Back to School

September is Ray’s favourite time of year. I wish I could say the same, but as the days get shorter and the temperatures get cooler, the sense of foreboding about what’s around the corner makes it hard for me to fully appreciate the change in season.

Ray finished up his canal kayaking trip in Merrickville, skipping the final section because of thunderstorms in the forecast. He covered 125 kilometres and enjoyed the scenery and the paddling, but was less thrilled with packing up wet gear after rainy nights.

After Nick got back from his mountain climbing weekend, he spent a few days chilling at the beach with Sinead.

Year two of Nick’s engineering program started with “Civil Week”, providing an opportunity for the civil engineering students to get to know each other. The week involved 10-person teams designing and building boats out of cardboard. They collected materials Friday, built the boats Monday, and on Tuesday they put them in Lake Ontario, with eight team members inside and…found out through natural consequences how well they’d done. Of nine boats, two sunk immediately, one dissolved slowly as it went along, and six survived the journey. Nick’s team, fortunately, stayed dry.

I’ve been spending most of my time with Juno, who is shaping up to be a lovely dog. She still has her “I’m so excited to be alive that I’m simply incapable of listening right now” moments, but those are becoming fewer and further between.

On a sadder note, we said goodbye to a good friend and neighbour this week. Some of you may have met Barry at Maplefest, as he was usually one of the first to arrive.

He was such a kind-hearted and generous man and we’ll miss his good-humoured banter. Whenever Ray went ‘missing’ in the neighbourhood, I knew there was a good chance he’d wandered over to Barry’s for a chat. My sister was visiting when Barry passed away, and said, “Is he the one who complimented me on my speech at your party?” He was. And it made me realize how good Barry was at complimenting people. I don’t think there was a time in the last couple of years when I saw him that he didn’t tell me how much he loved the blog and that I should be writing professionally. Many years ago, he told me how much he admired our family and how the three of us were a team. That one really stuck with me. As Maya Angelou said:

People will forget what you said … what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

I expect many people will remember Barry for the way he made them feel. A quality worth emulating.