Act Three

We are settling back into life around here. Classes have resumed for Lowell, and L and I are remembering what it is like to spend the whole day in only each others company. Nobody around here has been very productive because we have been sick…

and we can’t quite seem to shake it. My guess is that we just partied too hard over summer and with J,S,K&M, but it was worth every minute of it. Also L is having to learn how to fall asleep on his own, which has made for less restful sleep then usual.

On the up side L has learned to clap his hands and his pincer grasp (finger and thumb) is so good that he is enjoying feeding himself and turning pages in books. At the moment we have a little bookworm on our hands.

We have made some changes to our living room since we returned to Massachusetts. Our sofa was still a second hand freebie from the 70’s that had served us well but no longer sat very comfortably. In fact, Lowell vowed when we left in May that he was no longer going to sit on it; we had to get new furniture. It took us a while to decide on what piece of furniture would be the most comfortable and versatile to our transient lifestyle. A trip to Ikea with J&S solved our problem; we bought these 2 chairs, footstools and table.

Then I heard this: “So since we saved so much money on buying these chairs instead of another sofa, and since we don’t get out to the theatre with L, we should get a better TV.” In all fairness our TV was ancient, small and the colour had recently started going wonky. I wasn’t difficult to persuade, so now we have a much improved environment for watching movies, basketball games etc.

The only thing left that was driving me crazy is that the 5 remotes required to control our home theatre system are constantly being misplaced and have no designated home. So out came my sewing machine and a beautiful flannel Fat Quarter (piece of fabric measuring approximately 18 by 22”) sent to me by a quilting friend and “wala” we have a remote control home.

We decided to take advantage of the last few days before the start of classes by spending a little bit of time in the great outdoors. We’d never been on a hike with L before, so we thought we should give it a try–after all, if he’s going to be living with us for the next 2 decades, he’s going to have to learn to enjoy the great outdoors at some point. We decided to hike up Monument Mountain in western Massachusetts. It was a short, aggressive hike with some rewarding vistas at the summit. L was all smiles till about halfway down the mountain when he fell asleep. After the hike, we drove to Beartown State Forest for supper. We used our recently acquired camping irons–thanks Mom–to make some camping-style pizzas.

On the way home, we saw this humerous sign.

L is learning new things every day. He had some help getting into this position, but he is becoming increasingly mobile. My guess is that our house will have to be baby-proofed in, say, 2 weeks.

While in Winnipeg, L was able to use a high chair that we were borrowing from family. We didn’t have one in Massachusetts, so when we arrived back in Massachusetts, it was quite the adventure trying to feed L. Enough of an adventure, in fact, that we went and bought a high chair straightaway. Here is L in his new chair.

We’re back in Massachusetts. We traveled with some friends this time, so the trip didn’t seem quite so long. We made really good time the first day, making it all the way through Chicago, but it wasn’t quite as uneventful as one might like. It rained nearly the whole day. Just as it was turning dark, somewhere close to the Illinois border, we had a near accident. Traffic slowed unexpectedly on the freeway and I nearly rear-ended the vehicle in front of me. Fortunately, nobody ran into us from behind. The party immediately beside us wasn’t so lucky. Both Pam and the friends traveling with us witnessed the collision.

The next day we made it to Niagara Falls where we spent the better part of two days. One of the friends we traveled with has written some software for Whirlpool Jet Boat Tours. The company provided us with various complementary tickets for area activities as well as free accommodations for two nights. I had the pleasure of riding some of the rapids beneath the falls on one of the Jet Boats. We waited in line–for a very long time–to see the falls from a cave behind the falls. We had a great time at the butterfly conservatory, and we took the cable car over the big whirlpool beneath the falls. We even bought some wine from a local winery.

Having finished our sightseeing around Niagara, we made the rest of the trip back to Massachusetts. The rest of the trip was uneventful, perhaps too uneventful; we were held up at the border for two hours. Needless to say, I don’t recommend crossing the border at Buffalo.

Well, our summer in Manitoba has come to an end, and tomorrow we head back to Massachusetts. As usual, the summer wasn’t long enough. At least I survived my first stint at teaching and I was able to scratch my builder’s itch. This week I was finally able to finish the project I started in our backyard. I cut and fitted the plastic inserts, made and fastened the last of the hardware onto the gates, and wrestled the heavy, concrete-laden posts one more time, hauling them away to the landfill. Ironically, the feature of our backyard that got us started on this project, the rotten deck, is still there. The summer just wasn’t long enough. I guess I already have next summer’s project.

So we spent the weekend camping with my extended family near Somerset, MB. We drove through Manitoba’s largest (probably only) windmill farm. These windmills are pretty spectacular, we guessed that they stand 130 ft.

Lowell took some amazing pictures in my opinion. Here one of my cousins is just about to bite it!

Hope that you are all staying cool during these dog days of summer. Manitoba’s heatwave has been 30+ for 2 weeks now.

So it is time to put some work into our house in Winnipeg. As you can see the deck badly needs some attention…so we are building a fence. Honestly we are not going about this backwards it is all part of the big picture.

On Monday Lowell picked up our massive pile of wood. There is no way a person could drive a truck through this fence when it is completed (a little bit of overkill, but typical Lowell style).

We supported our local sawmill contact so Wednesday we spent prepping and treating the posts. Here L is supervising the activities. He is a hard taskmaster, he quickly lets us know if we are taking too long.

Lowell is adding a little bit of style to the posts.

We are finally finished ripping out the old chainlink fence, (the posts were cemented 3 feet into the ground) so now we can begin constructing.

With all the beautiful places in this world we forget how amazing the prairies can be. When I come home to Manitoba I notice the sky, the clouds, the sun. I will admit that some of the love for the landscape is just because it is home, but really the prairies are beautiful in their own right.