Pause for thought

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy

Benjamin Franklin.

One week to go now until our giant trip down the west coast. I am gently filling my days at work with tidying up and paperwork tasks, Internet research on San Francisco, Napa Valley wine tours or surfing techniques (as I could learn anything useful at all sat behind a Cow Town desk). It's been 5 or six weeks since I ran anywhere due to continued pain in my IT band but it seems to be slightly better after lots of stretching, so, all covered in well engineered tape by Chantal at school I am prepared to go for a trial run this afternoon. I have yet to make any decisions about the half marathon, but I am relentlessly optimistic

On the long weekend at the start of May Victoria and I returned from camping in Jasper via the Columbia Icefield and we took a tour ON A GLACIER! We were driven out on a kind of hand-built bus with balloon tyres on a hot sunny day and stood in awe on a sheet of ice 30m thick. Our guide was something of a Glacial expert (doctorate in it etc) and told us about Glacial retreat. Apparently the glaciers in the Rocky mountains have been in gradual and constant retreat since about 1850. It is currently retreating at about 2 metres per year OHMIGOD!!! GLOBAL WARMING, AARGH!!!

Nope.

It has retreated 1600m in the last 100m years, an average rate of 16m per year.


It's currently melting MUCH MUCH SLOWER than it has done for last 160 years.

Now, I'm not denying global warming; heaven forbid. All of my left leaning friends would have me stoned in the street, but this doesn't seem to chime with the alarmist figures I hear again and again. Yes, the earth is getting warmer, but more than normal?

So, drive fewer miles in a smaller-engined car, recycle, turn off lights etc etc, but also, for Socrates' sake, keep an open mind...

BTW, after a year of three, four or even five litre V6, V8 and V10 car engines it will be nice to get back to a place where our 1.8 litre Ford is considered excessive by some.


Many friends are saying goodbye this weekend. We have both felt so very welcomed here in Calgary and we will miss all of you. Please, come find us in Leeds. I'll show you what the Good Lord meant when he said 'Let there be beer.'

Graduation and wedding

Last Friday saw 95% of our 18 year old grade 12 students graduate from high school and walk the stage in the auditorium at Calgary University. It was a significant ritual in their young lives and one they have worked hard to achieve. They were genuinely proud and nervous as they stepped onto the stage beside me and walked off to collect their graduation certificate from Mr MacFarland, the Principal. I was on stage announcing names, a task generally performed by teachers who are retiring that year. It was a real honour to be asked as I am just going home, but I didn't realise how big a deal the whole shebang was until it began. I've been trying to explain to folks over here that we don't so much graduate from High School as simply stop going, any celebrations being a more personal affair as one picks up the insignificant looking envelope containing results of A-levels or GCSEs. Seeing as our graduands had yet to finish their exams and therefore didn't know for sure that they would actually graduate I was expecting this to be all pomp and circumstance, a sop to a North American tradition, so it was a treat to be proved wrong and a privilege to be a part of an afternoon these young people will remember for the rest of their lives. Well done all of you, may your lives continue to be filled with the hope and promise we all see in you.

As soon as I left grad we were off to witness the start of another great adventure: the marriage of Jen Van de Laak to her farming beau Jim in the small prairie town of Leader, Saskatchewan. It was a truly beautiful day and the weather could not have been better. We spent much of the day surrounded by country music, cowboy hats, pick-up trucks, wide-open spaces and the friendly welcoming atmosphere of a small town where everybody knows everybody else's business and cares about them. All 235 guests ate well and enjoyed themselves and the happy couple were genuinely happy all day, surrounded by people who loved them. It made Vic and I remember our wedding day fondly, as weddings always do. The only other time in your life all your friends and relatives will get together to celebrate you is likely to be your funeral and I am not hoping to have that party for a good while yet! Vic and I finished our day as the wedding photographers with 849 photos to edit and touch up. I can't even imagine how much it would have cost to do a wedding back in the days of film.
Jim and Jen tied the knot at 3.37 pm. God bless every minute you guys spend together, and thanks for having us there.

I am putting the finishing touches to this on Friday morning, the 6th June. I have 3 more teaching days left between now and September and I am both excited about the upcoming adventure as well as sad to be leaving what has been an excellent year all round; great school, nice kids, friendly dept, the most welcoming church I have ever come across. awesome skiing and a whole heap of fabulous friends. That said, it's going to be great to get home and see all our friends there who we have missed so much.

I promise to write again soon,,

R