Halfway & Beer and Pancakes

Today marks the halfway point/portion of the time off of work.  I might be a day or two plus or minus, but it is the halfway point of the school year at least.  My friends Scott and Leanne start work today for the first time since last June, my friend April starts her half-year off today, and my buddies Rich and Joel are continuing with their full year leave.  It really has seemed and felt like an incredibly long time since July 1, and I just hope this second half feels as long.

There has been silly weather around here.  Quite a bit of rain, more sunshine then usual, and temperatures well above freezing.  I had an hour or two to myself yesterday afternoon and I was going to go for a run outside, but instead I jumped on the KTM and went for a spin around town.  It was nearly 9 centigrade!  The salt, sand, dusty roads and slippery corners are no concern for me.  Not many people would get out this time of year because of all the extra bits of stuff on the road which otherwise scuffs up the bikes and makes riding less (safe) enjoyable, but the KTM doesn't mind such infractions.

I have been running though quite a bit.   I ran every day in January except for 1.  Inside Monday to Thursday, outside for Friday and the weekend - I am pretty sure I have a race coming up at the end of May.  The last time I raced I said never again, why the hell am I doing this nonsense, but it is going to be a relay race with some buddies from university - out on the Cabot Trail, so it should be fun.

Everyone is good around here - School is going well for Molly.  I may have written this, but she seems to be doing very well with the traditional reading, letters, and math awareness - but her printing and letter formation, colouring, cutting, glueing - fine motor stuff, seems suspect.  There is a report card that comes home during the last week of February, so we'll see what it says.

Wally isn't walking unaccompanied yet.  Lots of pulling himself up and meandering around the perimetre of things.  He stands without an aid for 5 seconds or so...  But not walking.  He is always saying good-bye, mom, and dad, but nothing else really.  He is eating lots with his hands, and has 6 good sized teeth to tackle whatever is in his mouth.

Shelly is back at work.  As I wrote the new semester starts today and I gather her 3 classes are all music; a ninth grade instrumental, a guitar only class, and a senior level instrumental too.  Shelly and Molly are in music class on Thursdays.  It is a parent-tot class, a introduction and awareness to Music.  It is called MYC - Music is for Young Children....  They sing songs and get a feel for the notes on the staff, get an understanding of tempo and beat counts, and just get familiar with the discipline.  They both have fun.  It is an hour a week on Thursdays...  Wally and I wrench on the motorbike during this time!

That is about it - Just hanging out really.  I figure the day is only about 6 hours long with Wally; 9:00 am until 3:00 pm.  We are at the YMCA for 90 minutes, he'll sleep for two and a half hours, we eat, and soon enough we are back walking to get Molly.

This was years ago - over 12 anyway, but my brother told me a story about how, and I think this is how the story goes, he was at a tree planting camp and in some capacity they got to a point where all they had to eat/drink was pancakes and beer.  Morning and evening - beer and pancakes.  I don't really think it is that bad of a meal to be honest.  So the other day we had pancakes for dinner, and I just had to crack a beer and tell the family the story of their uncle Trevor and how he used to eat beer and pancakes at some tree planting camp of yester-year...