Week 13

Well, we’re now officially at the halfway point of the sabbatical…  ☹

Amazing how fast these first three months have flown by, not surprisingly I guess, what with all the fun being had.

I won’t go into a long and emotional retrospective piece this week, but I will acknowledge that it has been productive, and I’ve actually checked off a lot of the (stereotypical) boxes that one tries to check off while on sabbatical.  For example:

• Get more tech savvy:  created a “blog” on the interweb, and am now on Snapchat
• Learn a new trade:  woodworking (sort of)
• Learn a new language:  Italian (kindergarten level)
• Confront a fear:  skydiving
• Connect with nature:  4-day canoe trip
• Improve skills:  golf/tennis/hockey
• Bond with family:  drive kids to 6am swim practice, then to school, then pick up from school to take to practice…

Highlight of the past week was the one last hurrah at the lake out in the Okanagan to enjoy the Thanksgiving long weekend and the final vestiges of fall.  Thanks to the in-laws for the full turkey dinner with all the fixin’s. 

We also had one last surf session for the year.  While I never landed the 360, I will take small victory in the fact that I was the only one this weekend to surf without a wetsuit (not an act of bravery or toughness, simply a byproduct of being too large for our inventory of suits – in part due to the full turkey dinner).  It’s always sad to leave, but on the upside, for the first time ever I sat in the passenger seat as it was my 14 year old son who drove the whole way home (my wife has never cared much for sharing the driving…), so I actually got to enjoy the spectacular view .  Unfortunately, the “view” once we hit the Alberta border was winter…

So now that golf season has abruptly ended, will need to be a little more creative to fill in the gaps in the days.  But been busy this week already (hence my delay in posting), so should have some good updates for next week.

By the way, the blog has now actually reached an amazing milestone: 1,000 views! Thanks to everyone who has googled it and has hopefully enjoyed a brief peek into my sabbatical life. I’m not sure whether that number of views is good or bad, or what it says about everyone else’s life. But hopefully it’s monetizable somehow…