Thursday, June 22, 2006

Time flies...

Hi there,

It's been a while since I blogged. I was going to put something here simply to say 'Hi', and that I'm still around, and that there hasn't been much to blog about lately. But then I stop and think about the things I've been doing instead of blogging and I suddenly have blog-worthy tidbits. Depending on who you are.

1. End of the kid's school years - Derek's slugging through Grade 11 exams right now, with no real plans for the summer except to get away from school for a while. Janet's graduating Grade 8 on Monday. There's a whole blog to be done on the excess related to celebrating Grade 8 Graduations but I'll leave that blog for others. Suffice it to say we've spent the $8 trillion on the outfit and other gear necessary to be allowed out of grade school. She'll look fantastic. Pics in a future blog, I promise.

2. New vehicle - The Windstar just rolled past 250,000 kms and is showing signs of wear. We want to go away (somewhere, sometime) this summer, so a new van is in order. Voila, a 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan with 33,000 kms.

3. Work - I don't want to spend my blog time & space on this subject, but it must be said that both Cath & I spend 8 hours a day there, and more emotion than we really should.

4. Summer!! - Mowing, weeding, pool cleaning, bicycling, house fix-ups, etc, etc, etc. I don't know where it all goes, but it sure seems to trickle away.

5. Volleyball - Every Tuesday night. Sand ball. Mostly with the same team of people as throughout the rest of the year. Excellent!

6. Music - Church choir, practices, and the final Lug-A-Mug of the 05-06 season. (This pic must be from late in the evening. I need a good night's sleep!) It seems like there's a lot of music in my life, but it also seems like it's never enough.






So I think that's about it since the last post. Stay tuned. Hopefully the next one will be more satisfying for both of us.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Marc Gourde



It was a tremendously sad shock to hear that Marc had had a heart attack on Sunday. Marc was just 40 years old, had been married to Ami (Cathey's niece) less than a year and had a beautiful baby daughter, Sage. I blogged about Sages' baptism just three weeks ago.

Marc was a fun-loving, construction worker guy. He was always 'in the moment', and always looked you right in the eye, usually with something interesting to say. It's just stunning that he's gone.


Ami and Sage now have very different roads ahead of them than what had been first thought. I really feel for them, but I know that Ami has an amazing strength within her. She'll need our help and our hopes while she shifts gears to the new reality. I know that she can walk her new road with strength. Eventually. One day at a time will get us all there.


One photo here is of Marc with Sage just after her birth. The other is at the baptism... the proud parents Marc and Ami are at the font with godparents Janet, Tom and Jody (L-R).


Carpe Diem people.