Monthly Archives: July 2009

music memory

I’ve mentioned often that Olivia can memorize lyrics quickly. She knows the lyrics of many many of the songs I like. But the funniest example of what she memorizes comes from David Bowie’s “Station-to-Station”. She will start singing along virtually verbatim when the following verses come up:

“Once there were mountains on mountains
And once there were sunbirds to soar with
And once I could never be down
Got to keep searching and searching
Oh, what will I be believing and who will connect me with love?
Wonderful, wonderful, wonder when
Have you sought fortune, evasive and shy?
Drink to the men who protect you and i
Drink, drink, drain your glass, raise your glass high

Its not the side-effects of the cocaine
Im thinking that it must be love
Its too late – to be grateful
Its too late – to be late again
Its too late – to be hateful
The european cannon is here

I must be only one in a million
I wont let the day pass without her
Its too late – to be grateful
Its too late – to be late again
Its too late – to be hateful
The european cannon is here”

What I love the most is we often (and unconciously by now) play a game where I start a line of any random song and she finishes it. My favourite is when I say:

“It’s not the side effects of the….” and then she finishes the line. What a gas!

I am about to post on OG’s site a list of songs I want to get onto a CD. All the songs I can remember that she liked to hear over the past few years while driving in the car.

The race is on! Will the new car be here before the old one dies? It’ll be close.

It’s a humbling experience to drive the CR-V around these days. The noise is unbearable on the inside, and embarrassingly loud on the outside. I feel like I need to apologize when I drive by pedestrians as they turn to look.

Anyway, it’s become clear that we do need to have one car in the family that is SUV/van sized. The upcoming trip to Collingwood with 2 kids and luggage will not fit in the Accord. We needed to borrow the in-laws car so that we could utilize the roof-rack it has. Looking forward to the trip with the gang. There will be 7 kids in the house meaning no peace and quiet.

Speaking of kids, I was watching a show this morning about a family bringing home a newborn. The cry the baby made had me shuddering from head to toe. It jolted me back to the night we were at the hospital waiting for the birth of Christien: it was about 3am and I was pacing the halls. I could hear another newborn down the hall making the distinct newborn cry. And I had a moment of panicked realization about what was to happen shortly…and how the more relaxing life we were just moving into with Olivia getting older was going to come crashing down. That was what I like to call a “Father’s Moment”. How one reacts to that feeling defines himself. Since I’m still here 9 months later should give insight into how I reacted.

Another ‘OMG’ (that’s for the tweenie-teenies reading this) moment was a couple days ago when I was cleaning the garage and finally moving stuff back into the basement now that we are 99% completed (more to come on that…eventually…when I have time): I was bringing the newborn/infant/baby car seat down to the basement for storage. I shocked me back to about 1 week before Christien was born when I was pulling it out and prepping it for the day. It reminded me of Olivia and the effort it was during the time she was small enough to fit. It evoked the following feelings: sadness (that we’ll only be using it one more time) and fear (that we will be using it one more time)

Anyway, Christien is well on his way and those cries are becoming a distant memory….one that will never be forgotten.

Let’s hope the weather next week is better than it has been this summer and especially as of late. Since Michael Jackson died, the weather’s been awful.

3 Tickets to Echo

I bought 3 tix to Echo yesterday for $79 a pop. At the Queen Elizabeth in TO. Sean, you’re coming. Need one more taker. It’s rare for Echo to come to Canada. They haven’t been since ’06 with theire release of Siberia. I’ve only seen the 5 times since ’96.

This time should be memorable: they are on their Ocean Rain Live tour: Orchestra accompanied playing of their #1 album. Look OUT!

Greystone

I played Clublink’s toughest course today: Greystoke. It’s on the escarpment. Toughest greens I’ve played. Had 30 putts. Which would lend you to believe I shot a wonderful score….but alas it’s not true.

Putting was great. Driving was adequate enough for the course. Chips were better than avg. Irons from all distances were crap-o-la. And hence, a 91. No matter how well things are going, on a long course, if you can’t hit your irons, you’re nothing.

I have an excuse (unfortunately): I gouged my right swear finger someting fierce yesterday at the dump while dumping some trash. For everything but the iron shots it was not an issue. For my irons, it was devastating. That’s because hitting irons flush requires hitting down and into the ground. And the reverberation was painful. And this results in hesitation and adjustment to prevent the pain, which led to too many sprays and weak fades.

However, a beautiful course. I’ve played National Pines, Glenn Abbey, Rattlesnake, Glenn Cairen and now Greystone. And Blue Springs before it was Clublink. And of them, National Pines and Greystone rank as the top courses for me: because of the dramatic views, and the extremely difficult, yet pure, greens. The money you pay for is definitely in the greens, where it matters the most.

Olivia is 4 today!

Happy Birthday Olivia!

4 years old today. The celebration has spanned the last few days but today is the actual day.

Sunday we spent the day with Sam, Grace, Joey and Angel at African Lion Safari. That was a blast. Your favourite was the splash park. But the trip around the reserve in the tour bus was fun too. You insisted on sitting with Angel at the back of the bus. You got to see monkeys rip trim off of cars, giraffes eating, baby lion cubs, rhinos and more. The Birds of Prey show was exciting too. The horn-rimmed owl was your favourite. Christien was a big fan of the Safari as well. I guess we’ll be going there quite often over the next few summers.

Afterwards, back home for a BBQ and birthday cake with even more guests: Nicole, Perry, Nick and Alex. You ‘raked’ in some nice gifts:
– pretend Bride outfits including invitations from Joey and Angel. Daddy will practice going down the aisle with you
– Whack-a-mole and a splash game (Nicole et al)
– beautiful kid-sized upholstered lounge chair for the basement playroom from Grandma and Nonno
– Scooter and treasure chest full of goodies from Mommy and Daddy. The monkey helmet is your favourite. Don’t every grow up kid!
– Easel from Nanna
– Gift certificat parlayed into a Barbie Jeep from Uncle Luc.

Today it’s fun at the Lion’s Lagoon or the KidZone if it’s too cold. And then dinner at the Boston Pizza for your Bugs’n’Cheese.

A new car

The CR-V is on it’s dying breath. It’s been a fun ride these past 12 years. 263,000 kms and counting. We’ve ordered the new vehicle but it won’t be in our driveway for about 1 month.

I’ve had the CR-V since the fall of ’97. That was the year I moved into Mike P’s place with Sean and Biff. That was before I knew Sonia! I was a fresh faced boy just 2 years out of University. With a bigger paycheck living on own I thought the Civic hatchback was beneath me.

This car has been alongside me (and us) during our most significant events. For example, it was the vehicle that brought Olivia home from the hospital.
That CR-V hasn’t been on too many long trips. But it has been on some good ones:
Boston (2 times: Once with Dan for training in Concord, once with Sean and Susan ‘pre-kids’ days)
Montreal in ’06 with the hitch and trailer from Sauders
Several North Bay trips
Several Wonderboy trips
Trips to cottages/camping (Tara’s rental with Bivva, camping in Goderich)
Too many trips to the Park’n’Fly in T.O. for work
and so on (Anybody else remember anything memorable)?

I remember the weekend I bought the CR-V. I drove up to Hanover with Dan to sign the papers. I didn’t get the car that weekend, but we continued along our way to Sauble Beach to head out on our ill-fated attempt to bike up the Bruce Peninsula right to Tobermory. The downfall was that it was very windy and cold that day. Took us 3 hrs to get to Lion’s Head. Once we found out that weather was going to get worse AND there was no guaranteed accommodation at the destination, we turned around and covered the same distance in 1.5 hrs with the wind at our backs.

Now, the CR-V is a loud, rusty shell of its self. No longer the pioneer of the crossover/sport util craze that it kicked off way back when. It used to turn heads back then. It still does today, but for the wrong reasons: “What the *&%$ is that loud noise coming from?

So it ends it’s life with me as a $500 trade-in to welcome in the new era: An ’09 4×4 V6 Toyota RAV-4. Yes, the Honda man has moved over to Toyota. 3 Reasons:
1) 0% financing
2) More power for less $$ compared to the new CR-V
3) Honda builds CR-V’s that I no longer want. Flimsy, gutless and the seats are painfully rigid. Could not see myself towing anything or driving anywhere for any period of time.

Since we are planning to tow a camper, it was nice to have the towing package and roofrack included in the base price. Very expensive add-ons if buying a CR-V.

Let’s hope the quality is comparable.