Sep 17, 2009 | Brave Canadians |
They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun, and in the morning We will remember them In memory of our fallen Canadians: Pte Jonathan Couturier — Afghanistan September 17, 2009 Always Caring — Always Canadian — Never Defeated Support Our Troops — Wear Red on...
Read MoreSep 17, 2009 | Personal |
If they were still alive, today would mark my parents 60th wedding anniversary. So what does that have to do with the Noronic? For that matter, what is the Noronic? I grew up with an awareness of the Noronic, a Great Lakes steamship which burned in Toronto harbour on September 17, 1949. The fire remains Toronto’s worse ever disaster, taking the lives of 120 people, mostly Americans. The Noronic was docked at pier 9 on the night of September 16th, the fire was discovered about 2:30am. The cause of the fire was never determined. The 30 year old luxury steamship’s woodwork, well maintained with years of oil polish, served as an accelerant for the fire which quickly engulfed the ship. My parents were married the day the Noronic burned. My mother’s maid of honour never made it to their wedding as she was called back into work at the Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto. The hotel was one of dozens of buildings turned into temporary morgues and medical centres. My aunt filled in for the maid of honour and the Noronic entered the family history as a point of interest just as my great-grandfather going down on the Titanic has. When my mother died in March 2000 I asked the then interim priest of the Anglican church I attend to conduct her service. When Roy Shepherd met with...
Read MoreSep 14, 2009 | Brave Canadians |
They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun, and in the morning We will remember them In memory of our fallen Canadians: Pte Patrick Lormand — Afghanistan September 13, 2009 Always Caring — Always Canadian — Never Defeated Support Our Troops — Wear Red on...
Read MoreSep 8, 2009 | Personal |
A week or two ago I was right on the edge of heading to the closest Sony store to purchase a Sony ebook reader. I love having books with me when I’m out and about. I never know when I’m going to have some downtime where I could open a book and get some reading time in. I have an MP3 player and was able to listen to audiobooks but I really like reading. I mentioned this to my young sister, Lynn, who responded by telling me she really really wanted an iPod touch. I have in the past glanced at iPods but since I’m not a big listener of music, especially modern music I had not really looked very seriously at them. Sis explained to me that with the iPod touch I could run lots of applications, listen to podcasts and even read ebooks. OK, she caught my attention so I went off to do some research on these iPod Touch. Didn’t take me long to come around to her way of thinking. Not only did the iPod Touch do WAY more than the Sony eReader, it was about $20 cheaper. The decision was a no contest, I was heading to the nearest Staples to pick mine up. Interestingly enough, I had been introduced to iTunes and podcasts not long before this decision. A Twitter friend had directed...
Read MoreSep 7, 2009 | Brave Canadians |
They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun, and in the morning We will remember them In memory of our fallen Canadians: Maj Yannick Pepin — Afghanistan September 6, 2009 Cpl Jean-Francois Drouin — Afghanistan September 6, 2009 Always Caring — Always Canadian — Never Defeated Support Our Troops — Wear Red on...
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