One of my favourite things to do while standing in line at the grocery store is to browse the various magazines at the checkout counter. It’s the self-help articles that fascinate me: ?10 Ways to Lose 10 Pounds.? ?15 Ways to Keep Him Happy.? ?20 Steps to a Healthier You.? ?12 Ways to Declutter Your… Read more »

I’m beginning to feel like I’m a joiner?not the woodworking type joiner, but the type who joins groups for the sake of joining groups. I joined the Facebook community because my cousin said it was time I joined the 21st century. I was unaware at the time that you could join a century; I thought… Read more »

I’m one of those people who bought a new computer a couple of years ago and found themselves immersed in the never-never land called Vista. I was quite excited to be at what was then considered the cutting edge of technology. That feeling lasted all of about 30 minutes. Then, Vista became vexing. I won’t… Read more »

In the closing stages of 2009 I moved, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century: I joined the social networking world. That is, I created a Facebook page. I caved on my long-standing aversion to groups of any kind (an invitation to a tea party is likely to send me running for the first ferry… Read more »

I’m going to take a diversion in this column to tell you about a friend of ours. His name is Peter. He owned a business called Gabriola Cycle and Kayak; it was one of the original kayak companies in British Columbia. He ran kayak trips to the Broken Islands, Queen Charlottes, and Baja, Mexico. But… Read more »

On Christmas Eve a box arrived for me from Athabasca University. It contained, as expected, the books and materials for the next two courses. The arrival of such boxes tends to evoke mixed emotions: joy that I’ve now got a whole new batch of English or French books to read, and anxiety that I have… Read more »

That Diane Keaton advert for some cream or other drives me insane. You know the one: ?Oh, I believe in aging . . . authentically.? Yeah, right. My handy well-used dictionary defines ?authentic? as ?true? and ?genuine.? I’m not sure when plastic surgery and hair dye became true and genuine, but maybe I’m just being… Read more »

Well, December has arrived and my well-laid plans to have all three courses finished by the end of this month are on wobbly ground right now. The joys of being able to study in my jammies, curl up on the couch with a good novel and call it ?studying,? and not finish the assignment this… Read more »

When my mother died, my father was 71. She’d suffered a brain injury and he’d been her primary caregiver 24/7 for the previous 15 years. When she died, he was lost. Then he found computers. This was back in 1996, when the Internet was really starting to take off and the 386 personal computer was… Read more »

The phrase ?my brain hurts? originated with the Monty Python comedy team and featured a fictional Mr. Gumby looking for a brain specialist. Those of you not familiar with the sketch are obviously not over 50. But for me, although a confirmed Python fan from the days of watching them on television in the 60s… Read more »