Blogging, dancing, a phone and a boy on a bike, stories from week 5
Merengue Madness
One of the reasons we are looking to buy our first house in the location we are is the school that the kids go to. Nathalie is on the parent council, and I volunteer with the Kiss and Ride and we all pitch in for any of the school events through out the year and right from the principal to the teachers and all the kids and their parents it is such a great group. The president of the Parent council found a government fund that organizations could apply to for funding of a “community-building” event, and that he did in the form of a Parent Social.
So this week we went to school for a night away from kids to meet, mingle, talk and learn how to Merengue! The first thing our instructor Carol said was if you are able to count to 8 you can merengue. Ah I say “well there is the problem, I always get stuck around the 6 or 7”, but she made us do it anyway and I am happy to report that of the 15 or so couples that dropped in, we where certainly not the worst. There is something to be said for having a “follower” partner that prefers to lead, because when you get lost as the lead, she easily takes over! All in all, know one got hurt and we had a bunch of laughs. Next year either square dancing or karaoke!
A Boy
An 8-year-old girl stands on a street corner hand in hand with her Mom watching the sights of a busy city street as a boy, 4 years her senior passes by on a bicycle. The girl with a smile on her face, tugs at her Moms hand and says to her “One day I am going to marry that boy” and she did. Almost 15 years later, and together they raised two beautiful children and like many families of that generation worked hard for everything they had. The boy on the bike worked many jobs over the years, hard jobs, labouring type jobs, many of them over night shifts and sometime two jobs at a time, and they did so because of a love they shard for their family and because if you work hard for what you have, you can enjoy it that much more. The beautiful children would grow themselves and learn from the love and the lessons of their parents and pass this on to each of their own children.
One day the boy on the bike would no longer be able to peddle, although his heart was strong, his body had no more strength and the girl would stay by his side, and hold a hand a tell anyone who wanted to listen about life they shared and the love the gave and the friends they made along their way. This week we had to say goodbye to Claude William McCloskey. A Husband, Father, Brother and Friend and to one little girl on a street corner the boy on the bike and the love of her life.
Busted Blackberry
I am convinced my phone is listening to me. Obviously it hears all my conversations and may even be paying attention to what we are going to have for dinner, a very popular phone conversation topic with us, but I am now convinced that it is actually listening to me. It’s a Blackberry Pearl and I think that folks at RIM have put some kind of chip inside that reacts to verbal threats of replacement, especially threats of replacement with a phone other then a Blackberry. For the last 3 or 4 months I have intermittent key and pearl issues, repeated network crashes and even a number dropped calls but every time I mention to someone that I am thinking about an upgrade to maybe to an iPhone, the problem seems to disappear. This week I had to actually pull up to a Rogers store and hold the phone out the window, and have it look around for a bit to smarten up and start working, but it did. It miraculously started working, as if it was a 3 year old, saying please daddy, I’ll be good and work hard! For now you get another chance but phone beware!
Blogging
When I grow up is a good theme to touch on, and since I am already grown up (well for the most part), I am talking more figuratively about my blogging and what I hope to one day be able to accomplish with it. I will certainly never solve would issues like hunger or the economic crisis, but maybe I will talk about them. I will likely never persuade or presser global change in any form, but I might offer my thoughts and if it changes your opinion, so be it. No the one thing I hope to do is to make you at least smile.
I have been reading and searching for information on blogs and have looked over a bunch of “best of” lists, and have read a number great pieces from old friends and people I have never met. Blogs like Tanis Miller in Edmonton with one of my favourites http://theredneckmommy.com/ and my great friend and computer / techno hero Pat Williams http://www.realhomesense.com/ are great but all get far more attention then little old me and I guess that is ok. I received three comments this week about older blogs, and I thought I may be on my way to some serious notoriety, but they turned out to be “Blog Spam”! Who knew?
I guess in the end as long as I enjoy recapping the highlights of each week with a somewhat fun filled look back and I if I do so for only me and the members of my family that I force to read it, its all good. But if you are out there and you read something you liked or didn’t like, please feel free to comment!
Have a safe and happy week!
Jim
wow uncle Jim, very powerful paragraph about grampa… Had me in tears.