TIME FLIES

There’s an old saying, ‘Time Flies when you’re having fun.

Have I got it wrong? Maybe. It seems to be flying by either

way. Whether you’re enjoying yourself or not.

There are moments when nothing seems to go right.

That’s when it’s best to sit back, take a deep breath. We

We must handle our ups and our downs.

Weather the storm. It will pass.

Writer’s comment: A change of pace. About our dogs.

A mother and daughter. ‘Coffee’. We didn’t name her.

We did her daughter ‘Rebelle’. It fits her to a tee.

I don’t know if German Shepherds are like other dogs.

They are so damn bright. We will say to them at nine at

night,” isn’t it time for you to go down to bed?”

A question, never a command. Coffee looks at us,

stretches and off she goes. Her daughter follows her down.

We follow them when the news on CBC TV ends.

GO FOR IT!

Looking back, it had to be a good friend of mine, the late

Stewart MacLeod, a writer, who’s kids got me started on

what would become an extension of my work.

I’d visit him whenever I found myself in Ottawa, our

nation’s capital.

The kids wouldn’t let me out of the house without

telling them stories they insisted I make up on the spot.

It wasn’t until I came home to Woodbridge from

working in Montreal much later when my nephews and niece, David,

Michael, Matthew and Belinda --– all grown-up now -- insisted

I tell them bedtime stories. With a twist!

They’d give me the plot and I had to make up stories based

on their ideas.

I’d sit with them in pyjamas and away I’d go. I’d be scolded

by their parents if I kept them up well past their bedtimes.

Author’s comment: These had to be good with definitive

plotlines: beginnings that caught their imaginations. A middle

keeping the plot moving and endings they never expected.

Why I never wrote them down at the time, I’ll never know.