Dispatches from a happy Hullian

1. What is your work/school commute like?

Summer: by bike in my work clothes — Strava on, maybe do an errand on the way.

Winter: by express bus after dropping the kids at school. Sometimes with an ambition to read a book but often just noodling around on phone news, Wordle and e-mail.

2. What did you want to be when you grew up? Has it changed?

I had astronaut, engineer, architect, web designer, propagandist and science journalist in my sights over my career. Now I design algorithms and explain statistical processes and methods to people (including statistical laypeople). So different, but not shockingly so, aside from how far it is from astronaut.

3. What is your weirdest work/school/project related story?

Might be the time I flew up to the Lower North Shore to teach Web basics? Or went to a transgenic goat farm to take pictures for a website? I had to wear clinic booties over my shoes, touch nothing and wash my hands obsessively on the way in and out.

4. What is something you're closely familiar with that media always gets wrong?

The media's understanding of contract expiry dates and real pay has been perhaps deliberately wrong in many cases, but really, even friendly sources often flub details.

5. Describe the stuff on your desk/workspace.

Foreground: cables, coffee cup, phone, two laptops, bullet journal, pen. Background: union stuff storage, binders, basement laundry hanging area.

From thefridayfive questions of last week :)

The older two are going back to school next week — school is open to Québec kids for optional classes, especially for kids who need a bit of extra support, and ours are both square pegs in their own ways and are missing school. With Elizabeth and me both being home-based workers at the moment, we can end the experiment pretty quickly if we need to, and we are all pretty robust and not in contact with anyone in an at-risk population, so it seems like an acceptable risk and we can be a dead-end for any contagion coming from the classroom. We got a message from Vivien's teacher and her class will have 10 kids, with rearranged desks and staggered recesses and lunches to avoid big congregations of kids. As a political decision, the Quebec approach might be flavoured by a belief in reopening the economy, but as a project with important health aspects, I think the school is doing pretty well and the kids are starting to get squirelly. We have to come up for air eventually, and this seems like a lower-risk way to do it. I think it's ethical especially if we share that we're doing this with people we might have contact with.

Ada, at four-almost-five, can pronounce “social distancing” pretty well. She was really keen to go to Kaleidoscope (August) with social distancing in place… we’ll see. One can hope (but I trust the organizers will be vigilant and careful)!

Us grown-ups have been thinking a bit of how we’ll proceed when restrictions lift, too — clearly deliberately and with some fulsome conversations, but the bridges will open eventually, and it sounds like some jurisdictions are encouraging people to pair households for mutual aid and companionship. With our relationships, a pair would still leave people out and probably result in some lopsided reconnecting, but with any luck it will be safe for us to rejoin some loved ones outside the house and the rules and good sense will let me see my Vanier loves, Heather and Andrea, soon enough. We'll have talked about it inside our polycule before the rules change, too, so we'll be ready!

Ada is now over two months old! She has been camping, is starting to stick her hands in her mouth, babbles a bit and still sleeps pretty well.

( lots of entry )

I feel pretty content lately and settled into the new normal of three little ones and parental leave. I hope the next few months continue this!

We sent out a picture of the kids with our Christmas cards this year. We do things DIY around here, despite the recommendation of one of my friends who wrangles a family of five into a photo with the help of a trusted Superstore photographer every year with good results. It probably took us a little longer (and two sessions, one of which is lost to the vagaries of a borked camera card), but we got one that definitely captures where the kids were at in late November. Here it is:



The first thing not visible there is Elizabeth under the blanket holding them relatively still.

The other things not visible are the blooper shots, of which here are two:
( cut in case you prefer to leave your illusions intact )
Here are a couple more cute shots of Vivien from around Christmas:
( you know you want to reveal these )
I have another picture post from a few drawing workshops in the works, but it does take a while to crank them out these days.

Life without owning a car is something that gets enough questions asked of me that I thought I'd post a few things about it. Also, I like reading this sort of thing from other people (hi, asimplelife!), so I thought I'd give back.

So, for starters, here's the situation: I live with my wife and toddler son in an older residential neighbourhood in Hull. We're within walking distance of most of the basic necessities of life, none of us have any mobility-reducing disabilities. I've got the lone driver's license in the household.

( the details )

When Oscar was on the way, we heard predictions that we'd be buying a car (or maybe even a minivan!) soon 'cause young kids require cars — we (well, mostly I) did consider getting one (by buying or hand-me-down), but so far we're managing pretty well with a toddler and all the options we have. I know of one co-worker who's thriving with school-aged children and no car, too, so apparently parents in the right situation can manage with multiple kids and not owning a car.

I guess that's a fairly broad picture of how we manage transportation in our little family. I've been wanting to write that out for a while, I hope it's useful or interesting to some people out there...

I've been really enjoying the arrival of spring. Yesterday, I seeded the garden and ripped out a lot of dead branches from the back yard hedge. I'm a little achy from hauling dead stuff out of the back, but it was definitely worth it. We also took a family 11km-or-so walk involving picking up coffee beans and conversation from Bytown Beanery and supper at So Good — the food was great at So Good as usual, but the parenting advice was a little unrelenting. I think we're more or less at the stage when babysitting seems like an option, between Oscar's more varied diet and his improved capacity to have fun. Baby's first babysitter is in the cards!

In the past month or two, there have been a lot of Baby's firsts:

• Baby's first flight of stairs climbed (the back steps)
• Baby's first few mouthfuls of dirt (in the back yard)
• Baby's first visit to a sugarbush (complete with a bit of tasty pancake)
• Baby's first concert (this week at Umi)
• Baby's first junior assistant scrutineer shift (actually coming tomorrow)
• Baby's first street demonstration
• There was also baby's first poetry reading in the winter — anyone have a black turtleneck and beret that would fit a 20 pound baby? Gifts of baby Gitanes are not encouraged.

There's almost always something Oscar can try at every meal, now, which is exciting. He likes his bready things, and seems unfazed by a little bit of spice or sour. Steamed rice (at So Good) wasn't such a good idea — most of it wound up all down Mama's left side. We gave him baby corn and broad noodles from the leftovers, though, and he liked those.

A month from now, I'll be back at work on a slightly reduced schedule (yay, family-friendly workplace!). I have mixed feelings about it, but I do miss work and the people there, and also the different time-scale that work-focus operates in. I hope we all adapt to the changed routine — we'll both be working for a total of a little over one full-time job's worth of time, so we'll need to be more efficient (or more likely, adjust some expectations) and Oscar will have to get used to more one-parent-at-a-time time.

We had a long weekend!

Thursday to Saturday we had some guests in from Waterloo — a colleague of mine from Concordia and his wife. Catching up was fun, and eating well was fun, too: they took us out to Haveli in the market, which was excellent, and we cooked up a couple of breakfasts and an egg-free vegetarian supper (it turns out that Indian vegetarians tend to shy away from eggs but not dairy products — although the danish blue cheese had them shying away for un-philosophical reasons).

We got supplies for a few improvements around the property on Saturday and used them on Monday: our back stairs are now much less disconcertingly springy, and we have an outdoor compost bin set up with a bunch of yard waste already in there.

Sunday, Elizabeth and I went to see the 1930s exhibit and a bit of the permanent collection at the National Gallery. It's only around one more weekend if you haven't seen it; it was worth a look — disconcerting at times, but it seemed intent on showing the variety of competing viewpoints and currents, and on connecting the art to the history. It was a bit more crowded than I would've liked in there, though. There were some really engaging portraits in the show, both photographic and painted. In the permanent collection, I was thoroughly happy to see Rapide et Dangereux by BGL, after seeing a piece under the stairs to the modern collection by them that was sort of like a sculpture of a storeroom.

The low point of the weekend was wonking my shoulder on Sunday before heading out to the museum — I thought I was done with that!

Now, it's back to work for a short week, and possibly a real piano in the near future...

I had a reasonable accommodation post all written up, but I hadn't updated XJournal for Jaguar. If you're a user, go download 1.06b2 before you write anything you want to keep. Aside from that, my Leopardfication has been pretty smooth, and I think that Spaces and some of the little interface enhancements and increased tweakability will be good things. The one bothersome thing is that the new window chrome is so bland that foreground windows look like a background windows (and the background windows look ghostly). It also feels a bit more responsive and zippy, which is always nice. When I have a bit more cash, I'll probably still bump the RAM up, though.

Three years ago last Sunday, Elizabeth and I took a walk to the park on Greene below the highway, and talked and kissed and started making a go of stuff. Pretty soon, we'll have two anniversaries to keep track of. On Sunday we had a nice supper at the Black Tomato and... talked and kissed and stuff.

I also did the traditional failing of the first road test last Wednesday (on the first snowy day of the season!). The roads are safe from me for another month or so.

Two people just rang the doorbell to ask for directions to Fripe-Prix. It's a block away.

I have arrived, luggage and all, in London. The flight was turbulent at times but on time and pretty uneventful. I've found where I'm staying but have to wait for check-in time, and I've found "London's cheapest Internet cafe," which won't let me do anything laptoppy... but it'll do for now. I remember there being one that was just as cheap and laptop-friendly, out near the V&A. I just need to refresh my memory and hope they're still in business...

Last time I was here, it was sunny and unlike the London one always hears about. Now, it is cool and rainy. To complete the Authentic London thing, I will now seek out some fish and chips while waiting to be able to unpack and take a shower.