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A Story, People, Names and Some Good News for week 7 in the life and times of the Carr’s.

Nice People
This week, with a couple of stories that are sad, I thought I would start with a happy one.

Over the last 3 or 4 years I have worked part-time for my cousin doing data, phone, and cable wiring in my free time. It is fun and I have learned a lot, not only because the work is challenging, but because he is super smart and is always willing to teach me. This week I was doing some work for him and I borrowed his cordless drill because mine is not working. After making a trip to his house to return it the next day, he hands me a new one just like his and says, “Here, I am tired of loaning you mine”. WOW, every once and a while you find people in your life that do something for you that make you feel so good, and this week I thank Michael for going over and above.

A Name
She called me “Darlin”. I know I am probably not the only one, but she made me feel like I was and that made me happy. Born Mary Ella Carr, but her friends called her Mae or Shirley Mae and I called her Aunt Mae. She borrowed the name Shirley from an older sister’s birth certificate, when she needed to be older then she was to play music in the bars in Toronto. A fitting tribute in a way to a sister who had died way too young.

Shirley Mae Carr spent an enormous amount of time playing music and having fun her entire life and did so not only because she loved it but also because so many people loved her doing it. She made her living over the first part of her working life, in bands and traveling from town to town playing everyday for anyone who would listen. She even recorded an album in the late 50’s or early 60’s, packaged as a contest winner from a Toronto radio station. The truth is, because she was popular in the Toronto clubs, the station knew that if they had her name on a record, it would generate sales and it did. One of the tracks even got some airtime, and that lead to some success but not enough to steer her away from the factory supervisor job that she eventually retired from when she turned 65.

It’s hard to sum up one’s life in a few paragraphs and even after reading them, I am sure I have not done her justice but stop me anytime and I will be happy to tell you all about my Aunt Mae. How she could capture a room while she played her guitar, how great her laugh was when you got her going, and how amazing she sounded when she sang but most of all how amazing she sounded when singing with my Dad. For this week we lost Mary Ella, Mae or Aunt Mae or even Shirley Mae, but for my father, he lost his duet partner, his last living sibling and one of his closest friends in the world.

A story
As the children play and splash by the pool, I am on edge and show it by pacing. Perhaps with concern for their safety or in reaction to the movement of water or the high pitch shrills in their laughter. For as long as I can remember I have been like this. I am the same at home, as the doorbell rings or the sound of a distant car door opens and slams, I am sent into protection mode. “Who is that? What is going on? What do they want?” Questions I am always asking, yet you never hear my words. Although, I am unable to speak in sounds you can translate into meaning, I do speak. I do love and I do mean well but I am, at many times misunderstood.

Over the last couple of months, I have noticed that the sounds that at one time would set me off are no longer. The front door opening would not always wake me from sleep. Footsteps, heavy in weight would no longer always focus my attention to the sound they made and noises that once were part of my everyday life are somehow not always there. Now, I am the one misunderstanding. My ears are failing me. Failing me in my 68th year.

Bentley the Super Dog, our 13-year-old Jack Russell, has lost his hearing and no longer comes when you call. I miss the bark of excitement when I enter the room, but what makes me sadder, is I wonder what it is that he will miss. Maybe it is us asking, “Where’s the pink hat?” or “Who wants a treat?” No. I think it is the sound of the girls laughing and playing in the pool that he will miss most of all.

Anniversary
When we mark Nathalie’s brother Nicolas’ birthday every year we are obviously happy for him, but we are also happy for us too. You see in 1989, on June 19 Nick turned 10, and after Nathalie celebrated with her family she hopped into her little silver Sprint and came to the party in Toronto where she met me! We started dating officially the next day, so his birthday marks an anniversary for us and today it is 20 years ago we met. Funny to note that when I first met Nick, he was the same age Jordyn is now.

Guess What?
In a week where we lost Aunt Mae and confirmed that our dog is not able to hear, we do have some good news to share. The search for our first home is over, and pending a home inspection on Monday, we will be proud owners of house in Mississauga around the corner from the girls’ school. Clear your calendars for early August for painting and helping us move because we are calling in all the favours we can!

In closing
Finally, I can’t end without a Julia quote so here it is. On the trip to school this morning, Julia asks Nathalie and I what does the “No Pee sign mean?” Nathalie and I look at each other a little confused, and Nathalie replies, “Not sure Julia, what sign are you looking at?” She points out the window at the side of the road as we are driving and says; “Those ones!” pointing at the no parking signs along the side of the road. There you go No Pee signs. We never looked at it like that before, but she is right! You should not pee at the side of the road.

Thanks for reading and have a great week, and please watch where you pee.
Jim

Moe Digital, Moe Trips and Moe Parties equal Moe fun in week 6
Digital Dilemma
It all started 3 or 4 years ago when we tried convincing my photo junky Mom to come to the dark side of digital and stop using her old camera. It was a long fought battle and in the end she won and stayed with her tried trusted and true, crappy picture quality, film camera. Well until this Christmas that is, when the girls and I finally replaced her then broken camera with a fancy new digital point and shoot.

I always thought that the fun part would be the printing and this week we made the trip to Wal-Mart. All she wanted to do was print a small handful of pictures that she had taken over the last 6 month, so she could hold something in her hand. “Look how simple it is Mom, we pop this little card out, slide it in this hole here and the pictures are right on the screen. Now you press this and this to look at them. And then this little button to print.” Crossing her arms she says “You do it Jimmy (she is the only one allowed to call me this!), you do it, I don’t want to break anything.” After a couple moments of fighting her on it, I jumped in and did all the heavy lifting and just like that we are done. 10 minutes standing in front of the machine, with all the prints she wanted dropped in the little photo shoot, a CD backup of her entire card and all this for just $12.00! She smiled, so I think we may have won her over too technology. Next step an email address!

Field Trips
Being off from my real job for the last 4 weeks, I have some extra hours here and there to volunteer at the girls’ school for things like field trips and this week I was treated to 4 trips on the big yellow school bus. Monday I went to Medieval Times with the grade 4 classes for a live history lesson. For example, did you know, they had plastic glasses with little flashing lights and icy drinks in them for only $10 in the Middle Ages? I was in charge of my daughter and 3 – 10 year old boys and I was just a little scared at that thought early on, but it turned out that they were a good group. I only lost 1 of them for a minute or two in a large group of swarming autograph seekers. Sorry about that buddy!

Today I was with the grade 1 classes learning about animals, outdoors and the delicate eco systems of a pond life, at the Humber College Arboretum. I had another 4 children in my area of responsibility, the team with the blue dots, and for the most part it all went smooth. No one got hurt, no one lost anything and all who left on the bus came back, so I call that a good couple of days.

Get Together
For the second week in a row, we had a school nighttime event to attend and this week it was the Parent Council’s last meeting and year-end thank you dinner. Although, my wife is on the council, I am not but because I help out at all the events and run the Kiss and Ride, they let me crash their party and I am so glad they did. We had fun with the principal, a number of staff and of course the great Parent Council members. Thanks to the Tanabe family for hosting the event and for letting all of the Carrs’ drop in very early to save us the long trip home and back again.

In Closing
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Who has not used this incredibly reliable selection method? This week after a trip to the shoe store to replace the worn and now too small shoes, from what seems like a couple of months ago, the girls select their new footwear. Nathalie is the best shoe shopper I have ever met, and when shopping with the girls for shoes it is always about the choice. They will narrow it down to usually the pair that Nathalie wants them to get and the ones they want. This week was no different! Back and forth with the black ones with the little strap and the ones with sparkles and the small little heal. After much debate of their respective merits, Julia settles on the cute black sandal style shoes with the little buckle and all seems great. All but the size, because the ones she has been trying on and modeling up and down the isle, as if it were a catwalk in Paris are a size too small. No problem, Nathalie grabs the next half size up and heads to the cash. “We don’t need the box, they will put them on in the car” Nathalie says in a “that’s the way the Carrs roll” kind of way and they did. All the way home, and all seemed great in the world.

What a difference a sleep makes. The next morning, with a very tired little Julia that hates the morning, the shoes are not right. “They are too big” and “I can’t run in them, they flip at the back” and so on says a now crying little girl. Devastated at her life and all that once was good. Nathalie tries to calm her, but to no avail! The tears are running now and when Nathalie tells her the truth about the selection, “Julia you had a choice and you picked theses ones”, Julia looks up with tear filled eyes and says, “But the Eeny, meeny, miny, moe didn’t work!” Well isn’t that the truth? Life is sometimes about seeing what you want and making a decision and not leaving it to chance… And that’s the way to roll!

Have a great week.
Jim

Blogging, dancing, a phone and a boy on a bike, stories from week 5

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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