Prostate Biopsy

This morning I was subjected to a biopsy of my prostate gland. It has been acting up for some years, providing higher than appropriate levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA) that seems to have no other function than informing oncologists that it's time to perform more DRE's or a biopsy. Now, while the prospect of a biopsy may be considered yucky, it pales in comparison to the actual experience! Dr. Prowse (shudda been Sterns, as I mentioned before) was remarkably general when he described the procedure. The 'wet room' nurse is much more forthcoming...
"Dr. Prowse will be inserting a probe. It will be stiff like this pen, only larger (As in the Titanic was larger than my canoe.) and it will provide ultrasound imaging. You need to relax; tensing up will only make it more difficult. (Okay, I'll cooperate. Do I get time off for good behaviour?) Then, he'll be inserting a smaller probe to take the six biopsy samples..."
"Six! Dr. Prowse only said four!"
"There will be six. He will fire the trigger and..."
"Fire a trigger! Am I getting shot?"
"Well, actually it will carve a small slice off the prostate. And it will sting a bit. Then you may feel nauseous or like you need to urinate or defecate. Don't worry, we're used to it. That's why this is called the 'wet room'. Then he will finish you off by giving you a needle (Did she just say he would finish me off?) with additional antibiotics—just a little boost to those pills you've been taking all week. And you will experience some blood in the urine for the next few days—nothing to be alarmed about—but if you fill the bowl with blood, better come back in. (She says it so matter-of-factly even I have difficulty feeling alarmed.) You will also have blood in the stool for a couple of days and in the ejaculate for up to six weeks. (Wonderful, now isn't that a turn-on!) And if you experience any feeling of lousiness or fever in the next few days, better come back in. (Okay, I'm officially feeling lousy—should I stay?) Oh, and by the way, here's an absorbent pad for you to wear in your underwear." (Now who would ever accept that kind of inconvenient embarrassment?!)

And that's about how it happened... results in three to four weeks.

Where the Poor People Are...

This week I drove up to Armstrong and flew into Collins. The drive was punctuated by sightings of a number of animals. We started off Monday morning with a pair of white-tails on the road. As they bounded through the ditch and into the bush, we were treated to a pair of white flags jauntily waving us good-bye. Another special treat was finding a bear with her three cubs in the highway ditch. The sow was brown, and she had one cub of each colour—black, brown & cinnamon. We sat there for some minutes watching her chase the cubs up a tree, then return to grubbing out a fallen tree. Soon the cubs returned to her and we enjoyed watching them from about ten metres. (I hope the pictures turn out.) Overall, we saw two deer, four moose and ten bears. The other fellows also caught over a dozen lake trout (about five-six pounds each), and I appreciated being given two of the tasty treats.

As we drove home I commented to my fellow travellers, "The poor people are sitting in an office tower in Toronto—you can't buy an experience like this!"

News Update

We start off the week in Dauphin, then gradually wend our way back to the shore of Lake Superior.

Sunday in Dauphin is an opportunity to refresh a lot of relationships. Thank you, Mabel for hosting us so graciously. On Monday, we pack up our dozen frozen chickens and head east. We stop in at the snake pits in Narcisse, a first for me. There are thousands of garter snakes at one of the four dens, just a few active at the others. We arrive at Kenora in time for supper with Eric/A and crew. We complete the trip to Thunder Bay on Tuesday.

Wednesday morning is used for another Acrobat Connect training session, and then I complete my preparations for a trip to Pickle Lake. Thursday and Friday find me in Pickle Lake working with one of our schools there. There is a lot to be done, but we manage to get some of it accomplished.

Saturday is spent around home. I get the lawn mowed, and practise a bit of golf. I work in the back yard in the afternoon, managing to get all the wood chips hauled around to the back of the house. Then Wendy and I check out George's work on his new project, and spend some time assisting with that.

Wendy has enjoyed the trip west a great deal, and now is trying to get caught up on things back at home. She manages to work in a few trips to the gym between getting the house back in order and the laundry done.

Erin is back in the run of babysitting and classes. She also spends a lot of time getting photos organized and posted in Facebook. Kristian babbles on (unintelligibly most of the time) and gets involved in most everything that interests him and concerns us!

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

News Update

We spend most of the week in Regina, until finally heading for Dauphin on Saturday morning in the rain. We enjoy getting a number of items cleared from the 'to do' list at DadK's place. I get the lawn mowed, the shower fan replaced, and the cedars trimmed. Wendy gets the windows washed, the recycling... ah recycled, and the bedding plants... um bedded. And she also manages to shop for Bill & grandpa.

I also get to play with the '67 Cougar all week. And I manage to get out to the golf course most days for a couple hours of practice. I'm trying to straighten out my driver... you'd think they would sell those things properly configured!

On Monday we drove the Cougar over to Moose Jaw to visit with Aunt Mary, Cousin Elvin and Grace—that was a warming occasion.

When we get to Dauphin, my golfing friends immediately demand that I go golfing, so I have to oblige them! I find my driver is now working very well indeed, but the rest of my game has gone south!! I end up with 94, and a lot more on my 'to correct' list! I am pulling and occasionally hooking my irons—usually the better part of my game. Fortunately, my short game is pretty good, or I'd have seen the dark side of 100! Anyway, I've never let the quality of my golf determine the level of my enjoyment, so it was a nice way to end the week.

Making Time Flying

I had two connections on Saturday morning of the sort the old joke was made from. I took off from Thunder Bay at 6:00 and arrived in Winnipeg at 6:15. Then I took off from Winnipeg at 9:10 and landed in Regina at 9:12. So, I’ve decided to retell the old joke in that context…

An old feller wandered into the Winnipeg airport and up to the Air Canada ticket counter. “Say, do you have any flights to Regina?” the old feller asks.
“Yes, we do,” the helpful attendant responded, “In fact, our next flight leaves here at 9:10 and lands in Regina at 9:12.” The old feller raised an eyebrow and seemed lost in thought. “Do you want me to check if there are any seats left?” the attendant inquired.
The old feller shook his head slowly and then offered, “No, but I think I might hang around a bit and watch that sucker take off!”

News Update

Another week that began on the shore of Lake Superior has ended on the shore of Lake Wascana! A week that started hectic also ended that way, but there were some moments of peace and calm in between.

Wendy worked through the night on Sunday and finished all preparatory work on the cakes on Monday afternoon. Then I commenced building accommodations for all the cakes in the three coolers. So Wendy, Erin & Kristian headed west Tuesday morning at 10:00 and arrived in Regina by midnight.

Hay fever has struck, so I spent most of Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon sleeping. Our conference started Wednesday morning and I attended a workshop on Wednesday morning on Adobe Acrobat. I had a regional Professional Network meeting all day on Thursday, and then Friday morning I had a presentation at the conference. Travis picked me up Saturday morning at 4:45, and by 6:00 I was boarding my first flight on my way to Regina. I got into Regina at 9:14, made the quick change and made it to the wedding at 10:30. The reception was in the afternoon, and extended well into the evening. It was a fine day and a beautiful wedding between two truly beautiful young people. I got to catch up with lots of people in both the Knutson and Tucker families. By that time I was pretty tired (having been up since 2:30am Regina time), and was glad to head early to bed. Unfortunately, I am unable to make connection with the rest of my siblings who are gathering in Dallas to celebrate my nephew’s graduation.

And that’s the kind of week it has been.

News Update

Another week draws to a close on the shore of Lake Superior.

I'm working out of the home office and in the backyard and on the home course! George and I get finished clearing trees from the yard; all told, we cut ten big ones and hundreds of willows. I have a tree chipper scheduled for Monday to clean up the branches, and we have many coming by to pick up firewood from our extensive collection. I'm back to the lab at the hospital on Thursday for more tests. I suspect my urologist now has the results, but I don't know if I'll hear about them before my biopsy, now scheduled for May 31st.

Wendy operated her day care section all week. She has several children each day, but seems to enjoy it all the same. She has begun work on the wedding cake, so by mid-week we were completely without dinner plates! (Each of them holding a section of cake in the freezer!) However, she has now begun assembling the cake, so our plates are returning. She, along with Erin & Kristian expect to head for Regina early next week.

Erin has finished exams and enjoys getting out more with Kristian. She's doing more babysitting, so she's not around much during the day. Kristian continues to amuse us with his antics and smile.

Trav & Sylvia keep busy with their work. Trav is working full-time now that school's out. We are waiting and hoping on Sylvia's job progress.

Eric & Erica are off to Niagara Falls this week so we have the boys with us. Erica has a conference there with her work, and they take the chance to enjoy the falls and visit friends in the area.

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

News Update

Another week draws to a close on the shore of Lake Superior. I'm done travelling for a while, and the weather is beautiful so I spend time on golfing and yard work. Neither is problem free as my swing has not improved over the winter, and yard work proves hazardous as well. I manage to get a fair amount of clean up done in the yard, but we have a big problem on Thursday as a falling tree contacts the power line, causing a fire, and eventually burning through the line. Golf season has opened on local courses so I try to get my game back in action if not form. I visit my urologist on Tuesday, but the results are inconclusive, so I face more testing in the next month or so.

Wendy continues to operate as a day care this week. She has several children each day, but seems to enjoy it all the same. She plans another week of this yet. Then it will be time for her to head for Regina and Tamara's wedding.

Erin has finished exams and enjoys getting out more with Kristian. He really enjoys the outdoors. And he is chattering up a storm although we don't know what language he is using!

Trav has begun his summer work schedule, and is also looking at some additional contracts. Sylvia is applying on a promotion within her same area of work. We wish her well.

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

Falling Trees

Springtime, and old men's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of yard work. Thus this spring finds me looking to clean about ten large trees out of the back yard. And by large I mean fifty footers! These are native spruce, balsam and other evergreens that simply do not make a good fit in a city back yard. We've had three of these monsters already fall, the most recent being last year as it crashed across our fence and across the neighbour's yard. They encourage us to find a way to eliminate the others.

So, my friend, George, and I begin the process. George is the man with the chainsaw. I used to have a chainsaw, but someone decided he needed it more than I, so I no longer have one. We find that taking down, trimming and cutting up two trees is a full day's work. We line each up carefully, use a ladder to attach a rope, and then he cuts while I pull. All goes well for a while, but then disaster strikes! As we are dropping a large spruce, it catches on a pine that refuses to let go. We begin trimming off the bottom trying to get it to fall back into the yard, but the pine irrevocably turns it away, and after a couple of cuts the tree contacts the power lines and fire breaks out.

We call the fire department and the hydro company, and retire to watch them retrieve our fat from the fire! The line eventually burns through and falls spectacularly onto the ground creating another fire in the ground cover. Over all our electricity is off for about five hours, although a much larger section of the city loses electricity only for a few minutes until switching bypasses the trouble.

Travis calls in the evening to ask how the tree falling is going. He has seen an item on the evening news about the power outage. And the morning paper finds us on the front page! We're famous! And very fortunate that there was no serious damage to either of us.

PSA, DRE, ETC

This morning I had a delight-filled half hour with my urologist, Dr. Prowse (Dr. Sterns might be a more seemly moniker!). Despite his information-gathering DRE, he emerged with a solidly inconclusive prognosis. Therefore, he has assigned me another PSA test (with more provisos and specialization ordered), and a urinalysis. Presumably I won't have to study to pass either of these. In addition he has ordered a biopsy of my prostate—"just four little nips"—as he described it in some uncomfortable detail. This will be preceded (and followed) by a course of antibiotics to ensure that no infections develop. As I've thought about his description of this wonderful event (now scheduled for May 31st), I've become more than a little concerned about just how these "little nips" are going to be accomplished!

Thus, some time later, we will get some further data, and Dr. Butts, err... Prowse will come to some conclusions about the probable causes of my elevated PSA. In this regard, I live without anticipation, but with hope!

News Update

Another week draws to a close on the shore of Lake Superior. This was my final week of travelling for a while, and I'm glad of that. I just feel exhausted. So a few weeks closer to home with yard work and golf should put be therapeutic ('bring me around' or 'put me to rights' as the English might say). The weather is beautiful, the covers are off the greens and the fairways are drying up.

This week I was off through Upsala on Monday and on to Savant Lake for Monday night. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Savant Lake, and then began the way back, spending Wednesday night in Ignace. Then we worked Upsala again on Thursday before completing the trip on Thursday evening. A bit of office work (even filing) on Friday completed the work week. Today, we're out a Gord & Nora's for a day of work on the Strategic Plan update for the church. This is the first update since we made the plan a year and a half ago, so there's more than usual to work through. It goes quite well.

Wendy has been operating a segment of Karen's day care all week. She has up to five children on any given day, but reports that she enjoys the work just fine.

Erin has been writing exams and finished that on Friday. She is glad to be through that. Kristian loves the out doors and becomes anxious when he notices any one getting ready to go outside.

Trav & Sylvia are also through exams, with Trav writing his last one today. He begins work on expanded summer hours on Monday.

I am off to see my urologist on Tuesday morning...

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

News Update

We're back into Spring here on the shore of Lake Superior. Once again, the snow has disappeared and golfers' hearts anticipate the joy (as opposed to the actual frustrating experience) of that first round!

Easter Monday is a holiday here, so I begin my road trip on Tuesday. We go out to Atikokan and Mine Centre this week. I am currently concentrating on installing Library automation programs, while concurrently continuing to work on any problems in the Student Management System (SMS). As usual, OnSIS (the Ministry reporting system) continues to confuddle and befuse our best efforts. I don't know who is responsible for building the OnSIS database, but they are doing a bad job! This week we are trying, in both schools, to send batch files of data to update the ministry on our new students as well as any changes in programming for our continuing students. Imagine our dismay when all updates are rejected because "a record already exists" for that student! The issue remains outstanding; clearly, nothing that basic can be overcome easily! More success is achieved in the library installations, and both schools are ready to roll with library automation. We are able to send in the old library records and have them converted into the new system, so that helps a great deal. More work is still needed on the set up for OPAC (online searching) in the new system.

Wendy has been running a daycare most of the week to assist with our friends who operate the daycare, but needed some assistance. I think she has decided that it wouldn't be her first choice of occupation!

Erin has been busy completing her set of courses as the term runs out. She should complete all exams in the coming week. Trav writes his last exam a week from today.

Kristian enjoys getting out on his tricycle and riding the roads. He also enjoys just walking/running outside whenever he gets a chance. Inside, he prefers climbing, and will haul access gear (stools, chairs, boxes) around to assist his climbs onto cupboards, pianos, bureaus... what a rascal!

An Apple a Day!

I haven't eaten an apple in about twenty-two years. That dates back to when I had mycoplasmic pneumonia and many food allergies developed. I remember that month, but not fondly! I only made it to school for one and a half days for the month of June that year. And later I found out that one of the side effects from either the mycoplasma or the e-mycin (antibiotic) was a range of allergies to a sweet protein found in may kinds of fruit. I have also experienced seasonal hay fever since then. It was very distressing to discover that I couldn't eat apples, pears, peaches... and one of my greatest chagrins was when I discovered that I couldn't eat Saskatoons!

Well, my doctor in Yellowknife advised that I should try a series of injections to build up my tolerance for the allergens that were causing my hay fever due to my susceptibility to developing pneumonia. That worked pretty well as long as we lived in Yellowknife, and now I've decided to give it another try. I got my allergy tests a week ago, and now I'm considering whether to begin another series of needles, but a side benefit was some startling advice from my allergy doctor. When he took my story and saw my results, he suggested that I was probably experiencing problems with certain fresh fruit. I assured him that this was the case. I was surprised to hear his promise that he might be able to help me! He suggested that if I wanted to eat an apple, I should microwave it for possibly as long as a minute and then return it to the fridge. When it had cooled I could try to eat it! I'm still testing to get it just right without producing soft spots, but I have been able to eat apples again! What a pleasure!

News Update

And another pretty spectacular week draws to a close here on the shore of Lake Superior. We started off the week in springtime with April showers falling on our heads, and end the week in the grips of winter!! It seems that since we had a green Christmas, we are now forced to suffer a white Easter!

I head out to Red Lake on Monday morning, and by the time Tuesday evening comes around we are in a blizzard. Our flight back to Thunder Bay is cancelled, so we stay one extra day in Red Lake. We finally make it back Wednesday evening. Of course this messes up the rest of our weekly travel schedule, so that is postponed and will need to be rescheduled much later. We continue to have travel plans for the next two weeks, and then we'll see how other events tie in.

Since I am back in the office for Thursday, I manage to complete my financial report on year two and send that out for signatures. I still have to complete two other progress reports on the MISA program. Then I will need to build a set of proposals for year three, which has, in fact, already begun!

The driveway is full of heavy, wet snow when I get home Wednesday evening, so that requires a long day of shovelling, scraping and chipping on Thursday. Wendy and I are both pretty exhausted from the effort. Kristian loves playing in all the snow for over an hour while grandma shovells. The sun cleans off the remnants of the driveway, but I expect the lawn will take another week to clear.

Erin, Travis & Sylvia are completing a term of classes with final assignments and exams due. Travis & Sylvia are also highly involved in preparing multimedia presentations for Good Friday and Easter services.

And that's the kind of week it's been. Happy Easter! He's alive!

News Update

Another week has passed here on the shore of Lake Superior. We started off with excellent weather (+20, sunny) and ran down hill all week! Here we are on Saturday about +5 and rainy. April showers shouldn't be allowed to start until tomorrow!

I have been working around the home office this week; I get back on the road next week. I get a bit more work done on the renovations downstairs. I get the new screen and projector installed at the church. I get finalization on the project budget in time for the government fiscal year end. I finally manage to get settled on a appointment with my urologist. He has another clinic elsewhere for about a week every month, so with my travelling, it hasn't been easy to make the connection. However, we now have a date of April 24th. I have an appointment on Friday with an allergy doctor. He recommends getting a series of needles to try to alleviate my seasonal hay fever. I'll make a decision on that this coming week.

Wendy is busy with her startup on the church finances, having budget meetings, and getting her operational protocols in order.

Erin is completing another term of work on her courses, so spends some extra time on assignments and exams. Kristian has a sick day, throwing up spontaneously from time to time, but mostly carrying on as if nothing is the matter. He'll just be playing along, stop to throw up, and then continue playing. The only telling characteristic of his illness appears to be his loss of appetite.

Travis & Sylvia are also completing a semester of work and classes. Trav is looking toward his summer work and is also doing more website work on the side. They are over for supper one evening—we're all just too busy, I guess.

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

News Update

We've had a strange week of weather here on the shore of Lake Superior. We started off the week with a snow storm that interrupted the homeward trip of Eric and the boys to Kenora. Then that melted off and by this weekend we're back in the teens and the snow is but a memory.

Erica stayed with us for the first few days of the week as she tried to complete some business here in TBay after celebrating her birthday on Sunday. However, all did not go well. Apparently some bug is making the rounds, and after celebrating with Trav & Syl Sunday evening, they got sick and then on Tuesday Erica was sick. Wendy came down with it on Wednesday and I did on Thursday. I didn't get the full double-edged force of the bug, so I was still able to head to TO for Thursday and Friday.

Our MISA meeting was okay, although I was a little under the weather. There has started to be talk of a fourth year of MISA, so that was interesting.

Erin & Kristian managed to escape the flu bug, and continue to recover from coughs. Kristian is doing well, and moved up to a tricycle this weekend; he really enjoys it. We enjoy watching him.

And that's the kind of week we've had here in TBay.

News Update

Another week sails by here on Lake Superior. The weather is stunningly beautiful and warm at the start of the week and our snow melts away. Then colder weather descends for a couple of days, and finally the week ends at expected temperatures around melting.

The schools are closed this week, so I take care of a little business around the home office and do a little bit of renovation downstairs here in the house. I am redoing the closets in the large bedroom downstairs to make the room more useful. I also add an electric baseboard heater to the room along with its own thermostat. There is always much more time needed for finishing on any project like this, so it moves forward slowly. I'm off to Toronto next week, but I hope to get some of the drywalling done as time permits.

Eric, Erica and the boys arrive Thursday evening for the weekend. We celebrate Erica's birthday on Saturday evening. She will be thirty-three tomorrow! I am reminded of my last visit with mom on this day thirty-three years ago.

Kristian has recovered from his cold and is a going concern once again. Erin gradually improves throughout the week and is pretty much over the coughing now.

Wendy has kept busy with both Mary Kay and Party-Lite, and is also applying for other jobs.

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

The Brier

The men's curling championship of Canada ends today with Glen Howard and his Ontario team defeating Brad Gushue and his Newfoundland team. It's been a fun week of curling, although the ice conditions have not been good.

My guy, Kevin Martin, lost in the first round of the playoffs, but I was impressed with the new team he has put together—three new players and they managed to win Alberta and tie for second at the Brier. Jeff Stoughton of Manitoba has also rebuilt his team with two new players, and was similarly successful. In fact, it seems likely that but for two poor strategy decisions he could have been in the final against Gushue. Then there is my sentimental favourites from Saskatchewan, Pat Simmons and his team. They also achieved a good result, but ended up one game short of the playoffs. The Territories team from Yellowknife also did well, ending up with a winning record of 6-5, but were two games out of the playoffs.

All competitive teams are pointing toward the Olympics in 2010 where Canada will be a strong favourite to repeat as Gold Medalists.

News Update

It looks like winter came and went last weekend, and now spring is here. We are experiencing above zero temperatures each day, and the snow is disappearing. Daylight saving time comes tonight; it's time to dust off the golf clubs!

I work around the home office the first couple of days, and then I head up to Armstrong on Wednesday. I'm working on the library program and the report card program with the student management system. That all goes well. The library tech is particularly amusing—she's been doing circulation by recording (longhand) all transactions for the students. She is just tickled with this 'scan the kid's barcode, scan the book barcode, next...' process. We drive back to TBay on Thursday afternoon. On Friday, I have a meeting with the Supervisory Officers. That also goes well as they approve the spending plans.

Friday brings a special day as we celebrate Wendy's birthday. She is once again a year older than I—and I don't let her forget it! It seems to make her look forward to my birthday in July! We go out with Erin & Kristian and Travis & Sylvia for Chinese food. It's very good! Then we retire to the house for ice cream cake—also very good!

Erin has the week off babysitting and is catching up on homework. Kristian is getting over his cold, having passed it along to his mother!

I have completed my course of antibiotics and had more blood work done. My PSA level is still elevated, so I'm headed for a highly anticipated appointment with my urologist! We'll see what he has next on my agenda.

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

News Update

We start off the week by heading east on Sunday afternoon. As we leave Regina it is starting to snow, and soon we are in a full-fledged winter storm that has the highway heavy in drifted snow and many vehicles in the ditches. By the time we get to Winnipeg it is improving so we carry on to Kenora and spend the night there with Eric and the boys (Erica is off to Toronto for a conference.). And the week ends with our most significant snowfall of the winter, so finds us busily engaged in shovelling snow today!

I get some good news on Tuesday as the Ministry confirms that we qualify for the full bonus funding for having 100% completion on OnSIS reporting. Now I need to work with the schools to find a way to spend the additional 25% to the annual budget. They start off by giving me 13% extra, so that's nice! Now I have to decide if that should include a new laptop or golf membership, or both!!

I take a five-hour drive to Hornepayne (one of my schools) on Wednesday afternoon and spend Thursday and Friday working there before driving home in a snowstorm on Friday afternoon.

Erin is doing fine, babysitting and working on her courses. She's particularly enjoying one on taxation this term! Kristian is suffering with a cold and thus is not sleeping well. He still seems quite energetic every day! His mother—slightly less so!

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

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!

Benefits

Last week I enjoyed some unexpected benefits in my work and political connections!

Related to my work I flew up to Pickle Lake to work at our school there and enjoy lots of large, negative degrees--thirty-six of those Celsius degrees, and all of them below zero. As I got ready to leave, I connected with two others who were visiting the school on behalf of the ministry of Education and allowed them to pay for our cab to the airport. Unfortunately, they spend too much time in Toronto, so we arrived at the airport with ninety minutes to go, whereas in these small towns, fifteen minutes would have been more than sufficient.

As the taxi drove up into the service area, we amazed at how our security-sensitive types would blanch at the free access to all the planes. We saw a plane being readied for flight, and we hoped it would be ours, however, we were informed that it was a charter for the local Member of Parliament who was holding a town-hall in Pickle Lake that night. We trudged off the tarmac, carrying our bags into the terminal, and sat down to wait. In due time we heard the familiar drone of an airplane, and enjoyed the comment from the ticket seller/freight agent/airport manager/check-in clerk that our plane was early. Unfortunately, as we were to learn, it had lost some of its freight in flight--the front wheel! However, they landed without too much incident, but in short order the pilot wandered into our waiting room to inform us that the "plane had taken on a delay"! And while we tried to imagine what that might mean, he clarified that "it had gone mechanical"! What he meant was that due to the missing wheel, he had pondered and concluded that he didn't wish to try to take off! While we agreed with him, we also expressed our considerable interest in getting out of town.

Eventually the pilot returned to inform us that we were taking the MP's plane! Rarely do we enjoy such benefits from our politicians! But we enjoyed our release from the icy confines of Pickle Lake.

News Update

Greetings!

And I'm in the air this week. I fly up to Red Lake on Monday morning and spend two days there. The flight is cancelled first thing Monday morning, so I am delayed and don't get into Red Lake until after lunch. However, we make good progress there and get Maplewood installed and the web portal operational. I get back into TBay about 11pm Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday morning I'm off to Pickle Lake. This time the flights come off as scheduled and I get to enjoy -32 weather. The next morning it's -36, so that's even more enjoyable! There is a lot of work to do in the school there, and by the time I leave there is still a lot to be done. I will try to get back there again before the end of February. I have strained or in some way aggravated my right shoulder somewhere along the line. Erin gives me a treatment, and I hope it will come around over the weekend.

On Friday, I work in my office and catch up on some paperwork and even a little filing!

Eric/A and the boys arrive here on Friday. Erica on her way back from a conference for Superintendents of Business (yep, they're officially SOB's!) and Directors of Education in Toronto. Eric and the boys drive down from Kenora.

On Saturday we celebrate the birthdays of Haaken and Liam. They will be ten and seven in early February. A large crowd of children and not a few parents assemble to celebrate with the boys and visit with their parents. It's a busy, noisy time.

Erin got her marks back from last term: 87, 95 & 99 — will definitely have to work harder next term!!

Trav is developing his office and carrying on with classes. Sylvia is back in better health. Wendy has mostly stopped coughing. Life is good!

I Think I Have AAADD

I wish I could claim credit for the following discourse; and perhaps I can! If I didn't write it, I should have as I am beginning to resemble the symptoms. Anyway, I have to thank my brother, Jim, for sending it (back) to me; at least that's how I remember it happening. ;-)

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

This is how it manifests:
I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide my car needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full. So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my cheque book off the table, and see that there is only one cheque left. My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Pepsi that I had been drinking. I'm going to look for my cheques, but first I need to push the Pepsi aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I realize the Pepsi is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the fridge to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye—they need to be watered. I set the Pepsi down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

• the driveway is flooded
• the car isn't washed,
• the bills aren't paid,
• there is a warm can of Pepsi sitting on the counter,
• there is still only one cheque in my cheque book,
• I can't find the remote,
• I can't find my glasses,
• and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail. Do me a favour, will you? Forward this message to everyone you know, because I don't remember who I have sent it to.

Don't laugh—if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!

News Update

I'm back on the road this week, driving out to Atikokan and Mine Centre. I am working to install the SMS (Student Management System) at each school. We are using Maplewood, a program I gained some familiarity with while working at Western in Dauphin for five years. The installations go well, and by Friday, I have both schools running and I head back to Thunder Bay. Snow has arrived and the temperatures have plunged to -20 degrees, so it finally feels like winter.

Trav is back to his classes at Lakehead University. He's doing an Honours Bachelor of Commerce and is completing his third year this semester. Sylvia is back to work at the University, but she has not been well this week, so while she's been at work, she hasn't been enjoying it! Trav got a new/old job, as he was hired back to work at the Centre of Excellence at the University. He worked there previously during his second year classes.

Wendy is keeping busy with Partylite as well as her usual housekeeping/cleaning/vacuuming activities! She has also taken on the task of treasurer at church.

Kristian had another doctor's appointment this week. They are still concerned over his lack of weight—not from my side of the family! However, we recall the same issues with Erin when she was an infant—yep, it's from her side of the family! Erin is back into her accounting classes at Confederation College. She is doing well in those.

What Does He Expect Us to Think?

Long prevented (due to computer failure) from commentary over the activity of Dubya (or Dumbya as he's known in some places), I have recently been biting my tongue. I was hopeful in my earlier piece (How He Got US Stuck in Iraq), and even more so as the Iraq Study Group produced and proclaimed their advice. However, recent events have pushed me over the edge, and I write again...

What does he expect us to think? And, since I suppose it would raise differing conclusions within the country, what does he expect US to think? I offer the following reasoned conclusions in response to his recent activities:

1. Democracy is for other countries. I heard what the people said in November, and I hear what Congress and the Senate are saying now, but it's only in other countries that I expect leaders to respond to the wishes of the people. [Thus he is recorded to say (with regard to the Congress) on 60 Minutes, to be aired on Sunday, "Now I fully understand they will," Bush continued, "they could try to stop me from doing it, but, uh, I've made my decision and we're going forward."]
   
2. Iraq is sovereign, but not from me. I will decide when an embassy is an embassy. Iraq cannot set up an embassy for Iran without my permission. So I will invade Iran's embassy and capture their diplomats if I choose.
   
3. I am a peaceful leader and I'm quite willing to use my military to prove it.
   
4. Diplomacy means talking to my friends, and when my friends don't agree with me, they're no longer my friends. I refuse to even consider talking with Iran, Syria or the variety of militias within Iraq. "If they will agree to everything I want them to agree to, then I am willing to talk about their agreement." [yeah, but it's a pretty accurate paraphrase]
   
5. Our military might can exert our will over the whole world. If 130,000 troops don't change your mind, I'll send in an extry 21,500. There! Are you convinced yet?! Never mind that we tried to do this job earlier with 150,000 troops, this surge will get us over the 150,000 threshold and the militias will be overwhelmed!
   
6. I don't care that the escalation will result in more casualties among our young men and women. Even though I promised no 'door to door' fighting, I'm now ordering 'door to door' fighting. Even though I promised our soldiers would never be under the orders of foreign leadership, I'm now putting them under the orders of Iraqi leadership.
   
7. Another seven billion dollars of taxpayer money means nothing to me. We've already wasted 500 billion on this misguided war so what's another seven? Besides, we're broke, so I'm only borrowing it from China.

US Senator, John McCain, comments concerning the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, "One of the most frustrating things that's ever happened in my political life is watching this train wreck."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/

2007/01/12/AR2007011202220.html

We concur. It is a sad, sad time for us, and for the US. The Iraq Study Group provided some viable options, but Dubya has refused them. America was designed and developed to be the hope of the downtrodden of the world, and it has often operated as such. Under its current administration it is a mortal menace to both the downtrodden and to us and to US.

News Update

What! Another week already gone? Impossible... how time flies... and I wasn't even having fun!

We got back to Thunder Bay in time for New Year's Eve, and got ready for Eric, Erica and the boys' arrival. Alas, they had problems... They were driving back from the left coast, and when they got to the Ontario border, they were detained. Ontario was closed! It wasn't that we've had enough of our own problems and aren't taking any more immigrants... it was a storm. The trans-Canada was impassible. So they turned around and headed back, hoping to stay in the first town or motel they came to. Alas, they were again stopped. Manitoba was now closed as well! So they sat there at the border all night. Well, that's not exactly the case either; they found they needed to drive around to warm up the car, so, from time to time, they did so—to the bemusement of their fellow strandees.

Finally they were able to drive west in the morning, and even later able to continue their trip east. They went as far as their home in Kenora, only about 45 minutes from the border, and spent the next night there. Anyway, they finally got here the next day, and we've enjoyed having them here all week. They have now headed back as the boys are back to school tomorrow, and Erica is back to work.

For ourselves, we've been also getting back to work. Wendy works as a representative for Party-lite (a candle marketing concern), and I'm back working on my MISA project. I set up school visitations for the next six weeks. Then I got a disturbing call from our doctor—apparently my PSA level is too high, so she was wanting me to get some additional testing done. I was into the lab on Friday to donate more blood, so I expect some reports back later in the week.

Erin and Kristian are progressing fine. Erin has been working to schedule more of her classes, and also babysits two days a week.

News Update

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël!
Happy New Year! Bonne et Heureuse Année
Feliz Navidad! Prospero Ano Nuevo!
Glaedelig Jul! and apparently for Danes, every day is happy!

We enjoyed a multitude of Christmas celebrations this year with sumptuous meals at Trav & Sylvia's in TBay, at Rich & Sue's in Emerald Park and at Tom & Mariette's in Winnipeg. And while staying with Wendy's dad, we enjoyed the regular three-squares and not a few tarts and other Christmas baking! As a result we finally got back to TBay toting some unwelcome additional baggage! However, I have new skates and Wendy has her gym membership—New Year's resolutions beckon! We drove out to Regina on the 18th and 19th, and we returned on the 28th & 29th. The trips went well; we enjoyed spending time with loved ones along the ways, and it's good to be home. We drove down to Gravelbourg on the 27th to help Ruby celebrate her 75th birthday; we were able to greet many friends, relatives and acquaintances there. On the way back to Regina, we enjoyed a chance to visit with Aunt Mary in Moose Jaw. We plan a New Year's eve celebration this evening, and we look forward to each new year and day!

We wish you a great New Year, with good health and meaningful activities!

The Holiday Season

We enjoyed a multitude of Christmas celebrations this year with sumptuous meals at Trav & Sylvia's in TBay, at Rich & Sue's in Emerald Park and at Tom & Mariette's in Winnipeg. And while staying with Wendy's dad, we enjoyed the regular three-squares and not a few tarts and other Christmas baking! As a result we finally got back to TBay toting some unwelcome additional backage! However, I have new skates and Wendy has her gym membership—New Year's resolutions beckon! We drove out to Regina on the 18th and 19th, and we returned on the 28th & 29th. The trips went well; we enjoyed spending time with loved ones along the ways, and it's good to be home. We drove down to Gravelbourg on the 27th to help Ruby celebrate her 75th birthday; we were able to greet many friends, relatives and acquaintances there. On the way back to Regina, we enjoyed a chance to visit with Aunt Mary in Moose Jaw. We plan a New Year's eve celebration this evening, and we look forward to each new year and day!

We wish all readers a Happy New Year, with good health and meaningful activities!

Schemes, Dreams and... Rhymes

Dreams are dashed, and schemes have come to nothing. The best laid plans of mice and men... are about equal. And as I ponder and reflect on what could have been, and what could have been done differently... I am tempted to regret.

Like many others I sing Paul Anka's words,
"Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way."

I live life with a determination not to regret, but now, as often, I struggle in trying circumstances. I do not regret Zambia; I do not regret getting to know John. I lament his untimely passing, dreams unfulfilled, schemes unrealized. I wish I did not feel there was something more effective I could have done. I wanted... I want a better ending.

But for now I leave the closing thoughts to Joni Mitchell:
"Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say "I love you" right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way

But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost but something's gained
In living every day

I've looked at life from both sides now
From WIN and LOSE and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all."

Schemes & Dreams

Even more often these days (and nights) my thoughts are of John. I am guessing that anyone who spent very much 'quality time' with John came to learn of his dreams. The main one was to have a shop, a mechanical repair shop, of his own. This would variously be expected to appear 'when he retired' or 'some years from now'. I have always encouraged John in this dream.

John's mechanical work was an art form. The stereotypical Zambian mechanic can make anything run, and I also know some of those, but John did not fit that stereotype. He certainly could make anything run, and he was a constant amazement to me, but always his priority was to return it to standard. That meant he wanted it to be the way it was supposed to be. Running was not good enough—it had to be right! I remember one time when the alternator from someone's car had failed. John disassembled it, and using the little multimeter from Canadian Tire that I had given him, he proceeded to understand how the thing worked. Then he did some adjustments, reassembled it, and it worked! My Isuzu is a story all on its own. It had been driven without the benefit of coolant before it came into my possession. As a result, the engine had seized, and, presumably, been repaired. However, the repairs had not been accomplished, and I (read John) was left to deal with the results. He took the engine apart so many times and replaced so many head-gaskets that our friend Jack used to tease us, "Better throw away those bolts and install a zipper. It'll give you quicker access!" But John did not give up. Eventually, with new sleeves, new pistons, new rings (and way too many of my new dollars)... it was right, and by the final year of our time in Zambia, it was running very well indeed. Thanks, John.

I believed if John ever set up a mechanical repair shop, he would be a great success. The demand for mechanical repairs done well is unending. So, we would chat and dream. This past summer we pushed it further—we developed some schemes! The only filling station in Kalomo (a nearby town) had closed. The BP (British Petroleum) franchise was rescinded due to poor management on the part of the franchise holders. This created an opportunity, and John could see this as well as I. He had already discussed the possibilities with officials from BP, however, it did not look promising. BP was hoping to have someone take over the old filling station property from the owners and begin again. John understood how bitter such a transaction could be, and was unwilling to fight that battle. So, he traveled to Livingstone to discuss with another petroleum company the possibility of establishing a new franchise in Kalomo. He and I went to the town council and were successful in obtaining an assignment of an ideal plot of land for a new station. We began discussions with still another petroleum company in Lusaka. Our conversations, emails and letters continued into September and October. It was exciting to hear his excitement.

But now... schemes, dreams and John are gone.

Schemes

Zambians use 'schemes' differently from us. Perhaps it is like many words where they have learned a more British denotation. There are British words that they use in Zambia while we tend not to use them at all—like 'lorry'. However, during our schooling we may have learned such words and therefore we know what they mean when they say 'lorry'. Such words rarely cause a failure in communication. 'Schemes' however, falls into a different genre—we know what we mean by 'schemes', and we think others mean the same thing! Thus we found it somewhat amusing when Zambians refer to NAPSA (National Pension Scheme)! As we have come to learn about NAPSA, we start to wonder whether our understanding is not, in fact, the correct one! And we certainly found it amusing when our teachers talked about (and worked on) their scheming! Although again, when we observe the goings-on in classrooms, we wonder whether the joke may have been on us! However, let me assure you, when Zambians speak of 'schemes' they mean the same thing as we do when we speak of 'plans'. And, I suppose, they may have nefarious schemes, just as we have diabolical plans.

Retirement in Zambia typically refers to age fifty-five, although at Namwianga many did not choose to retire then. Government workers (most of employed Zambians) were required to retire at age fifty-five. Namwianga workers participated in NAPSA, and were expected to retire then as well. However, the pension schemes being what they were, retirement was not often a golden time. The retirement scheme usually provided for several lump sum payouts. One lump sum would be for unused holidays—which the Zambians hoarded assiduously. The workers never took holidays, even while on holidays! A fact which caused no end of consternation and financial burden on employers. The workers then took pleasure in selling these days back to the employer, while saving some for retirement when they would get paid out. There were strict rules on how holidays were to be taken, and under which conditions holidays could be paid out or accumulated. These rules were carefully ignored. Holiday payouts were one of the absolute bonuses of life for the Zambian worker. A second lump sum was for repatriation—maybe I should get back into discussions of denotation once again! Repatriation to the Zambian worker meant he was being paid a lump sum to reestablish himself into what he might have been doing if his life had not been interrupted by a career! Then a third lump sum was the actual retirement savings plan. Now if all of this sounds like a remarkably generous set of provisions for the workers—they were! Even more so because the holiday payout was totally a cheat! And the repatriation was usually at no cost to the worker—he typically had left nothing to pursue a career, but was reward handsomely to return to the proposed nothingness! As it sounds too good to be true, it also was! Salaries ended promptly in the month of your fifty-fifth birthday, although arrangements were often made for teachers to at least complete the remainder of the term at salary. Holiday payout usually happened first, although it may take some years before all the necessary paper allowed this to be accomplished. Then repatriation could be considered, and careful calculations followed by even more extensive paperwork allowed this to be delayed for years further. Finally, the pension was due. It amounted to many years of gross salary and usually took a gross number of years to begin to be paid. While it was designed to be a lump sum, it usually took the form of 'cents on the dollar' that were doled out from time to time, due to the non-liquidity of both the government and NAPSA (National Pension SCHEME!). As a result, virtually all retirees were looking for a source of income and food to keep body and soul together long enough to make the many trips up and down the road through multitudinous offices and officials (no small number of whom expected a share of your retirement) to collect their retirements. Not surprisingly, few were able to accomplish retirement!

John is Gone

I am still numb with the shock of the news... my friend, John, is gone. He passed on this morning, and I find it impossible to accept. A young and vital man, the mind cannot accept that he should be ill or die.

John was among the first to befriend me when I moved to Zambia. And among Zambians he was certainly my best friend, perhaps the only one I could truly call my friend. He spoke the truth to me, not only when it was pleasant. Zambians have a pleasant way of often only telling you what they think you want to hear; John was always straight with me. How I miss him! Even over the phone his good humour, his thoughtful consideration of each situation came through. "Well, I suppose," he would say doubtfully, and then continue to tell you how it really was.

John was chief mechanic at Namwianga, and those who followed our misadventures have some recollection of how many times he came to our rescue as we waited with our failed Isuzu. I cannot forget how he came down the road to me while I waited in the dark after my 'road accident' (as the Zambians always call it). The truck was undrivable with one front wheel about 45 degrees to the intended line of travel. He took off the pieces of tie rod, headed off to the nearest town, welded it together, returned to reattach it, did a rough wheel alignment on the side of the road, and I drove that truck home without a shimmy! He had no sophisticated tools, but in his own careful way he did some fine tuning on the wheel alignment back at the shop and when we put it on the fancy computerized system in Lusaka, they found there was nothing they could adjust. I bought a replacement tie rod, and gave it to John to install and do the alignment his way!

John was a wonderful friend and brother to me. John and Tebia visited with us often (at least every week) and also hosted us to meals in their home. I find it hard to imagine life in Zambia without John there.

"Toyobonana alimwi," we said to each other as we parted this past August, but we both thought it would be sooner rather than later.

How He Got US Stuck in Iraq

As my good 'yellow dog' Republican friend, Jack, can attest, I've been consistently anxious about this venture since even before it began. And it has turned out pretty much as I predicted. However, the question remains... what next?


The picture is designed to be humourous, but perhaps it does more... I think it remains widely accepted that the place to clean up was (and continues to be) Afghanistan. Perhaps a withdrawal from Iraq to regional bases could be accompanied by increasing the policing and development of a solution in Afghanistan while maintaining some contact and control of the chaos in Iraq. It is simply not acceptable to pull out of the mess that has been created like they did in Vietnam. My first choice would include a large scale withdrawal to support bases in the region. At the same time they would install personnel for training and leadership support within the governmental, policing and armed forces of Iraq. This would need to be done in consultation and coordination with regional powers and players including Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia. It is my position that one of Dubya's worst faults has been his continual unilateralism—his unwillingness to dialogue with his adversaries (even his friends!). Truly that is how he got stuck in Iraq in the first place.

It's time to go back to the basics, and that means he needs to stop the fighting, and start the diplomacy—talking, discussing, negotiating... With recent disclosures that even Rummy realized it isn't working (Is that why he was fired!?) perhaps support has been reduced to Laura and the dog. So even though he famously said that that would be enough for him to continue, maybe even Dubya can accept that it's time for a change.

Golf 2006

This was the year I decided to get some golf instruction. I ordered a swing system that was getting some good reviews in the periodicals. It came on a DVD, and I began working on the basics of the refined swing. They promised to cut my handicap by seven strokes—now that sounds good! I'm running along with a handicap of 16, so this sounds good! Obviously, they are wanting to change me over to a consistent, manageable swing, but the main two things are a rebuilt grip, and correction of my flying elbow.

I provide dedicated work on my game through the late winter, and when spring comes I get on the range and on the course as often as possible. Fortunately, my family got me a golf membership so I can golf everyday if I wish, and I usually wish!

The golf does improve, I have several games in the 70's—a first for me. I still have games in the 90's—a no-no for me! Of course, work still intervenes, and then there are five weeks in Zambia, but there is undoubtedly progress. Over the course of the year, I have two games at +4, on different courses. I even play one set of nine holes at par! That would be nice to get used to! I played my last golf for the year on November 23rd. The snow started this week, so I think it's time to hang them up for the year. Now we're into next year country!

Consolidation

I completed this round of school tours in early November. Then I was off to London for training in our new Student Management System (SMS) from Maplewood. This is the same SMS we were using at Western in Dauphin, so I have some familiarity with it. However, it has gone through several upgrades since then, and I didn't know much about it then! Karen took care of all that stuff! So, I get three days of training so I can assist my schools to install the SMS and begin using it to handle all our student data. Now this is quite a jump for all of them—the most advanced had been using a spreadsheet to keep biographical data. All others were still using only paper files. Anyway, I get the training, and I prepare a rollout plan, and I begin getting them going, one by one.

I also have my regular meetings with the regional professional network centre, and at the office. The sum of my activities are that things are coming together, moving along, or however one might wish to describe making progress. My schools are getting their reports in; the SMS is getting installed; the program is developing. Oh, there's still a lot left to do, but right now it's time to consolidate these early gains.

Later, we'll be ready for another push forward.

Oh, I am a travelin' man...

Verification of funding for year two of the program came through on September 15th, so I began a feverish round of school tours. It took about a week to get everything set up, and then I was on the road for the last week of September and throughout October. I was home for two Fridays in October, but otherwise I was on the road every working day. Our year end comes March 31st, and our budget approval only came Sept 15th, so there's a lot of time to make up—not a good system! Two of my schools get a fly-in trip this time, and the second one was more eventful than expected. We flew in one Monday morning, and we supposed to fly out Tuesday evening. Alas, fog had rolled in and the float plane could not come. So we began rearranging. Eventually we booked a trip on the VIA rail that cruises through the community at a theoretical time of 10:30pm. We boarded at 12:30am and finally got back to Armstrong and bed by 2am. Another not good system! Otherwise things are progressing well at the schools, although there remains much to be done. We need to catch up on the OnSIS reporting system from last year, and then I can begin rollout of our new Student Management System. Aren't we all excited!? All together my little schools cover about 1500 km of northern Ontario wilderness. It's Canadian Shield so there are rocky outcroppings everywhere and lakes over every hill. Of course it reminds me of Yellowknife, but a lot warmer! I'm still golfing here at the end of October; I just wish I'd had more free days to get out!

Ketchup?! Oh, Catch Up

OnSIS has decreed that each of my ten jurisdictions must prepare a catch-up plan detailing how and when they will complete last year's school reports. And OnSIS has been able to convince the Ministry of Education (MET) that we will not be informed of our budget until we get those plans duly developed, signed (in blue ink—gotta watch out for those electronic signatures, can't accept none of that stuff in an electronic program!!) and returned to them.

And so, I begin. I am struggling to get some of my jurisdictions to even understand what OnSIS is, let alone what they're demanding of us. Of course, I can't travel to explain this to them, no budget. I hope NSRA will keep paying me! No money coming in, none has since last February! I hope they'll keep paying me!! I work to convince OnSIS and the MET to accept something other than blue ink signatures—eventually they agree to accept faxes as long as I round up the blue ink for them some time. Well, that moves things a lot better. I make up the plans, fax them out, call them to cajol them into signing, and faxing them back. Then I fax them in, and voila, my budget is approved! What a meaningful exercise that was!

Anyway, my budget has been approved as requested and the money can now flow. Hurray, let's get the program going!

Kristian Leif Ulrich

Kristian Leif Ulrich arrived into our lives on 16th September 2005, and he continues to be a delightful addition!

He has had a bout of the flu recently, but is now back at work running his grandmother into the ground, and his mother to distraction. It seems he can mess up a living room in less than five minutes, although it is also true that he is an equal opportunity messer-upper! He can destroy any room in less than five minutes!

An almost endless series of photographic evidence to the above assertion can be found on line at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristianleif/
And just for the sake of convenience, I'll post this one on his first birthday!

Back in the Business of Getting the Business

We got back to Thunder Bay, and I got back to work. Things were in turmoil. The Ministry of Education was at war with itself! My program is called Managing Information for Student Achievement (MISA), and as part of the plan to achieve this, Ontario Student Information System (OnSIS) has been set up. Well, OnSIS has determined to revamp the school reporting system and move to solely-electronic reporting. There are three main reports each school year: October, March and June. For the school year 2005-06, OnSIS decided that October would be done twice (once the old way, and then again the new electronic way-as a training program), then everyone would be ready to do March and June electronically only. Now you might suppose (well I would anyway) that to accomplish such a plan there would be an electronic reporting system in place. You might further suppose that it would be tested and have the bugs worked out of it before the plan was executed. But you would be wrong—this was a build-as-you-go strategy that soon turned into a catch-up-as-soon-as-possible plan! So... along about February OnSIS finally announced that the October reports could be begin! Except that, of course, they couldn't; the reporting system was now in place, but it didn't work! Soon, we were ordered to do March Reporting the old fashioned way, and that we would all catch up as soon as possible (and that is seldom soon, in case you haven't noticed it.) Okay fine, we thought, we can all be flexible while this works through. But we were wrong! OnSIS was in no mood to be flexible! Just because their application was not working was no reason to miss the scheduled reporting dates.

The MISA year ended on March 31st, and I prepared my reports on year one, and made my budget proposal for year two. Since year two funding was supposed to begin on April 1st, they promised a quick turn around (Government has a slightly different interpretation of 'quick turnaround' than I do.), and that we should have our budget approval in June and our money flowing by the end of August. What a nice coincidence, just when we get back from Zambia! Ah, but not so fast there Charlie. OnSIS has decided that we MISA types need to pay more attention to their problems. The monkey wrench is in the works. We will get no money; we won't even find out about our budgets until we develop a plan as to how we're going to catch up with the OnSIS reporting needs. Never mind that we've been without funding since April 1st, we can continue to starve in the dark until we come up with a plan. Never mind that my schools cover 1500 km and some are fly-in, I must get properly signed and authorized plans from each one of them detailing when they will get caught up on last year's reports.

Welcome back to Canada! "This is Africa" used to be my watch word; I see it applies more generally than I had thought.

Back in Business

Well, let's hope this is not another set of false hopes... but I'm back in the iBook business once again. One trouble is that there's been so much to comment on during the interim, and I've missed it!

Anyway, I'll try to catch you up on what's been happening since August 23rd, when I last posted. I'll date them for about each monthend; then we'll see how it goes after that. So, I've called this August 25th, although it's actually November 20th, but it'll keep it in the proper sequence... I hope!

In addition, you may wish to check out these other sites for updates on Kristian:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristianleif/
Trav & Sylvia:
http://www.travisulrich.com/index/Welcome/Welcome.html

Family / History

As we spent a few days in Denmark on our way home from Zambia, we were again privileged to add to our knowledge of the members of the family, and of Dad's early years. The tragic deaths of his parents when he was but eight years old, created a crisis in my dad's family. The eldest son, Johannes was but twenty, but he was ready to fend for himself. He was posted to work, and later found himself invited to Farup to work on the farm of the local vicar, Ellith Hauvinkel. Hauvinkel was one of the uncles so judiciously selected by our great grandmother, the widow Cecilie, in her boarding house in Copenhagen. Now that father & mother were gone, these uncles played an important role in the family survival. It seems another of these uncles was instrumental in the success of Aase in Copenhagen, and there is speculation that the assignment of my dad at eight years old, and his even younger brother, Viggo, to the Edvard Mundt family of Sorø as also through the uncle connection! Cecilie's daughter Marie was married to Peter Kromann who attended school in Sorø. The Mundts, a childless couple from Sorø were the ones who took them in. Dad seemed to question and be concerned about why they had to go there. He did not seem to have a good childhood there. Still, he gave me Edvard as my second name, and we had a picture of Edvard Mundt on our living room wall.

Toyobonana alimwi

"See you later," or its companion expression in English, "We shall meet," are not lightly given farewells for Zambians. They are fundamentally expressions of faith. We find that our Zambian friends do not take people or relationships lightly. They, who have virtually nothing, value people very highly, while they will give you almost anything they have. We, who have virtually everything we could want, value things very highly, and sometimes are willing to sacrifice our relationships in defense of our things... I'm sure there's a sermon illustration there somewhere!

Reflections on Zambia

As we prepare to leave Zambia, I am reflecting on my experiences. It has been a time of both joy and sorrow. Certainly some of the situations are even worse than I expected, but there have been compensating and even surprising pleasures. Namwianga Mission is even in greater difficulty than I expected, and my friends there are suffering. On the other hand, things are developing very well in our community schools. We enjoyed great experiences in those schools and are encouraged that education is being made available to more and more children. It was especially rewarding to see how some communities are uniting to promote development. Community headmen and other leaders are organising the people and planning construction projects and other improvements. The people are willingly assembling construction materials and preparing bricks so work can go on. It was delightful to celebrate this progress with them. There was much singing and dancing, especially by the women.
Other highlights included The Haven--an orphanage developed by Steve & Joan and now operated by Thomas & Cecilia. What a delight it was to see how wonderfully it is progressing under their management! The place is clean and neat. The yard is both functional and decorative. This represents the cutting edge of our response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The tiny victims are struggling for life under Cecilia's dedicated and effective care. We are so proud and happy!

Rewarding / Worthwhile

After spending three weeks of celebration with our Zambian friends it is easy to understand how rewarding this work is. Zambians are endlessly grateful. They give tremendous appreciation for the stuff we do there for them. As we enjoyed their celebration at Zyangale, my friend asked me, "Bill, what are you doing in Canada?!" It is true that there is much to do, and the generous thanksgiving of the Zambians make doing it very rewarding, but the question for me is always becoming, "Is it worthwhile?" As I have told many people, the fundamental learning I've done in Zambia is that it is incredibly difficult to help people. There are so many things that we can do, and that we can afford to do for them. But should we? How can we be truly helpful? I have witnessed that many of our interactions in Zambia (likely in many parts of the third world) over the years have not been helpful. Instead we have created dependancy, and we have been guilty of economic enslavement. I am constantly in a personal struggle over whether what I'm doing is worthwhile; I have no doubt that it is rewarding!

Into Africa

A wonderful breakfast (complete with leverpostej) begins our day in Copenhagen on the right foot. After checking out, we check out the National Museum, but are disappointed to find that it is closed on Mondays. We walk around downtown for a bit (too much), and then catch the train out to the airport. Once there, we get another nice surprise‹our missing piece of luggage has caught up with us. We retrieve that and complete our check-in for Amsterdam, Nairobi and Lusaka. We change planes in Amsterdam and Nairobi, so we hope our luggage makes the change as well. I am experiencing some problems with my computer; it seems the video card is not behaving; twice now it has filled the screen with random lines and required me to reboot. This is not performance! Must be time to retire this old laptop and get a new one! I can't tell if something has damaged it on the trip, or what the problem is, but it is certainly frustrating. Anyway, we manage our plane changes, and land in Lusaka about 10am on the 18th, however, our luggage does not perform as well, and only one of our pieces has come with us. We fill in the necessary reports and when we go back in the afternoon to collect our Yellowknife team members, we have a report that two pieces have been found vacationing in Athens! So we hope they will arrive in the next day or so, and we hope the final bag will also be located soon. As it is we have very little of our own clothing; the one bag to make it contains mostly baby clothes to give away. Anyway, we get settled in with the rest of the team at Eureka camp in Lusaka, and continue our preparations for the month ahead.

And We're Off

The first legs of our journey take us to Copenhagen. We start off with a short flight down to Toronto. We spend three hours there finding our way around to the international departure gates and having a lunch at Tim Horton's—a last touch with Canadiana! Our flight is delayed, and then delayed again. Finally, they change airplanes from a Boeing 767 to an Airbus A340. Then they have to round up a different flight crew who know their way around an Airbus. Finally, we get boarded over an hour late. But we're in first class, and that makes all the difference. We relax our way through the night across the Atlantic to London, in our spacious digs. Imagine reaching out as far as you can with your feet, and not even coming close to the seat in front of you! Unfortunately, the flight ends about 2 am (body time) as we land at Heathrow. That's early morning in London, but not early enough. Our flight to Frankfurt leaves while we are trying to change terminals. We report to Lufthansa; they send us to Air Canada; they send us back to Lufthansa, who give us a new boarding pass to Frankfurt. This will be a lunch time flight instead of the morning flight we were expecting. They decline to give us another boarding pass for the trip up to Copenhagen. We'll have to check with Lufthansa when we get to Frankfurt and arrange that. Once in Frankfurt the wonderful connections counsellor advises us that all will be well, and even provides a gate number. When we get close to there we go to the check-in counter, and discover, as we feared, that our reservations for the leg up to Denmark were cancelled when we missed the scheduled flight to Frankfort. Eventually we are awarded new boarding passes on the original flight we were supposed to take in the first place! We arrive in the Danish capital in the early evening, and go to retrieve our luggage. Eventually three of the four pieces do show up. Our new Roots bag has a wheel broken loose, and our other wheeled bag is torn open, This must not be Africa—nothing is missing! The lovely lady at the luggage counter is very kind and helpful. She awards us a new bag—she has several for us to choose from—and takes note of the damage to the other one and invites us to claim for repairs. Then she tracks down the missing bag—it's still in Frankfurt, and promises to do all she can to get it to Copenhagen in time for us to take it with us to Africa. We manage to check-in for our Africa flight, sans one piece of luggage. Then we take the train into town, settle into our room at the Hotel Centrum, and try to catch up on the six time zones we've been flying over!

News Update

Another week is ending here on the shore of Lake Superior, and we don't plan another week like it for a while! We're off to Zambia tomorrow. We travel via Copenhagen, and look forward to spending a few days there on the return trip after mid-August.

It's been a busy week with many things to do in anticipation of Zambia or in completion of some projects here. Everything has come together well, and we feel ready to board the plane tomorrow at noon. I have also managed a couple of golf games, including a new low of 76 on the 11th! Then I followed that up with an 85 today. It was a little difficult to accept using nine extra strokes to play the same course two days later, but that's golf, and it was fun anyway. I've reduced my handicap to 12.2 from 13.9. I'm aiming to get to single digits, but it doesn't look like it will happen this year.

I also managed to get some progress on the work front as all my school boards are putting together plans to complete some data reporting for the Ministry of Education. I shall look forward to hearing news of second-year funding some time while we're in Zambia. Then I got a used computer and a new printer for our old friend in Zambia. I still have no assurance that the ink can be found there, but we've packed a few extra cartridges just in case. We're going to use the printer to produce photos of our students in Zambia. Most of them don't get pictures of themselves in their lifetime—no school photos there!

Wendy has been busy around the place getting things assembled and packed for the trip. The new weight restrictions for air travel mean our bags are forty per cent lighter this trip. However, they still seem plenty heavy to me!

The boys have been involved in summer day camp activities. This week Haaken was in a Business Camp operated by the University. He developed a business proposal, arranged a loan and operated a hamburger joint for two hours today. He cleared about $60 for his efforts. Erin and Kristian have had a rough week as Kristian has a cold as well as thrush. However, Kristian has continued to make steady progress in learning to walk. We're going to miss them all for the next five weeks.

Eric has been able to get a few bus driving charters this week, and has continued to hit the links with me as often as possible. His golf is progressing well, and I expect him to be playing about bogie golf by the end of the season. Erica has continued with work. She has recently negotiated a new office location, so they'll be renovating and moving while we're gone.

Travis and Sylvia are back from their honeymoon and back at work. Their car suffered another setback this week. The automatic transmission refused to shift. Then a small hose near the water pump blew apart, so they pumped all their coolant onto the engine. It made for a great cloud of steam! The transmission problems were electronic, so were easily fixed. The hose has been replaced, but is still not satisfactory. It requires a small, curved hose, and I fashioned one out of straight heater hose. It seems to be working for now! Anyway, they have our car while we're gone.

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

Seventy-six!

I hit a new low today—seventy-six! The first nine went pretty well, as I had five pars and four bogies, but the second nine!!! Yi, yi, yi! There were a couple of scrambly holes, but I ended up with one bogie, one birdie, and seven pars. I was even par for the nine holes! Yowsa!

Eric and I were playing our first full round at Strathcona. We were joined by a regular for that course, and he proved quite helpful as he advised us on how to play each hole. He was also a nice, smooth player, although not as long as Eric or I are off the the tee. I was hitting my drives well; I was hitting my irons wonderfully. I hit a lot of greens, and those I didn't, I was close by. I made a few one-putts to salvage par, but also missed two birdie putts within six feet, so it could have been better!

Playing well is very uplifting; even playing poorly is a lot of fun!!

News Update

Another week draws to a close here on the shore of Lake Superior. The wedding accomplished, Travis & Sylvia are travelling south of the border this week, and are expected back this weekend.

I have also travelled some this week. On Wednesday, I flew over to Sudbury where representatives from our company met with our counterparts from northeastern Ontario to plan the professional development program for the next school year. I returned on Friday evening. The sessions went well.

I also managed a couple of golf games this week. On Sunday afternoon, Tom, Eric, Chris and I checked out the Whitewater Golf course here in Thunder Bay. It was a difficult experience, as the greens were faster than I was used to, and I also found them very tricky to read. I was also spraying the ball off the tee, so I was frequently in trouble and eventually staggered in with a 95. After corrections for triples, I posted a 92 for handicap purposes. Tom scored, as he described it, "The best of a bad lot!" He also found the course quite challenging, and the rough impossible. Later, I golfed with Eric back at Chapples, and that went better (84), as I was able to reduce my swing to merely Herculean proportions. I have concluded that golfing with a brother tends to bring out undue stress and very undue swing speeds!!

Wendy has spent time recovering from the exertions of the wedding preparations all the while continuing preparations for our next venture, i.e. to Zambia. We are scheduled to fly out of here next Saturday, the 15th! I shall try to post on Friday evening, and then as often as possible from Zambia while we spend the next month there.

Kristian continues to develop and grow. He is getting around famously, and driving his mother to distraction—the answer to a mother's curse!!

Liam and Haaken are enjoying summer holidays and a few special activities that come with the freedom from the school schedule. Haaken has taken to making movies, with a new release almost every day! Liam participates in some of the movies as a star, or a producer, or an extra, but he enjoys spending a lot of time outdoors riding his bike as well. The pool is in full operation in the back yard (along with a small one for Kristian), but they're not being used that much despite the thirty plus temperatures. We are really enjoying the newly installed air conditioning!

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

SCAM

I hate it when people forward bogus warnings, and I have even done it myself a couple times... but this one is real, and it's important. So please send this warning to everyone on your e-mail list:

If someone comes to your front door saying they are checking for ticks due to the warming weather and asks you to take your clothes off and twirl around with your arms up, DO NOT DO IT!! IT IS A SCAM!! They only want to see you naked...

I only wish I'd been warned before yesterday... I feel so stupid!

The Royal Wedding 06

Since a picture tells a thousand words, this blog is already getting long. I hope you can see that it was a beautiful wedding, and that we all had fun! Travis and Sylvia are now travelling on their honeymoon and are expected back this coming weekend.

To help you make sense of the photos, I offer this commentary.
-the wedding party was set up under a bower of trees along the shore of Lake Superior. This beautiful setting provide on the property of John & Diane Whitfield.
-Travis sailed off (Viking that he is) to claim a bride and drag her back by the hair (hand) to be his wedded wife!
-After plighting their troth, the deed was duly sealed with exchange of rings, and duly signed paper work!

Travis, I'm sure, will develop a proper website of the wedding replete with a quantity of photos. When it is complete, I shall post the URL on my blog.

News Update

Happy Canada Day!

It's been another busy week here on the shore of Lake Superior. We have a lot of things to complete or get ready for the big wedding on Saturday. Wendy is building the wedding cake, and a wondrous sight it is. We are hosting a large crew here for a barbecue after the rehearsal on Saturday. And we have some additional house guests as well. All in all, it's a busy but good week. I'll prepare another post on the wedding as soon as I have some pictures ready to post.

I do manage to sneak in some golf and I also buy a couple of new drivers. I trade in my old driver, and now have two of the newer, big-headed variety to try out. Surely one of these can get me further into trouble. And no, I didn't say hard-headed... that's the golfer, not the equipment!

I get more of the yard work done, and begin building a walkway around the pool. The completion of that task will have to wait for another year, as the installation of the pool will need to be upgraded first.

Erin and Kristian both experience some sickness this week. Erin comes down with food poisoning after eating at a local restaurant. We get her to the hospital, and they get her rehydrated with four litres of IV fluids. She seems to be recovering well. Kristian comes down with a bout of thrush, so he's on medication now, and seems to be coming around fine.

My computer is still not back, so I'm still in mourning over that! Our preparations for Zambia can begin in earnest now that the wedding is accomplished.

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