Friday's What the Heck / Where has the Summer Gone

Here we are, already it’s August 3rd with only 32 days before school year begins for some of our children. 

In Ottawa the weather thus far is amazing… if, that is, you’re not a plant or an animal who enjoys this hot draught weather. In all things there should be balance. But the weather has been extremely hot and dry. Yup, beginning in June the temperature has barely dipped below the 25 Celsius and coupled with below levels of rain made this one of the hottest summers ever.  In fact, Ottawa has had a drought level 2 for most of the summer.  I’ve never seen the Ottawa River this low before.

The pool covered with cement dust!

For me, the frustrating part of this summer has been waiting for the pool repairs to be completed.  

The target date for completion was by hubby's birthday in mid June.  As I write this post, the concrete having been poured yesterday, the men are doing something out there, not sure what, other than making a lot of noise with a saw and spewing clouds of fine dust everywhere, including into the pool (not sure why they didn't cover the pool). How long is it going to take to clean the pool, I wonder as the layers of dust settle on the pool surface.  

Friday before another long weekend and we are without a swimming pool, and once again, the weather is expected to be hot. In fact, according to our national paper, Ottawa public health issued a heat warning as the forecast called for humidex levels of above 40 Celsius on Saturday and Sunday. Whew! 

On the bright side, can't wait for next week when the pool will finally be done, leaving us with the balance of summer and perhaps even the fall of pool time.  

Meanwhile, thankfully, we do have air-conditioning!

And a river!

And, I bought a new vehicle! Now, hubby can have his car back. And I must say hubby gives it two thumbs up. That means a lot  because, he, of course, has great taste in cars. You can read about his car here. 

my new ride!

A Range Rover, Evoque is a dream car. But I didn't buy the special edition Victoria Beckham one!  Still, I am stoked and immediately it called for a road trip. So, off I drove with Andrew to Montreal, where he was taking a two-week summer course.

Simply the best cake!

Montreal is fantastic!  On our first evening there we ordered in from room service and Andrew had the best chocolate cake ever. Of course, in the following days he  had compared other chocolate cakes from around Montreal, but nothing measured up to this one. 

I enjoy the friendly people, the scenery, and going to all the places we went to last summer. My favorite, place was “Café Smoothie” in Pointe Claire.  Each day after Andrew was done for the day we would slowly drive along the beautiful lake to Cafe Smoothie. He would have a mango smoothie, and I, would have fresh carrot and apple juice.  It was yummy,  but I think I'm turning a shade of orange. LoL!

Andrew got into reading the Hunger Games while we were in Montreal.  After he completed reading chapters, we would listen to the audio book up to the point he had read, in the car (a good reason to drive around in my Evoque!). Admittedly, finding any excuse to drive around was not too difficult.

I think the reason summer appears to go faster than any other season is because we do different things in the summer.  We change our routine. We do things we enjoy, like hanging out and visiting with people, sleeping in, and this summer watching the Summer Olympics.  The energy of the olympians is so inspiring! 

Taking my time by being present, savoring each and every delicious moment.   My app for meditation is insight timer, which lets me know I'm not meditating alone. The design of the app is  insightful providing information on who is meditating with me world-wide.  No matter what time I meditate, I know I'm not alone.  It also keeps stats of my meditation times, and allows me to journal my sessions. I love this app!  

I hope you are all enjoying your summer too! 

Finding the Key

I am in Montreal, well actually, Dorval.  I am staying at a heritage house, which has been converted into executive suites.  My entrance is at the rear of the house.  The suite is pleasantly appointed, not really my taste, but it’s sufficiently agreeable.  This has been my home away from home for the last couple of weeks.  I plan on walking around later to take some pictures. As my good fortune would have it, Hubby came to visit over the weekend and made sure I had wireless connection.  Yip, no being tethered to the wall for me.  yay! 

I am enjoying Montreal's French culture .  It’s part of Canada but it does have a unique cultural and heritage.  I’ve noticed people here although predominately French speaking, are willing to respond in English to us, and with a smile to boot!  In fact, I am finding the people here super duper approachable.   

I’m here because my son is taking a course to help develop his gross motor skills.  He has never been athletic because his core strength has always been an issue.  And as a growing teenager his strength deficient continues to make him physically awkward.  Simply, how this was explained to me is that because of the undeveloped gross motor skills he was experiencing some difficulty with processing information.  Kind of like being out- of- sync with the world around him. 

 And, this may very likely be the reason he is reluctant to speak in public.  He has always been an uncommunicative student.  This perplexed and frustrated teachers because although they knew he was a bright student, to access him they required him to be more communicative. Understandably this also impacted on his social skills and with connecting with his peers.   However, at home he is a different child, talkative, energetic and sometimes he could be a royal pain in the you-know-what.  When his friends come over there is no issue in how he related with them.  Obviously, this was a puzzle for us. 

I believe we’ve found the key that will unlock this puzzle.  In just one week I have noticed significant changes in him.  He is speaking more not just to me but also in public.  He orders his own food in restaurants, even going so far as ordering his desserts in French.   Furthermore, I’ve noticed he has more strength and focus as he runs. This is an enormous leap forward.  Yay! 

What I will say though, before we embarked on this road I had reservations on how effectively it would work.  I am delighted with the results thus far; I guess the actual test will be to see how this translates when he goes back to school.  And to think it all began when I discovered “The Brain that Changes itself” by Norman Doidge. M.D.