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.

Leaving New York

Looking out my window on a cool crisp Sunday morning, I can clearly see the hills across the Clearwater River. There is nothing particularly unique about this except that on many mornings in May that was not the case. We had an abnormally dry and hot month that created optimal conditions for forest fires which produced a whole lot of smoke that rolled in with the wind, blanketing us for days at a time. And while the cooler weather (we actually had snowflakes on Friday) might have dampened the spirit of the flames, I fear we are not out of the woods yet as we have had only a trace of precipitation.

The Slave Lake fire of May 15th was a startling wake-up call for all communities that are surrounded by forest. I got wind that something was not quite right shortly after dinner that night. A colleague who used to work at Northern Lakes College in that community had posted something on Facebook: “The images I’m seeing coming out of Slave have me very worried”. I switched over to Twitter where I quickly discovered the scope of the emerging disaster. For the next six hours, I collated information from a number of sources – stories, facts, announcements, evacuation notices, photos and videos – and rifled them off through Twitter. The information those devastated residents were getting through social media channels became a lifeline on that fateful night when over 30 percent of Slave Lake disintegrated from the super-heat of a wildfire fueled by winds of over 100 mph.

By 12:30 am I was exhausted from pushing out information, hundreds of tweets, and called it a night. I woke up at my normal time of 6 am and put my memories in a blog that I posted an hour later. Slave Lake is Burning went viral almost immediately and to date has been seen by several thousand people. To put it into perspective, I consider anything over 100 visitors to a post to be wonderfully successful. Later that day I had a call from a CBC National News producer wondering if I had a pipeline to the Mayor of Slave Lake as I seemed to be one of the guys “in the know” the night before. Sadly, I couldn’t be of assistance in that regard.

We have a number of fires still smoldering in our region, including the second largest fire of the past 50 years in Alberta, the Richardson Back Country fire. This morning, it is approaching 400,000 hectares in size, in a largely unpopulated area just south of Fort Chipewyan and north of the northernmost oil sands developments. The army of people and resources battling the seven active fires surrounding us is impressive: 290 firefighters from Alberta, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and local industry; 29 helicopters; 62 pieces of heavy equipment including water trucks, nodwells and bulldozers; 42 command and support staff; and the largest water bomber in the world – the Martin Mars, based at Sproat Lake near Port Alberni where I lived in the early 1990s.

It was a little unnerving leaving Mom and Dad in charge of the boys in the midst of smoke and the potential of more fires, as we flew off for our three day adventure in New York City. But all’s well that ends well, and they were able to enjoy some precious time with Dylan and Ben. We had left late Wednesday night and arrived back home near midnight on Sunday. Smoke was still present but the fires were nowhere to be seen and not only was everyone back home content, several items around the yard were freshly painted including the tree house, now a vibrant green.

New York City was AMAZING; there is no other way to describe it. You can read about our experiences if you feel so inclined by visiting the Middle Age Bulge blog. I enjoyed trying to put into words why it was so incredible. I hope we go back on a regular basis, cause it’s just that good.

We are grateful that Mom and Dad were able to come up. The fact that they are so healthy - able to travel and keep active - is something we don’t take for granted. Most importantly, it gave the boys a chance to get to know their grandparents a little bit more, and vice versa.

As we were on the last leg of our journey home I got the news that Mr. Chernoff has passed away. He was our high school physics and chemistry teacher, a wonderful character, and the father of our friend Wayne. Based on the reaction of no less than four people on Facebook who had seen him smiling and full of life the day before, it was a sudden and unexpected passing. Mark Herbster commented that he had quite a discussion with him at a garage sale on Saturday morning. He left us at 4 pm the following afternoon sitting on the sofa. He will be remembered for this sense of humour, his love of science, and dedication to his family and community.

This is a picture that was taken on one of our last days of Grade 12 in 1985. Mr. Chernoff is at the “Mike” with myself, Warren, Randy, Jeff and Byron in the back.

What are the impressions and memories we will leave behind after we’re gone? It’s a sobering question, but one worth asking. I would argue that you don’t need to be rich, famous or powerful to make a lasting impact. In the story, Remembering Julius, you will discover how one moment of kindness still resonates after 70 years.

Meeting Ms. Bogart

Heather has been away for 9 days now, attending a yoga workshop in Santa Barbara, California led by Erich Schiffmann. An important part of her practice is the educational piece, learning new techniques, honing her skills. This has been a great opportunity for her and she’s been having a blast. The warm weather, lovely people, vibrant markets and stunning beaches have provided her with an excellent experience.

She was having lunch the other day when she sent me a text message.

“I’m having lunch with Erich’s wife,” she began.

“You’ll never guess who she is?”

“I have no idea,” I texted back.

“Leslie Bogart,” she wrote. “The daughter of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

Well, how cool is that? Wow! Apparently, like Susan (Wagner), Ms. Bacall is recovering from hip surgery.

So now there are only three degrees of separation between you and two of the biggest stars in history. Isn’t that fun?

Heather makes the long trip home tomorrow, eager to get back home to her beautiful tulips and her boys. Next, my mom and dad will drive up from water-logged Saskatchewan to spend a week in Fort McMurray. It’ll be great to see them! They’ll hang out with Dylan and Ben toward the end of the week while Heather and I go on a weekend trip to NYC with Claude and Tiffany – our first couples getaway.

Have a great week!

The Winds of Change

A couple of days before the federal election I was in Calgary attending an event called “Speaker’s Spotlight” when I ran into Preston Manning, former leader of the Reform party and Leader of the Opposition (1997 – 2000) in Ottawa.  He was the first speaker in a line-up of keynote presenters that included Olympians Mark Tewksbury and Debby Muir and others.  We had spent some time together when he was at Keyano College early in 2010 for The Global Address speaker series, so we had a pre-established level comfort with one another.

 “How do you feel about the potential of having Jack Layton as our next Prime Minister?” I asked.

His eyes fluttered and his brow wrinkled as he broke into a wide smile, “Well, it wouldn’t be good for you guys up in Fort McMurray that’s for sure!”

He is such a down to earth, tell-it-like-it-is, kind of fellow – reminds me of a cross between my dad and my grandfather.  I feel quite at home in his company.

The winds of change swept across our country, as an inexplicable NDP surge took hold in the last two weeks of the campaign.  In our riding, the orange candidate did absolutely nothing.  He didn’t put up a single campaign sign, respond to media queries, or do a single strain of effort to convince voters that he was a good choice.  He was a name on the ballot and that’s it.  In the end, he received more votes than the Liberal candidate who worked her tail off traversing back and forth across one of the geographically largest ridings in the country.  The surge turned into tidal wave which became a movement, and movements by their very nature are highly magnetic.  The name on the ballot next to the three letters – N D P – attracted over 4,000 votes in Fort McMurray-Athabasca.

 There were several occasions when we sat around the dinner table discussing politics and the election.  Dylan’s class participated in a video conference a couple of days ago with Liberal MP Justin Trudeau.  Not surprisingly, he came home demonstrating a particularly strong Liberal bias as we discussed things over supper.  I believe Dylan has the capacity to lead; he certainly shows a keen interest in the affairs of state and of the world.

 We announced the biggest concert in Fort McMurray history a few weeks ago, as Events Wood Buffalo inked a deal with KISS to play here on July 2^nd.  The show went on sale yesterday at noon and sold out in 24 frenetic minutes.  I’m not sure whether I’m a pessimist or realist, but I was not initially convinced that we’d be able to sell the show out at all.  But in 1440 seconds I was proven unequivocally wrong.  I’m so pleased.  It’s a million dollar show and I’m relieved that all the expenses will be covered.

KISS was a big part of our youth, as I’m sure my siblings and cousins will confirm.  Keith had KISS posters on every available inch of wall space in our bedroom and dozens of records. At Halloween, the make-up designs of Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, Ace Frehley and Paul Stanley were often seen wandering through the darkened streets of Kamsack.  They were (and are) iconic figures.

Heather is down in Santa Barbara, California for an Eric Schiffman yoga workshop.  This is her first major trip on her own since Jamie and Christine got married down in Costa Rica.  I keep hearing rave reviews about her teaching abilities and finally asked for a private lesson.  It was quite something.  I enjoyed the meditative quality of the experience.  It was some much-needed Zen time after what had been a particularly stressful week of work.

 Now that the river has broken and water is flowing on the Athabasca, I’ve been able to get out and enjoy some early season fishing.  Unfortunately, our regular spot is inaccessible owing to some construction, so I’ve been relegated to a rather unproductive spot on the other side of the river.  That said, I’ve managed to catch a couple of small burbot, so I shouldn’t complain.

A majority government (see The Surge), a Royal Wedding, THE HOTTEST SHOW ON EARTH (see KISS sells out in 1440 seconds), and the death of a terrorist (see What they were remembering?) have dominated the airwaves, providing rich fodder for my blog in recent days.  The Royal Wedding post has vaulted to the top of the most read blog post list as its Google ranking was incredibly high (see The Power of Attraction).  It has been viewed (not necessarily read) by over a thousand people.

Meanwhile, the boys are enjoying the start of spring, new friends, and new exciting challenges.  Ben has developed a rich friendship with Owen, doing rotating sleepovers and visits every weekend.  I’m excited to report that Dylan had his first work experience, helping his mom Nadia at Outpost 63 last weekend, her new store serving the plant workers and the community of Fort MacKay north of the Peter Lougheed Bridge (the bridge to nowhere).

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day.  I think it’s nice that a movement has begun on Facebook for people to change their profile pics to photos of their mother.  It started a couple of days ago and is quickly picking up steam.  I chose one of my favourite pictures of Mom, sitting on the swing with Tante Georgette last summer.

Happy Mother’s day to the many mothers who receive the Wood Buffalo Update!  Enjoy your special day with careless abandon and unabashed joy!

Deer in the Tulips

There is something intensely satisfying about giving the yard its first raking after a long winter.  Perhaps it’s the act of turning chaos into order that feels so good (the yard looked like a total disaster after a long winter), or maybe it’s just being out in the sunshine and fresh air.  I’m grateful that we’ve been spared some of the horrific weather being heaped upon on neighbors to the south.

It appears that the last time I checked in was from my hotel room in Philadelphia.  That was a great trip which included lots of learning at the conference and a lovely introduction to an historic city.  I won’t regurgitate the details of those few days in Philly as I wrote about them in great detail in the following blog posts:  NCMPR Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4.  There are several good stories in these posts and a blow by blow account of my stroll up the Rocky steps. (Note the use of the word "stroll" as opposed to "run")

It’s been a whirlwind since returning home, so many things happening at work, with Council and with the family. 

At Keyano College we have said goodbye to our former President (Jim Foote) and welcomed a new one (Dr. Kevin Nagel).  I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to Jim as he saw something in my abilities and challenged me to step into a leadership role in 2006.  It was a scary decision, but it was probably the most important move in my professional career.  I enjoyed a level of mutual trust and respect with Jim that I will always treasure and appreciate.  He will be moving to Nanaimo in the coming days to begin the retirement phase of his life with his partner Marie.

Meanwhile, Kevin has recovered from jet lag – he had arrived to his first day on the job after a long trip from the UK – and has demonstrated decisive leadership by rescinding two program cancellations that had been approved just prior to his start date.  Community supporters of the arts were devastated to find out that our Music certificate and diploma programs, along with our Musical Instrument Repair program, were slated for suspension.  In the days following the Board’s announcement, they marshaled their forces and began applying a tremendous amount of pressure about the impact of these decisions.  Their voices, tweets and Facebook posts were heard (and read) loud and clear.  I went from articulating the Board’s decision in media interviews on one day, to organizing a press conference the next where Dr. Nagel and our Board Chair announced that the program cuts would be reconsidered.  It was a great day for the arts, and the protest planned in the front park of College quickly turned into a party, a celebration of music and the role that the arts play in building quality of life in our community and region.  Ben and Dylan tagged along with me, Dylan taking pictures and capturing some video, while Ben zoomed up and down the sidewalk watching from a distance.  See Protest to Party for more.

With so much change happening, my stomach didn’t know which way to flip (to be completely honest).  Because my role is so closely linked to the President and because I had yet to really connect with Kevin, I was as uncertain about my future as I have ever been.  Leadership change in any organization is challenging.  But after spending some time with our new boss earlier this week, I feel 1000% better and in fact, am excited about what we can all do together in the coming months and years.

Dylan and Ben both spent some time in the proverbial penalty box this week.  I won’t go into the reasons why, but they each had to exist sans iTouch, sans computer, sans Xbox, sans anything screen-related.  Oh my goodness, it was painful to watch Dylan go through digital withdrawal.  As with any detoxification process, the first day was the worst.  I can still see him trying to read a book on the sofa, as big ponds of tears fell off his cheek and on to the page.  Ben, more accustomed to spending time by himself, adapted far more easily to this punishment.

They are both away as we stare into the face of the Easter Break, Dylan in Fort McKay and Ben sleeping over at his friend Owen’s house.  So, Heather and I had the house to ourselves for only the second time in 8 years last night. 

We enjoyed a late dinner, as Heather had a Chakra Yoga Intensive class till 7:30 pm.  Then we went for a rare stroll down to the Athabasca River to see if the ice is anywhere near close to breaking up.  It is not.  The weather was crisp, hovering just above zero, but it was lovely to get out and enjoy a vigorous stroll.  As we made our way back we slipped down Morimoto Drive along the Snye and turned up Hardin.  To our left, in the half light of dusk and an almost-full moon, we saw five deer happily grazing on the field behind the Clearwater Education Centre.  As we traversed the field walking along the well-worn path, they gently glanced up before continuing with their snack, completely amblivalent to our presence.

About an hour later, we were watching Hereafter in our living room as a car pulled up on Armit Crescent, directly opposite our window, shining his lights through our curtains.  He didn’t move for several minutes keeping our curtains lit up and distracting us from watching the movie.  When the shadow of a deer head crossed the scene, we quickly understood why.  Four of the five white tails had followed us home and were enjoying a feast of tulip bulbs to the fascination of the neighbors and the driver across the street.  As each of us peered through the curtains, the deer two feet from the window looked up, stared us in the eyes and tweaked his ears as Heather gently whispered “Hello Mr. Deer.”

Have a great week.