Thanksgiving 2011

Sitting by the river yesterday, I could feel winter's grip off in this distance as the soft breeze cut through to the bones in my fingers, making them slightly numb. Fishing in the fall has a very different feel to it and is a rather solitary endeavor as I was the only one with a pole in my hand. It was sure beautiful though, with a bright blue sky,and the leaves of the forest turned to their late fall colours.

I snapped a picture of the eastern point of MacDonald Island, just across the channel from my favourite angling spot on the other side of the confluence of the Snye and Clearwater.

Later that evening, after having bought a couple of cheap stretched canvases from Walmart, both Ben and I decided to paint a picture. I chose to attempt a landscape of that picturesque scene. It turned out pretty good, good enough to give to Heather in thanksgiving for all she is and does. Of course, giving it to her in person was an impossibility, as she had just arrived in Revelstoke, on route to Vancouver with our friend Tiffany. So, I posted a picture of it to Facebook, which allowed her to see it right away. She liked it, she really, really liked it, as was once said on the famous television commercial for Life cereal.

As Heather is driving to the wet coast and Dylan is spending the weekend with his grandma Patsy, Ben and I are on our own. It's been great to spend time outside raking leaves and getting the yard ready for the winter. Although, it was baffling me why Ben was acting so skittish, absolutely petrified of the lone wasp meandering near the roof of the shed in the back. Unbeknownst to me, he was stung on the ear last weekend when Neil and Susan were in town, helping out with turning over the compost bins in the back.

The day before I had been focusing on the big bin where I compost grass clippings and leaves. It's a simple system that I built many years ago - dump the grass and leaves in all year and harvest the rich soil in the fall. I opened the front of the entrapment, unscrewing the one side and swinging it open thanks to the hinges I had put on the other. I began raking the top fresh layer to get at the rich black loam below when all of a sudden a wasp appeared, followed by another, then three, then too many to count. I backed off in hurry, realizing that I'd hit a nest.

By the following day, I had successfully extracted their honeycomb home, going at it late at night and early in the morning when it was cooler and the rascals were dormant. I thought I got them all, but obviously one decided to linger and give Ben an earful. Ouch!

It's been a busy stretch of time since the last Wood Buffalo Update, as it always tends to be in the first few months of the academic year. The evening following my last post I donned a tuxedo and assumed my role as a celebrity waiter for the annual Harvest of Hope fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society.

This is an event where guests buy play money (for a charitable tax receipt) and tip their servers for doing all the things they should be doing and some things they really shouldn't. I kept it pretty much on the straight and narrow this year, but many of my colleagues got a little funky and raised a lot of money, over $270,000 by the end of the shenanigans.

To be honest, my focus was on the first ballot of the Alberta PC leadership vote, the results of which were trickling out at the same time. In between courses I was carefully watching Twitter for the latest news. The front runner, Gary Mar, didn't garner quite enough votes to take it on the first round which set up a second trip to the polls on October 1. This time, only the candidates with the three highest vote counts would be on the ballot.

I was at the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association convention in the days leading up to the second vote, getting a chance to see two of the three finalists in action: Gary Mar and Doug Horner. Unfortunately, the third contender, Alison Redford, couldn't be there as her mother had tragically died and she needed to focus on the family.

It was closing in on 1 am on the night of the vote when I finally gave in to my fatigue and went to bed. At that point Gary Mar was up by almost 4,000 votes with only two polling stations left to report. As he didn't achieve the required 50% + 1 to win, and as it was a preferential vote (you had to pick both a first and second choice), the second choice of the third place candidate would be added to the final results.

In the end, and well after 2 am, it was announced that Alberta would have her first female Premier, barely creeping over the 50% mark on the strength of the supporters of third place finisher Doug Horner.

While I was sitting in the airport in Calgary waiting to catch my flight home following the convention, Dylan tried to call to let me know the results of a different election.  He was up against several candidates for the position of Vice President of the Student Council at Dr. Clark School. Unfortunately, I couldn't pick up as I was in the middle of something, so he sent me a text message with the news that he had won.

As I looked at the words, my eyes (and heart) swelled with pride. I called him back right away and loved hearing the excitement and exuberance in his voice. "A chip off the old block," wrote somebody on Facebook.

It's been a good stretch for Dylan as moves into his pubescent teenage years. He heralded the arrival of his first pimple a few weeks back, got elected to student government, and received excellent results from his recent gait analysis at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton.

Beth Watkins called from the Syncrude Centre for Motion and Balance to give us the news.

"Dr. Dulai is really happy with how things are looking," she shared. "There are so many positive changes I can't begin to list them all."

As Dylan basks in success and manliness (that's a funny looking word), Heather is overflowing with health, happiness and inspiration. She enjoyed a transformative craniosacral therapy course in Edmonton last weekend, developing an additional discipline to add to her menu of wellness offerings. The Ananda Center for Balance is truly thriving offering services ranging from deep meditation to baby massage and many things in between. Heather is delighted in being able to do "her joy" for a living, making it feel more like an avocation.

Ben, apart from battling the bees, is doing great. He continues to spontaneously create, spending hours focused on delivering a particular idea in his head to paper. This homemade guitar was a collaborative effort.

As a creature who operates in phases, his bent of late is on All-Hallows-Even - as it was originally called - or, Halloween for the masses. We have made several trips to the ghoulish emporium in the mall run by Bill and Suzanne Rockwell to select his accouterments for October 31st. He is going as "Ghost Face" this year, a costume that comes complete a pump that will cause fake blood to ooze from the mask. Frightful!

I'm heading into Week 7 of my Ideal Protein life-change. As of Saturday I was down 23 pounds and feeling great.  Barb - my coach - is thrilled with the results and in fact, was rather perplexed that I had done so well in my fourth week.

"We've never had someone do so well in Week Four," she said. "For my own benefit, let's get you on the big scale to see what we see."

The "big scale" is one that customers pay extra to use. I chose to go with the no-cost normal weigh scale as I didn't feel the need to follow every nuance of my body changes. That said, she put me on it and discovered that no matter which way you are looking at it I was in the healthy range across the board.

After a month on the program, depending on the setting, my body was at the metabolic age of between a 29 and 36 year old. I don't know what any of these readings mean - she told me but I've since forgotten - but it's all good news.

The windows of the Escape are frosted over this morning as the sun creeps up on the day. An additional injection of cold will help the lingering leaves on the trees make their final descent to the forest floor, another step closer to the inevitable first snowfall just a few weeks away.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Summer's Passing

That the furnace turned on for the first time in months a couple of mornings ago suggests that summer has drifted into fall.  The temperature that night dipped down to -4 degrees, a sharp change from the +34 temperature that we were baking in just a few days earlier.  I fully expect that by the end of this weekend, the painted forest will appear with spectacular hues of orange, red and yellow.

First of all, let me apologize for not writing for nearly a month and a half.  There is quite a bit to catch up on and the most logical way to do that is to rewind the clock and work our way back to the present.

When we last checked in, Heather was preparing to head south to spend some time with her mom and dad, Dylan was hanging out with his mom, and Ben was knee deep in rehearsals for his theatrical debut at interPLAY.

The 21^st edition of our annual visual and performing arts festival took place at Keyano College and King Street for the first time.  It was also the first time that I had absolutely no official connection to the event (other than being a doting parent and being lovingly referred to as interPLAY’s “Godfather”).  Surprisingly, it felt wonderful not knowing anything and being able to play the unfamiliar role of a regular patron.  Having both Dylan and Ben in tow, much of my attention was focused on keeping tabs on them and making sure they kept well fed and watered.

Dylan spent much of the time seeing plays, seven in total over three days.  He was very independent and kept me updated on his whereabouts by sending me text messages.  I was proud of his interest and the many observations he made about the performances.  Dylan also had the opportunity to meet wrestling icon Chris Jericho (shown above) who was at the festival playing with his band Fozzy.

Meanwhile, Ben did 6 performances of his show, playing the character of “Woods”, sidekick to the hero of the story.  In the weeks that have passed, I’ve enjoyed listening to him describe his theatrical adventures to a number of interested adults, most recently Wood Buffalo Mayor Melissa Blake.  He is very articulate and particularly proud of his theatre camp experience.

As the sky opened up and the rains fell on the final day of the festival, we said our goodbyes and started our journey south to Edmonton and on to Hillcrest in the Crownest Pass.

The time spent with Neil, Susan, Kathryn, Michael, Julia and Uncle Lowry in the south was wonderful.  Apart from fly fishing for the first time (thanks Michael), the best moment (among many) for me was watching the gallant foursome tackle the north peak of Turtle Mountain.  Michael, Kathryn, Heather and Ben set off early one morning, driving to Blairmore to come up the backside of the infamous mountain that fell back in 1903, burying much of the community of Frank.

I pulled out the binoculars about 11 am, the approximate time that they would theoretically be near the top.  Sure enough, there were several tiny specs at the summit with several more about a half hour later.  They made it to the top, triumphant and deeply satisfied, though tired and covered in dust.

We also enjoyed a wonderful day in Waterton National Park, exploring that Banff-esque community that is a summer haven for hikers and adventure seekers.  The Prince of Wales hotel is the iconic structure of Waterton, sitting regally on the top of a plateau with a stunning view of the lake.  That the property is supposedly haunted became an afterthought, as we took it all in.

  

One day during our time in the Crownest, Dylan wanted to get his hair cut. So, we made our way to John’s Barber Shop in downtown Blairmore.  It took three hours from start to finish, but it was time well spent, visiting with the locals and watching the care and attention demonstrated by this artisan who has styled with scissors and shaved with a straight blade razor since 1959.  The blog post John’s Barber Shop captures the magic of this unique afternoon.

The next leg of our holiday took us through the Chief Mountain border crossing and into Big Sky Country, the rugged and wondrous state of Montana. It was a perfectly sunny day as we negotiated the twisting turning mountain pass called the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park.  Open only a few months of the year, the 50-mile engineering marvel was still snowed in and closed to traffic just a month earlier.  Logan Pass can get up to 80 feet of snow over the course of a winter.  Can you imagine that?

  

I felt somewhat relieved as we made our way down the mountain, as it took a lot of concentration to traverse the tight curves and narrow passes. 

We stopped at the Montana Vortex and House of Mystery before completing our first day’s trip to Missoula.  Several people on Facebook had endorsed this quirky tourist trap as an essential stop. 

How many times we told the story of being in the titled house, I can’t begin to remember.  But it was the vortex pole trick that really blew my mind.

The guide had me stand up facing a pole that had a strip of Velcro running from top to bottom.  He instructed me to affix a dot in line with my eyes, which I did (just like what Ben is doing above).  Then he instructed me to go counter-clockwise around the pole.  When I returned to where I began, I was suddenly an inch or so shorter.  He then told me to go back clockwise, which I also did.  All of sudden, I was staring at my dot, back to my original height.

Heather did the same thing, but her height didn’t change one bit.  Go figure?  The guide explained that Heather was a “particle” and I was a “wave”, which is why we reacted differently in the heart of the vortex.

It was the simplest, old-school, low-stress roadside attraction that I’ve ever experienced.  I think it’s fair to say that we’d visit again in a heartbeat.

Overnight in Missoula, over the mountains to Helena, and onward we traveled to Billings, the largest city in the state.  We enjoyed an interesting dinner in a pub, the only eatery near the hotel, and had a delightful visit with a couple from Washington.  They were fascinated to hear about our healthcare system, and share horror stories of what they have to live with being in the States.  I wrote about it in the blog post titled Small Blessings.

From the hills of Billings we pierced the desolate plains and miles of empty pastureland.  We lunched that Sunday in a small roadside diner in Grass Range, enjoying unbelievably good chicken noodle soup, with noodles made from scratch.  Yummy!  

It was fascinating observing these two old-timers who came in for lunch.  They sat quietly, tables apart, not saying a word or acknowledging each other.  One was a slight man, dressed smartly, with sharp creases down his Sunday-best jeans, the other rougher, tall, with huge hands, reminiscent of President Lyndon Johnson.  Did they know each other?  Did they have history?  We’ll never know, but it was interesting to imagine.

As we crossed back into Canada, we raced three different storm cells that eventually riddled southern Saskatchewan with hail stones the size of golf balls.  It never did catch up to us as we overnighted in Swift Current before darting across the province to Kamsack.

It was so nice to spend time with mom and dad, and the rest of my family who still call Saskatchewan home.  Spending the afternoon at Madge Lake was like a trip back to my childhood, and in some ways, even beyond that, as an image of Charlie and Loraine at Ministik Beach back in the mid-1960’s is permanently planted in my mind.

We returned to the lake for a thrilling afternoon on the water and on the “big comfy couch” courtesy of Warren and Tori.  Dylan, Ben and I had a blast being towed around the bumpy lake, holding on for dear lives as we were thrown hither and thither.  It was so fun.

Some of the visit was spent talking with Warren about his amazing physical transformation.  He is in the best shape of his life thanks to an eating plan called Ideal Protein.  His ringing endorsement of its effectiveness inexplicably inspired me to start thinking about my own fitness journey.  Thought became action after I got back to work and saw my boss Cindy.

“You look absolutely fantastic,” I exclaimed.  “What have you been doing to lose weight?”

“I’ve been on something called Ideal Protein since the beginning of summer.”

My friend Angele, who works in the office adjacent to mine, had also lost a lot of weight over the summer.  I quickly found out she was also on the Ideal Protein program.

Prior to Warren sharing his wellness story, I had never heard of Ideal Protein.  After returning to work, everywhere I turned I was running into people who were either on the program now, or had been on the program previously.  It put me in mind of how Facebook entered (and took over) my life back in 2007 from out of nowhere.

Long story short, I started my Ideal Protein program on August 27^th weighing in at 207 lbs.  After three weeks I have dropped 17 lbs and I’m feeling incredible.  I have more energy, I feel measurably lighter, my pants have become delightfully loose, and my suit jacket size has dropped from 44 (which has been my size for 10+ years) to 42.  Crazy!  Add to all that good news the fact that I got my hearing back the other day (thanks to Dr. Kudryk), and can probably tell that I’m in a very happy place.  You may want to read Drunk with Sound…again to get a sense of what it’s like to get your hearing back.

Home from the holidays we’ve quickly returned to familiar routines.  Heather is incredibly busy on multiple fronts, starting a yoga teacher training program, hosting a reiki workshop, and maintaining her busy schedule serving massage therapy and yoga clients.  She’s also exploring (very earnestly) the possibility of expanding her business.  I won’t say much more than that, as that is news for Heather to share when she is ready.

Dylan came home from the first day of school and said “I have something to tell you!”

My first thought was that he was going to tell us that he had a girlfriend, or some other such earth-shattering news.  My first thought was way off the mark.

“I’m running for Vice President of the student council,” he said, beaming proudly.  “Can you help me with my speech?”

A chip off the old block, Dylan is eager to jump into the world of leadership.  I’ve always been proud of him, but I was especially proud of his decision to put his name on the ballot.

Ben continues his artistic pursuits.  A gifted artist, Ben often drifts into a creative bliss, pulling ideas out of his mind and on to paper.  

I’ve rambled on and on and I sincerely apologize.  We’ve finally arrived back at the present, with me sitting in my study writing this, Dylan staying over at a friend’s place, Ben playing computer games in the other room, and Heather dashing out to run an errand.  Friday night in Fort McMurray.

For a complete pictorial tour of our summer travels, click here and enjoy.

July in McMurray

In one week, the boys and I will begin our summer travels, driving down to Edmonton en route to the Crowsnest Pass where we will rejoin Heather and her family for our annual reunion. Heather is going down a little earlier to spend time with her mom while we enjoy the 21st interPLAY Festival. From the Crownsest we will sweep south into Montana for a spontaneous exploratory trip into Big Sky Country. We haven’t pre-booked anything, we’re just going to wing it and see where we end up. Finally, we’ll go from the great Montana plains up into southern Saskatchewan aiming for Kamsack where we will spend a number of days with the Thomas side of the family.

This is the first summer that we stayed home in July. We loved it. The weather has been perfect – not too hot, not too cold – with amazing fishing, scads of Saskatoon berries, and some wonderful close encounters with nature.

The boys have done a number of different things this month. Dylan has put some miles under his belt, going up to Fort Chipewyan with his mom on a boat, back to Fort McMurray on a plane, then down to Edmonton for the Tourangeau family reunion.

Ben took the Red Arrow down to our capital city to hang with Uncle Michael, Auntie Kathryn and Julia for a long weekend, then came back to begin his three week summer theatre camp; he makes his theatrical debut this Friday at interPLAY.

Meanwhile, Heather and I have continued to work through July. Yoga and massage therapy clients roll through the Ananda Center for Balance, always leaving happier and healthier than when they arrived. I’ve remained busy at the College and have also had a smattering of Council duties (despite being on summer break) as we’ve had a number of political figures through this month, Mayor Mandel from Edmonton, Premier Stelmach and others.

This has been a major angling month for me, catching more fish in the past two to three weeks than I have my entire life. What changed? Well, I made a major discovery that the boat launch at Gregoire Lake was a prime spot for catching one walleye after another. We also had historic high water levels on our local rivers due to the enormous amount of rain down south. As those waters receded, the fishing became extraordinary. Just the other night I caught my limit on the Clearwater for both goldeye and walleye, which had never happened to me before.

My time on the water has resulted in delightful brushes with some of nature’s finest: ospreys, blue herons, bears, and eagles. We look forward to many more as we begin our August adventures.

We’ve also spent the month doing (or monitoring) improvements around the house and yard. Several weeks ago we had a shingling crew come in and do the back half of the roof. Next weekend, we’ll have a crew of arborists come in and tackle our towering and sagging Manitoba maples in the backyard. Over 40 years old, they sport more than several limbs that extend far too much over top of our house and our neighbor’s garage, putting our structures at potential risk should we have a wind storm. Getting the roof re-shingled and the trees trimmed are not the sexiest of improvements, but we feel good about the investments.

Heather and I did some monsoon camping a few weekends back when both Ben and Dylan were away. Up on the rise, just a hop, skip and jump away from our rain-soaked tent was a delightful Saskatoon berry patch. Ripe and ever so tasty, Heather was hooked and put a call out on Facebook to find out if anyone knew of patches in town. With an overflowing tree at the College and another in our neighborhood, she has picked at least several gallons and has used her dehydrator to create dried Saskatoon berries and some amazing fruit leather.

I hope you are having a wonderful summer.

Meeting the Demon

Anyone who was in my bedroom from about 1975 to 1982 will recall disturbing images lining the walls, posters featuring the characters from the world’s biggest rock band, KISS. The Demon (Gene Simmons), with his devilish make-up, long tongue and blood-seeping teeth, watched over us at night along with the Star Child (Paul Stanley), Space Ace (Ace Frehley) and Catman (Peter Criss).

Ace and Peter have gone off on their own, replaced by Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer, but Gene and Paul remain, leading the band that has defined ‘rock and roll spectacle’ for almost 40 years.

Dylan and I were given the rare opportunity by Claude to meet the band last night just prior to their performance in Fort McMurray for 11,000 guests. As we waited our turn, we sat visiting with Mayor Blake and Jim Cressman.

Jim (above to my right), now the President of the Cressman Sakamoto Agency, was a fledgling broadcaster when he lived in the basement of my house in Drumheller back in about 1994. He’s come a long way and now negotiates multi-million dollar deals with some of the biggest artists in the world. He helped secure this show for Fort McMurray as part of a tour that included Spokane, Abbottsford, Kamloops, and Dawson Creek. Ours was the only outdoor engagement, and the largest. He also helped sign Reba for a show at SummersEND in September.

We were invited behind the curtain and introduced to the band, all decked out in their make-up and costumes, Gene Simmons towering above with Eric Singer standing on a little box to even things out a little. They were incredibly welcoming, familiar, friendly. It was an encounter that lasted on the south side of 45 seconds, captured for all time by their staff photographer and Jim, standing off to the side with his BlackBerry.

The concert itself was a spectacle unlike anything seen before in Fort McMurray. The evening was perfect with no bugs, a clear sky and a temperature that could not have been better. Dylan and Ben were entranced by the experience, enjoying the pyrotechnics, loud music and the biggest crowd in our history as a community. I’m grateful that we were given access to the VIP seats, as it provided the boys (and us) a safe and secure spot to watch the fun.

In the middle of the show, their photographer took a shot of the band and the audience from the perspective of the drum riser. This shot captures the magic of what was an incredible night.

As we left our location in the VIP section to get to our car before the inevitable rush that would occur at the end of the encore, the final chords were fading from the band’s performance of “Beth”, their highest charting single from 1976 and ironically, one of their only ballads. Turning the corner from MacDonald Island on to Franklin Avenue they launched into “Rock and Roll All Night”.

“That’s the song I really wanted to hear,” complained Ben from the backseat.

“Just wait,” I said. “Let me roll down the window.”

It was an amazing night and, according to Claude, “the scariest thing” he’d ever done. The scope and scale of the event was unfathomable, even to me with almost 15 years of event planning experience. The staff and volunteers did such an awesome job in my view and provided one of the most unforgettable evenings ever. Our family was deeply grateful for the chance to be there, and to share our story about THE HOTTEST SHOW ON EARTH.