i've started my 365 challenge on flickr.

365 day project

Why are you still coming around? I don't get it. There hasn't been anything interesting going on here in forever and a day.

Well here is some news. I am challenging myself to start a new 365 day photography project. I will take up this challenge in a few days. I need a task such as this to get me off my easy chair, out in the fresh air, and using my beloved camera again. I want to get a few days head start on the project because I want to work on my post processing skills too. I am publicly declaring these aims to further challenge myself to follow through on this idea. I've kicked it around in my head and now is time to get it out in the open. For the time being, I will leave my old posts here. A time may come when I decide to take them down or to move my photos to a different venue. For now, this is here and, for some reason I cannot fathom, you are still here looking at these stale old bits of information. For you, and to you, I announce this intent.

Update

I have had a couple of comments recently asking me to write in this space. It has been a while and I have experienced much since I decided to take my hiatus. Summer is final upon us and summer vacation is tangibly near.

Professionally, I believe I have found a good fit for my skills. My new school is a small community that is very much like an extended family. Every family has its problems, and this newest environment is no different. Despite the odd problems, however, it is a place full of compassion, learning, interest, and, of course, hard work. The students, from Kindergarten to Secondary 5, are genuinely nice. There isn’t one among them who is not without his or her own virtues and strength. The teachers are top flight professionals, dedicated to the school and, more importantly, to the development of the whole child. We are small. That allows us to give a personal touch that rivals the impact a private school can have on the intellectual and social development of a student. Every teacher makes individual contributions to the collective good in domains of interest to themselves and in light of raising up young people. The building runs itself in many ways. To match the potential of the building, I have found myself often working extraordinary hours. Much of it is public relations type activities such as boosting the home team, speaking at public assemblies, and the like. I don’t mind that type of work. It is usually fun and entertaining. At times, however, it has put strains on my family and I need to learn to balance personal and professional lives better.

Personally, I remain very contented in the community. I am coaching soccer and trying very hard to learn more French. I have an ear for most conversations that occur. I am getting better at responding to queries. The biggest detriment that I am having in getting better at my French is the number of people in town who like to use me to practice their English. I was even paired with a fellow at soccer who can speak English well to do the coaching.

We had one major disaster this past winter with our house. I was away at meetings in Quebec City for part of a week during a cold part of the year. My family was with me so that they could visit our relatives down in the city. When we returned, our roofs were literally dripping slow running streams of water in a number of places. At first I thought that a pipe had frozen and broken. A plumber came and determined that was not the case. He inspected the building and suggested that the previous owner had blocked the air vents in the roof, in an attempt to save some heating costs on the building, and that this resulted in a build up of condensation in the house. That build up had frozen over the coldest months of the winter but the day we returned from the city had been warm and raining. The condensation melted and caused the leaking. This was all confirmed by an inspector, certified by the Province a couple weeks later. The process of repairing the house is on going at this point. Quebec is one of the most heavily regulated provinces in the country and certain procedures must be followed. The bottom line, however, is that the problem is considered a hidden or undisclosed liability. Litigation may be necessary in the case but all the consultants we have spoken with suggest that we will be protected by the laws. This will very likely end up being an expense for the previous owner due to the fact that he had modified the home without having it duly inspected and he did not declare the modification in forms filed with the real estate agent who sold the house for him.

In other big news from these past few months, my Oma passed away. She was my father’s mother. Her final days were not peaceful; as her body stopped working for her. However, all her surviving children were able to get “home” to see their mom one final time before she passed away. I knew Oma had turned a corner and was likely not going to be with us much longer. Her final years had been hard as dementia had partially taken her. In all honesty, my father had asked me a few years ago to stop visiting with her when I went home because it was to upsetting for her to try and remember who I was. Despite all this, it was difficult to say good bye to someone who was a constant and a cornerstone of my childhood. I went home with my family for the final good bye and I was very glad I did. My dad was his mother’s favourite. He had taken the loss of his mother very hard. I was glad to be there for him. My children too got to see the size of the clan with whom they share a name. They were suitably impressed. Oma had 8 children survive into adulthood. Those 8 raised families with an average of 4 children each of their own. Most of us grandkids are now parents in our own right with families as large as 6 and as small as 2. We filled the church and made the rafters ring with the sound of hymns. I cannot recall, exactly, the last time I had been in a church like that but the music we made still sent shivers down my spin. I was sad to see Oma go but I was thankful my kids could experience something I of the past that had been mine.

As a sort of end note to this little story, this coming summer, in the middle of July, I am making another trip “home” for a paternal family reunion. It will be a happier occasion and hundreds are supposed to be attending from across this country of ours. The last time we had an occasion like this Opa was still alive. Oma and Opa were celebrating some milestone of their life together. Family came from points in Canada, America, and the Netherlands. It will be a good day. I am certain.

The other reason I am travelling home is that my maternal grandmother will be turning 85 this year. She is one of two surviving children of 6 in her family. Brothers and sisters younger than her have passed on. She had two children and only two grandchildren. I am the oldest of those. Family was her everything and I will not leave her alone on any milestone while she still lives. Wundermom and I have discussed the idea of bringing Gram back to our new home with us after our visit. We will have to see how that goes and whether or not gram feels up to the long drive up here. If she does, we would love to have her company for whatever amount of time she would be comfortable staying with us.

If it were not for these two very important events, I probably would not return “home” this year. I like my house and my new town. I want to spend as much time here relaxing, after the whirl wind of the last couple years, as possible. I have planted a decent sized vegetable garden this summer and inherited a few beds of ornamental plants with the purchase of the house. I want to putter in them and forget the trying days that have gone by. I also purchased a decent sized pool, one of those medium sized jobs that has an inflatable tube on the top, and metal standards to hold the sides up. It is 24’ x 12’ x 4’. It is mostly to keep the kids busy in the summer but I can see myself hopping into it on a hot afternoon after working in the yard. I, also, have a few small domestic projects I want to tend too. There was a fair amount of scrap wood left by the previous owner. I am going to turn it into a “club house” for the boys. I have a shed project I want to tend to and I am going to hang a couple tire swings. There are hitherto undefined plans for camping and fishing weekends. The boys will likely be able to bring a friend of two for these weekends and we may tour the Lac St. Jean/ Saguenay Fjord as a family get away.

It has been a long time since I have written. I am certain that there are events of some significance that have occurred that I have forgotten about. I feel that the ones that I am reporting have been glossed over a bit too. I am writing today because there have been requests to do so. Stats counter sends out a weekly report on activity on this blog and I see a steady trickle of people still stumbling through these pages. I do not know if this is the start of a return to blogging or not yet. I had something to write about and I needed a mental diversion from three twelve hour work days. Writing for those of you who cared to see something new from me seemed a good fit for today.