The Doors, Roadhouse Blues, lyrics read: “Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel.” Who knew that Jim Morrison would be helping us to save $490? Considering the way the song lyrics devolve from there, Morrison wouldn’t be the best spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation (even if he were alive), but regardless, even if you aren’t …
Geocaching a modern day treasure hunt
In my last column, I wrote about the importance of getting outside for mental and physical health reasons. I received many comments in agreement with the sentiment (though one allergy sufferer disagreed with me wholeheartedly). This week I thought I’d let you in on our family’s little outdoor secret: the joys of geocaching. Imagine an activity that wraps up exercise, …
Go outside and have fun
Ever wonder how you can improve your life? More and more the solution seems to point to one very easy and obvious solution”¦ get outdoors more. Yes, mother was right. Her answer to every problem was: “Go play outside.” Even though she probably just wanted my sister and I to take our bickering away from her, in retrospect, there was …
Hiawatha Highlands Column was Public Service
On March 25, I wrote an article about the owl attacks up on the Hiawatha Highlands trails. Two people had been seen in the Sault Area Hospital Emergency Room for wounds received after being winged by an owl. I had suggested that this was a public safety issue and that something more should have been done by the hospital and …
Give a hoot about owl attacks
Did you hear about the owl attacks in early February? No? Neither did I, that is until last week. A neighbour down the road called me to tell me that he’d been in hospital and had heard that two independent people, in the same evening, had been admitted in the emergency department after being attacked by owls while skiing at …
Don’t risk safety for fear of offending stranger
A woman shows up at your door in the night and asks to use the telephone as she’s run out of gas. What do you do? Given two recent incidents like this in the Sault with dastardly results, we should all be thinking about what we would do to protect ourselves, our families, and our property. An ounce of prevention …
Happy hunting ladies
One in four new hunters in Ontario is female, according to the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters. This was one of the interesting statistics presented during the Hunter Education course that I took in September at Sault College from Jane and Reg Perry. Looking around my classroom, where women outnumbered the men, the numbers would actually show that 2.56 …
More women take aim
When I walked into the firearms safety course last weekend, imagine my surprise when I saw that the women in the room outnumbered the men. Like the Aerosmith song says: “Janie’s got a gun” or at least she wants to get one, or else she wouldn’t be in this room. Why were so many women interested in the ability to …
Cold bucket, warm hearts
On social media lately, I’ve been deluged with posts of songs from the movie Frozen and now most recently, with the ice bucket challenge. If you, like me, have been living under a rock, let me bring you up to speed. The movie Frozen has one really great song, “Let it Go,” that children and parents everywhere are singing and …
I’m working on running
I recently decided to take up jogging. The thing is, I don’t like jogging. My joints don’t respond well, I have zero cardio ability, and shin splints abound. So why do it, you ask? I’m also asking that question. My butt is resoundingly happier when firmly seated on the couch, but even it knows that exercise is key to a …