As Ian Sees It

   Golden years?  Don't think so Tim.  Freedom comes with a price, you know.  And as often as not the price you pay for the freedom you worked for and planned for the bulk of you career comes with the health problems associated with the progression of aches and pains.  With parts of the body wearing down and the growing need for medications.  The aggravation of waiting lists for replacements of knees, hips,  and so on.   The realization that your children's adult problems are more stressful than their childhood problems.   (Cause even though they are quite capable of handling them, they are still your children.)   Okay, I'll admit retirement has some definite advantages.  Like not working.....forty to fifty five hours a week.  Like having the time to do things you never dreamed of, like shovelling snow when it falls and is still soft rather than on your day off after you backed over it a hundred times.  Like golfing w...

        While I would like to say "Far be it from me to flog a dead horse"  or that I am redundant, that I repeat myself, that I write things over and over,  I am afraid some things are just too good not to pause and enjoy.  A very short time ago I related to you, my online therapists, that I would be attending a luncheon with members of my troop.  Troop 4 '74 in recognition of our fiftieth anniversary of being sworn in to the R.C.M.P.   Well I attended,  and I spent about three hours with five of those guys..........AND IT WAS FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!!   So allow me if you will, this one last indulgence.            After hearing the boys who were living in British Columbia were planning a luncheon in Merit, B.C.  My better half told me I should be there.  Her reasoning?  Well I suspect she thought she could do her spring cleaning without having to do it around me.   But officially she si...

   I am afraid my age is catching up with me.  I have a bad foot requiring surgery,  which has led to a swollen knee.  So just as the weather calls me to our yard,  to our garage, to warm and beautiful walks down to the lake,  I am seated in the basement with my MAC while an ice pack thaws against my knee.  And while there are more productive things I could be doing,  a little on line therapy seems to be in order,     I am a sucker for nostalgia.  The things that bring it back.  The things that make me feel a certain warmth.  The smell of a horse barn.  Canvas ankle runners.  Two sticked popsicles.  Archie Comics.  Tinny tunes on an a.m. radio and thousands of songs from childhood, youth, and younger adult years.  News papers.  Old t.v. shows.  It makes me miss the sounds and smells and excitements like Santa at the Bay, or the toy department in any department store.  Local t.v....

     We just got back from yet another road trip.  Not because a month in California isn't enough travel.  Not because a house full of family over Easter isn't enough holiday experience.  Our trip this time was to old familiar territory for a very different reason.  We attended a funeral.    The funeral of a person I don't think I ever met.  But funerals aren't just about those who left us.  They are also for those loved ones who remain.            I have been through this before:  In 1975 I was posted to Outlook, Saskatchewan.  I was there four years.   In 1976 I married Carol and brought her there.  In the fall of that year,  we bought our first house.  Carol landed a casual job with the Prairie Pioneer Lodge.  And there, she met her first friend,  who was also her boss.  The boss thing?  Well I don't think that ever factored into the friendship. ...

    If you're going to live out here in this corner of my home and native land,  you need several abilities to get you through, well, life.   Firstly you need to be able to disregard age old proverbs others need to live by.   Take for example that old adage " The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result."   Yup.  That's a proverb to live by that we disregard this time of year every year.    Spring hasn't sprung.  And it may not for another month.  In fact, a snow storm in May is never out of the question.   Yet, every year by now we start talking golf, swimming,  hiking the mountains, dirt biking, motor biking, construction, gardening.  Like we will magically be amid warm sunny weather on March 21st.        And the second thing?  Hope.  We never ever seem to give up hope.  And as often as not, we do it wearing blinders. ...

   Never let it be said that I lean to the conservative ideology.   However I have always believed that regardless of the party,  most people who serve in political office make sacrifices most of us refuse to entertain.  Recently we lost a former Prime Minister who lead a party for whom I have never voted.  And although I had my reasons,  I don't think rehashing the opposite ideologies of our former Prime Minister and I would be of any value.  Nor do I think it would be respectful for an individual who served his country in some difficult times.       Prime Minister Brian Mulroney recently passed away.  He has been remembered for many political successes and failures since his death and I hope  he will be remembered for his human attributes as well.   Cause  that is the way it should be.         I never met Brian Mulroney.  I never shook his hand.  I was in his presence but once. ...

   Remember that lovely 70’s song “It Never Rains in California” ?   Well it isn’t completely accurate.  At least my limited experience suggests something different.  I am delivering my therapy from our suite in California cause there is the need to do something indoors today.  It doesn’t figure to last.  However, I recall saying that last year too.  No matter.  It was -29C when we left The Great White North a few days back.   I actually quite enjoy the three day drive down here. They are beautiful,  these United States.  We drive through Montana, Idaho, Utah, a tiny corner of Arizona, Nevada, and a lot of California during that time.  Across two or maybe three mountain ranges.  On the second day, you leave a snow covered winter and into shorts and tees weather.  Quite exciting.  We listen to a host of playlists I have made from the four days of music I have on my IPod.  Yes, I have an IPod and a phone....