Holidaze

I've been off since Canada Day and I go back to work tomorrow. Which is probably why it's 2:30 in the morning and I'm awake: I'm loth to lose overmuch of my last day of respite. Also, despite every effort made to eliminate work from the run of my thoughts, it has crept in. Being texted or called three times over the past week hasn't helped. C'mon, guys, do you really need me that badly? Apparently so.

I spent five days at Rose Point in Britt, with my rejuvenated father and ever-gracious stepmom. It may sound like a blasphemy even to suggest such a thing, but I have to say Dad's heart attack is one of the best things to ever happen to him. He's down 27 pounds and three inches around the waist and looks fitter than I can ever remember him looking. He goes to three organized workouts a week and does a lot more at home besides.

No fire calls...not unless you count this:

seen on our way up, south of MacTier. A police cruiser was passing us when Dad spotted the smoke a few klicks ahead: it was at least ten seconds before said cruiser suddenly took off towards what turned out to be a trailer full of "solar equipment" on fire. No injuries...apparently the driver just looked back to discover his trailer was merrily burning away...

I spent a good deal of time reading, and a goodlier deal of time trying to resist the pull of the Internet. Not even remotely successful there--I'm at least as addicted to online life as my wife has been to cigarettes--though it actually helps that their "high speed" connection...isn't. There's no point surfing too widely when YouTube videos buffer roughly forever and even Facebook pages won't load completely.

But, see, Ken, that's supposed to be the whole point of up north...to get away from all that.

I know, I know, and hey--I did manage to read something like seven hundred pages of A Storm Of Swords. Count me as yet another of George R.R. Martin's obsessive fans. This is fantasy for people who don't like fantasy. Characters so real you think you know them, situations so shocking you'll feel at times like pitching the book through a window...only to pick it up ten minutes later.

I stayed, for the most part, around house and dock this time....

Dad and I, with Jessie comfortably ensconced

...revelling once again in the peace and tranquility of the Magnetawan River. I try to edit out the houses to either side of Dad's and concentrate on the shoreline opposite, which looks as primeval as it would have a thousand years ago. Sheer bliss.

And I even got a wee dip in the river, dodging the possibly mythical Snapping Turtle That Lives Under The Dock and the definitely NOT mythical Water Snakes That ALSO Live Under The Dock. I'll admit to some misgivings sharing swimming space with such creatures. It's kind of like the way my wife feels about the ocean. That's the shark's house, says she. The shark doesn't bother me in my house, so I won't bother him in his house. But I was spared...this time.

Dad and Hez, thanks once again for having me. It's always a pleasure and a half to get up there.