As Ian Sees It

 I guess I should almost start with a big "Hello"!  It has been a while.  The weather got better.  There was lots stuff going on in the world and at home.    And those of the golden years know that we are as distracted as we are busy.  And then there is the whole "Who's reading this anyway?" vanity thing I am kinda ashamed of.   The ego thing.  How much better would the world be without it?   But it's been two months and some stuff has gone on that I would like to touch on.  Some of it is old news now, but hey!  So am I.    We are home from Paris for almost a week now.  I have to say that I don't know if there is anything better than travel.  But such a statement calls for specifics.  While I love a road trip.  Well, a road trip in good or decent weather in a comfortable well maintained vehicle,  I have to say that the whole flying thing is not a pleasant experience.   I truly did miss ou...

   Today the Prime Minister asked the Governor General to dissolve parliament and call an election for April 28th 2025.  On April 28th I will spend most of the day on a jet with Carol and our oldest Granddaughter.  We will be on our way to Paris.  The city of lights.  Our granddaughter  is finished University this year and being a few years older than the other 10 people who call us Granny and  Grandpa we have the means and the health to do this for her now.   I have never been to Paris.  I am so excited I can hardly contain the inside squirm.   And being the lonely Liberal here in this corner of my home and native land,  I shouldn't really have to worry about an election the day we go to Europe.  But if you think Carol and I are going to forego our vote because it doesn't matter anyway,  well I can only assure you you are wrong.   Voting in a Canadian general election has never been more important.  Mostly ...

    We just watched the movie Conclave.   It was such a good movie with a cast that is kinda the who's who of White Male Hollywood.   I am all about inclusiveness, but it is a movie about the selection of the leader of the Catholic faith so........   In any event, I brought this up because I wanted to mention the role played by Stanley Tucci.  Tucci is one of my very favourite actors of all time.  He played Cardinal Bellini.  Cardinal Bellini started the movie as the favourite to become the new Pope.  He was adamant that Pope was a position he didn't want...... Until it appeared he wasn't going to be the Pope.  I know the feeling.   When I started blogging a decade or so ago,  I did so because I had been encouraged by several people who used to read my rants on facebook.  I rented blog space from a European company.  It was a pretty format, and I immediately started to amass a modest following.  As time went...

     It's been a while since I sat before my screen with the intent of doing little online therapy.  At a time when I may need it most,  I have been scared to commit my thoughts to words.   I have been scared a time or two in my life.  I am more a worrier than a scaredy cat.  And there has been some of that too.  So today, I am going to put some of my worries and fears into the air and see if that helps.  Bare with me if you will as there is an awful lot banging off the corners of my sometimes empty mind.      On this day,  March 3rd, 2005  in, of all places Mayerthorpe, Alberta, four young men were investigating a grow operation and a chop shop on a farm.  They were hunted down, and murdered in an ambush by a criminal with an assault rifle.  The likes of which our Conservative party wants to remove from the prohibited category.   In the meantime, Our Conservative Premier,  on this 20th annive...

        Here it is February 1st.  A day in Canadian history that will dwindle in its significance as time goes on.    With any luck, the sooner the better.    But today is THE February 1st. that only recently seemed to be so important.  I don't know what the immediate future has in store for us.  The eminent threat to my family at this time is very real if not unavoidable.           It seems fitting that the morning here in this corner of my home and native land the skies are grey, and the temperature is falling.   But this is a country that has seen grey skies before.  A country that has served under the grey skies of other countries on many occasions.  In Europe twice.  In Korea.  We served as peace keepers in Cypress, Africa, the former Yugoslavia.  And we did it with bravery, skill, intelligence, and benevolence.   The last time we served was in the most deadly reg...

 Tomorrow is Burns.  I know that doesn't mean anything to a whole lot of you, but in our house it is something.   It will be Robert Burns birthday, (And Jim Mckillop's too, Happy birthday Jim!)   Now we are McLeans.  That is to say we are the Scottish MacLeans rather than the Irish McLeans,  but upon our arrival to North America our illiterate ancestors had the immigration or clergy fill out the forms for them and it was just assumed we spelled our name like the Irish Catholic McLeans who came before them.  But so much for the history lesson.......   Since I was a little kid Burns was something in our house.  My mom who was the real Scot ordered a Haggis and we ate it with tatties and neeps while Scottish country dance music and folk songs played on the stereo.  When I was in my forties, my sons and I joined a pipe band.  Burns was one of the big fund raisers for the pipe band in Swift Current Saskatchewan and every year we piped wh...