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July 3, 2008 - 8:54 AM   I barely seem to have time to sleep these days, but here are a few pictures from my weekend / beginning of this week so far.          July 6, 2008 - 9:15 AM It's been an industrious weekend so far here at the house. Many things have been crossed off my TO-DO list over the past couple of days, and one of those things was cleaning and re-filling the hot tub. It was shut down for a few weeks after we changed out the electrical panel, but we never drained it. So, biting the bullet, last weekend Bo and I started emptying and cleaning out the tub. Very shortly into that project, we noticed an unusually high quantity of hornets in the area, and after observing one for a little while we discovered that they had built a nest inside the base of the hot tub! Well, we thought we'd got them all and did in fact kill quite a number of them, but I went up on the roof of the garage this morning to bask in some early morning sunlight, (Ok, I guess 8:30 doesn't exactly count as early morning... But for me, on a Sunday, that's pretty early!) and noticed a few of them coming and going from the same hole in the side of the tub. I guess we have a bit more work to do. ... 11:55 AM I was cleaning out the garage this morning and came across my two inflatable tubes, one which is the standard "Doughnut" shape, and the other which is the infamous flat RAID tube. I removed the bladders from them and was going to wash the shells (I've been on a major washing kick ever since I got this new front-loading washing machine) when I discovered to my dismay that the bladder on the RAID tube has several new stress tears. And they're pretty bad. I was thinking about repairing it, adding to the already massive quantities of liquid rubber on the bottom of it when I looked over the shell part and noticed quite a few rips and tears on it as well, particularly around the handles. I'm sad to say that I think it is finally time to retire this piece of Pine Lake history. I suppose it is also fitting that this would be the year of it's demise, considering that Sandy Cove is no more. Let us remember all the good times and happy memories it brought us, and what better way to do that than with a couple of pictures.  I think this may well be the first picture I have of the RAID tube in action. If memory serves me correctly, that's Carmen and Kayla on it.  Probably the same two actually riding the tube. Notice how they're hanging on for dear life, even though we are travelling straight? I'm not sure who would win the Most Tube Rides award, but these two would definitely be in the running. That looks like Deseree's head in the bottom corner. She's so tiny!  Barb and I on the Seadoo, and that looks like Carmen and the Little Fish on the tube either getting ready to go out or just finished and coming in.  If I had to guess, I'd say that's Jeffrey and Chris taking off there. Always the dare-devils, they loved that tube as much as anyone. Finally got a decent Digital camera too. Those first ones were shot with Bo's dad's old Kodak clunker, possibly the first digital camera known to man! These would all have been taken with my A40 until it got soaked and replaced with my S400. In case anyone was curious. You know. Camera geeks or something.   I was forever taunted by kids doing the, "Look! No Hands!" thing as an incentive for me to give the tube a little tug and toss them off. Either that or standing up on it... That was always another good one. Let's see if I can find a picture of that. I know I have some somewhere. Kyle comes to mind.  THAT'S the one I was thinking of! Haha too funny. That's Kyle (standing) and David on the tube if I'm not mistaken.  I even took John and Amanda for a ride on the tube one day. Little did I know (and it wasn't until YEARS later that I found out) that Amanda is Bo's cousin. What a small world.  I wish this picture had been in focus, but you can see from the postures alone what was happening here. Barb is hanging on for dear life, and Ed is laughing his head off. You can see it through the blur even. *Ahhh* Good times.  I think they did that on purpose.  Thumbs up, the universal signal for "Go Faster!"  Kayla and Casey, just getting back on after a dismount.  Here's Bo, all ready to go for the ride of his life. He wanted to try to see if he could hang on while I pulled the tube at top speed.  If I remember correctly, the Seadoo was registering a speed of 88 Kilometers / hour. Bo said he couldn't even look up, the water hitting him felt like bullets. But he does hold the speed record on the RAID tube. I think he also holds a number of stunting records on it too. Let's see if I have some pictures of those.  I'm pretty sure he was the only one to ever stand on the tube while it was going for any length of time. He also tried a number of backflips off it too. They pretty much all ended the same though... in the water!  And usually head-first.  Casey and BJ getting ready for takeoff. Does it look like they're saying, "Hold ON!!!"  That tube really doesn't owe us anything. Years of fun it's given many people.  Rest in pieces, our dear friend, the RAID tube. July 10, 2008 - 12:16 AM  Just before I pulled up to the house I couldn't help but notice the most amazing cloud formations off to the North, so I drove up the street a little bit and found a spot where I could take some pictures of the sky. Seriously, there was 2 - 3 lightning jolts every second within this cloud, of varying intensities and locations. It was incredible to watch. I took about 200 pictures to get some of the better ones to post here now. Such immense beauty and power. I love it.   July 13, 2008 - 8:25 AM Happy Birthday Mom  Yesterday was my mom's 63rd birthday, so our family took her out to a delicious dinner at the new Applebee's in Country Hills.  My brother has a new project on the go, something for this year's get-together at Pine Lake. He and my dad are taking that outboard motor (above) and placing it on the 12' Aluminum fishing boat, (below.) Needless to say, the vast majority of this project centers around the reinforcement of said boat. Blair wants to see how fast he can get our old fishing boat. We used to run it off a little outboard motor my dad found in a bin somewhere that I nursed back to health and affectionately named Little John - but he was a mere 7.5 HP motor. Still, despite his stature and output, he moved that (very light) fishing boat around at a nimble pace. I am scared to think what this 1963 Behemoth of an Evinrude 18 HP motor will do to that poor boat.  Blair claims he will be tieing some life jackets by rope to the motor in case it does destroy the keel, fall off the back of the boat and sink, and I have full confidence in my dad's ability to make stronger that boat's structure... But it still has the dread of disaster hanging over it. Needless to say, we will be videotaping the first couple (and possibly the last couple) of runs.  That right there is one of the hardest working hands I have ever known.   Last but not least, a view of the sky in Calgary from along Barlow by the Airport. Why not.  July 13, 2008 - 12:45 PM I've been doing a lot of thinking about a variety of subjects as of late, and one of the thoughts that has occurred to me concerns itself with the concept of relevance. How much of our time and our energy and our resources and our lives are spent trying to be relevant? First of all, what does it mean to be relevant? Wikipedia defines it like this: "Directly related, connected, or pertinent to a topic." Princeton defines it as "Having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue." But perhaps the most intriguing definition comes from a web site in New Zealand (www.learning.ac.nz) which defines relevance as "Important in the current situation." Important. Who among us does not like to feel important? And how do we go about attaining this feeling? By trying to be relevant, in the current situation. Now our current situation changes often. All the time in fact. It will be determined by where we are, who is around us, what we are doing, what they are doing... The function of the gathering can be a factor. There are many elements that will comprise one's situation, and how well one can relate to one's current situation will ultimately determine one's relevance in it. Take, for example, a stereotypical scene where there are half a dozen or so football-crazed fans sitting in the living room of one of their homes, watching the Big Game on TV. Chances are, these 6 people already have at least a couple of things in common in their current situation. They are in the same room, possible crammed onto the same couch. They are all participating in the same activity, watching TV. They all share an interest in the sport of Football. Now several things might differ amongst them. They may not all have the same favorite team. They may not all know as much about the sport as each other. It's almost guaranteed that they are not all the same age. They may not make the same income. They may not share the same family statuses. There are some things common among them, and some things not. So how do those with deficiencies amongst the group make up for their shortcomings in certain areas? By trying to be relevant in another area. By trying to be Important. One might have gone out the week before and bought a new big screen TV for this event. Another may have painted his face in his team's colors or logo. Another might have watched several of the previous games so that he would be able to converse intelligently with the others about players and plays. It is now 3:34 in the afternoon and I've got to go to my aunt's house for a birthday party celebration for my dear mother, but I have much more to add to this and other lines of one-way discussion. July 14, 2008 - 7:48 PM I'm taking a break from the insulating the walls of my living room. I will say it now for the record, once and for all so that it may be known: I HATE insulation. I appreciate what it does for us, I recognize the many benefits there are to having it in your home. But it has to be one of the nastiest things to install... It always leaves me itching from head to toe, even when I wear a mask, long-sleeved everything, and gloves. Still, it is another hurdle to overcome throughout this process of renovating and I'm getting it done with nothing short of a huge sense of satisfaction. Today marks the anniversary of the Pine Lake Tornado. Eight years ago. Can you believe it? I was just starting out at Sandy Cove, barely knew anyone there yet. How time does fly. July 18, 2008 - 1:20 PM End of an era? For every beginning, there is an end. Every start has a finish, every new becomes old. Everything that is will be no more. This is true of all that we know, are, and will be. All that we have, all that we want, all that we see will come to pass. With this inevitability in mind, why is it that we find change so hard? I hate change. I find it uncomfortable, unnerving, stressful, and a source of much dread. Yet even I know that not all change is for the worse. A lot of change is for the better, with both the immediate and the collateral effects bringing benefits to those affected. With change being one of the constantalities of life, inescapable and irrepressible, you would think that change itself would become the norm. If you consider all that changes throughout your lifetime and all that stays the same, the former far outweighs the latter. With change being so prevalent in our lives, why do we not simply get used to it and dread the status quo? It seems as though our family's tradition of gathering annually at Pine Lake may be heaving it's last breaths as the number of cousins, aunts, uncles, and even brother who will be attending the lake this year dwindle. I've even heard it mentioned that maybe we ought to stop trying to arrange this yearly event altogether now that so many people have become caught up in new aspects of their lives, or their physical whereabouts simply makes it impossible to make the trip. Kristi and I were talking about this last night, and she didn't understand why I was so animated on this issue. It was really the first time I'de ever experienced a different perspective on an aspect of my life that I've always taken for granted. She got me thinking about the Pine Lake tradition, about tradition in general, and about my attachment to tradition. In many ways, Pine Lake always represented a time of family gathering. With all the changes that have taken place in my family, immediate and extended, over the past couple of years, the bubble of innocence within which I grew up has become glaringly obvious, and I think for many reasons Pine Lake - and what it represented, was situated well within that bubble. Every year for as long as I can remember, my entire extended family would get together for a week and camp at Pine Lake. My mom has been going there since she was a little girl, and that tradition continued with her extended family to the present day. As a young child, this meant one week every year of adventure, exploration, playing in the water, and living a very different life from that of home. Rustic, utility-less cabins, Docks and boats and water and swimming - all of which I love. Fresh air, tall trees, chasing geese, campfires and Coleman lanterns. And family. Almost every year, the family would attend, with the occasional exception of one or two families who were overseas, though they were greatly missed. For that week, everyone would brush the dirt under their proverbial rugs and put on their best smiles - and we would have a good time. As time has marched relentlessly on, this tradition has been bombarded with change. First the campground we stayed at, previously owned by Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills was sold, requiring us to relocate. We moved over a few campgrounds to the Salvation Army campground which had very welcoming accomodations, particularly now that our grandparents were getting on in age and not as able as once they were to sleep in a tent or on the ground. Several years of this passed until these cabins were discovered with mold, demolished, and never rebuilt. Over this time, our family too has encountered changes, as different ones got engaged or married, moved out of province, had children, or gone through various personal experiences. Like Pine Lake, all that our family represented seems to be fading lately, and I find myself struggling to respond positively to this change. I know change is inevitable, as even my own life is undergoing significant changes as Kristi and I are talking more and more about the future and our roll in it together. This is one change I am excited about, so it's not all bad. But one of my childish tendencies was to cling to the status quo, and as I grow older and do away with more and more of my childhood behaviours, change is one such thing that still is hard for me to deal with. Given it's constantality though, I suppose I'd better get used to it. And yes, I realize the irony in that statement. On that note, I fly out to Kristi tonight and we're driving back to Calgary on Sunday where she'll stay here for two weeks as we attend her best friend's wedding and she visits other friends from this city. I've got Monday and Tuesday off so we're going camping at Glennifer Lake with her sister's family at a cabin lent to us by one of that same sister's co-workers. The following weekend is the wedding, that week I'm off to Saskatchewan to install some fingerprint scanners for SaskTel, we get back that Friday, drive to BC on Saturday, fly back to Calgary on Sunday and off to Pine Lake on Monday! Full schedule, anyone? My sprinklers finally came in too, but now I can only look at them longingly as it will be some time before I have a chance to install them. I'm selling my bike too in this time, though I doubt that will take up much of it. $6,178 and it's yours. 2000 Honda VTR-1000 Firstorm, 38,000 Kilometers, almost all the plastic is new from those kids who tipped it last fall. It had $4,300 worth of repairs done to it from those punks - all cosmetic, and a full tune-up. Runs beautifully, looks awesome, and it can be yours for only six big ones and a hundred seventy-eight little ones. (Plug plug) July 19, 2008 - 10:34 PM I arrived safe and sound in Abbotsford last night, and today has been a flurry of activity. The girls stayed with Kristi's parents last night as my flight was the last one in, and after some highly efficient house cleaning this morning we drove out to pick them up. Arnie, Kristi's father, and I walked down the street where we sat in a little cafe, had iced coffee's and a good man—to—man conversation about all things relevant. I'll admit, I was a little nervous going in, but now I feel a lot of peace where once there was a bit of uncertainty. I am looking forward to getting to know her parents and the rest of her family in the months and years to come. I believe her dad in particular, and I will have a lot to talk about. The rest of the afternoon has been spent packing and preparing for the drive to Calgary tomorrow. To say that Kristi is highly organized would be akin to saying the sky is blue. The words make sense, you can comprehend their meaning in the general sense of the words, but until you actually see her in action, they hardly do her justice. The girls were right in the middle of the action too, helping with dishes, taking the garbage and recycling to the garage, and I had no shortage of help cleaning and vaccuuming out the van. I ran out and got some groceries for car snacks tomorrow, and also made sure all the fluids and gasses in the van are at their proper levels. Very early tomorrow morning we will be setting out, so I should stop writing and get to bed! Morning always comes too soon! Goodnight my friend, the reader of this page. July 22, 2008 - 9:27 PM Home again, but not without some sun and some stories.  Friday evening I flew out to Mission and spent the weekend with Kristi and the girls, helping them pack and get ready for the drive out to Calgary on Sunday. Eleven hours in the car necessitates some preparation, and Kristi was right on top of things, having meals, snacks, toys, games, and activities all planned out for the girls to keep them occupied and distracted from the fact that they were bound to their car seats for hours on end.  They did really well with the trip, and although they only slept for an hour or so out of the ride, they kept themselves busy and produced some lovely coloring and drawings.   Kristi and I traded off on the driving so we both could get some sleep as the night before the trip had been anything but restful. Combine a late night of preparation with an early morning of getting out on the road and you're bound to end up with some tired travellers. We managed to make it in one piece though, and arrived at Shannon & Milt's place in time for supper with them. Yesterday morning we set out for Glennifer Lake where one of Shannon's co-workers has a beautiful site on the golf course resort and had offered it to us. After getting our camp site set up, we set out for the pool and some fun in the sun. Needless to say, the girls couldn't wait. We also acquired another camper, one of Kristi's nieces.  Once in the pool, the girls couldn't get enough swimming, floating, jumping in from the side into waiting arms, and splashing about.  I think this would qualify as a motherload.        One of the big accomplishments was to be able to blow bubbles with one's face underwater.    Kind of looks like I have freckles, doesn't it?  Kristi was fantastic this whole weekend, and so I have nicknamed her (and this picture) The Happy Camper. We were able to sneak away last night after the kids had gone to sleep and take the Seadoo out for a stroll around the lake. Having never been to Glennifer Lake before, I did not know the area at ALL, and Kristi had never been on a Seadoo in her life, so the journey was an adventure for both of us. It's a pretty decent lake, but there were a LOT of sticks and debris floating everywhere, particularly in the marina when you're trying to go slowly through the docks and pontoons to avoid creating a damaging wake. I have to give Kristi credit too, she asked me to do some tricks in the water, but made me promise not to toss us into the drink. We did some decent turns and spins in the water and cast a beautiful wake over the lake as the setting sun highlighted every drop of water in golden oranges and yellows. For someone who had never been on a Seadoo before and doesn't particularly like (the idea of going in water) - Kristi was a very good sport. That's one of the many things I love about her, her sense of adventure. We have such a good time together. It's no surprise that in almost every picture I sneak of her, she's smiling.     This afternoon after a late start to the day, we went down to one of the parks in the resort so the girls could run around and play for a bit while some of the adults cleaned and packed up everything at the camper.         A fantastic weekend, and now a busy week to follow. BACK to Journal Index |