Back at It

14 months didn't really just come and go too quickly.  It was a long time to be off and enjoying other things.  Enjoying some extra time with friends, some extra trips, and lots of extra family time.  However that all came to an end this week as the daily grind of work commenced.  People were curiously asking me if I was excited or happy or whatever to go back to work.  And in the two weeks out my answer was a resounding yes, that I was happy and looking forward to it and all that.  The night before school started I had an epiphany and it was a resounding no - I was not looking forward to it.

The night before school, last Monday, I met up with my good buddy in town John.  We have always watched a movie together the night before returning to work.  The first time would have been September of 2003.  I can say pretty accurately that we haven't missed a date.  By and by we've been joined by a couple of extra people, but it has always been at least the two of us.  Our friend Adrian joined us this year.  Anyway, long story short, by the time the chit-chatting was done, a few drinks drank, and the movie watched, I had said my goodbyes and I was on my pedal bike returning home. 

It was about 11:00.  It was still about 30 degrees centigrade as it has been very warm lately.  The night was cloudless and there was an abundance of stars. Halfway home it just hit me.  There was an enormous feeling of dread to be going back to work.  The best, one of the very best parts of being off work is not going to work on the first day you need to report.  The first day is most critical and what is important.  It is the first day that is the sweetest of them all.  On the second it diminishes a wee bit, not much, but a bit, and of course it diminishes and diminishes for the remaining 194 working days for teachers in the province.  Days off don't become as special the more you have them - in a sense.  Or to me they don't.

So that hit me like a ton of bricks, and like I wrote, I had reservations about the first day and my impending return at truly the 11th hour.  Nevertheless I did report to work.  I carpooled with my two great colleagues Mike and Liesa, who had most obviously missed me tremendously over the past 14 months, and I got into the swing of things.

Molly is swinging in Senior Kindergarten this year, and Wally is swinging at the municipal day car in town.  I Can't say anything but great things about where the kids are and who is minding them.  School is suiting Molly well....  And again - if Shelly or I can't mind Wally on a full time basis like all of last year, the municipal day care is the best. 

It is full of great and caring primary child care workers and lots of other children for Wally to socialize and interact with.  He gets fed like a champ with nutritious meals and he sleeps there too throughout the day.  And did I mention how great the staff are.  He loves to go, and loves to get picked up and leave at the end of the day too.

Molly is back to the same school and with the same teacher.  There are also, of course, a number of same classmates.  She goes to a bit of a daycare of sorts too before the school day starts and again after it ends.  But that is the way it is....

Shelly - hard at it at the high school with a sundry of classes like music and civics....  She had a bit of tears seeing Wally off on the first day, however she has been at ease for the rest of the week. 

I am, once again, back to Brookside in a bit of a different capacity.  I am charged with most of the Kindergarten, grades 1, 2, 3, and grades 6/7 phys. ed., and the math for the sixth and seventh graders as well.  So I am bouncing around a bit, but, I don't mind it so much.

The four of us are all looking forward to February of 2019 when the next sabbatical starts.  Well, mom and dad anyway.  Until then, I am sure there will be a few adventures and postings along the way.