Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra Book Sale

Well the SSO Book Sale is on this week at Confederation Park Mall.  Jordon, myself and the boys went over tonight and we got a bunch of books for $30.00

Jordon got

• Settling the West by Pierre Burton
• The Collapse of Globalism by John Raulston Saul
• A box set of One Canada by John G. Diefenbaker
• The Final Days by Woodward and Bernstein
• Readings in Christian Theology edited by Peter C. Hodgson and Robert H. King

Mark got

• 3 Hardy Boys
• 2 Choose Your Own Adventure
• Boredom Buster
• Reading
• 2 Harry Potter books
• Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Calvin and Hobbes

I also got Jordon two copies of A Father’s Legacy so he can give them for Mark and Oliver.  You know because the 10,000 different blog entries over at jordoncooper.com don’t tell enough.

Estranged

One of the frustrating things in my life has been the inability to resolve the issues with my family.  It doesn’t bother me that much any longer as I have come to accept the inevitable.  Jordon just doesn’t care any longer although I imagine if they decided to stop by in Saskatoon or the cabin, he would escort them off the property.  They are not a topic of conversation so Mark doesn’t really miss what he doesn’t know.  He had a stronger connection to Jordon’s deceased mother Marion than he would to anyone who is on my side of the family which is fine.  He also sees some of our friends as family and they treat him like that as well.  Lee is also a very good uncle to both Mark and Oliver.  I think what I have is nostalgia for a nicer time that will never ever happen again.

How does it get to this point?  Lately I have been wondering this but as I have spent more time with those that have made enormous mistakes in their lives, I have learned is that not all people have self-awareness of what they do and who they are.  They simply do not have the ability to understood what they do or why they do it beyond their own basic urges.  On one extreme you have this being expressed in an extremely negative and often violent ways.  In other degrees you have things being said and done that are just based on emotion with no control on it or no understanding of how people are hurt or affected by those actions.  It makes it almost impossible to have a relationship with them because deep down they don’t care past their own immediate needs.

How do you move forward with people who don’t understand what or why they do things?  The answer is that you don’t.  They need to figure things out and there is no guarantee that they will.  Not only that but I can’t be a part of that process, because I only make it worse.

Of course I was in my mid-20s when I started this journey and I am almost 40 years now.  Once you go past a couple of years of this garbage, you are a part of the same family in DNA only and that is really depressing and stupid because it never had to be that way.

Life Around Here

I haven’t blogged a lot lately.  Life has been too busy to do much more than live it.

• Oliver has been sick lately.  Another bad cough.  We have him on antibiotics and he is doing better.
• Over spring break, Mark got himself in a little bit of trouble by slacking off on some school work.  The last week was getting him up to speed and redoing some tests to make sure he gets 100% on them.  The secret to this was that Jordon bought him a PS2 game on the condition that he got his school work done this week.  He did and is enjoying the game.
• This spring Jordon made the decision that he needed to get Mark and nice new bike.  We looked around all over the place and of course Mark liked all of them.  After Mark decided he wanted a BMX bike rather than a mountain bike so he could jump it.  Jordon explained to him that he wasn’t allowed to jump his Kuwahara or he got in trouble.  Mark asked what he did.  Jordon said, “I jumped my bike and I got in a lot of trouble.”  He now has a great looking new BMX bike and is thrilled with it.  I assume he is jumping things already.
• I am still helping out at the Centre several days a week.  It’s been a great experience for me and the people I work with are great.  Of course it does cut back on my blogging time.

Renovations at the lake

Jordon blogs about the ongoing renovations at the lake and the progress that we have and haven’t made.

Review of Cabinology: A Handbook to Your Private Hideaway

Jordon posted a short review of Cabinology: A Handbook to Your Private Hideaway over at the cabin blog. 

Traumatized

One of the unintended affects of spending more time at the Centre is that I have become better friends with some of the staff down there.  Earlier this week Jordon was at the front desk with one of his staff and she goes, “Hand me the Rolodex, I need your home phone number.”  Jordon goes, “You know, I am right here and if you need to tell me off, you can use my voice mail.”  She laughed and said I need to call Wendy.

She had some movie tickets (that Jordon gave his staff) and invited me along to watch, The Haunting in Connecticut.  Now Jordon knows I don’t handle scary movies very well so instead of helping me get out of it, he volunteered to watch Oliver by himself.  I went along with a serious amount of reservation knowing I was about to be traumatized.  Sure enough it was horrifying.  I couldn’t even look for a bunch of it.

I managed to survive that and then yesterday I get another call, on Tuesday I am going to another scary movie, The Last House on the Left with some more staff.  I am so doomed. 

When I agreed to help out down there, no one said anything about horrifying movies.