Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Dies Caniculares


These are indeed the dog days of summer! Hot and humid, the sky is a turbulent muddle of clouds, blazing sunshine and the perpetual threat of a thunder storm. The effect of the heat and the depressed economy combined to stifle any commercial activity today. The streets were empty, as were the parking spaces, normally jammed. Even the clerk at the bakery store where I sauntered mid-afternoon to collect a coffee and a copy of the Ottawa Citizen remarked that she hadn’t been interrupted while making her cookies (which I naturally felt was an odd favour in view of her labour and dedication).

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Yachting on the St. Lawrence and Lunch at the Club!

Admittedly a public boat tour on something resembling a tug is not exactly yachting. Nor is a chicken wrap at a waterside restaurant equivalent to dining on white linen at one’s private club. Nonetheless we managed (without too much effort frankly, and certainly without the commensurate expense) to squeeze sufficient pleasure out of both events to provide the passable sensation at least of doing exactly that.

Friday, July 15, 2011

The Penalty of Saving Money

Having grown up in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s at a time when optimism and affluence abounded I was effectively insulated from the uninspiring worry I imagine is now the imposed rage of the present generation – namely, saving money. In the good ‘ole days it was all about big cars and spending money. Remember the two-ton T-Bird? And the Lincoln land yachts? The issues – if I may so dignify them - in my childhood years were dramatized in “Father Knows Best”, a thinly veiled elitist and conventional model to say the least not to mention the hindrance it was to the feminist cause. Now however the ubiquitous talk of global indebtedness is impossible to avoid at every turn. Corny television shows do little to distract us from the over-riding reality. Listen to the media and all you hear is the prospect of entire countries going bankrupt. Lately even the United States is being served up to the chopping block (though I suspect this is a provocative stage show designed to make us all feel bad about our naughty profligate selves). Nonetheless one doesn’t want to disregard the emergency signals.

The Early Morning Spin

When I drew the drapes and peered sleepily out my upstairs bedroom window this morning at 5:30 am I was disappointed to see that after a succession of brilliantly sunny days the sky was grey. There were small patches of blue here and there, but by and large the ceiling was somewhere between dreary and lacklustre. Knowing however that as we have now passed the summer solstice the days will only become shorter, I was resolute to take advantage of the opportunity to bicycle early in the morning without having to sport a flashing light on my wrist. This accoutrement – along with helmets – are now so de rigueur as to be considered exceedingly unfashionable if missing.

The Not So Great Depression

Even if you do not regularly torture yourself by listening to Bloomberg or the BBC (that purveyor of "news of fresh disaster") it is I think accepted that the worldwide economy is not exactly buoyant at the moment. I won’t add to the torment by imagining that I can say anything less than trivial about the economic theories which are driving this lapse. What however interests me more is the effect of these events upon people in the street, quite apart from how Wall Street and the global stock exchanges juggle the numbers. In the final analysis what sustains our national coffers and pumps our financial institutions is probably nothing more glamorous than personal income tax and the housing industry (there’s a reason they keep reminding you that the purchase of your home is likely the largest single investment you’ll ever to make). It doesn’t require much imagination to see or predict the infection of the financial markets when people start to lose both their jobs and their houses, a pattern which in the United States at least is considered far from over. It is remarkable that these two pillars of society (jobs and houses) are apparently so easily jostled and toppled. The American experience discloses that the housing industry had become a complete sham, the product of deliberate artifice. Not surprisingly the ramifications were widespread, pointedly tainting even the grandest of institutions at the top which sought to take advantage of the deceptive maneuvers. Considering the huge inventory of houses which are now on the market, a further decline in prices is expected.

A Walk Through the Forest


I can’t recall where I first read or heard the following tale, but it was a long time ago and it yet lingers with me all these years.

The device is reputed to have been the work of the ancient Chinese philosopher Lin Yu Tang. The thrust of this “game” is that one must answer the questions spontaneously, without hesitation or reservation, and your answers then predict some interesting features of your particular personality. Surprise! What we say says something about us!

Okay, so let’s begin.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Et Seq. – The Continuing Saga

After tossing and turning unremittingly since after midnight and having changed my dampened nightshirt at least once, I finally succumbed to the futility of staying in bed and got up. Apart from having weighed the options I was resolute to address head-on the demons which had arranged to torture me for hours. It was barely 4:15 a.m.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Boating on the St. Lawrence Seaway

It is I suppose a small confession that I don’t get out much, though I never imagined I would have been so amused by a couple of hours on a public boat tour in the 1000 Islands near Rockport, Ontario on the Ivy Lea Parkway, an adventure we undertook at eleven o’clock this morning along with a multitude of people. When I say a multitude of people, that seemingly indifferent description merits some enlargement as those people characterized one of the salient features of today’s escapade. Judging by what I was hearing, in addition to what I was seeing, the majority of the people on board were either tourists from all over the world (Spain, Mexico, Germany, East Europe, Cuba, the Orient and the West Indies) or what is more likely they were new Canadians, all of whom in spite of their obvious familiarity with another mother tongue were making a decided effort to communicate with one another in English (which was perhaps the only common language among them). I recall overhearing a tour guide reminding many of these people (who each wore a plasticized tag strung around their neck to mark their singularity) that after they returned to the mainland the bus was leaving at 1:15 p.m., and that if they missed it they would have to find their own way back to Ottawa. It occurred to me that these people may have been among those who were recently received into Canadian citizenship, coinciding with the ceremony of the Royal visit of William and Kate which began yesterday on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Canada Day. There was a distinctly festive air which prevailed among the people in this particular crowd on the boat tour, a buoyancy which I sensed was the result of more than merely a brilliantly sunny day on the open water on a holiday weekend.