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6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday January 3, 2009 www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Commentary Guest Columnist NEIL OLIVER Vice-president and Group Publisher, Metroland West DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director Metroland Media Group Ltd. includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Caledon Enterprise, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, City Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora EraBanner, Northumberland News, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News, Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week, Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian Pass the gravy and the Gravol Jill Davis, Editor in Chief, Halton Division Jill Davis told my husband sometime last fall (note the timeline), "The fridge sounds funny." "Sounds funny? What do you mean?" he replied pressing RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: his ear to the aging refrigerator freezer door. "Sounds okay to me." Ontario Community Canadian Community Suburban Newspapers Newspapers Association Newspapers Association of America I would like to make a guess that there are some women (I don't mean to be sexist THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: here) who know exactly where this is going. Women have the innate ability to figure out exactly when something is about to break down -- like a car or a fridge. A few weeks passed and the hum became much louder, so much so I thought the neighours could hear it. Hubby fixed the problem by quickly pulling the plug. TV AUCTION We made a mad dash to the retailer, purchased a tiny bar fridge and stopped in at another store to look at new appliances. It was there we discovered that our very old fridge was much smaller than its shiny new counterparts. The kitchen cupboards would either A.) Need to be removed, B.) Made much smaller or, C.) Be replaced in a total kitchen reno. We opted for B. That took several weeks of phone calls and promised trips from the contractor who gave the kitchen a facelift several years ago. Finally, by mid-December, the job was half complete; the doors still don't close but at least a new fridge would fit. In the meantime, my husband was very proud that he had repaired the dying fridge by plugging it back in. Who knew that a 24-hour rest or meltdown would fix the problem? This bought us enough time to purchase a new appliance. It was to be delivered Dec. 28. On Christmas Eve, we received a phone call from the store to say delivery would be delayed another couple of weeks. That was okay, or so we thought. On Christmas morning, the poor fridge slipped into the sunset. Fortunately, it had kept the fresh turkey cold enough prior to cooking. Not wanting to send family members and visiting relatives from Australia into a salmonella panic, I chose not to say anything. Was that proper etiquette? "Does the cream taste strange to you?" asked my sister away from the ears of others. "Mike (her husband) ate it." "Try the clotted cream, it is supposed to have lumps," said me quickly disposing of the offending whipping cream that boasted the odour of something that had not been properly cooled. I think if I were going to poison anyone on Christmas Day, their symptoms would KAREN NEWMAN / OAKVILLE BEAVER have shown by now. At least that is what I keep telling myself. TIMELY DONATION: D. J. Corovic was one of several blood donors at a Canadian Blood Services blood Pass the Gravol. donor clinic at Oakville Place on Wednesday. United Way of Oakville I Gift of life Holiday spent tracking Trouble and sidestepping suffering I n his insightful memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami -- esteemed author and ardent marathoner -- notes that when it comes to long-distance endeavors, "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional." While we had gads of fun and frivolity over the marathon that is the Christmas-New Year's holiday, there was indeed pain. This pain started in early December when I went out to track down Trouble. Normally I have no difficulty tracking down trouble. Truth be told, trouble typically finds me. But in this case, the Trouble I was tracking was the popular board game ("If you've got Trouble, wait don't run, this kind of Trouble is lots of fun."). I've played this game practically forever. Twenty-five-years ago, I beat (fair and square) my young nephew, who promptly (and unjustly) accused me of cheating and hurled the board at my head. Down the road I had countless (far less violent) games with my own kids who played and loved Trouble throughout their childhoods. Now I was on what I believed would be a simple mission, to buy the game for our niece. I drove to the four corners of the Earth. I spent untold hours of precious time and burned untold dollars in precious gas, but no retailer seemed to stock the game. In the end, I had to enlist outside help; my son finally found Trouble in his travels. All this trouble for a board game that might end up being hurled at my head. Throughout the holidays, the weather was trouble. On Christmas Eve morning we had deep, soggy snow in the laneway -- enough of the white stuff to sink my son's car, and any hopes he had of making it to work on time. Andy Juniper By the time I finished pushing him out of his ruts, I'd strained both shoulders to the point where I'd be in pain for the rest of the holidays. Over the course of the next few days, we repeatedly incurred the wrath of an apparently miserable Mother Nature on anxious drives to Richmond Hill and London -- rain, freezing rain, snow, sleet, and pea-soup fog. What a pain. Ask any doctor and you'll find that the holidays typically induce gastrointestinal pains brought on by overindulgence. We had one houseguest who shall remain anonymous --­ a good host never overfeeds and tells -- who spent four hours one night in the fetal position contemplating a run to the local ER while try- ing to find a remedy for Christmas Dinner Overload. We figured the antidote for our holiday pain could be found in movie theatres in the form of a rousing comedy. Classified by its own studio as a laugher, Slumdog Millionaire is anything (and everything), but a comedy. Honestly, what comedy opens with a torture scene? Yes, in this movie there is pain. But there is also pleasure: best flick I've seen all year. Somebody call Oscar. Yes, dear readers, it was the Christmas-New Year's holiday. Pain was inevitable. But suffering was optional. I stepped back a bit this year. I tried my best to remain mellow, to rise above (or surf below) the inherent nuttiness of the season. I tried to remain mindful (and thankful) and endeavored to simply, fully enjoy the season. And guess what. It worked. Best holiday in years. I hope you had good times. And some down time. And I hope you are all recharged -- revved and raring to tackle whatever 2009 throws at us. Remember: pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. -- Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com.