"We are having a wonderful day giving out 36 lunch bags with socks to homeless downtown. Kids are really into it, taking turns sharing the holiday spirit. It’s wild how many others are doing the same. Makes my heart grow. We will hit one more shelter and head home . . and yes we are being safe!"
Have a fantastic day
Love
The Garlands
We had a quiet Christmas eve. Started a 2000 piece puzzle. Bronwen, Glenn and Eryn, and Katie, Jay, Bille, and Jackson visited Saturday for our christmas celebration. Lots of fun, noise and excitement. I hope that everybody finds as much family.
Today Carol and I will talk about going to the movies. Then we will discover that there is nothing that we need to see, or that the theatres are closed, or that the roads are too slippery, or that we would rather do the puzzle.
Merry Christmas
We kept Eryn at our place for a couple of days while Bronwen and Glenn moved into their new house.
2017 has been a heck of a year. Here are a couple of websites that have helped me maintain my sanity.
For Glenn's viewing pleasure:
We are in St Jacob's tonight. Picked appliances today in Kitchener. Then on to Waterloo to pick two fireplaces. Carol was disappointed with the selection. We think that we have the fireboxes picked, but the surrounds did not appeal. Tomorrow we meet Melissa the "upgrade" lady. My fear is that she will be a highway robber - crap is included in the purchase price but the good things cost real money. I keep telling myself that we will be OK. We can handle her. She is just the "Upgarde" lady. Then I remember that this is her game, and that we are the yokels and my heart goes cold.
I am listening to a bunch of Ron Hynes tunes tonight. Started with "From Dublin with Love" then on to "Dark River" and "Brown Eyes", finishing with favourites "The Ghost of Dana Bradley" and "Cape Spear". We saw Ron perform live twice. Once as part of a program about mental health and addiction. Katie went with me. He sat on stage with one of his doctors to talk about his addictions. Then he performed. I have never seen a performer give more of himself. The evening was capped with a showing of The Man of a Thousand Songs - his auto-documentary.
Years ago, I listened to Shelagh Rogers do an on-air telephone interview with Ron from the hall telephone at Bellwood Addiction Centre in Toronto. He seemed so sane, yet there he was in addiction rehab. He told how in a long-previous phone call to his mother he got the core of one of his great songs - "The Mother Who Bore You In Pain". It was a phrase she used as she expressed her anguish about his addictions. It was a song that Carol could barely listen to. He could not fix the problem but he could acknowledge his failures through the song. It was a brilliant interview. I have contacted Shelagh to find a copy of the interview. (Shelagh got back to me , she did not do the interview)
"Cape Spear" is such a friendly song with a good melody, some tricks in the lyrics, and wonderful images. When we were in Newfoundland in 2012 we went to the south shore and Cape Spear just because of this song.
"The Ghost of Dana Bradley" breaks my heart. After writing the song he visited her parents to get their permission to perform the song.
I do love sad songs. I have a big Ron Hynes collection. "Dry" . . "My Name is Nobody" . . "Carry this Cross" . . "Judgement"
Carol found a packet of old 616 negatives yesterday while going through some of our storage. The photos look like they were taken in the summer of 1947 when I was still a pup. There were a couple of pictures of me in my mother's arms (click photo to view), 3 of my sister - it looks like she was arriving at an airport, maybe North Bay to be with my parents for the summer, and a few of some Show kids, I think that I recognize Terry Gray. There were only 13 negatives. I scanned each at very high resolution and then flipped the tone curve to make them positive. They are now hosted in Fairground.
