Tag: writing

My Journey Through Various Cars: A Personal Reflection

June 21, 2025

A blogger’s description of his experiences with cars over the years sparked memories of myown time with the vehicles I’ve driven.

Like many others, I wanted to have a car when I was a student in Vancouver, British Columbia. With limited funds, I searched for something within my budget. I had my heart set on the curvy Mustang, which I found appealing in design. However, when I started looking, the used models began at $2,000, far beyond what I could afford.

On another used car lot, I came across a Peugeot 403 priced at $800. This was more manageable for me, and the car was in good condition with no rust. For me, the Peugeot had some interesting features, including a hand crank to assist with starting the engine in colder weather. You had to be careful with the crank; if you didn’t let go as soon as the car started, it could potentially injure you by taking your arm out of its shoulder socket.

The Peugeot 403 received excellent service from European mechanics in Vancouver, and parts were easily accessible. When properly tuned, the car purred like a sewing machine. The situation changed, though, when I drove my Peugeot to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where I entered graduate school. My route took me south to California, where I joined Route 66 and journeyed east across the Mojave Desert to North Carolina. The car performed well in temperatures above 120 degrees.

During my stay in North Carolina, snow arrived only once, and I was able to use the crank successfully. However, problems arose when I needed repairs. The mechanics seemed puzzled when they saw my Peugeot; they had never encountered this model before. More importantly, they didn’t have any parts, and the parts that I needed were in the metric system, not the imperial system. This meant that no North American part would fit. Fortunately, the mechanics were resourceful and managed to install General Motors parts that worked in some fashion, but only for a short time. The car sputtered, but it continued to run until it eventually broke down on a rural highway. I removed the license plates, left the vehicle on the shoulder, and hitchhiked back into town.

With my first professional job and a better salary in Norfolk, Virginia, I sought a stylish car. A yellow hardtop Dodge Coronet 440 caught my eye, equipped with a powerful V8 engine that rumbled in a confident roar. The black leather hardtop contrasted sharply with the yellow body, making it look sharp!

The car performed beautifully and even had air conditioning, which was a big deal since I didn’t have AC at my graduate dorm in Chapel Hill. We also lacked air conditioning at our rental unit in Norfolk, where temperatures often soared into the 100s.

I will never forget the rental furniture in Norfolk; the bed was made of Styrofoam! It was uncomfortably hot at night without air conditioning. The only relief we had during that time was from large fans and open windows, but we could always take a drive in the car with its AC system to escape the heat.

We later moved to Washington, DC, and then to Ottawa in this car. It was a reliable vehicle that took our family, which included three children under ten at the time, and our dog on several trips to Florida. With a two-door sedan, we had to push the children and the dog into the back seat before we could get going. We enjoyed car camping and visited various sights along Highway 95 as we headed south. One of our favorite stops was the Battleship North Carolina in Wilmington, NC.

At this point, we needed a second car to transport the children to their separate sports events. I purchased a used VW Squareback, which was economical, and I found the standard gear shift to be fun to use. However, the gas heater proved to be a challenge! Imagine driving the VW in minus twenty-degree temperatures during winter. The gas heater took time to start working. While waiting for it to warm up, I had to open the windows to prevent them from fogging up with my breath in the car. To cope with the biting cold wind coming through the windows, I wore a heavy parka, a tuque, and gloves. Unfortunately, the Squareback was not built for the freezing winters of Ottawa.

The car was lightweight, and even with snow tires, I slid into an intersection where oncoming vehicles collided with me one day. That was the end of the VW. The worst part was that my neighbors witnessed the wreck with me init, and the gossip in my neighborhood was about how incompetent I was at driving on ice.

A similar situation ensued with my fancy Dodge SE, a V8 that boasted ample power and a fabulous interior. This car had been given to me by my father when he retired, and I had it transported by train from Vancouver to Ottawa. It was a gem, but in humid weather, it was challenging to start. I am not sure why. I kept a screwdriver with a long stem in the glove compartment to help me short-circuit the starter engine in humid weather. Unfortunately, sliding on ice on a curvy road led me to crash into a tree, ending the life of this remarkable car.

After joining an international telecom company in the high-tech sector and becoming an executive, I rewarded myself with a Toyota Camry, which I dubbed the “silver bullet” because of its shiny silver color. It was a trouble-free car, and I drove it for an impressive 300,000 miles.

In a memorable event, I hit black ice on a rural road one night and flipped the car, leaving me hanging upside down by the seatbelt. Once I got my brain into gear, I opened the window and shut down the engine that was still running. Then I tried to figure out how to extricate myself from being upside down without banging my head when I unhook the seatbelt. Once I turned myself right up, I climbed outside through the window and flagged down a motorist. The insurance company paid for the rehabilitation of the car.

Before our next driving vacation, I had the vehicle inspected by service professionals to ensure it was still in excellent condition. They called me back in half an hour to inform me that the engine was about to fall out of the chassis at the next pothole due to the rusty frame.

We traded our Camry, with its limited value, for a Mercury Cougar station wagon to accommodate our hockey gear. The large hockey bags require plenty of space. I was impressed by the salesman’s story that the previous owner was the football coach of the Ottawa Roughriders. Despite the incessant rattle of loose parts, the car served us well.

When the Cougar became a rattletrap, we moved on to a Chevrolet Caprice Estate, another spacious station wagon. My most vivid memories with this car were transporting the boys to soccer tournaments from Montreal to Toronto, Syracuse, and various locations in between.

One trip left a lasting impression. The boys played cards in the back, sitting in a circle, when suddenly, the card game devolved into a farting contest. I had to open all the windows to let the foul smell escape, and when the boys continued to pass gas, I stopped the car and told them to control themselves or risk missing a game. That worked!

When we became empty-nesters, we decided to upgrade to a leased Honda CR-V. Now, we are on our third CR-V. The leasing arrangement allows us to get a new model every three to four years. Our current vehicle is a hybrid, and while the fuel efficiency is excellent, I was shocked to find out that it doesn’t come with a spare tire—the battery occupies that space. Fortunately, we’ve experienced very few flat tires on the road, so the absence of a spare may not be a significant issue. Keep your fingers crossed!

Overall, the quality of cars has improved considerably over time. At the same time, the number of gadgets and the use of chips in vehicles have increased substantially. I used to enjoy working on cars in the past, tinkering with things like changing spark plugs, but that has become too complex for me now. Thankfully, the newer cars tend to be more reliable.

Exciting Update: My Second Blook Coming on Kindle!

May 4, 2025

My second “blook” will soon be on sale on Amazon Kindle. I published my first, “Blog to Blook: Where My Hobby Led, ” in 2023. Let me start by quoting a couple of paragraphs from my first blook. This will help explain what a blook is. It will also show how I became involved with it.

“You may wonder, what exactly is a blook? The term combines the words “blog” and “book.” A blook is a printed book based on or consisting of blog content. The first book of this kind was “User Interface Design for Programmers” by Joel Spolsky. It was published in 2001. The book was popularized in 2003 by journalist Jeff Jarvis from New York. Since then, several other blooks have been published. In 2006, the Blooker Prize was established. It was modeled after the Man Booker Prize. The first Blooker Prize was awarded to “Julie and Julia” by Julie Power. It was a cookbook featuring recipes inspired by Julia Child’s blog. This cookbook also inspired a film of the same name, released in 2009.”


“I was intrigued by the concept of a blook. I felt inspired to create my own, having been a blogger for years. The pandemic was the catalyst for my blogging journey. When avoiding social interactions and staying home became not only desirable but often mandatory. When my gym and community center, where I played bridge, closed, I wondered what to do at home. Retirement gave me ample free time, so I wrote about my opinions and activities to stay engaged.”

I call my blog site an “evolving journey.” Readers can find unfiltered opinions on daily life. The site covers various global and local issues, including travel, immigration, and housing. I base my views on lived experiences in North America, Europe, and beyond.

The Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war inspired many of the blogs in my first blook. These blogs were interwoven with personal experiences. Other posts focused on Canadian healthcare and immigration policies and their impact on the availability of doctors and housing. I also wrote about memorable events, like attending graduations and vacationing with family.

The Ukraine war is still ongoing, but it has become less newsworthy. I shared my thoughts and memories about the war in Ukraine involving Russia in my first blook. As for Covid, it is mostly behind us now.

This volume includes blogs about travels to Corsica in France in 2023. It also covers travels to the West Coast, to Vancouver and Portland, in 2024. I wrote about forming a book club with friends. I reviewed our chosen books on blogs.

I have gained many subscribers for my blog and discovered a community of kindred spirits by reading their blogs. Some bloggers specialize in travel writing, while others focus on cooking and recipes. Many of them have a large group of readers. This led me to consider whether I should also specialize in a single topic. Still, I prefer to write about topics I find weird or controversial. I do not want to limit myself to one area, like travel. I will continue to write on various subjects that interest me.

A Men’s Book Club Discusses Alice Munro

October 22, 2024

The title suggests that men and women have differing perspectives on Alice Munro’s work. Can that be verified? I do not know. But our book club had a lively discussion about Munro’s book entitled Dear Life, a short story collection published in 2012.

Surprisingly, our members read some stories, but not all of them. They found the stories dark and stopped reading to avoid being depressed. One found the lack of “redemption” in the stories disappointing. But does life always have a happy ending? Many people have challenging lives and fail to reach a satisfying old age. There could be health, financial, and family issues that are never resolved. The shock value of missing an ending to the stories made me think of what could have been should the author have completed it. And that I found exciting, and I dreamt up options for finishing the stories.

Although most of us considered the subjects dark, we all agreed that the writing was extremely smooth, and the characters in the story came to life. Descriptions of small towns, the location of many of the stories, also came to life with such force that one of us thought she described the city where he grew up. I admired the ease with which Munro described her characters in a few pages in such detail that I thought I thoroughly understood the person and her motivation in life.

Most of Munro’s characters are women residing in small Ontario towns during the 1950s and 1960s. These women did not usually attend university, and the smart ones hid their intelligence; it was not fashionable for women to be clever in those days.

Her characterizations reminded me of my parents: my mother stayed home and occupied herself with housekeeping while my father was the breadwinner. My mother was the sole exception among her siblings, who all attended university. One of Munro’s stories is an exact copy of one aspect of my parents’ life: the wife prepares dinners for her husband, a doctor, just like my father, who expects dinner on the table when he returns home from work.

Munro’s description of women’s societal role and status started a conversation about their role today, with the understanding that women now surpass men at university graduation. It’s common for wives to be the breadwinners while their husbands take on household responsibilities. This has been a significant change over the past fifty years. Thinking of this trend, some of us questioned to what extent Munro’s stories would be relevant today. I thought that they would. Confirming my view, the Nobel Committee recognized Munro’s universal writings and awarded her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013.

But after her death this year, Munro’s reputation suffered with the widespread publication that her husband sexually abused their daughter. Many followers of Munro expressed moral outrage about Munro being aware of the situation and not doing anything about it. Doubts were raised about her genius, and discussions ensued about the quality of her books after her questionable behavior was uncovered. Interestingly, despite anecdotal evidence of changing opinions about Munro, our book club did not dwell on this subject. Maybe this is one difference between men and women when considering Munro’s work. Three out of eight of us resonated with the book, while one person didn’t find it appealing. Most agreed that the stories were dark and depressing but beautifully written.

Is Touching Wrong?

January 16, 2024

The service at our favorite Sunday breakfast place was disappointing today. Usually, the hostess welcomes us, leads us to a table of our choice, and in a minute a waitress appears with coffee, ready to take our order.  Not today. We sat down and waited and waited.

Getting impatient to get our morning caffeine fix, Kathy asked a waiter walking by if we could get some service. In another five minutes, a waitress appeared and asked us if would like some coffee and said she would be back in a minute to take our orders. After a rather long time, coffee materialized on our table, but no order was taken.

In the past, the waitress asked if we were ready to order when delivering the coffee, but not this time. Since we have been coming here for years, we know what we like and order when the waitress appears. This sportsbar with multi-TVs on the walls showing hockey and other games, is doing phenomenal breakfast business on Sundays, and ordering early gets our food on the table before finishing our first cup of coffee.

Other customers came in and sat across from us and our waitress came with coffee and asked if they were ready to order while we were still waiting. That was upsetting; we were there long before the new customers and several others in “our zone” had even come and had waited patiently for service, assuming that the waitress was busy with other customers.

To get the waitress’s attention in the loud buzz, instead of shouting, which would have been impossible anyway because of the din, Kathy tapped the waitress’s arm. That did get her attention, and she turned around and told Kathy in an abrasive tone: “Do not touch me”!

Her reaction and tone of voice surprised me, but we asked her if she would take our order before filling the others. I also told her that the service today was inferior to what we were used to at the restaurant.  Offended, she claimed that she had other tables to serve as if we did not know that and as if that were an excuse for the poor service, without so much as an apology for overlooking us, which would have been understandable.   But then she hustled off to place our order in the kitchen without going back to the other customers to take their orders.

She never came back after this incident to fill up our coffee cups but hustled around a few times filling the cups of the other customers all around us. She studiously avoided making eye contact with us.

Another waitress came to fill up our coffee and delivered our orders to our table.  The second time she came to refill our cups, I asked her if she was now our waitress waitress. She seemed surprised that we did not know but confirmed that she was, and offered to fetch the manager if we had some issues with the service today. I had the impression that there was more to the story from the waitress’s comment.

We said “Sure”, and the manager appeared in a minute and profusely apologized for the service today, explaining that our first waitress “felt uncomfortable” by Kathy touching her arm and asking for another waitress. A friendly discussion ensued, and we assured her that we had always enjoyed our breakfast experience at the restaurant up until today. On leaving, the manager touched both Kathy and me a few times on the arm in a friendly, reassuring manner.

Although possible, I cannot believe that a young woman, a waitress doing her job, touched by someone who could be her grandmother, would feel uncomfortable by the physical contact. In a busy restaurant, there are ample opportunities for physical contact, intentional or not. I rather think that she took offense at us for having the temerity to ask a waiter to get service, implying that she was not doing her job.

Although we enjoyed our breakfast after the second waitress took over, what bothered me was the expressions used in this incident: “Do not touch me” and “The touching made her uncomfortable”. I have heard many stories recently taken up by human rights commissions about physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, bullying, discrimination, and similar accusations. I could see this young waitress following up on an incident like this and creating a huge hew-haw for nothing. Where do these young people today acquire this attitude of righteousness, to give expression to their dislike of being told to do their job? She was slow in providing service and wrong in not serving clients in the order they came in. Surely one can make mistakes, we all do, and the simple solution is to apologize.

To My Blook, Where the Writing Hobby Took Me

June 11, 2023

You may ask what is a blook? Well, the word is a combination of the words blog and book. And a blook is a book consisting of blogs. It is a new word, first coined in 2003 by Jeff Jarvis, a well-known journalist from New York. Since then, several blooks have been published and the “Blooker” prize was established in 2006, fashioned from the “Booker” prize. Julia and Julie, by Julie Powell, was awarded the first Blooker prize in 2006; it is a cookbook based on blogs preparing the recipes of Julia Childs (a film by the same name was made in 2009).

I was intrigued by the concept of a blook and was inspired to compile my own do one since I have been blogging for a few years. The pandemic was the trigger for the start of my blogging. When avoiding people, and staying home had become not only desirable but periodically mandatory, when my gym and community center where I played bridge closed, what was I to do at home? I was retired with plenty of time on my hands. Expressing personal opinions and describing my activities in writing seemed like a good idea to keep me busy.

But my blogging begs another question: “What experience did I have in writing”? This is a relevant question since I had never worked as a professional writer; my writing was limited to technical and policy papers. After I retired, I did publish two books, a memoir, and a travel book.

I can anticipate your next question: “What made me write these books”? And the trigger to start writing my memoir was a friend who challenged me to write it because she said that my children do not know who I am. And she was right: I was a Hungarian refugee/immigrant to Canada in 1956, married a Welsh girl, spoke English at home, and never discussed much of my history with the family.

All of our children attended university, married, and settled in the US, limiting opportunities to discuss my early background. When my friend challenged me to write my memoir, I had to agree that she was right, and I got motivated and even excited, to write my memoir, primarily for my children and grandchildren.

To prepare myself for writing my first book, the memoir, I enrolled in the online university Coursera. I took several of their writing courses. The Coursera Zoom classes include lectures led by Wesleyan University professors and writing assignments reviewed by fellow students. I found it interesting reviewing others’ work, some people I found to be excellent writers, while others were novices. I thought I was somewhere between the two camps.

And I enjoyed receiving comments on my work, I learned much from these comments: one reviewer rebuked me for sloppy writing when I said I was at Kennedy Airport in New York City in 1957. The reviewer criticized me for my poor memory or for not having done the research. The correct name at that time was “Idlewild” airport. It is important to check your facts, especially when you write about events sixty years ago. Overall, I found the courses very helpful in practicing my writing skills.

To further my writing knowledge, I also signed up for writing blogs such as The Write Practice and took free Zoom lectures on how to do a memoir by Marion Roach Smith. In addition to reading “How to do memoir” books, I also read many memoirs. My favorite was “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah, written with humor, and sensitivity about growing up in South Africa having a white father and a black mother. 

After a year’s work, I published my memoirs on Kindle Publishing and sent copies to all family members, awaiting their response. Some thought it was interesting and commented, “I never knew this” while one granddaughter found parts of it boring. At any rate, the family got to know me a little bit better.

Buoyed by having a book published, I was motivated to embark on another one, this time on our travels in Southeast Asia. As before, I read travel books such as the annual Best American Travel Writing series and took some Zoom courses as well on how to write about travel. My favorite travel authors were Paul Theroux and Bill Bryson.

I learned a few key lessons from the courses I have taken and the experience I have accumulated writing my two books: write about subjects that you know, express your personal opinions and feelings, and “show and not tell”.

The first one seems obvious, but it is interesting how easily one can get involved in matters unfamiliar to you, only to start looking up the internet for information. Although that avenue is useful and available to everyone, it is mostly informational. I found people are much more interested in your personal experiences and opinions. For example, a hotel in Barbados might tout its beauty on the oceanfront while someone who has been there may point out that the furniture is old and decrepit.

Before I started studying the fine art of writing my writing had reflected my positive, non-critical attitude.  But I soon realized that, in the writing of others, my interest was drawn more to their personal reflections and observations rather than my descriptive, non-critical approach.

And “show and not tell’ advises you not to use general statements like “it was a beautiful sky’ which is a “tell”, but rather “show” it in terms of its color, shading, cloud formation, and your reaction to it and let the reader interpret your description.

Having improved my writing skills and enjoying writing, I wondered, “What is next?” Another book was not of interest to me, and the pandemic had shut us down from travel and socializing. But I was still interested in writing, and I had the time to carry on with writing short pieces on select subjects where I express my thoughts and opinions.  

And so, I started writing; I wrote blogs about the pandemic, about the Ukrainian war, and about Canadian and Ottawa issues and controversies. The number of blogs I have written has grown and I thought that I should try to weave them together into a book format, the idea behind a blook. Look for my Kindle blook by the end of the year!