The world is changing, there was snow in Saudi Arabia before Toronto.
If you have not already seen it I urge you to watch “A Life On Our Planet” on Netflix. It examines the catastrophe that will occur in a few years if climate change is not brought under control.
Let’s do our bit for the planet.
Here endeth the sermon.
Recollections on the year and relatively adjacent to the truth, near as I remember it.
Not a decidedly exciting year for Diane and I so we will have to concentrate on others to bring some enlightenment.
Sean and Nicole’s family in Barrie have been busy. Bradyn graduated and moved into high school. His graduation gift was a trip to New York to see the Braves play the Yankees and a Broadway play. He is a good artist as exhibited by his New York inspired work.
Liam has moved into playing volleyball, which he seems to enjoy, much as I did when I was in Junior College eons ago. I think he wil have the height advantage on me.
Liam also has artistic talent.
Chloe is in a dance troop and performed at halftime at a Toronto Argonauts game during the summer.
Chloe is in the back row on the right-hand side.
The Thompson end of the family is thinning out as only Rachel and Ryan reside in our old home.
Athena continues to live in Winnipeg and puts her efforts into renovating the house that she bought a stone’s throw from the Red River.
She continues to drink at work! Athena works for the MLCC and has to be familiar with the flavours of alcohol to assist customers in making wise selections. Other than that she doesn’t drink!
Below are Echo and Athena who came out to Grandview to visit when we went to see Diane’s brothers Jack and Raymond as well as Dorothy.
Big news for Zoe as she is in her final year of her R.N. degree through the University of the North in Thompson. When not studying in Thompson, she works in the Gillam Hospital.
Oh, and Zoe got engaged to longtime boyfriend Rowan Czuchry. The Wedding is being planned for 2026.
Ryan continues his bowling in the Western Canada Bowling Tour. He made it to the semifinal round of the Autumn Open in Calgary, then followed that with a second-place finish at the Manitoba Open in Winnipeg. He is expecting to play in the Red Deer event in May, which may score him enough points to make the top 12 on the tour giving him entry into the season ending championship.
He was on the Manitoba mixed team at Nationals in Ottawa, where they ended up with the silver medals.
Rachel went to Italy two summers ago and she and Ryan are likely heading to Hawaii for a holiday in 2025.
Diane got to spend a couple of days with her former Thompson roommate, Ria, who she had not seen in 52 years.
Diane and I finished up our subscription to Broadway Across Canada this past spring. We stayed in the university residence which is only a one-minute walk from the theatre. Our last show was when it hit minus 40, but the university has plugins for guests. The one thing we didn’t expect was that the bank of plugs that we used failed overnight, so we were part of a line of frozen popsicles in the morning. AMA said our wait for service would be five days. Good thing brother Brendan came to the rescue. He took our battery, thawed it, made sure it had a good charge and reinstalled it for us…also gave a great chance for an extra visit.
Brendan and Valerie are also overhauling a cabin west of Edmonton, which has magnificent views. We visited for Brendan’s birthday.
I continue to be active in umpiring, which is still fun, and filled with great comraderie. Unfortunately, one of my umpiring friends succumbed to old age, and I had the privilege of speaking on behalf of our group at his service. RIP Ken Walmsley.
The Red Deer Ladies league hosted the Canadian Ladies Fastball Championships, which I had a chance to work at as one of three Umpire Liaisons, (read gofer and chauffeur.)
The above right picture was a very talented group of hip hop dancers who put on a show at the opening ceremonies.
The championship will return to our ballpark in 2026.
Our Umpire in Chief (red jacket on the left) had worked the Tokyo Olympics, and several of the other umpires had worked internationally, so it was a good learning opportunity. Three of our local senior umpires also worked the tournament and aquitted themselves well.
The other trouble I got into this year was to be elected to the board of directors in our condo. I was nominated by another inmate (sorry, resident) and apparently told better lies than some of the other candidates, meaning that I am now on the board along with six other people, and fortunately we get along fairly well.
We’ve had a lot of meetings thus far as we had to work on the Reserve Fund which ensures we are collecting enough money each month to enable us to make repairs or replacement of various pieces of the building and equipment over the next 40 years. The project is mandated every five years by the provincial government and was put together with a specialist firm from Calgary.
Bike Acrobatics
I try to keep up an active lifestyle, and took up bike acrobatics this year.
Not on purpose. It happened because I was riding through an area where sidewalks were being repaired, and the repair people had not put a barricade back across a narrow trench. I was skillfully able to avoid the trench by weaving to the right, and in the process found a bigger trench, resulting in a proverbial ass over teakettle moment!
Amazing how quickly the ground jumps up to hit you in the head when you fly over the handlebars!
In Royal Canadian Air Farce style for you older folks, “When I recovered consciousness…!”
Reasons I Think I’m Getting Old
- At another point I discovered that I had a broken spoke on my bike
- Went down to the bike repair shop, opened my trunk to take out the wheel and discovered it was missing.
- Earlier in the day, I had removed the wheel, but forgot my car keys (aging sign #2) so stored the wheel in our condo lockup in the parking area as I had that set of keys with me.
- Took my second trip to the bike shop.
- Good to note, I remembered the route! Maybe all is not lost.
- Someone trying to tell me something?
- Picked up my repaired bike wheel (yes, I still remembered the route 24 hours later) and had a funeral procession catch up to me and follow me for about a mile and a half.
- The road home was under construction with one lane traffic so I had no opportunity to get out of their way.
- They finally turned left just before I got home.
- Cut my hand moving some wooden furniture in our unit on the same day that I was working on justifying a first aid kit for the woodshop in the condo.
- Grabbed my shoes in the twilight to go bowling and when I arrived at the lanes found I was wearing one blue and one black Skecher.
- Getting up in the middle of the night during renovations when the furniture was moved around, I managed to walk into a wall, leading with my head.
And a helpful suggestion. Singing carols at a psychiatric hospital can be beneficial for patients. However a rousing chorus of “Do You Hear What I Hear” might be inappropriate.
Sad Things
- My father came to Canada in 1959 to turn the Red Deer Advocate into a daily paper, moving from it’s twice a week format. This month, due to the journalistic economy, the Red Deer Advocate has become a twice a week paper again.
- The Thompson Citizen opened in 1960 is shutting down, again the change in the news world.
We wish all who read this a calm, quiet and pleasant Christmas and revitalisation for the New Year.
Time to put our feet up and relax.
Your Obedient Servant.