Xed’s Weblog

I took this candid portrait in early December of Tracey’s dad, Ross Moore, at his birthday party… I liked it so I thought I would share it. Mr. Moore is a veteran of WW2 and is hard of hearing due to concussion from a tank shell. He also had shrapnel damage to one of his legs so he is a bit unstable but surprisingly mobile considering his age, 87… And a very generous, lively and nicest person you will ever meet…

Back from spending the holidays in New Brunswick with my family. Unfortunately, my brother Darren and his girlfriend Diane could not make it up to Fredericton at the same time as Tracey and myself were in town, maybe next time. We arrived on Boxing Day and went to my Aunt Debbie for a Patterson pot-luck supper with all our relatives. Saw some of my cousins for the first time in many years (easily 15 or more). Also went to see the movie Sherlock Holmes with my friend Nick, who was also in NB visiting family. The movie was quite good. For new years celebrations, we went to my uncle’s place and ate, drank and played charades.

The drive down to New Brunswick was great, the roads were great the whole way and pretty much empty, which is the norm for that province. It is almost like one is driving through a nuclear fallout zone, for the lack of vehicles on their 2-lane highways. The way back to Montreal was quite the trip, started out with snow falling for the first hour and half, cleared up until we got to Quebec city, where it was snowing pretty much all the way home.

Well here is hoping that 2010 will bring more sanity in the economy and start to turn around on the job front so less people are struggling to pay their bills or worse, losing their homes to the banks… With large companies outsourcing quality North American jobs to India and other cheap labour traps, I suspect that it will be many years before their CEOs realize that a reduction of “consumers” who can afford to buy their expensive products and services ultimately means less profits for their shareholders.

Tracey and myself did some local shopping while we were down. She bought herself a nice full-face masked helmet so we can both ride on my Can-Am Outlander 650 MAX legally. With the recent snowfall I will need to figure out if I can get the Outlander to the main Quad trail here in Saint-Lazare using one of the secondary access routes near our home. It is not utilized often and mostly by snowmobilers so it isn’t packed down as much for wheels. If not, it means we’d have to ride 3 to 4km to the street where the main entrance to the ATV trail is, which is risky with the SQ potentially pulling us over for being on one of the residential mains… I really need a trailer and a hitch.

After having been back for a few hours in our home, I’ve really come to appreciate our wood stove, back to 25°C temperatures…

My cousin dug up an old photograph of my grandfather. He was a WW2 vetern, it has been many years since he passed away from a heart-attack when I was a teenager. I don’t remember the exact year now but I do remember upon hearing of the  news that I spent an entire day staring out my bedroom and crying over it.

A few things I still remember of him… He always teased me. He was a frequent ear scratcher and he had a very unique way of doing it. I remember one morning when my grand parents had their trailer at Oromocto Lake parked on the lawn at my parents cottage. He was cooking bacon, it was probably the best bacon I ever had… It was the fatty back bacon I believe and I’ve never had anything like it since…

It has been an interesting year…

Almost a year since we brought Monty home from Gerdy’s Rescue. He was left behind by his previous owner who moved to Ireland and could not take him. I had been browsing Gerdy’s website for months looking at potential dogs and I asked Tracey her thoughts on him. We picked him up in February. He is a clumsy giant and we have had him down to New Brunswick a couple of times already and this summer to Nova Scotia. He really loves the water…

We recently had trouble with him early in December, stomach torsion, where his stomach got twisted over on itself and he was in serious discomfort. We had to take him to the animal hospital (DMV in Montreal) where we were told he needed emergency surgery to correct the twist. His deep and narrow chested body style is prone to this problem. Being very late at night, we had little option but to perform the operation. The DMV have really great people but they are exist to gauge and profit at the expense of animal lovers. The bill for this adventure was over $3300.00…

He recovered pretty quickly and we were able to take him home within about 3 days stay at the hospital where he recovered pretty well.  The bugger managed to keep pulling out his staples over the course of several weeks but he finally had them all removed (intended) last weekend. We have had him offleash and running in his favorite place a couple of times this past week, at an undeveloped empty field near our home. He was at one of the local dog parks, a second favorite place where he got to mingle and meet more new friends again…

His third favorite place, our bed, where he spends the nights cuddled between Tracey and myself…

Merry Christmas everybody, and have a Happy New Year!

We went to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick again this summer. The weather in Montreal and Atlantic Canada for that matter was crappy right up to our vacation starting August 1st. We have had great weather ever since.

Our vacation was short this year, as I only reserved two weeks off. The first week was spent in Lismore, Nova Scotia with Tracey’s cousins and relatives. We did not see a lot, mostly hanging about the cottage but the time flew by very fast, regardless. Our second week, we spent it at my parents cottage at Oromocto Lake, New Brunswick. Again, short week, went by quickly, spent the time ATVing, relaxing, playing cards, eating donairs from Pizza Delight, pot-luck with the Pattersons.

My year round hobby is being a member of a local R/C model airplane club called WIMAC, which stands for West Island Model Aeronautics Club. I happen to be the club’s webmaster so this is a blatant plug for more hits as well…

This winter I will be taking a shot at R/C flying at our Indoor gym rental location (school), which is located near Highway 13 & Highway 40, in Montreal. If you are interested in electronics and video games, then R/C should be right up your alley… It is like playing a real-life video game, in an environment where safety is strictly ahered and you get to meet new people with a large variety of unique interests.

It’s been a long time, 2008 is already well past half over, summer is finishing and fall is in the air. Tracey and myself moved into our new home in Saint-Lazare at the end of May. We still have some boxes in the garage and basement to unpack and decorating still to do. We did not get the opportunity to use the pool as much as I thought we would due to the crappy months of June and July and our three weeks of vacation in the Maritime provinces in August… Time does fly when you are having fun!!!

This photograph was taken at EV -2.0 at the shoreline of Tracey’s cousin (Barb) in Lismore, Nova Scota in August 2008:

This barn was taken using my Canon EF 10-22mm lens near Nackawic, New Brunswick: