cktimes.ca Archives for Notes from a Garage


Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Changing my tune; the UFO explained; and fun with cktimes…….

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Well, time for me to do a full recant this week……was guilty of raining ever so slightly on the Olympic parade a couple of weeks ago. Felt they were spending just a little too much money for this big sports event. Well, have changed my tune almost entirely. Ended up watching some of the Olympics in bits and pieces and really did enjoy most of what I saw. And what I saw were young Canadians having a whale of a party. I saw Canadians of all nationalities wearing their colours proudly and not afraid to tell the world that they were Canadian. We don’t very often jump on the nationalistic bandwagon in Canada. We’re traditionally more subdued, more conservative. Only on a few major occasions does the whole country get into party mode and last Sunday was one of those occasions. I enjoyed seeing the honest-to-goodness enthusiasm and exuberance on the young faces I saw on my TV screen. Don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older myself, but this really seemed like a young people’s Olympics. And as I watched two young Chinese-Canadians with their faces pained red and white screaming, “Go, Canada, Go!”, I could see that the big multicultural experiment happening in this country is working. Yes, I was immensely proud of Canada and its Olympic effort, but not because of the number of medals we won. I was proud because of the spirit of the young people I saw and the hope that holds for this country’s future. And also because of the multicultural nature of the Canadians I saw….perhaps we can indeed live together and get along on Spaceship Earth. If we can do it for a couple of weeks in Vancouver, why can’t we do it forever…..

Now to the UFO! And thanks to cktimes’ naturalist Blake Mann for putting my mind at ease that I’m not going to be carried off in the night by aliens. Blake forwarded me a link to a page that explained what I saw in the night sky 10 days ago while driving back from Tilbury. It was apparently a meteor! Check out this website and you’ll see approximately what I saw: www.thenightskyguy.com. Now, when I got Blake’s e-mail the other night, I was partly disappointed and partly relieved. I was disappointed because it was exciting to think I had seen something otherwordly for the first time in my life and it was kind of extra exciting because there didn’t seem to be a logical explanation for it. And I was relieved because this kind of puts my own skeptical universe back in order – where I’m not sure I believe in anything other than what I can hold in my own two hands and see with my beady little eyes. Still, it was fun there for a few days, although I got a few strange looks from a few folks when I made my revelation. Thanks so much to Blake Mann for setting the record straight…..

Have been operating cktimes now for over seven years and it’s gotten to be that a lot of folks in Chatham-Kent know my little paper and offer me a big, wide smile when I arrive with my camera and notepad. Operating cktimes has been one of the joys of my life. And one of the reasons for that has been because I feel like I’m providing a worthwhile service to the people of Chatham-Kent by giving some attention and recognition to a lot of groups and organizations and smaller communities that don’t usually get under the spotlight. At many of the events I cover, I’m the only regional media in attendance – the only media who can help get the message out across the whole community. And that’s a good feeling. The paper could be so much more if I was better at some aspects of the business, but I’m happy with the way things have gone. Don’t forget to get in touch with cktimes if you’ve got community news happening and you want to get the word out……

Thanks so much for reading along…..I hope you’re enjoying the content I’m bringing you each week. It’s a hectic world but hopefully you can slow down a little each week to read some of your favourite pieces….take care and remember…..”Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may.”



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.