During the summer I changed my email address to stuart@brannan.com, please change your records. My home page also changed to http://stuart.brannan.com
In the summer of 1996, the transmission died in my old clunker Taurus. It wasn't a huge problem because I was only on my way to the GO station, when it crapped out. It cost $3,000 to have it fixed, which is probably more than the car was worth, but I thought the it had a couple of good years left in it yet, so I ponied up. This year, exactly the same thing happened, except this time I was in the middle of nowhere, with Heidi, Andrew, Colin and Zippo, and the car packed full of camping gear. This was more than a minor inconvenience. To make matters worse, even though I had only driven about 7,000 km since the repair work, 13 months had elapsed and the warrantee was good for only 12. Wait, it gets worse...the owners of the Mr. Transmission franchise which had performed the repair work had just sold their business and were leaving the country. Murphy's Law. There is a relatively happy ending...after I contacted Mr. Transmission's head office to voice my concerns they agreed to pay for the repairs to be completed again.
In the summer of 1996, the transmission died in my old clunker Taurus. It wasn't a huge problem because I was only on my way to the GO station, when it crapped out. It cost $3,000 to have it fixed, which is probably more than the car was worth, but I thought the it had a couple of good years left in it yet, so I ponied up.
This year, exactly the same thing happened, except this time I was in the middle of nowhere, with Heidi, Andrew, Colin and Zippo, and the car packed full of camping gear. This was more than a minor inconvenience.
To make matters worse, even though I had only driven about 7,000 km since the repair work, 13 months had elapsed and the warrantee was good for only 12. Wait, it gets worse...the owners of the Mr. Transmission franchise which had performed the repair work had just sold their business and were leaving the country. Murphy's Law.
There is a relatively happy ending...after I contacted Mr. Transmission's head office to voice my concerns they agreed to pay for the repairs to be completed again.
During the summer we spent may days visiting my mum and dad and their pool. Colin made great progress over the summer and, by the end, finally abandoned his water wings and was able to navigate the entire pool unassisted. Here are both sea monsters, during Colin's "I can't go in the pool without my waterwings"-phase
One beautiful Saturday morning we roused the kids from bed at about 7, had breakfast and headed off towards Milton in search of a ballooning festival we had read about in the paper. By the time we arrived, shortly after eight, it was all over. The next day, we tried again, but this time we got going at least an hour earlier. This time we made it.
One beautiful Saturday morning we roused the kids from bed at about 7, had breakfast and headed off towards Milton in search of a ballooning festival we had read about in the paper. By the time we arrived, shortly after eight, it was all over.
The next day, we tried again, but this time we got going at least an hour earlier. This time we made it.
Yes of course, we went back to the Pinery this year.
The first year we were in Oakville, one of Andrew's friends gave him a disc-swing for his birthday. It served us well for several years by hanging from a cherry tree just outside our back door. But after several years, the grass underneath was completely worn away, and the chafing of the rope on the branch looked like it might do some serious damage to the cherry tree. It was time for a move...
You could hardly live in Ontario over the past couple of years and have missed the fact that education is a got topic. One of the issues which I found myself getting involved in is trying to decide what the proper role for school councils should be. Here is a submission that I made to the Education Improvement Commission on the topic....
You could hardly live in Ontario over the past couple of years and have missed the fact that education is a got topic. One of the issues which I found myself getting involved in is trying to decide what the proper role for school councils should be.
Here is a submission that I made to the Education Improvement Commission on the topic....
Once again this year we journeyed to Heidi's cottage for Thanksgiving, and once again we climbed the ridge which runs across the road. It's becoming something of a tradition in our family. We missed a year, when Colin wasn't able to walk, but other than that we have made it up, rain or shine [or 5 years ago, snow]. This year, the leaves were spectacular and like it had been all summer, it has unseasonably warm. Here are Andrew and I at the top of the ridge, that's Hall's Lake in the distance behind us.