Remember when you were a kid and time seemed to drag? Summer vacation used to last forever and it would take an eternity to get to Christmas; now you blink and it’s gone! That’s how I feel right now. The past three months have been a blur…that probably has more to do with the fact it has been the busiest fall of my life (work, football, kids activities) than anything else. I just remarked to my Grade 11’s that there is only three weeks until Christmas and a few more when we get back; then the semester is done-wow! It gets faster and faster every year. Is it because I’m getting older and older? Second semester always goes by more quickly, especially since the days get longer and the weather gets nicer. This year I’ll also be in Europe for 8 days, so I’m sure that will help expedite things.

Speaking of Europe, I am in the process of organizing the first parent meeting for the trip. I can’t believe that the trip is in about 120 days; April seems so far away, but it will fly by! There is so much planning to do, and unfortunately I am doing it by myself. I do have the benefit of working with teachers our sister school who are travelling with along with us, but since this is my first experience in this type of activity, I am a bit intimidated by the whole process. Oh well, it is a learning curve right now, but I guess I’ll know exactly what to expect when Vimy 2017 rolls around!

On the football front, I’ve almost finished putting together the football highlight video. Well, I should clarify; I’ve pretty much chosen the clips that I want to use for the video, which is about 80% of the job. It does take some time to sort through eight games worth of tape and pick what I’d like to use. Now all I have to is plunk the clips in some sort of order and add some music. I should have it ready to go for next week’s coaches wrap-up.

With that almost out-of-the-way, I can start working on the article. Surprisingly I feel somewhat calm about the whole thing (although part of me is completely petrified). Even though I’ve come up with a rough outline of where I want to go with it, I still need to work out the finer details. I think part of my difficulty might stem from the fact that this article will be written for a non-Canadian publication. There is a certain bit of Canadiana and northern nuances that go along with this railway that our friends south of the border may not understand. Trying to explain that in the limited space of the article might be a bit of an issue, but I guess that will hopefully work itself out.

On the research front, I’ve spent some of my spare time looking up a hodgepodge of things, from newspaper articles to Minnesota individuals. Yesterday I started off looking up Kristian Kortgaard and then somehow ended up on Matthew Walsh. On the positive side, I think I’ve tracked down a photo of Walsh. That would mean I’ve collected photographs of all the promoters of the Paulson Mine and the PAD&W of Minnesota. Now to get my butt in gear and start banging off some book chapters; I think the best place to start (after I write the article) is with silver mining. This is one of the few sections where I think I’ve completed all the necessary research. Should be an interesting Christmas break with the writing and some home renos on tap…I’m sure they will find their way into my musings.