. Now, advanced in years, he wanted to retire. His son wanted to take over the company from his father but the father wasn’t sure that his son was ready. They had many discussions about it and the son was becoming increasingly frustrated with his father’s reluctance to turn the company over to him.

A Dummy's Guide to Restaurant Terminology

Winnipeg is blessed with a multitude of restaurants of every variety you might want to name. There are places on the internet that will tell you that Winnipeg has more restaurants per capita than any other city in North America. Whether or not this is true, I cannot say, but we all know that pretty much everything on the web is true.

The nice thing about having so many restaurants to choose from is that a great many of them are really good. By a simple process of natural selection, the bad ones die while the good ones flourish. We have several restaurants which we consider our favourites and which we frequent on a fairly regular basis (one of the things about being retired is that you have more time to eat out. The fact that you are actually earning less income does not occur to retired people). But even though we have several favourites, it’s also nice to try out new ones from time to time to see what other undiscovered favourites might be lurking out there.

And You Think You’re Having A Bad Day….

Unlucky driver or just plain bad driver? You decide.

I live on the western side of Winnipeg in an area called Charleswood. There is a 1,100 acre greenspace called Assiniboine Park and Forest very close to where I live. It’s a big park! It has 3 main entrances off of Roblin Blvd, the main one in the middle of the park and two more on the southeast and southwest corners.

One Saturday morning I was out running errands. I was driving past the park and I noticed that the police had set up a speed trap at the main entrance. When I got to the southeast entrance there was a second speed trap and they had stopped someone and were in the process of ticketing him. I remember the car and the driver very clearly. I remember the car because I'm a car guy. I remember cars. I remember the driver because he looked really mad.

Proudly Canadian

It’s Friday night and it’s been a terrible week in Canada. We lost two servicemen on our own soil to senseless acts of violence. I’m not going to call it terrorism because, frankly, it’s too soon to know what the murderers’ motivations were. But calling them senseless acts of violence seems like understating the obvious.

I am sitting here watching coverage of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo’s body being transported back to Hamilton along the Highway of Heroes. There are tears in my eyes. I, like many others, have spent time in the last 2 days thinking about what it means to be Canadian. It is not a simple question and it definitely does not have a simple answer.

2013: The Year In Review

So 2014 has arrived and that means that 2013 is now behind us. All together now, “Thank God!” The world did not end in 2012 as predicted and 2013 did everything in its power to make us wish it had.

First the good news. Under the current laws of physics, there is no way that 2013 can be repeated - ever!

Je Me Souviendrai

It means “I will remember.” Tomorrow is November 11. Remembrance Day. We have a phrase that is associated with this day: “Lest We Forget.” But lately it’s starting to feel like it may be too late for that. A great many of us seem to have already forgotten. Our day of remembrance has lost its meaning.

The Beater Diaries

My father was a car guy. I am a car guy. My father believed that cars should be looked after, cared for and well-maintained. He believed that such cars were always worth more at trade-in time. And he always got big bucks for his trade-ins. I am my father’s son. Except that I tend to keep my cars longer than he did. I get attached. He never did.