I took Zoe bowling on Saturday and was going to drop her off and shop while she bowled. But the person who was to be taking her, also coaches, and told me that I had to go in and coach as well as drive her there. I usually don’t respond when people boss me, but this was Richard ... so why not let him tell me what to do. I spent enough years telling him what to do.
I am always saying yes to something I don’t know much about. In the first case, I haven’t bowled for years. I did bowl at my friend’s parent’s bowling alley in junior high. But now I hardly know how to score . But I could see Richard was desperate for having the day off, so I told him I would take his place.
When I got to the Pacific Place Bowladrome, I asked for my first coaching lesson. I was told – cheer for anyone who makes a strike, give a high five to anyone who does a spare, and if every ball goes down the gutter, then find some way to give some positive reinforcement.
More rules followed.
Give the participants a call if they forget to go up to the alley when it is their turn. Get them down from the alley if they are up there when it is someone else’s turn.
Write the scores on their cards when each game ends.
That was the end of lesson one.
Watching the social culture between the bowlers became curious, since I was sitting there with not much else to do, but watch.
“Here is something I owe you,” said a a mentally challenged woman to Greg who was at my table. She put a can of pop in front of him.
“She’s my girl friend,” he whispered to one of the workers when they enquired about why he received that gift.
Bill has his own bowling ball and his own shoes. Half way through the morning his ball was missing. Apparently the bowlers put their personal bowling balls in with the regular balls, and then the balls goes up and down the alley. But he hadn’t seen his ball come through for a long time and he began to get nervous. Soon there were four people looking for that ball – a ball with a white stripe going through it. I am pretty removed from all of this, this being my first time as a bowling coach and all. And so I am curious as I see coaches going up and down the alleys, checking for lost bowling balls. I can’t tell one ball from another, but they assure me there is a difference that I will get to understand and they are all out helping Bill.
I watched a social butterfly flit from one team to another, being as coy as could be with some of the men she liked.
“I got this UPS hat at work,” one man told Joan. When she asked him how, he said he got it for going up the one way road, the right way. I asked Joan what that meant. She laughed and said, well, he works at UPS and some of the isles are one way. I guess he got it as a reward for “doing it right”.
Do you know what I was surprised at? When I went to give the first high five, I could feel my stomach knot up. “What am I thinking of. This man/child is going to hit my hand so hard that I will bend over with pain,” I thought. I had seen his bowling ball go down the alley and the sign said, 26 mph. But no. Gentle as a lamb, when it came to touching me. Just a bare brush of flesh between us.
When Wyona and I go to London Monday next, we are taking Zoe with us. I will spend some time every day taking her some place: Hyde Park, Sister Act, Regent’s Park, the London Zoo, the London Eye, ked, Clapham Court, a ride on the bus that circles London proper where we can see all of the great sites. She loves to sit right at the front of the top of the double decker bus. I hear her gasp as the bus driver goes too close to another bus, or just seemingly misses a pedestrian. I will do a lot of walking in the parks with her. That will be good for my health – the walking. I don't think we will be doing any bowling. We will save that for when we get home.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
In English -- iron; in French -- fer
Dear Family,
We had a most miraculous and interesting day. The main event lasted only 40 minutes, which I think is a miracle in itself.
While getting ready for church this morning, I decided I needed to iron my shirt. A rare event, I must admit. I think the last time I ironed something might be over 5 years ago. Found my iron, plugged it in and pulled out my brand new ironing board. Left the iron on the washing machine and ran back upstairs to check on the kids who were having breakfast. Not five minutes later, I went back down stairs to iron my shirt.
When I opened the door to the laundry room, I was met by a terrible burning smell. The air was hazy but there was no frank smoke. I thought, "oh no, the iron has burned the washing machine." Ran around the corner and happily found nothing. Wasn't sure where the smell was coming from but thought I had better iron my shirt fast and unplug the iron.
As I was quickly ironing my shirt, I started to hear this loud crackling sound like there was a live wire in my basement. This was slightly concerning so I followed the sound and found that it was coming from the electrical box of our house. Now, quite alarmed and concerned, I turned off the power to the house. This caused much delight upstairs as I heard the kids excitedly consider the cause of the power outage. With some trepidation, I eventually turned back on the power. Not your typical occurrence! I was quite alarmed and not very keen to leave our house for church before I understood what was going on.
My brief 911 call was transferred to the fire department, who quickly arrived with two very large red fire trucks. I think the phone call and the fire department's arrival took less than 2-3 minutes, again much to my children's delight. Six fireman later, the men were tearing apart my home checking light fixtures, outlets, and eventually opening up the electrical box to examine it.
In classic franglais, we communicated about the problem. I was reminded and will likely never forget that the word for iron in french is fer. The amazing fireman eventually were able to reproduce the terrible smell and crackling sound emanating from our electrical box. Needless to say, the offending line, where I had plugged in the "fer" is now off and we are on the hunt for an electrician to rewire our 90 year old house.
Quite an exciting day. An electrical fire, contained inside our electrical box lasting a total of 40 minutes from start to end. I have a new love and respect for our fire department. However, I hope I don't need to call on them again anytime soon.
Grateful tonight for our safety and for this miraculously interesting day.
Catherine
We had a most miraculous and interesting day. The main event lasted only 40 minutes, which I think is a miracle in itself.
While getting ready for church this morning, I decided I needed to iron my shirt. A rare event, I must admit. I think the last time I ironed something might be over 5 years ago. Found my iron, plugged it in and pulled out my brand new ironing board. Left the iron on the washing machine and ran back upstairs to check on the kids who were having breakfast. Not five minutes later, I went back down stairs to iron my shirt.
When I opened the door to the laundry room, I was met by a terrible burning smell. The air was hazy but there was no frank smoke. I thought, "oh no, the iron has burned the washing machine." Ran around the corner and happily found nothing. Wasn't sure where the smell was coming from but thought I had better iron my shirt fast and unplug the iron.
As I was quickly ironing my shirt, I started to hear this loud crackling sound like there was a live wire in my basement. This was slightly concerning so I followed the sound and found that it was coming from the electrical box of our house. Now, quite alarmed and concerned, I turned off the power to the house. This caused much delight upstairs as I heard the kids excitedly consider the cause of the power outage. With some trepidation, I eventually turned back on the power. Not your typical occurrence! I was quite alarmed and not very keen to leave our house for church before I understood what was going on.
My brief 911 call was transferred to the fire department, who quickly arrived with two very large red fire trucks. I think the phone call and the fire department's arrival took less than 2-3 minutes, again much to my children's delight. Six fireman later, the men were tearing apart my home checking light fixtures, outlets, and eventually opening up the electrical box to examine it.
In classic franglais, we communicated about the problem. I was reminded and will likely never forget that the word for iron in french is fer. The amazing fireman eventually were able to reproduce the terrible smell and crackling sound emanating from our electrical box. Needless to say, the offending line, where I had plugged in the "fer" is now off and we are on the hunt for an electrician to rewire our 90 year old house.
Quite an exciting day. An electrical fire, contained inside our electrical box lasting a total of 40 minutes from start to end. I have a new love and respect for our fire department. However, I hope I don't need to call on them again anytime soon.
Grateful tonight for our safety and for this miraculously interesting day.
Catherine
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Artifacts for Display about a Life Well Lived
When Bonnie read the post about George Parkinson dying, and that his watch, his pen knife and the keys to his truck were on display, their family wondered what would be a good display of artifacts for their lives.
They came up with the following:
Bonnie:
1. a container of mint glide floss.
2. a recording of my belly laugh (which would include a snort) on a speech generation device (SGR) that you could push to play back.
3. a soap stone carving a "Gavagai" to represent my love of studying language acquisition.
4. a can of diet coke.
Joaquim:
1. a recycled paper folded into four so that a clean white square faces the outside of the pocket, with a pen hooked on to it.
2. his daytimer.
3. a collection of coins with his money ledger for his quarterly accounting.
4. his articles, books, and manuscripts, with the one about being a father on the top.
David:
1. His "Life is Good" cap that has a train on it.
2. His drawings of the Olympic Torch runner in Sicamous and the one of him feeding Kiwi.
3. A recording of his laugh on a SGD that I could play back.
4. Two lego objects tied together with a string.
5. A set of his stories/writings from his powerpoint books he has created on the computer.
6. His stuffed cat called "Meow meow".
They came up with the following:
Bonnie:
1. a container of mint glide floss.
2. a recording of my belly laugh (which would include a snort) on a speech generation device (SGR) that you could push to play back.
3. a soap stone carving a "Gavagai" to represent my love of studying language acquisition.
4. a can of diet coke.
Joaquim:
1. a recycled paper folded into four so that a clean white square faces the outside of the pocket, with a pen hooked on to it.
2. his daytimer.
3. a collection of coins with his money ledger for his quarterly accounting.
4. his articles, books, and manuscripts, with the one about being a father on the top.
David:
1. His "Life is Good" cap that has a train on it.
2. His drawings of the Olympic Torch runner in Sicamous and the one of him feeding Kiwi.
3. A recording of his laugh on a SGD that I could play back.
4. Two lego objects tied together with a string.
5. A set of his stories/writings from his powerpoint books he has created on the computer.
6. His stuffed cat called "Meow meow".
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Chelsea gets another operation
Tomorow Chelsea will be operated on again. The soonest she will be out will be this coming Sunday. Teague is bringing the rest of the family back to Calgary from Medicine Hat on Friday.
There is some fine tuning that has to be done to the bolts that are holding the pin in Chelsea's back.
Arta
There is some fine tuning that has to be done to the bolts that are holding the pin in Chelsea's back.
Arta
The OlympicTorch Comes to Salmon Arm
From Moiya:
It was thrilling to see the houseboats come up the channel with the torch lit for all to see.
I saw Bonnie Wyora down below standing where she could almost touch the torch bearer as he ran by. I've been sick and can't shout, but tried to and then I tried to whistle. She doesn't know my whistle yet. I finally saw them in the gymasium with the rest of the town who were there for free food.
We got little free paper flags and they had little bowls of stew, a bun, and a drink from McDonalds. I heard that all the restaurants in Sicamous got together to do the planning for it. A mammoth job it was to feed all of those people! I am sure that Bonnie can tell you how that was, as her family stayed for the food.
I was overcome with emotion as the torch went by. I ran down the street as fast as my legs would carry me, with the torch. The man running behind the torch, the man trying to control the crowd told us to stay behind him. My legs finally gave out and I walked at a fast pace. I didn't do the tread mill that day but I did get my exercise in.
I stood beside the display which had the medals there too. As I am quite sick, I finally took the medals and David and I went home. I left the rest of the display there and the Principal said he would take my things to his office.
Now David is back from town with the picture and he is going to hang it back up on the wall for me. Not too many people came and looked at the display. They were there for free food.David is back and he said that the principal said a lot of people were asking about it.
Moiya
It was thrilling to see the houseboats come up the channel with the torch lit for all to see.
I saw Bonnie Wyora down below standing where she could almost touch the torch bearer as he ran by. I've been sick and can't shout, but tried to and then I tried to whistle. She doesn't know my whistle yet. I finally saw them in the gymasium with the rest of the town who were there for free food.
We got little free paper flags and they had little bowls of stew, a bun, and a drink from McDonalds. I heard that all the restaurants in Sicamous got together to do the planning for it. A mammoth job it was to feed all of those people! I am sure that Bonnie can tell you how that was, as her family stayed for the food.
I was overcome with emotion as the torch went by. I ran down the street as fast as my legs would carry me, with the torch. The man running behind the torch, the man trying to control the crowd told us to stay behind him. My legs finally gave out and I walked at a fast pace. I didn't do the tread mill that day but I did get my exercise in.
I stood beside the display which had the medals there too. As I am quite sick, I finally took the medals and David and I went home. I left the rest of the display there and the Principal said he would take my things to his office.
Now David is back from town with the picture and he is going to hang it back up on the wall for me. Not too many people came and looked at the display. They were there for free food.David is back and he said that the principal said a lot of people were asking about it.
Moiya
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Hello Dolly
Hello Dolly,
I taped Jerry Herman’s Hello Dolly from the T.V. last month and sat one evening to watch Walter Matthau and Barbara Streisand give their memorable performances in that show.
Then this Tuesday, Wyona and I went to see the local production of Hello Dolly – this time with Lurene as part of the seven piece band that accompanied the work. The band began the evening with a set of Dixieland tunes – and then the official performance began.
Wyona and I switched back and forth between watching the performers, listening to the band back up the performers, and then waving back at Lurene as she and the rest of the orchestra came on the stage for the bows at the end of the performance.
Thanks, Lurene for the fun. Since the performance I have gone out to the internet to find some memorable quotes from the play. You proably know them all, having been at so many rehearsals:
Horace: Advice is cheap, Ms. Molloy. It's the things that come gift wrapped that count!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Horace: It takes a woman all powdered and pink to joyously clean out the drain in the sink!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dolly Levi: Here, let me cut your wings!
Horace: I don't want my wings cut!
Dolly Levi: No man does, Horace, no man does.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dolly Levi: Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around, encouraging young things to grow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barnaby Tucker: Holy cabooses!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornelius Hackl: We're gonna close the store.
Barnaby Tucker: Close the store?
Cornelius Hackl: We have to, 'cause some rotten cans of chicken mash are going to explode.
Barnaby Tucker: Holy cabooses, how do you know?
Cornelius Hackl: Because I'm gonna light some candles under them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dolly Levi: [singing] It takes a woman to quietly plan to take him and change him to her kind of man and to gently lead him where fortune can find him and not let him know that the power behind him was that dainty woman, that fragile woman, that sweetheart, that mistress, that wife.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe, Vandergelder's barber: You'll have to sit still, Mr Vandergelder. If I cut your throat it'll be practically unintentional.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Horace: I'm going to march in the 14th street parade with the only kind of people I can trust: 700 men.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Horace: Eighty percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in danger of contamination.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Given that I might be in the eighty percent of the people in the world who are fools, that might not be the best quote to end with ... but hey, some of us have to be there to make the others fear something ... if only contamination. And watching the local production was really fun, even if the memorable quotes are kind of goofy.
Arta
I taped Jerry Herman’s Hello Dolly from the T.V. last month and sat one evening to watch Walter Matthau and Barbara Streisand give their memorable performances in that show.Then this Tuesday, Wyona and I went to see the local production of Hello Dolly – this time with Lurene as part of the seven piece band that accompanied the work. The band began the evening with a set of Dixieland tunes – and then the official performance began.
Wyona and I switched back and forth between watching the performers, listening to the band back up the performers, and then waving back at Lurene as she and the rest of the orchestra came on the stage for the bows at the end of the performance.
Thanks, Lurene for the fun. Since the performance I have gone out to the internet to find some memorable quotes from the play. You proably know them all, having been at so many rehearsals:
Horace: Advice is cheap, Ms. Molloy. It's the things that come gift wrapped that count!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Horace: It takes a woman all powdered and pink to joyously clean out the drain in the sink!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dolly Levi: Here, let me cut your wings!
Horace: I don't want my wings cut!
Dolly Levi: No man does, Horace, no man does.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dolly Levi: Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around, encouraging young things to grow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barnaby Tucker: Holy cabooses!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornelius Hackl: We're gonna close the store.
Barnaby Tucker: Close the store?
Cornelius Hackl: We have to, 'cause some rotten cans of chicken mash are going to explode.
Barnaby Tucker: Holy cabooses, how do you know?
Cornelius Hackl: Because I'm gonna light some candles under them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dolly Levi: [singing] It takes a woman to quietly plan to take him and change him to her kind of man and to gently lead him where fortune can find him and not let him know that the power behind him was that dainty woman, that fragile woman, that sweetheart, that mistress, that wife.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe, Vandergelder's barber: You'll have to sit still, Mr Vandergelder. If I cut your throat it'll be practically unintentional.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Horace: I'm going to march in the 14th street parade with the only kind of people I can trust: 700 men.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Horace: Eighty percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in danger of contamination.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Given that I might be in the eighty percent of the people in the world who are fools, that might not be the best quote to end with ... but hey, some of us have to be there to make the others fear something ... if only contamination. And watching the local production was really fun, even if the memorable quotes are kind of goofy.
Arta
Preparing for an emergency
Dear Family,
Just thought I would forward this simple page about how a family can prepare for an emergency.
http://www.providentliving.org/content/list/0,11664,8034-1,00.html
After the recent disaster in Haiti, I am reminded that disaster can strike any of us without warning. It is such a good idea to have a plan and a small supply of food and water on hand.
Seventy-two hours is the time it takes to mobilize emergency services.
Also of interest is the Canadian government's website about getting a 72 hour emergency plan.
http://www.getprepared.gc.ca/index-eng.aspx
Thinking of all of you.
Catherine
Just thought I would forward this simple page about how a family can prepare for an emergency.
http://www.providentliving.org/content/list/0,11664,8034-1,00.html
After the recent disaster in Haiti, I am reminded that disaster can strike any of us without warning. It is such a good idea to have a plan and a small supply of food and water on hand.
Seventy-two hours is the time it takes to mobilize emergency services.
Also of interest is the Canadian government's website about getting a 72 hour emergency plan.
http://www.getprepared.gc.ca/index-eng.aspx
Thinking of all of you.
Catherine
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