So, who the heck came up with that expression? According to our friends at Google, it could be traced to one of two things. First, it might have been used to emphasize the severity of the illness…don’t really see that but whatever. Another explanation is that since dogs eat anything and everything, they often get sick. Having cleaned up dog puke on more than one occasion, I could definitely relate to that. Anyway, whatever the meaning, that is my current state of health. I could feel it coming on last week, probably due to the fact that I’m pretty run down and tired. Colds suck!

Despite my illness and complete lack of energy, I dragged my sorry butt to school today as I could not afford a day off. Yes, I am total control freak and cannot contain the urge to teach my classes myself. However, that was not my motivation on this occasion; if you immediately thought football, you got the correct answer. We play our first game against our sister school St. Ignatius on Thursday and there is still a ton of preparation to be done. I figured that our kids leave it on the field every day, so as the head coach, I need to set the example. Kinda ironic that football (both high school and tyke) is probably the reason why I’m exhausted and sick.

Last week’s scrimmage went well, actually better than we anticipated considering that 75% of our guys have never played a snap of football. There were lots of mistakes, which we knew would happen, but they are eager and enthusiastic. We are very thin at some positions, so we have a lot of guys backing up all over the place. I was blown away today when one of my linebackers, who learned the guard position yesterday, told me he’d play anywhere I put him. Love it! One of the big reasons why I do this…probably going to make that kid a team captain.

My classes are still going well, though I can’t believe it’s almost the end of September. One month down! Tomorrow I’m submitting our proposal for the 2014 history trip…fingers crossed! We selected the “Canada’s Battlefields” tour, which would take us to the Netherlands, Belgium and France over 10 days. It will be nice to see some new places like Amsterdam and the Scheldt, and re-visit places like Ypres, Vimy and Juno Beach. Another visit would allow me to see more of these sites than I could during the Vimy trip. It’s a waiting game now.

Cloth Hall, Ypres, Belgium, April 2012.

So all this insanity has once again left little time for me to do any railway related work. I did spend some time penning my response to MLA’s Mauro and Gravelle regarding the development on Gunflint Lake, which I hope to send out tomorrow. Hopefully it leads to greater protection for the rare historic treasures in that area.

Now the visit to the Paulson Mine is still on my mind, so I did play around with maps again, trying to formulate a plan of attack. I really hope that the hunches that I’ve come up with pan out. Locating the grade along the second switchback west of the mine has been a huge source of frustration and head scratching. I guess I’ll find out soon enough. With any luck I’ll have some good footage to add to the YouTube channel, which has seen some great additions over the last few weeks.

Paulson Mine from the Kekekabic Trail, June 2012.

Anyway, my brain is pretty much mush right now, so it’s probably time to wrap things up. More football and railway updates next week. Until then…