Thursday 25 June 2009

Schools Out For Summer

Corbin and Jeremy had their last day of school today. For Corbin that meant finishing Grade 5 and for Jeremy it meant he would be in Grade 1 come September.

Both boys seemed to enjoy school this year. Corbin played on the junior Basketball and Soccer teams. Academically, Corbin had a successful year. His reading is coming along and he seems to learning something. Jeremy had some difficulties, partially a result of vision issues, issues that we hope will correct themselves with glasses.

We have no idea who their teachers will be for 2009/2010. Several teachers and educational assistants have transferred to other schools. Lets hope they are willing to work with us.

Posted by Adam

Heat Wave 2009

Seems that Mother Nature is following the whole change of seasons thing to a tee this year. Not only did June 21 mark the beginning of Summer in terms of the Summer Solstice (and Father's Day), it marked the change from pleasant weather to stinking hot weather.

For about four weeks the air conditioning did not come on. Now, it's on a lot. We went from a very comfortable 22 Celsius to life-draining 34 Celsius (41 if you include the humidex).

I want the humidity to be gone. Now.

Posted by Adam

Monday 22 June 2009

Soccer Update

With a couple of games in the bag, it's time to recap the soccer season.

First, Jeremy and Corbin are still interested in playing soccer. Hooray. Will see how that interest holds up in the hot weather. Both boys will miss about two weeks worth of soccer due to camp, but I think that will give them a much needed break.

Second, both boys are improving their skills. Jeremy is getting better at throwing the ball in and dribbling it. He needs to work on tighter turns and hanging around in his territory. His coach is impressed with the improvement in his listening skills.

Corbin is becoming a strong defender. He is learning how to take the ball from an opponent and how to block kicks.

I'm hoping that the kids want to play soccer for the next few years. It keeps them busy and it forces Tina and I out of the house.

Posted by Adam

Saturday 13 June 2009

Point Pelee And Back

Who knew that it takes an hour to get to Point Pelee National Park from Windsor?

Corbin spent the day at Cubs camp at Point Pelee (though the camp was an overnight camp, Corbin went for the day only). Tina drove out in the morning.

I was to pick him it up at 3:00 pm. On Tina's advice, Jeremy and I left Windsor at 2:00 pm. Wow that was a long drive. The Shriner's parade in Leamington did not help. The main road was blocked off at the Heinz plant, so (and other drivers) decided to go around the Heinz plant. But guess who was their - the damn Shriner's. Did a U-turn and got back to the main road, which was open at this point.

Arrived at bug-infested Point Pelee just after three in the afternoon. Walked over to the camp and Corbin was doing an activity with his pack. A few of the Leaders were sitting down and said that Corbin had a great time and they had no problems with him. That was good to hear.

The transition home went smoothly. Corbin gathered his back pack and bike and headed to the van.

We stopped at the Dairy Freez in Northridge for some ice cream. Back in Windsor we did a quick stop at Rogers Video to rent some games for the PS2 (the PS2 section is getting smaller by the week - might be time to upgrade).

It was a tiring but uneventful afternoon.

Posted by Adam

Gooooooooooal!

Jeremy had a soccer game today. Drove out to the Vollmer complex in LaSalle, walked over to the pitch and setup my chair.

Today, Jeremy played defence, forward and goalkeeper. He is getting much better at dribbling with the ball. While in net, he stopped a few shots and made a valiant effort to stop a penalty kick (he did pick the right side though).

On forward, Jeremy actually took the ball to the net and scored. At first, it didn't appear he scored but then every one was walking to the centre of the pitch, so he scored. Yeah Jeremy. He was very excited.

Good game and the kids are starting to get a hang of things.

Posted by Adam

Monday 1 June 2009

Electricity Can Be Fun

Just before Jeremy's soccer game, I noticed that the lights in the house were doing 'unusual' things like dimming, flickering and all sorts of good things. Oh oh.

Tried some other switches and the same thing. Hmmmm.

Went downstairs and no breakers were tripped. Aye carumba.

I decided that I had to stay home and do something (rant, rave, worry, cry, laugh and anything else that made me look like an idiot). I told Jeremy to get out of his soccer uniform. He wasn't too impressed but rolled along.

The boys were getting anxious, so Bev took them outside. I called Tina to let her know what was going on. She was busy with her works Annual General Meeting. She called Pam & Chris to see if Chris (an electrician by training) could figure out the problem.

Tina came home and shortly after, Chris and Pam showed up. Chris checked the panel and discovered that one of the two phases into our house was dead. That explains why the lights were flickering. I thanked Chris and Pam for stopping by and immediately called the after hours line at Enwin Utilities.

About 30 or so minutes later, Enwin appeared. He took off the meter and told me the good news - the problem was with their line. His plan was to connect a temporary cable between the meter on my house and the meter on the house next door. A few minutes later another Enwin employee stopped by with the cable. It wasn't a complicated procedure and would take all of five minutes to complete.

Well, five minutes took three hours. Seems the neighbour next door wasn't buying any of it. Her husband was not home and there was a language barrier. The Enwin employee identified himself and even had the lady call dispatch. No go. Time to get the on-call supervisor out here.

About 30 or so minutes later, Val comes by and speaks with the neighbour. The answer remained a resounding "NO" and this time she called the police. Fun.

The Enwin employees and supervisor thought of alternatives. About two hours, I told the supervisor, I could wait until the morning for a new cable to be installed - I had partial power to the house (including the fridge) and it wasn't hot or humid (it got cold and windy). The supervisor thanked me for my patience and left.

As the other two Enwin guys were about to leave, the police showed up. They chatted and the police relayed the neighbours concerns to us. In the name of neighbourhood peace, I said I had no problem with waiting till the next day for a fix. So the police talked to the neighbour again and this time she capitulated.

Enwin guys looked at me and I said "I'm not going to turn down full power". So they got the equipment about 10 minutes later were done and we had full power.

My thanks for the Val and the afternoon emergency guys for their patience.

Now I just have to wait for the yard to be dug up. Exciting times.

Posted by Adam

P.S. A huge "THANK YOU" to Tina. You are awesome.