Taking the plunge!

Our eagerness has overwhelmed us!  We're taking the plunge!  Rather than lolling about in the apartment for another day before our scheduled departure we've succumbed instead to a maverick spirit and opted to head to the Canadian border tomorrow. Though in the past we've gone to Kingston, Ontario to initiate our evaporation from the impending winter, tomorrow we'll frequent Gananoque which is moderately closer to the Ivy Lea Bridge to the USA, our artery to renovation.

Pettifoggery

Do you take for philosophy this twaddle, this intolerable pettifoggery adorned with a few scholastic trimmings?

P.-J. Proudhan

Who among us hasn't occasionally circulated by the stratagem of sharp practice or hair-splitting a distinction without a difference? The innuendo though frequently founded upon earnest pursuit is more often a mark of a trivial quarrel or squabble. Seldom does the skulduggery reach the height of malicious calculation. Where however the pettifoggery descends into corruption or deceit it is intolerable.

Thanksgiving Dinner in the Country

With accustomed gusto and gleeful anticipation we nosed the sedan out of the concrete subterranean garage of the apartment building into the clear early evening air in the direction of the Ashton Station Road. My partner and I were bound for what we knew historically would be an exceedingly fine dinner at the rural residence of my long-standing and learned friend, a Renaissance man who by default has acquired the shiny and not displeasing patina of an imperturbable punching bag having endured the indiscriminate blessings and clobbers of both fortune and misfortune. As usual we took the winding road around the Village onto the Upper Dwyer Hill Road to McCaffrey Trail following the meandering Jock River.  At the mailbox we turned from the dusty road into the shaded drive leading to the stone mansion.  There we were greeted as always by the gambolling Finn, an unruly black Labrador with penetrating and mildly disturbing cinnamon-coloured eyes.  Finn's repeated barks were soon stifled by a disciplinary shout from our host who materialized carrying a trilogy of wine flutes in one hand and a bottle of Champagne in the other, arms spread wide to welcome us.  Thus began our Thanksgiving dinner in the country.

Bleeding Heart Liberals and Tory Blues

It is not an unimaginable conclusion that the liberalism of some people is a vacuous product of nothing more than inexperience and abstract thought.  That is, their open arms and open minds are strictly clinical and not the result of having had to accommodate others or put into practice what they so enthusiastically urge.  It is one thing to advance constant inclusiveness and boundless toleration if you don't have to live with it.

Packing

Many, many years ago I saw for the first time a carriage clock.  The discovery was an enterprising youthful encounter, entirely new and initially puzzling.  The brass clock with its white enamel face was in a well-worn brown leather case. The sliding front door of the case had been drawn up and stored in a sleeve at the back of the clock. Presumably I eyed the device at an antiquarian's shoppe because someone had the courtesy to explain to me the ingenuity of the clock.  I immediately imagined some sylphlike petticoated lady in an exceedingly frilly dress with a huge bustle and large, ornate hat clambering onto the velvety vermillion seats of a coach-'n-four while carrying her overnight bag in which was secreted this essential timepiece.  Like so many antiques it is preposterous in today's society except as a curiosity. By comparison what I bring along with me now when traveling is much altered from those venerable days.

Mindset

A really good meal or a pleasant day requires a mindset. I have to be locked into a certain predisposition. This alone presumes one is in control, an additive which admittedly isn't always the case - at least if one discounts aimlessly ricocheting from one stimulus to another (the sad product of evolution instead of determination). You see, there's the crunch when it comes to mindset - does it restrict what you are or does it enable what you'll become?  I have opted for the latter.  For one thing I have never viewed any of my accomplishments in life as any other than the product of effort.  This isn't me being hopelessly modest - I honestly don't harbour any miscalculation of my innate capacity -  but neither do I concede that my ambitions when cojoined with application are valueless.

Cleaning Day

Our cherished housekeeper attended today for her regularly scheduled visit. The precursory cathartic purge was in full swing by eight o'clock this morning. I proceeded immediately from the lair to the bathroom where first I cleansed myself then methodically removed from the counter and stored in the cabinet below or in one of the adjoining drawers each item of morning ritual and ablution (prescription pills, pain meds, eyeglass cleaner, mouthwash, dental floss, toothpaste, shampoo, shaving cream, razor and stand, comb, hair product and skin cream).  The sleepwear and sleep mask were set aside for laundry.  In the dining room the W H Barlett placemats and napkins were hidden away. The Maldon salt cellar was perched on the bookcase.  In the kitchen the evidence of industry or humanity was removed and stored beneath the counters. All was in hotel readiness!

Rambling

Sometime after four o'clock this morning - as I rolled about in bed half awake - I fell upon the idea of renting our Florida condominium for a year at a time by reducing the current monthly rental charge but extending the lease over twelve months instead of six.  I doubt the landlords have much luck renting the place between May and October in any event particularly as a minimum of 2-months residency is required. The only advantage to us in renting for the entire year is to secure the tenure from year to year and to keep others from using the place during our absence.  We are of course restricted to a 6-month occupancy limit due to current reciprocal income tax legislation. I doubt we'd ever make such an arrangement but it at least highlights the possibility for some creativity in the management of leasehold interests.

Breaking the Barrier

Though most of us haven't any hesitation about grousing from time to time we're normally less inclined to partner our occasional euphoria. Happy people can be such a tiresome trial! Those who insist upon oozing forth their good fortune and beneficence can be horridly unsettling. In this instance however I am compelled to do so. Admittedly I am rather smug about it.  Though I haven't done anything in particular which might qualify as an achievement I nonetheless feel compelled to rejoice in what to me is a victory of sorts. What occurred to me as a pondered this unusual state of delight is that I have broken a barrier. To me that qualifies as remarkable in every sense of the word.

Out of the Race

When at the age of 14 years I entered Fourth Form at St. Andrew's College I soon awoke to what was to an extremely competitive society.  The over-riding vernacular of contest for me was the academic but on almost every other level in the school heat was undeniable - sports, cadets, pipe band, debating and a repeat of all of them on the intercollegiate scene particularly with what was called the "Little Big Four" - namely, St. Andrew's College, Upper Canada College, Bishop Ridley College and Trinity College School.  The fierceness of rivalry even insinuated the intramural clan allocations (Bruce, Douglas, Wallace, Montrose) and the boarding houses (Memorial, Flavelle, Macdonald, Sifton).