The Maple Leaf Rag

Someone asked me how I got to be what I am or where I am or who I am, something like that. I wasn't really sure how to interpret this since I haven't been asked this before. You know how language can be changed when it goes from someone's mind who doesn't speak English naturally to someone who does. Well, this very dull blog will attempt to answer her questions. Bear with me, ok?

When I was in school, the early school years back in a very small town in Ontario, I used to get bored. The only real book that I had to look at in class was a dictionary so that's what I did, I read the dictionary in class. The teacher, Mrs. Davis used to comment on that to her future students. Maybe that's how I got interested in words, who knows?

Earlier than that, I guess in Grade 3 or something, maybe later, I used to load up with books to take home for the weekend. We lived in an old stone and frame farmhouse that had no insulation. In the winter, the only warm place was my bed so I would read there in the evenings. I would read and read. Some evenings I would draw also but I never became a good artist but, I will admit, I'm not a bad writer. 

Later on, in high school, I started to write. Poetry about the girl of the moment, about the wind, about the weather, about the seasons, whatever moved me at that time. One summer, the summer when I was 15, I wrote a story about a magical chair  that could  satisfy your every need. I sent the story off to a local Canadian magazine. Wonder of wonders! They bought it! I was in heaven. Even then the cheque they sent was pretty good: 75 Canadian dollars. I forget what I spent it on but that set me off on a spree of writing. All that summer I explored my talent, or lack of, writing everything I could think of. I still have all of it. I guess my kids will discover it after I die. 

University time came and I headed off to Montreal to attend what was then Loyola College. It was heaven and hell all in one. I was away from my future wife but I loved the classes and the people there. It was cool, too, taking film courses at night and English courses in the daytime. I slept through the classic Russian series but managed to stay awake for the Hitchcock films. My writing continued and I was lucky enough to get a centrespread in the Loyola school newspaper.

Later, I moved to Toronto and attended Ryerson, got my degree in Motion Picture Technology and kept writing. I never sent anything else off to get published, maybe I should have, but I never got around to it.

So what makes me 'me'? Exploring, interacting, talking to people from everywhere, watching and observing everything I see and reading. I read almost my whole time when I am not working or not sleeping. While computers are my main interest, I also really enjoy talking to people online. Listening to stories about different cultures and different countries is the most interesting thing I do these days.

That's it! If I think of something more to add to this creation, I'll add it later. Don't fall asleep reading this!!

This was supposed to be about the fall colours here in Canada and there was supposed to be a pic of those colours but someone, namely me, can't figure out how to insert an image!!!

Anyway, it's a very nice time to be in Canada right now. The colours of the trees, at least those that lose their leaves (deciduous) are incredible. The maples, more than anything else, are awesome. 

It's a sad time of year for some people. Summer is over, the cold will come but there is a crispness in the air too that is invigorating. I'm not a fan of either cold weather or snow but the cool air of fall is refreshing. I wrote a poem about it once, let me see if I can find it. Here it is:

Poem 3.
Last night I heard the wind,
the first wind of winter.
It curled around the corners of my room and flew past my window, screaming ...
from fear I suppose at it's speed.
It was the same wind that had frosted my cheeks in younger days
and caused my nose to drip onto my sweater.
It was the same wind which had caused me to climb a tree last year,
reminding me that it was probably the last chance before the snow fell.
(I had neglected my tree climbing that summer.)
It was the same wind which reminded me of a night a week or so before.
That night the wind was warm and full. Her name was Linda. We had talked of the wind.
Alone now, I see that the wind and her love were similar and had turned cold together.

OK, so it was about later in the fall but it reminds me of this time of the year. 

I discovered the answer to someone's question about the time on Ebaby. When you send a message or post in the forums, there is a time stamped beside your name. At this point, the time is either Pacific Daylight Time or Mountain Standard Time. After October 31st, the time will still be Mountain Standard time, since PDT will change to PST, Pacific Standard time. 

My time here in Toronto is now 10:56 AM so my time stamp on this post will be 7:56 PDT or MST. I am -5 hours from Greenwich Mean Time so you can calculate your hours from there. After October 31st I will be -4 hours GMT.

Does this make sense? Does the time change in your country? There are parts of the States and Canada that don't change their times in the spring and the fall. I think Mountain time is always mountain time, so your time stamp on here should always be constant from there.