The Canadian National Exhibition opened last week. That's always a signal that summer is on her way out of town and out of country too. But before she goes, we'll get another blast of hot and sultry.
While that's happening, my family is enjoying the Great Canadian Outdoors, eastern style. Frank, my eldest grandson, is camping on the lake near Port Burwell and Sam, my younger grandson, is on a five day river raft expedition down the Dumaine River in Quebec. My daughter and I enjoyed a campfire in her back yard on Wednesday evening. I won't name the location in case the fire pit bylaw enforcers, whoever they are, find out about this nefarious activity.
Also, the Viking and I were able to escape from the city on the weekend. It was a perfect day for driving through the countryside. On our return journey, we stopped in Stratford and strolled down the main street stepping into several shops along the way. I had to go into the bookstore of course. How could anyone not go into a book store called The Book Vault? I was delighted when I found three books I couldn't resist. The Story of Yiddish by Neal Karlen, The Highly Selective dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate, by Eugene Ehrlich,
[pssst I don't claim to be extraordinarily literate - perhaps the dictionary will help.]
and Colombo's All-Time Great Canadian Quotations, by John Robert Columbo. All those books for $15.72, harmonized sales tax included. Obviously they did not sell at their original prices.
I had not read any poetry in quite a while but then on a brief visit to the library, Impact: the Titanic poems, by Billeh Nickerson jumped into my hand. Powerful, moving, and yet spare, his poems capture the people, the ship, and the sinking. I had to read slowly with many breaks between the poems in order to appreciate all of them.
At the moment, I have a paying assignment and it is a challenge. There are certain hazards to proofreading and editing erotica. You can guess what they may be.
Until the next time.
