I just spent a week lumberjacking for my cousin on Manitoulin Island. She had several dead and rotting fir trees on her property that needed to come down. I had promised her two years ago that I would help her clear the view to her beloved grove of cedars.
After a seven hour drive from Caledon to Espanola through Little Current to Kagawong, we arrived at her home.
For the next six days I chainsawed, felled, trimmed, piled logs for firewood, and several times took her trailer of branch trimmings to the compost dump. My cousin, all 110 lbs of her, was determined to get the job done. In the end, however, she said I had exhausted her.
I think it was the dance routine that did her in. I couldn’t help myself. That song from Monty Python’s Flying Circus had become an ear worm and, of course we had to act out the whole routine to “I’m a Lumberjack and i’m OK”
I was driven to keep my promise to get all of those trees and stumps down, but a dull chainsaw slowed me down. I’ll be back in September to finish off those stumps!. Her saws will be sharpened by then. I will keep my promise to clear her dead trees and stumps because I’m a lumberjack, and I’m OK. Monty Python would be proud.
The way I see it.
*****
*Visual from Getty Images

We are bearing witness to one of the most obscene moments in 21st century history. A President with a malignant narcissistic personality disorder is sitting down with a President who is the epitome of the cold blooded killer to determine the fate of another country.
So, being me, I just had to meet Tony. Two days ago I walked up to the door and introduced myself and thanked him for making the world a more beautiful place. Tony invited me in and introduced me to his wife Lisa. We started chatting and discovered that we were both retired teachers. Not unusual, but then 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon happened!
We already knew things were rotten in many of our political states, but sometimes the explanations that politicians give for their actions is like we were in a dreamworld. “Oh yes, my family personally benefited from my cryptocurrency scam, but it did not affect my decision to allow people to bid for a seat at my dinner table.” “Oh yes, this developer contributed thousands to my personal fundraiser, but it did not affect my decision to change our laws to give him what he wanted.” Ay, there’s the rub.