I just published this comment on Jack's obituary that I posted on this blog in February:
Here it is the end of July and I finally had the energy to edit this blog to get rid of the line breaks so I changed the tense on the announcement of the visitation and celebration as these events are now in the past. Jack gave me the gift of the proverbial bucket list. This led to my decision to retire from the TDSB two years prior than originally planned. I worked until July 8 and have been traveling since. But I am so looking forward to having my days to myself come September. Thanks, Jack.

I am reposting this comment to this new blog post as it explains the life-changing experience that led to my retirement. One of the first things I want to do is to begin writing more. Blogging will encourage that, I hope, although I have tried this a number of times and always ended up distracted by other work or interests to the point of neglecting the blog. After all, I have posted only one blog since and that too was in February. Silence since then.

So where to start. Perhaps the best thing to do is to start with today and backtrack when inspired by memory or photographs.

At the moment, I am sitting on the breezy screened-in deck at our friends' summer home on Lake of Bays. Gray and Marg, her sister Liz, Jo-Anne and Dave, Jan and I are having a break from swimming, kayaking and soaking up the sun as the afternoon wanes. The sounds of the water against the shore, the chorus of gulls and the rustle of the surrounding trees accompanies the quiet chatting in the porch. Last night, after a delicioius meal provided by Jo-Anne and Dave, we sat on the boathouse deck and watched a wonderful spectacle of fireworks above a nearby town. An astonishing flotilla of boats had gathered at that end of the bay and it was fun watching their lights as they gradually made their ways home. Before we turned in, we spent some time looking at the sky above the cottage where the milky way arched high above the shoreline so thick with stars it looked cloudy in places. We could point out a few constellations but disagreed about the flickering reddish point - the planet Mars, a satellite or a distant plane. I say it was Mars.