Parenting for Old Folks

Snow?

2009-11-06T07:16:00.001-05:00

Yes, snow on the ground last night, but it shouldn't last for now, but it will be time to put the snow tires on very soon, that is for sure. Luckily the idiots drove up and down our street at high speed because snow driving is the same as dry pavement, right? I look forward to almost getting wiped out by one of these rocket scientists.

Rhys continues to work on reaclimatizing to this new time zone we are in (Daylight Savings), but at least he is not waking up at 6:00 AM these days.

The weekend looks quiet for now, but I am sure things will change quickly.

Final Game together

2009-11-05T07:48:00.001-05:00

Em and Kate played their last game together on the Merivale High team (ok they will play again in Florida, but this is in the Merivale gym). The team played well, but came up a little short. The team played very well this year and were entertaining to watch.

The two of them after the game.

Yes they really were on the court together

The Team itself.

Rhys just before he got bonked on the head with a ball, oops!

Getting Colder

2009-11-04T06:22:00.001-05:00

Now the days start with some light, which is nice, however at the end of the day it is dark when I get home, which is part of the depressing part of the fall. Snow will fly soon, which means even more fun and games at work, as one of the parking lots closes when it snows, leaving even less parking spaces for folks, but luckily OC Transpo (the bus company in Ottawa) is raising the bus prices by 10%, not that I would take the bus.

Rhys continues to try to adapt to this new schedule, but he isn't managing it too well right now (up really early and crashing early as well). Hopefully he'll get into a groove soon, and if not it's going to be a very long winter.

A few more Halowe'en pictures

2009-11-03T07:26:00.001-05:00

Just to make life that much easier, here are a few more pictures from Halowe'en and Emily's birthday.

Emily's cake from the Independant Grocers, needless to say there wasn't much left after the party. The Green witch is a nice touch, I think.

The front of the house decorated by Emily, and friends (with supervision by Rhys).

Rhys and Kate pumpkin carving, note the eye, very impressive.

Halowe'en 09

2009-11-02T07:20:00.001-05:00

This year's Halowe'en while many fewer kids came to our door, still had much more frivolity and fun with a teenage party in our basement. Rhys did go out twice (once with his party peeps and then once with his old man). Last year he didn't "get" the trick or treat thing, but this year he really got into the spirit and got a fair amount of candy.

I am writing this piece still flying from some of the sugar in that Candy, and the stuff left by only having 20 kids show up at our door. At least we didn't buy that much candy this year.

Oh and here are some pictures.

Emily as the Paper Bag Princess, and Rhys as the Dragon, very good costumes I must say.

No that is not makeup that is Kate's eye which she got last Monday from a basketball game, quite spooky really.

The two pumpkins carved in front of the house. One looks very Japanese, with the two wooden skewers in place to make sure the lid didn't drop INTO the pumpkin (two "Gifted" kids did that one).

Stricken!

2009-10-30T05:59:00.001-04:00

To quote a character from the Goon Show, STRICKEN! I seem to have picked up a cold or something, oh well, it's fun to see folks RUN in the other direction from me whenever I cough (into my HAND, not my ELBOW). I suspect if you read this you'll need to use hand sanitizer in case you catch something from it. Oh well, I suppose I should take a day off work and rest.

More importantly Emily turns 15 on Saturday, so I'll need to be rested to deal with the Teenage rampage due that evening (although rumor has it she will be going trick or treating with her brother). This should make for some good picture possibilities.

Wet and Cold continues

2009-10-29T07:45:00.002-04:00

I also seem to be fighting off something like a cold or the flu as well, really kind of a blechy kind of week so far in terms of weather and such. Nice to see the girls team win yesterday, and Kate does look quite mean out there with her black eye. Rhys got his hair cut yesterday as well, guess I'll need a hair cut soon as well.

Susan seems to be enjoying her new phone (we replaced her Bell phone with a pay per use Telus phone), all I need to do now is figure out if Bell is still charging me for her old phone (even though her phone number has moved to her new phone). Stay tuned this might get very interesting.

Cold and Dark

2009-10-28T07:43:00.001-04:00

That is what it is in the mornings these days as Autumn takes firm grip of Ottawa. I knew I was in work early when it was dark for an hour after I'd got into the office, but that was OK, at least it was warm in my office. It's that awkward time of the year where it is not really cold enough for the furnace to be running often, and not warm enough outside to feel warm, so you just always feel cold.

It's always nice to have lunch with old friends and catching up but yesterday I heard a team rule that I hadn't heard before on any team that I knew of. This parent has a daughter who is playing University Hockey and the rule in question is "No dating your teammates", which amused me to no end. I don't think they have rules like that on many other teams I know of, but then again, who knows? It's a very different world we live in today that is for sure.

Nice Shiner

2009-10-27T07:51:00.001-04:00

Luckily Kate had her graduation pictures done for school Monday morning, because in the basketball game that afternoon she got quite the black eye in a very rough game. Emily got punched in the stomach and threw up outside of the gym (good for her, she got her mouth guard out in time as well). Rhys didn't have any such issues, hopefully Rhianna did not have such a rough day at school as well.

Me I got the garbage out and made sure I returned my books to the library. These kind of days I am glad that I got the garbage out.

Rhianna was lamenting to me on the weekend that her time was not hers, I said, "Welcome to Adulthood", hopefully she won't have any delusions that once she graduates life will become simpler. Kids never realize they have more control of their time when they are young and lose control exponentially each year of the rest of their life. All I could tell Rhianna was, "Sorry Kiddo".

Riding Up and Down on the Railway Line

2009-10-26T06:52:00.002-04:00

Rhys and I spent an exciting afternoon to go for a ride on the O Train (the pilot Heavy Rail project in Ottawa). Now this is nothing like going from Fenchurch Street to Westcliff-on-Sea and back, it was a 30 minute ride round trip (with a lot of stopping in stations), but Rhys seemed to have a great time riding on it (for $2.50 not a bad ride). Rhys jabbered throughout the journey, but had a great time none the less. It was a nice sunny day, and a few of the stretches were quite picturesque (riding over the Rideau River was very nice), but again, a few short journey, that is for sure.

We went to University Night last week (for Ontario) and we sat in on Guelph and Waterloo. The Waterloo presentation was funny to me, in that they did mention the Clubs on campus but did not mention the two largest clubs (GLOW and The Chinese Students Club). The Guelph presentation was interesting, but they didn't mention that Guelph is actually the sound a drowning dog makes, which I thought was an oversight. I did pick up the RMC brochures, but for some reason Kate is not interested in going there. We shall see where she chooses.

Happy 80th Birthday Mum

2009-10-24T07:36:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday Mom and Grandma

Friday Ahead

2009-10-23T06:38:00.002-04:00

Friday and another week finishes, and hopefully a quieter weekend ahead.

Mom turns 80 on Saturday, hopefully a quiet day for her and Dad.

The girls don't seem to have as much activity this weekend either, which might be nice too. If the weather co-operates we might be lucky enough to get the garage in a state where the Van might actually go in (it is mighty chilly in the mornings these days).

Early Birthday Greetings Mom, hope you have a great day!

He wore a hat!

2009-10-22T08:05:00.000-04:00

Rhys' pictures from school came back and surprisingly he posed for many different pictures and he even wore a hat! Rhys seems to have figured out that pictures are worth posing for, which may mean more posed pictures of him soon. The girls pose for Passport photos on Friday, and then I have to fight my way downtown to get the Passport applications in (for their basketball team trip to Florida near Christmas). The girls are also posing for pictures for the Program for the tournament they will be playing in, while they are in Florida.

Susan and I are not planning on posing for any pictures in the near future, that I am aware of.

More pictures from Thanksgiving

2009-10-21T07:49:00.000-04:00

OK, so I found some more photos from the Thanksgiving weekend, but first we found out that our Dentist thinks that Emily's tooth is save-able but there is some work to do on it, which we will do the day after my Dental benefits turn on! Whoo Hoo! Benefits!

OK on to the pictures

Susan actually looks good in this picture, the rest of us look foolish, but Susan looks good.

Well, some of the subjects look ok in this one, however, I think Kate's expression does kind of steal the show.

Not sure what Robert was doing with Rhys here, however, it is an interesting shot.

A fairly good picture except for me winking in the picture

Of Darkened Teeth

2009-10-20T06:18:00.000-04:00

Normally when I write about teeth it is about my sorry set of mandibles, however, this time it is Emily who's teeth are now in question. About 2 weeks ago Em decided that smashing her mouth into Kate's head (during a basketball practice), might be a good idea and unfortunately due to this, she now has a darkening tooth (and a wiggly one too), this even after she wore her mouth guard. We will be seeing our dentist today to see what can be done and what might be the final
remedy of this issue (hopefully something that can wait until after November 11th, as that is when my dental benefits start). My hope is that my teeth don't have sympathetic cracking as a sign of support for Emily's teeth.

The weather suggests snow might soon be on the horizon, so it might be time to put the snow tires back on the cars (seems like we only just took them off), and what will be more interesting is to see how my new commute works, when snow is added to the equation (my guess is, it may
be quite exciting). Previously I drove on highways, which meant high speed "spin outs" were possible on snow, now I do much more street driving, which is more likely to have "fender bender" slides into other cars, so I must watch that as well. After watching the New England football game, made me wonder when we'd see snow like that in Ottawa!

More Trains For Rhys

2009-10-19T06:47:00.000-04:00

Rhys got to go to another model train show this weekend at Algonquin College, he and I went, with Mum "on the shelf" with stomach flu or something like that, we did OK, until the end, but he had a great deal of fun. One of the more brave train owners let him run a train on his system, and Rhys did a very good job as well (must be part of his heritage (Reid blood)).

Yes there are pictures as well

Rhys running a system that was left "open" by the owners for kids to try out, very brave folks.

A complete miniature train set on a tray about the size of a "breakfast in bed" tray, I think I'd get a very dirty look if I brought this tray up to my lovely wife.

Rhys next to a VERY long train.

At the end of it, he had fun, and I got tired, but that's fine.

End of the Week

2009-10-16T07:44:00.000-04:00

Another week ends, but a busy weekend is ahead, with a basketball tournament AND a model train show as well! We might even have time to get the garage ready so the van can go in, which it needs, given everything is frozen in the mornings.

Time for some sleep...

More Weekend Pictures from the Weekend

2009-10-15T05:02:00.001-04:00

Oh No Super Rhys meets his arch-nemesis Evil Emily!!!

Super Rhys conquers her and now she is his friend!

Susan looking like she should be in an ad for some anti-depressant, melancholy.

If that smile doesn't worry you, it worries me!

Weekend Fotos

2009-10-14T04:54:00.000-04:00

More proof of a long weekend, but a good one.

Batman?

I'm not really that tall, Rhianna's ceilings are just that low, yes my head does hurt too.

Super Rhys on Patrol, saving the universe, looks in better shape than Batman did too.

More pictures tomorrow

Driving to Burlington, The Odyssey

2009-10-13T08:04:00.003-04:00

Homer has got nothing on trying to get to Southern Ontario on the Friday before Thanksgiving, is all I can write. No we didn't have Sirens or Minotaurs or the like, but we had enough fun to view this journey as Epic in nature.

The journey started auspiciously at noon, as Rhys had some fun in the morning he didn't want to miss, the drive down the 416 gave no hint of the fun, excitement, aggravation, pain and various other emotions to come. It was a lovely misty rainy drive, the Van didn't seem to be leaking anything and we made excellent time to the 401.

Then we stopped, this is no jest or literary trick, we merged onto the 401 and stopped dead at that point. We were in the fast lane luckily because the car behind us slammed on his brakes and deftly saw he wasn't going to stop so pulled onto the left hard shoulder almost completely passing us, so we dodged the SUV at that point of our journey, oh and the rain continued it's dreary mist as well.

As we turtled our way towards Brockville, my darling wife gave me that look, in my younger days I might have got upset that she was implying this was all my fault, however, I know now that "this look" is really more of a "here we go again look". Rhys started counting the wheels on the trucks as we slowly rolled by them (at least the journey was educational).

We continued on a herky jerky (hope that isn't a racial slur) pace going from 5 Km/hr to up to 65 km/hr for the next 35 minutes until we cleared Brockville and then the pace on the highway increased to somewhere near the speed limit (no apparent accident on the road to have caused all of the "hub bub", maybe just the remnants of bad driving past?).

While the pace increased the volume of cars really didn't increase (nor did the rain, never forget this entire journey was under a deluge which went from light sprinkle to complete downpour). I was tailgated by every variety of SUV and Sports car all believing that they could push me faster (even though the car in front of me was 20 yards away and going at the exact same pace). I had lights flashed at me, I had steering wheels slammed, and usually I dutifully found a spot in the "same pace but on the right side" lane, allowing for these Bobby Unser wannabes to tear up to the next car and do the same thing (when I say tailgating, we are going somewhere between 90 and 110 km/hr, in the rain and these cars are 5 feet behind the car in front of them).

We continued on and decided at 2:00 PM that stopping at the only rest station on the 401 between Ottawa and Oshawa might be a good place to stop, we were proven that this was a great folly on our part. The parking lot smacked of Bayshore's lot the Saturday before Christmas and it is Bay Day! Cars parked every which way, and people "vulturing" around looking for spots to put their cars.

We eventually found a parking spot and walked in to see over 150 people in line at the McD's and no one making much forward progress. My intelligent wife sent Rhys with the girls to go play in the activity centre while we waited in line. This wait ended up taking an hour to get food (which we the scarfed in the car, as we didn't have time to wait). During this wait in line everyone went to the bathroom (in the bathroom, not in the line), even with the incredibly long lines at the bathrooms! I looked over the ocean of travelers here waiting for sustenance and was astounded by how patient most of them were, however, I suspected all it would take was one small incident to turn this crowd into a very angry mob (e.g. "I am sorry we have run out of Coke..." or something similar). Once we finally did get our food I wished the young lady who served us a "Happy Thanksgiving" and she replied with the phrase I suspected she would, "It will be in 3 hours!".

We decided not to line up for gas, given the line was almost back to the highway, so we pulled onto the access road. I wasn't quite "in the zone" so when Susan gasped loudly I almost said, "What did we forget this time!!!", however, she was reacting to the Micra (or small car of some sorts) that pulled out into the regular traffic with an 18 wheeler bearing down on them (luckily the trucker had enough space to pull into the next lane and not compress the Compact car into a Micro-Compact car). A 10 hour delay (while they scrape up the remains of the compact car) avoided, on with the journey.

Rhetorical question to myself, why didn't I just stay on the road and get off at Napanee or better still the Flying J? Remember this is rhetorical.

More "concertina" traffic bubbles, with speeds slowing down to 20 km/hr and then speeding back up to 110 km/hr for no apparent reasons continued on until near "The Big Apple" where everything stopped again, and then we turtled along to finally pass a REAL cause to stop. Two young gentleman in the classic COPS pose with two OPP cruisers (lights blazing) and then the "perps" vehicle trunk open, full of beer cases and some huge stereo speakers. "H'uh Bad Boyz, what you want, what you gonna do?...", I hummed as we slowly passed them and then pulled away at a faster pace.

The journey continues on with more drivers who seemed to want to get closer to me than my Urologist wanted to 2 weeks ago (for the men of my age, you will understand that one intimately).

More slowing down and speeding up, and we eventually got to Oshawa and the next stop on the 401 (why they have closed all the rest stops, I don't know), and the traffic here and the volume of people is much lower, so I start to (foolishly) become optimistic that maybe we'll make it to Burlington only slightly "en retard".

As we pull away from the rest stop, a feeling of foreboding came over me (OK, it didn't, it should have, but it didn't) and we hoped to get to the 407 with little more excitement, again, with the accuracy of a Greek Tragedy, our journey became more complicated.

We approached Toronto and traffic, slowed, and slowed and then finally stopped (we had 3 lanes and we were stopped dead), we again turtled slowly along, at least 30 Kms away from Brock Road, when my navigator/spouse found an alternate route North to the 407 via Brock Street, through Whitby.

We snaked through the weary travelers, going from here to there, with much shorter journeys, as we fought our way North. We passed through bustling downtown Whitby with it's flashing lights, "Green, then Yellow finally to Red and back to Green again..." (OK, I stole that from a Peter Sellers story, "Balham Gateway to the North"). Our sloth's pace allowed us to take in the local sites, and there is a Pirogi sale at the Orthodox church near Whitby, if you are around that way this week. We finally reached the cross road needed (Tauten?, which then turns into Steeles), and we turned Left, and continued on.

It struck me that this road and it's sign posts, that is looked much like most busy 2 and 4 lane thoroughfares in Southern Ontario, and I was glad that Susan had a map to tell me where we were going.

The traffic going in the other direction was much like watching spawning Salmon (far too many in one place all attempting to get through one small aperture in the traffic), but these were folks coming from the 407 attempting to miss the traffic on the 401 by staying "above it all", they were not succeeding.

As we reached the 407, I saw a sight I had never seen before, traffic backed up for several kilometers at the end of the 407 (going in the opposite direction from us luckily). Normally the 407 is so desolate of cars it would seem no one knows about this oasis of driving, however on Friday, it was overrun like Army Ants in the African jungle.

Our pace down the 407 was not speedy, but it was better than the previous parts of our journey, which was good. We did run into slowdowns around the 401, however, the rest of our Odyssey went without much more fun and fanfare.

We ended up taking over 7.5 hours for a journey that has taken 4.5 hours, but we did make it in one piece (even though Rhys started asking, "When are we going home" as soon as we got here).

Thanksgiving is a time for Thanks, so I guess I am thankful we made it in one piece.

Happy Thanksgiving !

2009-10-12T09:21:00.001-04:00

Yes, we are down in Burlington returning to Ottawa today, and hopefully celebrated Thanksgiving with all of the kids (including Rhianna) and with a bunch of other Holdens and such as well.

Hope your holiday has gone well as well!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pity that poor Turkey, with his delicious breast and legs... Mmmm... Turkey....

On Thanksgiving

2009-10-09T07:48:00.000-04:00

This looks to be a busy weekend, with festivities in Burlington and getting to see Rhianna and her apartment after a month or so. Time continues to whiz by at an alarming speed these days, and Kate has started to look at Universities and trying to figure out which one(s) to apply to, while I continue to wonder how all of this is going to get paid for (I must do some research on the sale of kidneys on E-bay (or is it Kajiji now?)).

Kate and Em will be doing some intense basketball training having both been invited to attend the CP camps being run locally in Ottawa. Never a bad thing to get pointers from different coaches and some one on one training as well.

Rhys continues to expand his horizons, and next weekend yet another Model Railway show is in town too (I must admit I like going to these events as well, so fun for me and him).

Size, Matters

2009-10-08T07:23:00.000-04:00

Continuing on yesterday's thoughts about "the boy" being "off off" the scale in terms of weight and height, makes me wonder just how big he may end up. My suspicion is he may be like his Uncle Mark (big as a younger kid, but then the rest of the world will catch up), but I think I will only know for sure in 10 years (where hopefully he isn't 8 feet tall).

Given his sisters are mostly larger framed folk, I doubt he will be small.

His strength level is quite high as well, as he is able to push his Grandfather's wheelchair with ease and I have not seen him be unable to lift anything he has tried to lift (other than me), either. I guess it is a good thing that he has a generally gentle demeanor (at least with other kids his age) (mostly).

Hump Day

2009-10-07T07:17:00.000-04:00

Rain, cold and it's Wednesday, oh well, at least it is a long weekend coming up, unfortunately we will be driving all over the place, but at least the family will be together. Thanksgiving weekend is always an interesting grab bag for weather, and the long term forecast is saying Snow possibly on Monday (no I don't have my snow tires on yet either).

Rhys went to the Pediatrician to celebrate his Grandad's birthday and we found out that he is no longer "off" the scale he is now "off off" the scale, being 3'11" and 59 lbs. I think when I heard that my back muscles stiffened a bit. Evidently he has had a big growth spurt in the past 6 months, must be all that Pizza.

Happy 80th Birthday Dad!

2009-10-06T06:33:00.000-04:00

Dad turns 80 today, or 50 if we are counting in Hexadecimal, which makes him sound much younger (of course in Octal he would be 120, but we don't want to mention that either). That is one of the things I have taken from my Dad is the love of fiddling around with numbers and puzzles (and his sense of humor).

I looked around for a picture of my Dad, but I don't have any of his serious poses (any picture of him on his own for his passport or for work makes him look very serious and almost pious), but I do have a picture that is very near and dear to my heart, which is a cracked photo from the late 70's taken by my Aunt of my brother Mark, my Dad and myself in a much sillier pose (I wonder if all those folks who worked for my Dad and thought him such a serious person would even recognize him from it).

The picture sort of says it all, thus I wish you Health and a Happy Birthday Dad.