Dog Day Afternoon

A Boozy Blogoversary!

OMG this blog is

18 years old today!

Legal drinking age!

Can this blog be trusted

to drink responsibly???

Hail Ashphalta, Full of Grace, Help Me Find A Parking Space

Farewell, Joanne

In August, blogging buddy Joanne Noragon of Cup on the Bus passed away after a long life "defined by curiosity, conviction, creativity, and a willingness to speak up when she believed something was wrong," as her obituary stated so succinctly. Her engaging blog, which I read for many years, made clear Joanne's love for family, social justice, the environment, cats, and her great passion, weaving.

Although plagued in her final years by fractures and broken bones due to osteoporosis, Joanne continued to weave and sell her beautiful towels of many colours and superb craftsmanship. Here's some photos from Joanne's blog of her loom and the towels being woven on it --

For me, Joanne was a real inspiration and role model about how to live vibrantly into our senior years. She did not give in nor give up, no matter the challenges and difficulties she faced. She was independent, self-sufficient, and fully present in her creativity and positive, informed approach to life.

I will miss Joanne and her blog. But I will remember her every time I use one of her towels, of which I have a few pairs. Here's one of her towels now, doing yeoman service as always, catching drips from my coffeemaker and fending off a Viking gnome invasion in my kitchen --

Farewell, Cal

Late last month, blogging buddy Cal Heighton of Red Deer, Alberta passed away after battling cancer. He was the prolific, quirky blogger behind Cal's Canadian Cave of Cool. After finding his blog in 2010, I became a daily reader and commenter there for 15 years.

I enjoyed Cal's sense of humour, his fascination with comics and superheroes, his aesthetic appreciation of art and design, and his political astuteness about Canada, the USA, and the world. He also loved cats and his Ukrainian heritage (except beets). I learned a lot from Cal over the years and yes, he is why I'm now hooked on Marvel movies and fandoms. A lasting legacy or continuing curse, depending on your viewpoint, hahahaha.

As do we all, Cal had his issues and shortcomings which negatively affected his life. But his blog gave many people a welcome respite and break from the cares of the world, and I know he will be greatly missed in the blogosphere.

I like to think that Cal is now free to roam the universe as he always dreamed of doing, exploring and experiencing his True Life, going boldly where no one has gone before.

To Infinity and Beyond, Cal!

I'm B-a-a-a-a-a-a-ck!

And ready to resume blogging!

My first couple of posts

will be sombre ones, though --

tributes to two blogging buddies

who passed away right before I left on my trip.

I want to acknowledge them

before any more time elapses.

And then after that,

it will be blogging as usual.

Although it seems that nobody's blog feed

is working anymore (*shakes fist at Blogger*)

I sure hope that gets resolved soon!

I'll Be Back Soon

I'm off on another road trip,

this time to visit my sister.

I'll be back blogging again

in mid-September.

See you then!