Where you go, that's where you're gonna be!

It was almost 9:30 am when I awoke this morning and slowly removed my sleep mask to verify whether the sun was shining. It was. Brilliantly! I grabbed my iPhone from the bedside table and checked the time.  Getting out of bed after eight o'clock in the morning rattles me (though I can't think why it particularly matters at this stage of my life).  It isn't that I imagine having important duties to fulfill.  Just the thought of "wasting" valuable hours perturbs me; I instantly calculate how much time has already been wantonly relinquished.

Moving on...

In my younger days the electric bicycle was not something I would have considered buying.  It seemed to defeat the entire project of exercise. However now that I have entered the seventh decade of life the drubbing allure is not so offensive. This evening thanks to some friends I have tried the device for the first time and I am impressed.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

The Twelve Days of Christmas , also known as Twelvetide, is a festive Christian season celebrating the Nativity of Jesus. In most Western ecclesiastical traditions, Christmas Day is considered the First Day of Christmas. The Twelve Days are 25 December – 5 January, inclusive.

Lapse into the Vernacular

There are few places on the face of this earth (at least within the scope of my admittedly limited travels) to which I would assent so readily and willingly to lapse unequivocally into the vernacular as Longboat Key. The everyday voice of this tiny barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico is music to my inner soul, the quintessence of fervency. It is with uncommon gusto that each day I hasten to embark upon a repeat performance of my domestic bicycle ride up and down the island.

The Race Horse Figure

As restrictive as it sounds, "maintaining the race horse figure" is code for permissive indulgence. It is meant to be a joke. I stole the quip from James R. McGregor, one of my first and most faithful clients when I began practicing law in Almonte in June of 1976.  Jimmy had come home to Almonte from Sudbury where he had dug himself out of a mine vowing never to return. Animated by his awakening success as a real estate agent for Gale Real Estate he hauled his lumbering frame up the steep staircase to my 2nd floor antique law office to consult me about incorporating his own real estate company. This was especially poignant because it was on the very desk on which we signed the documents that Albert T. Gale had 40 years previously instructed his lawyer (and my predecessor) R. A. Jamieson, QC  to "do up the writings". I told Jimmy, “If we stick together we can go places”.  It proved to be an accurate premonition; but not a long lasting one. Within five years I was performing (at the request of the investigating police officer) the dubious honour as his Solicitor of telling his parents that an hour earlier Jimmy had died in a car accident on the Wolf Grove Road.

The Tranquilizing New Year

The sudden arrival of cool, clear air has succeeded to tranquilize the advent of the New Year. Removed of its balminess the atmosphere is significantly sedated. One feels naturally more encumbered and less agitated when sporting a jersey. There was as well a noticeable quiet on the roadways and bicycle paths, a mark of the overnight evaporation of holiday travellers - no doubt but a temporary hush but nonetheless a welcome transition from the hullabaloo.

Bits and Bobs, Dribs and Drabs

Many, many years ago I met a gentleman in the financial district of downtown Toronto who informed me he practiced maritime law. I believe he worked as in-house counsel for an insurance company.  I don't recall the particular circumstances of the acquaintance (though it may have been in a bar at the King Edward Hotel) but I do recall being impressed by his uncommon undertaking.  The practice of maritime law was to me a rarefied and puzzling avocation. In keeping with my general interest in matters nautical - and residing as I am for the moment adjacent the emerald waters of the Gulf of Mexico - the relevance of maritime law has - pardon the pun - lately resurfaced.  My particular inquisitiveness revolves around shipwreck, a sphere popular in nearby Key West which has an unfortunate history of such occurrences due to its proximity to coral reefs only meters below the sparkling surface.  While I don't intend to engage in an examination of the applicable maritime law regarding shipwreck (and the entitlement to its trove), I felt a modest familiarity with the topic might prove informative (if not merely an enlargement of the customary language). What by the way has precipitated this enquiry was a comment from a woman in the grocery parking lot yesterday that she had noticed some flotsam and jetsam in the evening tide.  Her observation arose in connection with the recent recurrence of what is called "Red Tide".

Ambition

When addressing an issue the characterization of the question is as significant as the search for the answer. Consider for example, "What is a reasonable ambition in life?" Naturally there are a multiplicity of possibilities. But it occurs to me that the overriding direction is governed not so much by the end as by the start.  The primary starting point is age (young or old); and the common end is the preference for materialism or spiritualism. The age element differentiates between necessity and performance. The preference feature is for substance or perfection.

Red Tide (revisited)

When we arrived on Longboat Key on October 15th the ambient temperature approached 100℉ almost daily for weeks afterwards. Contemporaneously the air adjacent the Gulf of Mexico caused breathing irritation (frequently resulting in coughing).  There were also some dead fish on the shore (and the associated putrid smell). People were reluctant to swim in the sea.  All this pointed to what reportedly had been a common occurrence throughout the summer months - Red Tide.

New Year's Day, January 1, 2019

It wouldn't normally be adjudged anything but a moderately disgusting bodily function  - the sudden and unannounced eruption of salt water from the right nostril - but for one who has spent the day at the beach under the blazing sun, in and out of the sea, it is part of the purgative process that in differing manners so often characterizes the arrival of the New Year. This particular rendition for example contrasts favourably with the less wholesome event of rubbing one's eye with the palm of the hand laden with suntan lotion.  The salt water emission at least echoed the agreeable baptismal experience of swimming in the Gulf of Mexico to escape the post-New Year's Eve lethargy and to initiate the advent of the New Year, refreshed and decontaminated. How or when the sea manages to fill the cavity I haven't a clue.