The last weekend at the lake
Wendy, Mark, Ollie, the dogs and I just got back from a freezing weekend at the lake. We went up on Thursday and got back not that long ago. Despite the incredible wind, we had a pretty good time and managed to close up the cabin as well.
It was most definitely our last weekend of 2008. We got up to the lake and Mark and I took Maggi for her traditional swim in the lake. I was tossing a stick to her and wouldn’t toss it into the water in case she didn’t want to go in. After the second toss near the water, she grabbed her stick and just jumped in. Once she goes into the water for the first time, she turns into a different dog. She is relaxed, laid back, and sleeps for hours. Every morning I try to take her down to the water. If you don’t she is constantly on alert in case one of us may try to sneak a swim in.
Arlington Beach was incredibly quiet on Thursday. For a long time the only thing I heard was the crunching of leaves under Mark, Maggi, and my feet. Mark and I always do a couple of things when we are at the cabin. We take Maggi for long walks where we can talk and him and I will play some games on my PSP. This weekend we managed to do both. The game of choice was SOCOM. Through both of our combined efforts, democracy is safer all over the world.
After supper on Thursday the wind picked up and it got quite cold. That night I almost froze to death. Despite three space heaters, it was COLD up there and the temperature dipped down below freezing with an intense wind. It was awfully cold in our uninsulated cabin. While Mark and Oliver had lots of quilts and blankets and slept fine, Wendy and I underestimated what we would need. On top of that both dogs decided they were cold and crawled into bed which shoved me up against a series of 2×4 studs only some plywood keeping me from the elements. It’s a 3/4 bed which isn’t big enough for Wendy and I let alone a large dog who likes to stretch out. It definitely isn’t large enough for Wendy, myself, Maggi and then Hutch. On top of that Wendy decided to move the heaters around so we had three space heaters on one breaker all night which kept tossing the breaker. I was too out of it to know what was going on but it meant all night we were listening to the breaker go off and with it the heat.
On Friday we drove from Arlington Beach to Regina which is about an hour and it takes you through part of the stunningly beautiful Qu’Appelle Valley. As we were driving through the town of Bulyea, Wendy yelled out Boo Yeah and that sadly was yelled by her or Mark every time we saw the sign to the town. We took in Cornwall Centre and Chapters. We did some Christmas shopping and picked up some books. Mark picked out a book of 1001 unbelievable facts and was determined to read each and every one of them to us. I picked up Fiasco by Thomas Ricks and also Big Russ & Me by Tim Russert. Wendy surprised all of us by seemingly surrendering to the household of guys by picking up a book on World War II.
Friday night I pulled out every blanket that we owned (we have quite a few quilts up there for this very reason). There was so many quilts and heavy blankets on the bed, I could feel them pushing me into the mattress. After waking up and feeling like I was sleeping on the surface of the sun, I scaled back the mound of blankets on the bed and was okay. A re-arrangement of the heaters made the cabin a lot more tolerable as well. The dogs were given a choice between sleeping in front of the heaters comfortably or sleeping in a crowded bed with Wendy and I. They chose the bed. We even tried to get them to sleep with Mark but they would get out and sleep with us.
Today the wind was just incredible. We heard it was around 100 km/h. It was a battle just getting the garbage out to the dump. I did manage to brave the wind to take some measurements of our cabin and some decks of cabins around us. The plan is to build a 8×10 deck on the back of the cabin and a small 10×4 front step on the front. Neither will be very expensive as we plan to use simple post and pier construction on concrete blocks. The end result is that we should have 120 square feet or 25% more usable space next year. I think I posted this before but the decks are inspired by these buildings.
With some sadness we cleaned the cabin up, secured the barbecue cover around the grill, locked the place up and said goodbye until next spring. The winter will be spent pricing out insulation and our new decks. Mark is trying to get me to spring for a flat screen television but his chances of that happening are about the same as the Leafs winning the Stanley Cup this year.
11 years
Wendy and I were married eleven years ago yesterday. She posts on the day that it was over on her weblog. She didn’t mention the end of day. Instead of romance, we spent it cleaning up after Mark who had the stomach flu and actually said, “Hey, those are the pickles I ate at lunch”.
Turkey, turkey, and more turkey
It’s Thanksgiving around here and to celebrate it we had planned to spend it at the lake. That didn’t work out so well as Lee got sick and needed a day to sleep it off and so we planned to go south today to the lake but then we heard of a massive snowfall warning. So we ditched Lee and we went to the cabin yesterday and spent a couple hours there and closed it up. Wendy blogged about the trip here and the highlight of the day was making some plans for next year with her. (Wendy also posted some of the cabins we used for inspiration for the deck) We may head up again in about 10 days when I have some vacation days but if it doesn’t happen, we don’t need to return to close up the cabin this winter.
Today Lee is feeling better and is coming over as we eat turkey together and give thanks that we are not snowed in at the lake. When the eating is done, we can warm up the guitar and the PlayStation and see who is the Guitar Hero in the house. Tomorrow I will do some more serious writing and posting here.
Embarrassing
Wendy betrays my trust and reveals a deep dark secret of my childhood on her blog. She also found the time to scan in our wedding photos from way back in 1997 (I had hair). It is kind of embarrassing but I had never looked at the photos until she scanned them in and uploaded them to Flickr. Some things never changed. She looks amazing and I look like a nerd.
On vacation
I am setting my vacation email responders sometime tomorrow and am taking my first serious amount of time off in a year. I am off for ten days with Wendy, Mark, and Oliver and we are heading for an extended long weekend to the cabin. We bought space heaters to deal with the cold weather and tonight Mark talked me into buying Monopoly which is the only board game that I have ever played (but never owned). We were both shocked to find out that Wendy has never played Monopoly and doesn’t even have an idea of what the game is about. Even Oliver grunted in shock over that.
I picked up a couple of books to read at the lake and other than that, I plan on doing nothing other than enjoying the fall. I may be back in the city on Tuesday but expect intermittent posting until Wednesday.
Why Wendy and I never go to the movies together
She breaks most of these rules. It’s tearing our marriage apart. As a padawan, I have trained Mark in most of these rules but to paraphrase Yoda, “She’s too old”. Now we just go see different movies or the same movie on different days.
The Long Weekend
After working this last long weekend and then seeing too many doctors, we got away to the cabin for a couple of days of nothingness on Monday afternoon. Wendy packed the car while I got a couple of hours of sleep. We got away a little later than normal and I had thought that we were coming back Thursday (more about that later).
We arrived at the lake and unpacked some stuff. While Wendy was arranging things and taking care of Oliver, Mark and I went outside and put up our new gazebo. I hadn’t thought we needed a gazebo but we got one at the Centre to provide some shelter out back. The one we got was a heavy duty one and quite nice. By the time I realized we could set one up at the lake, Superstore was out of them. We later saw some temporary ones at Jysk but decided that $119 was too much to pay for something that was wobbly even in the store. After talking about it, we just decided to wait until next spring and get one as it wasn’t that high of a priority. While getting something from Wal-Mart the other day, they were blowing out the same kind of gazebo for $40. After thinking about it, we decided to try it out and if it only last the summer, we would only be out $40. After seeing it had some guy wires, we also decided to pick up some heavy duty plastic tent pegs so the total cost was about $45. It does give Wendy and I some shade to have a coffee in the morning and relax a bit at night. It also gives us about 90 more square feet to live in.
Mark and I had it up in about 10 minutes. Wendy joined us for some of it but I think one person could get it together pretty easily. It said in large letters that it needed to be taken down in extreme weather conditions but what is extreme weather? A good gust of wind or a typhoon? I am still not sure what the answer is but the next day when a blustery thunderstorm blew and rained quite a bit on it, it held fine although I think part of it was because those tent pegs were not going anywhere.
That night I finished James Howard Kunstler’s novel, World Made By Hand. I don’t know if I would recommend it or not. It was supposed to incorporate the ideas from The Long Emergency and depict a life after the oil had run out. It kind of does that but it also shows life after nuclear bombs have been detonated in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. (after a war in Israel) and a couple of coup’s have happened in the U.S. In the end it is a kind of post apocalyptic novel that describes small town life after a nuclear war, after a series of epidemics, and the oil having run out. While the book was interesting, it reminded me a lot of Pierre Burton’s book, The Great Depression which may be a more accurate look at what life would look like in a devastated economy. While I agree with Kunstler that our belief in technology may be naive, I think he underestimates regional ingenuity to deal with some of the problems that we are facing. You can find more about the book on it’s website or check out the trailer for the book here.
The next morning the Pederson’s all came out for a day of exploring, eating, swimming, and chilling out at the lake.
Of course Mark also showed of his incredible fashion sense while at the beach.
Of course even after I showed him this photo, he still thought he looked pretty cool.
That night we managed to use our washer drum barrel fire pit. After burning some holes in our lawn, I realized that if I put it on a cinder block, the grass does better and Smokey the Bear can calm down and get off his stress medication.
While we were up there, we installed a replacement to the antique cabinet that was hanging on the wall in the kitchen.
The shelves weren’t that hard to install but I did have to do a bit of painting to replace the brown void where the cabinet used to be. With the shelves and the storage containers under the table, Wendy feels as if she has enough space now to work and maneuver. I needed to pick up some more screws but the next time we go up I plan to add a couple of book shelves but the interior is coming along. The big thing now is to keep painting an interior wall or two every time we go up.
Before we left, I made Mark help me barbecue some hamburgers. This was kind of life changing for him as last week he wanted to be some sort of eXtreme sports star, now he wants to be a chef. Tonight he offered up all sorts of commentary on Wendy’s cooking while trying to figure out how to make salad like his mom.
We got back in the city on Wednesday night. I had thought we were staying until Thursday but Wendy only packed enough stuff for two nights. The end result was we came home and got up this morning ready to go to the Saskatoon Exhibition. I generally end up enjoying the Ex when we go but in July when I think of the carney’s, the crowds, pickpockets, and the heat, I think that there is a better way to spend a day. It is a big deal to Mark so I promise Mark that we can go every year and we have a good time. This year was no exception.
This was the first year Mark was tall enough to ride on the adult rides. He was DEVASTATED last year when he wasn’t tall enough to go on the bumper cars and had to suffer the indignity of riding with his mom. Him and I scouted out the rides and all he wanted to go on was the bumper cars. After I assured him that no matter what happened, I would get him more tickets to go on the bumper cars, he went on the Tilt-a-Whirl with Wendy.
Then it was off to the bumper cars because the rides either scared him a bit or he heard stories of kids tossing their cookies on them and he didn’t want to risk not going on the bumper cars.
After a couple of times of him trying out the bumper cars, I realized that he will never ever drive a vehicle I own. He gets too much joy out of hitting other drivers. We then made our way to the food area where all sorts of really unhealthy and tasty things were being offered up.
The Ex was a lot of fun but the acclaimed Canadian Pavilion was a little odd. RCMP and military recruiting plus a big display on how the borders are being patrolled. I couldn’t figure out if this was Canada or a police state. What happened to celebrating multiculturalism, diversity, and making fun of ourselves? We did get a big map of Canada and a 1-800-O-Canada ruler out of it though.
Gone fishing
I am off to the lake with the family. I can’t see myself posting much from there.
A decade
Speaking of Wendy, she has a longish post on a rather crappy anniversary she is marking today.
Celebrity Culture
Scott is talking about the celebrity culture in the church on his weblog and he makes a good point, the church is obsessed with celebrities and superstars like the rest of the world. I don’t know if I accept his examples totally but his point is right on.
I have a similar story about being at WillowCreek. I worked at a church that used to purchase 20 tickets or so to the Leadership Summit and fly down most of its staff to hear “leaders” talk about leadership. The second time I was there, Wendy, myself and others were milling about in the lobby and people were literally lined up at the door. When the door to the lobby opened, these people ran into the auditorium so they could get to the front of the building supposedly so they could get close to Bill Hybels. I am assuming they were under the impression if Bill sweat on them or they could smell what kind of deodorant he used, they would be better leaders. It was a little odd to see and not the norm but at the same time I think it is something that permeates church culture.
The church is a lot like NASCAR, it markets and sells those that are successful. The stories of success are what is needed to sell books, book people into conferences, sell DVDs, or have people come to your church. While there is a lot of talk about faith and God’s blessing, there is an entire industry out there that is selling the opposite message, it is about speaking, leadership, vision and they have the tools to help get the church there and I think we have bought into that far more than we will ever admit. To sell those items, they need a face and a story to share and depending of the product, they partner with those that people resonate with, kind of like George Foreman and his grills.
Some people in the church seek out celebrity status while others it just happened to. Those that seek the status will quote whore themselves to irrelevance and keep releasing the same book with a different cover and a couple new stories again and again. Others will be stuck with it because at a certain point they captured the imagination of a people. I don’t blame them and I don’t even blame the industry that produces them. Their bottom line is the bottom line and for decades have been producing all sorts of crap. The people I blame are those of us who are looking for the secrets, the easy way out, the success, the glory, and will pay $295 for a one day seminar with them as they tell us what they wrote in the last three books.
It comes from a lack of leadership, a lack of confidence, a lack of trust, and a lack of faith in our ownselves and instead of admitting it, we go looking for it from someone else. This is a deep structural problem in the church, one that is reinforced by the system rather than challenged which is why I think people are often attracted to movements on the fringe of the church, it’s where they would be if they had the courage to go there. Instead we make those who are there into celebs and try to live through them.
Wendy with Oliver
Father’s Day
This morning Wendy called me while Mark and I were pulling into Royal University Hospital’s parking lot and told me that she can finally come home which was a great way to start Father’s Day. After we stopped up at the Neo Natal Intensive Care unit to see Oliver (and get a Father’s Day card featuring his picture), we headed to Office Depot so Wendy could get my Father’s Day gift from Mark and Oliver which was a set of speakers for the cabin and a iTunes card. The speakers tested out okay and now I have to figure out what I want from iTunes.
Oliver Scott Cooper
After listening to the doctors suggest Wendy could be heading home today with her blood pressure under control, of course it spiked to dangerous levels during the night and at 5:20 a.m., Wendy called me and said, “They are taking the baby this morning”. She was beyond maxed out on Labatatol and the nurses were expressing concerns how sustainable this was considering it wasn’t working on Eclampsia. After racing through the empty streets of Saskatoon (well as much as one can race through the streets of Saskatoon with a Honda Accord), I got the hospital and waited with a very sick Wendy. Several doctors came in and explained how serious of shape she was in and while the baby was doing well, Wendy wasn’t and it was becoming too dangerous for Wendy if the pregnancy continued.
After they performed another emergency cesarean section on someone else, it was Wendy’s turn and at 10:45 a.m., they took the baby out of the operating room without Wendy and I seeing it which raised concerns that it was actually an alien baby (anyone else remember V?”), instead things were fine and Oliver Scott Cooper made his way to NICU. Oliver’s name came during a lengthy debate on names after Wendy ruled out naming him after a NFL quarterback (John Elway Cooper, Steve DeBerg Cooper, Vinnie Testaverde Cooper, Jim McMahon Cooper, Joe Namath Cooper… and my personal favorite Babe Laufenberg Cooper). We like the meaning of the name Oliver and his second name is after our friend Scott Williams but don’t tell him that, it will go to his head.
Wendy was moved to recovery and by 12:30 p.m., Mark was up to see Wendy for a minute which relieved him quite a bit and him and I were off to Toys R Us to do some shopping. After checking out some baby stuff, Mark settled on a big stuffed moose that he named Bullwinkle. He was inspired by the old people cartoons that are on Teletoon Retro. Wendy hasn’t seen Oliver yet as she isn’t strong enough to walk and Oliver is in the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit which doesn’t have the room for Wendy in a bed. According to the nurse, if Wendy was to have a seizure, the nurses there only know how to care for someone 5 pounds and less. I hope she was kidding but I am afraid she wasn’t.
On the other hand, I was able to convince the nurses that I was the dad and was able to meet with Oliver for a bit and observe a nurse teach a resident how to do an exam and evaluation properly for a kid.
For some reason people keep asking me how much he weighs and he is 3 pounds, 9 ounces. He is doing an okay job breathing on his own (six breaths out of seven are his own) so tomorrow he will be off the breathing tube.
We were able to meet each other briefly. We chatted for a bit, he expressed some displeasure when he realized that he may be in his 20s before the Roughriders win another Grey Cup and he seemed confused over the Toronto Maple Leaf management situation but who isn’t.
Shortly afterwards Mark and I headed back up to Wendy’s room to show her the photos, a short video, and to remind her to rest. She is doing better but her blood pressure is still dangerously high and she is beyond exhausted. According to the doctors, despite the fact that things look really bad on her blood pressure monitor now, it should correct itself in the next couple of days. Tomorrow she hopes to meet Oliver. Mark is too young to go into the NICU so it will be a while until they meet so for now, I am under orders to take photos for both Mark and Wendy. I case you want to see the rest of the photos, you can view a set over at Flickr. Below is a short video I short for Wendy while I was kicking around the NICU. Of course Oliver was active, moving around, declaring his support for Barack Obama but as soon as I turned on the camera… he became as active as an evangelical campaigning for John McCain.
Sunday
Wendy is out of the twenty four hour observation unit and is back to the antepartum unit this morning. She is off intravenous and is feeling a lot better. Her first time in the antepartum unit featured a room mate that was making out with her boyfriend the entire time so they may have taken pity on her and put her in a private room. Her blood pressure is still spiking but it low enough that she is off the anti-seizure medication and feeling a lot better. There is a hope that the new medication combination will stabilize her enough that she can make it to 34 weeks. Instead of being told she can’t get up, they are actually encouraging her to walk around a bit today.
Saturday
Last night at 11:00 p.m., Wendy called. Her blood pressure was going higher and they were telling her (as she was on the phone with me) that she was going to be induced or given an emergency cesarean. I woke Mark up, took him to the Reimers for the night, got a hold of Lee when he was done work at CNH and headed up to the hospital. Sometime around 1:00 a.m. they changed their minds again but at the same time made it clear that it could happen at any time. I slept in the chair beside Wendy (she has her own room and her own nurse now) and listened to the kid’s heart on a monitor for most of the night. At 9:00 a.m. the doctors hadn’t come in to see Wendy yet (apparently they were doing an emergency cesarean on someone else) and her nurse told me that if I went home, they would call me if I was needed. I grabbed Mark, met up with Lee and the three of us spent a couple of hours with Wendy this afternoon who started to get bad headaches. She is groggy now from the blood pressure medication and anti-seizure drugs but the baby is still doing fine. According to one of the many doctors who were in the room today, they are waiting because the longer they give the steroids a chance to work, the healthier the kid’s lungs will be.
So far the ETA of the baby has been…
- Saturday or Sunday (that was on Thursday)
- Two weeks from today (that was on Friday)
- Any minute now (shortly after the two weeks from today prognosis was made)
- Hour to hour (today)
- Abstract definitions of time (today)
In other words it happens when it happens.
Our Cabin Weblog- Recently listened to music
- David Gray – Be Mine October 19, 2008
- David Gray – December October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Knowhere October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Real Love October 19, 2008
- David Gray – Last Boat To America October 19, 2008
- Recently additions to my library
- Messy Faith: Daring to Live by Grace by A. J. Gregory October 28, 2008
- Rediscovering Church: The Story and Vision of Willow Creek Community Church by Lynne Hybels October 26, 2008
- The Teeth of the Tiger, A Novel by Tom Clancy October 26, 2008
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell October 26, 2008
- The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy October 26, 2008
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