| Ted / Dad |
 |
2008 seems to have flown by in a flash. It is very interesting watching the kids become adults. Both are enjoying a new independence that I am not sure Louise and I are comfortable with. Not that there is too much that we can do anyway. I guess at this point, we just hold on for the ride...
In January, I had the honor of participating in a Rotary Friendship Exchange to the City of Aracaju, in the State of Sergipe, Brazil. I was one of 8 from Alberta. It was the return portion of the exchange, as several of the Brazilians had visited Alberta in 2007, hosted by several of the clubs in our district. I was the only Camrose Rotarian on the exchange. The others were from Spruce Grove, Whitecourt, and Grande Prairie. We stayed with Brazilian families, and Adenilson, the chairman of the local Brazilian exchange committee, organized a jammed packed itinerary for us. Our hosts toured us all around their state, and the neighbouring state of Alagoas. |
| I was hosted by Paulo and his family. They are increadibly generous people. The whole family made me feel very welcome. I only wish I had had more time to get to know them.
When I say busy, I mean that we started early every day, and I would be finishing the day at 1am or 2am working on my photos and blog.
You can read about our adventure on my blog
and you can see all my photos on my flicker site.
|
.jpg) |
|
My Host Family in Brazil |
 |
I made some wonderful friends, with both my fellow exchange participants, and of course, the Brazilians who hosted us. I hope that I get to see them all again - either in Brazil, or in Canada.
Wow - what a great way to start the year. Hard to top that. Of course after three weeks away, I came back to a stack of work. |
| I have been trying to get in a bit better shape this year. I was reasonably faithful in going to the gym in 2008, and passed the "million pounds lifted" mark in September. (They have machines that keep track.)
I also purchased a "Road Bike" in the spring, and had fun going for short (30km to 50km) rides after work. I came close to putting 1000km on it this summer. I haven't really lost any weight, but I feel better, and am noticing a difference in Volleyball (jumping higher and hitting harder...). |
 |
|
Ted Biking the Twin Tunnels and Historic Highway between Hood River and Mosier |
In May, our Rotary club hosted the District Conference. They asked me to take photos of the event. That was fun. Lots of people - all trying to "Do Good". Link to Rotary Photos
I wasn't going to go on the June Gorge trip with my windsurfing buddies, because I had used up most of my holidays going to Brazil, but ... We had a great time with some good wind. I have fun taking photos and video of the guy's. I keep a blog of the trip, to keep everyone at home entertained. Link to Spring Gorge Trip Blog.
|
 |
|
Ted windsurfing in front of the house |
 |
In July, I was asked to organize the Camrose portion of a New Mexican/Texan Rotary Friendship Exchange. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. After receiving the benefit of all the organization of our Brazilian trip, it wasn't something I was going to turn down. We had fun trying to figure out what we could have them do that would be exciting and different. We had 10 people to host for about 4 days. |
 |
I think the highlights of their trip were seeing and walking through the bright gold canola fields which were in full bloom, and participating in a Tuesday evening fire practice with our city volunteer fire department. Have YOU ever held a fire hose or gone up in a ladder truck??? All of the visitors were hosted in homes of local Rotarians. Louise and I hosted Donna and Carey from New Mexico... very nice people. We really enjoyed all of the visitors and became good friends with all. Link to Rotary Exchange Photos |
| We didn't go on our annual summer holiday to Nitinat this year - because of a combination of the kids growing up, needing to work, doing different things, me running out of holidays, gas price too high, etc......
Instead, Louise, Spencer and I went to Hood River for some windsurfing.
We had a great week. You can read about it and see photos in our "Other" section.
I must sound a bit like a broken record, but I was back to the Gorge again in September with the Windsurf Guys for a final week. Some good windsurfing, but also some no-wind days, so some good bike rides (killer hills...). Here is a Link to the Fall Trip blog. |
Canola fields in Bloom |
Sponsor Birdie, with Helen, David, and Alan who rode their bikes from Winnipeg to Camrose to raise money for literacy |
At the same time, a friend in Camrose had asked me to do the blog for his "Munsch a Bunch of Miles for Literacy" fundraiser, bikeride. They rode from Winnipeg to Camrose, stopping at schools to read Robert Munch books. He would call me every day to give me an update. It was lots of fun - I think we will be doing it again next year. Check it out here...
September/October are extremely busy times at work, both finishing of the summer projects, and preparing budget. Payback for my holidays. Many extra hours and weeks and weeks without a day off. What can I say - I survived. |
|
In October I presented a paper about watershed management to the Canadian National Drinking Water Conference, in Quebec City. Louise was able to join me for the conference (I mean for shopping)! I think she had a lot of fun. Quebec is a beautiful city. She enjoyed shopping during the day, and we enjoyed walking around during the evenings. They were starting to remove all the flowers just as we were leaving, so I think we hit it just right. |
 |
Corinna, Louise and Ted with the
Stanley Cup - World Junior Championships
Camrose |
In November, Corinna, a PhD student from Wales, working for the International Water Association, came to Camrose for three weeks to study our Water System and our Safety Management Plans (or lack thereof...). They chose Camrose because it is a small City, and the team leader knew me through some conferences and workshops that I had attended years earlier. She interviewed all of our staff while she was here, and we got to know her quite well. Louise and I had fun showing her around. She stayed with us on the weekends. We entertained her by taking to see one of the world junior hockey games in our new Edgeworth Center (and got our photo taken with the Stanley Cup), to West Edmonton Mall, and a hutterite farm. We also took her to our friend Neal's farm where we let her try shooting a rifle, pistol and shotgun. |
No wonder I feel burned out.... that was quite a year.
I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy year in 2009.
Ted |
|
|
|
|
