thanks

This is my favourite picture from my high school yearbook. The careful observer will note the age difference between the four people in the front and the smiling, older gentleman in the back (It was quite some time before I noticed this). One may naturally assume that the man in the back is a relative of someone in the foreground but this is not the case. My grandfather loved having his picture taken and I can only assume that he saw a camera out, stopped, smiled and the result is forever immortalized in my yearbook. I can say that he would not have known any of the people standing in front of him.

I saw a young girl and her grandfather at the grocery store today and I was surprised at the loss I felt for my own. He died a little over 5 years ago and seeing those two in store took me back to when I was young. I grew up without a father but I spent a lot of time with my grandparents during the summer. Consequently, my grandfather was the only real male role model I had (I also thought Jack Tripper from 'Three's Company' was a good guy to emulate).

Even in my earliest memory my grandfather had a slow, measured gait. I can't say for certain but I feel that his driving speed would have been proportional to his walking speed. He was a man who loved his family, his home, fruit and cookies. I'm being a little glib because it's actually very hard to write about him and I feel as though I couldn't possibly do him justice. So instead maybe I'll just end this by saying- thanks Grandpa.

eternal beating

A few things have happened since my last post:

• I reached the halfway mark of my contract.
• I ordered and received a new camera. Capital M's sister, who will be referred to as Miss Poppy, recommended the FujiFilm FinePix F200 EXR. The following pictures were taken with it.
• As of today, Inuvik tied Toronto for the time of sunset (sunrise is another story). In the past month and 5 days we have gone from no sunlight to just about 6 hours.

There's a campsite not far from the learning centre. I mention this because the weather has been a balmy -20 degrees (and sometimes even a little warmer). It feels like I could be wearing shorts, or setting up a tent. I've become acclimatized to colder temperatures and this recent warm streak feels like Spring.

Many years ago I played a game for the Playstation called 'Silent Hill.' It was probably one of the scariest gaming/movie experiences I've ever had. The story revolves around a guy searching for his daughter in a town called Silent Hill. The town is a scary and sinister place but it pales when compared to evil Silent Hill. Yes, just when it seemed like things were at their scariest, they could actually get even more scary. Evil Silent Hill was filled with rusted metal and walkways like the one pictured above. Several of the business in town (and my apartment) have something similar leading to the entrance; I'm kind of glad it's not so dark out anymore.

This is my new classroom. I'm teaching the two streams of grade 12 English this semester. So far it's been a rough week and a half. There are almost 6 times more students than I had previously and none of them like to do anything. That's not an exaggeration. One woman looks at me with pure hate and another questions everything I do. 95 classes to go.
Yep, that's my chicken scratch. So far one woman has dropped my class because she said the words I use are too big. Some of the above words come from the readings we've done in class and some are things I've said; students are supposed to give me a list of words they didn't understand. I'm still trying to figure out if 'pothole' is meant as a joke. I hope it's a joke.
There's no specific reason or assoiciation with this picture, though there can be.

Dear stubborn seed:
Rime lined trees. If I was at all poetic I could do something with that.