CaptainOrange

Anwyn and I are back from getting this year's Christmas tree. It was hard to find the time to travel 2 hrs to St. Brieux and then back, given how trying the last month has been, but I'm glad I did. The Road about 2/3 of our trip was on a pretty good one lane highway. The remainder was a hodgepodge of gravel of varying widths. With the recent snow and ice, some of those parts were treacherous (icy, bumpy, narrow). The Rescue On one of the gravel bits, at a 'T' intersection, we found a pickup truck who missed the 'T' all the way off the road in the ditch at about a 30 degree inclination. I can't believe I neglected to take a picture. The occupant was fine and I was going to take him to a nearby farm and see if we could get some help. We decided to first try the tiny ratchet straps that he had in his glove box. Miraculously, they survived just long enough to drag him up and out of the ditch. One of them snapped just as he got back onto the road. Wildlife - Down...

  Special Thanks to Anwyn for the prophetic dubbing of our family year as "Winds of Change." Library A grand Quest. I quit my job. It was a frightening prospect. I'm not good a preparing for such things (even though Wendy knew that I should be preparing), so instead I just quit. Let's back up a second... 2007 Casual In 2007, I was done running Diakuw Dayhome and had driven Leora and Anwyn's school bus for a couple of years. I was ready to move on and started working as a casual at The Saskatoon Public Library. I didn't really think it was my dream job, but I wasn't sure what else to do. 2010 Program Associate By 2010, I had moved from working as a 'casual' employee to working part-time on the service desk, to working as a 'program associate' in Pooh Corner and The Children's Department. It was here that I rediscovered my love of performance AND the fact that I wasn't born to do Shakespeare, but rather to fall down for children.  Thi...

City Walk 2022 - A Quest Like No Other Every year that I do this (since 1994!), I get asked many of the same questions. Why I am doing it, or why again. I get awed looks and eye-rolls. If I encounter a stranger, they very often wonder, what cause I am supporting? It's complicated. In the past, I might have directed you to a previous blog post where I wax eloquent about my reasons. This year, I realized that the reason has managed to change a little bit every year. So, the answer, you may ask? Connection. To nature, the city, myself, family, and friends. This walk has gone from an individual pursuit, to an exercise in team building. So, what happened this year? 03:34 I had an alarm set for 4am, but as is so often the case, when you are keyed up you don't really wind up needing the alarm. I got up, grabbed the clothes that I had laid out the night before, posted on the City Walk Discord channel, and made an espresso. 04:00 Leo and Wen were not able to sleep with me grinding...

Note to Nobody in Particular Normally, my travel blogging is formatted with each day or two being a post. It has been a great way to help others follow along from home as if you were on the trip, but it can make for pretty punishing late nights. To make a long excuse short, I found myself watching The Witcher on Netflix at Brad's recommendation. So, this vacation is being collated as a single entry during my 6 1/2 hour layover in Minneapolis.  Episode IV: Cold Departure I think I managed to get the timing for this trip nearly perfect. Temperatures in the days before I left had lows of -36C and windchill values hit -52C. Prospects of my trip kept me relatively upbeat for the worst temperatures of the winter... probably, anyway. When the plane rises above the clouds, the added height makes the sunrise come much earlier. A symbol of hope for me. When I landed in San Antonio, TX, it was +18C (woo-hoo!). I Waited for Brad's plane to arrive from Virginia (via Atlanta),...

If you don’t mind spoilers (the photo stream is a day or two ahead of the blog posts), don’t forget that you can find better quality versions of all these photos elsewhere . Except for my awesome drawings, that is. They are one of a kind ;)