IT'S ANTIQUING SEASON - I'M IN MY ELEMENT

When working as an editor for the local press, from 1979 onward, I have always benefitted, in one way or the other, from the adventures of antique hunting. I'd get to the point, in a work week, feeling as if I was going to explode any moment. The only thing holding me together, I swear, was Saturday's auctions, yard sales, antique shop hunt, and all the flea markets between here and there.

I didn't hate my writing job. Just the numbnuts in management. So getting to an auction, or the open road on a Saturday and Sunday, was heaven on earth. It's always been this way. I've been hunting old and neat stuff since I was a kid wandering Harris Crescent in Burlington, or hanging around the arena in case a puck came over the boards, or a senior player broke a hockey stick, and tossed it my way during a game. Even at university, my girlfriend, Gail, would accompany me to weekend auctions and roadside sales, during our many traveling adventures. It's what I've always needed to break the monotony of "strictly work." I'm very efficient at my work, and I have a rigid schedule which is always self imposed. If you've worked with me in the past, you know this isn't guff. But when it comes to antique hunting, I'm as slow moving and laid back as if I was on vacation. But I come out of the weekends feeling rejuvenated. I'd get to a Friday afternoon, hating my job, to coming back on Monday morning, feeling as if nothing at all could make me the least bit mad.

I still have the love hate relationship with writing. Now I'm the "arse manager." I start each Monday morning with great anticipation for a good and productive week. By Friday at noon, I can't stand writing, and wish I'd never started in the first place. I start actively visiting my antique haunts by early afternoon on Friday, and with a full weekend planned, I know that by Monday morning, this white screen is going to be welcoming, not daunting or annoying. I don't know what I'd do without the pleasures of antique hunting. It completes me. It's okay, my wife doesn't read my work. Never has! If I ever won a Pulitzer, she'd be shocked to find out I was a writer. That's a wee fib. But we stay out of each other's professions. It works pretty well. As for antiquing, well that's a family affair.

I will be on hiatus for a short period, while I fulfill one of my fantasies. Finding the holy grail of antiques. I've been looking for 40 years. I'm due for a big find!