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 :)

I cleared out a bunch of union stuff, certificates, training materials and reference books from my office today; everyone is going to get moved around as floors are remodelled and the square footage is reduced to reflect the large number of folks gone remote and hybrid. Some nice memories bound up in some certificates and reports I was shuffling through...

Also, just now I my mind wandered on to the cafeteria at work. It's big, it's in the basement (with little high windows), it's pretty bland... but I've had lots of good games of cards, mentoring talks, coffees, and even meetings down there pre-pandemic. And between secondment and pandemic, I last had a meal there in 2019 (maybe I popped in once or twice in very early 2020, maybe?) But I remembered it with its green paint, dark wood and stainless steel, and kind of missed it.

I've got a bit over a month before I switch to my new position, I'm looking forward to it, maybe mourning the things I won't do in this one a bit.

In other news, I ran the Ottawa Half Marathon a week and a half ago, and then a miserable (but generic) cold swept through our household. Glad I timed that right.

Sure, a prompt for some reminiscing from thefridayfive...

1) What's the furthest place you've traveled to in the last 12 months?

Likely picking up chickens from Perth-ish, 75 minutes' drive away.

2) What's the most interesting small town within driving distance?

Wakefield is pretty cool, although it's fallen on hard times since the steam train shut down due to a washout of some of the track. There's Lester B. Pearson's grave, good walking, a train turntable, and lots of good hippie food.

3) What's the coolest tourist attraction in your city?

Being in the capital region there is a lot, but in Hull proper it's probably the Canadian Museum of History, which contains the Children's Museum and an IMAX theatre, built when people thought 70mm movies were a neat idea. It's an impressive building and grounds, and has a huge variety of interesting exhibits including a lot of Indigenous content and parts of buildings brought into the space. It used to be called the Museum of Civilization but the Harper Régime found that too outward-looking or didn't like civilization or something.

4) What was your favorite road trip you took as a kid?

All the New England camping trips kind of blend together, but there was one where we were camping in a lean-to and got on well with our camping neighbours and ate jalapeño chips which left an impression.

5) How often do you feel like you've got to get away?

On some small level, I try to do that daily with a walk, run or bike ride. But I do feel due for a date, a trip, a break out of the routine...

I turned forty yesterday… sometime before March I threw out that my fortieth birthday would be nice if it was anchored in beer and board games — get a bunch of people who like one or more of those things and want to celebrate with me and make a day of it.

We had a scale down a bit but both of those things happened (not all at the same time) — Elizabeth and the kids had gotten Gaïa and I played a couple of rounds with Oscar and Ada after breakfast. The standard game feels like it's a bit to draw-dependent with few interesting decisions or back-and-forth opportunities, but the advanced version (especially minus the mean cards — volcanoes and thunderbolts in our game made it so that you kind of had to ride out the violence and then play in earnest once everyone was out of ammunition) is a nicely-balanced short game.

The kids gifted me with many supervillain-themed pictures, a felt medal and a hat made from a pop bottle with an antenna and googly eyes.

In the middle of the day we had a backyard party. Elizabeth had made lime meringue tarts, we barbecued some veggie sausages, we took cover when it rained :) Heather, Andrea and Morgen came for the first while until Morgen needed her own bed for a nap, and my folks turned up as they were heading out. It was the first time this year I've seen my parents in person. I hope we can figure out a visit down there; either a day trip on a nice day or a weekend if we can tinker with our bubble configuration or get to a better place in the pandemic.

Turning forty has been kind of overshadowed by the circumstances. I'm no longer young in the terms of my union, I guess when it seems prudent I'm due for a medical check-up. Ten years ago Oscar was still in utero and I was a young and promising Methodologist, more I'm more established and shifting to be a manager and Oscar's going to be a teenager before long. I'm more readily out as bi and polyamorous and organizing workplace things for Pubic Service Pride (which wasn't really a thing in the Federal Public Service ten years ago). I'm trying to be a bit more conscious of taking care of my body — choosier about food and letting there be leftovers, morning walks, an actual ergonomic chair in my basement lair. I feel like negotiation is a theme of the last little while: bargaining, working out pandemic safety measures in our bubble, trying to line up a working like that's as good as possible. Stabilizing the wobbly bits of my life, too.

Maybe I'll have a bigger party for 41 or 42, but I liked being celebrated yesterday. It's a nice round number, but it feels like a kind of transitional time for me.

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.

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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!

Here are some pictures from the last few months of 2014. We've been having lots of fun and occasionally remembering to take pictures. Next post, maybe some of them will have Elizabeth and/or me in the frame.

Oscar at his birthday barbecue (in low light, but you get the idea).

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It feels like the new year has shaken lots of things up for me, largely in
a good way. It's surprising -- the very end of last year felt quietly
dire, and the beginning of this one, despite Oscar having just fought off a
week's worth of gastro and the weather having had us gone to ground much of
the time, has felt good. I'm starting a new position, with some staff and
some of my favorite technical matter, in Justice statistics -- it's acting,
maybe six months to a year, and an exciting challenge. I already feel a
big difference in how I interact with my chief as well as the pace and
choppiness of my day -- I like the new interaction style and the
big-picture duties, but the task-switching pace will be a challenge.

In at-work-but-not-work news, there are a couple of good things. First, I
am on a tear at lunchtime Scrabble -- a couple of convincing wins have me
sitting higher in the standings than I ever have. Probably more meaningful
to my well-being is that I stopped waffling and signed back up for yoga.
My old instructor had retired, so a new class with a new instructor: it's
"hip opening yoga" according to the title, but it feels more or less like
the very first class I attended way back in 2005 at Concordia, but with
extra blocks and balls. The instructor, Janice, is a bit tougher and has a
drier sense of humour than either of my previous instructors, which on
balance I think I will appreciate.

The home life is feeling more connected -- maybe things just settled better
after an exhausting late 2013, maybe it's a slowly improving sleep
schedule, or both of us just developing good patterns, but I feel like
we're managing to carve out more and better couple time. I'm finding Oscar
easier to have fun with, too -- he chimes in when we're reading a familiar
book, he comes up with extensive justifications for me spinning him around
(although he calls it "sponging", hence "this is sponging music, papa!"),
and his playing-with-others skills are improving. I'm looking forward to
milder weather soon, because I think the bitter cold is cramping his style
-- him tearing around outside more will be good for us all.

Six months ago today, Vivien was born. Now she has two teeth, is starting to be mobile, and is sticking lots of things in her mouth (but not eating complementary foods just yet).

( then )
( now )

Six years ago today, I proposed, in a horse shelter at my parents' place, to Elizabeth. She said yes.

Also, happy birthday to my cousin Erica, beable and to thebabynancy!

Here's the semi-standardized questionnaire applied to 2012 — it was a pretty intense year in some ways.

What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
Filed a police report, juggled two kids out solo.

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Did I miss any useful questions? I dropped a couple of irrelevant ones, and will be watching the memesphere for stuff to add.

teinm_laida gave me some random questions:

if you had a time machine, what time period would you be most tempted  to relocate to?

I think the future, definitely, to see how it all turns out. Say, 2210, under the assumption that my English may be quaint but not entirely useless, and some serious history will have happened by then.

what was the last film that really moved/disturbed you and why?

I think the most disturbing one lately was The Idiots, by Lars von Trier — cultiness, mental illness and black comedy are always a disturbing mix.

what is the kindest thing anyone has done for you?

It's hard to sort out a ranking of them, but my elementary school teachers — Mrs. Lawrence, Mrs. Lang and Annick stand out — and our awesome ahead-of-his-time principal Mr. Rennie really went out of their way to put lots of stimulating stuff in my path. It can't always be easy to be long-time elementary school faculty, but they were awesome anyway.

least favourite vegetable? ;)

Probably Brussels sprouts, but even they can be saved with black pepper and butter.

would you bungee jump?

No, I think the days when that made any sort of sense for me are past — I'll take my life-and-limb risks doing yard maintenance and bicycle commuting, now.