Summer has kicked in, and the Blog has officially entered a slow period.  I’m off camping with my boys for 7 weeks.  I’ll leave you with this, found on my good friend Rob Peters site.  He doesn’t know the source, so if someone does, let me know.

I don’t twitter, tweet, twat… whatever it is you call someone that uses twitter.   That being said, I found this link on Robert Sawyers blog, and it’s pretty darn good:

A 29 year old son lives with his 70+ Dad.  His twitter page is all about things his Dad says.  I’ll tell ya, his Dad is funny and wise.

“We didn’t have a prom. Dancing wasn’t allowed…What’s Footloose?…That’s the plot of the movie? That sounds like a pile of shit.”

“Remember how you used to make fun of me for being bald?…No, I’m not gonna make a joke. I’ll let your mirror do that.”

“Just pay the parking ticket. Don’t be so outraged. You’re not a freedom fighter in the civil rights movement. You double parked.”

A few years back, I was asked to leave my job by my wife.  Her work was stressful, and getting more-so, and it was getting difficult to balance our family responsibilities with those of our work.  I also wasn’t happy where I was, so it was an easy decision.

I did that for a couple of years before I was approached by someone I had worked for a long while ago.  Our discussions led to a contract position, and last year led to an employee position as head of their software department.  The work over the last few years has been interesting, complex, exasperating, and overall enjoyable.  During my stay, I noticed a lack of direction in their IT department, and started managing that area as well.  I enjoyed both jobs very much, and wish I could have stayed and done the family thing at the same time.

Unfortunately, even though they were willing to bend over backwards to help me maintain my position as the primary caregiver to my boys, I wasn’t able to achieve the balance I was striving for.  In the end, both my family and my employer were not getting all I had to give, and I felt something had to change.  After several discussions with my wife (and kids), we decided I would once again stay at home with the boys.

It was a difficult decision to make.  As I said earlier, my employer was extremely flexible.  I’m overjoyed to be going back to being a stay-at-home parent, but I also feel a rather large sense of loss… almost as though I gave up.

Norscan Instruments has been an exceptional employer, and I wish them the best of luck in the future.  My last day is November 24, 2009.

Hey kids, I’m coming home.

I figured I’d write a post about what I accomplished in 2008.  This is it.  I’ll also add what I hope to accomplish with each item in 2009.

What are some of your accomplishments this year?

I thought I’d post a brief update on where things are at:

I’m camping with the boys again, trying to squeeze in an extra week before school starts.  I’m hoping to get a couple of weekends in as well, but we’ll see.

I’m continueing to revise ‘The Courier’, which may go through a title change soon.  I haven’t updated the revision page counter here yet, since the revisions are on paper and not in the computer yet.  I’m heading to Ghana in a couple of weeks, and I really want the thing revised and in the computer, so I can do more work while I’m there.

It looks like my status as a stay-at-home dad may change.  I haven’t got a formal offer yet, but it sounds close.  The job will completely work around the schedule of my boys, which means they’ll never notice I’m working.  I’ll still drop them off to school, pick them up, be home during school holidays, etc.  The potential work schedule is entirely based on the school year, which is great.  Personally, I’d rather stay at home than go and work, but the offer is almost like candy… tough to say no to.

To my faithful reader (singlular),

I apologize for the lack of posts.  I’ve had a contract job since early this year, and on top of putting in 6+ hours a day on that, I’ve also kept up my stay-at-home dad responsibilities.  This week, I’m doing 16 hrs a day on the contract, and Grandma is taking care of the boys.  Thanks Grammy!

Next week I’m of to Albequerque to visit my clients clients, and hopefully make a delivery.  The week after that is 3 weeks of camping with my boys, and a chance to rest.

I’ll try to post something sooner next time.

Sincerely,

Gerald

Apparently, being a stay-at-home dad is still something of an oddity.  A friend of mine put a freelance writer in touch with me.  It seems she was writing an article for a new magazine called Sharp.  The article was about stay-at-home dads, how they handled the transition, what people thought about them, that sort of stuff.

Well, a couple of weeks ago she interviewed me for about a half an hour, and yesterday I got an email from the editor of the magazine asking for a family photo to run with my segment.  Cool.

I’m not sure if Sharp is available on newstands or not, but the June issue will have a bit of me in it.

[edited; 11-May-08 Link for Sharp was wrong]

25

Both our boys have birthdays in October.  Two days apart, in fact, and it can make for a very hectic time in the house.  We had a kids party on Friday with 2 guests for our now five year old, a kids party on Saturday with 8 guests for our now 7 year old, and a family party with 7 guests on Sunday.

Now it's Monday, and it's time to grab the Hoover and clean up after the wild and woolly weekend.

Everyone seems to have had fun though… especially the kids and their guests.  As with all kid get-togethers, we had a few issues.  A couple of the kids insisted on rough-housing, walking on the furniture, etc.  A couple of threats of time-outs brought them back to a reasonable level, I guess.

So, here I am, tired and cranky, and a proud  father to a five and a seven year old.  Go me! 

It's official, summer is over.  My oldest started Grade 2 on Tuesday, and my youngest starts Kindergarten (full-time, mornings) on Monday.  We managed to squeeze in one more frog hunting expedition and one more day at the beach.  The beach ended up being a tad on the cool side, though the boys loved it, and the frog hunting wasn't as fulfilling as the last time we went.  The frogs, it seems, are beginning to hide for the coming winter.

Along with school starting, I seem to have turned the tide against the general malaise I've had.  I'm back to getting up at 5:00 AM and getting a good 1 1/2 to 2 hours of writing in.  Progress is still slow, since I'm taking draft 0 at ~33,000 words, and turning into a solid draft 1 at hopefully 90,000 + words.  At my current rate of rewriting (since I've got a spreadsheet to watch all this for me), I'll be at ~65,000 words when done.  That's with being only 8 scenes in so far.  I'll get the word count up there.  My speed should increase as well, since both kids will be at school in the mornings.  That'll give me another couple of hours to work.  I'm considerring adding a couple of hours in the evening during the winter months.

I can already hear some people asking what's up with blowing up the word count.  Most writers try to get the word count down on subsequent  drafts.  My outline was at 10,000 words, Draft 0 is a lot of telling and short sentences summarizing actions and feelings and stuff.  Draft 1 takes all of the telling and summaries and builds something that is actually readable.  That's why the word count goes up.  Pruning will happen later.

Oh, and I got the motorcycle on the road for the last warm month.  It was still on the expensive side, but I scrimped and saved and got it all together.  Now if only I could get Marnie home from work at a normal time so I could ride. 

As a sign-off, this is one of my favorite songs, and the commercial is cool to boot:

It's official, we're a two wheeled family.  This weekend, my youngest (4 years old) learned how to ride a two wheel bike.  His training wheels are in the garbage!

The entire lesson took about 1/2 hour on Saturday, and on Sunday we went for a ride with the entire family.  Jared got a bit upset, since it wasn't the fastest ride (he's 6), and he kept having to stop and wait for Ryan.  Still, it was fun.  We'll be taking the bike when we go camping for sure!

On another note, the blog seems to be slowing down a bit during the summer holidays.  I'll see what I can do about that. 

(July 17th update: The whole family went for an 8 km bike ride in Birdshill Park.  Both boys did exceptionally well!  Fantastic!) 

It's official, both boys are out of school.  Ryan got out at the end of May, while Jared got out the end of June.  Right after school was out for Jared, we hopped into the already packed van and drove out to see the in-laws.  Four fun-filled days later, I return to a messy house, and a project that is way behind schedule.

For the rest of the summer (besides completing the project this week), the boys and I will go camping, head to the beach, ride our bikes, and generally fill the days with fun in the sun and laughter.  Hopefully enough fun to have them fall asleep everyday the second their heads hit the pillow.  Their both in some library programs this month as well, so they'll stay busy!

Time to get back to my late project… so far the client doesn't mind, but that's no excuse! 

Oh, and Happy 4th of July to our American neighbors. 

Well, we're just 4 days away from Jareds summer holidays.  Ryan started his at the end of May, so he's been home for almost a month already.  Once Jared starts staying home all day, it'll take a bit of the pressure off.  The pressure is that Ryan can't do anything by himself, he wants to play with me all day.  Of course, that's not possible.  I have a contract I need to finish off, which is way overdue, and I have all the other household stuff going on.  Spending 8 hours a day playing with Ryan is impossible.

The summer should be fun!  We're starting off by heading to the in-laws for the long weekend.  We're picking Jared up straight from school and driving out.  When we come back, we'll be doing cartown where kids between 4 and 7 learn how to drive.  I've heard it's a blast!  We'll also be doing a lot of camping (as long as the mosquitoes keep down), biking, and hiking.  I'm hoping to get Ryan on to 2 wheels in the next couple of weeks, which will make things better for him.

If I remember correctly, last summer passed by really quick.  This summer is likely to go just as fast, and I want the boys to have lots of fun! 

Overheard at breakfast
Jared: Ryan, what do you think is the highest number?

Ryan:  Ummm, the last number?

Yesterday, Marnie was driving the boys home from soccer (I was out).  This is the conversation they had:

"'How does Uncle Gregor have enough food?" asked Ryan.
"Why do you want to know?"  Marnie asked in return.
"Because he lives in his car!" said Jared.

Later at home, the conversation resumed with:

"How does he get books?"
"How does he get money?"

Hey, Marnie and I thought it was hilarious!  My brother does live in his car! (It's an secure link with a bad certificate, just click past the warnings to get through)

Well, my plan for getting up early appears to be working.  Yes, it can be a struggle getting out of bed, but I am getting out of bed.  Currently, the alarm is set for 6:00 AM.  That's one hour difference in two weeks, which means another two weeks before I reach my goal of 5:00 AM. On Monday, it will be set back to 5:45 AM and the next stop on Thursday or so will be 5:30.  Here's to hoping it keeps on working.  As a side note, the kids are pretty much back to their regular time of waking up.

Speaking of kids, both the boys are in soccer.  R has games on Monday and Wednesday, while J has games on Tuesday and Thursday.  Both sets of games get them home past their normal bedtime.  This schedule is driving me crazy, and we still have 6 weeks of it left.  Aaaarrrggghhh!

I've also gotten out of the habit of posting this:

Reading
Description and Setting (Ron Rozelle) 

Writing
Technical Documentation for local company.