Hamilton - Landon's first musical

 I was gifted two tickets to Hamilton.  It came through Calgary this year.  I was planning to go to this for years, but then it was streaming on Disney, and the show was coming in the summertime when my family would be in B.C.... it became less and less a priority.

But then I got an offer to take Lurene and Tims tickets because they were in B.C. and couldn't come back.  What Luck!  What a gift!!!!  

I called my first choice, then second, then third, but I wasn't having luck on the person that I'd bring with me.  My family was in B.C., so I couldn't take one of my children.  Not my wife, etc etc etc.  Then I called Miranda and she proposed that I ask Laynie.  What a good idea!  A great choice, but for some reason it didn't dawn on me.  

After asking Laynie she said "oh no, I'm going thursday, I can't go two days in a row!!!".  But shortly after her refusal she got in touch and proposed... what about Landon?  

LANDON!  What a fun idea.  He was interested, and he fits all of the boxes that I like to fill.  Family.  Impressionable.  Eager.  Adorable.  Interested.  This is going to be so fun!  I'll take Landon.

In the hours before the show, I rushed home to get dressed up.  Before home, I swing through superstore.  I get licorice, chewy candies, coke bottle gummies, gummy bears, and that seems like it's probably enough.

I looked at my shoes, and the could use a good polish.  If we're going to present, then lets present well.

So out come the shoes, out comes the polish.  it is SOOOO HOT.  I'm sweating just sitting upstairs in the house.  I've cleaned up, but even brushing the dirt off, and then brushing the first polish on, and then the second... is making me drip with sweat.

I take my system downstairs to polish in the basement.  

We don't have a ton of time.  The show starts at 8:00, Laynie is going to pick me up at 7:15... So no later than 7:00 I have to be ready.

Once the shoes are fresh, I'm feeling ready to go.  

The day before the show, Laynie told me that I shouldn't wear socks, because she'd bought matching Hamilton socks for Landon and I, and that I should be ready to wear matching socks.  Adorable.  I also wax poetic with her about how men don't have purses so I'm not sure exactly how I' mgoing to get the candy into the show, but that I find it critical to keep young ones busy when they hit little walls of exhaustion.

I get picked up by my buddies and we're off to SAIT for the show.  Just a quick trip and we get dropped off at our dropoff/pickup location and off we go walking into the show.

While walking from the Northill mall parking lot, over the 14th street bridge, down the grass, and into the building I am preparing him with as much knowledge as I can.  He tells me that this is his first musical.  He's never BEEN to a musical.  While we are coming over the bridge he translates my explanation of intermission and asks back "so at halftime, can we get a pop".  In the lineup of people walking from the mall, those in front of us are listening in and give a giggle and say sometime nice to him.

As we walk up to the front of the Jubilee, I wonder if my candy is going to make it.  I made two nice big ziploc bags of candy, and to mask them I decided to bring two sets of binoculars in a cloth grociery bag.  I've got a single piece of disposable paper over the candy and below the binoculars but I'm skeptical that it'll pass.

The lovely old man doing "bag check" at the doors opens the bag wide, I can see my candy.  He says "BINOCULARS, NEXT!!!!"  We did it!

Just past the bag inspections there is a nice back drop to take photographs.  I steer Landon over to get some photos.  I am very focused on recording and making sure that we can make a blog post about this experience for memories.

Before the show, we've got ten minutes or more.  I'm not exactly sure where our seats really ARE, so I say that we are going to go up and down all of the stairs to see the art everywhere and explore the building. 

 But before going to level 2 we get in line and grab as much Hamilton show swag as we can get.  Landon chooses a sweatshirt, I choose a scarf.

On the second level I notice that he is showing those socks off as much as he can.  They are up to the top and his pants are tucked into them.  So adorable.  Laynie has done a great job of grabbing those socks at yesterdays show.

I see this beautiful exhibit on the first staircase.  I like it.

We figure out that our tickets are left side on second floor.  So on the seats that sweep down between floor and first balcony.  So off to the second floor to get over and down to that left wing.

Those binoculars, although planned as a distraction to get candy into the show end up being CRITICAL.  When we were leaving the house I was joking that we would look up the noses of the actors with the binoculars, but instead watching regularly gave a broad view of the show and the binoculars were excellent to focus in on the one singing, or watching people in the background.  Lucky for that.

At intermission, we went out to get in line for some water.  We sat in line the whole intermission and still only barely got our waters before going back in.  It was SOOO hot at home, and even in the jubilee it was still abnormally hot.

Thats not true.... before sitting in line for the water I directed us both down to the floor.  We ran up to the pit so that I could show Landon the pit full of adult professional musicians who do this for a living.  I tell him about how the show is nothing without all of that beautiful music in the background but it is also easy to overlook those professionals making the emotions pop with this music.

Just barely with water, and back to our seats, and the show begins.  During that intermission I ask Landon who his favorite three characters are so far, and say that by the end they might change.  He chose Hercules Mulligan, and I can't recall the others.  Maybe George Washington, the king, and Hamilton.

During the end, I catch a few photos with my camera.  I have my flash off, I think I get away with it.  But I'm not going to try too hard.  I know that the screen light bothers those behind me the most.  So I take these photos with the camera pressed up against my chest.

I also get a short clip of the gun battle at the end.  It is such an incredible scene.  Truly spectacular.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kn6zXD7iRAHqYhZx7

Walking out after the show, 11pm, Landon was tired.  He was probably getting tired at about 10.  On the walk to the Jubilee I told him that if he got tired he was allowed to close his eyes.  Many people take a nap or a snooze and that it was totally acceptable.  On the walk back to our rendezvous he revealed that he had closed his eyes, but just for two seconds.  A loud noise woke him up.  On the walk back I realize after watching this show 20 times... that Hamilton sings "I will not throw away my shot".... but that his son dies because he tells his son to throw away his shot.  It only dawns on me now.  A new reveal for me.

And this brings us to the end of the story.  A gift from Lurene, an opportunity to invest in one of the youth in our family, and a new scarf that I can wear around.

Trip to Ireland - part 1

My collegue Val was booked to speak at a conference in Ireland on Public Law, and asked if I felt like going along.  A week in Ireland, thought I?  Hanging out for fun with no obligations?  Going to a conference where i could learn things without having to give a paper?!  Seemed too good to pass up.  So here I am on day two in Dublin, wiped out, but with enough energy to post some photos.  Maybe more storytelling later?

1.   The flight:

We were on the Dreamliner.  Last time I was on a plane like this, i took it down to Yellowknife! ack!   I avoided doing that this time.  

It was gorgeous skies above the clouds.   I was hoping for a super clear sky over the rockies, but this was the best we got!

I did love this brief moment of a break in the clouds, where tiny mountain top lakes were picked out in glorious spots of emerald green or blue.

There was so much cloud cover, that it was only minutes away from landing that we could see below us.  I was struck that flying into Dublin is like flying into Vancouver or Victoria.... you are approaching from the water.  

 Here is (slow moving) one minute of video right as we approached the Emerale Isle.

2.  The Hotel

Val and I both booked into a hotel close to the University where the conference will be.   It is a bit out of the way, but is quite something.  A former hospice for elderly christian brothers?!  Well... it has gorgeous structure, and gorgeous grounds.   A distinct adventure!

The back entrance... lovely forested grounds

hanging out by the fountain and rose gardens

Here is the view of the Ballroom Lounge where I am hanging out while typing this post.

3. First Day in the City

Being the adventurers we are, we figured out public transport into the city, so we could stay AWAKE the full day (we arrived at 10am), as a way of dealing with jet lag.  The selfie is to make sure i captured our bus stop, with the bus numbers on it, so i could ensure we found our way back (using my knowledge of hansel and gretel to drop some metaphorical white pebbles behind us)

We found our way to a Hop-on-hop-off, so we could get an overview of the city (and figure out how to get converter plugs for the UK, so we could charge our various north american electronics).  Before hopping on, we spent a bit of time by the lovely pond in St. Stephen's Green, where we spend some time communing with the seagulls.

Here is a bit of video footage I took by the pool.

The bus itself was fun (if a bit terrifying given how narrow many of the streets are in Dublin.   I was all eyes,  and a bit in despair, since my phone was nearly out of power.   this is one of the only pictures i took while on the bus (and yes, i did manage to catch my finger in the middle of the shot. ... I can't even recall which church this one is?!

Even though neither Val nor I are beer-lovers, we did have to stop at the Guiness Brewery to take the tour.   A good time was had by all!

The entry to the distillery

The view from the pub on top of the building.

When all was said and done.... we worked our way back to the hotel (the pebble trail worked!)  We had managed to successfully stay awake for most of the day.  I will admit that both of us were nodding off at various points on the final leg of the hop-on-hop-off.   So irritating to find oneself occupying the role of 'little old lady on the bus' that i had mocked in my youth!  :-)

More to follow.

3 Larch Haven - Roofing Project

One of the things that was concerning for Arta before she left us was getting the roof replaced on the Lot 3 house.  She made sure that we promised to take care of this as soon as possible as the asphalt shingles were at the end of their life and she was concerned about damage from the build up of moss.  Last spring Richard and Miranda spent time gathering quotes from contractors and provided us with all the information, however Doral and I just didn’t get organized in time to get it done. Knowing it was a priority for Arta we made sure we had time this year to tackle the project. Ultimately, we chose to use Roofing by Dick Contracting from Wetaskiwin, AB, who happens to be my first cousin on my mother’s side.  Dan had done our roof in St. Albert 9 years ago when we moved there, and we were very happy with the work.

The first of the roofing crew (Ted, Melissa & Ethan Dick) arrived early evening on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.  While we waited for the rest to arrive, we decided to take a walk down to the beach.  Along the way homes were pointed out, family relations were explained, and train safety was conveyed.  On the walk back we saw Dave Wood coming down the path with some of his grandchildren.  We stopped to chat for a few minutes and during that time Dave commented to Ted that he didn’t believe that they would be able to do the whole roof in a single day.  Ted mentioned that although they could do it in a single day their plan was to work two half days so that they could enjoy some leisure time in such a beautiful location.  Dave said he still didn’t believe that they could do the roof that fast and would have to see it to believe it.  We continued our journey back with much of expression of amazement of the wonderous beauty around them.

The rest of the roofing crew and the main contractor (Dan, Jason & Kiera Dick) arrived just before dusk.  The very first item of business for Dan was to go up on the roof and check the structural integrity as well as do final ils to make sure he ordered enough roofing materials.  After that he pulled his crew together to discuss strategy and timing for getting the job done. As well as the unpacking of the materials in his truck into the garage.  The plan was to work from 8am – 1pm Thurs & Fri, however the crew agreed that they would like to start sooner on Thurs so that they could enjoy more of the Canada Day holiday on Friday. 

When Thursday morning rolled around the crew was up and on the roof at 6am to start demolition.  At one point we were told that Dan turned to Ted and asked, “Do you think there is a noise ordinance out here that we should be concerned about?”.  Ted laughed and replied, “I don’t think so.”, just as a train loudly thundered by.  

Demolition was pretty much completed mid-day.  Just before they finished Dan relayed that the shingles were definitely at the end of their life, however even though there was lots of moss, there was absolutely no water damage.  There was a little discolouration in one place at the front of the house where the water runs down into a corner of the small strip of shingles just above the door, but all it would need would be some flashing or tar.  

Shingles were delivered and lifted just prior to demotion being complete so the crew was able to roll right into placing new shingles as soon as demolition was done.  As the crew approached their scheduled stopping time the decision was made to keep going.  However, by 2pm the temperature on the roof reached 26C and being so hot Dan told the younger of the crew to be done for the day and go for a swim.  However, he and Ted kept working.  The two men kept working right up until there was hardly any daylight left.  Those of us who thought they were crazy to continue working so late believed that they must have wanted to show Dave Wood that it could be done in a day.  However, the darkness won out and they were forced to leave the rest for the next day. If only they hadn't stopped for lunch! 

 

Friday morning, July 1, was a slower start.  Dan let the crew sleep-in, but they were still back on the roof by 9am. After two hours they had the rest of the roof done, all the new vents cut and placed, completed all the ground clean up and had all the extra materials packed up.   To celebrate they ended with a big bowl of ice cream on the upper deck enjoying the view over the lake. For the remainder of Canada Day, they spent leisure time swimming, walking the property trails, playing board games, eating more ice cream, and consuming Sutherland donuts.  However, it was an early night for all due to the exhaustion they experienced from the previous day.

On Friday night Dan indicated they were planning on leaving at 6:30am and were just going to grab a bowl of cereal before heading out.  But for Doral that just wouldn’t do, so he and I got up at 5:30am this morning to ensure they had a hearty breakfast of waffles, strawberries, whipped cream, Bacon and Orange Juice before leaving.  This did put the crew a tad behind leaving, but as of 7am they were on the road.      

Now Doral and I look around the house and the yard to determine what the next big project is going to be. Everywhere I look, in every nook and cranny I can’t help but think of Arta.  I can just imagine what her presence would have been like had she been here for this project.  She would have had an individual conversation with each person on the roofing crew, asking them questions to get to know them, she would have had fresh baked break and she would have been walking around the outside of the house cleaning up the shingles that hadn’t made it into the dumpster or pruning back the grape vine to make the work easier.  For me Arta is ever present here and it is wonderous!

~ Anita (Treleaven) Johnson