Our neighbour built a small ramp to help him move a new appliance in his house.
Once he was finished with it, he brought it over and offered it to Pace (but I think he secretly meant it for me in case I ever decide to do a bike jump again!)
And speaking of the infamous bike ramp, yes, that’s it in the photo although this photo is a bit misleading as my father-in-law had already cut it back to half its original size right after my accident so it was (honest!) twice as high when I did my stupid stunt! 😉
There was a mini-IHHS Class of ’91 reunion at the funeral of Kyle Raaf today.
Â
Our classmate, Erin, gave a moving eulogy for someone she described as “not just my big brother but my hero” and her stories of how Kyle had such a positive impact on so many people during his too-short 46 years was reflected in the hundreds who filled the Memorial Hall on a Wednesday afternoon to celebrate his life.
Â
It was obviously a sad day but also a joyful one with lots of laughter as a group of friends who don’t see each other nearly enough reconnected, retold old stories, and were reminded of the importance of using whatever talents we’re given to make the world a better place for those around us.
Yesterday was the first day of fall but much of Saskatchewan had already received a heavy snowfall and Regina got a sleety-snowy rain that didn’t stick around but definitely felt more like winter than fall.
There were other signs that it felt more like winter than fall as well. When I turned on the “Flow” random music mix in my car right after taking the above picture, the first song it played was “The FIrst Noel” by Crash Test Dummies.
I have no idea how Deezer’s “Flow” algorithm works but suspect that, in part, it bases its playlists on what you’ve listened to a lot recently. So coming out of summer, I’ve been hearing a lot of Americana, bro-country, and campfire-type music. And usually, after December each year, it takes a few weeks to “cleanse the palate” and clear out the Christmas songs that have dominated my listening for the past month. So again, short of Deezer somehow incorporating a check of my local weather forecast, I have no idea how a Christmas song popped up out of the blue like that!
Then, when we got home, Sasha and I got it into our heads that if it was snowing, that was a good justification for making our Christmas lists. Hers was longer…
(Here’s the weirdest thing I might ever have been proud of. My friend whose father passed got lots of generic “Thoughts and prayers/You’re in my thoughts/My condolences”-type messages on his FB post about his father’s passing. But I wanted to put a bit more into it so wrote about how much I remembered his dad from Katepwa Lake, hockey tournaments and how his dad was a big presence in so many of our group of friends’ lives. I noticed my friend went through and hit “Like” on every comment people had left but mine was one of the only ones – possibly the only one – that he put a “Love” symbol beside. Again, not why I did it but it was nice to see the extra effort I put into personalizing my condolence message was appreciated.)
Anyhow, I went to SaskObits, not expecting to see the obituary of the classmate who died is up yet (and it’s not.) But I did see one for somebody I’m pretty sure was the installer when I worked as a door-to-door salesman for a cable TV company the summer after I graduated from Grade 12 before I went to University (and that initial program in six larger towns around Saskatchewan was so successful, the company continued to employee me and various others in some of their other towns around Saskatchewan for the next few summers giving me reliable, good-paying, enjoyable summer work while I completed my undergrad degree.)
Garry was a great guy who gave me a lot of my basic training about the cable TV business. I was 17 when I worked with him and he seemed so much older to have a job and a house and all kinds of other adult “stuff”. But turns out he was only five years older than me and that makes it even sadder to see his obit and realise he’s yet another person taken in the prime of their life.
