This is very similar to something I want to get. This guys is amazing.

Technorati Tags: Rampant Lion, tattoo

At the end of June I attended a retirement lunch for my dad. After 35 years with the same company, he was retiring, and moving my stepmother and my two brothers out to Cape Breton. It was a terribly interesting event to attend. To watch co-workers of my father honour him after more than 3 decades of service to the same company was terribly fascinating. To witness, as a child to this man, others impressions of my dad, their stories of him, stories that I wasn’t often a witness to. In a way to have a brand new picture of him painted for me, right in front of my eyes by others, not people that I was totally unfamiliar with, but strangers none the less. To see my parent through the eyes of others, to hear what he talked about when I wasn’t around.

I found my reaction to this surprising. It isn’t a secret that I haven’t totally gotten along with my dad the past few years. That his performance as my father and grandfather to my children has been lacking. That my ability to honour him as my father had been strained as I have really struggled to appreciate my dad. But to see him as others see him, to hear him talk about his life to others. I began to see my dad without the filters of my own emotions, love, disappointment and expectations. And I began to appreciate him anew. I felt a deep sense of pride to see this man, my dad being honoured, recognized and appreciated for his service and effort, a service that my sister and I were all too aware of because of his absence at home, but to see on the other hand it’s impact on those around him.

The other big observation I had was just how different my generation is from my dads. My dad knew only 1 career, only one boss and only 1 company. When he started Aurum Ceramic there was one company, one laboratory that was fit into a few thousand square feet in the old Calgary Herald Building. And to hear him tell it, with nothing more than a handshake and a mutual understanding that they would both work their hardest to make Aurum successful and in turn, take care of each other. So on a handshake and the principles of hard work, integrity and trust, a 35 year long relationship was born. A relationship that existed before I did, that saw my sister grow up, my birth, the decay of my family, my dad’s new marriage, the adoption of two new sons, a relationship that has been a constant, another family of sort, through the ups and downs of my dads life. In this light I could appreciate how my dad must feel, how hard it must be for him to walk away from that constant and embrace the unknown. It also allowed me to appreciate him in a way that I never have. To see him as William the man, who isn’t perfect and has hopes, dreams, ambitions and insecurities just like I do. My generation goes about their careers in a much different fashion, but for me at least, I hope to carry forward some of the principles and attitudes that have been so evident in my dad’s life.

I only hope that one day, my kids will be able to appreciate me in the same way, that my co-workers will be able to reflect on my career with the admiration that my fathers did, and that I will be able to retire, knowing that I gave it my all and head into my retirement with the hope, happiness and health that my father has. And while my dad will probably never read this, I hope he realizes that I am so proud of him, and that I recognize his mistakes and hope to learn from them, but more so I see his successes and hope that I can duplicate those in my own life!!

- RoneTyne

Technorati Tags: retirement

So we decided 5 weeks ago that we were going to get kittens from some friends of ours. They live on an acreage in the Alberta Foothills and someone had abandoned a cat on their country road. Our friends being the animal lovers that they are, decided to try and rescue her. They did manage t convince her to get in the car and brought her to their home. She was obviously from a home because she was well socialized and knew how to act around the family.

A few days later they discovered that Sabrina was pregnant. So as they nursed her back to better health they tried to figure out what to do with the kittens. Having 5 or so cats of their own already plus dogs, chickens, horses etc. there was no way they could keep them. Meanwhile in our household I had been secretly planning to get my wife an orange tabby kitten for her birthday. You see she had an orange tabby cat when she was younger, and she had been asking me for a cat for some years and at Christmas I had started looking for a kitten for her from a different friend of ours.

A few weeks later Sabrina had her kittens, two totally healthy and beautiful orange tabby kittens. Our friend, not knowing that I was looking had been sharing with my wife about the kittens and so around 2 weeks old she asked us if we were interested. I didn’t let on that I was, but let my wife think I was opposed to a cat for a little longer and begrugdingly agreed to go and see them. After the first time we saw them we talked about it, I told Cindy that I had been planning to get her a kitten, and so if she really wanted to get one, we would get one of the kittens.

So we went out every 5-7 days to visit them and see how they were doing. However a problem started to emerge, we realized that we were going to have to split them up, and they were a lot more fun together. The other problem we realized is that my wife and I liked different kittens. So in the end they twisted my rubber arm and I agreed to get the second kitten. So we’ve been visiting them from about 3 weeks and just brought them home on Friday night. Below are some pictures from the past 5 weeks the last few are from when we brought them home this weekend.

- RoneTyne

Technorati Tags: kittens, orange tabby

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