Summer months

Opa Jos Vandenboom is still going strong, keeping Mary and Susan always busy looking after him and taking him on outings all the time. Every now and then I come to his retirement home to play a few games of rummikub which he still does very well. It is nice to be fully mobile again after those few months with the catheter and the prostate problem. Mary's knee is also getting better all the time.

Mark and Carly played a beach volleyball tournament with friends in Welland. Was fun to see one of their matches. Back on the bike again to do most things. Yesterday to the flatwater center and a short swim in the canal.

Big part of one of the neighbour's tree came down. We will have to take down the entire tree which Trish will organize. I took off all the parts with the leaves and then Ralph came with his chainsaw.

All cleaned up again and Ralph will have some nice firewood, for the time being stored in our little old shed in the back. Now waiting for the rest of the tree to be taken care off....

Deck renovation

The deck on the side door needed to be renovated and we decided to try the expensive but much longer lasting vinyl panels. Before Mark and Shayd would do the fine work, I took on the taking off the old planks and reinforcing the joists. After ten weeks of doing nothing, it was tough on the body but good to do. Kept me busy for four days (slow slow worker....).

Mark (with all the right saws and tools) assisted by Karleigh did a great job with the finer work later joined by Shayd with his carpentry experience. I just lent moral support but enjoyed watching them.

For the new stairs we have to order other vinyl pieces but Shayd left us with a good temporary solution. He will be back here in a month or Mark can do it in the meantime. Shayd visited with Hilary because Hilary has two weddings from old school and university friends these months.

Mark took Shayd for some pickle ball experience in between the construction work and wedding activities. Together with Karleigh they even talked me into a game of doubles. Pretty stiff and slow but still pretty effective at the net with volleys...

Opa Vandenboom came for inspection of the work on the deck and gave his approval. We also took Hilary, Shayd, Karleigh and Mark for a nice dinner along Lake Erie, where we afterwards spend a bit of time on Long Beach. Life is good....

Surgery went well

Yesterday I had day surgery done on my prostate and it went well. They put me under, so I did not notice a thing. Recovery was very reasonable. There was a registered nurse, Melanie, who trained Hilary at the Niagara Falls hospital when Hilary started there 9 years ago. Still a catheter in for a week and afterwards hopefully back to normal bladder emptying....

During the past weeks, Hilary suggested that I read a few books about aging, because the situation with my prostate was a bit of a wake-up call for me. Both books were easy to read and gave me some good food for thought. The second book is written by a 102 year old lady who had an 70 year career as a medical doctor (more on the holistic way of thinking but also interesting to read).

 

Susan celebrated yesterday her 63rd birthday and back in Holland one of  my university friends visited and had a get together with old friends plus spouses. Henk graduated as mining engineer and moved right away to a job in South Africa. Forty years later he still lives and works there.

'Boomkes' back to NL

Jos and Henk Vandenboom (and Henk's wife Toos) flew back to Holland yesterday after a few weeks vacation in Canada. They are two of the three sons of an older brother of Opa Vandenboom. They stayed a few days with Joe & Marcy in Sarnia + a few days with Sue, Ralph, Mary and me in Fonthill. Last Sunday Sue & Ralph organized a picknick along the Niagara River.

They played one afternoon a few games of Rummikub, Opa's favorite game. Lots of laughter and jokes in the dialect of Brabant, the province where the Vandenbooms have lived for generations. The nickname of 'Boomkes' is also in the Brabant dialect. The profile photo below shows that they come from the same gene-pool. It was fun to have them here for a few days.

Fathers Day in the park

Today was the annual national Fathers Day in Canada and we had three visitors from Holland: two sons Henk and Jos from Joe (Jos) Vandenboom's older brother Jas (+ Toos, the wife of Henk). Sue and Ralph organized a picknick lunch in the park along the Niagara Parkway near Niagara-on-the-Lake. So we had three Jos-persons there today.....

The Parkway is a 40 kilometer stretch of national park grounds along the Niagara River from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. A popular place for families to hang out together during weekends. This was the first time we did it with the - extended - Vandenboom clan. Behind the tree line is the river and across from there you can see New York State.

Wil had his first experience to barbeque on coals, supervised by Joe and Mark (for whom this was a first as well). In the background the rest of the gang around the picknick table with food. Afterwards we enjoyed some exhibition 'spike-ball' games by Joe, Spencer, Wil and Mark. Kudos to Joe to keep up with the young dogs.....

The Dutch visitors - after a ten day tour through parts of BC - spent a few days with Joe & Marcy in Sarnia, where Henk competed with Joe in making the best Dutch style 'pannekoeken' (pancakes).

During the past weeks Mary has been recovering from her knee operation and one day she ventured with her Dad on two scooters (Mary on an old one we have stored in our garage). Too funny a sight..

Getting older stuff

Mary's first step towards being a bionic woman. Her knees and hips have not been good the past few years. This week she had her left knee replaced. The other knee will likely follow and maybe also her hips, but one step at a time. Recovering for one night in the Welland hospital, a sudden surprise visitor walked in her room next morning. Hilary came over for a week!

Later that day, I had the pleasure to pick up Mary for the six weeks recovery period at home. She was dressed and ready to go about six hours before the hospital staff could let her go...

Next to it always being nice to have Hilary over for a visit, it is also convenient that she has her nursing experience. Even more so, because I ended up in the ER of the Welland Hospital the next day after a tough night during which my enlarged prostate was having a dispute with my bladder. Also excellent assistance of the hospital staff and what a relief when they relieved my bladder. Now walking around with a "baggie" for a bit till my urologist can look at what happened. Nevertheless, that evening I did attend a Welland Rotary Paul Harris Awards event at the Flatwater Center. It was nice to see a variety of people being recognized for their amazing community volunteer activities. I decided to "retire" from the Rotary club, district and foundation work after 27 years of active membership in July this year.

A day at NC

The international projects team at Niagara College hosted a group of colleagues from the Caribbean region (Jamaica, Dominica and Guyana) and invited me to attend. They manage this project - funded by the Canadian government through Colleges and Institutes Canada - together with the projects team of Seneca College. So I got to see both my previous teams in action. Holly led a good session on inclusion and curriculum development.

The focus of the project is on eco-tourism program delivery. Two of the NC teachers explained how they developed new curriculum for "learn to camp". I was happily surprised how innovative and creative the teachers are with their new course delivery. The students - more than half of them coming from around the world where camping in many places is not very common - get real hands-on experience and need to make one minute Instagram videos of their work. The tents and camping materials are stored in the college's "sustainability office". So many new positive developments!

After lunch, Sean had to show me his new car. Something that was twenty something years on his bucket list. Afterwards I joined the group on a walk through the NC wetlands, a living laboratory for students. The Daniel J. Patterson campus is a unique place in a beautiful setting.

It was a very nice day for me. Sweet memories, fun to participate in some of the conversations again, learning about a small country such as Dominica (population 70,000), great to see some of the former colleagues again and nice weather for the cycling back home afterwards.