It’s June 17th. We’ve now surpassed the middle of the year. Both my Driver’s Licence and my Health Card expire about six months hence on my December birthday. This proximity enabled me this morning to renew my Driver’s Licence on-line (it’s being mailed to me); however the Health card requires a new photo (the Health Card had been issued a year before the Driver’s Licence so the former threatened to outdistance the 5-year limit). We dipped into Service Ontario in Carleton Place. The office was busy but the awaiting clients were being handled quickly. The clerk who looked into my needs was efficient. And exceedingly polite. After having my photo summarily taken I was given a printed temporary Health Card, the original is being mailed to me. We’ve noted it on my diary.

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Thanks to Professor Daniel Laprès of Paris, France I learned today of articles from the Institute for China-America Studies (ICA). While Professor Laprès extolled the articles as “worthy of interest, one on the law governing the Strait of Hormuz and the other on an Arctic régime based less on presence than on capabilities in which all stakeholders participate”, its efforts have been described as “a channel for propaganda” skewed towards the policies of the People’s Republic of China.

Home – Welcome to the Institute for China-America Studies

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Not every day is a holiday.  Not every day a weekend.  And – contrary to what my late father repeatedly posited – not every day is Christmas. Some days – like today – are just for mucking about. And that is precisely what I have been doing since arising from the lair at the unimpressive hour of 9:40 am this morning. Secretly I knew the weather today was forecast to be cloudy and cool. So I hadn’t that stock stimulus of wishful thinking that comes with sunny skies to rattle and revive me in my prolonged slumber.

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Customarily Sunday is devoted to a drive about the countryside, a reflection of the effulgence of rural residence. We have unwittingly adopted the idée fixe of the parochial mind. Though rainy weather is not an encouragement, neither does a trace of splatter impede the constitutional endeavour. In any event, for me the imperative is simply being behind the wheel, streaming along the smooth open highways, privately relishing the click of the mechanics, the squish of the parallel tires upon the shiny black road, and the interior impressions of the radio, the windshield wipers and multiple other operative functions illustrated on the dashboard.

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”Is life worth so much?” or “Is it worth living?”, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592) widely regarded as the originator of the modern essay. He prominently featured and meditated on this exact question in his magnum opus, Essays (Book III, Chapter 13: On Experience”). In fact however this poignant existential inquiry comes from the Roman poet Maximianus (Elegies, I, 155).

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The summer gratification of balmy weather and an open dance card afford a formidable mash-up on a breezy Friday afternoon. Initially this morning, domestic routine shamelessly mixed with superior medical obligation. In preparation for my scheduled mid-morning appointment with Hazel RN of the Ottawa Valley Family Health Team, moments before departure I seated myself in one of the very handsome black plastic deck chairs upon the balcony overlooking the river. I stared into the heavens, sensing the unclouded warmth of the glistening sunshine, at times variable in its fleeting influence, a vague reminder that some things come and go, while leaving an irreplaceable tarnish or patina.

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The golf club in the Village of Appleton has proven to be aligned with the beginning and the end of my half-century existence in the Town of Almonte. Initially Mississippi Golf Club – where 50 years ago I was hired over dinner to practice law with my erstwhile principals Messrs. Michael J. Galligan QC and Mr. Justice Alan D. Sheffield – was in the Township of Ramsay which later combined with the Township of Pakenham and the Town of Almonte to form the Town of Mississippi Mills. Though I applaud the name “Town of Mississippi Mills” I continue to refer to home as Almonte.

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Do nothing against your will, contrary to the community, without due examination, or with reluctance. Do not try to embellish your thoughts with fancy language. Be neither a great talker nor a great undertaker. Moreover, let the god within you find a man in you—a mature, sociable Roman prince who has ordered his life as one ready to depart at the sound of the trumpet. One who needs no oath or witness for his words or actions.

Aurelius, Marcus. “Meditations: Modern English Edition”

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Nearby the Arnprior Regional Health, down the hill to Robert Simpson Park where the Madawaska River meets the Ottawa River, I chanced to encounter two ladies beneath the bandstand overlooking the river beach below.

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ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT by Fiona:

Greetings Again, from Le Gaspesie!
Right now, we’re having a bit of down time just outside the town of Carlton-Sur-Mer, thanks to a very rainy morning, but no complaints as we’ve been on the go now for over a week, so some time off for rejuvenation is a good thing. Plus, we’re staying at an incredibly comfortable motel in a large suite with a full kitchen, big comfy chairs and a view looking out over the Bay of Cascapedia with New Brunswick just visible on the far side. Immediately below us, there is a roughly 10km-long sand and pebble beach and when the rain lets up after lunch, a long walk beckons. In the meantime, let me bring you up to date since I last wrote.

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