Tag Archives: summer

Off again

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In a few hours I fly back ‘home’ to Toronto to visit my mom and sisters. It’s just me going, my family is staying back. It’s hard to believe that I’m already more than 2/3rds through summer and I’m basically back at work after this trip.

That said this has been a rejuvenating summer and will continue to be so on this next trip. I needed this. I really needed this.

Holidays are battery charges and I feel like I’ve already had a good charge. Last school year was filled with new challenges and new health issues and the loss of my dad. Sure I still have a long road ahead with my pinched nerve from a herniated disc, but I am not in pain and I’m on the mend… and I’m on the road again.

This is my third of 4 trips home this summer and the first one where I won’t be in agony, I’m really looking forward to it!

Errands day

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Some days are just task after task. The day feels slow then you look back and realize that it was a good day filled with small accomplishments.

My favourite thing to do with errands is to listen to a book. Something like watering plants suddenly feels like it’s worthwhile doing. But some tasks pull me away from my book and I find myself rewinding to re-listen at times. Still, this isn’t work, it’s errands. And if I’m searching through camping gear and forget that I’m also listening to a book, that’s ok.

Getting stuff done always feels good after the fact. Check a few things off of the ‘to do’ list, and listen to a good spy novel while I’m at it… sounds like a pretty good summer day to me.

Summer vacation

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Three more days of work and then I’m off on holidays!

I’m only home for 10 days this summer. I have 3 very different trips planned, each with their own benefits. I’ll be staying at a resort, I’ll be camping in a trailer, and I’ll be visiting my mom. That’s over a month away from home, with a couple less-than-a-week gaps.

I’m excited about all 3 trips, and I know I’ll come back to work well rested. I also wish that I had a few more days to enjoy at home. It’s weird. I’m not complaining, and I wouldn’t want to shorten any of the trips, I just also wish I could spend a bit more time holidaying from the comfort of my house.

I say this is weird because I’m not really a homebody. I enjoy travel, and I’m not overly attached to my bed. Part of me is nomadic, and I can feel pretty at home away from home, even sleeping on a couch at my mom’s place. Maybe it’s our recent renovation, my home feels so much more comfortable now.

Regardless, I have a fantastic summer planned, and I haven’t looked forward to a summer this much in a long time. This school year kicked me in the butt, mostly but not only because of my health. I missed a lot of the year and felt like I was always catching up, always rushing things I am usually on top of, and even dropping things that I don’t usually drop.

I couldn’t pick a better year to jam pack with holidays. Sun and fun, rest and relaxation, and family… all squeezed into an amazing summer that happens to be mostly away from home.

Roughing it

Roughing it means something totally different as you get older. I used to camp on the ground, in a tent. Then we started bringing an inflatable bed. Now we are renting a trailer that will be dropped off at the campsite for us… this is the third time we are doing this, and it’s as rough as we might get for a while.

I’ve been camping, years ago, where we had to carry everything in and out, and pump water through a filter in streams and add a couple drops of iodine to purify it so we can drink it. Then with kids we used to bring a foldable kitchen sink with us to make meal prep easier in drive-in campsites. Now we don’t camp anywhere that doesn’t have taps nearby and washrooms with showers.

Maybe some day I’ll do a big trip where I really rough it again, but for now, roughing it includes a fair bit of luxury, and I’m happy to enjoy the comforts… I’m still going to a campground and not a hotel so in my books, I’m still roughing it.

Routine woes

It’s the last day of school for teachers, and although I will be in next week I’ve already started to alter my early morning schedule. No workout this morning and the latest I’ve written for this blog on a school day since I started writing daily in the summer of 2019.

This is a bit of a wake up call for me. My pattern for workouts and meditation start to fall apart in the summer when I break my work routine. I don’t want that to happen (again) this summer so I’m going to need to build in a regular routine that works. I used to think routines were boring, now I realize they help me get stuff done.

One routine I broke this year is archery. I haven’t shot arrows in a couple months. I haven’t been upset about it, I let it go because everything felt overwhelming and I decided writing, fitness, and meditation were more important. I hope to build archery back into my summer routine… I just need to figure out what that routine will look like.

I’ve got one more week to figure it out.

2 weeks left

This was part of a text conversation I had with a colleague a couple days ago:

Colleague: “… Generally speaking i feel so out of touch. Need some rest this summer I think.”

Me: “Me too! It’s like we are all in pandemic mode AND we have to do ‘normal’ mode on top of that… it doesn’t feel like a shift, it feels like yet another ‘add-on’. I feel like June started 5 weeks ago.”

Colleague: “Oh man – that’s exactly right.”

The two craziest months to be an educator are September and June. Some people (not in education) will ask, “Are thinks winding down as you head into summer?” They don’t realize that there are so many activities to organize, and that we don’t just coast into July. But this year has really been different. I feel like June mode started in the second week of May.

I’m used to sustaining this pace for 4-5 weeks but I’ve been going at it for 6 weeks already and my body is signalling that it’s time to crash for the summer. Right now 2 more weeks feels like an eternity… and simultaneously like not enough time to get everything done.

In the end, I will get everything done. Some things will get pushed to July, and that’s ok. But I’m going to be reflecting on how and why June mode started so early this year, and figure out how to shorten it next year, because I don’t want another year to end like this.

Two weeks. I’m not usually a count-down-the-days kind of person, but this year I think I’ll make an exception.

Fire and rain

Today on highway 5 my daughter and I saw a plane drop fire retardant (red coloured) water on the hill closest to the highway. There were multiple spots along the closest ridge and hill to our right where we could see smouldering trees. Then we headed into a section of highway where we couldn’t distinguish smoke from fog, and a light misty rain covered our windshield.

We are used to rain in BC, but it has been much too dry and the fires have been out of control. Seeing one of the fires so close to the highway followed by raindrops made me realize how little control we m have over nature. Many fires in BC are not contained, they are forcing evacuations, and endangering lives. It’s one thing to deal with the inconvenience of smoke from a distant fire and yet another to face the flames.

With so many fires burning in BC, it’s a joy to see some rain, and I find myself hoping for much more of it.

Procrastinating workouts

It took me hours to get myself working out today. Everything was an excuse, or a delay. Now that I’ve done it, I feel great (physically).

This is why I like morning workouts before work, there is a deadline I have to meet, and so I meet it. On holidays, it suddenly becomes something to put off until later. The problem now is that I’m heading back into a smokey location, and won’t have the convenience of my home gym. I also won’t have my bike. So I’ll need to figure out a routine that doesn’t involve me breathing heavily in smokey air. I might have to resort to hikes, walks, and a regimen of sit-ups and push-ups… and schedule these so that I actually do them.

I feel so unproductive, even after getting my workout done, when I spend half the day thinking about and delaying my workout, even if I get other things done in the process. So, this is my ‘out loud’ commitment to do better. And to be specific, doing better means setting a time for my workout, then sticking to it!

Breaking routines

The past few weeks have been challenging for me to maintain my healthy living goals. My exercise has been the bare minimum, I missed a meditation day, and I’ve only shot arrows twice in the last 2 weeks. Daily blogging is the only think I haven’t missed.

I can blame getting busy at the end of the year, but I know I could have done better. What’s worse is that I’m heading into a summer where my routines are going to be completely disrupted. For one thing, I’ll be out of town a lot without my bow, and so I’m going to get very little shooting time. Beyond that, I’ll be without my home gym.

I thrive on routine to keep my healthy living goals, and this summer is going to be a challenge and a test for me. I will need to figure out a routine that works, and stick with it, or I know my healthy living chart will be a disappointment. I have 2 months ahead that I need to show discipline… that I need to plan, such that my fitness is actually a priority and not just an afterthought.

This will especially be a challenge because my motivation has been low, and my workouts have been about maintenance and doing the minimum. I think I’ll have to find a new goal or two to work on. I should state those here because I know making my goals public pushes me, but the goals in my head right now aren’t ones that I think I’m actually ready to make and stick with. If I’m not honest with myself, I’m not ready to declare something I won’t stick to.

So I’m heading forward without a routine and without specific goals. This is not ideal. I’ll hit all 4 targets today, and I’ll do the same tomorrow, but if I don’t set up routines by my first trip at the end of this week, I know I’m going to disappoint myself. That’s not a great feeling, but it’s honest, and so this is a goal I need to set over the next few days. I don’t do well taking care of myself when I get off of my routines, and if I’m not careful, this is going to be a routine-less summer.

The longest day

Happy Summer Solstice! It’s hard to believe that today is the longest day of the year.

When the shortest day comes on December 21st, I’m ready for the days to get longer. It’s dark early and it feels like the right time to swing the pendulum back, and to start seeing more daylight. But June 21st seems too early in the summer to be at the maximum daylight length.

School is still in session, and the entire summer holiday is ahead of us. In my head the long, bright days of summer are just approaching. But every day from now until next December will get a little shorter.

There are reasons why the dead of winter is delayed until after the shortest day of the year, and why summer is hottest after the longest day… but intuitively it doesn’t make a lot of sense. This day just seems to come too early in the year. This timing does explain why the summer solstice was such an important event to pre-industrial humans. This is the day that leads to a bountiful summer, when the sun provides the greatest rewards. It’s a time when all crops have been planted and many early crops will already be ready, and ripe for picking. And so there is enough food for a feast, and the hard work of caring for crops and harvesting are ahead.

Now, the solstice is just an interesting fact, rather than a big celebration. But I always look forward to the summer and winter solstice. The winter solstice because it’s nice to think of each day getting longer as the winter approaches. The summer solstice because the whole summer lies ahead. So, while many don’t think of this day as special, I do.