Piping Parades - alot in July

We had a lot of gigs to do this summer... what was kind of nice was that some of them were 'multiples'.  So we really only had to leave town for 3 weekends, but we got like 7gigs done!

There was Hibbing at the end of June; Minocqua which consisted of Rhinelander, Three Lakes, Lake Tomahawk and Minocqua; Coleraine and Butternut.

Plus we had some grads and the summer in the parks to do too...

Minocqua was amazingly great as always.  They treat us right there... i mean it's the only parade we get to stay in a hotel for!!  And there's huge fireworks at night.  I can tell I'm getting old tho', as we went to the one bar and it got packed I started getting 'antsy' and annoyed.  I nearly started a fight trying to push my way out.

Coleraine and Butternut were funny... It was also Andrew's first band trip -- and I even had him play in the ranks!

Coleraine is where Lefty's from and that guy can throw a heck of a party, insanse! Funny part about that night is that after the street parade, Peter and the boys came back and were ready to party still.  Pete loves his new car's stereo and had it blasting at like 330am... it came to a point where I had to just go and turn it off.  I got up, walked outside, grabbed his keys out of the ignition (debated about just throwing them, but thought better) and walked inside with them.  The next morning Peter came up to me and said "thanks for being the voice of reason Ryan, I'm sorry"... however I believe this was before he looked at his vehicle.  See, he left all his windows open... and it rained alot last night.  Woops... felt bad, but he could have gotten the keys easily (just inside) and closed the windows himself before going to bed.

Butternut I ended up trapping my own keys in the car.  Shouldn't do that in a small hick town.  Nobody to help you out... eventually I was able to find some people.  Thank you the FD of Butternut.  Still have to send them something.  We ended up having to use Deb's car antennae to push the button to unlock the doors (she was surprised to hear that they came off... and went back on... I was somewhat surprised too).

 

MooseJaw/Regina - May 16-17

Finally... after a while of not competing I was drawn to put myself up against some others...  the main reason I went was that we were able to convince Andrew to go and give it a shot.  This is usually very good for a new piper to get enthused in the art, so in order to get him to want to go more I said I'd go.  And somehow my saying I'd compete also meant I'd go up a grade as well... see, if you look at the bottom of this 'space' I put up a list of all my competitions ... and with the exception of like 2, I've competed in Grade III forever.  So it probably was time for me to go up.  Grade II... yoiks.

 

It was a good trip, stopped in Winnipeg on the Thursday night, drove to MooseJaw Friday, rested up and competed Saturday morning.  We went to the park and wandered around for a while... only to find that they had moved it to the school a few blocks away... not cool.  Once we got settled tho' it was kinda cool, get the adrenaline rush going... we all had to compete pretty early.  But I got to watch Andrew compete and took some pictures.  I then competed for my first time in Grade II for the Hornpipe/Jig.  It was good.. thought I made a few blubs while playing.  The judge was very cool after and we talked for a bit on how to improve etc... and then I heard the guy after me.  He was good.  We went down later to catch the score sheets and I saw that Andrew had gotten a bronze.  Good for him!  I then looked at my sheet... what's this 1st place?? No way!!  I think I swore kinda loudly at that point.  Awesome.  Didn't do so well on my MSR, but can't win them all.

 

Next day at the Regina Games was also cool... I did the same in my MSR, but got all the way to the end of my Jig of the Hornpipe/Jig and missed half the bar and ended up getting a 'breakdown'.  Crap... Andrew pulled out a 3rd place again for himself.

 

Just so you don't think I'm making this up, here's the official results.

 

It was a great weekend, and I really needed that injection of enthusisasm for piping again.  Thanks to Deb for arranging it all.

P2P Events - May 6th / May 21-22 / May 27th

I had 2 major events take place this year for Passport to Prosperity:

 - Success-Certified - May 6th - I planned this one based on how they had done it last year and I think it was a great success.  Students got to choose from 11 different courses and I got Jeffy to come and do an on-site report and I even got to be interviewed the next day.  See the Employer Registry facebook page for more pictures.

 - Regional Career Fair - May 21-22 - this really wasn't P2P's but I helped out in the meetings etc... and it was a big showcase for the program.

 - Multi-Workplace Tour - May 27th - not really a major event, but a good one.  I was able to arrange 2 tours for coop teachers to go and see some workplaces.  We toured GRK Fasteners and the city's Bare Point Water Treatment centre

 

For all the info on these see the Facebook page or go to the new Employer Registry local site.  Part of my job now is to maintain that page and ensure there's local content on there.

OCEA Conference -- April 26-28

The near culmination of the P2P year is at OCEA where we get to mingle elbow to elbow with many coop teachers from the province and learn what they learn.

This year was great as there was a chance for the new Employer Registry to 'unveil' itself on a large scale.  This is where the video that they came to Thunder Bay to shoot with me came to light.  My segment was shown just before some Ministry big wig (I could have told you a few months ago, but I forget now).  It was cool and embarassing at the same time as from that point on I became known as the "guy from the video".  The other videos didn't showcase specifically on the coordinator like mine did.

I got to learn quite a few things (and they were helpful in me attaining my AQ course for coop) -- namely not to leave my power cord behind.  I was without email the ENTIRE time... very saddening and maddening.

 

Part of the trip however was great as Mandy and Dean and I all went down and visited with Kelly and Adam and visited the zoo and other touristy things (had an Apache burger!).  Dean got to visit Lenny, I got a new camera (finally traded in the old Elan II) and it was a good time had by all.

Wedding for Lefty's daughter -- April 4th(?) or 3rd

{just catching up on some posts}

 

So a guy we met in Hibbing or elsewhere, had seen us and hired us to play in Taconite, which was a great gig.  Then he asked a few of us to play for his daughter's wedding and I nabbed a few players to come on down for the trip (Rob, Steve, Graham, Donny and myself).

 

There's no words to describe this event.  Think of the best barbecue party you ever went to, make it indoors and that's the wedding... but multiply it by 10x.  It was huge.  There was a sushi bar in the middle, 2 bars, plus a bar in the foyer, many many different grab foods all around and a barbecue on one end.  It was like endless buffets, with just endless mingling.  The best part was that I screwed up the wedding... a little...  I marched down the groom and the mom, and then the mini-band marched down the bride and Lefty.  Then we were to play to march them back out... but I missed the cue and called it early.  Everybody laughed as we were signalled to end (I got us to strike up on "I now pronounce" instead of after "you may now kiss").  I had to apologize to him later and say "I hope that's the only thing premature tonight!"  I thought it was funny.

 

Still an amazing party, absolutely unreal.  Pictures are not ready as Lefty's not the most email savvy...

After the wedding we went over to the Eagles (kinda like the Elks, or Moose back home) and hung out with a band and some more lively people there.  At the end we all tottered back to the hotel and Lefty's girlfriend (r.i.p. Cindy) brought back Donny's drum and thought it'd be funny to hide it on him.  I took it and hid it in my room and then found Donny and asked him where the drum went.  He said he didn't know and went back to the bar to find it... which he couldn't. He didn't seem phased, so I had to show him.

 

All in all... Lefty can throw a party.  Which was evident in Coleraine later on in the summer... just need to get the photos from him to prove to you all the phenomenon that was this party!

April 1 - August 16 = 137 days ... sorry

Okay, so you would think that with 137 days in between postings, that my life would be pretty bland.  Sure, it did have a bit of a hum drum drone to it for a while, but really I was busy busy busy.  So much has happened that this fell lower in priority that I hardly thought about it, except to say "man, I haven't posted in a while."

So what has happened... alot really.

April - I did that wedding in Grand Rapids, the OCEA conference

May - Folklore Festival, Success-Certified, MooseJaw/Regina games, Career Fair

June - beginning of many many piping gigs, ending of my contract

July - start hanging out with Dean EVERY DAY, more band trips, 5th anniversary, starting to collect music for book, I pick up a new toy

August - Quetico trip with Dad, family trip to Minneapolis, the Pre debacle...

and probably alot more that I have just plain forgotten about.  I should probably talk about some of them, and I will.  Some in more depth than others probably.  But part of me just wants to pick up from here on in.  But that wouldn't be right to leave those stories untold.  I just know that from here on in I'll have less time.  I start work officially tomorrow again... and I'll totally miss being able to hang out with my boy.  I can't tell you what a remarkable summer it has been purely for that reason.  It was great to watch him day in and day out and really see his personality explode and take form.  It's been trying at times too, but I'll miss it immensely.

Going back to work also fills me with a bit of dread as I know that there's a lot to do ... and I'll probably have to start DIVING IN... there's the gearing up for Fall Forum, the S-C day 2010 to start working on (will it be regional, or local, or both... how will I fund it)... there's a project I want to start, there's going to be the Career Fair 2010 to start looking at... plus it looks like I might have App Search thrown into the mix for giggles... I'll find out on Monday how this year will look... kinda not looking forward to it, but at the same time I think I'm about ready to return.

Pictures and full blog reports forthcoming...

Keepin' y'all up to date

So, I know, it's been a while... seems to be my opening line on this thing for way too long.

Anyhoo... what's been up?

Several...

 

I've added another 'title' to my ever growing list on my resume.  I'm now on the occasional list for the Lakehead Adult Education Centre.  Which is cool, as I think my days at Scholars are done... haven't had a call in forever.  I think they've written me off.  Oh, well.  So we'll see if this could be a good thing or not.  I mean I do need to keep my 5 days in order to keep my name on the list.

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What else... band is getting more and more demoralizing.  Less and less commitment coming from the members, and to top it off my work is starting to ask me to attend things on Thursdays, so it looks even worse when I'm not there.  There hasn't been any real 'netting' from the recruitment drives.  That's kinda died off as a whole venture as well.  *sigh*

The jackets are ready for ordering -- maybe that'll help.  That and the appreciation night coming up.

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Work is getting cool.  Did the first trip to the region -- Pic River.  There was a career fair that I was asked to attend.  It was good.  Very cute as grade 1s came around and some 'interviewed' us.  Dave came with me and he did his LU stuff... made for a good trip.  Except for the speeding ticket in Marathon.  Oh, well... I was speeding, can't fault the officer for that.  And the chinese food was good.  Met a couple of the employers, we'll see if anything comes of it.

Outside of that, my 'future' there is starting to take a little better form.  I'm becoming a bit of a celebrity - they sent a camera crew up to do a 'day in the life of' kind of shooting for a video that'll be shown at the conference at the end of the month, and one of the employers I nominated won an award, and so they sent up another film crew to make a video for their award ceremony, and the employer wanted me to be a part of it.  So I'm getting to see these free-lance film producers.

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Ben had his 1st birthday over at Gammondale's farm, so Dean and I had a chance to go and hang together there.  I tempted fate and didn't take any allergy medication and I'm still paying for it.  Guess I am allergic to horses.

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For an April fools joke, mother nature has decided to bless us with more snow.  We were having amazing days lately.  I almost ditched all winter apparel.  But here and there it would snow... we had some really bad ice days (when I went to Marathon and passed by Schreiber all their hydro poles were iced over.  Awesome-- deadly, knowing they lost power for almost 2 days --but awesome).  So it was warm weather the past few days, and then last night it started to snow a little.  I woke up to barely being able to open the door.  It was apparently a single day dumping record since 96 or something.   Anyways, I knew it was worth getting the snow blower out for.  Got it started all by myself and my lovely wife decided to put up photos.  Over an hour of blowing to get the path free, and then the car was still stuck getting out of the driveway.  I'm sooo stiff right now... I could use a bath.  Made for a long day at work.

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Dean survived his first real 'injury'.  He apparently fell today and Mandy took him to the hospital.  He's fine, just bleeding a little.  He's got some scrapes and a heck of a bruise... but chicks'll dig it.  :)  On the topic of chicks... he had his first real hurt from a girl.  "Bully-anna" is going through her 'mine' phase and as such when Dean wanted to play with her toys, she subsequently pushed him, which he didn't take too well.  Get used to it boy!

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Don't know what else to say right now... enjoy some of the pics; check out www.saveourcbc.ca; watch the band at Folklore Festival... oh, that's right.  Speaking of band... been doing a great amount of piping gigs lately.  Did a funeral in Grand Marais for some easy US coin, did a SIMPLE gig at Naxo's for a bday party and heading out this weekend for a wedding in Coleraine (well, Grand Rapids really).  Wish it meant that I was rolling in the bank, but it's not.

 

Since we're on the topic of 'bank' I do have some $ coming in slightly... so I could splurge.  I haven't in a while.  Bell was offering the Palm Treo Pro for only $50 for slightly less a month than what Rogers is charging me.  Almost did it... but I'd hate to sink into the Pro for 3 years with the Pre coming out shortly... sure maybe a year or 2... but then I wouldn't be able to get it until my contract was up.  Hrmm... decisions decisions.  Back to scouring ebay maybe.