Happy Days

Sunday, Monday Happy Days, etc....

Looks like the Fonz is coming to town! Apparently he's a big advocate for kids with learning disabilities (he was a dumb ass himself at school - said the politically correct spokesperson) - that is Henry Winkler is an advocate, not the Fonz himself (he's just a t.v. character - losers). He's doing a speech at an upcoming L.D. conference in Calgary, and school has decided to send all staff to the conference for the Thursday and Friday, but Henry himself (Arthur Fonzerelli) has got a little gig going on on the Wednesday night where he has asked the staff from our school (all twelve of them) to attend a meeting with him if we each bring two kids from our classrooms (for those of you blissfully unaware, all the kids at our school have learning disabilities, as do the majority of the staff if recent staff meetings are anything to go by). Taking two kids from my classroom out into the "real world" is akin to taking two bottles of nitro-glycerine for a stroll through a detonator factory - so no doubt you'll see the fireworks from far and wide when I sit them down at a table with Fonzie (although I did have to explain today who Fonzie was, so it may have all the excitement for them as it would for me meeting Buster Keaton).

What a star studded year, first Lance, then Fonzie - who next? Bob Carolgees (if anybody in North America has heard of him then you seriously need to get out more!!!). Can't say I'm too starstruck with Henry Winkler, although I'm looking forward to grilling him on the merits of Joanie (would much rather be asking him about his time trial up Alp d'Huez).

Back in the life of the non famous, Cochrane is teasing us with the seasons. All is yellow in the trees, the days are relatively sunny, but we've been scraping ice off the car windshield every morning for the past week (the cold is taking hold). The bike is still enjoying the weekends, had a nice ride out to the Ghost on Saturday - all was very serene with snow on the Devils Head and all... but evening rides after work are becoming more infrequent - nearly time to oil off the wind trainer.

The new board is in the mail (apparently), the snow is making an entrance in the west, and Cochrane is about to close down for the night.

Hope you are all well,
Feels so right it can't be wrong, Rockin' and rollin' all week long (just can't get the damn song out of my head - I'll try not to be humming it when shaking Henry's hand).

S&S.

p.s.

For those who feel they've missed out on the entertainment phenomenon that is Bob Carolgees, here's the tosser with "spit the dog" - how do these people ever become popular?

Coasting along...

Hi all...
Slowly getting back into the groove of work now. A big caffeine hit in the morning seems to be doing the job of helping to keep order amongst the unruly and maintaining a whiff of organisation in the air (or what seems to be organisation but is in fact blind panic fueled by sheer ignorance of Canadian history - oh the joy of teaching Social Studies). - It's actually really good fun at present, but what teacher worth their salt doesn't complain a bit, and I'm not one to break the mould... (thank god for the holidays etc..).
The weekend really saw the onset of Fall.

You can see how it's all begining to go a bit yellow down in the Elbow Valley there in the piccie. We had a little stroll around Fullerton Loop on Sunday - trying to make the most of the sun whilst it still shines... Saturday was a wee cycle but I think I posted that last time. The trees are really begining to turn their dramatic colours, the mornings are now pitch black when we get up (urrrgghhh), and it's all going a bit chilly... Here's the forecast warning copied from the weather offic for Cochrane for tonight;
A ridge of high pressure building down from the Arctic will bring cool air and clearing skies overnight. As a result overnight lows are expected to drop a few degrees below freezing tonight.

Just great, we've not gotten out of September and it's already brass monkies in the night-time. And what a Canadian report means by "a few degrees below freezing" I dread to think as these folks think minus 10 is a few degrees below!!

The critters are also out in force. A bear was wandering around Cochrane last week (black bear), we were told for sure that there was a Grizzly here in summer, on the path by the river - literally visible from the deck of our place!!!! There've been Cougars galore around Banff and Canmore, and a bloody black bear wrestled its way into somebody's garage in Calgary last night!

Anyhow, here's a little hello from Brina - and hopefully we'll get a video of the basement up here soon...

Wrapping up, and wrapping up,

S&S.

Struggling to keep the pace

Oh boy, does this work thing ever get in the way of buggering about in the great outdoors. The one joy of teaching is the summer holidays, but it is so long that you really get used to not working and enjoying life as it should be lived. Alas, on returning to work, a serious readjustment to the system is needed to perk up during the week and feign interest in youngsters' academic achievement, and squeezing the fun things back into a two day weekend takes some organising. We're getting there, but time seems to be flying by already, we've had two weeks back at school and I'm still struggling to keep up with the pace (hence, only getting to post this blog at ten past eleven in the evening (isn't it betime already?!?!?)).
Bri and I got out on the bikes last weekend and rode up past Elbow Falls in K Country - having had a rather splendid early September snowfall...

You can just about make out the snow on Mt's Glasgow and Cornwall in the background (and perhaps Banded Peak - but my Geography is a bit off looking at this photo). Brina was humming away with the thick tyres of her mountain bike on the tarmac, once more chuntering about needing a road bike..... Today (one week later), we took the bikes out again, as it has been silly hot and sunny for a mid September weekend. I rode out to Canmore at an unearthly hour for a Saturday morning, where Brina then picked me up in the mighty focus and we headed out for a ride together around Lake Minnewanka (still can't believe they called it that - from the millions of choices to christen a lake, the little masturbator). We left the camera at home (we - meaning Brina) and so have zero photo evidence of today's balmy weather and pristine views of snow capped Rundle beneath azure blue sky (reached the giddy heights of 24 degrees today) - although it was markedly colder early doors when I left the house in freezing shadows.

Our basement was coming on a treat, but alas, the "handymen" were clearly only "handymen" as opposed to "craftsmen" - so we're about to start a whole new stressful rigmarole in our lives of trying to avoid being ripped off by over zealous incompetent carpenters - watch this space for the imminent lawsuit (see any patterns developing here? Be it real estate agents or builders.... - no wonder my hair's falling out!!!!).

The new snowboard is on its way - hooray!!!!!! But hopefully we'll be milking the bikes for a bit longer if this weather holds out (unlikely). Realised today that I need to beef up a bit before the minus 40 winter arrives - as Brina's response to meeting me in Canmore today wasn't "how was the ride" - to which the retort would have been "smashing thanks..". But her response to me dismounting from the roadie bike was "you really are the skinniest man in the world aren't you!?!" - to which my retort was a good old fashioned British two fingered salute followed by some serious huffing and puffing - and a grand consumptions of Guiness this evening just to start building up the "balast" for sliding down snowy slopes on a plank of wood in the icey cold.

Follow the lines people (photo from Moab if you hadn't guessed).

Hope you're all bulking up and enjoying the Indian Summer (or Spring for you southern hemisphered jockies),

May the sun shine on all your weekends,

S&S.

Lights, Camera, Action

Waddya know, two posts in two days... phew must've had way too much time on my hands today I hear you cry - too true I call back from my free afternoon of sitting with my feet up. If you missed yesterdays blogg, keep scrolling down to the next bit... This is just a test post to see if I have mastered the art of putting video on this blog.

This isn't a recent video, just the only one I have to post (the only decent one anyway). Here's Canuck Brina at Lake Louise last year cruising down to Temple Lodge.

The Return of the Procrastinator

Hey All,

phew... tis somewhat tiring trying to muster up the energy to write a post today, as the first week back to work with the kids in class is having the usual life draining effect. Getting back into the routine of waking at 6am, arriving at school by 7.30am in order to plan (nothing like leaving it til the last minute), aiming to wake up by 8.50 when the kids arrive on the scene, gulping down a piping hot mug of stinky strong industrial coffee by 10.30, maintaining the bluff appearance of knowing what I'm talking about until lunch, gasping for air at 1pm, trying to dodge the bullets until 3.20pm, sneaking out of work early before 4pm, home by 4.15 ish, falling asleep on the couch by 5.30pm (despite another couple of cups of the now tepid extra strength caffine in the afternoon), waking up with a start at 7.00pm, getting mega grumpy for having missed the good part of the evening, tidy up by 8pm, in bed by 9pm all ready to get the shit beaten out of me again the next day!!! Woo Hoo!! Work sucks!

Fortunately we're keeping an eye on the weekends, and at least work is paying for new snowboard playthings for the upcoming winter, and it pays for the bloody basement - which is looking even more spiffing than when last mentioned and expect to see pictures of the finished product in the next post!

Work did attempt to appease the staff last week by taking us to the zoo for one of the professional development days - although being at the zoo was far too reminiscent of being in a classroom with the kids, so not as hot a deal as it first sounded (always have a schoolboy kind of giggle at seeing the wanking monkies in the zoo - bless em!). A couple of us aimed to sabbotage the great team building activity in the afternoon by partaking the test and "fun" with little vigour and rather crass, vulgar written responses - only to be ousted by the zoo host who was running the gig (these Canucks can be rather enthusiastic for anything) which resulted in our being presented with pencils in the shape of dicks and tits at the staff meeting the following day at school (refeshing to get a sense of humour out of admin!).

Any camping over the last weekend was washed out with the weather, and also put on hold seeing as though we do nothing but spend out spare time in DIY shops at the moment.

All in all, teaching Social Studies is pretty good fun (I feel like I'm almost on familiar territory), I've got the Outdoor Ed class again this year so we're off rafting the end of this month, and will hopefully have a day climbing and a day ski-ing before Christmas too (that's the work I like).

Brina is putting up with work with as little effort as possible and she seems rather pleased by her laissez faire teaching style.

Probably be out in the mountains this weekend - summer is coming to an end, and we'll have shots of the leaves in fall before you know it.

The goats up top there were taken by Brina and Lucy on a hike off Logan's Pass in Glaceir NP, and the other photo (which I don't think I've posted before) is the focus climbing high in Colorado on the way to Aspen.
Keep fighting through the tough stuff (and the boring mundane crap),
nearly the weekend,
S&S.