Today's song is: Straight from the Heart  .. Bryan Adams  .. great Canadian singer

I am back at my sister's (Elaine) and we are packing for our 7 day trip to Prince Edward Island (along with my other sister Ann and my daughter Jaime) to spread my Mom's ashes along the beach where we vacationed for many years. It will be our first family road trip (and probably last) in quite some time. Unfortunately my son Jordan can not join us as he is working at 2 jobs this summer to augment his occasion teaching during the school year.

My Canada trip (not really a vacation, a lot of work) is coming to a close. I am looking forward to returning to Thailand and seeing Thavorn and Jaidan. Jaidan seems to have developed quite a sense of humor in my absence. Jaidan turns 2 years old on July 31st and Thavorn and Jaidan are meeting up with me in Bangkok to celebrate his birthday. Time for a visit to ToysRUs to let him pick out his birthday present :-) Some pics:

Mom and son binding without Poppa

Missing Thavorn ...

Jaidan teasing his Mom ...

in Poppa's cap

I went shopping for some new books for Jaidan. He likes to be read to and really enjoys books that he can manipulate and see different things. However, he often tries to take them apart to see how they work. Two months apart form Jaidan and Thavorn is about 2 months too long. Next summer they will travel with me :-) Apparently Jaidan is chatting up a storm  .. in Thai :-(

I will document our road trip to PEI with pics. Prince Edward Island is a beautiful and laid back place to visit. It is very popular with Japanese tourists and I suspect the Chinese tourists will discover it soon.

I am also looking forward to the night life in Bangkok!

TTYL

Coaches

Today's song is: Start Me Up  ..Stones

The boys got together on Sunday at 1 pm and we laughed for the next 10 hours. We have lots in common. First and foremost, we are guy kind of guys. Secondly, are are all divorced or separated, probably due to the first reason. Thirdly, we are all accomplished basketball coaches who have coached with and against each other. Here is a pic, but unfortunately Gerry is missing from the group photo because someone has to take the pic :-)

John, Ashley, Mike, and Jim

Gerry and Ashley

Gerry owns the house and often uses it as a halfway house for men going through a divorce or other traumatic experience who need a place to crash. Laughter is heals the soul and Gerry's environment has laughter in abundance. If we could bottle it and sell it we would be very rich men.

We dined on burgers and chickens and copious amounts of wine, but I think we seriously depleted Mike's wine cellar.

My time in Canada is rapidly coming to a close. I have Monday to Friday for a last week of work and visiting school boards and then I leave for PEI for a week to spread my mom's ashes with my two sisters and daughter. Then it is a weekend at my sister Elaine's and then packing on Monday and a 6 am flight to Thailand on the Tuesday morning. Best I get down to programming ... Start me up :-)

TTYL

19 Days and Counting

Today's song is: Sunday Morning After .. Amanda Marshall

I moved back to my sister's in Ottawa and was supposed to meet my buddy John for a beer or two at Big Rigs but I messed up and it looked like I cancelled out but actually did not so there I sat all by myself sipping a tall Gold waiting for John. I texted John, admitted my blunder, rebooked for tomorrow at noon and ordered a BBQ Buffalo Chicken Pizza. I walked back to Elaine's and received a text from my son Jordan asking me to meet him for a beer at Big Rig at 8:15 tonight. Now, I like Big Rig, but 3 visits in 24 hours is a bit much, but off I go in 60 minutes :-)

The online stores can't fathom while folks do not use their smart phones for buying tings on line. Duh, what happened with Big Rig is a perfect example. Finger poking a small screen and entering info with auto correct on will land you in trouble sooner or later. Sometimes a large screen, a regular keyboard, a mouse, and your brain engaged is simply a better choice.

I have mapped out the rest of my time in Canada and it is rapidly disappearing. I am down to 19 days, 7 of which will be spent with my 2 sisters and my daughter Jaime. Road trip .. should be fun. One of the coolest part of the trip is going over the Confederation bridge.

Confederation Bridge

The Confederation Bridge joins the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, making travel throughout the Maritimes easy and convenient. The curved, 12.9 kilometre (8 mile) long bridge is the longest in the world crossing ice-covered water, and more than a decade after its construction, it endures as one of Canada’s top engineering achievements of the 20th century.

I also have an upcoming coming BBQ with Mike in Orleans this Sunday and then a final week of work at various Eastern Ontario school boards. I said my goodbye's to Lake Maskinonge and my buddy Gandalf that walks the forest at my sisters.

Bigger than he looks

Chainsaw art

If you go down into the woods today

Departing .. idyllic setting in the woods of Quebec

TTYL

Village Respite

Today's song is: Nautical Disaster .. Lightfoot song sung by The Tragically Hip  .. proudly Canadian

The lead singer of Tragically Hip has been diagnosed with terminally ill brain cancer. Canada Day has just passed along with memorials to the Canadians who died during WW1. This song reflects on WW2.

I video chat with Thavorn and Jaidan twice a day to say good morning and good night. Over the past couple of weeks I could tell that Thavorn was getting a little bit bored with the village and recently she started admitting it. I am not surprised as she got accustomed to living in Bangkok which is light years removed from her village life.

I explored my resort points and found I could book a week at the Marriott in downtown Bangkok for the week of August 1st to August 8th. Thavorn and Jaidan will arrive by bus on the 31st (Jordan's 2 year birthday) and we will celebrate with dinner and a visit to Toys R Us to let him choose his birthday present. This will give Thavorn a much needed break from the village and will shorten my remaining stay in the village to 3 weeks which is fine by me :-)

We have our old apartment rented in Bangkok from the 1st of September to the last week in April. We hope that all three of us our visiting Canada for Canada's 150 birthday celebration next summer. We are hoping Canada will grant Thavorn a multiple entry visa so that she can visit Canada each summer while Jaidan and I are accumulating our 153 days in Ontario to qualify for OHIP, our provincial health insurance. Jaidan is a Canadian citizen and already has his Canadian passport.

The Marriott is in the middle of Bangkok and is 5 star. Here are some pics:

TTYL

WorkSpace

Today's song is: Home .. Dolly .. I am missing Thavorn and Jaidan  ...

My sister Ann just purchased a table for her screened in living area and it is a perfect place to sit and reflect on life and/or program, write a book, etc., while sipping a glass of red wine or drinking a coffee.  Here are some pics:

The room features a 270 degree view with screens on all sides and twin skylights up top. I am not sure about what it does for my productivity but it adds a zen like experience to my programming.

Today is Canada Day in Canada (duh, kinda redundant) and I am enjoying being far away from the maddening crowd. Next summer is Canada's 150 birthday and hopefully Thavorn and Jaidan will be visiting Canada with me and I will take them downtown Ottawa for the music, celebrations, and fireworks. For now, I am happy to be where I am.

I spent yesterday learning some more Linux trivia and worked on installing some needed software into my Lubuntu image that runs on my AlienWare laptop with a Windows 10 host operating system.

I guess I should get down to actually writing some code, so 

TTYL

In the Woods

Today's song is: When You Kiss Me .. Shania  .. missing Thavorn

I am at my older sister's log house in the woods overlooking a quiet lake in the wilds of Quebec, a province in Canada. It is a big change from my younger sister's house in the City of Ottawa. My younger sister has cats and my older sister has 2 rather large dogs. Here are some pics.

Every log house needs a wizard on guard

Idyllic place to sit

The lake in September

View from the back

Front view and garden

Big white dog .. Akbash breed .. Canna

Big brown dog .. Barbet breed .. Monty

Tonight for dinner we will be imbibing some red wine, tossed salad, my Thai spaghetti sauce and some fresh pasta. Does not get much better ...

TTYL

Boring

Today's song is: I wanna dance ...  Whitney

I must admit I am a bit bored with Canada at this moment. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I miss Thavorn and Jaidan. I am also doing quite a bit of boring (monkey work) programming which is also not much fun.

I had a great night out with the two Mikes and we all laughed for 3 hours straight. The two Mikes are all on their second relationship and we have lots in common.  The link was originally basketball with our daughters but now it is kindred spirits.

I met Billy for coffee at Timmy's and not much seems to have changed in his life. Time for Billy to take a walk on the wild side before he checks out of this world. :-)

I am not sure where a 65 year old goes to have fun in Ottawa. I see lots of them in Timmy's in the morning but they don't seem to be having much fun but seem to be 'putting in time'. Brent and Jeanine and Paul and Cathy live more exciting lives as they travel  extensively and have taken delight in visiting their grand children. Jeanine has a small pillow in my room that say, "If I had known that grandchildren were so much fun I would have had them first!" . Kind of my philosophy as I made my own :-)

The weather in Ottawa has been beautiful over the past two weeks. June - August are always great months in Ottawa. My fitness routine continues unabated and I feel myself still losing weight despite eating dessert at suppers with Jeanine and Brent.

The dollar plunged today and I assume that it was due to Brexit. The British people voted to leave the European Union and I suspect it was to have more say in how their country operates in the world. I suspect that over the next 10 years it will prove to be a wise choice as the other European countries struggle with uncontrollable immigration. I think Angela Merkle lives in a dream world if she thinks it will all be roses.

Canada has accepted 25,000 Syrians and they will all migrate to the same area of the country and elect their own members of parliament. Assimilation seldom occurs as like likes like. Just a fact of life.

I am hoping for a night out with Ashley and Mike (another 2 basketball buddies on subsequent relationships). They are lots of fun and sharing life's adventures keep all of us entertained. I move to my sister Anne's house on the lake around the end of the month. Ann and I have some great discussions trying to solve the world's problems but we come at those problems from different ends and seldom end up in the middle. It should be a good 4 or 5 days :-) Ann likes research based evidence and I prefer empirical evidence.

Well, enough chatting, time to find a good song ...  Deb, I have not forgotten about you :-)

TTYL