Canadian Teaser...not a fishing lure!

Miki and I will be  taking to the road soon and heading to Canada with a friend.  Some of you have heard of a  fishing trip I have been fortunate enough to be a part of a few times in the past 10 or so years (suspicious sounding to some).  Until now it has been an all boy trip, but thanks to the joys of retirement, Miki has been invited by Greg (one of the principal characters of this adventure) to be initiated into the land of Fiart Island.  Greg was a P.E. teacher that I had the privilege to teach with for quite a few years at John Nowlin Elementary.  He retired at the end of this last school year to join those of us at the end of the tunnel, before they seemingly turn the light off due to budget cutbacks.  Greg has volunteered to close the cabin down for the winter, since he has the time, and he has assembled a small ragtag team to help out and enjoy one more romp with the walleye before winter sets in.


If you drive straight north into Ontario, Canada to Red Lake, then take a float plane 30 miles west, drop into Donald Lake and settle into the cabin on Fiart Island, this is where we will be for a couple of weeks with hundreds of our closest walleye friends.  So you know the location and a few of the misfits, but there will be much more to the daily adventures without phones, TV, and the internet.  Who else is going?  Who is this Greg character and how does he have access to the proverbial cabin in the middle of no where.  This and more will be revealed upon our return to internet access.  This blog will be posted post mortem in a matter of speaking.


In the mean time, I have visited with many of you and appreciate your interest in what Miki and I are doing in our retirement.  This blog thing started out for family (and a few friends who said they were interested and had nothing better to read) as a way to communicate where we were and what we were doing, so we wouldn't get calls all the time (Alice), wondering where we were and what we were doing.  It has been fun to do, but a process to turn it out.  So, I thought you might like to see what goes into Pieces of our pie...  


As we assimilate into each day, wherever we are, something hits me at some point (we'll call it inspiration, divine intervention would be pushing it) and it becomes my focus for the day.  It doesn't become our day, but simmers on the back burner and waits to be added to.  It may be the kind of people in campgrounds, what is going on locally, or assholes I meet at a gas station.  At the end of each day before turning in, I'll spend a few hours putting it together with some photos and the magic of blogger.com to get what you see.  The photojournalist in me has prepared the following visual presentation to help in understanding the pressure I put on myself to let you know where we are and what we are doing.

An inspired blogbolt strucks!  

Some blogbolts don't pan out and get you all screwed up, and
now it is getting late and appears the blog has gone to poo.

The good news is, is that some of that poo fertilizes the mind and
new ideas begin to grow.

Add some creative think time, cause I never know quite what will
flow from this keyboard.

And surprisingly, after a couple of hours it comes together
(sometimes not so much).  

I've realized that the cousin to Murphy's Law, Blog's Law, states that you can't beat real life.  That is sort of what I write about and where it takes place, as we experience the 2nd half of our lives.  Now you have some idea of the pressure cooker that retirement has become for me.  Teaching seems like a piece of cake now, but I will persevere, just so you can have another piece of our pie.


My Zen from home:  Today is the day before, the first day of school.  I went up to visit some of my friends as they prepared their classrooms.  Cutting (not their wrists), copying (not the answers to the state tests), hanging (not themselves), organizing (not the days off they will take), laughing (well, not so much), and welcoming new students into their second home for the next 9 months.  There is a little bit (sometimes a lot) of giddiness and excitement as the first day draws near.  The thought of a fresh start or new beginning and what it means to each student and teacher.  That first day, when each student (well almost) is on their best.  If not for the formalities of the first day of school, it is one of the best days of the school year.  It was nice to revisit the giddy as I walked the halls and visited friends. I do miss the relationships and the unknown of each day as the year unfolds.  Be open to and embrace the unknown each day.