Head Tale

1. What did you do this year that you’d never done before?

Thanks to my parents picking up the tab for the first week, we were able to extend our winter holiday to two weeks at an all-inclusive – something we’d never done before during the handful of week long all-inclusive vacations we’ve taken over the years.

Although I wasn’t as involved as in his past two leadership runs, I helped a bit with Ryan Meili’s third (and finally successful!) run for the leadership of the NDP.  This included helping write some policy proposals and makes me wonder – how did I become a guy who does that???

Oh, and I also got a titanium pin in my wrist and a few weeks off work due to a momentary bad decision involving a bike jump, a kids-size BMX and all of my considerable girth crashing down on said wrist from a decent height!  

2. Did anyone close to you give birth?
One of my cousins finally had a baby after many years of trying plus the usual mix of people I know at a distance on Facebook/through politics/at work.

3. Did anyone close to you die?


I’ve blogged how this was a bad year with the death cloud hovering over us throughout the year.  It started with Shea’s mom being diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer early in the year then spending most of the year either in treatment and then recovering from treatment which is ongoing as I type this (though thankfully, she has been declared cancer free in her last couple MRIs!) I lost a middle-aged cousin to cancer this summer.  A guy from high school whose sister I graduated with and who was only a year older than me died suddenly at age 46.  Another guy I worked with while I was still in high school died at 51.  One of the few people who have connections to both Shea’s and my hometowns died this summer from cancer only a couple weeks after we visited with him at the Creelman Hometown Fair.  The teenaged daughter of a former coworker at Southeast Regional Library was hit by a train while distracted by her cell phone at a railway crossing near where we camped this summer and died in hospital a few days later.  The father of a high school friend, the father of Shea’s Maid of Honour.  And I didn’t know any of them but obviously the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy resonated with many in Saskatchewan and beyond in a “six degrees of separation” sort of way.

4. What places did you visit?

Moon Palace Cancun was our main destination this year but we also spent most weekends through the summer at a seasonal campsite at Nickle Lake Regional Park.  Shea also got to Halifax for a conference but unfortunately I couldn’t join her.

5. What would you like to have in the next year that you lacked this year?
With breaking my wrist at the end of July, it’d be nice to have a full summer this year where I can enjoy things I couldn’t for all of August – swimming, playing catch and so on.

6. What date from this year will remain etched upon your memory?
Tue Feb 27 – leave for Mexico
Sat Mar 3 – NDP Leadership Vote (we watched a livestream in our hotel room in Mexico then toasted Ryan’s victory with Tequila Sunrises, the only orange drink we could think of!) 🙂
Fri April 6 – Humboldt Broncos Crash
Thu May 10 – Mother-in-Law’s Final Cancer Treatment
Mon Jul 23-25 – in midst of 10-day vacation at lake, I break my wrist, get admitted to hospital back in Regina, have surgery a couple days later to put pin in my wrist and get put in a in splint (but not cast) while I heal.
Oct 17 – marijuana is legalized in Canada.
Dec 4 – Power goes out across most of southern Saskatchewan for between half to a full day for most people.

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Probably biting my tongue repeatedly and not engaging with others in an argumentative/aggressive/negative fashion during the NDP leadership campaign, something I haven’t been good at in the past.  It wasn’t a huge achievement but after our last Mexico vacation I started taking baby steps to using DuoLingo every day to learn a bit more Spanish than how to ask for a beer and how to find a bathroom!

8. What was your biggest failure of the year?
Shea and I dealt with one thing this year that, as transparent and open as I tend to be on this blog, I’m not going to disclose.  Without being overdramatic, I will say that it was something that I see as my biggest failure, not just of the year, but possibly my entire life.   And of course, my attempt on Pace’s bike jump was a pretty big failure (although, after it happened, I thought it was planting my hand when I crashed that broke my wrist but Pace, who was one of only two witnesses along with his cousin, says I did land the jump but *then* I crashed, possibly because the weight of my body coming down on the handlebars bent my wrist back and caused the break – ouch!)

9. What was your biggest surprise?
Shea’s mom’s cancer diagnosis was a horrible surprise.  I even said to one co-worker “This is the first time our family has dealt with something like this” completely forgetting both grandpas have had prostate cancer.  But this cancer was so much more intense and the treatment so much more debilitating that it felt entirely different.

I was also pretty surprised to learn they were going to give me surgery for my broken wrist instead of just a cast (but then put me in a splint instead of a cast after it was done.)

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
My broken wrist was obviously the biggest injury of the year but funny enough, an abscessed tooth I dealt with a couple weekends after I broke my wrist actually caused me more pain and suffering than the wrist did! That led to an emergency filling and then a crown being replaced.  I’ve also been getting a stye on my eye once or twice a year the past few years but so far, that’s been treatable with antibiotic ointment.  

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I upgraded to an iPhone 7 so that was pretty good.  I also got a new car stereo installed to replace the original one in my car with a display that no longer worked and which no longer read CDs really well (yes, I still listen to CDs in the car!)  My new stereo isn’t anything fancy but it has bluetooth integration so when I get in my car, music just magically starts playing.  Plus it has a rainbow effect so the lights on the faceplate keep rotating through a variety of colours and that makes me incredibly happy.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
The expansion team Vegas Golden Knights being one of the best teams in the NHL through the entire season then going all the way to the Stanley Cup Final was a true Cinderella story.

13. Whose behaviour left you underwhelmed or disappointed?
I was disappointed that the non-partisan Save Sask Libraries Facebook group endorsed Ryan Meili’s opponent during the NDP leadership race.  I was disappointed that the Flames flamed out at the end of their season to miss the playoffs.  I was disappointed in all of the most vocal social media megaphones (including more than one who I know personally) who called for a boycott of Coteau Books simply because our Publisher said in an interview that we would consider a book by Gerald Stanley using our existing processes instead of immediately ruling it out, not even having actually received a manuscript or even an inquiry, which I feel is the worst kind of close-mindedness.  Almost all Republicans continue to disappoint me, especially Susan Collins who helped put Brent Kavanagh on the Supreme Court.  

14. Where did most of your money go?

Vacation stuff – Mexico and our campsite.  We had new windows installed (well, we did half a couple years ago and half this year to make the expense more manageable.)  That led to new blinds.  And I’m still surprised how much we managed to pay down our mortgage after all that! 🙂

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I think I started dreaming about our next Mexico trip as soon as we got home from the airport from our last one!

16. What song/album will always remind you of this year?
“Palm Tree” – Tasman Jude and my entire “Tropical Holiday Tunes” playlist was my soundtrack through much of the winter/spring which switched to “Country Poolside” through the summer which switched to Tyler Childers non-stop through the fall ending with “Christmas Melancholy” from Nov 12 to the end of the year! There were a couple other individual songs that defined my year – Tom Cochrane re-recorded “Big League” after the Humboldt Bus tragedy and Childish Gambino had a viral video with “This Is America”.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
A) Happier or sadder?  It was a tough year with many ups and downs but on balance, I think I’m happier – I’m alive, I have a great family, a good job, enough money to take a trip or two a year and buy a case of beer at the end of the week.  What more do you need?
B) Thinner or fatter?   Fatter.  (I usually lose weight after we book a trip in the early fall then gain a bit back after Christmas.  This fall, I just kinda let myself indulge non-stop in food, booze and more food so yeah, not great!) 🙁
C) Richer or poorer?  Well, Trump just caused the stock market to drop by over 600 points within the last week so, as of today anyhow, much poorer! 😉  

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
I think “reading books” is becoming my annual answer to this question.  I still read lots – probably more than ever – but like so many people, my reading has moved online to social media posts, news articles, message boards, blogs.  But nothing beats a good old-fashioned book!

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

I spent a lot of time worrying about cancer this year – my mother-in-laws but also a number of other people I know who are affected by this disease. I also wish I didn’t let myself get frustrated with the kids as often as I do.

20. How did you spend  Christmas?
As we often do, especially in the past few years, we hosted both sets of in-laws at our house again which works well since we don’t have to haul presents and the kids get to sleep in their own beds.

21. Who did you spend the most time communicating with?
Although I wasn’t as involved this time around, I spent a lot of time communicating with members of Ryan Meili’s campaign team.  I also spend a lot of time sending email back and forth with the other members of the Coteau Books Board of Directors.  (How bad is it?  One new board member didn’t last very long and cited the volume of email she received as part of the reason she left the board!) 🙂

22. What was your favourite TV program?
I don’t watch a lot of TV these days and when I do, it’s usually to binge some buzzy Netflix show – Narcos Mexico, Orange in the New Black, Atypical, House of Cards.  It’s not really a “show” but I tend to watch most Calgary Flames games (though I often PVR them so I can skip commercials/fast forward through slow parts and rewind if there’s a goal or fight or whatever that I want to see.)  YouTube usually lets me catch up on any other viral TV moments I might miss.

23. Do you hate anything that you didn’t hate at this time last year?
Social media.

I used to be one of the biggest boosters of social media.  I wrote the first article about Facebook in the Canadian Library Association’s magazine back around 2006/2007 and ended that article by encouraging everyone to join.  If I wrote the same article today, I’m not sure I’d encourage anyone to join.  Social media increasingly seems to contribute to all sorts of partisan divisions, mental health issues and worse.

24. What was the best book(s) you read?

I’ve often ended up reading informal “trilogies” whether it was three books about Indigenous issues or three biographies by different members of Guns ‘n’ Roses and this year was no exception as I read “El Narco” then “Gangland” then “Dreamland” which were all about different aspects of the illegal drug trade.  Other books I enjoyed included “Running For His Life” by Ted Jaleta was eye-opening and “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling was one of those rare books that felt like it could change how a person sees the world completely.  So that also makes it my my pick for best book I read this year (I’m in good company as both Bill Gates and Barack Obama have also cited this book.)  

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpQF15wPgvo

Tyler Childers without a doubt – love his voice, love his lyrics, love his playing, love his themes.  Along the same lines, Dead South and Belle Plaine (who won Sask Fan Choice Award for Album of the Year for “Malice, Mercy, Grief and Wrath” recently) were in heavy rotation throughout the year.

26. What did you want and get?
We debated whether we could afford it (or if we should take a year off from all-inclusives and go to Edmonton or something.)  But in the end, we decided to book a fairly high-end resort in Mexico (#6 out of ~250 resorts in Mexico on TripAdvisor) for our 2019 winter vacation destination when the price dropped by $1500 one day.  It took me until November to buy some (and mostly as a joke Christmas gift) but legalized pot is a nice move forward in terms of sensible drug policy in Canada.

27. What did you want and not get?
I was *really* hoping the wide backlash against him from various quarters would help prevent Brett Kavanagh being named to the Supreme Court but no luck on that one.

28.  What were your favourite films of this year?
I keep a list of every book I’ve read since undergrad and sometimes wish I had a similar list of every film I’ve seen.  As with TV shows, I don’t watch a lot of movies but some that stood out this year were “American Made”, “Wonder”, “Avengers: Infinity War” (on opening night in theatres which heightened the experience), Ric Flair’s “30 of 30” ESPN Special, “Paddington 2” (and I’m not alone on that one), and just before Christmas, “Springsteen on Broadway”.  (Oh, and on that note, this was the first year in probably a decade or more that I didn’t watch “Love Actually” as part of my annual Christmas rituals – partly because some of the criticisms of the movie’s faults resonate more this year but also partly because it sometimes feels good to simply take a break from things you feel you *have* to do for no real good reason.  

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 45 and brought cupcakes to a meeting at work.  I started a 10-day summer holiday the next day, decided to go off a bike jump to feel young again a couple days later where I ended up breaking my wrist as a reminder that I’m 45, not 15!

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A new house?  Shea and I kick tires on a new house about once a year but we made a decision long ago to try to live beneath our means – in the house we live in, the vehicles we drive and in various other ways – which helps gives us capacity to do other things we want – travel, camping, buying other things for the kids and ourselves without worrying about piling up debt, being able to save more for our retirement and the kids’ educations.  But as much as we love our house, there are times we’d love to have something a bit bigger with amazing “rich person” features like a big boot room and an attached garage! 😉

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept this year?

I let my beard get so bushy this fall that Shea bought me “beard oil” for Christmas! 😉 While I was in my wrist splint, my style was “clothes without buttons” since I couldn’t work them at all!

32. What kept you sane?
I said earlier that I wish I didn’t get as frustrated with both kids as I sometimes do because, as is my standard answer to this question every year, they’re the one thing that keeps me sane no matter what else is going on in my life – whether it’s seeing Sasha have a break through with basic addition or Pace beating me out in a trivia game at Christmas, I love everything about both of them.

33. What political issue stirred you the most?
The Sask NDP Leadership and my worry that Ryan could lose a third time.  Trump’s non-stop chaos where every day brought a new scandal that unbelievably keeps topping the last one.  The Brett Kavanagh confirmation process.

34. Who did you miss?
RPL brought in new out-of-scope Branch Managers in the past year so I really miss having a cohort of ~10 in-scope Branch Heads.

35. Who was the best new person you met?
With that said, I’ve enjoyed meeting and getting to know the new librarians that have joined RPL who have brought new perspective and approaches.  I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention how impressed I was with the nurses during my two night stay in hospital awaiting wrist surgery.

36.  Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned this year.
Don’t bike jump at 45?  (But seriously, it’s been interesting to see the divide between people who basically say “Why would you do something so dumb?” versus the people who say “Good on you for trying!”)

37. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?
Never can tell what might come down
Never can tell when you might check out
Just don’t know, no you never can tell
So do right to others like you do to yourself
“Big League” – Tom Cochrane

38. Link to a photo that sums up your year

39 Best App of the Year
DuoLingo has been a great app/web site for helping me to learn a few new words in Spanish.

40. What single moment defined your year?
Right before I went on the bike jump, I remember sitting in a zero gravity camp chair by myself (kids were off playing, Shea was at her parents’ site).  I had a book, a beer, the sun was shining down, I had music playing in the background, I was a couple days into a 10-day holiday and life was feeling pretty good all around.  Then Pace and his cousin came back to the camp site and started bugging me so to distract them, I said “You guys want to try out that new bike ramp Grandpa built?”  And the rest is history… 😉