So the boy is off to Europe tomorrow. Last he was gone so long or so far, it was to Brooks with his grandparents or Japan with the school. This time it’s him and England and the continent; who knows what’ll come of it.

Overall I’m excited. Part of me worries his laissez fair attitude will find him stranded en route, but once he’s there I know he’ll do fine. I’m also sure it will take him about 12 hours to be bored, depressed and perhaps a little unsure of what the hell is going on. And that, is the point; at least for me. The last few generations have had to many other things to absorb to understand the benefits and pitfalls of independence. 6 weeks on your own with limited external resources should be exciting and epiphanaic in equal measure. One must move, decide, grow or failure is inevitable. Although failure is not deadly in this day and age, it is regrettable and really a waste. So get up, decide where to eat,where to go, who to hang with, what to spend for you are young…

Gaudeamus igitur, juveniles dum sumus made a lot of sense to me at that age, still does. I hope it will soon come to mean something to Zak.

But we’ll see.

Here’s to Zak’s big adventure! May he grow in ways that no one expects…

Finally did Hayburger at Elk Island yesterday. A perfect day with a bit of a breeze and the timing for wildflowers was pretty awesome. We finished off with some BBQ and beer. All in all it was a very pleasant evening until we pulled out.

Then it became perfect: eagle eye Leslie spotted a long legged blob in the roadside marsh so we went back for a look. Sure enough it was lovely moose, just moosing away like he hadn’t a care in the world.

I’ll add some more pics later.

Some hi-lights included using my phone as gps, a buffalo in the picnic area, the biggest steaks I’ve seen in a long time and my first hazelnut spotting.

Well, I’ve id’d as many as I can and am dubious about a couple. But click to see my best guesses…

[nggtags gallery=wildflowers]

Between cleaning up my various websites (see here) and reuploading the old RCAF images I scanned for Zak, and my visit to the Alberta Aviation Museum last week it’s been a pretty reminiscent couple of days. Reminiscent is an odd word to use because I actually don’t remember any of it. It’s all hearsay and pictures and my own imagination.

At the museum they had two things of real interest to me. A CF-86 Mark I. Not particularly interesting as it was the only one of its kind made and barely flown as it was just a prototype for Canadair’s program to build their own Sabres. It was, however, of interest because I was allowed to sit in it. Both my brothers have pictures of them on Sabres, but I, alas, was too small.

The other notable thing was the presence of a CF-100. It wasn’t there the last time I was by and I have not seen one close up before. This was the aircraft that my father died in and I have always had a morbid curiosity about them.

There was a note at the museum that said this aircraft had been with the 414 Squadron which became the EWU in St Hubert, the squadron my father had been flying with when he was killed. So ever since then I have been meaning to dig up my father’s log books and check to see if he had ever flown this particular craft.

Turns out… he had. On F/L J.G. Keith flew this plane May 10 to 11, 1965 with F/L Bill Naylor, on May 12 with F/L Martin and from May 25 to June 4 with Captain Jim Fitzgibbon on a number of varied missions.

His final flight was July 21, 1965, so this is about as close to him I have ever stood. Talk about things that make you go Hmmmmm. While I was at the museum I was a bit … well pissy towards the plane because it was a symbol of what might have been, Now I’m just downright flummoxed by the thing and have no idea what I’ll say to when next we meet.

The log book also indicates F/L Keith flew #18152 which I saw a few years ago at Nanton.

This one he only flew from April 7-9, 1965, the second aircraft he was assigned after being posted to the EWU. Weird.

What’s weirder is when I was talking to the Director and he stated their long-range intention is to make it flight worthy again. Wouldn’t that be … well freaky.

Anyway, at one point I wonder if I should consider donating some of the memorabilia around the house. There was a bunch of stuff there that had been loaned with the reason that “it wasn’t doing any good lying around in boxes” and sometimes I think the same thing.

Hmmmmm, this post goes from past to future… whaddya know, time moves on.

I’m a barcode!

Scan this with your smart phone camera using Scanlife‘s app and you’ll be directed…

…right here!

***

Leslie found this image of a library supposedly in Stockholm. Now since image came from here, I am starting to suspect its not real… But, sigh, it sure is enviable.

Almost as cool as this bookstore from a previous post.

Ah… found it. http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=5097. It is digital, but the concept was made for an International Competition of Architecture, for the Stockholm Public Library.

Later in the day was the dinner and dance…

Zak’s Bellerose Grad was today. Here’s a few pics (of the ones that turned out…)

I found this post from March in my draft folder. Somehow it never got posted... Oh well, better late than never!

If I ever leave this world alive…

Upon occasion of watching P.S. I Love You and hearing If I Ever Leave This World Alive by Flogging Molly.

If I ever leave this world alive
I’ll thank for all the things you did in my life
If I ever leave this world alive
I’ll come back down and sit beside your
feet tonight
Wherever I am you’ll always be
More than just a memory
If I ever leave this world alive

If I ever leave this world alive
I’ll take on all the sadness
That I left behind
If I ever leave this world alive
The madness that you feel will soon subside
So in a word don’t shed a tear
I’ll be here when it all gets weird
If I ever leave this world alive

So when in doubt just call my name
Just before you go insane
If I ever leave this world
Hey I may never leave this world
But if I ever leave this world alive

She says I’m okay; I’m alright,
Though you have gone from my life
You said that it would,
Now everything should be all right

She says I’m okay; I’m alright,
Though you have gone from my life
You said that it would,
Now everything should be all right
Yeah should be alright

Man does not live by bread alone. I have known millionaires starving for lack of the nutriment which alone can sustain all that is human in man, and I know workmen, and many so-called poor men, who revel in luxuries beyond the power of those millionaires to reach. It is the mind that makes the body rich. There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else. Money can only be the useful drudge of things immeasurably higher than itself. Exalted beyond this, as it sometimes is, it remains Caliban still and still plays the beast.

—Andrew Carnegie

Babies. Opens in theatres May 7

The CBC article

[singlepic id=161 w=320 h=240 float=none]
The media wall, with hookups for tv, internet, speaker terminations, and in-wall connections from wall-mounted flatscreen to the amps below.

As always more in the gallery…