What I love about Father’s Day (and all the other special days of the year) aside from the fact that it’s an excuse not to write about politics, is it allows us to focus on family.
In the Soapbox household we always celebrate special days (except Christmas) on Saturdays. So last night we had a Father’s Day dinner with our daughters and their partners.
We ordered in, we ate, we laughed and we feted Mr Soapbox with cards and donations in his name to special charities in the city.
Midway through the evening Mr Soapbox shared a memory about something silly I’d done years ago, which was funny because it happened when I was in high school, two years and three boyfriends before we’d met.
Nevertheless he told the story well.
It reminded me how important memories are, especially those of shared good times spent with our families.
I sincerely hope that you, like me, were able to share Father’s Day with the people you love.
Till next time,
Susan
Susan on the Soapbox 
I have had a quiet day with my husband who is a special father in our family. Although he may not be the biological father to our 2 boys he has shown, in many ways, if you step up to the plate of father, you own it. Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there.
Rose, I’m so glad you and your husband had a Happy Father’s Day. I agree with you. Being there when it counts is what makes a father, biology has nothing to do with it. Take care!
Susan
A lovely post. Thank you.
Thank you. I’m glad you liked it, Lorne.
Well said as usual. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences. They are always cause for hope.
Thanks Randy. Every so often we need to focus our minds and hearts somewhere other than politics.
Susan: I hope your family had a great Father’s Day together. I’ll share some more music. This is a composition from Eric Clapton and Simon Climie, and it was released in 1998. It’s called My Father’s Eyes. I saw Eric Clapton live in 2007, and this is in my music collection. Eric Clapton was one of the three famous Yardbirds guitarists, followed by Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.
Thanks Dwayne: What a poignant song. I just looked up Clapton’s age. He’s 79 now. What an illustrious career he’s had. I’m sure he was terrific on stage.
Susan: This is my next song pick. This is from 1975, and is Jeff Beck doing an instrumental called Freeway Jam. This was composed by Max Middleton. Jeff Beck would have turned 80, on June 24. He passed away in early 2023. I saw him twice live and met him. This is also in my music collection. Eric Clapton’s replacement in The Yardbirds.
Dwayne, Thanks. This one blew me away. Was Beck as cool as he sounds in this piece?
Susan: Jeff Beck was very nice. He signed the set list for me. Amazing guitarist, who is greatly missed.
Susan: Here is my final song pick. This is a composition from Danny Flowers, called Tulsa Time. Don Williams covered it, as did Eric Clapton. Here is Eric Clapton, with a bunch of other musicians, including Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Steve Winwood, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, and others, doing a live version of this at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in 1983, for a charity concert for MS, for their friend, and fellow musician, Ronnie Lane. Ronnie Lane passed away from MS in 1997.
Dwayne, what I love about these live events is the realness of it all, like the issue with the volume. It’s a far cry from the auto-tuned tunes of today. Thanks!
Sounds like fun. Our eldest granddaughter celebrated her birthday this past weekend – she’s just reached double digits – which was a great opportunity to get together as an extended family. We are quite fortunate that none of our three kids have left the Grande Prairie area, as we get to see our four grandchildren quite regularly – although this fact is also the principle reason we haven’t bailed on Alberta due to the political craziness of the past few years.
Our kids didn’t get to see their grandparents all that often growing up, since they lived out on the East Coast, and we really enjoy having our grandkids so close. However, we predict that when they hit the teen years we’ll turn into chopped liver, and we’ll be free to make different decisions. lol.
All the best to your family.
Jerrymacgp: Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend celebrating the first of many double digit birthdays with your family. Like you, we’re fortunate to live in the same city as our children and we’re a big part of their lives. They both have wonderful partners so these family holidays are always a success.
If it wasn’t for them my husband and I would have left this goofy province years ago. We’re both from BC and while they’ve had their share of off-the-wall politicians at least the people in BC know enough to change out their governments periodically, unlike here where anything that paints itself blue is worthy of holding political office for a lifetime.
Happy father’s day to every father.
I did not have a dinner so I spent my day checking what is that the UCP is destroying these days. Unfortunately I found another surprise.
The free market fundamentalist wants us to subsidize those that the market does not want to bet on. It is easy to be an UCP really. They always win in their world of Mickey Mouse
https://albertapolitics.ca/2024/06/danielle-smith-says-she-wants-to-skim-heritage-fund-investment-revenues-to-de-risk-fossil-fuel-investments-lenders-wont-touch/
Carlos, Climenhaga nailed it.
The word “de-risk” means to make something less risky. This sounds benign until you realize that Smith isn’t talking about de-risking, she’s talking about TRANSFERRING the risk of a bad business away from the banks on to the shoulders of the people of Alberta. Smith reversed her own policy which was to reinvest all the income earned by the Fund back in the Fund so it would be as large and as stable as Norway’s wealth fund. And she didn’t bat an eye at doing so. Not a week goes by where she doesn’t go back on her word.
A long time ago when my father was alive I went to the house on father’s day evening and we just sat and talked together. Talked about cars , planes and just stuff father and son. It was maybe the most relaxed conversation we had together, I hope he felt like a father that evening.
Brent, that was such a lovely story. I’m sure your father remembered that evening with as much love as you do.
Take care,
Susan
FORWARD!
Not froward.
Congratulations Mr.Nenshi. Keep talkin’, we can hear you.
Where else in the world does a conference like this happens?
Danielle Smith of course agrees with all of it, but pretends now that she will let it happen because they are just letting their perspectives be known. Meaning of course that the UCP is full of sticking manure but we need to let them fertilize their confused minds. There will come a day when the amount of manure will suffocate them.
https://albertapolitics.ca/2024/06/are-you-alright-alberta-the-rest-of-canada-wants-to-know-if-youre-not-theyll-be-happy-to-take-your-doctors/
I do not blame them of course. After all they have been a bit confused since the pandemic because of course they cannot find the word virus in their Bible studies. Never mind that it cannot be killed with a horse medication.
The premier tried to convince us to use it of course in her omniintelligence but most people today are a bit smarter than the premier and so we avoided an invermectin coma pandemic.
Invermectin is a parasitic drug, but of course Danielle Smith does not know the difference between a parasite and a virus. She is just good at conspiracy theories that convince people science is a hoax or better than doctors are useless.
She got rid of Sean Chilton who was going to resolve the waiting lists and the awful emergency rooms but unfortunately the second cookie monster made it worse.
The real problem is that she has no clue of what she is doing, but because lying is her forte we just keep destroying what is left in this province. But not a problem we just blame Justin Trudeau and even his dad id necessary to make a point.
Carlos: Now that Naheed Nenshi is the NDP leader, Danielle Smith and the UCP have a really big thorn in their side. It will be worse than trying to grab a nopale with bare hands. Naheed Nenshi has known Danielle Smith for a long time, and she won’t be playing games with him.
What a diverse crowd… I mean, just look at all the flags hanging from the ceiling!
Naheed Nenshi is now the leader of the Alberta NDP. It will be fun to watch him defeat Danielle Smith, that is even if she will last that long as premier of Alberta. She likely won’t.