News Update

And another week comes to a sunny close over Lake Superior. We enjoyed the turn to sunshine after some weeks of rain, and I even got out for a brief, but enjoyable, try at golfing.

Another week working out of the home office is complete. I got a fair amount of paperwork done, and continue to work on online tutorials in Adobe Presenter. That's kind of fun! The next month calls for a lot of work in the schools, until I complete this set of tours.

Wendy is doing quite a bit better, as her aches and pains seem to have subsided. I was down with a cold for the first half of the week, and she had a sore throat at least, but seems to have bypassed the main issues.

Erin and Kristian are doing well. He was in for a check-up with the doctor and has managed to stay on the chart for his weight. That was always his mother's struggle as well; amazingly the rest of the family has successfully overcome that problem!

And that's about it for this week.

Returning to Golf

Today I golfed for the first time since my accident. I have been over to the practice area a couple of times, and even hit a few on the range, but today I played three holes. It was great! Great to be back on the course, that is. It was not great golf!

I took the precaution of hitting two off each tee with the plan of playing the better ball. As it turned out, I had to play the least bad ball! I played a par four, a par three and a par five. I took the precaution of measuring the drive from the par four since it was down wind (although the breeze was light). You may remember that I have been driving well in the month of August, sometimes exceeding three hundred yards, although it is true that my usual drive even in those heady days was more likely 250 - 260. Now it must be admitted that neither drive found the fairway (and thus cannot be legitimately measured), but I was delighted to find that I could comfortably drive the 275 yards onto the neighbouring fairway! Well, okay, perhaps it was not quite that far; after correcting for direction and dragging it back to the correct fairway, let's say it was 240 yards. Would you believe 220? Okay, if you want to be so particular, it was a 365 yard par 4 and I only had 170 left to the green—do your own math!

I found that not feeling comfortable transferring weight onto your front leg has an effect on the trajectory, direction and length of a golf shot! However, I did not find so much problem with my shorter approach shots. Thus I managed to make the other greens in regulation and finished off with pars on those holes.

The walking was slow, but okay. I found walking up a gradual slope the most difficult as the injured leg just didn't want to push me along very briskly. All in all, a wonderful time!

News Update

A soggy week has passed here on the shore of Lake Superior. The rain has been unrelenting, but we're now promised a few days of relief. Some areas of the city are suffering from flooding, but we're doing fine.

I have been working in my home office this week. Two projects only peripherally related to my work have needed some attention. One is an oral language assessment we are conducting throughout the northwest of the province on all kindergarten students. I am charged with data collection and input. The other is an initiative from the Ministry on Tangible Capital Assets; they want us to change how we account for such. I fail to see how this will benefit anyone, much less our small school boards, but it will involve some extra work, and is bound to kill a few trees!

The wet weather has kept me from the golf course (it's a wading pool in many places!), although to be truthful, my exertions of last Saturday left my leg too sore to play any golf anyway! My leg is feeling 'good to go' again, so as soon as I get over my cold, and the course dries up, I'll try it out!

Wendy has continued therapy with her chiropractor, but generally feels pretty good. Erin continues her bookkeeping work, and enjoys that. Kristian is going through another growth spurt and can now pedal his trike. He just loves being outside, so the wet week has been difficult for him.

And that's the kind of week it's been.

News Update

Another week comes to an end here on the sunny shore of Lake Superior. I am in a lull from travel to my schools, so I'm trying to take care of some business around the home office.

I have a conference in TBay on Wednesday through Friday, so that uses much of my week. The conference is 'just okay'. It's on Differentiated Instruction, surely an important subject, but it's also certainly not new. I am reminded of our work at Mildred Hall in YK over twenty years ago. Both Erica and Erin spent most of their primary school years in Multi-Age Group classes we had set up at that school to emphasize Differentiated Instruction. Now DI is the hot topic in education in Ontario, and I can only fear that it will be mandated—surely the death knell for many a good idea!

Friday is the big day! I get my cast off! The doctor is well satisfied with my situation (over seven weeks after the fact!) and sends me on my way with encouraging words. He still wants to see me in six weeks, but basically—I'm free! I head for the golf course Saturday afternoon, and it is a pleasure. My full swing is a bit limited, but that could be a good thing!

Meanwhile things have continued on a good keel around home. Wendy continues to improve under the care of her chiropractor, and Erin is enjoying both work and Joe! (more another time!)

And that's about it for this week.

News Update

Another week closes here on the rainy shore of Lake Superior. I have spent most of the week on the road once again, so it's nice to enjoy the weekend around home.

After working in the office on Monday, I head out to Mine Centre, about three hours west of here. We are booked for two days there, and another two days in Atikokan which is an hour closer to home. We plan to spend our nights in Atikokan, however, plans change. We spend the first night in the Atikokan Hotel. Now, my back was built in 1950, but it does not typically enjoy a bed that was constructed that long ago, so it was a long night with little sleep! I get up with a stiff back, a sore neck and an unhappy disposition. My travelling companion, Wes, has not had any better of it in his room, and he was further bothered by the noise. We determine to stay there no longer. The only other hotel in town is fully booked, but Wes knows of a fishing lodge nearby, so we check that out and are delighted to get accommodated there for one night. It's lovely, and we catch up on some of our sleep. We can't find a place for the third night so we end up commuting from TBay for the last day! The work goes well, and we get both schools moved forward quite well in preparation for report cards and the first set of reports to the Ministry.

Here is a link that Wes set up. If you have a good internet connection, I invite you to try it out as it shows the locations of our schools. You will have to patch it together to get it into the address bar.
http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?oe=UTF-8&hl=en&ie=
UTF8&msa=0&msid=101216474493044980083.000
439f3264b8c9d7c2a6&ll=50.57626,-90.263672&spn=
3.57915,10.283203&z=7&om=1

Work goes well for Erin, babysitting goes well for Wendy, life goes well for Kristian! Wendy is showing good progress in her new therapy with the chiropractor.

We also have some heartbreaking news to report on the home front as Sylvia and Travis have separated.

And that's about it for this week.