Big City Boy, With a Small Town Heart.

I don’t know if it’s just the way I was raised or just the good feeling I have for those around me.  But it just feels right to give back or give forward everyday.

Today Winnipeg got hit with a shitload of snow, not a metric shitload or even an imperial shitload but a good dump none the less.  Around a half meter or so, with drifting and the like.  Not anything Winnipeg has never seen before but a good dump.

Dar and I live on a pretty quiet block, a river to the back of us and an industrial park that tends to explode from time to time. So we tend to know our neighbors.  If not by name but at least by sight.

I know that there are some down our block that are too old to shovel heavy snow, so before I did our lot out I went and did theirs.  Not for cash, or even for recognition.  Hell I don’t even know if half of them are even home. But I did it because it was a nice thing to do.

Over the Christmas holidays, I think it’s just nice to help when you can.  I deliver hampers, shovel snow and try to be a good person.

Don’t look to me and ask Bob how can I be like you.  Well you can’t be like me, but the point of the matter is to be the best you that you can be.  Even if you are lacking in funds to help the smallest gesture can mean the world to another.

Just think, if I were in that situation, how could someone help me.  And do that, or something close to it.

It Never hurts to help.

Happy Christmas and a very Merry New Year to one and all.

Bob

Christmas Giving: The Gift That Gives Back.

Hey folks, I know it’s been a while since I’ve been around.  But I decided to poke my head out of my hiding hole for a little while and get on my hickory stump for a bit of an old country lesson.

The theme of this message is… It never hurts to help.

Now people I am not saying that you have to give up the family farm or put yourself in hardship.  But given the things people all around the world are going through it hardly seems wrong to chip in a little in any way to help those that have less than yourself.

It could be a dollar into a Charity Hamper, or a nickel into the that Salvation army kettle with the singing Santa. It could be donating some time to a worthy cause, like serving soup for those less fortunate.  All I am saying is that in this economic climate everything helps.

You may ask Bob…What did you do to help those in need.  Well my friends I deliver hampers to the less fortunate in Winnipeg.
I take a few nights out of my year and grab some like-minded friends and go spread the Christmas cheer.

I throw on a Santa hat and knock on doors for a cause, I don’t do it to help me but in some way I do.  I give my time and my effort for free, and all I get in return is the smiling faces of children who would otherwise have no Christmas.  I get the respect and hearty handshakes of immigrant fathers who have fled war-torn countries in search of a better life.  Not understanding the generous ways of Winnipeg or even the tradition of Christmas.

In giving back to those who have less, we see more than just poverty.  We see the kindness of faith and the redemption of the spirit of charity.

I think that in giving back we can all grow, It does not have to be Christmas, but all faiths can give and become greater.

In the words of my faith Merry Christmas One and All

Bob

Christmas, Birthdays and all that new years jazz.

Yea it’s been a while, but that happens when a person goes into a deep winter slumber over the holidays.  I was off for an epic almost two weeks! GRAND INDEED.

I know you guys need my words but sometimes I just have to prime the proverbial pump and take a good few weeks off.  Apologies.

So what happened to Bob on his time off, well I did spend a great deal of it shuteye and comatose.  But another great deal of it was spent preparing for Christmas.  We had planned to spend it with Dar’s family in the country.  Meaning cooking for her mother who is a shift worker.  I have no trouble doing this having worked some mighty mixed up shifts in my day and the fact that I do really like her mom.   I also love to cook, trouble this year was my bad ankles again.  I took the splendid chance opportunity to roll my left ankle over on the ice on our driveway and put myself in a world of hurt .

No worries I limped through Christmas, with Dar’s 5-year-old nephew Eric who was so excited to have a some time with family.  He’s a bit high-strung but we all had a blast playing with him as he ran circles in the family room and talked the ears off of everyone in sight.  He’s a special handful but we love him dearly.

For his birthday on the 27th of Dec, Dar and I gathered for a special Asian treat. Eric is half Chinese and his parents bought an extra special cake.  Durain fruit cake.  The taste is a bit odd for a western palate but not as strong as it smells.  Durian fruit as many people know is a very strong-smelling fruit.  But I found the taste of the cake very mild and pleasing.

Our new year is finding us travailing, to southern exposures finding new cultures and new adventures.  I hope you all find health, wealth and happiness in the new year as well.

Much Love

Bobby

Happy Christmas

I was just going to blow this post off this week and mail it in from last years Christmas post but this year I just can’t.  My heart is broken, like many of you out there by the tragedy of last week.

Speaking as a hunter and gun owner, I cannot put into words the outrage I feel.  As a child growing up in a Northern Ontario town I lived around rifles, they did not protect us but the certainly did feed us.  We used projectile weapons that were designed to KILL.  Not humans but, deer and moose that lived in our surroundings.  Large bore, big caliber, weapons to take a ton and a half animal out with the least stress possible.  I layman’s terms a clean kill.

I have been the murderer of hundreds of birds, and a great few mammals.  I have never killed a big beast like a deer or moose.  Although I have certainly tried.I have stalked beasts larger than me holding a gun that would have put the average human through a plate glass window.  I am a stone cold killer.

But before I stop and tell you why I wouldn’t unload on a classroom of kids let me tell you why I stopped hunting.

A few years ago I was hunting deer and rabbit with a very deer friend of mine.  I caught sight of a bunny on the hop.   I am a very good shot, but I missed just a tad.  Caught the sucker in the leg.   It started crying and limped off into a stand of willows.  I knew I had to do it.  The rabbit was suffering.  So I pulled the trigger close up and personal.  That very night I ate him.

That is hunting.

What that other strange fuck did is so counter culture to me. He slaughtered kids.

So in this season of giving and Ho Ho Ho.  Please remember the little things.  All of my friends have a very Merry Christmas and a Wicked New Year.

Santa Bob

 

 

Corprorate agenda quit fucking up Christmas!

Ok, I’ve stayed silent enough but tonight the gloves are off. I’ve seen Santa turned into an avenger this year.  I’ve seen has been hacks from Saturday Night Live playing moronic elves in movies.  Hell I even put up with Linus getting his blanket back in a “new” Holiday special.  This I can live with.

However what I cannot abide is  re-branding or should I say requisitioning of the holiday classics from my childhood to new corporate masters.  Yes I get that the classic Christmas shorts from our childhood are awesome property to acquire and license the fuck out of but why in all that is good and holy in this time of year would you turn a half hour cherished Christmas special into a miserable 60 minute shlock-athon  for Macy’s.

Really Macy’s you own it all in half of the country anyways, you have the parades the storefronts .  Do you really need Rodolph the Red Nosed Reindeer too?  Do we need to stop in between frames of duologue so you can shill medium grade cookware?

The season is commercial enough.  Just lay back like the whores you are, open your doors and have a fucking sale.  Don’t ruin Christmas for everyone, by having a damn commercial every three minutes in a children’s show in prime time.

I’m done, everybody carry on shopping.

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