December 19, 2025
And with that, the last full week before Christmas is over, with less than two full weeks until the $h!tshow that has been 2025 is over.
While you may take that sentence to indicate that I am in some foul mood, it is the very opposite of the truth. It has been a fairly good week since I last left you. Without going into too many details (which would certainly jinx things), there are a couple of exciting possibilities on the horizon. I want to thank those of you who reached out to me this past week with regards to the opportunity that is currently at the top of my “fingers crossed” list.
Meanwhile, I have been keeping busy with some of the household maintenance. With snow one day, melting temperatures the next and rain in the forecast, I have to keep the drain pipes clear, the bird feeder stocked and the sidewalks shoveled. (Again, I must give thanks to the small town generosity as we have a guy from down the street who plows our laneway.)
“You know you’re an adult when” you start looking around the house and are thinking “Man, we really need to look into fixing that in the spring.”
With the weather being the way it is, my Mom and I have stayed close to home, venturing no further than Ingersoll to get groceries and, in one case, visit the hardware store. This will probably be the routine for the next little while.
As I’ve been working away on some other projects here and there (some related to those exciting possibilities I was mentioning earlier), I’ve been semi-binge-watching some stuff. (I keep telling myself to binge-watch something but usually I end up putting MLB The Show 25 (this is the season the Jays win it all!) and listening to Sirius XM. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. However, over the last week, I’ve been watching Black Books (for the third time) and Galactica 1980…which is the cringe-worthy masterpiece people have always said it was. (I remember it being better.) I keep telling myself and other people that I want to rewatch Daisy Jones and the Six, so perhaps this is the weekend.
I finally caught up on Shoresy about a week or so ago. I wanted to be up-to-date when the new season arrives on Christmas Day. That’s one day I will spend binge-watching.
And speaking of Christmas Day, I want to wish everyone out there a Happy Holiday season, however you celebrate it. I’ve decided to take a large break from social media (I will check in to make some updates to those accounts that I maintain) but will be around on Facebook Messenger from time to time. As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
December 12, 2025
One of the (many) memories I have of my Dad is that around this time of year, he’d utter the phrase “I have winter!” and be golly, I have to agree with that sentiment right now. As anyone in Southwestern Ontario (which is where I expected most of my readers to be from, but then I get readers from Lulea, Sweden and Dublin, Ireland; to say nothing of Altoona, Iowa; Prineville, Oregon; and Forest City, North Carolina) knows, this area got quite the dumping of snow over the last few days.
My Mom and I are happy to report that a friendly neighbour from down the street who will come and plow out our driveway. That has really made a difference. I’ve also been cleaning off the front and back porches and have made sure our drainpipes are clear of snow and ice, as best as I can anyways. For most of you, this is probably not a huge deal. But when you’re a wimp like I am, it sure does take the starch out of you. (I will say it is kinda fun to bang on the pipes with a hammer and watch all the ice fall out of it.)
While I have continued the job hunt – and helping my Mom with household maintenance (and I say help because, even at age 79, she’s still doing waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy more than my lazy *$$), my Mom is contemplating a new venture for 2026. She’s going to take old furniture (that she gets from second-hand stores), fix them up, refinish them, repaint them (nothing too gaudy), and resell them. (I’ve been saying she should be promoting her projects for some time now.)
So, by next Christmas, if you’re looking for that hard-to-buy-for person on your list, give my Mom a shout. (She’s shy about it right now but I think this is an excellent venture for her.)
This past week, I have had several friends check in – mostly on Facebook Messenger, but one special one via email. It was really great to hear from old friends, especially this time of year and at this point in my life.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
December 6, 2025
You know, for a guy who is currently unemployed, I sure seem to be keeping myself busy, and for the most part, that’s been a good thing. Don’t get me wrong, my first priorities is the job hunt and I applied for several jobs this past week. (Fingers crossed that I hear something back next week which would make Christmas a little merrier.)
Mom and I headed into London this past Monday where I visited the headquarters of Shelf Life Magazine. In addition to visiting with Shelf Life’s editor and publisher, Paul Sutter, I picked up the latest issues and several new books to read and review. I went to work with updating the Shelf Life Magazine website. You can pick up the December 2025/January 2026 issue at the usual locations (including the Thamesford library) and can read excerpts from the issue on the website.
However, I’ve also had the opportunity to help my Mom go for groceries, and even stopped in at the Salvation Army Thrift Store – where I snagged a cool Bristol Raceway t-shirt, kind of a surprise). As much as I didn’t like the whole “Working From Home” thing during COVID, I’m tempted to start exploring that as an option in my job hunt going forward.
It hasn’t been all work and no play, (that makes Johnny a dull…some might argue, duller…boy). I finished up season four of Shoresy, prepping for the premiere of Season 5 on Christmas Day.
I’ve been watching a lot of stuff off the WWE Vault while I’ve been at my desk doing the job hunt and assorted tasks. I watched Clash of the Champions #15 (from 1991), a Saturday Night’s Main Event from the summer of 1989, the 1987 Survivor Series and, even now, am making my way through the four-and-a-half hour broadcast of the 1987 Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Tag Team Tournament. If this keeps up, I may have to start creating content for the Milner Mat Report page. (I know, I’ve just bored 90% of the people who were brave enough to read this far but sometimes I like to write for the final 10%.)
I decided to take a break from things and snuggled up in bed this morning. No phone, no internet until mid-afternoon and read one of the books I will be reviewing from Shelf Life, Twisted by Colum McCann. It’s an interesting story and ironically references Apocalypse Now which was based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness because there are elements of Twisted that reminds one of Conrad’s book. Definitely worth a read. (I will of course write significantly more than those few sentences when I do my review.)
As I said in a previous installment of this blog, it was good to disconnect for a few hours, not be hit with the boring, repetitive simmering pile of boring, repetitive, divisive BS that is social media in 2025. It was great to just dive head-first into a novel and forget anything else that’s going on in the world. I’ve been more and more tempted to use this blog not just as an update (although that will continue) but also as a platform to write about things not NASCAR or pro wrestling related. (I bet you can tell what my first such installment might be about. I guess you can all stay tuned for that.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
November 29, 2025
For any of you who didn’t read my most recent blog (feel free to scroll down) or even those who did but weren’t sure what I was talking about so vaguely, I guess the secret is out. I have posted it to my LinkedIn account and you all know that if it is on the Internet, it must be true.
A couple of weeks ago, I left my job and am now looking for my next opportunity.
I’ve been trying to stay in a routine as much as possible. I’ve been getting my desk in my home office every day at nine and working on the job hunt until my usual “Go Home” time of 4:30 p.m. To date, I have sent out a couple of hundred cold calls to businesses and organizations around Oxford County and have been checking the job boards every day. Given my druthers, I’d like to find something in Ingersoll or Woodstock, even St. Marys and/or Tillsonburg, but am not opposed to heading back to London if that’s where my path takes me. I was talking to someone the other day and I said that I basically am open to anything where I can create content, probably of the written kind. (I’ve even thought that a job where I did research would be a good fit.) If anyone knows of a job that would fit me, please feel free to reach out.
I have had several people reach out to me, wishing me luck and offering advice, all of which has come in handy. It’s made me think about different options and different ways to go about things. It’s also been great to hear that people have confidence in my ability to find another great job.
I will say that while I was never a fan of the “work from home” routine that we underwent during COVID, it has been good to be around the house these last couple of weeks to help my Mom with things. She’s got twice the energy I have at half her age. She’s repainted the second floor bathroom and is about to embark on doing the same to what we call “Cathy and Jack’s Room” (where they stay when they come to visit).
About twenty years ago, I wrote the second novel I ever completed and it remains my favourite of all the ones I’ve written. It’s always been my dream to get it published (especially since I have almost completed the pseudo-sequel to it). It’s tough to get in with publishers in this day and age but I found one that might take a shot at it. This past week, I wrote up the cover letter and have been working at enhancing the excerpt that I am going to include in my query. Wish me luck. If I can stay home and write novels, that’s my career path going forward.
Last Sunday, I decided to “disconnect” for the day. I didn’t have my phone with me. I didn’t sit in front of the computer, scrolling through social media. Instead, I stayed in bed and read for the entire morning. Didn’t check in with the Internet until late in the day and let me tell you, it was great not scrolling through memes posted by people I don’t know, hearing the same narrative repeated ten times, not seeing posts about TV shows I’ve never watched or seeing ads for products that I mentioned one time to my Mom but somehow phone heard about.
I didn’t stay in bed all day. My Mom and I ended up watching “A Complete Unknown,” the Bob Dylan biopic. My Mom wasn’t too keen on it but I’m a sucker for music biopics, so I enjoyed it. It also got me on a kick where I’ve been listening to Bob Dylan tunes (mostly the upbeat ones like “From a Buick 6” and “Tombstone Blues” off his Highway 61 Revisited Album).
Not sure how many people will get the reference but I’ve been checking out stuff on the WWE Vault channel on YouTube. Much like listening to music, sometimes I like to have some noise in the background as I work away. I was watching/listening to World Class Championship Wrestling’s Thanksgiving Star Wars 1985 event, the 1989 Royal Rumble and the 1988 Survivor Series earlier in the week.
One thing on the horizon for me is visiting the offices of Shelf Life Magazine and picking up the new issue, so I can update the website. I will be meeting with Paul Sutter, the editor, on Monday (weather-pending, of course).
I’ve also got some projects connected with my work with the Ingersoll District Nature Club.
I’ll give a special shout-out to the Nature Club. If anyone lives in Oxford County and would like to get involved with an organization that’s involved with nature, stewardship of the Lawson Tract, preserving significantly sensitive wetland in our Carolinian Zone, becoming more involved with the community and meeting new people (or knows someone who fits that criteria), think about getting involved with the Club. They have several outings throughout the year (including the upcoming Christmas Bird Count on December 27), host a Library Lecture Series at the Ingersoll Library, and help clean up the Lawson Nature Reserve. Check out their website for more info, including how to become involved.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
November 22, 2025
Ironically, my last post talked about it being a “quiet, one might even say ‘boring’ week,” and saying that might not be such a bad thing. As it turned out, the week following was anything but quiet.
About a week and a half ago, I decided to make a major life change. I won’t go into major details. It’s one of those “if you know, you know” type of situations. It wasn’t something that happened over night but was a long time coming. I have had a couple of people tell me it was the right decision. The more I think on it, however, I think it was probably for the best for all involved.
I have already started to put the work in to start the next chapter of my life. However, there is plenty of more work to be done. While I am taking tomorrow (Sunday) as a chance to rest and relax and get some reading done, I will be back at the desk of my home office bright and early Monday to morning to get back to work. (I even have my handy-dandy To Do list all prepped and ready to go.)
I also feel that there is an opportunity to get to work on some projects that I’ve been putting off for months (in some cases years) now. This past week, dealing with some health issues and helping my Mom with some things, I haven’t been able to devote as much time and energy as I would have liked but I am hopeful that may change in the coming week.
Speaking of things, since coming to the end of WKRP in Cincinnati, my Mom and I have switched over to watching Cheers. My Mom prefers WKRP (and I might have to agree) but Cheers has been growing on her.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
November 7, 2025
Greetings to my readers in London, Toronto and…Sarawak, Ontario?
This is going to be a short one. It’s been a quiet, one might even say, “boring” week. But I think you get to an age (and I’m there) where sometimes just having a week where nothing major happens isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I mean, sure…no lottery win, no announcement that my novels will be published but the end of the work week has arrived.
I’m not quite sure what to do with myself now.
There’s no more baseball until next spring. If you’re Canadian (since approximately 45% of the country watched at least part of Game 7) and you haven’t been living under a rock, you know the Jays lost. Obviously a lot of disappointment came out of that loss…but honestly, it’s made me want to start watching again. (Of course, my Mom may go hoarse if I get back to watching baseball regularly. She tends to yell at the TV…A LOT…when we watch baseball. She especially gets angry at the opposing team when they catch the ball.)
There’s also no more NASCAR until the build-up to the Daytona 500. I have to be honest, reading the NASCAR’s blue checkmark brigade’s (the so-called experts) response to both the Xfinity and the Cup championship was like listening to people talk politics. Yeah, I get it. Your side didn’t win so now you have to change everything. Grow up, people!
Anyways, I won’t go too far into any of that. (I can neither confirm nor deny that I am writing an article about this for my Track Talk site.)
Wait a minute! I just remembered something that happened this week. On Wednesday night, the power went off. It didn’t seem particularly stormy but around 6 p.m. the hydro went out. As much as I’m becoming less and less a fan of modern technology, having a phone to keep tabs on things came in handy. Multiple people said they had heard that the power would be back on at 8:15. Sure enough, at 8:12 p.m., the power came on.
Line of the night came from my friend, next door neighbour’s next door neighbour, and fellow NASCAR fan, Adam. Someone asked “What’s up with the power?” Adam’s response: It’s out! My Mom and I laughed for about 10 minutes over that.
My Mom and I are hoping to head out to Woodstock tomorrow to visit the One Of A Kind Antique Mall. She’ll be looking for John Grisham novels and I’ll be looking for NASCAR stuff, as always.
With it being November, it’s looking like bad weather will hit sooner than later. My Mom got the snow tires installed on the #3 Black Chevrolet. I know she was anxious about getting them done but she went to Kal Tire and that is one thing off our To Do list to prep for winter.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
November 2, 2025
Gutted.
That was how I was feeling at around 12:30 a.m. this morning.
I know. It’s just a baseball game. A Jays win or a Dodgers win wasn’t going to change anything in my day-to-day life. But I don’t believe I was alone in waking up this morning and thinking…
“DAMN IT!”
It wasn’t like the Jays were totally outmatched by the Dodgers. It wasn’t like they lost 10-0 four games in a row. In the 9th inning of Game 6, they had the tying run in scoring position with one out. In Game 7, they were two defensive outs away from winning the World Series.
In a way, maybe that made it worse. The win was right there. When Bo Bichette hit that three-run homer in the early innings, I thought “This is going to happen!” but by the 6th inning, it just seemed like the Dodgers were getting runners into position with no outs or one out, while the Jays would get two quick outs and then put a runner on. I figured it would eventually catch up to the Jays and unfortunately it did.
But that’s not to say that the 2025 Post-Season didn’t produce some memorable moments. The three-run home run by George Springer that helped clinch the American League Championship Series. The post-season hits record set by Ernie Clement. The phenomenal rise of Trey Yesavage. (Why are there no “Macho Man” Trey Yesavage memes?) The intensity of Max Scherzer. The energy of Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.
It was also seeing people wearing Jays caps, jerseys and shirts. The “Go Jays Go” that popped into people’s email signatures. This was a team that came together and brought a country together. It even made me, who was convinced an American organization like Major League Baseball would never allow a Canadian team win, believe.
It was a great run, boys! Let’s just not take another 32 years to get back to the World Series again.
This weekend is also Championship weekend in NASCAR. This may surprise you but NASCAR took a backseat to baseball on Friday night and Saturday. I PVR’d both the Truck and Xfinity Championship and tried to stay away from spoilers but without success.
I saw one thing that led me to believe Corey Heim hadn’t won the Truck championship. Turns out, they were talking about something else because Heim, in fact, is your 2025 Craftsman Truck Champion.
As for the Xfinity Championship, I went to check someone on Reddit and there was a post showing a diecast of “your 2025 Champion, Jesse Love.” I was sure that Connor Zilisch was a shoe-in for the title. While I was disappointed to have the results spoiled, it’s cool to see that a Richard Childress Racing driver won the championship. (I’m watching the PVR right now.)
This afternoon, the Cup Championship will be determined. Of the final four (Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe), I really don’t have a favourite. With the back story of Denny Hamlin (all-time most race wins without a championship, won his 60th race earlier this year and, most importantly, his father is very ill and this might be the last chance Denny has to win a championship with his father around). I don’t particular like Denny Hamlin but under the circumstances, I’ll cheer for him.
Oh…and I will be watching it live and in real time.
Sorry for not blogging over the last couple of weeks. There hasn’t been too much to say and I could only work my writing skills to make “Went to work, came home, watched WKRP in Cincinnati and Storage Wars” all that interesting. My Mom and I will be staying home more and more now that winter is coming. She’s taken on yet another home improvement project, first repainting her laundry/sewing room and then the kitchen.
She still somehow has a voice after yelling at the TV for the last couple of weeks. She doesn’t quite grasp that the opposing team’s players are supposed to try and catch any fly balls that the Blue Jays hit. 🙂 With the Jays finished for the year, and with us almost finished WKRP in Cincinnati, I’m not sure what we’ll be watching (besides the reruns of Storage Wars).
Edit: I almost forgot. I recently picked up the full series of Cheers on DVD, so we’ll be heading to Boston once we’re clear of Cincinnati.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
October 18, 2025
What is it about short weeks that seem long? I don’t know what it was but by Friday I had totally forgotten that Monday had been a holiday. Of course, my Mom thought today was Sunday, so perhaps it all depends on your perspective.
My Mom and I hit the road again this Saturday. This time we went north to Stratford.
Before I get too far into this story, can I ask a question? What is it about the drivers on Highway 7 deciding to try and pass other cars and sometimes transport trucks in the face of oncoming traffic? I mean, I know it happens everywhere (I’ve seen it on Cheapside in London) but it just seems like every time we travel along Highway 7, we see at least one instance of it. To say nothing of almost seeing a wreck in the parking lot at the Value Village where a guy in a pick-up made a left-hand turn mere inches away from an oncoming woman in an SUV. (She was so shocked, her mouth was wide open even as she drove by us.) Man, I thought drivers in London were bad.
Anyways, so yes, my Mom and I went to Stratford to the Habitat for Humanity, the Value Village, the Food Basics (instead of driving all the way back to Ingersoll) and I walked around the Festival Marketplace, mostly to see what GameStop had to offer. Turns out the big purchase of the day was another Keirstead painting for my Mom’s collection. (She was hesitant but I bought it for her.)
This weekend is Talladega in NASCAR (and how great is it that Austin Hill won the Xfinity Race for Richard Childress Racing) but it’s also going to be the end of the Blue Jays drive towards another World Series berth. Sorry, flock faithful, but you could tell they were doomed after the sixth inning of the first game of the ALCS. All was well when they were cranking out home runs and double-digit run tallies against the Yankees in the Division Series but as soon as they went down a run against the Mariners, the team, the crowd, the commentators – all of them folded like a cheap suit. Dan and Buck started talking about how few hits the team had, the crowd suddenly looked bored to be there and the team just gazed out from the dugout.
I know that, after being down two games to none, they headed to Seattle and took two of the next three but unless they can overcome the “folding at the first sign of trouble” issues of the first two games, the Blue Jays will have to wait until 2026 for another crack at their first World Series since Joe Carter’s three-run home run in 1993. It’s fine to have the “We Want It All!” tagline and home run jackets and bring Joe Carter come out to remind the fans of past glory but they need a team that doesn’t just sit there and wait for the innings to play out.
As a matter of fact, instead of signing a 20-game winner or a 50 home run hitter, go out and get a spark plug who will pump up the team when the going gets tough, the tough need to get going.
Now I hope I’m wrong and by tomorrow night, I’m celebrating another RCR win at ‘Dega, this time on the Cup side and the Jays re-tying the series with momentum into a Game 7.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
October 12, 2025
Happy Thanksgiving weekend, for those of you who celebrate. (Man, I’m old enough to remember the days when you could just toss out a holiday greeting and let the chips fall where they may.)
Sorry for the lack of updates last weekend. I was busy on Saturday (more on that below) and by the end of the day, my eyes were hurting, so I decided to spend Sunday off-screen, or rather switching from the computer screen to the TV screen. I’m even delayed a little bit this week as I had the next thing to a migraine yesterday but am up and at it again this morning working on my usual weekend To-Do list.
As for last weekend, the weather was a lot better (no fog, unlike the September 27 weekend) and so we hit the road to Delhi’s Courtland Treasures and Antique Emporium. For the first time ever (okay probably not the FIRST time, but one of the few times), I don’t think I left one of the antique stores without anything NASCAR-related. (Although it has been a week and it’s possible I’ve just forgotten.)
What I did leave with was the compete series of Cheers and Sabrina the Teenage Witch on DVD. My Mom and I are still making our way through WKRP in Cincinnati but since we’re into the last season, I figured we needed something to move on to. (I believe most of the episodes of The New WKRP in Cincinnati are on YouTube so I’d be interested to check those out at some point.)
After the visit to Courtland Treasures and Antiques Emporium, my Mom and I went to Fabricland where I helped her pick out some material for couch pillows, went grocery shopping in Ingersoll and then headed for home. Apparently, I follow in my Dad’s footsteps. My Mom said my Dad had a good eye for material and colours and patterns and now, on two occasions, my Mom has said I’ve been on the mark in terms of choosing patterns, colours, etc.
While we continue to watch WKRP and Storage Wars, we’ve been adding baseball to our “Must Watch” list, since the Blue Jays are in the post-season. (Before anyone accuses us of being late getting on the band wagon, my family and I have been following the Jays since the 80s.) Believe it or not, last weekend we were switching between the NASCAR race and the ballgame. Quite honestly, we should have just focused on the ballgame rather than the snoozefest that is road course racing. Tonight (depending on when you read this), I’m hopeful that the Cup race from Las Vegas will be over before the first pitch of the ALCS. (I just hope Caleb Humphries stays away. You may need to look him up.)
Meanwhile, I paid a visit to Shelf Life’s headquarters to pick up copies of the latest issue and books. The website has been updated with excerpts from the October/November 2025 issue. Check it out and add some of those titles to your “To Read” list.
With the three day weekend, my Mom and I decided to stick around Thamesford. I woke up with a wicked headache on Saturday and it really curtailed me getting too much done, although much like last weekend, I did watch a few episodes of Sabrina The Teenage Witch. (What? It’s a fun, quirky little show and one of the few shows to feature a cat as a main character.) However, I feel much better today and am getting some work done, including updating my blog.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
September 27, 2025
Happy post-Rapture, for those of you who celebrated….although I am guessing if you did celebrate the Rapture, you probably have better things to do than sit around on a Saturday night reading my blog.
This week was a rather interesting one, as it was fairly busy at work. I ended up covering a couple of events in the late afternoon/early evening.
But if I’ve been busy at work, my Mom (as regular readers of this blog should be aware by now) continues to remain busy, working on projects around the house. This week, she decided to tackle the workshop in the basement, specifically that section that still remains dedicated as a workshop, as opposed to the section that has become an addition to my “home office.” She tore down some of the old shelving and re-arranged the set-up of the workshop, and then cleaned up the mess.
“It’s my therapy,” she says.
The plan was that my Mom and I would get up early, take a load to the dump, continue on to ReuseApalooZaha in Mt. Elgin and to Delhi, then come back to Ingersoll for groceries. Well, Mom and I had everything packed up by 8 a.m. and were on the road.
And within about five minutes or so, we knew we had to make some changes to our plans. I’m not sure how many of you were out on the roads in Oxford County this morning but we were going through some of the worst fog I have ever seen in all my years.
To quote a famous movie, “the fog is getting thicker…and Leon is getting LARGER!” (Anyone who gets that reference, tell me on Facebook Messenger.)
While we knew what had to go to the dump and get groceries, everything else was a “Nice to do,” not a need to do.
By the time we got home it was sunny and bright out in town, but we weren’t sure what it would have been like out on the open roads. We decided to leave anything else for another day and get some work done around the house. I have to say that our workshop looks great now, very clean and tidy and a lot more open than it had been.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
September 20, 2025
A couple of Sundays ago, I was ready to start what I hoped would be a productive day in terms of my To Do list. Instead, my laptop started to type by itself, endless repeats of the slash button (////). So instead of working away, I tried everything I could think of to get things back to normal. I tried to change keyboard. I tried to see if I could undo the latest updates. (Turns out you can’t or at least I couldn’t.) I tried to reset my computer and then install updates. Nothing worked.
At the same time, the laptop in question was about five or six years old so I figured it was time for an upgrade. I headed to Amazon and checked out all the stuff I wanted and a few days later the laptop showed up. I didn’t dive into the set-up right away since my sister and nephew came down for the weekend (more on that later). However, after they left, I went to set things up and needed to remind myself what language to use on the keyboard. I took a chance and checked out my old laptop.
The <bleeping> thing was working fine!!! ARGH!!!! Oh well, I’m still glad I got a new laptop and I’ve managed to get it pretty much set up.
As I referenced in my most recent post, my Mom and I went to the ReuseApalooZaha in Embro. (The next one is this coming weekend in Mount Elgin.) I didn’t get anything but my Mom got several books, a whicker flower stand and a small china cabinet that I’ve been utilizing as extra storage. (The photo that accompanies this blog post is one I took as we left ReuseApalooZaha.)
Last weekend, my sister and nephew came down for a visit. They had to leave their new cat, Isabelle, at home by herself, but it sounds as if all went well. The four of us took another trip to the One Of A Kind Antique Store. I can’t recall too much of what was purchased (I got a diecast of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s 2003 Test Car) but it was great to peruse what the store had to offer. My nephew later kicked my *** on Star Wars: Battlefront.
The original plan was that Mom and I would head to Glencoe today to attend the Glencoe Fair Parade. However, by mid-week, Mom just wasn’t feeling up to it and so we decided to stay home. Instead, we got up and did some yard work. I got back to work on some tasks in my “office” and Mom tackled her latest home improvement project, adding floor tiles to the main landing by the side door and at the bottom of the basement steps. For someone of her age, she is definitely putting someone of my age to shame in terms of the hard work she’s doing.
It’s not even weird when she talks to Dad, claiming that he must be up there laughing at her any time she ran into trouble. I have to respectfully disagree: I think he’d be darn proud of her for all the work she has done.
She is, however, wishing we’d spent the day in Glencoe. Her knees may not be happy with her in the morning.
Aside from watching PVR’d episodes of Storage Wars and the DVD of WKRP in Cincinnati with my Mom, I got back into watching The Trades over the last couple of weeks. Of course, I just nicely got into a routine of watching the show and the episodes ran out. My understanding is the cast and crew are back at it, filming new episodes for the next season. Can’t wait.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
September 5, 2025
It has been a rather strange week for me. It was already going to be a short work week with the Labour Day weekend. But then on Wednesday I woke up with a bad headache. I didn’t think too much of it but by noon…well, let’s just say I knew it was more than just a bad headache and I was headed home. (By the way, anyone heading east or west on Highway 2 just past Three Bridges around 1 p.m…sorry if the results of my stomach churning made your stomach churn.) This was one of the worst migraines I’ve had in a long time. Usually they are gone by nightfall but this one just kept hanging around and I ended up staying home on Thursday. The headache was largely gone this morning but I still had a touch of a queasy stomach, but I’m 99% healed up now.
Which is good because tomorrow my Mom and I are headed to ReuseApalooZaha in Embro. I have collected up some books, some T-shirts (yes, shockingly I am getting rid of several of my NASCAR t-shirts) and some other odds-and-ends to donate to the event.
One other weird thing that happened is that I saw a former co-worker of mine on my way home on Tuesday night. Thankfully she didn’t see me. (I literally had to do the whole “putting my hand up by my face to shield her from seeing me” thing.) It’s always weird when you see people you haven’t seen in years like that.
While this week was kinda weird, it was mostly quiet otherwise. With the three-day weekend last weekend, however, I actually got a fair amount of my “To Do” list. I don’t know what it was but I went into the long weekend with a lot of energy and ambition and it transformed into me stroking a lot of the small items off my To Do list. Some of the items were things my Mom wanted to help her get done (like print photos from our recent trip to Little Hobby Hill Farm.
I mean, I still have a number of larger items that I need to stop procrastinating about and get done. Still, I felt pretty good about my progress. (I think it was a matter where I told myself “I have three days off, I’m getting something done!” )
Now, I felt good mentally but there was a point over the weekend where, for a few minutes, I wasn’t feeling too good physically. My Mom had two plastic garbage pails that she wanted to rid of. I suggested she take them to ReuseApalooZaha but she said they were in too rough a shape. Instead, she wanted to break them down and take them to the dump. She was stomping away on one so I had the bright idea to run and jump on it. Sure enough, I cracked the darn thing. One down, one to go.
After breaking the first pail, I remember thinking “That could have turned out real bad. I could have slipped and fallen.” However, that thinking did not prevent me from taking another run at breaking down the second garbage pail.
Well, the second pail must have been made of sturdier material because it didn’t give. Instead, I ended up flat on my back (and on the cement as well). My Mom said I looked kinda mad when I landed (did she expect me to be happy?) but once I landed, I started laughing because I realized how ridiculous I must have looked. (Sadly, my Mom was not filming it so no video exists.) I was afraid I was going to get a bad headache at that point but other than my hand hurting for a bit and my arm hurting when I stretched it for a couple of days, I really got off easy, all told.
And yes, I realize what a stupid thing it was to do!
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
August 29, 2025
Happy Labour Day weekend, for those who celebrate. I am embarking on a three-day weekend and hope to get a lot accomplished. (Of course, those of you who know me have probably heard me say something similar before every weekend, long or otherwise.) This time, however, I really think I am going to be able to get a fair amount done.
I blame my Mom. (“Oh yeah, blame the mother!” she always says.) As I stated before in this blog, (in the previous entry actually), my Mom has embarked on a number of home improvement projects. Last weekend, I helped her paint the outside window sills, planted four miniature evergreens, cut about half of our large evergreen tree and took a load of branches, etc., to the nearby dump.
The task was highlighted by me accidentally squirting my Mom with the hose. (I was trying to unscrew the nozzle.) I also rediscovered that, for a wimp like me, a little physical labour really tires you out.
However, this past Thursday, my Mom got a couple of larger evergreen trees and, after I got home from work, I helped her plant them in the front of our house. The time and effort it took to plant the trees really seemed to energize me. I ended up tackling my To Do list one night early. Nothing like getting a bunch of stuff crossed off your Weekend To Do list before the weekend even begins.
NASCAR is headed to Darlington (and Portland) this weekend, so I will have some racing to watch for the first couple of days. Still not sure what will grace my TV screen on Monday, though. Do I rewatch Daisy Jones and the Six? Do I see what the NASCAR channel on Tubi has to offer. Should I continue my recap of the 1987 NASCAR season over on Track Talk? Otherwise, it will most likely be a quiet weekend. Ironically, this long weekend will be the last where there’s nothing really happening until the end of September.
There will be two Reuseapaloozahas happening this month. The September 6 installment will be in Embro and, on September 27, Mt. Elgin will host the event for the first time, I believe. My sister and nephew are coming down on September 13 and the week after (September 20) is the Glencoe Fair Parade.
Well, I could either give my opinion on the Taylor Swift engagement or I could just sign off. Think I’ll do the latter.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
August 22, 2025
This may be a short one since it’s been a quiet week around the ol’ Milner homestead, at least for me. My Mom, on the other hand, is ramping up to get some home improvement projects underway. She shimmied up a ladder and got the last few window ledges painted on the house. I had to help her with the last couple because someone needed to hold the ladder. (My Mom was determined to do them herself, plus she wouldn’t let me paint them in NASCAR paint schemes. SIGH!) She also headed out this morning and got four small evergreen trees. Tomorrow, I’ll give Mom a hand in getting them planted around the house. (Around the outside of the house, I should probably clarify!)
Other than that, it should be a quiet weekend. NASCAR’s regular season finale for the Cup Series will be taking place under the lights at Daytona tomorrow night. (The Xfinity race is on even as I type that.) As per usual, I will post my prediction for how I think the playoffs will shake out over on my Track Talk page, probably Sunday. (I already have my predictions for the Truck Series posted.)
I want to give a shout-out to my buddy Jason Kurn. Over the last year, he and I started exchanging voice mail messages through Facebook. It’s been a really cool way to connect with Jason. We’ll talk about our respective jobs, reminisce about stuff, talk about different songs, etc. Sometimes it’s a few minutes. Other times it’s just 30-45 seconds.
I’m totally open to hearing from anyone (that I know) either via text or voice mail message on Facebook Messenger or via email.
August 16, 2025
Today, My Mom and I took to the “backroads of Ontario” as my Dad used to say, heading to Aylmer to start our trek along The Talbot Trail tour of town-wide yard sales. Starting from Aylmer, we went through places like Summers Corners, Seville, Richmond, Staffordville, Froggetts Corners, Vienna and finally coming to Port Burwell.
My folks (back when Dad was still with us, in person, rather than just in spirit) and I had gone along the trail a couple of times in 2017-2019 and while we never got a lot, there seemed to be quite a few sales. This year, once we left Aylmer, we didn’t see anything until we got to Vienna. There were a couple of sales there and quite a few in Port Burwell.
Rather than retrace our steps, we decided to drive on to Copenhagen and back to Aylmer because we had missed one yard sale and I wanted to check out a store (which ended up having gone out of business, I must assume). Believe it or not, the last yard sale we went to was the only time I saw anything NASCAR-related. (A Jimmie Johnson t-shirt celebrating his 2006 NASCAR Championship with no price tag on it, so I passed.)
Over the course of the journey, my Mom got a book and a little pot (a casserole dish, not weed, just to be clear). But while we didn’t get a lot of treasures, it was nice to hit the road and get out of the house. While it might have been a trip along the Talbot Trail, it was also a bit of a trip down Memory Lane for us, especially my Mom remembering previous trips we had taken with my Dad.
We didn’t go all the way down to the lake and my Mom remembered us checking out the HMCS Ojibwa during one of our previous trips. Since a straight run from Thamesford is less than an hour, I have a feeling we may not have taken our last trip to Port Burwell this summer.
As we drove along the Talbot Trail, I was seeing the sights thanks to my brand new pair of glasses. I had gotten a call from my optometrist last weekend and so I headed to Arva on Tuesday after work to pick them up. I only wore them sparingly this past week because I didn’t want to get a migraine. However, with this being the weekend, I figured I could/should give them a try. They are progressives so they take a bit of getting used to but the more I wear them, the more used to them I get. One positive thing is that I can now see things (far away) clearer through my right eye and, while i haven’t checked it out too much yet, it looks like I am able to read better up close (as in books). Once I get a shave and a haircut, I will most likely update my Facebook profile photo to showcase my new glasses.
There’s more of John Milner’s blog to come but I want to toss out a couple of links here. (I could leave them to the end but they deserve to remain higher up.)
This past week, I finished the update for Shelf Life Magazine’s August/September 2025 issue. You can check out excerpts from the issue here and get your copy at local libraries in London (and Thamesford – plus Ingersoll, I believe). If you are looking for your next great read, check out the website and get your copy today.
Next up is a link to a bit of fan-fiction I guess you might call it that I wrote a couple of years ago and decided to post it. For those of you who remember the 1996 movie, That Thing You Do, that marked Tom Hanks’ directorial debut, this is a faux magazine article that basically presents the after-stories of most of the main characters. I find it interesting and I hope you will too.
And so, in the final installment of “Weird sections of John’s blog,” is my list of my favourite Storage Wars buyers. Back about ten years ago, my folks and I were big fans of the A&E series Storage Wars. A while back, I started PVRing the re-runs of Storage Wars and my Mom would watch a couple every night. I’ve always had my favourites so I decided “Hey, ranking my faves would be a fun exercise and give me some more content for my blog.” A couple of caveats: I’m only ranking the buyers. Dan and Laura are my favourite auctioneers, followed by Emily, and then that father-daughter team whose names I forget. Speaking of forgetting, I have a feeling I’ve missed at least one minor character (just can’t remember who).
Meanwhile, here is the list:
- Kenny Crossley
- Brandi Passante
- Mary Padian
- Barry Weiss
- Ivy Calvin
- Lisa DeLarios
- Ivy Calvin, Jr.
- Darrell Sheets
- Jarrod Schulz
- Brandon Sheets
- Gunter Nezhoda
- Isaiah Calvin
- Dave Hester, Jr.
- Dave Hester
- Edwina Registre
- Shana Dahan
- Lupe Riach
- Dusty Riach
- Casey Nezhoda
- Mark and Matt Harris
- Rene Nezhoda
- Justin Bryant
- Mavrick
- Mike Karlinger and Herb Brown
- Nabila Haniss
- Mark Balelo
- Chad
- Jeff Jarred
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
August 8, 2025
I know it’s the usual gripe that the first week back after a vacation seems to drag but, for me, it seemed to go fairly quickly.
I am happy to report that I met with Paul Sutter, Editor and Publisher of Shelf Life Magazine, the bi-monthly book review publication that I have been writing for since …about 2000, I want to say. (I’ve been doing the social media and updating the website for a number of years as well.) I picked up copies of the August/September issue and a few new books to be read and reviewed. I will be working on updating the website with excerpt from the new issue this weekend. Meanwhile, you can check out previous issues at https://shelflifebookreviews.wordpress.com/.
Other than that, it’s been a quiet week. My Mom and I have started watching WKRP in Cincinnati, an episode of two every night. For those who are too young to remember, WKRP in Cincinnati was sit-com back in the late 70s – early 80s about a struggling radio station that switches from easy listening to rock’n’roll. Before The Office, it was OG workplace comedy.
It was sadly ironic that just a few days after we started watching that Loni Anderson, who played receptionist Jennifer Marlowe, passed away earlier this week. I will say that, so far, WKRP still holds up almost 47 years later. (WKRP premiered in 1978.) The only thing is that the theme song, once you hear it, gets stuck in your head.
I went to find a link to the theme song and came across this version that is significantly longer. (Of course, they only had 30 seconds to air it before each episode began.) Like a lot of TV theme songs, there’s an extra verse or two that seems to talk more about new program director Andy Travis’s back story that gets filled out a bit more in the Love Returns episode (Season 1 Episode 7).
P.S. Another 70s/80s TV show whose theme had an extended version, so to speak, was The Dukes of Hazzard. I remember one day my Dad and I went to the Canadian Tire in London and I saw a Waylon Jennings Greatest Hit cassette and it had “Good Ol’ Boys (The Dukes of Hazzard Theme)” on it and so I bought it (or rather my Dad bought it for me). I was like “Hey, this isn’t what they sing on the TV show.”
Got any more examples? Drop me a line on Facebook Messenger or via email.
August 1, 2025
Well, all good things must come to an end and, sadly, my vacation is just about over. I guess, as of 4:30 p.m. today, my vacation is officially over, since it’s a three-day weekend for many people (myself included).
I will admit, while these last two weeks seem to have flown by, it also seems like I’ve been on vacation for quite a while. I came in to this vacation with a bunch of projects I wanted to tackle. If I am being honest, I am, as always, disappointed with my progress on those projects. If I am being perfectly honest, I’ve got a fair amount accomplished, it’s just that there’s always so much more I want to get done.
I still have a couple of things I want to get done before I head back to King’s but for the most part I am going to be taking a “vacation” from my To Do list. Sit back. Watch a couple of movies. Hang out on the back porch and do some reading. Just relax.
One thing I did do today was travel over to Glencoe again. I think my Mom and I ended up being one of the first people to use the new traffic lights at the Melbourne Town Line. The reason I was in Glencoe this time had nothing to do with visiting the old home town.
I bought a cemetery plot. It was something I had been thinking about for a while. My family bought a plot out there at Oakland Cemetery when my sister, Kerri, passed in 1980 and so my folks bought three plots, initially for Kerri and eventually for my Mom and Dad. I wanted to be buried in the plot next to them and thought I better get at it before someone one did.
I did a bit of writing here and there. I posted a couple of articles to my Track Talk blog and an article about World War I flying ace Tom Williams. I’ve also decided to post some of my writing on my website. Back in the 1990s, I wrote a novel called A Time of War. I’ve always wanted to get it published (and have tried to on a couple of occasions) but decided to publish it online. I have a couple of other novels, one completed, one nearly completed (although I keep wanting to add to it) and another one I recently started. I posted the completed novel but am not sure I’m ready to show it to people. Meanwhile, check out A Time Of War and tell me what you think.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email. (It’d be nice to know someone is reading it. I’m beginning to think the readers from Sweden, Germany, North Carolina, California, and Oregon are bots. The weird part is WordPress says they’re coming from my Facebook posts – which are set to “Friends Only.”)
July 26, 2025
For those of you who had to work this past week, you are welcome for me making that week go about as fast as I can remember a week passing by. I guess that’s what happens when I go on vacation, the earth’s rotation just naturally speeds up. Considering how long the week prior to my vacation seemed, I guess it all evens out.
While this past week seems to have flown by, it’s been a fairly busy one. As you may have read in my last post, my Mom and I went out to Glencoe for the town-wide yard sale. We also went to the bank to ask a few questions about my house and mortgage, just future planning but nothing we plan to do for a while (if ever).
My sister and nephew came down for a few days mid-week. We went into London so my nephew could go to Plato’s Closet. I walked down to Chapters and ended up purchasing NASCAR Mavericks and Dylan Goes Electric. In addition to a trip to Value Village, I assumed that would be about it. However, we ended up going to a couple of pet places (a PetSmart and the local humane society) to check out some kittens. My sister and nephew seemed to enjoy it but my Mom said it bothered her and, to be honest, while I liked seeing the kittens, there were several older cats who looked sad and scared. Needless to say I don’t think we’ll go back until we’re ready to actually get a cat. I’ve been telling Mom that we should wait until the fall. While we may not be ready to get another cat, we already have a name picked out: Joey (after Logano and Tribbiani).
On Wednesday, we went to the Little Hobby Hill Farm, located just south of Ingersoll. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but we had a great time. You get the chance to interact (feed, pet, even pick up in some cases) goats, chickens, ducks, alpacas, rabbits, puppies and kittens. If you follow me on Facebook (which I’m guessing is 90% of those who are reading this), you probably saw my post with some of the photos. The best part for me was when I scooped up one of the baby goats and held him. I wasn’t sure how the goat would react but he/she left me pet it and it ended up basically going to sleep on me.
Mom and I took a day trip on Friday and may head into London on Monday to do some “treasure-hunting.” Other than that, I am hoping to be able to just take some time to work on some of the projects I’ve wanted to get done during my vacation. I’ve been working a bit here and there on some of those projects but really need to sit down and get some stuff crossed off my To Do list. I’d also love to take a day and just veg, binge-watching something. (Maybe I’ll get back to work on recapping the 1987 NASCAR season for my Track Talk website.)
I started watching a movie called Von Richtofen and Brown, about the famed World War I flying aces (although from the Wikipedia entry, it sounds like it wasn’t really too factual). What surprised me was that it was directed by Roger Corman, the same guy who directed all the low-budget horror movies back in the 1970s.
Of course, my “Project 56” continued – or at least tried to – and I turned 56 on Friday. (Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes.) I can’t say Project 56 was a total success but perhaps we could consider it a work in progress.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
July 19, 2025
And with that, I am now on vacation. (Well, actually I was on vacation as of 4:30 p.m. MT (My Time) yesterday afternoon.) As mentioned below, I am hopeful of getting a few appointments and long overdue tasks taken care of. At the same time, I’d like to get most of my travels out of the way during the first week and make it a true “Staycation” during the second, but we will see how it goes. (My Mom is already planning for me to help her with doing some work around the house, which I will be happy to do.)
My first day of vacation went pretty well. My Mom and I went back to the ol’ hometown on Glencoe, Ontario for their town-wide yard sale. While my Mom spent most of the morning catching up with her old friend, Carol, we did check out a few sales on the north-east of town beforehand. My first (and only) purchase of the day was a NASCAR blanket. The irony: I bought the blanket at the first house I ever bought, from the people we sold it to in 2009 when we moved to Thamesford. (They had redone the front porch, which looked really good!)
Once I left Mom with Carol, I walked around Glencoe checking out the yard sales. I didn’t see much else that I was ready to pick up. However, at one sale, held at a home that had a Dale Earnhardt Jr. – styled Chevrolet in the driveway, I saw a print of a painting by James Keirstead (who served in Korea). My Mom’s a big fan of his artwork and the whole family is always on the lookout for his work whenever and wherever we go to antique and collectible shops or Value Village, etc. Anyways, I gave my Mom a shout (she picked up her phone at the exact time a train was going by and so literally the first few seconds of the conversation was me listening to a train horn) and she didn’t have the painting and gave me a price that was fairly close to what the guy wanted, so my Mom now has one more Keirstead painting in her collection.
Prior to us heading to Glencoe, my Mom had told me I shouldn’t expect to find any NASCAR stuff at these yard sales. Well, in addition to the blanket, I also came across one sale that had two NASCAR jackets (a Dale Earnhardt and a Bill Elliott), a bunch of Dale Earnhardt magazines and some pictures. However, I left them all where they were. Why? Because I had both jackets and most of the magazines. (I was like “Wait, did someone raid my closet?”)
In my travels, I even came across a yard sale where the seller and one of the customers were talking about wrestling! The customer, who was a little older than I was, was namedropping Whipper Billy Watson, Gene Kiniski, the AWA, and other names from “back in the day.” I joined in a little bit but, much like NASCAR, anyone who knows me will tell you that it’s probably not a good idea to get me talking about wrestling, either. If I had started in on talking about local and area wrestling and the glory days of the 80s, I probably would still be there.
I also found out that the house on Victoria Street that I grew up in back in the 1970s (back when I was decked out in bell bottoms and listening to the Village People) was up for sale. I told Carol that if I won the lottery I would buy the house and then she and Mom could hang out more. Unfortunately for that plan, apparently, it’s already been sold.
All in all, however, it was a great morning in Glencoe, even if all that walking around in the hot sun did remind me that I’m not as young as I used to be. So, on that note, once again, if you are reading this, let me know where you’re reading from. (And I’ll be even older the next time I check in.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
July 12, 2025
By the time I blog again, I should be on vacation. It will most likely be largely a “stay-cation.” There will be a few days trips as I have a few appointments set up to get some long overdue tasks taken care of, as part of Project 56. My overall goal is to get a lot of things crossed off my To Do list by the time those two weeks are over.
I am hoping that my Mom and I can head to Glencoe for their town-wide yard sale but it will depend on the weather. (I think my Mom is kinda iffy on the whole idea but maybe I can convince her to visit a friend of hers while I take a look at the yard sales.)
Speaking of day trips, my Mom and I headed to Stratford last Saturday, and visited a couple of our favourite stops (Habitat for Humanity and Value Village). My Mom came away with a fair amount more than I did (and good for her, usually it’s me getting all the treasures). I did, however, get this nice piece of artwork of World War II Spitfires. (See, it doesn’t always have to be NASCAR.) Of course, it’s not always about the results of the treasure hunt, some times it is just about getting out of the house and the every day.
I watched Back to the Future as it was the 40th anniversary of it’s theatrical release last week. I had seen the movie enough times (although not for years) so I decided to watch it with audio commentary from writer/producer Bob Gale. I loved how they managed to make the sequence where Doc Brown is trying to get all the wires connected to send Marty back to the future is so suspenseful that, even though I know all works out okay (sorry, spoiler alert for a 40 year old film), I still watch wondering “Is this going to work out?”
My Mom and I also watched a movie on Amazon Prime called Heads of State. It stars Idris Elba and John Cena as the British Prime Minister and the U.S. President, respectively, who must make their way to safety across Eastern Europe after Air Force One is shot down. They have to evade assassins and rush to reunite NATO. Although it obviously borrows heavily from London Has Fallen and Air Force One, it’s a fairly decent action-comedy.
I have a couple of new reads to start this week, including returning to Milner: Last of the Empire-Builders by Richard Steyn and Valley of Refuge by John Teschner. I will report back next week to see how they went.
I am actually tempted to create a page on my website to post some of the manuscripts I have written over the years. That may be another project to complete over the next couplf of weeks.
So, on that note, once again, if you are reading this, let me know where you’re reading from. And, of course, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
July 4, 2025
Happy Fourth of July to all those reading this south of the U.S.-Canadian border, which WordPress is trying to tell me is quite a few. I’m not sure I believe the stats any more. Just one more thing you read on the Internet that turns out to be wrong. (Wait? You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet? )
But seriously, it was a short work week after an extended weekend. I was actually able to get quite a few things done on the ol’ To Do list for once. This seems to be a habit over the last week or so, where I’m slowly but surely getting a lot of the small items finished up. Of course, I am also hoping to start getting some of the bigger items done over the next few weeks.
It looks like we’ll have to get our garage door fixed. My Mom and I tried to fix it last weekend but really it was just a stopgap, as it is literally ready to come off the hinges now. My Mom called our local handyman and he’s coming to look at it on Monday. So yeah, I guess I am at an age where I can say I have a “garage door guy.” Of course, I also have a “window guy,” too. Ah, the joys of home ownership. Between that and mowing the lawn!
I have to admit, however, it is nice to have a back porch where I can sit and read. That’s one habit I have been getting back into, now that the nicer weather is here. As per usual, I am in the middle of two books, both with a Shelf Life Magazine connection.
I am reading Victory ’45 by James Holland and Al Murray, to be reviewed for an upcoming issue of Shelf Life. It’s about the ways in which the surrenders of the Axis came to be on both the European and Pacific fronts. I’m 119 pages in and have read about the surrender on the Italian front and on Field Marshall Montgomery’s front in Europe. It’s interesting to read how much German officers were trying to work with the Allies to end the war as soon as possible. Of course, in the first 119 pages, there’s literally three references to the Canadians and one is a reference to “and Canadians,” as in “the British and Canadians did this!” (Hopefully, it gets better in upcoming chapters!)
At the same time, I am reading Bigger! Better! Badder! Wrestlemania III and The Year It All Changed by Keith Elliot Greenberg. It’s a great story not just about one event (Wrestlemania III) but really about the entire wrestling landscape and how it got there. I’m really enjoying reading it and remembering not just what was happening in the then-WWF but also Jim Crockett Promotions, World Class Championship Wrestling, the UWF, Stampede Wrestling and more. My only issue is that, gosh darn it, I could have written a book like this. (In fact, I have a manuscript for a book I wrote back in 1998 called “When Wrestling Was Golden: A Fan’s History of Pro Wrestling 1985-1990.” (I’m not sure of the sub-title but it was something like that.)
This Sunday, it will have been a year since my Dad passed away. It certainly can’t be said that it’s been an easy year since we lost Dad. I’ve tried to help my Mom out where I can. She often say she doesn’t know what she’d do without me but I don’t know that I’ve always done the best job of it. In some cases, of course, it’s like a lot of things where I try my best and things don’t work out for one reason or another. Like the rest of Project 56, it’s a work in progress and I hope to always be working towards making things better for myself and those around me.
So, on that note, once again, if you are reading this, let me know where you’re reading from. And, of course, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
June 29, 2025
Happy Canada Day weekend, for those of us who have always observed. I know that Canada Day isn’t until Tuesday, July 1, but we ended up getting a four-day weekend so that was a nice surprise. It’s like getting a weekend…and then another right afterwards…and then a three-day work week and then ANOTHER weekend. Holy crap, not a bad way to start the summer. Plus, on Tuesday, my genius nephew will turn 17. (I still remember the night he was born and the fireworks that were set off that night to announce his birth!)
Unfortunately, the summer didn’t get off to a completely great start. As indicated in the last post, our cat Pepper passed away on Tuesday afternoon. He had gone down in the basement and we kept thinking “He must be gone now!” but then we’d see him twitch a bit. On Tuesday, my Mom was sure Pepper had passed but she waited until I got home. We checked one last time and then buried Pepper by our garage. I will say, you can cross “Animal Undertaker” off my list of preferred occupations. It wasn’t so much that it was hard to bury him; it was just the doubt of “Is he really gone?” Mom and I had both taken a really good look to make sure Pepper was no longer with us. Pepper was with us for almost 8 years. (We got him on July 1 at the Embro Town Wide Yard Sale. So, it’s been strange to not think “Don’t leave the door open, or the cat will get out!” My Mom says Pepper was our last cat. But then, she said that after Ginger passed, so you never know.
With a four-day weekend, it gives me a chance to work on some of the elements of Project 56. While I’m never 100% happy with my progress on my To Do list, I have managed to get a lot of things done so far. I decided that the “weekend” was going to focus on a lot of the smaller items but the “extra days” (starting on Monday) will include some of the larger projects and stuff I’ve been putting off. (Part of Project 56 is for me to stop procrastinating, especially on items that involve me dealing with people.)
Earlier this week, I got my “NASCAR Room” set up, and with that, the “physical set up” for Project 56 is pretty much complete. There’s a few tweaks I will want to make here and there but the bulk of the basics are in place.
Of course, the whole weekend hasn’t been spent just working around the house. Back in late April (or was it May 1), when my Mom and I were taking a cab into Ingersoll to pick up the new car, we went past the Ingersoll Theatre of Performing Arts. My Mom mused that she would like to go to one of their performances. I was game and looked into getting tickets to this weekend’s matinee of “The Long Weekend” (ironic since this is the long weekend.) As you might have seen on my Instagram, I got semi-dressed up and accompanied my Mom to the theatre on Saturday afternoon and we really enjoyed ourselves. The story was quite humourous but it was the efforts of the actors that really made the play. Major kudos to them.
As I probably have said before, I’m really enjoying WordPress’ stats about where my readership is coming from. The only weird part is seeing people from places that I’m not 100% I know anyone. I want to say I know someone from Dublin, Ireland (and sure, London, Woodstock and Toronto) but Belleville, Woodlawn, Orillia, St. Catherines, Delhi, Kitchener, and Sarawak? (And they’re all coming from my Facebook link so these are obviously people I know.)
So, on that note, if you are reading this, let me know where you’re reading from. And, of course, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
June 22, 2025
Well, this is not the update I was hoping to make. I was hoping to show you photos of my updated “NASCAR Room/Downstairs Office.” Unfortunately, a combination of ill health and underestimating just how much stuff I have led to me not getting anywhere near enough done. I mean, most of the furniture is in place and about 90 per-cent of the items are in place. I have one more shelf unit on order and my Mom is making me curtains. Once those two pieces are in place and I can give the room a once-over, I will be able to unveil it to the world, as it were.
However, it was definitely a chore to get as much done as I did. I won’t go into TMI-level details but I am definitely not feeling 100 percent. (Hint: It’s one of those older people problems that started on Friday and while it’s not soooo bad now on Sunday evening, it definitely takes the strength out of you.) As with any project, you never seem to get as much done as you’d like in the time you want, but I was hoping to get most of the items placed by Friday night.
Once again I have to give props to my Mom for her work in getting my room painted and a lot of the furniture built. I did help with the desk and the one major shelf unit but she handled the smaller shelf units. I did learn that I still prefer with the deconstruction of things than constructing things. I’m always afraid that, when building, I’m going to wreck something. If you’re on the deconstruction side of things, you wreck something – who cares? It was getting wrecked anyways.
Some sad news to report. My Mom learned on Friday that Richard Hale, one of my Dad’s old friends from West Lorne, has passed away after a battle with Parkinson’s. I hope that, wherever they are, “Dicky Bones” and my Dad are reminiscing about old times.
On another sad note, it appears our beloved cat, Pepper, won’t be with us for very much longer. Once a rather large cat, he had lost a lot of weight over the last little while. Today he has been very quiet and still (although he has moved from place to place around our basement today). We’ve had Pepper for eight years next month and he has definitely made an impact on our lives. He was almost able to communicate with us and was the reason my Dad built the catio, so that Pepper could sit “outside” but still be protected from the elements.
Let me end this on on a more positive note. I’m always looking for ways to get people to interact with my blog. So my question is: would you read the following novel?
It’s called “Soundtrack for the End of the World” and tells the story of an 80s One-Hit Wonder band that reunites ten years later for one last gig at a roadside tavern in the middle of nowhere. The gig comes at the bequest of a mysterious multi-millionaire and means unpacking a lot of baggage between the members. Oh…and the world is coming to an end thanks to an incoming asteroid. (Plot copyright – John Milner 2025!) But hey, would you read it?
And on that note, I am heading out. As always, however, if you read this – and actually know me – and want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
June 14, 2025
Another week in the books and if the Americans, Russians, Israelis, Iraqis, or whoever else is stirring up $h!t doesn’t start World War III, it will have been a quiet but productive week. With my workshop/office set up (you might have seen something about that on social media) and my bedroom to get done on Sunday morning (or at least that’s the plan), it’s time to look towards my NASCAR room (which is also part-office and part-TV room). I ordered some shelves (actually shoe racks) to better house my NASCAR diecasts, and a new desk. I’m hopeful that next weekend might be the time to get that part of Project 56 completed.
So… I was reminded on Friday that people do actually read my blog. More on that later but the reason I bring this up here is that Jane A., the former Comms Director at King’s, made a surprise visit to our office, and both she and Chantal Q. made reference to reading my blog.
Of course, as soon as I saw Jane I knew I had to ask her one question: How was your visit to the Holy Land? Jane, you see, had gone to Talladega in late April for the NASCAR race weekend.
What? Other people have their Holy Land, I have mine.
Anyways, I got spend about a half hour talking NASCAR and Talladega with Jane. It might very well have been the best half hour I’ve had on a job…well, ever!!! Jane was also nice enough to pick me up a “Dega” t-shirt. (See the attached photo.) This is actually the second t-shirt I’ve gotten from Talladega as my next-door-neighbour’s next-door-neighbour, Adam, got me one when he went to the race a couple of year’s ago (when Kyle Busch won for RCR).
I referenced knowing that people do read my blog. One of the cool things about WordPress is the ability to get stats. (One of the things I’ve learned about myself – and this being a positive thing for once – is that I love stats.)
With WordPress, you can go back as far as three years and see where people are visiting from, right down to the country, region and city. With the JohnMilner.ca website (not just this blog but the whole site), Canada is the top country, Ontario is the top region and Toronto is the top city. No real surprises there (save London is not the top city.) But you drill down and you find some interesting (to me at least) stats:
First of all, my website already has more visitors this year than in 2024 or 2023. Maybe posting updates on my Facebook helps, since Facebook is my top referrer.
Germany is third on the countries list, after the United States, naturally. Ireland and China round out the Top 5.
Quebec, California, Oregon (?!) and North Carolina are the rest of the Top 5 regions. Dublin (#7) is the first non-North American region.
London, Ontario is second to Toronto on the cities’ list. Montreal is third but then Menlo Park, California and Forest City, North Carolina round out the Top 5. (They actually reference some locations I would call a town, rather than a city. For example: Delhi and Delaware, Ontario make the list.)
Hmm…since my Track Talk page is the second-most visited page (after the main page), any chance some NASCAR folks down in North Carolina are reading it. A quick check of the NASCAR Reference site says that John McFadden (who made 11 starts in the NASCAR Cup Series between 1982 and 1992 – with 11 DNFs!!!!) is the only NASCAR driver to come from there.
P.S. Another thing I’ve learned about myself – and I learned this very late in life – is that if you need something built, I’m not your guy (and that I’ve known for years) BUT if you need something torn down (i.e. drywall taken down or floorboards ripped up) then I’m your guy!
To take this in a completely different direction, I picked up a used copy of Star Wars Battlefront and have played it here and there over the last week. I pretty much suck at it (other than the Scout Walker mode and the Vader on Hoth scenario) but it’s kind of a cool way to spend 10-15 minutes shooting at stuff.
And on that note, I am heading out. As always, however, if you read this – and actually know me – and want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
June 6, 2025
It was a pretty quiet week – which is not necessarily a bad thing…until it comes to updating this blog.
I was on my lunch on Wednesday and heard a nearby school test their Civil Defence siren. However, since there was an announcement, both before and after that sounded to me like Charlie Brown’s teacher, combined with the fact that everything didn’t turn to nuclear ash about an hour later, I’m guessing that it was indeed “only a test.”
I have continued to chip away at some of the items on my “Project 56” which was described in greater detail in the previous section (see below). Of course, I’m never satisfied with how much work I have accomplished on any such project, but I did manage to work towards a couple of major pieces of the Project and hope to do a few more over the weekend.
One thing I did do this week was pay a visit to the Shelf Life offices and picked up several new books and copies of the June/July issue. I will be making updates to the website with excerpts from the issue over the weekend but feel free check out the current version.
I made a joke on Facebook last weekend that my Mom was getting more done than I was and, as always, it’s true. I was getting my Project 56 outline prepared while she was out painting half the house. Her work continues as she painted the garage door (and fixed the lock on it) and started on the fence that separates the front and back lawns. The weather didn’t cooperate for more painting so now she’s rearranging her kitchen.
So that’s as much as I am really going to post this time out. As always, however, if you read this – and actually know me – and want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
May 30, 2025
Sorry for being M.I.A. the last week or so. No one to blame but myself. I keep thinking it is May but according to the weather, it is still March…or maybe November.
But seriously, we had a pretty good Calithumpian weekend. I trekked around North Thamesford to check out the yard sales. I actually got more from my next door neighbour’s next door neighbour, Adam’s sale (a Kevin Harvick diecast and a paperback novel and something else, I think, but I can’t remember what.) I also went to library for their annual book sale and the church’s big sale next door to us. I was tempted to check out the sales south of town but it turned out to be a good decision on my part that I didn’t. About a half hour after I got home, it just started pouring.
My Mom and I enjoyed seeing the fireworks while simultaneously watching NASCAR’s All-Star Race. (Mom wasn’t happy that Joey Logano didn’t win.) I also went to “downtown Thamesford” to check out Adam’s Radio Control Car demonstration. It was cool because listening to Adam and some of the other competitors talk, it was like listening to crew chiefs talk about NASCAR set-ups, etc.
The Calithumpian Parade on Monday afternoon was also fun to sit outside on our front porch and watch as, much like the Santa Claus Parade, it went right by our house. It felt about as cold as the Santa Claus Parade – which we watch from inside.
My sister and nephew came down last weekend. It was strange because usually they will come down on a Saturday and head home on Sunday morning. This time around, however, they came down on the Sunday and left around the time I headed to work on Monday. No matter, it was still fun to have them down for the day.
I have been helping my Mom around the house over the past couple of weekends. With the spring upon us (even if the weather doesn’t seem to realize that), she’s been embarking on some home improvement projects. These are the types of things she and my Dad would do. With him gone, I’ve been stepping up and helping her out where she needs a helping hand. (My Mom, even at her age, with bad knees and recovering from an injured hand, is able to do a heck of a lot around the house and around the property. She’s painted the front and back porches and the “she shed” out back and just today she cleaned out the garage.)
As for myself, I have decided to embark on something called “Project 56.” In July, I turn 56 (hence the name of the “mission”) I have decided that, by my birthday, I am going to completely rearrange both my downtown TV room (or my NASCAR Room) and the office I have created out of my Dad’s old workshop. (There’s still an element of the workshop there, mind you, where we keep tools, etc.) Everything is still in the planning stage but I really want to look at what’s working and what’s not and change things up a bit. For example, I’ve had the same shelves in the place for over 10 years and we need an update. There’s a lot of things I’m looking at and thinking “Okay, this isn’t working. What needs to change?” (I’ve encouraged my Mom to do the same.)
As always, however, if you read this – and actually know me – and want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
May 16, 2025
Happy long weekend for those of you who celebrate and, in the words of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, you bet your sweet bippy I do! This is Calithumpian Weekend in Thamesford and if you are wondering what a Calithumpian is, you’re not alone. I’ve lived here since 2009 and I couldn’t give you a solid answer on what it is. I’ve heard everything from it’s a made-up word to it’s another word for a bit party to it’s a celebration after killing a witch. (The latter probably isn’t politically correct in 2025.)
Anyways, there’s a lot to do in Thamesford this weekend as always with Calithumpian Weekend. I don’t partake in too much of it, save the town-wide yard sale on Saturday and Monday’s parade which is cool because it comes right by my house. Mom and I will be able to sit on our newly-painted (thanks to Mom’s talents) porch.
As for the yard sales, it will depend on the weather as to how far out I venture. My plan is to see how many yard sales are in north Thamesford and see how I feel after that as to whether I hit the south side yard sales. (I will visit the library to see what they have to offer.)
Hammerlock Wrestling is coming to Brunnies, a local bar on Saturday afternoon. I was tempted to go to it but I most likely will give it a pass. (Although if by 4 p.m. tomorrow I feel really jazzed about heading out to see some live wrestling in town, who knows?)
This is also NASCAR’s All-Star Weekend (plus the Trucks) so I will be keeping a close eye on that and hopefully won’t be too worn out from walking around Thamesford to give the races a watch. I supposed Kyle Larson will be the favourite but I don’t have a lot of use for him. Sure, I’ll be cheering him on to do the double in the Indy 500/Coca Cola 600 but overall, I’m not a fan. (I’m hoping there’s a Track Talk blog in the near future on that subject.)
Ever get a song stuck in your head? Right now, Wham’s Edge of Heaven is stuck there. But it’s by design. On Thursday, I was listening to an old broadcast of Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 from late 1986. One of the songs that was part of the countdown was Carly Simon’s “Coming Around Again.” I don’t know what it was but I got very emotional hearing that song because it got me thinking about my Dad. Things I miss about him. Things I wish I’d done differently or said to him. Things I wish I’d done when he was around. Of course, I couldn’t get the damn song out of my head and it just made me more emotional. (Thankfully I hid it well and didn’t have to deal with too many people.) The weird part is that my Dad wasn’t a huge Carly Simon fan nor do the lyrics remind me of him. Just one of those things.
This morning I woke up and Wham’s “Edge of Heaven” was in my head (I think it was part of a similar countdown I’d listen to earlier in the week) so I decided to go with it. I went into work, found a video of the song, put it on loop, put my headphones on and got to work. I bet in the hour between me starting work and our weekly meeting, I listened to that song about 20 times. And make fun of the song choice all you want, it is a pretty catchy tune.
Now keep in mind, I was “listening” to the song, not watching the video. At lunch I was, as I am wont to do, reading Wikipedia and I decided to check out the entry on Wham. (What is Andrew Ridgeley up to these days?) From there I started reading the entry on “Edge of Heaven” and hey! it turns out that it features and appearance by Danny John-Jules who played Cat on Red Dwarf. I watched the video just now and sure enough, that’s Cat dancing with George Michael.
For those wrestling fans reading along (let’s be honest, is anyone still reading at this point?), we lost a true hardcore legend in Sabu last weekend. Now, allow me to brag for a paragraph or two, because I HAVE A SABU STORY!!!! (Actually several rolled into one.)
It was the early part of the winter of 1999. I was backstage at a Universal Championship Wrestling (UCW) show at Fanshawe College. I was writing for SLAM Wrestling and was there to interview Edge and Christian. However, they didn’t appear – and I knew Sabu wouldn’t break kayfabe to do an interview and so I was hanging backstage talking to some of the local and area talent they had. (And truth be told, they had some great local stars there.)
So as I’m talking to different people, Sabu comes in from outside and looks over at me and the guy I was interviewing and says “It’s cold out there!” (Yes, I heard Sabu speak. I even got it on tape – although I don’t have the tape anymore!)
At the time, I was friends with the UCW promoter and was kinda hoping to become more involved with the organization, with the goal of being a commentator. The main event of the night was Sabu vs. Scott D’Amore. I was sitting ringside at a table with the idea that when we dubbed commentary into the video. (It never happened, thought.)
I was also tasked with keeping an eye on the UCW Championship title belt (which was supposed to be some former Mid-Atlantic belt – don’t quote me on that). The promoter told me to make sure Sabu didn’t take the belt after the match. (Apparently there was concern that he might take the belt and just leave with it.)
I didn’t say it but I was like “Dude, this is a guy who is referred to as suicidal, homicidal and genocidal, if he wants to take the belt, I’ll carry it to the car for him. I’m not crossing the guy!”
Anyways, during the match, Sabu placed D’Amore on a table in the ring and then climbed up to the top rope to eventually land a flying legdrop on D’Amore. The thing I will always remember though is that the absolute milisecond that Sabu’s feet left the top turnbuckle – DEAD SILENCE! We’re talking you could hear a pin drop. It was the weirdest phenomenon I’ve ever heard.
As I said, I was becoming friends with the promoter and I had a copy of ECW Extreme Music, the CD of all the ECW theme music that I had bought at that huge video store that used to be across from Masonville. (What was the name of it?) He asked me to bring it with me in case Sabu didn’t bring a copy of his theme music with him. (I’m starting to think Sabu wasn’t the easiest guy to work with.)
After the show, I ended up not getting the CD back. I’m sure the promoter probably snagged it but I like to think that for the rest of his days, every time Sabu appeared at a wrestling show, he came out to theme music that was playing off my CD.
Wow! That was a lot. As always, however, iIf you read this – and actually know me – and want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
May 9, 2025
I can honestly say, it was kind of a boring week. But that’s okay! After the past few weeks, it was kinda nice to just go to work, come home, watch some Storage Wars and relax. I mean, it’s not that there hasn’t been stuff to talk about – there’s a new pope, Alberta wants to secede, and India-Pakistan have gone to war – but really nothing on a personal level.
Biggest news I guess is that spring has officially arrived. How do I know that, you might ask? Because over the past couple of days I’ve had to mow my lawn. I mowed the front on Wednesday night (or was it Tuesday?) and half of the back after work tonight. I will finish the second half tomorrow afternoon.
I actually enjoy mowing the lawn. I didn’t partake tonight but usually I put my headphone on, turn on the iPod I’ve had for years and listen to music while I mow. It makes things a little easier and more fun.
Even before my Dad passed, it was a chore that I could help my folks out with, and just might be my favourite household chore.
I like to tell people that, later in my life, I discovered an additional skill in home renovation projects. If you want something built, don’t look at me. But you want floorboards torn up or a wall demolished, I’m…well, I’d still hire a professional if I were you, but I have held my own in helping my folks out.
Speaking of which, my Mom is still active in doing home improvement jobs (and I help here when and where I can). In addition to creating curtains for our newly installed front windows, she’s repainting the front porch. We’ve got the back porch set up and I’m hoping to start using it to read in the evenings. Heck, if I play my cards right, perhaps I’ll step out on a Friday night and do a blog update from there. Stay tuned!
Meanwhile, if you read this – and actually know me – and want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
May 3, 2025
Whew! We finally made it through one of the most disastrous, drama-filled months that I can remember. Thankfully, this past week was relatively calm. My Mom and I got a fair amount of things done and settled. One of the big things that we got crossed off our post-accident “To Do” list was that we purchased a new car. A 2022 Chevrolet Trailblazer to be exact…and a black Chevrolet at that!
Okay, truth time here. When we went looking for a new car, I was leaning towards a Chevrolet or a Ford. When we went to the Chevy dealership there were two SUVs that my Mom and I were looking at: a red 2023 Equinox and the 2022 Trailblazer. Initially I was leaning towards the Equinox because it had some extra “bells and whistles” (most noteably the Sirius XM radio) but I could tell my Mom liked the Trailblazer. When we were talking with Sean, the salesman, I got thinking “Ok, grow up! This is not about bells and whistles, this is about what my Mom will be more comfortable driving!”
And so, we decided to go with the Trailblazer. And then it struck me. “Wait a minute…If we buy this car, I will own a black Chevrolet! HOLY CRAP!” So yes, I am now a proud member of the Bowtie Brigade. (As it turns out, the Trailblazer has Sirius XM radio too! So win/win there!)
I don’t know if any of them will ever read this but I want to give a big “Shout-out!” to the staff at Ingersoll Chevrolet-Buick-GMC for AMAZING customer service. They were very friendly and helpful and made buying the new car a breeze! They went out of their way to ensure that Mom and I had everything we needed with the new car and followed up on a couple of loose ends after the deal went through. If anyone in the Ingersoll (Ontario) area is looking for a new (or new to you) car, check out Ingersoll Chevrolet-Buick-GMC.
I will say that on Wednesday, the day we picked up the car, I was nervous. After I got picked up from work, we had to drop off our rental car at the Enterprise location at the east-end of London. We then had to get a cab from the Enterprise place to the dealership in Ingersoll and we had to get there before the dealership closed at 6 p.m. As someone who worked retail and had to deal with customers coming in at the last minute when we were trying to close, I did not want to be “THAT PERSON!” (Some of my colleagues from my retail days know what I’m talking about!) Thankfully, everything went very smoothly and we were home in time to watch Storage Wars. (Kumbaya, America!)
May is always a big month, gift-wise, for my Mom (birthday, Mother’s Day and it was her and my Dad’s anniversary) and with the past month she’s had, she deserves something nice. So, in addition to buying her a new car, I also got on Amazon and bought her some colouring books. Plus…the other day when we were taking the cab from the rental car place to the dealership, we went by the Ingersoll Theatre of Performing Arts (ITOPA). My Mom said “We should go to a play there sometime this summer!” I haven’t been to a lot but i like live theatre. (Some of you may have been privy to my stint in “The Perfect Wedding” and some might need to hear the story.) So, as part of my “To Do” list, I decided to check out ITOPA’s website and ended up purchasing two tickets to their performance of “The Long Weekend.”
So we have the new car but haven’t really done too much with it so far. It gets me to work and back and there was talk of us going to Innerkip to the second Reuseapaloozaha of the year and checking out Innerkip’s town-wide yard sale. However, with the rainy weather, we decided to stick around Delatre Street, work on some home projects and just have a quiet, relaxing weekend. (We needed it!)
Meanwhile, if you read this – and actually know me – and want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
April 26, 2025
WOW! I guess the power of social media is real. Not only can you use it to further a narrative, you can use it drive people to your blog. Seriously, I posted the link on my Facebook page and – BAM! – I got a ton of hits. Well, thank you to everyone who stopped by to check out my blog. I hope you’ve made a return trip this week (I think someone actually checked in early today) and that you’ll enjoy whatever I have to offer this time around.
Unlike the previous two weeks, there was no major disaster to report, although my Mom and I continue to undergo the hassle of dealing with the aftermath of the car accident last week. My Mom’s hand is still sore but most of the bruising and swelling has gone down. (By the way, thank you to everyone who checked in on my Mom and I – especially looking at you, Chris T and Kerry and some others too!) Hopefully by my next blog update this will all be behind us – and hopefully not because some other disaster has pushed it to the back of the list of disasters. (LOL! I hope!)
My Mom and I went to Sweaburg for the first Reuseapaloozaha of 2025. My Mom got a bunch of books (not quite the haul of nearly two dozen books I got from the event in Embro a couple of years ago) and I got a copy of Brian Wilson’s autobiography and what appears to be a hand-made wooden Joey Logano car (back when he was driving the #20 Home Depot Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing).
There’s another Reuseapaloozaha next Saturday in Innerkip which is also having their town-wide yard sale. Depending on the weather and whatever else happens, Mom and I may take in the two events…if we can figure out where Innerkip is.
My friend, Angela, sent me a link to a Sarnia Journal article about Lambton College tearing down what they refer to as “the North Building” but what I (as well as Angela and probably several people who are reading this) remember as the Lambton College Residence. I’m not sure how worried I would be about the imminent destruction of “The Rez.” I believe in 2017-2018, I heard they were tearing it down but when I went there as part of my job at King’s in 2020, at least part of it was still standing. (To be fair (TO BE FAIR!!! as per Letterkenny), it does look like they tore part of it down.) Will be a little sad to see it go, but I really wish I could have grabbed a souvenir or two from the place before it went.
This is Talladega weekend. I know two people who are in Alabama at the track to watch the races. I watched both the ARCA race and the Xfinity race today, with the Cup race set for tomorrow. Good to see Lawless Alan (probably the best name in the history of motorsports, sounds like he should be a Wild West villain) get the win in ARCA and super-pumped about Austin Hill taking RCR to victory in the Xfinity Series. Tomorrow’s race should be good with Zane Smith on pole, Joey Logano starting second and RCR starting Top 5 (Busch 3rd and Dillon 5th). And if you’re upset about me rambling on about NASCAR…that was the SHORT version!
Meanwhile, if you read this – and actually know me – and want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
April 18, 2025
Well, the hits just keep on coming. Last week, it was my Mom getting scammed out of a significant amount of money. (Thanks to everyone who donated to the GoFundMe page that my sister set up. It means more than you know.) This week, we were in a car accident. My Mom suffered a slight injury to her hand but otherwise we are okay. It’s just, the minute it happened, I was like “Not Again!” because we were just starting to (mentally) recover and then life hit us (literally) again. But we dealt with the insurance, got the car to the repair shop, got a rental car. My work was incredible in suggesting I take the day and take care of things, and then work from home on Thursday. It’s just “What comes next?”
You know, it’d be very easy (and much on brand for me) to just close up and become very anti-social. Believe me, it was tempting. But I decided to go in the opposite direction. I had said that I was “leaving” Facebook a while back but that was BS. I just wasn’t posting much but I was still checking in. So, I decided to come back and post more.
I also decided to come back to Instagram as well. I’m also going to direct people over here from Facebook. Why not? Maybe if I put myself out there more, maybe the world will reciprocate.
If you are one of those who came here from my Facebook post, welcome to my blog. I usually try to post every weekend. My aim is to post on Friday nights but often it’s more like Saturday nights.
On to regular news: It’s Good Friday and so it’s the first day of the Easter weekend. I got a few things off my famous (infamous?) To Do list (including updating my blog). I also helped my Mom put the living room back together after we got our new front windows installed. (They look GOOOOD! I need to get a photo for Instagram!) I also switched up our Rogers TV line-up and got CTV Speed which means I now can get back to watch the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Whoohooo!
My sister and nephew are coming down this weekend so we will be heading to the One of A Kind Antique Mall in Woodstock. It will be another Milner “Treasure” Hunt and I’m hoping to add to my NASCAR/Earnhardt collection.
I finally got back to work on the Shelf Life website update for the April/May 2025 issue. I was hoping to have it done last week but with the drama, it got delayed. However, it is complete and you can check it out for excerpts from the new issue.
Before I go, ever hear a song and you just want to put it on a constant loop? Well, for me, that song right now is “Hertz” by Amyl and the Sniffers. I’ve been working on setting up the rosters with WWE2K25 on the PS5. A lot of the soundtrack for the game is crap and I usually have the TV on mute. However, I was listening to the audio for a bit and heard this song and damn, it got addictive. Just hard rock enough to keep me interested but not one of those screaming lyrics to the point where it’s just noise!”
Hopefully, this coming week will be boring and uneventful and I’ll be back to mark out about Talladega weekend. Meanwhile, if you read this – and actually know me – and want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger or via email.
April 13, 2025
According to my WordPress stats, people (or at least one person) has been checking my blog. I guess if they follow me on Facebook, they’re probably checking in. It was a bad week for the Milner family. If you know, you know and I don’t really want to get into it here. All I can tell is we’re trying to move on and put the bad sh!t in the past.
Honestly, other than that, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about this week. I am hoping this coming week will be a lot better. Go to work, come home, watch Storage Wars, get some stuff crossed off the To Do list with no added drama. It’s also a four-day week followed by a four-day weekend and then another four-day week.
I started watching “The Trades” last weekend. I just got through a couple of episodes but I enjoyed what I saw. It’s one of those gritty comedies, like I imagine Trailer Park Boys probably is like, or the way Shoresy is (which reminds me, I need to get back to watching Shoresy!) I’ve also been watching any episodes of Rules of Engagement that are available.
A couple of nights this week I went to bed early and read for a while. I ended up finishing a couple of books and read the entire book, Doc: The Life of Roy Halladay by Todd Zolecki. It was definitely focused more on his time in Philadelphia (not surprising since Zolecki is the Philadelphia Phillies beat reporter for MLB.com) and it ends on a sad note, but well-written overall.
April 5, 2025
Hey there! Didn’t mean to skip last week. I decided to rearrange my office and NASCAR room so I was moving and re-moving (and in some cases re-moving) furniture. I’ll tell you, if you ever want to feel your age, just start moving day beds and desks and bookshelves.
I did recover enough this week to go get my taxes done at H&R Block. After trying to complete them online (to much frustration), I decided to follow my Mom’s lead and take it to the expert. It may have cost me some money out of pocket but I paid a fraction of what I expected to. (I got the taxes done one day, paid it off the next.)
I also stopped by the Shelf Life Magazine offices this past week to pick up the April/May 2025 issues. I will be working away this weekend to make the updates to the Shelf Life website so check that out sometime early next week.
One of the books I picked up when I stopped by Shelf Life was Blood on the Snow by Robert Service, about the Russian Revolution. I know very little on the subject, save that there were Canadian troops in Russia, even as the First World War was ending. Something about wanting to ensure the equipment that the Allies had sent to Russia didn’t fall into enemy hands, first from the Germans and then from the Communists.
I’ve been trying to set up my new WWF and MLB games. As per usual, I’m already second-guessing (if I’m allowed to admit to doing that) myself about buying yet another WWE game that has more bugs in it, and less of the actual features I’d want. (Sorry folks, but there’s no way there is even close to 300+ characters in this game, at least not just by purchasing the original game.) I’ve been creating my own original characters for the fictional indy fed, the Global Wrestling Federation.
Work has been “interesting’ to say the least for reasons I won’t get into here. I’m looking forward to the summer months when I hope I can get out on the weekends to the town-wide yard sales. We haven’t been able to do that over the past two summers but getting out of the house and hitting the road (and perhaps getting some “treasures’) will be a great way to spend a Saturday morning.
Again if you read this – actually know me – and want to discuss, Facebook Messenger or via email.
March 22, 2025
A pretty uneventful week, all told. The weather couldn’t seem to make up it’s mind as to whether it was the beginning of Spring or mid-fall. Heck, even today it was overcast, sunny, and snowing all within a few hours. Perhaps it was a good thing because I got up this morning and got a few things done around the house. Nothing really important but a few things to cross off the To Do list.
My Mom has been working on getting the house ready for when we get the new windows installed, so she’s been busy changing things up. It makes me want to change my areas of the house around as well. Of course, I have to redecorate around my cat. (Pepper has to have a shelf unit that is high enough to reach the catio…and then I have to put the filing cabinet next to the shelf unit so Pepper can reach the top shelf and then the catio.)
Meanwhile, I finally bit the bullet and pulled the trigger (two firearm metaphors in one sentence) on an Amazon order. (And no, I don’t want to hear how everyone hates Jeff Bezos and Amazon now because the Washington Post didn’t endorse either candidate in the most recent U.S. Presidential election.) I bought the newest MLB and WWE games so I will most likely be using next weekend to get those set up.
While today may have been a stay-at-home day, my Mom and I are looking to head out to Glencoe tomorrow to check on my Dad’s cemetery plot and possibly stop at Value Village in London on the way home.
March 15, 2025
Beware the Ides of March! Ironically, five years ago (even though we didn’t know it) we were a day away from our whole world shutting down. I won’t get into all my thoughts about what would transpire over the weeks, months and years to come, but I think the term “the sh!t hit the fan!” should suffice.
Speaking of illnesses, there’s a reason there was no update for last week: I was sick! No, I didn’t have COVID or anything but I sure got myself into something. When I came home Thursday night, I was tired and had a headache. I figured I could just sleep it off (no, not like a hangover…although having never been hungover, I’m not sure what that’s like). Next thing I know I’m running a fever, vomiting, just wanted to sleep. And let me tell you, having an unexpected three day week and sleeping about half of it away totally screws you up as to what day/time it is.
Thankfully by Monday I was feeling…well let’s call it 90% better. Just in time for some better weather. It’s been nice to go back to wearing shoes instead of boots to work, and changing into a lighter jacket as of today. I was even able to go for some walks on my lunch break for the first time since before Christmas.
Even though it was raining today, my Mom and I headed to the One of A Kind Antique Mall in Woodstock this morning. For what I think might be the first instance in the entire time we’ve ben going there, my Mom got more than I did. I did, however, pick up the hat that I am wearing in the photo that accompanies this post. My family is not thrilled with it – and my cat even looks at me like “What is on your head?” – but too bad, I like it.
And so I’ll head into another week. Again if you read this – actually know me – and want to discuss, Facebook Messenger or via email.
March 1, 2025
If you’re looking for reflection and/or conspiracy theories on celebrity deaths, the Ontario election or U.S./Ukraine relations, you’ve come to the wrong place. I’m just here for a few life updates
After two weeks of vacation (and I highly recommend taking two weeks to really relax and not feel like you have to rush to get stuff done), it was back to work on Monday. It seemed like a fairly long and busy week but I’d like to think I accomplished a few things here and there. (If you ever want to check out the writing that I have done in terms of telling the story of King’s, you can check out our Newsroom.)
On the homefront, my Mom is looking into getting the front windows replaced. She’s been in touch with a local company – with a rep that lives just down the street from us – and it appears things are progressing nicely. She’s using some of the money that Dad left us, so he may not be with us but he’s still helping out the family with the help. He always said we were a team when it came to keeping up the household – and he’s still part of the team.
I always have this huge “To Do” list and while I worked a lot on that list during my vacation. However, as I suspected, I didn’t really come close to getting it finished. However, this week instead of coming home every night and wanting to get a bunch of stuff done, I just decided to relax, watch Storage Wars (YEEEEP!!!! Kenny Do It!) and leave the To Do list for the weekend.
Speaking of which, I got up this morning, looked at my To Do list and thought “Let’s get ‘er done!” I’m already well ahead of schedule and while I’m sure I’ll wake up Monday and not gotten as much as I would have liked, I’m hoping I can still make a good dent in it.
One of the things I like to do during my lunchbreak at work is to read Wikipedia. One of the featured articles this week was on the Roswell UFO incident. While the article is very much written in a “This is all a conspiracy theory” mode, I was interested in learning that if it wasn’t aliens, it wasn’t the weather balloon but instead a balloon being used to detect Soviet nuclear tests. Here’s a theory: Any chance the government created the alien spacecraft hoax and then quickly officially discredited it, knowing that would only pique people’s interest in the possibility that it involved aliens, further distracting them from the project to detect Soviet nuclear tests? Just an idea.
Hey, if anyone reading this is from the Toronto area, check out the Experience Hendrix Tour that’s coming to Massey Hall on March 15. I’m not able to attend but it’d be cool to check out. If anyone (who knows me) attends, let me know how it went.
And so I’ll head into another week. Again if you read this – actually know me – and want to discuss, Facebook Messenger or via email.
February 22, 2025
Before I get too far into this, I want to let people know that I am doing okay. I had my good friend, Chris, reach out to me after I had posted on Facebook that I was leaving social media to check in on how I was doing. (He said I sounded depressed!) I want to say how much I appreciated that. It’s great to know that if there had been something wrong, I have at least a few people out there paying attention and willing to reach out to make sure I’m okay.
My second week of vacation was a lot quieter than the first. Due to the weather, my Mom and I stayed pretty close to home. Wednesday was our big day out as we went to London twice and to Ingersoll to do some chores. Initially we had planned to do some stuff on Wednesday and a few things on Friday but ended up just combining everything into one day. I was tired by the time we finally got home but I think it was worth it to be able to be to have Thursday and Friday at home.
Okay. Elephant in the room. The Daytona 500. I’m sure none of you reading this stopped by because you were wondering “Hey, I wonder what John thought about the Daytona 500?” Overall, it was the Daytona 500, it’s like what they say about sex or pizza, even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good. The rain delay was a pain in the behind. Joey Logano had the best car all day but got caught up in a wreck that, despite what a few people were saying, was not his fault. Despite the stereotype of NASCAR fans, this redneck hillbilly does NOT like watching wrecks. I’m always cheering for the underdogs and the smaller teams to get the wins at the superspeedways. William Byron from Hendrick Motorsports does not fit that description but he’s a good young driver with a great career ahead of him. Atlanta’s another fun track so we’re on to that this weekend.
As I was telling my friend Kelly, I had this dream about a book I wanted to write. I haven’t got as much done as I would have liked but I did get a very rough draft of the first chapter done. (Scroll down to the end of this post to read it.)
To give you an overview, a one-hit wonder band from the 1980s reunite to perform one last time at the request of a eccentric millionaire at a dive bar in the middle of nowhere. Of course, there’s a lot of baggage to unpack for the band.
Oh…and it’s an alternate version of 1994 as a comet is about to destroy all life on earth.
What do you think? Would you read it? Check out the first chapter – which needs to be fleshed out a lot more – and let me know, either on Facebook Messenger or via email.
Damn! WordPress is really testing my patience. It’s bad enough that it’s almost un-editable at this point and you try to delete one character and end up deleting the entire “block” that you’re working on. For a while, it gave you the option of using the much more user-friendly “classic” editor but I see that’s gone.
I guess it’s just one of those things you have to put up with. However, yesterday on three occasions, I found that what was on the public-facing website was more up-to-date than what I was able to edit. In the first case (and thankfully, the more important one) I was able to copy and paste and make the update and in the second case, I had made one minor addition that was lost. but it should take me five minutes to re-add. However on my Track Talk blog, I basically lost everything I’d done since September. (I had been writing the drafts in Words so I might have some of the content backed up.) I’m not sure what the malfunction but I’m not happy.
Chapter One of my novel-in-progress. (All rights reserved!)
“Welcome back to CJMM – Death Rock Radio. I’m Devon McKichan and with me is “The Round Mound of Sound,” Taylor Christianson. We are going to be piloting you through these last few hours.”
“Yoah, yoah, yoah! We’re not going to be rocking your world away with lame, predictable crap like “The End” by the Doors, or “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” by R.E.M. No sirree, Bob! We’re going to deliver the greatest soundtrack to the biggest event in human history, playing selection after selection…”
BANG!
“What the fuck was that?”
“I think that was Lindsay, the intern. And for those following along at home, that would be the fourth CJMM employee in the last hour or so who has decided to off themselves rather that stick around to see how all these plays out.”
“See, this is the problem with these kids today. No commitment. I mean, I’ve heard that when the going gets tough, the tough get going but this is ridiculous!”
Not for the first time, Erika Gettys questioned just what the hell was she doing. Driving across the desert in the middle of a December night in the same green Gremlin she’d bought when she went off to college? Listening to two morons fill the airwaves with the worst gallows humour they could think of? At least there was no traffic. Why would there be? Every sane human being – or what passed for sane human beings at this point – where all hunkered down somewhere, just waiting for “the biggest event in human history” to arrive.
“Hey now, I liked Lindsay. She was a good kid. She scored me some good weed a while back. She wouldn’t tell me where she got it, though.”
“Oh yes, the tragedy in all this isn’t that billions of people are about to die, it’s that Lindsay the intern will never fulfil her destiny as ‘Weed Dealer to the Stars’.”
She should be at home with Mark. If Mark was even at home. I mean, wouldn’t he be these last few days? Before the phone call, she had hoped that she and Mark might put all of their past transgressions, more his than hers, behind them and spend their last moments in each other’s arms, making love.
Who was she kidding? Talk about delusions of grandeur. That was number one with a bullet. No matter what awaited her at the end of this road, it was probably better than turning around and going home to…well, whatever was back there. The Gremlin had about 50,000 miles on it. Why not put a few more on it and see this ridiculousness through?
“We can’t mourn forever, and we’re going to lose our audience – I mean, before we really lose our audience – if we don’t play some of the rock and some of that roll. Without much further adieu, let’s go back to one of my favourite one-hit wonders from the big-hair days of 80s…”
“You mean, back when you were part of the nerd herd in high school?”
“Fuck you, Taylor.”
“Dude, you can’t say the F-word on the air!”
“Oh yeah, like the FCC’s top priority is an F-bomb on the radio. There ain’t no way I’m getting fired. You and I have more job security right now that at any time in our careers. We can say what we want, do what we want, play what we want, and right now I wanna play a song that every moron from my high school loved but I knew was a piece of shit! It is so bad that it totally fits this situation. From 1984, this is ‘Nothing Like A Party to Get the Night Right’ by the Bus Stops.”
Erika slammed on the breaks so hard that her little green Gremlin fishtailed for about 100 yards or so. Part of her was thankful there was no one else on the road but part of her wouldn’t have been too upset to see the lights of an oncoming tractor trailer barrelling towards her. Her hand darted to the on/off switch on her car’s radio. She couldn’t get it off fast enough!
She slammed her head against the steering wheel and left it there. She knew she’d hit it hard enough that she’d probably get a headache but maybe she had enough aspirin to OD on.
What the hell was she doing?
It was a question she had asked herself dozens of times over the last couple of days but she hadn’t even come close to coming up with the right answer. Even if everything else wasn’t going on, she couldn’t fathom what had possessed her to drive all this way to some dive bar in the desert to see Willy and Patrick and Cindy and…
Ronnie…what was she supposed to say to Ronnie and what was he going to say to her? After everything between she and Ronnie.
Erika just sat there. For how long, she didn’t know. Listening to the silence. Pondering where she was supposed to go. She didn’t want to go home to an empty apartment, or worse, to walk in on how Mark was going to spend the time he had left. She thought about just getting out of the car and walking out into the desert and finding a nice, quiet spot to lay there and watch the world end.
Then she remembered. The desert had coyotes and who knows what else? Who knows who else, for that matter? She didn’t feel like spending her last moment fighting off a coyote, or some drunk moron who wants one last piece of ass before going to his maker.
And so, while she didn’t walk on down the hall, she did roll on down the road. After a moment, she hated the silence and the thoughts that were sneaking into her head about what she was driving towards. She turned the radio back on, just in time to hear Willie wailing away on the cymbals to end the song.
“I can not believe this turned out to be the Bus Stops…well, not just their only Number 1 song but their only single. And it sucked balls but every moron in my high school wanted it played at every friggin’ dance. Why…just why?”
“Shut the fuck up, asshole. It was a great song,” Erika said to the radio. “Just not the song we should be remembered for.”
February 14, 2025
WOW! I guess all I have to do to get a $*#@-load of hits on my blog is just to tell people I’m leaving social media and if you want to keep tabs on me, just come over here. It was great to see all the people who obviously care enough to read what I’m writing here. (Hope a lot of people remembered I said I’d try and update on Fridays and come back and see what I have to say this time!)
Happy Valentine’s Day for those of you who celebrate. (I don’t!)
Another day of vacation. Another road trip for Mom and I. With the sun shining and no snow in the forecast, we headed to Ingersoll to stock up on groceries, then on to a few area antique stores in the area including the Courtland Treasures and Antique Emporium in Delhi. Great place with great people, providing great customer service. If you’re in the area, definitely check it out!
I ended up purchasing a Joey Logano diecast and one for Kenny Wallace. The latter was a cool pick-up since it was similar to the paint scheme that Wallace ran in the 2000 Winston 500 at Talladega when he helped push Dale Earnhardt from 18th to 1st in four laps for Earnhardt’s final win. The irony is that I picked up the Earnhardt Talladega win diecast at another store. (I’d had one for several years but this was a back-up, if you will.)
Meanwhile, in between the road trips, I am still working through my To Do list. One of the projects I’ve been wanting to work on is an update of the Ingersoll District Nature Club’s website. I’ve been wanting to do that for the Club for years and I’m pretty close to sending it off for review.
Another “project” so to speak was to update my YouTube playlist. When I’m working (whether at home or at the office) I enjoy listening to music. I’ve had an old school iPod for a long time. Unfortunately. the battery no longer seems to last too long, so I’ve switched over to YouTube on my phone or computer and included a good number of songs that I had on my iPod. If you check it out at the link above, let me know what you think. (I tend to have some pretty eclectic taste.)
O.K. Elephant in the room. I’m sure people won’t want to be “tuning” in to my blog if they think it’s going to be all NASCAR, all the time. For one thing, I have a blog for that. But in the interest of keeping people up-to-date, it is Daytona weekend and I’ve been watching the qualifying, practices, the Duels and will be watching the Truck race later tonight as the NASCAR world gets set for the Daytona 500.
Also, as a community service, if anyone out there finds themselves in a place on Sunday where the race is on and is looking for a long shot to root for, try Ty Dillon! (If you want to go for a favourite, it’s Denny Hamlin!) But after watching qualifying and the duels, go for Ty (Dillon, not GIbbs!)
And on that note, I hope everyone has a safe and happy Family Day weekend (for those who celebrate THAT!) And I will hopefully check in next weekend. Feel free to drop me a line (if you know me, of course!)
February 12, 2025
I’m hoping that a number of you saw the post on Facebook and decided to check my blog out. As I may have mentioned, I am trying to ween myself off social media as much as possible. I deleted my Instagram, Twitter/X, and TikTok (not that I used the latter all that much) some time ago. To me there was too much toxic content, including almost my entire Facebook feed being from accounts that I do not follow nor would want to, and the main draw, to keep in touch with old friends, former co-workers and classmates, just was no longer there. I still have a Facebook account to maintain some accounts I’m involved with (the Heroes of Zorra, Shelf Life Magazine, and the Ingersoll District Nature Club) so if you want to drop me a line about anything I write about here going forward, (or anything you want to talk about on a personal note) you can still contact me on Messenger or via email.
On a day like today, I’m glad to be on vacation and have the ability to stay indoors and work on some personal projects. I’ve been on vacation since last Friday, part of my usual celebration of NASCAR Speedweek and the Daytona 500.
Hey, anybody who has, or knows someone who has, taken the Monday after the Super Bowl off has no right to judge me! 🙂 I’m not taking the time off to recover from the hangover. I’m giving myself some leeway in case the race gets postponed due to the weather. Those of you in Canada know that the Monday is Family Day here so even if the 500 gets pushed back a day, I’m still home to watch the race. Taking next week off means that (a) if the race goes late or is pushed back another day, I don’t have to worry about being at work the next day and (b) it gives my Mom and I a chance to take some more day trips.
I’ve only been on vacation for four full days and already I’ve packed a lot into my vacation. We went to the One of A Kind Antique Mall in Woodstock, we went in and did a few things in London, including a trip to Value Village. We went to Ingersoll twice and also, on the spur of the moment, headed to Stratford on Tuesday afternoon.
I’ve also taken this as a chance to get some of my “To Do” list dealt with. While I find myself adding items almost as frequently as I cross things off my list. But in all seriousness, I am getting a fair amount of the small items done this week, and am hoping to tackle the big projects next week. One of the major projects I was able to take care of this week, however, was the update for the Shelf Life website. If you are looking for your next good book to read, check out the website.
With the bad weather coming in, we’re sticking around home the next few days. However, I am hoping that we can head to Delhi by mid-week next week to visit the antique stores there.
Most of the antique and collectible stores are having their “Cabin Fever” sales this month so it’s really great to be able to get out and visit them, and see what deals I can get on stuff I would have bought anyways. For the uninitiated, there is something very relaxing about walking through these antique and collectible stores. I think it’s because every booth offers up something different. There is the risk of sensory overload because you’re seeing so much, but at the same time, my Mom has said multiple times that everything going on outside, all the stress and worry, just melts away as you peruse the aisles.
When my folks first started going to these stores, I was never interested because I assumed it was all antiques (furniture, etc.) but once I started going, I realized just what a wide variety of items they offer. No matter what your hobby is, you can find something you’re interested in. If anything, there are times when I need to tell myself to look for other stuff besides NASCAR memorabilia because these stores do offer a ton of other sports, movies and music items.
And with all the talk now about “shopping local,” you can do just that by taking a trip to your closest antique and collectibles store.
Thanks for those of you who stopped by to check out my blog. My hope is to check in on Friday nights but if something strikes me, it might be mid-week or over the weekend.
By the way, for those who partake, my “bold prediction” for the Daytona 500 was Carson Hocevar but my realistic pick is Brad Keselowski. The Milner family will also be rooting for Chase Elliott (in memory of my Dad), Joey Logano (my Mom), Kyle Busch (me) and A.J. Allmendinger (Pepper, our cat!).
johnmilner.ca 