So, now that I've started...

I wrote a few months ago about how busy we had been. For a while there we had not updated our blog for quite a while, and we claimed to being so occupied with our lives. It has been a strange time for us.

As we told you before, we had to make a whirlwind trip to Southern British Columbia to have my wife and son officially "enter" the country, and that we had time to visit my family there at that time. We celebrated an early Christmas with them, then went back to Yellowknife. I said it was timely; it certainly was.

I knew that my father had cancer, but we didn't find out until that December trip just how extensive it was. It turned out that it had spread beyond the area where it was first found, and had settled in other areas of his body, including a tumour in his brain. It was a difficult trip, because when we were there, Dad had to be rushed to the hospital, due to over-medication. For a son, especially a youngest son, it's difficult to take the opposite role from the one you are used to. My father has always been larger than life for me; sort of indomitable. But supporting my father as he sat semiconcious in a chair was awful. He was very weak, and hard as it obviously was for my father and family to see him that way, it was especially hard on me, I think. The huge hands that he used to tie a fly, or chop wood, or manhandle a rototiller were still there, but I was holding them, comforting him, trying to keep him awake enough to be able to get him on a stretcher. Fortunately, they were able to get his meds straightened out, and we were able to enjoy a visit, and an early Christmas. The last one with him, as it turned out. The rest of my family were able to enjoy one last Christmas with him too.

My father passed away on January 23, 2008.

Another whirlwind trip for me down to Southern BC, just long enough to help put together a memorial service, and a power point presentation for my father. It was awful, but it was also very nice. It was gratifying to see how many people your parents touch over the years. The small hall in the town were I grew up was jampacked with friends and family.

The time after has been strange. I have yet to weep, unlike my family, who do so daily. Perhaps this will come once we place his remains. It's a wonderful place not far from the first house we grew up in. Most of his ashes will go there, some at Cathedral Lakes Park, which he loved. The view from the graveyard features a scene not unlike the one below.

I miss my father, and think of him every day. A fine man, and though I never told him, a good father.

Duck Bills and Crochet Hooks

My husband and I have been talking about him having a vasectomy for some time. We had an appointment earlier this year but had to postpone.

So.. A few weeks ago he went in for his second pre-op. This was a different doctor than the first because (get this) the first doctor was on a 6 month OPERA School sabbatical. OK is it just me or does this sound like the punch line to a joke? A man who operates on testicles studying Opera?!?

Anyway. He met with a female doctor and scheduled the surgery. There would be one small incision and then they'd root around with a crochet hook type thing to reach in and hook out what they needed to work on.

As it happens his surgery was the same day I had booked my Gyno exam. The night before, I got a case of the giggles. I'd just realized we were going to be in the same building, at the same time, each of us having a member of the opposite sex looking at our works. His doctor was female, mine male. NOT ONLY THAT, but we'd both be in stirrups at the same time too.

*Snicker*

Oddly.. He was done before I was. That was almost 2 weeks ago and everything has healed up. Now he's just having to deal with the hair regrowing *snicker*

So that's the story of my duckbill and his crochet hook.

Self Absorbed

My son is 11. The world still revolves around him in his view. This was perfectly expressed when he told me about a song he just couldn't stop listening to.

"It's like the song is addicted to me." *snicker not quite kid*

--------
In other news my mom sent a care package up that had instant grits among other things. I brought in a few packs to work. No one here's ever had them, seen them, or really even knew what they were.

So when I came in with the packages they all crowded around to look at them.

I made a few bowls and we all sampled them. The overall decision "good, but different".

-------
It still seems strange to see snow in May. It's 90% melted off, but still! It's MAY!

But that's life in the far north. So goes.