A Trip Back in Time

A lake along a loop drive in Banff. I was going to write something metaphorical, but it's too much work.

I had a reasonably misspent youth, and I mean that in the good way. Reporters, we heard in J school, are supposed to have life experiences. I can’t remember the exact reason given though it is moderately obvious. The more you experience, the more you know, and the more you will question. You’re less gullible if you’ve been around a bit.

You never know when an experience from the past will work its way to the surface and be exactly what is needed.

My current WIP is about a mirror. This lets me write short bits in the lives of many characters. It’s fun and I get to use fragments of life from overheard conversations to stuff that really happened.

For example, back in the Pleistocene epoch my best friend and I stumbled into her house at 4 a.m. stoned out of our gourds. Our tummies cried for attention. We sacrificed dill pickle potato chips to the munchies gods and giggled in terror that the crunching echoing in our ears would waken her dad.

I’m tickled silly that I can now call this moment research.
I suspect as the writing continues so will the mining of the past as well as whatever I can scavenge from the world around me.
Everything has a purpose; it is just a matter of discovering what that purpose is.

What about you? Has that thing you did all those years ago proved to be something you need now? Or as you still waiting to see the good side of it?

Living Better Through Chemistry

Your thyme will come...

Warning: The following contains sarcasm. If you are sarcasm –challenged, then please know this means the literal interpretation of the words as rendered below is not the true intent of the piece.
Thank you,
The Management

How lucky we are in Canada. We had a federal government who cares so deeply for us that it is going to make it harder for us to get all those nasty, nasty natural health products.
Bill C-51 has passed second reading already and it was only introduced last month. Why, it usually takes months and months for a bill to be passed. This one is being fast-tracked so any product deemed illegal under its provisions can be removed from the shelves right away for our own good.

As a thoughtful, caring government, the Conservatives have included a provision allowing for agents to swoop in to health food stores and seize inventory. And best of all, the government doesn’t have to worry itself sick about compensating any of the businesses. We get consumer protection and taxpayer protection! All in one bill!

Our Conservative federal government has thoughtfully secured the market for pharmaceuticals. These drugs have been tested and re-tested and all the facts found during the tests are released to the public so informed decisions are made.
Why, all those thousands of years of herbal use really cannot and must not measure up to the few years of clinical trials. We really do live better through chemistry and our government knows it.

Why, yes. Yes, I do love Big Brother.

Bagged and Tagged

My cousin, the Bag Lady, very thoughtfully added me to her list of taggees for a recent meme. I like being tagged. It makes me feel like I belong in the world.
The rules-- Dog bless ‘em -- are I am to tell seven random and/or interesting things about myself. Then I have to get five blog buddies to play, too, and link to their blogs. And I have to post the rules.

My seven random things:

1. I can read upside down. My best friend in Gr. 11 could do this and I was danged if I’d let her reading skills outstrip mine. It came in handy more than a decade later when I asked a Court Clerk to look up a charge against someone for me. The charge was laid under the Young Offenders Act so she was unable to answer my question, but she kept the hard copy file open and spread out on the counter for a very long time.

2. I was a journalist for about 20 years. I never received a death threat, sadly, but I was threatened with lawsuits many times over.

3. Andy Williams is my favorite singer.

4. I will do just about anything within –-and occasionally without—-reason for the sheer experience of it. I have smoked pot, snorted cocaine, and inhaled laughing gas. I have also mixed amphetamines and alcohol.

5. I broke my leg when I was three. Dad told me not to climb up on the fence gate so I scooted up the second his back was turned. I got all the way to the top, wondered why I wasn’t to climb on it, and then fell backward with the gate on top of me. The hinges weren’t attached to the posts yet. I wore a walking cast on my left leg for three weeks.

6. I like heights, but because of the above I was scared to come back down on a ladder for many years. I climbed down frontward, if at all. If it was less than 10 feet down I’d jump instead.


7. We raised hogs when I was young. I discovered that sows could be ridden, albeit briefly, and it was best to get out of the pen immediately afterward.

I tag: Polly Kahl at Recovery Reconnaisance, Thomma Lyn at Tennessee Text Wresting, Michael at Avatar Lore, and two freebies.