Kevin 2009

Nothing But the Very Best For McDuff !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I was a lad we had toy boats propelled by elastics twisted around a stick that couldn't go one full length of the tub  .... wind up toy cars that barely made it halfway across the kitchen floor. Then along came friction toys and hotwheels when my two sons were young. But nowadays we have the mother lode of all toys with the remote controlled vehicles such as the truck in above pic which I bought for my youngest son , McDuff. I must add that he is having a ball with his new toy... it follows him down corridors and even into the bathroom to his great surprise... and can even bug him lovingly whe he is resting on his carpet or nudge him gently while he is sleeping under the dresser , etc He is simply overjoyed with his new contraption.

Strictly For The Chickadees !!

 

Alcatraz had its birdman and Fort Howe has its birdwoman........ and I live with her !! ..... and obey her every wish and whim..... On New Year's Eve I went to renew my auto plates for 2010 .... and could have paid $70.00 amen.. alouette ...et au revoir.....  thereby keeping my old plates while simply adding a 2010 sticker onto both ......... OR ......... to encourage wildlife conservation...... pay $102.00 and walk away with plates adorned with pics of deer , angler's salmon or the highly endangered species of the cute wee Winter nuissance.. the chickadee .... just kidding about nuissance ! Anyways and to shorten up this blog..... I told the girl at the motor vehicule bureau to fetch out 2 chickadee plates because without them I would be persona non grata in my own home.

In my younger years supporting wildlife meant throwing a party whereas by shelling out the extra $32.00 in my twilight years I guess I'm simply promoting our official provincial bird in its plight and fight for survival.

Did You Say THE Good Book .......or Simply A Good Book ?

 

Nothing beats cuddling up with in bed like a good book !! Well , maybe there is something else..... but I 'll save that for another blog. Anyways the " good book " I am referring to is but one of eleven volumes I hope to read between last September and the hearse's rumble......... This 11-tome series is entitled The Story of Civilization by Will Durant ...... the son of French-Canadian immigrants to the US during the late 19th century. In my humble opinion his wealth of historical knowledge and insight plus his masterful penmanship , humour and scholarly approach catapult him right up there on a pedestal alongside my two other favourite historians , Salvador de Madariaga and Hilaire Belloc.

Back in September I decided to start with Vol. 3 , Caesar and Christ ( History of Roman Empire and beginnings of Christianity ) ...a book of some 700 pages ..... and four months later I am barely half way through...... and here is the reason why !! Durant has injected so many cross-references from Roman authors ( Cicero , Caesar , PlinyElder and Younger , Suetonius , Sallust , Gellius , Horace , Seneca , Virgil , etc into his chef d'oeuvre to back up what he says about people , things and events that I have become bogged down reading all of them .... and then some !! .... and not in the English translations but rather in the original Latin.......... and therein lies the fun for me !! Maybe now my "wasted years " in a Catholic seminary back in the late fifties and early sixties doing my philosophy and theology in Latin will  start paying off in big dividends.

Beached Crustaceans....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no idea whether my readers are lobster lovers or not. Hereabouts we have oodles of the tasty darlings as most of the local fishermen are into lobsterfishing almost exclusively. As for myself , I can take them or leave them..... my Dad used to bring home a jute sack full of them when I was a kid that he had bought at the wharf for two bits ( $ 00.25 ). Fluff doesn't care to much for the renowned delicacy but every now and then I buy a couple and feast alone... along with some hot melted garlic butter.We are paying about $6 a pound which is dirt heap or even much less if we buy them off the fishermen themselves at the wharf,,,,, where they are trying to eliminate the middle men by selling directly to the public. Anyways on with the story..........

About ten days ago it was "perigee moon " time again when the moon is closest to the earth..... bringing on the absolute highest tides of the year to a corner of the planet blessed with already having the highest tides in the world on a daily basis. In itself the "perigee moon " gives coastal dwellers some worry .... but should it be accompanied by gale - force winds and rough seas the outcome could be disastrous....... and that is just what happened overnight on January 4th to 5th 2010 along the New Brunswick shoreline. Our local newspaper bore these headlines the following morning .... Storm Surge Brings Lobster Feast...... speaking of a small village named Petit Rocher it says "The surging tides that ripped... pummelled New Brunswick's eastern shores this weekend transformed this small coastal community into an all-you-can-eat lobster buffet."

The enraged waters literally ripped the lobster loose from their rocky ledges under the sea and carried them a$$ over kettles to the shore dumping them all along the beach All day long people headed for the coast armed with baskets and five-gallon pails and buckets .... gathering the mana from the sea!

P.S. In the above pic on the right this is normally marshland with streamlets in from the sea but at high tide on the 3rd in was completely flooded.

Crossing US Border ..... A Wedge of Boston Cream Pie !!

 

Between the years 1847 and 1860 some 154 , 000 Irish survivors of An Gorta Mor / Great Famine came ashore here in Saint John. Many stayed on here and became the local work force ( most members of my own family ) , some moved inland or upriver from the sea to farm or work in the woodcutting industry.... whereas the vast majority travelled overland or by coastal steamer to Boston .... and there they sent down roots. In reality ...... and when one looks closely at immigration documents  ...... we find that a great number of families split up with some siblings setting off on their own to Beantown ... a bit late for the Tea Party though.... while the more timid maybe and younger ones stayed on here with their parents. Growing up here back in the late 1930s and all the 1940s it was normal for relatives from Boston to visit ... especially during the Summer months ..... normal to receive Christmas cards from family in Boston !! I had Uncle Bill ( grandfather's brother ) and Aunt Mamie , cousins Annie , Ray , Dennis , etc ..... Nowadays ... with the modern generation of local Irish....... these once ardent ties are all but forgotten except for guys like myself...... and we are getting fewer and farther between ! Were they to do DNA testing with our North End Irish and the Mystic River Irish in Boston there would be continuous popping sounds in the lab signaling " hits"  .... somewhat akin to cries of BINGO during Lightning Bingo Night at Saint Peter's Parish hall.

All this , folks , to tell you that we took a ride today down along a sparkling coastline full of inlets  and a marvelous highway to " them thar good ole US of A " .... about an hour from here. We crossed over the Ste Croix River border post .... just north of Saint Stephen , New Brunswick on our way to nearby Calais , Maine. This is the northeasternmost border crossing in the USA ........ officially opened only last week by our very own lord and Chief Buffalo Chips ,  Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Conservative fame  ........ and I'll back off and let Fluff tell the rest.

The Prodigal Son

 

Today's writ shall be short and sweet...... no apology for past misdemeanours , no excuses for not sending out postcards during my recent trip to Pitcairn Island , no recruiting vendors for slap - chop kitchen marvel , no open-ended invitations hounding friends to come wander the Fundy Trail with us this coming Summer........ no , none of the foregoing ..... simply a statement of intention to blog more often ........ keeping them as interesting as I can ... sprinkled with a few chuckles.... I went over to Facebook for a while and am coming away amazed that so many people seem to be doing so much while understanding and doing so little........ and nobody has yet discovered how it really works !! I must admit though that it is a great place to find old friends you might have lost touch with. Old acquaintances from France  , Haiti , Ecuador , Mexico , Italy and Madagascar dropped in on me out of the blue.... former students rained down abuse upon me.. just kidding !!I'm back , baby ... I'm back !