Blog Posts

In the leadup to Mother’s day next month, I was trying to recall some of the events that I have creatively involved my wonderful Ruth in to celebrate that wonderful occasion.  Two events come to mind:  Signing her up for mountain bike lessons, and completing a 10 km walkathon on a rainy day.  She loved NEITHER of them…and dagger eyes shoot out every time either topic comes up.  As much as she hated (more like a heavy disdain/dislike) me for coercing her into it, I had a purpose. I wanted to see if she could do it.

A member of our District's Pandemic Response Team recently congratulated us on our "one year anniversary" of the weekly meetings we have been hosting since COVID-19 took its place in our collective consciences. It took a while for it to sink in, but it dawned on me that we have been working at this for what seems like several years. This time last year, the World Health Organization declared that we were amidst a "global pandemic." We hosted a meeting with all school district leaders at the Abby Arts Centre to map out how we would tackle this emerging threat after Spring Break. 

Apparently, your subconcious brain can absorb about 20 megabytes of information every second--things we know are there, but choose to ignore because your brain says its repetitive or irrelevant at the moment. Our conscious brain—things that focus on the immediate—only pays attention to about 40 bytes of information.  A good example is driving: We drive merrily down the road, collecting information about nearby cars, people, animals and scenery before we make our left turn; 40 bytes later, we notice a speeding car coming towards us as the light turns yellow.

February is Black History Month, a time to honour and celebrate the contributions of people of African heritage. Black History Month was first celebrated in the United States, and it is now formally observed in Canada (for over forty years), the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Normally a New Year brings resolutions I can declare, and hope that I might achieve about a third of them. But for all that 2020 was worth, I was glad to have finished it, and I don’t want very much of it back. Ever. It wasn’t the events of 2020, as much as what it made me feel like that makes the previous 365 days…a year worth forgetting.

Recalling all things I have ever experienced, 2020 was like…

-eating the last grape, and finding out it was SOUR

-running a half marathon (that’s 21 km) and getting major leg cramps for the last two km