According to the Farmers’ Almanac, there are three weeks left of summer, apparently?
I say, apparently, as I had to peel my cold, sodden shirt off my back on Wednesday after a photo-shoot at Minoru Track coincided with one of those “summer” showers.
Then I had to negotiate the Wacky Races that are Richmond’s roads in the driving rain back to the office.
I know. One can’t complain after what seems like an endless summer of sun, punctuated only by the odd, errant shower.
And a long season it has been, not least for us parents, who’ve now served 10 weeks of our 10 and a half week (11 if your kid is at secondary) “sentence.”
I mean, really? Eleven weeks? Seasoned criminals in B.C. go to jail for less and that’s usually after they’ve used eight of their nine lives while on bail, as the system endeavors to “get to the root of the problem.”
Not sure about you guys, but I ran out of cunning plans mid-July (seems like a lifetime ago) to keep my 14-year-old son off the X-Box, the iPhone, TV remote and out of the house. Why does it feel like it’s me that’s doing the “time?”
I draw comfort from the oft-spoken sentiment that “he’s at that difficult stage,” too old for camps, too young to party at Pemberton, too grumpy to do, well, almost anything.
Still, I’ve told him to enjoy his last few days of freedom; next year he’s going to be working or volunteering; of that I’m certain.
But then I got an email this week, tipping me off about a father who took his 12-year-old son on a little bike ride — to Edmonton!
Now that’s how you kill some of that sentence/vacation. Talk about going above and beyond.
Forget a wee cycle along the west dyke. Not this guy. He took his pre-teen on an eight-day, 1,116.2-kilometre pedal through Hope, Merritt, Banff and finally Red Deer, before a minor accident called a halt to the ambitious jaunt, just 160 kilometres shy of their intended destination.
The pair, mercifully, took the train back to Vancouver, and the dad was no doubt feeling pretty good about the “adventure” and life experience he’d bestowed on his son. I’m sure his son was thankful, as well.
And, with next summer’s “sentence” in mind, I was reminded that my son has always wanted to see New York.
Is that so? “Check the air pressure in your tires will you, son; there’s a good lad.”
Alan Campbell is a staff reporter with the Richmond News. Reach him at [email protected]
