It just took a few moments and everything is back to the normal of school, school supplies, entry into the system. We are all trying to figure out our places -- in the new school (Kai and Gabe in their late French immersion program), in a new program (Nicole in the flex program), in a new mindset (me, as I add a few University courses to my life so I can try to decide what I want to be when I grow up), and a rebuild of the kiln (Tom, as he finally relaxed after 1 1/2 years of teaching without a "real" break).
This week the Manitoba government announced that report cards will soon be standardized across the province -- the hows, whats, details, are yet to be decided. The best way for a parent or student to find out how they're doing is to talk with the teacher -- I've always found that you get the best information up front, and the best communication is at that level. That's my biggest fear as I enter the academic part of the teaching world -- the parents out there. I think I'll need some time and training to help with that! The real news, for me, is that the government plans to standardize in-service dates across the province. That's huge. However, it's one year too late for us. Everything has always been one year too late -- the change to one year of maternity/parenting leave happened after we had three kids in two years. I got some leave, but not enough to eliminate massive worrying and headaches about child care. The intrepid couple who took on Revenue Canada to obtain two parental leaves for their twins have also created a new perspective. When I appealed the fact that we could not claim child care expenses after we had the twins, we were rejected. I didn't use a lawyer... And we were doing what we should do legally -- ask the child care provider to claim their payment from us. So it worked against us and against her because we were honest. Oh well... others will benefit. And once in-service dates are the same from school to school to division, the challenge of finding child care could become more sensible.
The summer always seems to speed up as you hit August -- much of the book talk with our friends, and other folks at the lake, centered around the Stieg Larsson books. Tom blazed through all three in a row, forced to buy the third book as a hard cover edition to fuel his addiction. I got them once he was done, but I interspersed my reading with a few other amazing books. Incredible books. The Larsson books are certainly a phenomenon, but I found the second book too much of a gap filler. Books one and three were certainly written to keep you going nonstop, or as nonstop as you could.
Debra Adelaide's The Household Guide to Dying is a smart and sensitive take on an Australian woman's story as she faces the realization that the cancer she's fought three previous times isn't disappearing this time. Delia, the main character, is a columnist and writer and she continues to dispense some acerbic advice as she continues her writing with a useful guide to dying. Read it. It's great!
David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (2004) is an astounding ride, six individual tales within the book, taking you from the 1850s into a future civilization with cloned people, followed by survivors of the fall of the civilized world, ending in the Pacific Ocean, where the book began. Each story is linked by artifacts, a lure that kept me looking for a connection. I loved that book, so when I saw he has a new one, I put it on hold. My summer reading included Mitchell's Black Swan Green, a fictionalized memoir in a year of a 13 year old boy's life in small-town England. It's sweet, and it's sad, and the character is more than observant as he encounters real life in the early 1980s. I've got his latest on hold in the library, but it's still 30 or so readers away from me. That's fine. I'll be busy for the next 8 weeks being a student, a parent, and an employee...
An encounter with Cree storytellers in early August was another amazing night -- Louis Bird, Duncan Mercredi, and Joseph Boyden talked and read and captivated a packed room at Aqua Books in downtown Winnipeg. Three Day Road and Through Black Spruce are Boyden's well known novels, and on that evening his first book, Born with a Tooth, was suggested as another great story. Louis Bird spent a substantial amount of time in the 1960s listening to, talking to/with, and recording, when given permission, the storytellers of the Hudson and James Bay lowlands in northern Manitoba and Ontario. An amazing source of knowledge is the web site Our Voices, partly the result of his work at that time, and a record of his work as an aboriginal storyteller. His story about a couple who hook a thunderbird when they are off on a fishing trip is trap from start to finish -- it's basically a fart joke, but wrapped in a long and entertaining story. Mercredi grew up near Grand Rapids in Manitoba, straddling the world of pre- and post-electricity, after the power dam was built. His grandmother singled him out to learn from the travelling snow walkers and storytellers, who linked the communities of their day with knowledge, news, and entertainment. Inspiring. Hopeful. A way to erase some of the imagery created by the stories of abuse that were raised by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Finally, before this gets too long and boring, Tom's niece Lauren introduced me to Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. Set in 1964, it is almost unbearable at first, but creates hope and love as 14 year old Lily runs away from her abusive and racist father, escaping with the family's black maid, Rosaleen, whose decision to register herself to vote sets the story in motion. The ensuing events send Lily and Rosaleen to another town in South Carolina, where they are taken in by a family of sisters, named for the summer months, headed by August, a beekeeper.
I reminder a day, about 25 years ago, when I worried about running out of good books to read. Ha!! It is personal pleasure to watch my entire family immerse themselves in books. I know we'll never run out.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
My Life with a Dog
I never thought I'd see the day when I might agree with a student telling me "the dog ate my homework". It's here, it's upon us, we are living proof that dogs can eat many things. Some appear indigestible and some appear to flawlessly go through the digestive system without creating a perfect storm of you-know-what. I am now a fervent believer.
Started with stealing a few bits from the bbq when she was only 3 1/2 month sold. Ah, so cute. So Tom flipped her a little piece of something and put it in her dish. Now there is endless sniffing when the bbq is doing its bit. The long snout faces up, and the sniffing starts.
Then she ate the debris Tom cleaned from the bbq and "hid" in the garden -- charcoal bits loaded with grease. Dogs do have 3 million olfactory nerve endings compared to our 300 (that's not an accurate number, but it gives the idea of the difference). That did create a biggish issue with diarrhea, following on the tail of me not blending the new dog food with the old... the puppy's tummy couldn't handle the new digestive indignity on top of just settling down after the dog food change. Then it all "dried up", so we watched anxiously for several days, only to have nothing appear. Hmmm... I thought she probably now had an intestinal blockage and it would be an expensive visit to the vet's. The vet has been helpful, to say the least. The recommended diet when a dog's stomach gets upset is to make rice and boil some beef mince and voila -- a digestible food that doesn't traumatize the intestines. So now we've created a huge interest in rice, and whenever we make rice, more sniffing. If she doesn't want to eat her food (a nice brand of puppy food, believe me... high in protein, natural products, etc., etc.), I add a spoonful of rice when I have some made. Bingo.
The tummy settled down, but we realize she's a garbage hound with the disposition of a delicately bred princess. Kind of like the girl who couldn't sleep because of the tiny pea stuffed under many layers of mattresses.
This interest in food that isn't in her dish has led to stealing baggies of items from counters (bagels, bread, kids' candies from birthday parties, romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese, a bunch of grapes), culminating in a plasticine figure one of the boys brought home from a school project. That was abandoned as unappetizing, but not until she'd gnawed off a leg and arm via the baggy. One of the Barbies has a hand injury and a little frog is now legless...and baggies are now seen to be containers of delicacies. She's getting taller so we have to move all food items up to higher levels.
In June I bought a treat of five gummy snakes. They were life size (garter snake size), weighed a fair bit, and I was keeping them around for a little Friday treat for the gang. I was busy on the computer in the basement, helping Tom with something, when there was a thump upstairs. Tom went up to discover Kallista with the 5th snake remnant dangling from her mouth. Burp... actually for the next day or so, I could smell the wonderful jelly snake smell on her breath (compared to the usual dog breath we experience when she "kisses' us). So no snakes for the humans, as the garbage hound struck again. Needless to say, the lolly lovers in the house were disappointed.
The dog has a great interest in non-food items as well -- a pair of Teva sandals (Tom's) were wrecked by the removal of a key plastic "hook" holding the straps in place. Nicole's shoes and flip flops have been chewed up -- we now know to put new shoes or sandals up on a higher shelf. One morning my lunch was delicately removed from my work bag -- I heard the screen door slam as the dog hightailed it for the back yard... she now knows to give it up when I say "GIVE" in a firm voice. Poor Kallista... so much great stuff to smell and chew, and so many 2 legged members of her pack trying to keep her from the treats. So far a mouth guard has been the most expensive item that has been destroyed... Tom suggested I keep track, but other than documenting a few of the most intriguing items (and I don't really want to go into the gory details about the chewed-up underwear and socks), I think I'll just chalk it up my life with a dog.
To see her racing along a sand bar near our cottage is heavenly -- she scared off a group of pelicans one day, as they were sitting in the early evening, taking their rest. She didn't get near, but they heard or sensed her in the underbrush and they slowly cruised off in the water, six dignified pelicans leaving their sandbar. She is happy to run in and out of the water along the beach, loves trying to chew the fish skeletons which I immediately try to get away from her, and is more than happy to find other unmentionable weird chewy objects on the beach.
Started with stealing a few bits from the bbq when she was only 3 1/2 month sold. Ah, so cute. So Tom flipped her a little piece of something and put it in her dish. Now there is endless sniffing when the bbq is doing its bit. The long snout faces up, and the sniffing starts.
Then she ate the debris Tom cleaned from the bbq and "hid" in the garden -- charcoal bits loaded with grease. Dogs do have 3 million olfactory nerve endings compared to our 300 (that's not an accurate number, but it gives the idea of the difference). That did create a biggish issue with diarrhea, following on the tail of me not blending the new dog food with the old... the puppy's tummy couldn't handle the new digestive indignity on top of just settling down after the dog food change. Then it all "dried up", so we watched anxiously for several days, only to have nothing appear. Hmmm... I thought she probably now had an intestinal blockage and it would be an expensive visit to the vet's. The vet has been helpful, to say the least. The recommended diet when a dog's stomach gets upset is to make rice and boil some beef mince and voila -- a digestible food that doesn't traumatize the intestines. So now we've created a huge interest in rice, and whenever we make rice, more sniffing. If she doesn't want to eat her food (a nice brand of puppy food, believe me... high in protein, natural products, etc., etc.), I add a spoonful of rice when I have some made. Bingo.
The tummy settled down, but we realize she's a garbage hound with the disposition of a delicately bred princess. Kind of like the girl who couldn't sleep because of the tiny pea stuffed under many layers of mattresses.
This interest in food that isn't in her dish has led to stealing baggies of items from counters (bagels, bread, kids' candies from birthday parties, romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese, a bunch of grapes), culminating in a plasticine figure one of the boys brought home from a school project. That was abandoned as unappetizing, but not until she'd gnawed off a leg and arm via the baggy. One of the Barbies has a hand injury and a little frog is now legless...and baggies are now seen to be containers of delicacies. She's getting taller so we have to move all food items up to higher levels.
In June I bought a treat of five gummy snakes. They were life size (garter snake size), weighed a fair bit, and I was keeping them around for a little Friday treat for the gang. I was busy on the computer in the basement, helping Tom with something, when there was a thump upstairs. Tom went up to discover Kallista with the 5th snake remnant dangling from her mouth. Burp... actually for the next day or so, I could smell the wonderful jelly snake smell on her breath (compared to the usual dog breath we experience when she "kisses' us). So no snakes for the humans, as the garbage hound struck again. Needless to say, the lolly lovers in the house were disappointed.
The dog has a great interest in non-food items as well -- a pair of Teva sandals (Tom's) were wrecked by the removal of a key plastic "hook" holding the straps in place. Nicole's shoes and flip flops have been chewed up -- we now know to put new shoes or sandals up on a higher shelf. One morning my lunch was delicately removed from my work bag -- I heard the screen door slam as the dog hightailed it for the back yard... she now knows to give it up when I say "GIVE" in a firm voice. Poor Kallista... so much great stuff to smell and chew, and so many 2 legged members of her pack trying to keep her from the treats. So far a mouth guard has been the most expensive item that has been destroyed... Tom suggested I keep track, but other than documenting a few of the most intriguing items (and I don't really want to go into the gory details about the chewed-up underwear and socks), I think I'll just chalk it up my life with a dog.
To see her racing along a sand bar near our cottage is heavenly -- she scared off a group of pelicans one day, as they were sitting in the early evening, taking their rest. She didn't get near, but they heard or sensed her in the underbrush and they slowly cruised off in the water, six dignified pelicans leaving their sandbar. She is happy to run in and out of the water along the beach, loves trying to chew the fish skeletons which I immediately try to get away from her, and is more than happy to find other unmentionable weird chewy objects on the beach.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
A Take on the 1868 Australian Aboriginal Cricket Team
In Australia we became aware of the game of cricket. Go figure... cricket was part of the school sports days, the local teachers who were former exchangees made sure we learned some of the basics, and we all tried a few runs and hits of the ball. Complicated enough to keep me asking questions. Friends from the state of Queensland, Penny and Ted (often referred to as Ped and Tenny by me), are quite cricket mad (in a good way...!). Penny took her time to acquaint me with some of the esoteric (or so it seemed to me) aspects of the game, and answered my naive questions. Their son participated in Cricket Australia's Indigenous XI tour last year. He and several friends went on a journey of discovery as they tried to piece together what it must have been like for those first sporting tourists one hundred and forty years earlier, and have produced several films and slide shows that they have posted on YouTube.
I'm having moments of discovery this summer, even though I'm supposedly trapped in my home city and not far from work any given week. Much of my discovery circles around the experiences of Canada's indigenous population in the last 100 years, residential schools, reconciliation, oral stories. To see the young men of this century tracing the journey of a group of indigenous players is another moment of transcendence -- current technology provides the eyes through which to journey into the past.
The game is still complicated to me. It's not complicated to someone who has been part of the sport since they could walk, who continue to strive for excellence no matter the century.
I'm having moments of discovery this summer, even though I'm supposedly trapped in my home city and not far from work any given week. Much of my discovery circles around the experiences of Canada's indigenous population in the last 100 years, residential schools, reconciliation, oral stories. To see the young men of this century tracing the journey of a group of indigenous players is another moment of transcendence -- current technology provides the eyes through which to journey into the past.
The game is still complicated to me. It's not complicated to someone who has been part of the sport since they could walk, who continue to strive for excellence no matter the century.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Jim Wagner
Many many moons ago, Tom and I drove to New Mexico for a summer holiday. Little red truck. Through South Dakota, west to Wyoming. Stayed in a motel worthy of the Bates motel in Psycho. Scared ourselves by walking around a tall, abandoned old school building, marveling at how blank its windows appeared in the dusk of the old coal mining town in Wyoming. And then how frightening it appeared. Hustled back to the comforts of the motel, and an old bed that sagged down in the middle. Onwards to Colorado and down to New Mexico where we discovered the beauty of Taos and Santa Fe. One of the better moments in Taos came with a visit to the Parks Gallery, where we discovered the wonderful and quirky work of Jim Wagner.
At the time, I treated myself to a Jim Wagner silver pin -- a pregnant angel. Tom, for his 50th, received a print of Jim's depiction of an old adobe church. Jim Wagner continues to impress me with his works... a new show is being exhibited at the Parks Gallery.
Crop Duster
Cliffside Kiva
Our journey continued back through Colorado -- over Independence Pass, on to Snow Mass and the gorgeously expensive town of Aspen, back up to South and North Dakota, and then our amazement at how green Manitoba looked after the dry western states. We'd like to repeat the journey some day ... for now we have to content ourselves by lusting after Jim's gorgeous works!
At the time, I treated myself to a Jim Wagner silver pin -- a pregnant angel. Tom, for his 50th, received a print of Jim's depiction of an old adobe church. Jim Wagner continues to impress me with his works... a new show is being exhibited at the Parks Gallery.
Crop Duster
Cliffside Kiva
Our journey continued back through Colorado -- over Independence Pass, on to Snow Mass and the gorgeously expensive town of Aspen, back up to South and North Dakota, and then our amazement at how green Manitoba looked after the dry western states. We'd like to repeat the journey some day ... for now we have to content ourselves by lusting after Jim's gorgeous works!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Strawberry fields forever
A hot summer day in Manitoba. Blue sky, reaching from horizon to horizon. The flattest part of the prairies. The Assiniboine River bends slowly, enfolding farms and homes. Get off the Trans Canada Highway and head south to the strawberry farms. We decided to head out to a strawberry farm to pick a few berries. Remembering the days of my youth, I filled the ears of the 3 younger of our crew with stories of picking on Steve Schmidt's homemade picker, shaped like an old-fashioned airplane, chugging along in the straw filled ruts of the strawberry patch along Four Mile Creek. We friends and cousins slogged away in the humid heat of Southern Ontario's late June days -- we got a bonus if we worked on what was then known as Dominion Day. I cannot for the life of me remember the amount we were paid -- it was definitely per flat of berries, but no clue on the total amount per flat.
We hoped to visit Our Farm, a family-run farm, where the strawberry fields are run by the kids in the family. Unfortunately they had some winter kill and what the winter didn't kill, the torrential rains of spring eliminated. So no strawberries there. Then we headed to a bigger unit, the Connery strawberry fields, aptly called Riverbend Farm. Apparently the main crops are carrots, green onions, and asparagus.
It was summertime and the picking was easy. We ended up with 14 4-litre baskets... way too many to handle easily on the weekend. A day of cooking jam later... some mashed strawberries mixed with mango and lime juices will form the base of a party slushy drink... frozen whole and sliced berries... two fruit pies, including a Saskatoon berry pie, which is one of Tom's faves. No wonder I was tired this morning. The pies were good. The jam is great. We'll be more than happy to taste some red gold sunshine in the middle of winter.
We hoped to visit Our Farm, a family-run farm, where the strawberry fields are run by the kids in the family. Unfortunately they had some winter kill and what the winter didn't kill, the torrential rains of spring eliminated. So no strawberries there. Then we headed to a bigger unit, the Connery strawberry fields, aptly called Riverbend Farm. Apparently the main crops are carrots, green onions, and asparagus.
It was summertime and the picking was easy. We ended up with 14 4-litre baskets... way too many to handle easily on the weekend. A day of cooking jam later... some mashed strawberries mixed with mango and lime juices will form the base of a party slushy drink... frozen whole and sliced berries... two fruit pies, including a Saskatoon berry pie, which is one of Tom's faves. No wonder I was tired this morning. The pies were good. The jam is great. We'll be more than happy to taste some red gold sunshine in the middle of winter.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Tom is off the hook...
When we returned from Aus., and were settling into our house and life in Winnipeg, we came out to the back yard one morning to find the license plates stolen from the van. Welcome to the 'hood!! That was actually the second time the plates had been stolen from the van. Maybe the assumption is that a "mothership" is a smart vehicle to boost as no one will suspect the family van of being suspicious. The cops told me that the plates are often used for a 'gas and dash' ... put the stolen plates on the stolen vehicle, fill up with fuel, and take off.
So we reported it, coughed up $50 for a new set of plates (thanks a lot) and off we went. Fortunately I remembered to change the plate number with our parking services, or there might have been a ticket in the work parking lot.
In early June, Tom received a subpoena to attend court on July 13, which he resisted mightily as it's his birthday and he didn't want to stand around all day waiting for the case to move forward. It took a few days to find out why he was being asked to attend -- the name on the subpoena wasn't anyone we knew and the charge was a weapons charge. We had no clue. After a few days of waiting (messages are NOT returned quickly) we discovered it has to do with the plates and his name is on the registration of the vehicle. Phew... it wasn't someone from his past claiming who knows what... the mind can run riot!
Just today we got a call that a guilty plea has been entered and Tom is free to have a happy birthday without having to stand around the Law Courts. You go!!
So we reported it, coughed up $50 for a new set of plates (thanks a lot) and off we went. Fortunately I remembered to change the plate number with our parking services, or there might have been a ticket in the work parking lot.
In early June, Tom received a subpoena to attend court on July 13, which he resisted mightily as it's his birthday and he didn't want to stand around all day waiting for the case to move forward. It took a few days to find out why he was being asked to attend -- the name on the subpoena wasn't anyone we knew and the charge was a weapons charge. We had no clue. After a few days of waiting (messages are NOT returned quickly) we discovered it has to do with the plates and his name is on the registration of the vehicle. Phew... it wasn't someone from his past claiming who knows what... the mind can run riot!
Just today we got a call that a guilty plea has been entered and Tom is free to have a happy birthday without having to stand around the Law Courts. You go!!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
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