by Thelma Thwartbender (attorney at law and gourmand)

travelling with James Raffan on the National Treasure Tour

Okay, it's Halloween and (thanks to Jimmy's pal Reid McLachlan who carved this magnificant jack-o-lantern) there's some pretty scary stuff happening here in Calgary.  Saw a dominatrix with nasty garters, whips and chains walking down 8th Ave yesterday hand in hand with Dopey from the Seven Dwarfs.  But the scariest thing I've seen in the last while happened on a Westjet flight a couple of days back.

by Thelma Thwartbender (attorney at law and gourmand)

travelling with James Raffan on the National Treasure Tour

Snow was falling when we on landed in Saskatoon.  Son of a perch! Winter's on its way.  Better break out the shovels.  But make no mistake about it, Saskatoon has high standards of speech.  I was just getting ready to start cursing at the white stuff coming down on the prairie when we drove with our host through the parking kiosk at the airport where we were confronted with a sign that shut me right up.  "Verbal Abuse Will NOT Be Tolerated At This Parking Booth."  On the bright side—if there is a bright side of snow in October!—just the sight of the white stuff brought me back instantly to last June 26th when National Canoe Day got started in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut when there wasn't really a patch of open water around big enough to float a boat.

by Thelma Thwartbender (attorney at law and gourmand)

travelling with James Raffan on the National Treasure Tour

Okay, okay, this canoe thing is all over the place but WHO KNEW??? there were management gurus out there who have published a book called ... wait for it ... The Canoe Theory.  I offer Exibit A, your honour, the cover of said book thanks to Gila Isaacs who passed it along as bedside reading in Winnipeg.

by Thelma Thwartbender (attorney at law and gourmand)

travelling with James Raffan on the National Treasure Tour

Canada is a nation of rivers and so it is fitting that when people come together they gather on or by a river.  Such was the case on Saturday in Guelph when over 500 people came together to honour one of Canada's finest experiential educators, Mike Elrick.  Mike, who graduated from the Outdoor and Experiential Program at Queen's University, was the founder and inspiration behind a two multi-credit integrated interdisciplinary secondary school programs in Wellington County, one for Grade 10s called Community Environmental Leadership Program and another for Grade 12s called Headwaters.  As happens far more often than it should with the best and the brightest in our midst, in his mid-40s Mike is fighting incurable cancer.  However, building on the hope and goodness that Mike has brought to the world every day he's been in it, people who he has taught and inspired—as a competitive kayaker, as a teacher, as a community member, as a parent, as a camp director, as an exceptional human being—came together on the Mighty Speed River in an event called "Mike Moves Us."  Some walked up the banks through town, others (including Mike and his brother) paddled up under the bridge at Gordon Street and up past boathouse at the junction of the Speed and Eramosa Rivers.  Photos of the event are here.  The resultant upswell of energy and goodwill, for a moment, eclipsed the sadness and gave new meaning to the phrase that was silkscreened on the back of T-shirts printed for the occasion.  In his teaching, so far, Mike had one main goal—to connect students to themselves and to the natural world.  Every single person in the throng that gathered for this Mike Moves Us event celebrated with every sad step the remarkable and totally inspiring job he has done, and continues to do in fighting this terrible disease!  Mike is documenting his journey with cancer here.