Storms and stories

Ray is out with his chainsaw helping a neighbour cut up several trees that blew over in the storm last night and are blocking the road. Our power was out for about six hours, and it’s still out just around the block from us. It was rather disconcerting listening to the howling wind and watching our extremely tall, very old trees swaying back and forth, wondering just how flexible they really are (they’re surprisingly bendy, as it turns out). Our remaining car was put in the garage before the storm arrived. Nick slept through the whole thing. He’s on hour 20 of sleep as I write this, following treatment #10.

He had quite a busy week. He went out for dinner and to see the new Avengers movie with a group of friends (before anyone could spoil the ending for him), he met a couple of other friends for coffee and bowling, he had friends over to watch a movie, he had Grant over to book more of their Japan trip, he walked our neighbour’s dog most days, he played the new season of Fortnite with friends, he took a driving lesson from Ray, he fed his sourdough starter and made a couple loaves of sourdough bread, he started some outdoor bonsai plants, he landscaped his indoor bonsai avocado plants, and he helped Ray with dinner most nights.

First loaf of sourdough bread

Made some adjustments for loaf #2

I was cleaning out old emails this week and came across a couple about younger Nick that made me shake my head and laugh, so thought I’d share a few that really capture his personality.

His opinion on school, after his first day of Grade 1, “It’s like eating broccoli – you eat it because it’s good for you, but you’d really rather eat something else.”

When we were moving to England and renting out the only home he’d ever known, I asked if it bothered him that someone else would be using his bedroom, and he said, “a little, but the way I calm myself down about it is by pretending they’re only staying one night and then leaving the next day”. Not a bad coping mechanism for an 8-year old to come up with.

When Nick was 8, we attended an 80th birthday party for a friend held in her church hall. At one point, we couldn’t find Nick, and later discovered him sitting alone in the small chapel, just gazing around. We asked him if he’d like to try attending church and he said yes, so he started going to church with Loris (the aforementioned birthday girl). I hadn’t remembered this part until I read it in one of the emails I’d sent my sister back then:

Sunday Nicholas and Ray went to church. I sat in Starbucks reading The Glass Castle and sipping my Chai Latte. Afterwards Nicholas showed me a picture he’d drawn in church. It was some sort of monster with the word “DETH” written in large print at the top.  Can you get suspended from Sunday school?

At 9, Nick wrote and ‘published’ a book.  These are the first three lines and the last bit cracks us up every time.

It was a dark misty night and the wolves howled loudly. Adin knew it was time to go in. Every night the Orks would patrol the streets, stealing any goods that were out and killing anyone in their way, but otherwise Endar was a nice quiet place.

There’s that silver lining! Aside from the death and destruction, it’s really quite lovely. Never mind engineering, the kid should go into real estate.

[You can preview the first chapter and author’s page of Nick’s book here if you’re interested. Note that we don’t get any money from sales because the account is associated with an old email address that I can no longer access.
Jeremy, who did the illustrations, went on to become an art instructor at the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto and is also a talented tattoo artist. (http://www.widowtattoo.com/tattoos-by-jeremy/).]