It’s been six years since I’ve done one of these. There’s a host of reasons why, but it can be boiled down to a simple reality: I just didn’t want to. The last few years have been … challenging. And writing wasn’t something I was getting enough into, so writing about what I was doing (which wasn’t a lot) ended up not happening.
The passion was gone. And not just in the desire to write (or blog), it was out for a whole host of things. The candle had been blown out and I ended up being thrust into a perpetual dusk. In some strange form of irony, being stuck at home for most of 2021 due to the on-going pandemic seemed to actually spark something in me that had been dormant, bordering on going extinct. I felt a need to write. And not stories, I wanted to write trivial minutae again.
That relighting of a candle led to other sparks, which led to more candles, which has – though not entirely – rekindled the passion I felt so long ago.
It also means I need to do a little catch-up, since I’ve been so silent here for so long. So let’s review the last few years, eh?
2016
I did my last Year In Review in January of 2016. Here’s the things that followed…
- Bought a new car (a Honda CRV), partly as a result of witnessing a traumatic vehicular crash a few months earlier
- Visited the annual Westgate Winterfest, complete with fireworks
- Accepted a full-time position with the University of Calgary
- Watched my children lose their teeth (Choo Choo even pulling hers out!)
- Experienced a fairly warm Easter Egg hunt in our backyard (sans snow!)
- Comforted Choo Choo as she went in for an inguinal hernia surgery
- Visited Telus Spark and was reminded (again) that it falls woefully short on being a good a science centre
- Visited the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, AB
- Travelled through the Foothills several times
- Went to New Orleans for the first time in 20 years on a conference
- Starting planning a trip to Walt Disney World
- Went camping in Glenwood with Lisa and Di
- Saw the kids do their stage work with Music and Play
- Went camping at Crimson Lake
- Went to the Rocky Mountain House Historical Site
- Enjoyed the Stampede with the girls
- Went camping at Little Bow Provincial Park
- Visited the Vulcan Visitor’s Centre and museum
- Visited Mossleigh (and the grain elevators), albeit briefly
- Saw The Tragically Hip perform live on their final tour
- Watched Monkey get her ears pierced for her birthday
- Went to Calaway Park
- Watched Monkey go on her first solo trip on a plane (to visit her grandparents)
- Grew my best-ever crop of hops
- Went to Heritage Park a few times (including a rare snowy day to take pictures of the steam trains)
- Went to Saskatoon Berry Farms near Okotoks
- Went to the Big Rock outside of Okotoks
- Saw the girls perform in a gymnastics show
- Surprised the girls early one morning, on a regular school day, telling them that they would be getting a plane in a few hours, and go to Walt Disney World!
- Flew to Toronto with a couple hour layover, before flying to Orlando
- Stayed in the Little Mermaid section of the Art of Animation Resort at Walt Disney World
- Went to Disney Springs (which shouldn’t seem like much, but it was pretty cool)
- Went to Epcot Center for the first time in a few decades)
- Went to the Kennedy Space Center, went on a long tour, saw a space shuttle and a Saturn V, then the ISS passed overhead
- Went to Animal Kingdom, and saw a lot of animals
- Scared the crap out of the girls on the Dinosaur! dark ride
- Went to the Magic Kingdom and watched my girls be princesses for a day, complete with fireworks to close it out
- Returned home just after midnight on Christmas Day, and managed to convince the girls to hurry to bed so Santa would come, keeping the magic going another year
- Had New Year’s Tea early, as Alex had to work on New Year’s Day
2017
We stuck around to Alberta and British Columbia this year. We got around, but we didn’t go too far.
- Attended Allan’s first official day as interim minister of Grace Presbyterian, which was a pretty neat affair
- Drove out to Ruskin for the first time in over a year
- Took the ferry to Victoria for the first time in many, many years
- Went to the Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea aquarium
- Took one of my favourite family photos in Fan Tan Alley
- Visited Miniature World
- Saw Roger the Empress Marmot
- Had a wonderful Afternoon Tea at the Empress
- Visited Fort Rodd Hill
- Visited the Fisgard Lighthouse
- Stood on the almost-abandoned E&N tracks, praying for trains to return
- Visited the Beacon Hill Children’s Farm and watched baby goats jump on my children
- Went to Rathtrevor Beach. It was too cold to swim.
- Saw the long-unused Parksville VIA station
- Had ice cream at Coombs. The goats were not on the roof that day.
- Saw the mouth of the Courtenay River, one of the shorted navigable rivers in the world
- Went to Courtenay
- Took the ferry from Nanaimo to Tsawwassen (I think for the first time)
- Listened to Monkey play guitar in her school club (Tom Petty, no less!)
- Saw Choo Choo perform in her first ¡Que Pasa! performance
- Went to Heritage Park at least once
- Watched my University of Calgary team accept awards for their performance and dedication over the previous few years
- Saw Choo Choo and Monkey run in their first Kids’ Run For Nature
- Watched the girls ride in the annual Westgate Canada Day bicycle parade
- Witnessed more teeth being pulled, giving Choo Choo a couple of months missing two front teeth
- Went to Skytrek Adventure Park and watched Choo Choo dangle way up in the air to her delight
- Camped at Canyon Hot Springs Resort … which was the loudest campground (due to trains climbing Rogers Pass) I’ve ever witnessed
- Went to Giant Cedars Boardwalk
- Walked the remains of the Rogers Pass railway between Loop Brook and Illecillewaet Campground (before CP buried it in a tunnel)
- Saw the Illecillewaet glacier
- Went to the Stampede
- Went to Glenwood to camp with Lisa and family
- Floated on the Belly River
- Went to Red Rock Canyon
- Hiked to Blakiston Falls
- Went to Waterton Lake (for the first time)
- Saw Cameron Falls
- Saw some amazing sunsets
- Went to Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump for the first time since 2002
- Found the Old Macleod Trail
- Saw Justin Trudeau, shortly before Dean Brody (the latter was more memorable)
- Went to Canmore
- Saw Monkey perform in her Mermaid class at the UofC
- Took Monkey for another solo flight to the grandparents
- Celebrated Monkey’s 10 birthday with a Marvel Superhero party
- Witnessed a partial eclipse of the sun (my first since I was a kid)
- Went to Sikome Lake for Monkey’s birthday
- Saw Choo Choo take a tae kwan do class and do pretty well (but she decided not to pursue it any further)
- Went to Fairmont Hot Springs
- Went to Invermere
- Went kayaking for the first time since Alex and I were married (with Choo Choo!)
- Played minigolf at Funtasia
- Had a very smokey hike on the Juniper Trail (due to forest fires)
- Went to Calgary Farmyard (formerly the Calgary Corn Maze) with Nana
- Saw an evening of Beakerhead
- Met astronaut (and UofC Chancellor) Robert Thirsk
- Went to Calaway Park to experience their Halloween event
- Voted for Naheed Nenshi
- Went to Chinook Honey near Okotoks for their winter event (and got a wonderful picture of Choo Choo hugging a donkey)
- Flew to Abbotsford to spend Christmas in Ruskin
- Saw snow in the Lower Mainland for the first time in 16 years
- Went to The North Pole at the Timberline Ranch
- Had my biggest Christmas dinner since 2001 (though not nearly as loud)
- Saw the Bright Nights lights at Stanley Park
- Had a second, smaller Christmas in Calgary
2018
The girls got older and less child-like, and this might be the first year I really noticed it, especially with Choo Choo.
- Had New Year’s Tea at the Fairmonth Palliser in Calgary, as Alex had to work and getting back from Banff in time is difficult at the very least
- “Celebrated” 20 years living outside of Ontario
- Mourned the loss of Monkey’s last tooth; she’s no longer truly a child
- Alex and I went to Banff for her birthday
- Drove out to Drumheller very early one morning to buy a lamb, which I split with my friend Duane, the sunrise that morning was gorgeous
- Bade farewell to Joanne, who was our wonderful neighbour-cum-surrogate grandparent for our kids
- Got really annoyed with some of the University management, as they chose to play politics rather than work to a communal solution
- Choo Choo turned 8, with a forest-themed cake by Alex
- Had to shovel snow off the roof because it just refused to melt (caused a crack in the ceiling)
- Had a belated birthday party for Choo Choo at Butterfield Acres as it opened for the season … still covered in thick snow
- Celebrated Lisa’s birthday in Okotoks
- Tried to have Easter in our backyard, but there was still so much snow!
- Then, suddenly, we’re out in shorts by the end of April, suntanning on the front lawn
- Went to the Calgary Beer Fest
- Went to Big Hill Provincial Park
- Launched our project at the University of Calgary
- Accepted a new position with Travel Alberta
- Went to Calgary Farm Yard
- Went to several of Calgary’s new breweries
- Went to Aspen Crossing for Father’s Day (and rode the train!)
- Roamed downtown with Monkey, Choo Choo, and “the third child”, Sofia
- Saw the Canada Day fireworks from Crescent Heights
- Spent 90 minutes getting out of Crescent Heights afterwards
- Went camping at Two Jack Lake in Banff National Park
- Visited the former mining community of Bankhead
- Saw a lot of elk
- Climbed partway up Cascade Mountain … in sandals
- Saw the Stampede fireworks
- Went to Stampede (and Choo Choo got her unicorn)
- Went to Interlakes to celebrate Jen and Rob’s engagement (and saw bears)
- Went for a short hike at Upper Lake
- Went for a long drive out to Drumheller, passed by the Atlas Coal Mine (but didn’t visit), took a favourite picture of the girls in a wheat field
- Had a party at Aunt Brenda’s
- Took Monkey to meet her favourite radio hosts, Rob and Joelle, at Kool 101.5, for her 11th birthday
- Went to Fairmont Hot Springs for the last time under the timeshare agreement
- Went to Invermere
- Saw fawns walk by our condo in Fairmont Hot Springs
- Went minigolfing at Funtasia
- Went ziplining a couple hundred feet over Fairmont Creek (Choo Choo might have loved it a bit too much)
- Went for a long hike on the Power Wagon trail
- Went to Railway Days at Heritage Park
- Went to Ghoul’s Night Out at Heritage Park
- Went to Calgary Farm Yard
- Went to the grand opening of the new Central Public Library
- Went to the Santa Claus Parade in Banff
- Experienced a serious rollercoaster in Asia’s health where she probably came close to death
- Went on my first photography course with Neil Zeller (at the library)
- Got our first Christmas inflatable, a giant reindeer that Choo Choo calls a moose (she loves moose)
- Took another course with Neil Zeller, taking pictures at night of downtown Calgary
- Went to the Glenbow Museum for the first time since 2004(?)
- Went to Chinook Honey’s winter fest
- Went into the forest to cut down our first completely natural Christmas tree
- Had a quiet Christmas at home, but had family a few days later
- Went to Zoolights
2019
Like millions of others around the world, this would be our last “normal” year before the pandemic started. I don’t feel like we wasted this year, we got quite a bit out of it, but it definitely feels very long ago now.
- Went to New Years Tea on New Year’s Day in Banff with Grandpa and Granny
- Took Choo Choo on the Super Secret Kitty Surprise: a sled dog experience in Canmore
- Went Aurora chasing twice
- Dropped a glass carbuoy while cleaning it and slashed open the tip of my middle finger on my left hand (I still have a scar)
- Went geocaching with Alex on her birthday (her request)
- Saw Choo Choo present her science fair project at school on her 9th birthday
- Celebrated Lisa’s birthday in Okotoks
- Went to the National Music Centre, heard the brilliance of the Kimball Theatre Organ
- Took another photography course with Neil Zeller, a two-night class doing (surprise, surprise) night photography
- Went to the Big Rock outside Okotoks (and got a picture of the ISS flying over)
- Went to Mossleigh to get star fields over the tracks and grain elevators
- Went to Supertrains for the first time in years
- Took the kids out to Elbow Falls
- Had a warmer Easter, with no snow!
- Then had a blizzard less than a week later
- Went to Seattle for the first time since 1999
- Went to the Microsoft Campus and saw a lot of very cool things
- Went to Geocaching HQ for Alex…
- …had some excellent Seattle beer…
- …and saw the troll under the bridge
- Saw Choo Choo and Monkey both perform in the annual (and their last) ¡Que Pasa!
- Hunted a few more aurora (though not as successfully as the previous year)
- Went for a hike in Fish Creek Park
- Had a train chasing day with Neil Zeller and some other photogs, going all the way to Field and back (I may have left the kids home alone a lot longer than planned)
- Finally saw the Natural Bridge in Yoho National Park
- Came face-to-face with a juvenile moose as it came through our back alley, across our front lawn, and even flopped in the backyard for a rest
- Watched Choo Choo run in another Kids’ Run for Nature
- Visited Saskatoon Berry Farm (and bought an apple tree for our yard)
- Saw Monkey perform in a hip-hop dance recital
- Went to Red Deer to support Erin in a walkathon for cancer
- Hiked along the long-abandoned Alberta Central Railway (now a rail trail) in southeast Red Deer
- Hiked a portion of the Powderface trail in Kananaskis
- Saw Monkey “graduate” from Grade 6
- Revelled with my entire family as we all congregated in Banff to witness my cousin Jen wed her partner Rob…
- …and I barely managed to get into my kilt…
- …and managed not to make a complete ass of myself
- Took a ski lift up Whitehorn Mountain at Lake Louise Ski Resort and hiked a bit with Cathy and the collective family
- Went to the Stampede, saw SuperDogs … the DogBowl … whatever it’s called, for the first time in ages
- Went to Prince Edward Island for the first time (another province ticked off the list)
- Went to North Rustico, PEI
- Went to Green Gables Heritage Place
- Saw a lot of lighthouses
- Went to Cavendish Beach
- Went to a Ceilidh at the Malpeque Community Centre
- Raced to see the sun set over Malpeque Bay
- Visited the home of Cows Creamery (they have a location in Banff that we’ve frequented over the years)
- Saw Confederation House (but had to do so virtually due to renovations)
- Went to Montague
- Hiked for a bit on the old PEI railway (now Confederation Trail)
- Saw lots of perfect rows of PEI potatoes
- Went to Basin Head
- Watched my daughters plunge themselves into the Basin Head channel
- Went to East Point, saw the lighthouse and a lovely fox
- Saw the sun set around Covehead Harbour (and its lighthouse)
- Went to Kensington and saw one of the original PEI railway station houses (and some of the last actual rail still in situ)
- Went to Sunnyside (for breakfast)
- Saw (and drove over) the Conferation Bridge
- Drove briefly through New Brunswick
- Went to Nova Scotia for the first time since 2002
- Went to Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia…
- …saw the old station house and a lot of cabooses…
- …and the only prairie-style grain elevator east of Manitoba
- Found the wonder that is Mabel Murples Book Shoppe & Dreamery
- Went to Antigonish
- Visited with family in Fall River
- Went to Peggy’s Cove
- Went to White Pointe Beach Resort
- Went to Carters Beach (a real gem)
- Went to Lunenburg
- Hiked for a bit on the old Coast Railway of Nova Scotia (now Bridgewater Centennial Trail), on a bridge over LaHave River
- Went to Mahone Bay
- Went for a paddleboat ride
- Saw the old station house in Liverpool, and walked for a bit on the rail trail there
- Went to Huntsville, Ontario to visit with Cathy and mom and family
- Watched the girls play with their cousins at the inflatable waterpark at Deerhurst Resort
- Saw a few more amazing sunsets
- Went to the Legoland Discovery at Vaughn Mills
- Saw fireflies in Oakville for the first time since I was a kid
- Went to Centreville in Toronto for the first time since I was a kid
- Went to Azuridge Estate for brunch with my mom, aunt, and uncle
- Went camping in Glenwood with Lisa and her family, and floated on the Belly River
- Saw a Stampeders game with Grenville, as he was visiting from England
- Saw Monkey and Choo Choo go unescorted on a plane to visit the grandparents
- Went camping at Red Lodge Provincial Park
- Went hiking on Heart Creek
- Celebrated Monkey’s 12th birthday
- Went to the Calgary Farm Yard
- Saw some Beakerhead events (including one at the Central Public Library)
- Saw Railway Days at Heritage Park in the snow!
- Watched the kids play in leaf piles (for what was the last time)
- Saw Disney on Ice
- Started to seriously dislike the unnecessary politics at my job
- Built our first LEGO holiday-themed house
- Went to a coworker Christmas party somewhere in the deep south of Calgary
- Saw Monkey and our “third child” perform in Music and Play “Nightmare Before Christmas” show
- Saw Choo Choo perform in her “taste of the circus” gymnastics show
- Had a quiet Christmas at home, no visitors this year
- Went to Banff
- Went off to Evamy Ridge to take pictures of the New Years fireworks over downtown
- Wrote 1 blog entry the entire year. My lowest point, to be sure.
2020
This was the year the pandemic settled into the world. Although it had started the year before, it didn’t really reach Canada until late January, and didn’t become a problem until March. This was the year that changed everyone, often in painful ways. The only person who had anywhere near a normal year was Alex, though only because healthcare was needed more than ever.
- Started off the New Year by photographing fireworks over downtown
- Went for New Years Tea in Banff with Grandpa and Granny
- Watched Choo Choo play (indoor) soccer
- Everyone entered shutdown as we tried to stem COVID19 – the kids went online at home, and I started working out of the basement
- Celebrated Choo Choo’s 10th birthday, regrettably without her retinue of friends
- Started baking my own bread
- Took pictures of the sun setting on 7th Avenue
- Despite the pandemic, continued with getting renovations done at the house: improve the dining area, improving the insulation in our bedroom
- Worked in the basement, alone
- Tried to get out of the house a few weeks later for a picnic in Rawley, but hit a broken piece of asphalt and punctured the oil pan in the Honda
- Had a belated party for Choo Choo with her friends through Zoom
- Participated in Neil Zeller’s Porchtraits, including having our story in his book
- Got our for a few hikes, none of which were restful as we felt terrified to be near anyone else
- Moved back into our (rebuilt) bedroom after nearly two months of sleeping in the basement
- (I spent a lot of time in the basement this year)
- Watched the kids and their friends dance about in a heavy spring rainstorm
- Went to Discovery Wildlife Park in Innisfail
- At the age of 48, started playing Dungeons & Dragons with old friends through Zoom; while most of us are in Calgary, our Dungeon Master lives in Japan
- Girls completed their school year at home, never having returned since leaving in March
- Really got into the British archeology show, Time Team, thanks to episodes being uploaded to YouTube
- Accepted a position at Shaw Communications (and went unemployed for two weeks)
- Drove to Ruskin
- Went on a hike around Whonnock Lake
- Drove far off the grid to help Alex get some difficult geocaches
- Took pictures of hummingbirds
- Celebrated Allan’s 80th birthday in the most socially-separated way we could manage despite having guests
- (My birthday was the day before. We had a wonderful dinner as a gift from Allan and Jean’s neighbour)
- Saw the NEOWISE comet over Ruskin with the ISS flying through
- Experienced a tremendous hailstorm, the worst I’ve seen in Calgary
- Went to McKinnon Flats along the Bow River
- Went to Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park
- Bought a used 1977 Dodge Tradesmen 200 camper van, dubbed “VANessa”
- Floated down the Bow River for the first time
- Went camping (with VANessa) in Glenwood for first DI Weekend (a bit risky, but as most were in healthcare and already vaccinated…)
- Went out to Bragg Creek on a day trip to celebrate Monkey’s 13th birthday
- Girls started the school year online, though eventually went to school in person
- Went to Banff for our anniversary (which we hadn’t done in ages)
- Had an amazing dinner and cocktails at The Radiant
- Started digitizing all my old negatives
- Went camping (with VANessa) at Little Bow
- Rearranged the backyard to park VANessa
- Took pictures of a sunrise over Lake Louise…
- …and a lovely yellow sunset over Springbank
- Went to Banff with the girls for a day trip
- Went to Calgary Farm Yard
- Celebrated Donald Trump’s defeat in the US Presidental election and held hope for a rolling back of all the right-wing assholery
- Burned all the old negatives once the scanning and categorization was complete (when you can’t leave the house because of COVID, you end up with a lot more spare time)
- Celebrated another quiet Christmas
- Went sledding on C-Train Hill near our house
And that catches us up to 2021…
