No Title

            Apparently my brain is mush today, so I’m just going to start typing and see what happens. I haven’t even left writing my blog as late as I usually do. It must have to do with being so social lately – it’s amazing how tired that makes me.

            So, let’s see. How do we do this? Words. We need words. Not just individual words, but strings of words forming some semblance of coherent meaning. Put them onto the page by pushing these little buttons. It’s quite a brilliant system, really. Much better than that staining of paper with ink or graphite thing. Neater, at any rate. And far more efficient than carving or painting rocks.

            It’s kind of symbolic, really. Words, sentences, paragraphs and such. Books are made out of loads of paragraphs, which are a bunch of sentences, each made of many words, which in turn are made out of several letters. Every big thing mage out of smaller things which are made from even smaller things. Just like everything in the universe.

            Galaxies. Solar systems. Planets. Countries. Cities. Communities. Families. People. Atoms. Molecules.

            Everything is put together from smaller things, working together to make a whole. Fascinating.

            There, I seem to have done it. Words on the page. Now I just need a title. Or do I?

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Keep on Rolling

            Continuing on last week’s theme of shovelling snow, I must now share an event from this past week.

            The night after I wrote my last blog post, we just happened to get a fairly heavy snowfall. Upon going out to shovel the driveway (this one also quite large), I made a discovery. This was perfect packing snow, the likes of which I hadn’t seen in years.

            For those of you less versed in snow, packing snow is snow that can easily be compressed into shapes – such as balls for throwing at people or to roll into snowmen. However, the important thing to know about packing snow is that it is much heavier than regular snow. So, while it is ideal for playing with, it is considerably more trouble to shovel – especially when there is a decent amount of is, like we had.

            So, I promptly experimented and discovered a new way to clear the snow from the driveway – by rolling snowballs. That’s right. Along with my wife and sister-in-law, I made snowballs and rolled the driveway clear.

            It wasn’t by any means perfect, but it was fun. The important part was that it got rid of the majority of the heavy snow, allowing the remainder to be cleared away with ease. Plus we ended up with an impromptu snow fort.

            So the next time you find yourself with a shovel full of heavy snow, try rolling your driveway instead. It could make your life easier and bring some fun to the dull task of shovelling the driveway.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Tunnelling Through The Snow

            Around this time of year, I always used to hope for a huge snowfall. Not just because it would mean school would be cancelled, but because I needed a lot of snow for my favourite winter activity: building snow tunnels.

            Of course, at the time, I didn’t call them snow tunnels – I called them igloos. This is a misnomer, because real igloos are constructed using blocks of ice (or packed snow), whereas what I made involved tunnelling out a mound of snow. Since we Canadians live in igloos year-round, it’s an important distinction to make. For the purposes of this blog, I’ll periodically call them igloos for simplicity’s sake.

            Anyway, the first time I made an igloo, it was a big family project. My parents, brother and I all worked really hard on it. To this day, I couldn’t say for certain how big that igloo was, because I was rather small at the time – in my memory, it was at least five-feet tall with a diameter of ten feet. Big enough for my entire family comfortably fit in, at least according to me. In reality, it was probably significantly smaller.

            After that initial construction, my brother and I got creative. We built a second, much smaller, igloo and attached the two with a tunnel. My poor mother nearly got stuck in that tunnel – it turns out adults are bigger than kids, but we were so proud of our accomplishment that we wouldn’t let her alone until she’d crawled through it.

            In future years, my brother and I became experts at tunnelling through the snow. This was, in part, for safety reasons. Around this time, there was a great deal of concern about kids getting injured in collapsing snow tunnels. One of my friends (you know who you are, and I know you’re reading this) was only allowed to play in our tunnels with us as long as she kept her head outside. My brother and I felt this was unnecessary because none of our igloos ever collapsed (unless we jumped on them or they melted) – we believe that the any that did were poorly constructed.

            Here are the guidelines we used for making our tunnels:

-          First, only use snow that packs decently. Light, fluffy snow won’t hold together well enough to form a solid structure. It is a good idea, once your pile of snow is ready to be tunnelled, to ensure it s sufficiently packed. To do this, carefully (so as not to leave footprints) climb to the top of the pile and roll down the hill. If the pile isn’t too high, it is also possible to jump lengthwise onto the top before rolling down. Repeat this until the hill is sufficiently packed on all sides and feel free to continue for as long as it’s fun.

-          Second, when tunnelling, make sure the walls are the correct thickness. If they are too thick, they could collapse from the weight. If they are too thin, they won’t be strong enough to hold up the structure. The ideal thickness is right before the point when you can see sunlight through the walls. The best way to achieve this is to tunnel until you can see a bit of light – then pack some snow over top of that and use that location as a guide for the continued tunnelling process. It is especially important to focus on getting the roof the right thickness, since that is the most likely part to cave in if there is a structural problem. In that event, a thinner roof is less dangerous.

-          Third, the don’ts. Don’t freeze your igloo – the process of freezing it will make the structure weaker and, in the event of a collapse, more dangerous. Don’t fill the walls with windows and doors – one entrance is enough, maybe one or two tunnels if you have a complex structure. And whatever you do, don’t jump on top of it – especially if there is another person inside.

Using these guidelines, my brother and I crafted many interesting snow tunnels. From a triplex of interconnected igloos to an igloo fort with a tunnelled outer wall, we had a great time every year we got enough snow (right up into out twenties). It helped that we had a large driveway – big enough to hold 6-8 card or 3 (friendly) dogsled teams. The snow needed to be shovelled anyway, so why not put it all in one place?

            So, if you’re stretched for things to do this winter, and you happen to get a lot of snow, try tunnelling. It’s a great deal of fun – just make sure you stay safe.

Disclaimer: To the best of my knowledge, that driveway has never had a dogsled team parked in it – and no, all Canadians don’t actually live in igloos.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Economic Insights

            ‘Tis the season of sales, a joyous time when a wide variety of items may be purchased for a fraction of their cost. Of course, most people are too delighted by the sales to stop and think about what the sales actually mean.

            When purchasing that wonderful item with the 50% off tag, it’s hard to think about anything other than how lucky you are. However, if you pause to consider the implications of that discount, you may come to realise that the store you are buying from is still making a profit. Not as much profit as before, but a profit, none the less.

            The fact is that most products in stores have at least a 100% markup from the wholesale price. This means that if you’re buying something for $100, the store paid $50 for it. This might seem unreasonable and horribly unfair, but it’s a necessity for the economy. When you purchase from a store, you aren’t only paying for the item – you’re paying for the space it has in the store, its availability in the store, the other items in the store that never sell, heating and power for the store, employee wages, and, of course, C.E.O. and investor income. That’s on top of the shipping and manufacturing costs.

            However, taking that all into account, sales still happen – and turn a profit. How? Increased sales. If a store buys ten of something and only sells half, at a 100% markup they are only breaking even. On the other hand, if they throw it on sale, people come in droves and all ten sell – perhaps they sell for less, but they sell for enough to turn a profit.

            Yet, what we see are the sales – a chance to save a few dollars. But, we aren’t really saving money, are we? We’re just paying less than we’re used to, when we’re paying for the excessive number of items produced. If we really wanted to save money, we’d refine the system to produce what is needed. We’d cut down on waste, excessive profits, and everyone would save money (making the people earning the excessive profits less desperate to have so much money).

            What I think would help the most, though, is if everything we purchased had a breakdown of where the money is going – like the nutritional information on food. That way we’d see where our money was really going. I bet that would really quickly change what people (who can be bothered) are willing to spend money on.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.