I have always believed that it's much better to rip a bandaid off quickly than to try to remove it slowly and prolong the pain. That was something that my dad taught me. Unfortunately the last couple of weeks have felt a lot like slowly peeling off a bandaid. Today it's almost over though. The last couple of weeks have been a flurry of activity with all the college preparations for my two kids. Both of them are going off to their first year of college, one a couple of hundred miles east of here and the other a couple of hundred miles west. Today my son is on his own, in his own apartment, anxiously (or maybe not so anxiously) waiting for Tuesday when his classes start. He decided that he wanted to go and spend the weekend in his new place and I don't blame him one bit. The last little w... 09/02/2011

I just couldn't resist. I hope the owner of this home doesn't read my blog. I was showing houses the other day and one of them was a rather stately looking Victorian home. It was a little past its prime and in need of some upkeep. It was "dated" to say the least. I was somewhat expecting to walk into a room and see Miss Haversham sitting beside a hollowed out wedding cake. Fortunately no one was home. Boy oh boy, I can't think of anything that screams out "dated" more than original Starwars wallpaper. I had to snap a picture of this, you don't come across something like this every day. Certain styles weave their way in and out of fashion, and at a point will somehow become charming again. This, unfortunately, will not be the case with this particular wallpaper. It was found in a freakis... 08/18/2011

Damn you, Crayola Pencil display. You ruined a perfectly good trip to Walmart. I was only popping in to buy a couple of bags of potting soil from the garden centre, and there you were, grinning from ear to ear, strategically placed near the entrance. Seeing you was unavoidable, but you knew that, that's why you were situated there. Who do you think you are? Do you enjoy wiping the smile off other people's faces while grinning from ear to ear yourself? Oh how I would have enjoyed putting a fist through your bubbly yellow cardboard visage, but I restrained myself, I didn't want to give the elderly greeter at the door a heart attack. Just wait though, I'll catch you when no one else is around, we'll see what happens then. You and your "back to school" acolytes really enjoy your role, don't... 08/10/2011

I was a little saddened this morning when I read the news and discovered that Nancy Wake had passed away. It was bound to happen I suppose, she was 98 years old after all, but still, it just seems that the world doesn't produce people like her anymore. Nancy Wake was an Australian who served as a British agent in WWII. She was known to the Gestapo as "The White Mouse", and had a 5 million Franc bounty on her head, more than any other agent during the war. Her acts of heroism are legendary, and she was a key organizer of the French resistance. One time she had to ride her bicycle for over 500 miles and several German checkpoints to replace codes that had been destroyed by her radio operator to keep from falling into German hands. Another time she killed a German sentry with her bare hand... 08/08/2011

Well, it's about time. The local corn is finally ready. We had a lot of rain early in the year, so the corn is a little behind schedule. I didn't waste much time finding my way over to the nearest vegetable stand and buying some though. I didn't waste any time after that getting some on the barbeque either. Personally I prefer boiling corn, it seems a little juicier, but it was such a lovely evening out, I couldn't resist firing up the barbeque and sitting outside watching them warm up. I have a feeling that I will be eating a lot of corn over the next couple of weeks. Fresh corn always tastes a lot better than the stuff that's shipped from half way across the continent, so I have to make hay while the sun shines. Were you aware that corn is a type of grass? Apparently it was domesticat... 08/02/2011

I'm sure we are all familiar with QR codes by now. They are pretty useful, and until something better comes along (which will happen fairly soon), they will be on just about every product and be used by every industry including Real Estate. This video shows the most novel use for a QR code that I have seen so far. I think its pretty neat. Doesn't it make you want to rush out and get a tattoo? Maybe not. 07/30/2011

Well it's about time someone made a decent Tintin movie.Most North Americans (other than people from Quebec) probably won't be terribly excited about a Tintin movie, but kids of all ages who grew up outside of North America will be chomping at the bit to go and see this. Steven Speilberg and Peter Jackson have teamed up to bring Tintin to the big screen. With those two fellows at the helm, you know it's going to be good, blistering barnacles. I have waited a long time to see the boy wonder get his shot at movie stardom.I have always loved the relatively simple, yet very exciting and colourful stories, and now I'm excited at the prospect of a whole new audience getting introduced to tintin and his wonderful cast of friends and foes. The only problem is that I will have to wait until Dece... 07/26/2011

We just wrapped up our sidewalk sale yesterday. Every July the main street in Trenton gets barricaded and all the merchants can set up on the streets and sidewalks. Out-of-town vendors can rent a space and set up too. This event will run from Thursday to Saturday night, and it's pretty festive. We will have musicians performing, so there's always something new to listen to. The weather was good this year, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few sun-burned Trentonians running around next week. It's a much anticipated event, and I look forward to it every year. I like to walk up and down the street munching on an Italian sausage, drinking a freshly squeezed lemonade, and chatting to people who I don't run into very often. Almost everybody comes out to this event. I think most of the... 07/24/2011

It's sad that I don't even have a photograph, nor can I find one of Mike. Last Friday the police in Trenton pulled a young man's body out of the river. On Sunday, once they could rule out foul play, the man's name was announced, and many people were shocked. I first met Mike about 15 years ago when I owned a local gas station and he kept applying for a job. At least once a month for about three years he would come in, ask to speak to me, and hand me an application. I never did hire him, but it never phased him, nor did it ever make him bitter towards me. In fact, we became friends. I learned that his nickname was "Bike Mike" because he was always picking up scrap bicycles and working on them until they gleamed and were in perfect working order. You could always find him riding around to... 07/21/2011

Well the votes were counted and the results were announced on TSN's Sportscentre broadcast last night. As you can guess by the title of this post, Wallaceburg got the better of Trenton in yesterday's voting. Over one million votes were recieved, and I'm not sure what the actual breakdown was, but that's an impressive number. I know a lot of people in Trenton who stayed up all night voting, and I suppose a lot of folks did the same in Wallaceburg.  Kraft is donating $25,000 to communities across Canada to upgrade their sports facilities. They are calling this the Kraft Celebration Tour 2011. The communities are paired off, and after a day of online voting, the one that gets the most votes will win this money. Many people put a large effort into rallying others to get motivated to vote, a... 07/14/2011

Bravo to the Tim Hortons people for arranging time in community pools across Ontario so that kids can swim for free.  Some children may not get the chance to swim in the summer, so hopefully this program will give them an opportunity to do so. Swimming is one of those simple pleasures that many of us take for granted, but might be out of reach for others. Here are the times for Belleville, Trent Hills and Trenton; BellevilleKinsmen PoolJuly 13 7:00 pm - 9:00 pmJuly 20 7:00 pm - 9:00 pmJuly 27 7:00 pm - 9:00 pmAugust 03 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmAugust 10 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Trent HillsTrent Hills Municipal PoolJune 29 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmJuly 06 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmJuly 13 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmJuly 20 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmJuly 27 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmAugust 03 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmAugust 10 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmAugust 17 ... 07/12/2011

The Trenton High School track is in severe need of repair. Oftentimes it is a struggle for schools in smaller communities to maintain or upgrade their existing facilities. This is why events like the Kraft Celebration Tour are a Godsend. Kraft is generously donating $250,000 to ten different communities across Canada to upgrade their sporting facilities. There is a bit of a catch though, as twenty communities are selected and paired off. This means that people will have to vote for their community to win, and the winner of each match up recieves $25,000. Tomorrow Trenton is in the spotlight as it competes against Wallaceburg, Ontario for that valuable funding. Voting starts at noon and lasts until noon the next day. You can read about Trenton's ambitions here. All residents of Trenton ... 07/11/2011

Sellers, if you want to sell your home yourself without the help of an agent, then go for it. I have nothing against people who try to do so, and I don't mind showing your homes. Thanks to the internet I have a rather large pool of buyers who enlist my services when they are looking for a home in this area. Lots of military personel transfer into the Quinte area and contact me before they arrive. They have a relatively small time-frame to find a home and negotiate the purchase of it. The Department of National Defence only pays for so much and allots them so much time. I take their urgency seriously and act accordingly. We are on a schedule. Firstly, if you have listed your home with one of those flat-fee MLS outfits from Ottawa or Toronto, you might as well be selling your home yoursel... 07/05/2011

Lately there have been a lot of studies published about childhood obesity in North America. Apparently a large percentage of our children are struggling with their weight. This is not a good thing as it will lead to all sorts of problems later in life. I was standing on my driveway the other evening when I heard the tinkling sound of the ice-cream truck. This was nice, it had been a long time since I have seen one of them, and I can't ever recall having seen one in my neighbourhood before. WOW. You should have seen the kids coming out of the woodwork and pour onto the streets. I had no idea that so many children lived on my street, I had never seen half of them before. It was like magic. These kids were running full tilt scrambling over one another like lemmings trying to be first over ... 07/04/2011

This will be my last cutesy animal video for a while. I promise. I couldn't resist posting this one though.Ed, our local groundhog seems to have magical powers. I spotted him standing upright on the lawn, and he spotted me spotting him. He stood very still waiting to see what I was going to do. As soon as I opened the door, POOF, he was gone in a blaze of light. How many groundhogs can do that? 07/03/2011

Tomorrow is Canada Day, and I would urge all Canadians to get out there and enjoy their special day. Every city, town and village will have something planned, so I'm sure there will be a variety of activities to enjoy. I'm hoping that the weather will be good in every corner of our great nation so that we can all take advantage of this very important dayYesterday I had a very big reminder why I shouldn't treat this day casually at all. Canada Day should never be taken for granted, it has come at a great cost to many. Trenton is the town where the big Herculese aircrafts land and Canadian soldiers fighting in Afghanistan come home, and yesterday our 157th repatriation ceremony occured. The body of Master Corporal Francis Roy, a 32 year old soldier from Rimouski, Quebec landed in Trenton ... 06/30/2011

Google is going to take another run at Facebook with yet another Social Network. Orkut and Google Buzz didn't quite meet their expectations I guess. Orkut is quite successful outside of North America, but Google is after the all important American market. Nothing seems to have captured the public's attention like Facebook. This new service will be called Google+, and is already available to a small number of people. Soon it will be rolled out to the likes of you and me. You can read about this here. Of course there will be differences between this new network and all other existing networks, but frankly I don't think I'm going to care all that much. I just can't handle any more social networking. (I say this now, but I'll probably be on there, grudgingly at first). I have already starte... 06/28/2011

It's prom season all over North America, and last night it was my turn to see my daughter go to hers. Sarah was excited about going. It's a reward for enduring 4 years of high school, and I think a lot of kids look forward to it. Her prom date seemed like a nice enough young fellow, I had met him a few times in the past, and  he passes muster. The prom is a ritual that symbolises the end of an era for these kids. Sarah is graduating with most of the same kids who she met in her very first day of kindergarten, so she has built a very strong bond with her friends. Three other girls showed up at the house, it was the final launching point before going into town and attending the prom, and I have also known her three friends since they were in kindergarten. I have watched them all grow up a... 06/27/2011

Great moments in Canadian soccer don't happen all that often. Once in a blue moon something noteworthy will occur, but they are so rare that I can't remember the last time I noticed something. Canada has developed some good players, but usually they are lured away and end up playing internationally for the country that their grandparents were born in. As a soccer nation, we need to gain some traction and encourage these players to play for the country of their birth. Maybe if we had a few more highlights, this might happen.Currently Canada is competing in the under 17 World Cup, and are in pretty tough in a group with Uruguay, England and Rwanda. Yesterday they played England. They were trailing 2 - 1 with four minutes to go. Then this happened. If you are a soccer enthusiast you will e... 06/25/2011

The weather has warmed up. Tomorrow is the first day of summer, and yes, it can be a little uncomfortable from time to time. Stop yer moaning and complaining, we worked through a long hard winter to get here. Take your mind back to the middle of February when you were up at 6 am scraping the ice and snow off your car. Remember that? I bet that you would have traded that for a day like this in a heartbeat. Grumble, grumble, grumble, the weather's never perfect is it? I don't want to hear any more of that, I like this weather fine. You ladies especially, you can put on a nice summer dress and show off your colours. Summer should be a time when we all enjoy the colours and the smells and the sounds. Is it hot enough for me?  Not yet. Stop being such big babies and get out there and enjoy t... 06/20/2011