The beaver is a proud and noble animal
Notes from a bemused canuck
Byron is “helping” me make waffles. He’s a very good kitchen helper, even if he tends to flomp in front of drawers and doors I need to open. He’s currently waiting until they cool enough to eat.
Love this picture. He regularly goes cross-eyed for treats.
Update: He’s had his share of waffles, but is now complaining about the insufficient waffle content in his belly. He’s sitting in the kitchen, whining pitifully.
3 dads, 3 sons, 2 days of rides, 1 evening at a water park.
So following on from 2021, 2022 was rather shit. While there were moments of fun, it seems that most if not all of them were overshadowed by drama, illness, accidents and general fuckery. At times, I thought I was losing my career, my family and my mental health. I can only thank my wifey, my friends, my colleagues and my Not-my-dogs for keeping afloat when it felt I was sinking. I wish I could believe that 2023 will be better, but my general cynicism just hopes it won’t be more of the same, if not worse.
The day before I was supposed to leave for Canada. I have my boarding passes, covid certificates and all other sundry paperwork. The suitcases are ready.
In recent years, birthdays have always been… difficult so Katy wants to have a good day with me before I leave to celebrate a pre-birthday, in case my real birthday follows the trend.. We go to Lausanne for dinner and a movie, but the heat and humidity are oppressive and it’s getting to us. We decide to go home instead of seeing the movie. Katy just wants to go to bed.
At the station in Morges, we want to take a taxi to go home. While going to the taxi, Katy falls off the curb and hears a crack. She thought she sprained her ankle, but the pain doesn’t go away and she can’t really walk on it. After 4 hours in the ER (so 1h30 am), it’s a fracture and she needs crutches and a giant boot. One year to the day from the date of the operation on her finger.
It’s confirmed, we’re hexed and the universe hates us.
On the plus side, it was much easier than expected to get in touch with Air Canada and rebook my flight. Hopefully she’ll be more mobile by next Sunday. We should know more on Thursday.
At Ta Cave, Lausanne, 05.04.2022
The Swiss military is doing formation flying drills over the lake this morning. They’ve been buzzing over the EPFL campus for the last 20 minutes or so. Damn, they’re fast! They’re almost already out of frame as soon as I have the reflex to press the shutter button. And the noise is impressive!
We took the car to drive up to the arboretum in Aubonne. It was a nice, if chilly, walk.
2021 was a hard year.
It involved way too many visits to hospitals and vets. We lost a Pavel. We lost a Stu. We came very close to losing our goddamned minds as a family. The jury is still out on that one – that’s still very much a work in progress.
Work-wise, the whole thing sometimes felt like one step forward, two steps back, heeeeey macarena.
There were some bright spots, but they seemed very few and far between. Visits from NMD, beach beers, little things. Even some of the potentially bright spots seemed to get tainted by some level of drama.
I miss seeing my family. I miss seeing my friends. I miss having goals and dreams. I miss the calm, quiet moments. I miss having fun. I’m tired of stress, worry and drama.
2022, please be kind.
