Saturday, February 24

News Update

Monday and Tuesday morning were spent pushing the final two boards to get signed off with OnSIS (Ontario Student Information System) as the deadline was Tuesday. Both boards got their work done, although the official sign-off was not completed until Wednesday for one of them. We'll have to wait to see whether the ministry will penalize us for that! Then Tuesday at noon we headed for Regina. The trip went well, and we got in just after midnight. Wednesday featured the funeral service for Uncle Wilf; Wendy's brother, Bernard, preached the sermon. The service was very nice with much talk of family, Roughriders, bad golf and bad jokes—all familiar features of Wilf's life.

We spent the rest of the week at Wendy's dad's place, enjoying the company and the relaxation—even Wendy only went shopping about four times! She also attended a bridal shower and further consulted with Tamara on wedding cake design, as she is planning to do the cake for her wedding (scheduled for May 12th). We plan to head back east on Sunday afternoon, driving as far as Kenora to stay with Eric, Erica and the boys on Sunday night. Then, we plan to complete the trip on Monday.

We have enjoyed frequent phone conversations with Erin while we're away. She is having an adventurous week as well!

And that's the kind of week it's been in the Canadian mid-west!

Saturday, February 17

News Update

Another week draws to an end here on Lake Superior. It has been a very hectic week as I spent Monday and Tuesday completing my preparations for the conference and then Wednesday through Friday working the conference. I was involved in two full days of presentations, and with set up of a wireless computer lab for each session, I was ready for sleep each night! However, the conference went well, so I ended with a good feeling of accomplishment. Then, I've been pushing three schools to get their data reports in to the government so we can qualify for some extra funding in the form of an end-of-the-fiscal-year 'money bomb' from Toronto. These are required by next Tuesday, and we're getting close in all three schools.

I finished my series of antibiotics on Friday, so I'll be going for lab work on Monday. Then, we'll wait for the results.

We got some sad news on Saturday evening with a call from Regina that Uncle Wilf had passed away. We haven't heard of memorial arrangements yet, but expect to head west early in the coming week.

Kristian continues to develop and is becoming a climbing menace. He gets up on anything and everything, so we've had to push the chairs in close to the table so he can't get up there—or so we thought! Today, he pulled his little stool over and climbed up on the table without the use of the chairs! Erin thinks he is challenging her authority, but in reality we suspect he is just a little disturbed that she thinks she has some authority.

Saturday, February 10

News Update

Another frozen week draws to an end on Lake Superior. This week I spent Monday through Wednesday up in Armstrong working with my school there. Then I returned to work on issues around TBay on Thursday and Friday.

On the health front, I'm currently doing a round of Norfloxacin on instructions from my urologist. Interestingly, my doctor instructed me not to eat two hours before or four hours after taking my pill. As I consider that six-hour window, I'm thinking this may not be an antibiotic, but rather a placebo being prescribed as a diet plan! Anyway, the plan is that after two weeks of this, I will get some more lab work and see how my PSA is doing. The urologist suggests that the elevated levels could be due to an infection, and the Norfloxacin is supposed to clear up that possibility.

The temperatures have been decidedly wintry lately, but we still have little snow.

Saturday, February 3

News Update

This week provided an early start to work as I set out Sunday afternoon for Hornepayne. It's a five-hour drive there, the first four are east along the lake, then I turn north at White River, the home of Winnie-the-Pooh. It's startling to drive along through the wintry countryside and see the expanses of water on Lake Superior lapping up on the shore, however, the temperatures drop as I head away from the lake and it's very cold in Hornepayne. I'm back to TBay on Tuesday night, and I'm off to Nakina and Caramat on Wednesday morning. I complete that swing by Friday afternoon, so I'm back home for the weekend.

All seems to be well with the rest of the family. They've been working through their usual routines as well. Erin is fully engaged in her classes again. Kristian is fully engaged in everything, and has picked up new tricks of climbing and jumping! (To the consternation of his mother and grandmother!) I haven't seen anything of Trav & Sylvia since Sunday, but I understand life is going on. I wonder how heating bills are working out in their house. We're doing okay on the heating side, but running over on the electrical costs.

Have a good week!

Friday, February 2

Lake Effect

Recently I have been travelling to several remote schools. I have occasionally made comments on the frigid temperatures I experience there. Some may think that's what our family is experiencing this winter, but don't be fooled! We are enjoying the benefits that accrue from living on the shore of that most Superior of Great Lakes! Let me illuminate my comment with two experiences...

On Wednesday, I headed out to Nakina to visit one of my schools. When I left Thunder Bay that morning the thermometer registered -16 (and not those piddly little Fahrenheit degrees either; these are the real McCoy, Celsius degrees!). As I travelled east and then north to Nakina, the thermometer descended to -31. Now there are several mitigating factors at play and all of them contribute to the more abusive temperatures. The climatic factors involved included heading north about 200 km, climbing in elevation (I don't know how much, but we cross the continental divide shortly before we get there, i.e. all water up there flows north into the Arctic Ocean by way of Hudson Bay.), and finally, I was separating myself from Lake Superior by that same 200 km.

Then on Friday, it was time to head home. I awakened up there to a frigid -37 degrees. My rental SUV started well enough, but the tires had flat spots ("They were square!" Yellowknifers would say. I remember square tires frequently up there in the winter, and I remember the small-rimmed vehicles would suffer frequent flats unless you put tubes in the tires. I wonder what happens to some of the new cars that have the large rims, but very low profile tires.). My tires clunked along for a bit, but in less than a kilometre they had softened and were running fine. And as I headed south, and down, and toward the lake, the temperature climbed until it was up to -19 by the time I got to TBay.

So that's what we describe as lake effect, the beneficial moderation of the winter cold (and the summer heat, too, if you must know!). And we appreciate it, although we still find winter plenty cold enough, thank you!