Carter's Basketball

Covid hit kids sports fairly significantly last year. Most schools weren't even able to have teams let alone play other schools. Grade seven is usually when kids get into basketball and Carter's school didn't have a team at all. This made for a different kind of try out period for Grade 8 as most kids had never played formal competitive basketball. The tryouts lasted almost two months and I was glad to see that the high school coach had a plan to give more kids than usual a chance. Twenty-five kids made the team with fifteen being on the playing roster and another 10 being on the practice squad. This gives them a much bigger pool of players to pick from for future grades.

Carter made the A team! I was quite excited about this because Carter hasn't had much interest in organized sport. He's quite good at whatever he does but outside of PE class he doesn't play any team sports. Basketball was the first sport he really tried out for. My excitement relates to the fact that he gets to travel to games and tournaments. It's January and he's already been in a few weekend tournaments and some games with other schools. Unfortunately the Omicron variant has hit and tournaments are cancelled but at least they can continue to play other teams. We'll have to find a way for him to compete during the Spring/Summer so he can try out again for Grade 9.

 

Callie's Birthday

I am admittedly quite delinquent in my family blogging for 2021. We thought 2020 was bad but 2021 had the same feeling. We weren't able to do any trips which is usually something that triggers my blogging. It's 2022 and I have realized I haven't blogged since the summer. I will aim to do better in 2022.

There were memorable events in 2021 including Callie's 16th birthday. If not for Covid we might have planned a trip for her since it happens in the summer however we had to stick to local events. Luckily the Van Gogh Experience was in Vancouver for the Summer and was something Callie was interested in.

I wasn't sure what to expect so I can't say I was over or underwhelmed by the experience. It was quite well done and I enjoyed being able to see his paintings on such a large scale. My disappointment came once I understood what I was getting for $50 a ticket. For that price I was expecting some sort of travelling Van Gogh show where they brought in paintings and the cost was for bringing in the art. As it turns out the show was really just a PowerPoint presentation in a big room. There were no paintings. There was only one room and the money didn't even go to any sort of art fund. It was pure commercialization of Van Gogh. I will be watching out for future similar experiences.

The 'exhibit' was downtown which is about a 45 minute drive for us so Callie had a few other items planned while we were down. Some of her friends were also downtown so she met up with them for bubble tea and some sort of French pastry shop. The macaroons were quite tasty. We finished up the day by  heading back to Surrey to meet with Uncle Ronnie at Snowy Village. Their shaved ice deserts are great to look at but I find that trying them once is enough. They are more show than taste.

It may sound like I was grumpy the whole day but I did enjoy everything we did. Hopefully we can do something bigger for her 18th birthday. 

Summer in Prince George

Our summer trip to Prince George was delayed this year due to Covid. When we were planning our summer in June there was still uncertainty on whether the province would allow travel between regions. By the time they opened up we found we needed to be in Oliver to help Reg remove some shrubs and we had a dentist appointment scheduled mid-month. This meant the ideal time to go was the third week of July instead of the first week. Our next issue to resolve was the fires that were happening in BC. It was another busy season and there was road closures between Lytton and Spences Bridge as well as near 100 Mile House. With those closures, the trip via Kamloops and Valemount was more appealing. Usually it's an extra two hours but with the road closures it was only really an hour longer. We planned our meals and stops and the kids wanted to try the Funky Goat which turned out to be a food truck. We were there at noon and had to wait until 1:00 for it to open. Surprisingly, Kerry and Callie ordered a sandwich that took longer than that to create so we actually ate before them.

My brother recently moved to Quesnel and had just purchased a house that we hadn't seen first. Since we didn't travel through Quesnel on our way up we had to make a special trip to go see him. He hosted an excellent breakfast and we spent some time exploring the renovations underway. It's an older home but they have big plans. Within a couple years they should have every room redone and a rental suite. The prices in Quesnel are much cheaper but lack of rental space means rental units are in high demand. A good place for anyone who wants to buy a second property to rent.

As per usual we spent much of our time out at my families lake property. Carter fished and got at least one which is always his goal. I spent much of the time canoeing back and forth to an area where I could gather some larger stones. The lake has been left fairly high for the past several years so beach erosion is an issue. We've installed some rock baskets and we needed rocks. Eric did the filling and I did the rock gathering. We also checked out the old cabin down the beach that was built by a friend of my Grandfather's. The roof has finally caved in so it doesn't have many years left. I really should try to save some of the furniture.

Our trip home was on our usual route. There was more rain up north and the fires near Lytton had burned everything up to the road so they were able to open the road again. You could clearly see how significant the fires near Lytton were. For several kilometers all of the trees had been impacted. Fires in this area come in quick and leave just as quick so they tend to leave the trees standing though it's clear they are likely dead. Lytton isn't usually a town we actually drive through but I think we will try next year. Hopefully they find funding to rebuild.

Daddy's Weekend of Fun

It's not often that Kerry is away and I'm left in charge of the kids. This weekend Kerry was headed to Kelowna to celebrate various birthday's including her friend Kathy's 50th. Leading up to the weekend, Carter was very worried that I was going to be in charge. He felt I wasn't going to feed him which in some ways was likely true. They are each going on 13 and 16 and should be able to handle a few meals for themselves. I also had plans to do something for them on the weekend but I wasn't about to tell them what that was until it was time to go. We started the weekend with some comical shots of the kids hitch hiking in front of our house though that wasn't going to be our mode of transportation. Kerry had gone up with Kathy so we had the vehicle available to us. Our plan was to drive to my work in Burnaby, park the car and then take the Skytrain and sea bus to the North Shore. There wasn't any specific point to the weekend other than to do something we wouldn't ordinarily do when Kerry was home. She isn't a fan of trips on the Skytrain.

The train ride and sea bus were uneventful and I think everyone enjoyed their time at the Lonsdale Quay. We went into the market and had lunch and desert and then wandered around. We found an art gallery that was accessible via donation. Carter isn't a fan of art galleries as he always find something very unusual that he just doesn't understand. Callie enjoys seeing what other artists are up to. The unique item for us was baby Yoda in a native baby snuggly. We also did a bit of shopping for Kerry as her birthday was on the following Monday. I think everyone enjoyed the trip.

On Sunday we started with a TikTok trend specifically aimed to irritate Kerry. She isn't a fan of Tiktok and doesn't understand that its really just the video social media site to compliment twitter as the text based social media site and Instagram as the picture focused social media site. I spend a portion of my day on it but I can really only watch for 15-20 minutes at most before I get bored. The trend we were replicating was pancake cereal which is just time pancakes cooked and added to a cereal bowl. Really no different than taking a regular pancake and cutting it up except that you get more edge pieces. It was labor intensive but good.

Kerry returned on Monday afternoon to two kids that were still breathing so I consider it a successful weekend.

 

Post COVID Trip to Oliver

Our last trip to Oliver was last summer. COVID was in full swing and the province had convinced itself that we could travel again. Since that time there have been multiple lockdowns that prevented anyone from travelling in the province. Now that 75% of adults have at least one shot, we may actually be reaching the end of this, assuming the US doesn't screw things up due to vaccine hesitancy. When we arrived in Oliver we were immediately put to work. Reg has a hedge that was getting hard to control and he needed our help to remove it and add some pavers in preparation for a new fence. It was hot work but the results were very obvious when we were done.

We took our traditional trip to Hester Creek. We picked up bread from Platinum Bench, made up some wine and cheese plates and brought the dogs. Things almost felt normal again. They had a check in so they could take your name but other than that most COVID protocols were gone. We still choose to wear our mask indoors when we can't social distance and the staff would wear masks for the tasting. It was good that we got there early because it was a hot weekend in Oliver with temperatures over 35 degrees. I think the only part of the tradition that didn't happen was Carter and Gampoo running on the grass. They might both be too old for that.

Carter made sure we made it to the lake every day. He purchased a new floatie from the Canadian Tire. I wanted to strap it to the back of the car for our trip back to Surrey but there wasn't a lot of places to attach to. Tuk-El-Nuit lake was very nice and it looks like Oliver is spending a bit of money on their public beaches. They were raking the beach every day and had permanently anchored some floaties off shore. The private campground usually does this so it was nice to see the same treatment for the public portion. 

The local native reserve has leased some land to a new experience just outside of Oliver. It's called the Hub and the plan is for 14 wineries, breweries and eateries to all be in one location. When I first heard about it, we thought it was more of a centralized tasting area which it is, but its more than that. They've got space for entertainment, misters to keep things cool and each location has their own patio. There seem to be rules about where you can drink each locations wine but that might loosen over time. I can see it being a nice place to be for an evening of dining and entertainment.

Our last day ended with ice cream and fire. We were on our way to OK Falls and noticed what appeared to be a relatively new fire. It turned out to be past where we were going so we still got our ice cream. They ordered evacuations later that day. We also almost had to deal with fires on our way there and our trip to Prince George will likely involve dodging road closures. Fire season is bad again this year which isn't surprising considering the heat we had so early in June. It's mid July with no rain for weeks and none on the horizon. This is a tradition that I don't look forward to each year.

 

Hottest Day Ever!

June 28 was an unusually hot day. It reached over 40 degrees in the shade at our house. This would have been a hot day for July or August and was even more unusual for June. Local temperature records were being beat by almost double digits. Things got progressively warmer on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and them culminated in the 40 degree day for Surrey. It got to 36.5 degrees inside the house and even the next morning it was still 29 degrees inside. This is the final straw for us regarding air conditioning. We have a single unit that does a single room but its not enough. I'm not looking to cool things to 21 degrees but we have to be able to cut the edge at night and there are more and more of these hot days. It would be silly to try to get something now so we'll plan to do it later in the fall or early spring. 

It was hot across the province for this week with multiple cities breaking the Canada record. Lytton took top spot and was unceremoniously burnt to the ground the following day. Literally. Climate change is real. 

Last Day at Frost Road

June 25 was Carter's last day at Frost Road. Not only was it his last day, it was the last day of having a Schwab at the school. Kerry had started teaching there 18 years earlier and Callie and Carter both spent all of elementary school there. Kerry's not teaching there anymore so now that Carter is gone we will no longer have a presence at the school that is only about 500 feet from our house. Carter unfortunately got the short end of the stick for his grade 7 year. With Covid restrictions, he missed out on camp and a formal grade 7 graduation dinner. We did surprise him and his friends the following week with an event at one of his friends house. Just dinner and water guns but I think they were excited they got to do it. Some were suspicious but most had no idea it was happening. Hopefully Kerry ends up being a principal there at some point in the future.