Canada Day at Parliament Hill

My Canada started with a visit to Parliament Hill with Dad, Remy, and Christopher. We saw a lot of people, and from far far away we saw a video screen that showed what was happening on the Hill: the Governor General inspecting the guards; Prime Minister Harper giving a short speech; we could hear the singing of Oh Canada, and the beginning of the musical entertainment (traditional French Canadian fiddles and spoons and some First Nations drumming and singing).

Dad was understandably worried about the possibility of Christopher getting lost in the crowd, so we decided to take turns carrying him on our shoulders. I mused about the marketability of GPS ankle bracelets to keep track of children. Unfortunately, Greg says the microwaves would be too dangerous.

Summer Edition

There has been a lot going on this summer.

For starters, we had a funeral for my grandfather, who passed away last fall. That involved a trip to Goderich, early in June. I had the honour of doing some organizing, so I was busy beforehand. Family members who are dispersed far and wide got together for a rare meeting, and a touching tribute to my Grandfather's memory and his influence on us. Dad and I enjoyed going through some old family photos to make an album. Above is one photo we found that didn't make it into the album, but it is a great photo because Grandpa loved music.

I also volunteered to be the team contact/organizer of my soccer team's summer season. That involved, oh, a few emails.

Also, I have been helping Greg build his fence, helping Mom do a little work on her deck, and now I'm pursuing the old family photo project further with Dad - by going through the whole collection looking for good ones to share with people, and especially to share with my great Aunt Eleanor who is having a big birthday soon. She is the second woman from the left below, a scene possibly from the 1950s.

So, summer is going swimmingly. Unlike one of my work colleagues who has had a remarkable music festival attendance rate so far, I have not been to any music festivals or even any outdoor events involving sound. However, Greg and I went out of town several times and saw birds, visited friends' cottages and newly purchased empty farm properties (okay one farm property). I've gotten about on my bicycle, played soccer weekly, and shared in celebrating K and D's beautiful wedding. One can not ask for more than this.

Hockey weekend

As it turns out, I had the fortune to attend two hockey games this weekend.

The first was the last regular season game of the Senators, on Friday, against the Boston Bruins. My second Sens game ever. Our seats were great. My goal of the evening was to be watching the puck when any goals were scored. I pretty much succeeded, in that my eyes were directed in the general vicinity of the puck when the three goals hit the net (2:1 for Boston in case you don't follow this sort of thing). They were not on my pizza slice, not on the drunken Sens fans in the first row dressed like gladiators, not even on my companions' smiling faces. I also saw an amazing rebound shot off the post that almost went in but for the centimeter it was off. During the intervals between plays I was able to turn my attention to my father and his friends who hosted us for this entertaining evening. A. and his wife D. are true hockey fans, originally from Montreal, who had seen all the great Habs players like Rocket Richard back in the day. D. was particularly dissappointed that the Sens just were not able to get themselves organized to win the game Friday. For my part, I had fun watching the puck.

Saturday, Greg and I watched his nephew G. play the final game of his season at a local arena. All the ten year old boys and girls were skating on their ankles up and down the ice, trying hard. The families all cheered even louder, it seemed, than the Sens fans had done the day before. G. helped his team win the game and become champions. But, all the kids were winners, right?