I fell asleep at the breastfeeding appointment today, with Simon also asleep on my lap. I have faint memories of Suzy and lactation consultant Lana squeezing the areole (too tired to look up the correct spelling), of a nylon “kit breast” into the mouth of Armand, the afro-haired cabbage patch kid newborn. The heat was up in the consultant’s office, a south facing room in a suburban house, and the door was shut to keep out the poodle. When I woke up I noticed a dusty Christmas snow globe on the window sill and a sticker asking fire fighters to please, please save the poodle and the rabbit. Bunny was…

Can’t get this song out of my head Does anyone remember this music? I never imagined I’d be singing it to my wife to distract her from screaming labour pain… The Simon Eye NEW: Daily pics are back! The cam site page needs to be customized, but for now it just does what it needs to … show a picture! A big thanks to Elizabeth in TO for being the Simon Eye tester! Simon Tenzin Fraser Hickox was born Tuesday, June 15 at 3:38 p.m. Ottawa time. His arrival was greatly anticipated and nearly two weeks late. He is a big guy, weighing in at a whopping 9 lb 7…

One of these days there will be a birth announcement here. Sooner rather than later, hopefully. Suzy is now a week overdue and we’re starting to think this little bundle is never coming out. Last week was full of nervous anticipation. This week we are kinda bored. But there is exciting news! I’ve discovered that Mini Wheats cereal is now available in brown sugar coating, not just white. Oh, and the Green Party is now polling at 7% nationally.

So we have a choice this month between the old familiar Liberals, and the “New” Conservatives. Oh, yeah, and the Decades-old New Democrats. Is it any wonder why people are tuning out? Wouldn’t it be interesting to hear some new ideas? The Green Party has 6% support in the polls and candidates in all 308 ridings. They have a credible national platform, and offer a balanced and middle-of-the-spectrum approach. If you are surprised to hear this, it’s because The Media Doesn’t Want You To Know. This week, a consortium of executives from the main TV networks has decided that the Green Party should not have a place in the upcoming…

“Sometimes in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a reverie, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around…” (Henry David Thoreau. Walden) Jasper and I are back from the cabin in PEI. Watch for pictures soon. A few days in the woods is good for the soul. We rebuilt the bath house step, raked, and cleared out the spring. Friends brought us casserole with elbow macaroni in Pyrex. On Saturday afternoon we were in the side yard by the stream when I asked Jasper (4) if he’d…

Sometimes I dream I’m back in the south of France. It’s 1987. I have just two changes of clothes, a 10-speed bike that is four sizes too big, no money, and a forged rail pass for an 8 month university year in Nice. Not a great place to be cashless and clueless, but I wasn’t alone. There was a clutch of Canadians from the poor side of the tracks. We drank wine from tetra pak boxes and ate Baguette for all meals. Paté was our protein. I was anxious then, but not worried. And that’s a big difference. Life stretched before me like an untouched tapestry and we didn’t care…

Sunday was my wife’s birthday. She’s 34. Jasper wanted to give her something, so I thought I was so smart when I remembered that in my office closet was a bonus gift pack of Givenchy perfumes that I received when I bought Suzy a bottle of Amarige for Christmas. I remembered that someone had told me at the time that I could give the bonus gift to someone else — two gifts in one! The thing is, the person who told me was Suzy when she opened it at Christmas. Cadeau dejà vu. Lowell and Sharon are expecting. My brother and his wife, who live in Calgary, are due in…

Grandpa gripped my hand as I leaned over his hospital bed. There wasn’t much time. With the back of his other hand, he swept aside his oxygen mask and struggled to speak. “Remember: Love!” he said. His grip loosened. He was gone, and I didn’t understand. Until now. Ninety years earlier in south Wales, a six-year-old boy died. The death rippled through three generations and across the ocean to Prince Edward Island. In its wake were sadness, longing and doubt. Love had a limited meaning and we had forgotten why. The secret was buried in Wales, and is now set free. This is a story about the meaning of unconditional…

I write less here when I’m meditating more. Not sure what that means. I think it was Mordecai Richler who said that writing was his meditation. My meditation technique is Vipassana, a non-sectarian lifestyle practice that is connected to Buddhism but not beholden to it. (I don’t have a jolly fat man idol in my house). Vipassana strives to help people see things “as they are, not as you want them to be.” It’s a tough challenge. Essentially, what you do is sit or kneel in silence and start by monitoring your breath in and out of your nose. Then as the noise and clutter of your mind settles, you…

“How many horses does it take to haul your fat ass around town?” I’m sick of SUVs. We need to DO something about them. Who ARE these people riding around in these planet-killers? A guy in an enormous Lincoln Navigator gave me the finger the other day when I pulled out of a parking lot into the lane in front of him. Yeah, like he needed to worry. Had he hit me he would have crushed my wimpy Corolla like a bug. Fat ass! Child killer! Irresponsible twat! Happy Earth Day to you too, pal! Cool info from the Sierra Club Web site: “Switching from an average car to a…

Check out Laugharne, Wales. Beaches like PEI. Never snows. Seven pubs. 2000 people. One of Wales’ largest used bookstores. 100+ kids (and young parents). Did I mention it doesn’t snow? Take a tour of Laugharne. Be sure to click on “Scenery.”

I just spent 6 days in Wales, the land of my ancestors — story-tellers, miners, musicians, dreamers. I managed to trace my mother’s side of my family back to its origins in a tiny subsistence farming community called Disserth. The family name is Weale because Great Great Great Great Great Grandpa’s family lived next to a mill, powered by a water wheel. Yes, it’s that simple. If I’d been a Jones, the search would have been more difficult, of course. The strongest and most ambitious of the family left the farms behind in the mid-1800s and went underground in booming mining communities a few hours south by horse and cart.…

This web site has been pretty quiet lately, mostly because life has been the opposite. I just spent an hour throwing out old clothes and “rationalizing” my closet after realizing this week that I just spent 6 weeks living out of this house (for renovations) and did not once open the closet. So why is all that stuff there? The quest for “stuff” is a soul-sucking abyss, and I’ve fallen right in. It helps to have the perspective of memory. Some of my most happy days were spent wandering aimlessly and alone with just one change of clothes and a notebook. That was 9 years and a lifetime ago now.…

There’s a little town called Fenelon Falls about 3.5 hours drive south-west from Ottawa. No, I hadn’t heard of it either. And it actually takes longer to get there when you have a 3-year-old in the car, no map, and drifting snow. But what a cute little town! It’s basically one street lined with two-storey brick colonial facade buildings. Lots of handmade signs for tailors and restaurants and pool halls. The Tim’s is rightly banished to the other side of the falls. We went to Fenelon Falls to support our friend Mike Perry at his nomination meeting for the federal NDP. He was nervous, but got the speech off the…

You can now buy shrink-wrapped, pre-cooked boneless roasts of beef. Just pop them in the microwave and serve. The Maple Leaf Meats advertisement says “No longer do you need an occasion for a roast.” Shame. This is an all-time low in Canadian cuisine, eclipsing pre-cooked unrefrigerated bacon or mini translucent jellied salads with suspended apricot chunks. Loblaws has announced that it is building a new Superstore not far from my house, in a stretch of field that to now has been used as a neighbourhood vegetable garden. These huge stores are designed for more than groceries. You have to cross ailes of bulk goods and housewares to go from the…