Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Category: Family

  • Bathroom Wiring


    Bathroom Wiring
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    This afternoon, after church, I was helping Dez and Eric with their house renovations. Today, I was the electrician. We wired up a bathroom ceiling fan, replaced a bunch of wire, re-routes lights to different switches and roughed in the bathroom light fixture and a GFI outlet.

    Len, Darlene and Jared were there as well. Len and Jared completed the basement tile removal project and then demolished some storage cabinets at one end of the basement. Darlene had the job that everybody has done some of and hates, removing floor tiles. Ones that really didn’t want to come off at all.

    Doing the electrical work with Eric made me thing about doing the wiring at the cottage. I really enjoy electrical work, so it was lots of fun to help out. Next time, I think it’s back to drywallling.


  • katsup

    Actually, that would be catch up on reading my personal
    emails. More specifically, The daily devotion emails from John Fisher at the
    Purpose Driven Life.  Some of the thoughts that challenged me were:

    • To be more aware of and think about being eager to do good (1 Peter 3:13).
      looking for opportunities to serve others
    • To see my work as worship to God, doing what I was created to do, my very life as a gift from God
    • Am I using my uniqueness, the things that God put in me and the experiences I’ve had to benefit others?
    • What will we do in Heaven? Sit around or continue to grow and server? If there is a purpose on earth, that there will be an even more significant purpose in Heaven.
    • The challenge of many different points of view and diversity while yet being in unity with
      Christ.
    • What is worship? The areas of worship that are outside of a church service, and the fact that worship is so much more.
    • What is character and how do we get it? (Romans 5:3-4 and it’s not generally a good time at the time)

    I shouldn’t get so far behind, this is certainly a lot to consider all at once but I’m glad I spent some quite time this morning to read these devotions and think about what they mean to my life. I’m thankful that John makes these devotions available and that they cause me to stop and think about these things.

    Even during this quiet time, life happens, I hear the 3 thumps on the floor above, our family signal to come upstairs and see what’s happening. I have a fair idea what’s happening as I heard some stomach turning sounds from one of the bathrooms a few seconds earlier. Scott’s not feeling too good, perhaps some bad pizza from last night. There’s not too much to be done as generally you just need to ride these things out. I took him a cup of water.

    Technorati Tags: family, devotional, purpose, life

  • Building

    Today,I send a good portion of the day with Eric and Doug at Eric’s new house doing renovations. He’s only two weeks into the project and major work has taken place. I was the drywall guy today and did the inside of the new front room closet and about half the kitchen. Doug & Eric focused on the plumbing and hooked up the tub drain, connected the shower control, filled in the cuts in the basement floor with concrete where they moved the entire stack and ran a new drain line to re-locate the washer closer to the furnace to create a consolidated utility area.A little drywaller’s confession. As I was working on a small panel that had a light switch on it, I noticed that if I cut the hole for the switch box the way it was, that there would be no where for the switch tabs to rest on the drywall, because the opening would be too big. I then noticed that there were some extra tabs on the box that we didn’t need in this application and that they should be removed first and then everything would be good. Well, after that I went back to a larger panel and noticed that I’d made that mistake there. Also, Eric came along and asked if I’d taped up, the vapor barrier behind that panel, which I’d forgotten to do. So, not being one to leave things messed up, I pried off the panel and set about to make it right. Well, that was a good thing because I’d total overlooked cutting opening for the electrical outlet for the refrigerator! I kind of wondered why the panel didn’t sit quite right when I was screwing it on in that area. Oh well, it’s all better now & drywall is fairly cheap.

    So much has happened in such a short time. The first week focused mainly on demolition, taking the entire kitchen and bathroom back to bare studs, and opening several doorways to create a more open concept feel. The place was a real mess! But now you can feel that the corner has been turned as the building and restoring phase has begun in earnest. Fresh drywall really makes you see the progress and that things are on the up swing. Soon there will be paint etc. and then moving it. Yahoo!

  • Closing up


    Dock Shot #2
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    This photo says it all. The leaves are turning and falling. It’s the Thanksgiving weekend and we’re at the lake to close up for the season.

    The weather is very nice on Saturday, hitting 21C with a light overcast. After a couple of cups of coffee on the dock, we’re having breakfast with Scott & Mandi who are down for the weekend with Shirley & I. After breakfast we head back down to the dock to deal with the two new floating docks. In the end we decide to put the good one, the one that got renovated, in between to docks and leave the other one tied up parallel to the dock, pretty much where it’s spent the summer. Only time will tell if this was a good way to store them for the winter. They are just too heavy to get on shore.

    With the boat & dock work completed, we take the rest of the day off and head into town. Scott & Mandi do a little shopping and Shirley & I take a walk on the Tunnel Island trails. We rendezvous back at Ho-Jos for some Kenora Mist’s. After a great steak dinner, we play Tile Rummy and Mandi & I clean up.

    Sunday it’s all about putting the cottage to bed for the winter. Scott & I handle the outside chores and Mandi & Shirley pack up the kitchen & clean the cottage. By 1:15, we’re done and heading home. It was quite windy all last night and into the day. Thankfully, there was no rain we were sheltered from the west wind.

    Farewell to Kenora was celebrated by a stop at the Chip Truck and the Dairy Queen. It was a great summer at the lake.

  • End of the season

    It’s been quite a while since I posted on the original theme of Tempus Fugit and that is “Time Flies”. It seems appropriate at this moment as the summer season is winding down and I’m sitting at the dining room table at the lake looking out over the bay. It’s a little overcast, a little cool and there will only be one more weekend at the lake this season. Where did the time go?

    On Thanksgiving weekend in two weeks we’ll be back to shut down the water system and put everything away for the winter. While we might make two or three visits between then an May long weekend 2007, this is just about it for the year.

    It’s been a good summer for being at the lake. We made some extra effort to spend more weekends, created a few extra long weekends, and schedule vacation time to enjoy the season which was very warm and bug free this year.

    At the start of the summer everything seems so long and there is the sense that there will be plenty of time for everthing. Then somehow, at the end of the summer, there are still things left un-done, and you wonder how the time slipped by. However, I’m not feeling too much of that this year as we really tried to get around and do some different things as well as just relax and enjoy the doing nothing times. Of course, I wish there had been more family times at the lake but distances and work schedules conspired to limit the opportunities. There were some great family times, but I could go for a few more. Well, with a long life ahead there is still time for more of everything.

    The best is yet to come.

  • Surprise

    There are some things that still surprise me, even though I should be getting used to it by now.

    This afternoon Eric surprised me (no that’s not it) by biking over to pick me up for a ride. Either that, or he just need air in his tires. I prefer to think it was to ride with me. We had a great ride out to Assiniboine Park and back to the Osborne area to look at his new house and then back to home. A block from our house he says goodbye, and turns to go to his place. He’s been married for just over a year now.

    I was surprised. Surprised that my son was not coming home with me. It’s an unusual feeling and hard to describe. It’s so much more than surprised. Love you.

    Technorati Tags: sons, family

  • Busy Weekend

    This weekend was a little busier that most, and we had a great time.

    Friday night was a wedding with friends, then Saturday morning we had a birthday brunch with Mandi.

    Saturday after noon was a funeral for the parents of friends who were tragically killed in a car accident. The funeral was a wonderful celebration of their lives and the impact and legacy they have left on all their family and friends. They will be missed.

    Afterwards we drove to the lake for a visit with my sister Gail, husband Gord, their son Craig (Happy 21st) and girlfriend Kim. They treated us to several wonderful meals,and good conversation. Thanks, we love you.

    While we were at the lake we got a closer look at the pirate ship and it’s crew that is marauding around the bay. Still no pictures, but more on that later.

    In one hour we will be at Cirque du Soleil and we’re looking forward to that.

  • The circus has come to town

    On the bike ride in to day I noticed seven semi-trailers around the MTS Center. The trailers contain the gear for Cirque du Soleil who have brought their Delerium show to Winnipeg. Apparently the IBM box has a “restricted view” for this show, so there may be some free tickets with a bad view to be had. I’ve seen two Cirque shows in Las Vegas, and they are unbelievably good.

    UPDATE:  I’ve got tickets!

    Technorati Tags: circus, Cirque du Soleir, Las Vegas, Delerium

  • Victoria Beach

    Dune Jumper

    Dune Jumping
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    We spent a day at Victoria Beach with our friends Chris & Elaine and no day at the beach would be complete without a stroll on the beach of course! This guy & his friends were having a great time performing death defying leaps off the top of the sand dune. OK, maybe not death defying a s they all seemed to live to do it again, but there was no mom’s in sight.

    Along with the beach walk was a trip to the bakery for Dream cookies, a bike ride to look at the latest cottages and a stop to visit some friends in a vintage 1910ish log cottage, which was very cool.

    Speaking of bike rides, somebody (Shirley) on their first ride of the year, hooked her handle bars on a chain link fence and went for quite a spill. No permanent damage, but a few scrapes and bruises. The local tennis pro was quick to run over with his new first aid kit the size of a small suitcase, eager to administer something, anything. Good think he didn’t have a portable defibrillator!

    After a wonderful dinner and some relaxing and some good conversation we packed up and headed back into Winnipeg. Good times with good friends. Thanks.

  • Quick Trip & Father’s Day

    We made a quick trip out to the lake this weekend going out Friday at about 5pm and back for the Father’s Day service at church on Sunday at 11:30 am. The weather was great at the lake and very hot until late Saturday night when the temperature dropped back into the high teens. This was one of the rare times when we actually ran the air conditioner non-stop for 24hrs. I’m normally a purist at the lake preferring to just deal with the heat by spending more time in the lake, but it was quite nice for sleeping on Friday hight when the humidity was thru the roof.

    Eric & Dez were out and we enjoyed a great sun tanning day on Saturday with them. I took care of the last few “opening up” tasks by fixing the gear shift of the outboard, the one I broke putting the motor on the boat this year. It’s interesting how after doing the same thing for over 25 years, one year you can get a different result. For some reason the tilt mechanism jammed up a bit just as I was lowering the outboard onto the transom of the boat. Instead of investigating I forced the throttle into Forward gear (required to get it to tilt up for the install) but instead of that working there was this funny little “pop” sound as the linkage broke under the hood. Well after being given the wrong part a couple of weeks ago and only finding out last weekend, I got the correct part this week and everything went back together just fine and all is good.

    Father’s Day service at church was very good, and quite an elaborate production with several special events. It’s also interesting how a day that is set aside to value, honor and affirm fathers can cause you to  think  a lot about where you’ve been in your own personal journey as a dad. Not only the things you did that were good and right but also the things you did or didn’t do where there are regrets. On of the best bits of advise I heard this morning when you’re thinking like that is Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

    13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

    I’ve been blessed with two wonderful sons whom I love, respect and I am very proud of them both. As they get older I tend to think that they need me less and less as they are so much more independent (I guess that’s a good thing as one is married).However, I’m reminded that once a father always a father and no mater what the age or what has happened or not happened to date I can always strive to be a better father to my children in days ahead.

    The best is yet to come, Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads.