Encounters with Rantwick, episode nine: I Couldn't Scare a Squirrel

Squirrels are smart in their own squirrely way. The squirrel you will see here has an excellent sense of the relative dangers posed by an automobile and a bicycle.

Maybe he would have been afraid of me if I had been sporting my new Mo... difficult to say.

Being squirrely is terribly underrated.

R A N T W I C K

Losing My Identity Rocks!

Over the past few days I've been intentionally slipping on maintaining my anonymity. It all started with my Movember fundraising efforts. Then I signed up for the evil facebook using my real name to promote that event to my friends. So, after about a year of actively hiding my name from everybody, it is now pretty findable for anyone who cares to know it. Since I really like my little squinty-eyed alter-ego, I have every intention of continuing to publish this blog as RANTWICK and to keep pictures of my ugly mug off the Internet as much as possible.

One nice thing about loosening up a bit is that I can now engage in shameless self promotion of new kinds! I play and sing in an Acoustic Guitar Duo called Dog's Breakfast here in London Ontario:

I am the dog on the left. We're playing at the London Music Club on Friday (the 13th!) night. The half-dozen or so gigs we've had so far have been a blast, so if you want to come have a beer (or ten) and a listen, click here for more details. It would be super fun to meet one of my local readers in person, unless of course you feel compelled to inform me that the music sucks. In that case please just slip on out of there and leave me alone in my musical fantasy world.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Remembrance Day

It's coming up on Eleven AM as I post this. Please take two minutes of silence at 11 to remember and give thanks for the veterans who have fallen in wars great and small.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

R A N T W I C K

PS - For my American friends, where it is Veterans Day, a note: According to wikipedia Canadians' Remembrance Day more closely resembles your Memorial Day in May... I didn't know that until just now.