My daughter has this little sign hanging from her door.  While it may appear to be a little melodramatic, I smile every time I see it. Even though she is 17 and on the verge of finding her own way in the world, I don't think I will ever stop seeing her as my little girl, and I still have very strong memories of her early childhood. Fathers day is coming this Sunday, and while I'm going to enjoy the attention, the credit should really go to my kids. They both made my job of being a dad very easy. Who knows what kind of father I would have been if my children had been little hellions? I might have ended up in prison. This month will be a very big month for me as a parent. There are two high school graduations and all the associated events that go along with them to look forward to. Then t... 06/17/2011

A couple of weeks ago I read a blog post written by Chris Smith, a Remax agent in South Simcoe, not terribly far from where I live. The post was about fiddleheads, a rather odd plant/vegetable. They are actually the furled fronds of a fern that grows in the North Eastern part of North America. They can only be picked for a couple of weeks a year, after that they unfurl, and can actually make people ill if consumed after a certain time. This is the time of year for them. I had never actually heard of them before reading about them in his blog, but I was interested in trying them. I kept my eye out for some, but to no avail, the local grocery stores didn't seem to have any. After my initial search I had resigned myself to not finding any, and had forgotten all about them until I spied som... 06/14/2011

One of the jobs that real estate agents have to do is to conduct open houses. Sometimes they go well and lots of people show up, sometimes they don't go so well and I will have to sit around waiting for people. I always bring a book. I guess there's worse ways to spend an afternoon than sitting somewhere and reading a good book.If the television happens to be off when I get there, it remains off, and if it happens to be on, it remains on. The reason is quite simple. There's usually four or five remotes lying on the table, and I don't know which one does what. I don't like to screw around with remotes and change the settings. It's not like days of past when one remote was in charge of the T.V., and if you pressed the button marked "volume" it would either get louder or quieter depending ... 06/12/2011

Sometimes I will see things that make me think more than they should. I saw this little plant gowing from the deck in front of the office, and rather than thinking why is it always up to me to pull the weeds around here, I started pondering about life in general. It's truly amazing. We have all seen those pictures of mighty trees growing out of rocks in the desert or on some precarious place on the edge of a cliff. It just goes to show that life prevails in almost any condition. The life force on this planet is so strong that it has produced all kinds of plants, animals, fungi, etc. etc., that where ever life is possible, some form or other will spring up and take advantage of it. The conditions don't have to be grand at all, just a little bit of dirt that has been blown into some nook ... 06/07/2011

Yesterday morning was pretty busy and I had a few houses to see before I made it in to work. It was rainy and miserable, and my friendly little squirrel was waiting for me on the planter under the canopy leading to the building's entrance. I think she doesn't like the rain very much and maybe she was hoping I would bring her inside. I don't think anyone in the office would appreciate that.She had a very sheepish look, and I can sense that she knew she was pushing her luck by waiting so close to the building, but she was going to try anyway. She looked a little relieved when she figured out I wasn't going to be mad at her. Perhaps I'm indulging in a bit of anthromorphism, but I like to think that she's far more intelligent than the average squirrel. She really does respond when I talk to... 06/05/2011

I suppose that one of the irritating things about being a real estate agent is that it generally means that I have to work while others are having their leisure time. Summer weekends are a typical example of this, and this weekend I'm particularly busy. I did, however, get to stop by the Trenton Farmer's Market very early this morning. Most vendors were in the process of setting up their stalls. It was a little dark and gloomy, and it looked as if it was going to turn out to be a rainy Saturday. Well it did rain in the morning, but this afternoon was very nice. Nice weather is a big bonus for the vendors, because it means that they will get a decent crowd out. The farmer's market would be fairly typical of such markets across the continent. There's always fresh local produce, local hone... 06/04/2011

This little cutie likes to come and say hello when she sees me coming to work and leaving. She also likes to sit beside me when I'm sitting on the bench, she's very contemplative. She's just a little baby and I think she lives in a little hollowed out tree on the other side of the parking lot. Our first meeting didn't go so well, she ran up to me and I was a little frightened as I've never seen a squirrel do that before. I shrieked a bit as she started climbing up my leg. I had visions of rabies shots dancing in my head, but she was persistent and withstood my attempts to shake her off my leg. She made it all the way up to my arm and then just nestled in my hand. I knew she was alright then, she was just looking for a friend. I guess she found one. 06/02/2011

Before Trenton got its new City Hall we had a City Hall and an Old City Hall. Since the New City Hall was built we now have a City Hall, and Old City Hall (both of which I've blogged about in the past month) and now an Old-Old City Hall. This is one of the more noticable buildings in Trenton, and it's extremely well kept. They sure don't build them like this any more. At present it's the home of the Trent Port museum, which houses a few displays about the history of this area. Unfortunately, other than locals and extreme history buffs, this museum really wouldn't have much appeal to a wider audience. The building also houses the offices of the Trenton Downtown Business Improvement Association (DBIA), which is overseeing a plan to beautify the downtown core by offering incentives to the ... 05/31/2011

That's it right there in the picture to your left. It's a little bench under a sign outside a convenience store. The Greyhound will arrive a couple of times a day and pick people up and drop them off. You can tell that the bus is about to arrive because there will be people milling about. Depending on how big the bums of the passengers are, this bench can accomodate anywhere from two to three people. This isn't a very convenient arrangement in the winter, so people usually go into the store where they stand around under the watchful eye of the proprietor. I wonder how much inventory he has lost over the years. The arrangement probably is worthwhile to him because people often ship things via Greyhound, and he does make some money off of that (I hope). If somebody wanted to take a bus to... 05/30/2011

The clock tower in Trenton sits squarely smack-dab in the middle of the down town core. It's an attractive old structure that seems to be affixed to a 1970's style building that used to serve as Trenton's city hall. It's pretty obvious which of the two different styles of architecture has withstood the test of time. The building isn't used for anything now. It was bought by private interests about five years ago for a pittance and has remained untouched since then. This is a really big shame. This building could play a very useful role in the community with its central location and its elevator inside. It was built to be accesible and now all of that is going to waste. There's a parking garage in the back, and it's all locked up and the concrete is starting to crumble and when you walk ... 05/29/2011

There's a bench in downtown Trenton right outside the Scotiabank. I sit there every once in a while, usually when I'm waiting for my son to finish his music lessons. I like sitting at this particular bench because it's dedicated to the memory of Dr. Cecil Rain, who practiced in Trenton for many years. Even though I was never a patient of his, I do remember him very well, he was a very kind man and one of my first customers when I owned a gas station. He was one of the first people who I could identify as a "regular" and his visits always seemed to brighten my day, as he always had something nice to say. He was a very well respected and positive person. He always took good care of his car, and he seemed very particular. The phrase "old fashioned gentleman" comes to mind, although being a... 05/28/2011

Sometimes I just feel like eating some bacon and eggs for breakfast, or perhaps a quick bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich for lunch. When I feel like a tradional "diner" meal I head down to the Skyline restaurant in downtown Trenton. It looks and feels like a traditional diner, and the decor inside looks like it could have come straight out of the 1950's. Perhaps it did, this restaurant has had the same owner for over 50 years, and the menu hasn't changed since I first stepped foot in there many years ago. Everybody in Trenton has eaten at the Skyline, and many of the local kids had their first dishwashing job here.  This place has been a landmark in Trenton for a couple or three generations now. The owner "Jimmy the Greek" is always there, and he usually sits in a booth in the back or... 05/27/2011

It's soccer season in Trenton and I love it. There's no doubt in my mind that soccer is the greatest sport on the planet. Boys, girls, men and women from the poorest parts of Africa to the wealthiest areas of Europe and North America can all play this game. It's a universal sport and the world goes crazy whenever there's a big game. My son played for two years, and even though he's not big on sports, he did enjoy himself. I remember his very first game, he scored a goal, it was a thing of beauty and I'll never forget it. We had to wait until his very last game before he scored another. That's two goals, which is two more than I ever scored. His brilliant house league career ended after that game and he walked off the field and never looked back. I guess sports was never his thing, but I... 05/26/2011

Trenton is situated on the west side of the Bay of Quinte. The bay is a long narrow body of water that starts at the mouth of the Trent river, heads east past Belleville and then Desoronto before curving sharply south to Picton where it eventually flows into Lake Ontario at Indian Point. The South side of the bay runs along the northern shore of Prince Edward County. This area has some of the finest recreational properties in the province of Ontario, and they are still very reasonably priced. Many people own summer homes in this area, although the majority of people live there all year round. The Bay of Quinte is probably the best place on the planet to catch Walleye, but most species of fish that populate the Great Lakes can also be found here, making it a very popular destination for... 05/25/2011

My daughter returned from a trip on Saturday. She was only gone for a week, so it wasn't a tearful reunion or anything like that, but still, I missed her very much when she was away. It wasn't just any old trip though, she went to the town of Franklin in Pendleton County, West Virginia. She was there with a group of her schoolmates working on the annual AmeriCorps Build-a-Thon , a Habitat-For-Humanity Project. Her school has been involved with this organization for quite some time, and she was looking forward to going.   This particular project focused on building nine energy efficient attached homes as well as one large mansion-style fifteen unit complex. Apparently Sarah is now quite the expert on caulking windows after having spent a couple of days doing this. This is good to know, a... 05/24/2011

Oddly enough, just after I finished taking this picture the train roared by without stopping. The Via Rail normally doesn't stop in Trenton, it usually just zips right through. Most Trentonians are resigned to having to go to Belleville to catch the train. We do have a little station (as you can see by the picture), but Trenton has long stopped being a regular stop on the route. A few years ago Via Rail had actually decided to do away with Trenton Junction altogether, as not enough people were making use of the facility, but some local citizens banded together and petitioned Via Rail to keep it there. Via Rail monitored the numbers and decided to keep Trenton Junction open, however just in a limited capacity. There are three destinations from Trenton Junction, Ottawa, Toronto, and Montr... 05/23/2011

One of the more noticable things about Trenton is that it's an airforce town. It's hard not to notice the fighter jet mounted on a pole in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn as soon as you exit the 401 on Glen Miller Road. It's also pretty hard to miss another jet mounted on a pole outside our local arena. It's harder yet to miss the massive airforce base on highway 2 in the east end of Trenton. It covers quite a few square miles. There's also another pretty big base just south of Trenton in Prince Edward County called Mountainview. I really have no idea what goes on there. I'm probably not supposed to. C.F.B. Trenton has a museum dedicated to the Royal Canadian Airforce, and even though I'm generally not a museum aficionado, I must admit, it's a pretty neat place. I would say that it w... 05/22/2011

With the Canadian dollar now at par with the American dollar, I'm starting to wonder if many film production companies will still be making movies in Toronto. For years Toronto has doubled as New York or other larger cities in movies simply because it was cheaper to film in Canada with the exchange rate. Now the two currencies are more or less at par so I'm not sure what will entice them to come north to film. Long before Toronto was Canada's movie centre Trenton had that honour. From 1916 until 1934 it was the hub of everything having to do with the film industry in Canada. The first silent films ever shot north of the border were produced right here in Trenton in a studio on Film Street (I'm sure the street had another name at the time). The location of the studio now houses a textile... 05/21/2011

Unfortunately I don't have a reason to go to the Kinsmen Dog Park in Trenton anymore. However, lots of people still do, and this facility is well used. It is a two acre fenced in park conveniently located right in town. It's a place where you can take your dogs and let them run around off the leash for a while. There's even a seperate enclosure for smaller puppies who might not be very well versed in all aspects of canine social interaction. It's a fun time for the dogs, and you can usually see a few running around in there. There are rules and regulations and aggressive dogs won't be tolerated, but I can't recall ever having seen any dog that fit that description in there. I think most owners of dogs who don't get along well with other dogs are smart enough not to let them run around i... 05/20/2011

The Red Shark in Trenton has been a mainstay on Dundas Street West for many years. It's a men's clothing store, and it offers a large selection of suits, pants, shirts as well as casual wear. It's the kind of store that you can go into and have someone measure you to make sure that your clothes will fit well. You can't get the same type of service, quality of products and attention to detail at Walmart or Sears. That's why I enjoy shopping here. Shane O'shaughnessy is the owner, and he always makes sure his store is stocked well with well priced items that are in season. It's nice to be able to browse through his selection. Yesterday I decided that I needed a spring time addition to my wardrobe to brighten it up a little, so I went in and bought a new shirt. It was a bit of a treat to m... 05/19/2011