The Circle of Life

Well, we did it. We dropped The Girl off at university for her second year.

She couldn’t get her room until Sunday, but we went up to Ottawa on Saturday and made a long weekend of it. We went to dinner with the family of one of her high-school friends (who also is at Carleton, and is living on the floor below her in her residence building), and she stayed with us at our hotel on Saturday night. On Sunday, we had breakfast together and went to drop her off. We got her settled, had a good look at her room (nicer than last year: this building has windows that open!), and left her to acclimate herself to her new surroundings. We took her out to dinner, and then back to our hotel for a movie. Then we drove her back to her res to sleep.

We had breakfast together on Monday, and went back to her room to finish getting her set up. We could tell she was ambivalent about us leaving; she wanted us to go, but she wanted us to stay, too. It was the same with us: we knew that we had to let her go, but we really wanted her to stay and be ‘our little girl’ some more.

It was difficult to say goodbye to her. We’ll see her when she comes home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we’ll probably visit her a few times during the school year. But it was difficult to drive away. It was really hard to leave that beautiful, talented, strong-yet-vulnerable, independent young woman. Our daughter. MY daughter. I confess I cried a little as we drove away (somewhat awkward when you’re crying and driving at the same time).

The first half-hour of the drive home was much more subdued than usual. You never really get used to leaving your kids.

The Circle of Life sucks!

Prince Edward Island, Part 1

I’m sure some of you are wondering why I haven’t posted anything for a while. There’s a good reason: we recently spent a week in (on?) Prince Edward Island. This is the first part (of I know not how many) of my tale. I’ll try not to bore you with TOO many details, but I want to mention a few interesting things. Ultimately, this whole series boils down to one thought: if you haven’t visited Prince Edward Island, you should! (Do these things! They’ll cheer you up no end!) By the way, the header photo was taken from the deck of the cottage in which we stayed.

We usually make it a two-day drive. We stay overnight at a motel in Lévis, across the St. Lawrence River from Québec City. If we’re lucky enough to get to our motel by late afternoon, we take the ferry across the river for a night out in Québec. Besides the usual sightseeing, we make sure to have dinner at one or another of our favorite restaurants. On the way to PEI, we had dinner at Le Petit Château (just down the street from the Château Frontenac). OMG! What a fantastic dinner! I had a lobster crêpe, The Girl had a shrimp crêpe, The Boy had a pizza crêpe (this surprised no one: this is the boy who, for our first meal in Paris a few years ago, chose McDonald’s on the Champs Élysées), and Princess Buttercup had a magnificent fondue trio: cheese, followed by beef, followed by chocolate. Of course, we had to help her!

The Chåteau Frontenac, seen from the Old City

After a little evening walk, it was time to hop on the ferry and return to our motel. One thing I didn’t get to do was visit the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ville de Québec (home-ported in Halifax, she was on a courtesy visit to her eponymous city).

We (or at least, the ‘I’ part of we) fell into a food coma back at our lodgings, and slept relatively soundly until morning. Then it was on to PEI …

Give us back our Dominion Day!

This weekend we celebrate the birth of Canada. Yes, it’s Canada Day. Canada Day? Are you kidding me? Could there be a more bland name for the anniversary of a nation’s founding? That would be like calling Independence Day (or the 4th of July) ‘America Day.’ It doesn’t have any balls! But ‘Dominion Day’ uses an unusual word to mark a special day. It’s got character! A quick history of Dominion Day …

On July 1, 1867, the Dominion of Canada was formed when Ontario and Quebec (both parts of the former Province of Canada) joined Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in a federation. The following year, the Governor-General (Lord Monck) called upon all Her Majesty’s loving subjects throughout Canada to celebrate the first anniversary of Confederation. In 1879 the name ‘Dominion Day’ was enshrined in law, but there wasn’t much in the way of official celebrations for the next few decades.

There was a big official celebration of Dominion Day in 1917, for the 50th Anniversary of Confederation. Another big event was the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation in 1927. Dominion Day continued to be a rather low-key statutory holiday until the late 1950’s.

Things ramped up in 1967 for Canada’s Centennial, with the Queen in attendance for the ceremonies on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Since then, there have been official celebrations of Dominion Day every year. In 1982, the glorious ‘Dominion Day’ was changed to the drab, unexciting ‘Canada Day.’

By the way, the official name of the country is still the ‘Dominion of Canada’, although the Dominion part has fallen out of use. It would take a Constitutional amendment to change the name.

The first ‘official’ long weekend of the summer includes fireworks, family gatherings, the big celebrations on Parliament Hill, and (hopefully) lots of good weather. But it’s still Canada Day.

Give us back our Dominion Day!

A Military Weekend

Last weekend had a decidedly ‘military’ theme. It wasn’t intentional; it was just happenstance.

On Saturday, I attended the centennial celebration of my old Cadet Corps. That’s right, 100 years! On June 8, 1912, 337 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps was formed at UTS. The Corps remained at UTS for 60 years, until Don Gutteridge kicked them out. They then moved to Fort York Armoury, sponsored by the Queen’s York Rangers (one of Canada’s most historic regiments). It was a treat seeing their annual inspection. It brought back a lot of (mostly pleasant) memories. It almost made me pine for my lost youth!

The next day was a glorious sunny day: 30 degrees+, not a cloud in the sky, a great day to be outside. We loaded up Truckzilla and headed for CFB Borden, for the annual Canadian Forces Day and Air Show. The ground displays were really cool, but the real attraction (for me) was the air show. I LOVE air shows! We found some shade under the wing of one of the ground display aircraft, and sat down to watch the show (actually, the rest of the family sat down; I had to stand up to take all the photos I wanted).

The Skyhawks, the Canadian Forces’ Parachute Demonstration Team, performed some awesome aerial stunts. Much was made of the RCAF’s newest Hercules transport aircraft, a brand-new C-130J that was delivered mere weeks ago. Ironically, Canada’s newest aircraft was flown by a U.S. Marine Corps pilot on an exchange program! There were fly-bys of vintage aircraft, some civilian aerobatic demonstrations, a wing-walker, an F-18 with a special paint job, and (of course) the Snowbirds. The Boy hadn’t seen the Snowbirds before, so it was an eye-opener for him. The entire crowd was thrilled by their incredible aerial ballet!

By the time the air show was over, we were ready to go home. A scheduled two-hour show had lasted almost four hours, and we were all flirting with dehydration (is there such a thing as too much fresh air?) and exhaustion. I think the rest of the fam had a good time; I know I did. Now it’s time to organize (and cull) the pictures I took. It’s amazing how many pictures you can take when you don’t have to worry about getting them developed. Yay, digital!

All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Let’s hear it for summer!

I’m Ba-ack!

It’s been a while! I do apologize to those of you who ‘follow me’ for being absent for so long. I had the best of intentions, but something always seemed to get in the way of sitting down and writing.

I’ve recently been inspired (or re-inspired, if that’s a real word) by one of my oldest friends, The Grumpy Penguin, to get back into the whole blog thing. While I can’t commit to the same every-day schedule as Grumpy P, I will try to post more frequently.

You can find The Grumpy Penguin at thegrumpypenguin (dot) blogspot (dot) ca.

I’ve got a few ideas (including one that The Girl doesn’t think I have the nerve to post), so let’s see where we go from here …

On Loss and Grieving

2002 was a heck of a year for me, book-ended as it was by the deaths of my father (in January) and my grandmother (in December). It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years.

My initial reaction was shock: I’d just seen my Dad a couple of weeks before, and I’d talked to him on the phone even more recently. I was still in shock when I had to drive across the city to retrieve his personal effects from where the police were guarding his body. There were the phone calls to be made, the funeral to arrange, the house to secure …

The memories of that day are with me still, barely tempered by time. I still find myself getting teary when I think about Dad, often at the most ‘inopportune’ moments (when I’m driving, for instance, and a particular song comes on the radio). A friend asked me recently, at his  mother’s funeral, how one deals with the loss. My response was that you don’t (fully): you remember your loved one, you get teary, you take a couple of deep breaths, and you continue with what you were doing. As the pain recedes, you move on. But you never forget. And you allow yourself the luxury of crying any time you want.

I miss you, Dad. And I love you.

Remembrance Day

Friday is Remembrance Day. The Girl plans to attend the national Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa. Unfortunately, I don’t get the day off work.

I’m sure many of you know someone (or someone who knows someone) who has made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Every day, but especially on Remembrance Day, spare a thought for those who answered the call and never made it home. Spare a thought, also, for the ones left behind: the families and loved ones who no longer have their hero with them, and the comrades who remember their brother- or sister-in-arms.

Never forget . . .

Letting Go

They say that the hardest part of love is letting go. This is true in parenting as well as romance.

* * *

The Girl came home for the weekend a couple of weeks ago. As those of you who have read my ‘About’ page know, she’s away at university. We hadn’t seen her in person (FaceTime and texts don’t count) since we dropped her off on the Labor Day weekend. So a day off on Friday, combined with a holiday Monday, made for a long weekend at home. We bought her a bus ticket, and five hours later she was home.

It was so great to have her back! The house seems very quiet without her music blasting as she’s working. I know The Boy misses her, too; there’s no one for him to talk to after school until Princess Buttercup or I get home. For a few days we felt like a real family again. We went on a family hike one day, and for a few minutes we even got the chance to see Bitchy Girl (I think she was disappointed that the waterfall was not as robust as she’d remembered, and took it out on us). But soon she was back to Sunshine Girl.

It was so nice to walk past her room in the morning and see her head on the pillow. It was great to hear about her freshman year, her courses, her friends, etc. And then, sooner than we would have liked, it was time to put her on the bus for the trip back to university.

* * *

The point I’m making is that it’s hard to let go, even if it’s what we have to do. Anyone who has kids knows this: if we do our jobs as parents properly, our children won’t need us. With any luck they’ll still want us, they’ll want to share their joys and sorrows with us, they’ll visit us. But they won’t NEED us. They’ll be independent, and we’ll be left with the memories of the days when they truly needed us.

I’ll leave you with the words of a song by Jim Witter, called Stolen Moments:

Oh my little one sitting on my lap.

Every time I look at you

It’s me that’s looking back.

From the summer of your childhood

To the autumn of your years,

The times we take for granted

All too soon will disappear.

Stolen moments are all we have

To get us through this lifetime,

All the good and bad.

Someday you will be grown,

With kids of your own,

And you will learn to treasure every day

Stolen moments, before they steal away.

If I could, I’d stop the hands of time.

A hundred years from here and now,

You would still be mine.

But the world keeps on turning,

And soon you’ll turn from me.

And instead of holding you,

I will hold your memory.

Stolen moments are all we have

To get us through this lifetime,

All the good and bad.

Someday you will be grown,

With kids of your own,

And you will learn to treasure every day

Stolen moments, before they steal away.

Stolen moments, before they steal away.

R.I.P Steve Jobs

I know, I know. Everyone seems to be writing something about the passing of Steve Jobs. While I never had the privilege of meeting him, I have used his products for almost thirty years. While some may argue about his ‘contribution’ to society, I don’t think there can be any doubt that he changed the way we communicate.

I’ve been using a Mac since 1985. A small business with which I was involved bought a Macintosh 512k, and I was hooked. In no time at all, I was ‘Mr. Computer Guy’, an ‘expert’ in everything Mac. The Mac was so different from anything else out there. And how incredibly useful: it had no hard drive, it only used single-sided (400k) disks, it needed an external drive to run any other program, but we did everything with it. We had System and Finder on one disk, and Microsoft Word 1.0 on the other. We made newsletters and brochures, did all of our correspondence with it, and using pfsFile we ran whatever databases we needed. I’ve still got that Mac in storage.

Later on, I got a PowerBook 150. What a cool laptop! After that, it was a Mac Classic. Still later, it was MacBooks for the kids upon entering high school. When The Girl went to university, we got her a MacBook Pro. I’m writing this on my iMac. And that’s just the computer side of things. I haven’t even mentioned the iPods, iPod Touches, iPhones, iPads . . .

Steve Jobs changed the way we work, listen to music, communicate, watch movies (don’t forget Pixar: Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Cars . . .). His products were cool, stylish, even sexy. His company was cool, stylish, even sexy. While he wasn’t the only one creating and building all the Apple products, he certainly was the driving force behind them. As the public face of Apple, he made people want to buy Apple products. His enthusiasm was infectious; I’m sure many CEOs envied the way he connected with people and made people want to buy things they probably didn’t know they needed. How many people do you know who bought the iPad AND the iPad 2, or who have several iterations of iPod or iPhone?

Steve Jobs was truly one-of-a-kind, and it is difficult to think of Apple without thinking of him.

R.I.P., Steve Jobs. Well played, sir.

Hello world!

You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Great! Another blog! Just what the world needs!” You probably are using all of those exclamation marks, too.

I figured that I’d better get my two cents’ worth in, since everyone else in the world seems to have a blog. You see, “my mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought, careening through a cosmic vapor of invention.” (Ten points if you can identify the movie reference, five more if you know the next line or two!)

I’ve got a lot to say. I seem to have opinions on just about everything. But this won’t be just an opinion blog. It won’t be exclusively about politics, although I do have political opinions. It won’t be about religion, but there may be an occasional post about religion or grammar or sex …

In short, I’ll write about whatever moves me. I can’t commit to a regular schedule, but I’ll make you a deal: since you’ve been kind enough to visit my blog and read what I’ve got, I’ll do my best to give you well-written, thought-provoking posts. If you’d care to leave a comment, I’d appreciate it. I look forward to this adventure!

 

Pablo