Posts in category "Daily Life"

Bancroft '05, Part 5/6

It was­n’t a great day for land­ings, but it was per­fect for hang­ing out on the hill, soak­ing up the win­ter sun, and goof­ing around.

If I’m intro­duced to a good song at a moment in time, I asso­ciate it with a spe­cif­ic mem­o­ry. At Sandbanks last year, it was Eric blast­ing Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam before the park war­den stopped by to gave warn­ing. This time it was 93 Till Infinity by Souls Of Mischief, a track with a true 90’s beat. It’s easy to deduce the gen­er­al age of the group from the music; the songs that Eric plays on his stereo are the ones that the Bancroft group grew up lis­ten­ing to.

Thumbnail: Thermometer
Thumbnail: Snow treads
Thumbnail: Snowboard bindings

It was the mid­dle of win­ter for us, but on that one week­end, it felt like the begin­ning of spring. We donned our vests, hood­ies, and sweaters for runs down the hill. The tem­per­a­ture was just under 10°C, and there was no need for heavy down-filled coats. The scenery is beau­ti­ful. No one around, no author­i­ty telling us what we can and can’t do. The per­fect week­end get­t­away.

Thumbnail: Aaron launches
Thumbnail: Matt airwalks
Thumbnail: Matt grabs
Thumbnail: Eric jumps

As Aaron not­ed, Matt’s abil­i­ty to jump on a board and nat­u­ral­ly carve up the hill after an extend­ed snow­board­ing hia­tus is telling of his board expe­ri­ence in gen­er­al. The one suc­cess­ful land­ing I got of Aaron seems tiny com­pared to the jumps that Matt and Eric do, but he assures me that it’s a lot steep­er (and scari­er) from the top of the hill than it looks at the bot­tom.

Bancroft '05, Part 4/6

Euchre has become uni­ver­sal for our group now. We must have played near­ly a dozen games that night, and I man­aged not to lose a sin­gle one, with the help of Aaron as my part­ner. For the last four points of one game (as seen in the video), I was dealt one of the best hands I’ve ever had: both bauers, an ace/jack trump, and an off king. I was lucky enough to make the trump suit too, since Aaron flipped over a red bauer. I seem to have tremen­dous luck when I’m on the farm. Last year, when I was part­nered up with Nick at the hunt­ing cab­in, we had an unde­feat­ed win­ning streak. It’s gen­er­al­ly nev­er a good idea to play against Trolley’s cousins, though. They grew up play­ing togeth­er, so it’s impos­si­ble to track the num­ber of sig­nals they use.

I’ll admit that this is me. Good times because of good peo­ple. One of the best nights of my life.

Bancroft '05, Part 3/6

Adam already has the best sto­ry of the year. I hap­pened to be car­ry­ing when we were stopped for a traf­fic check on the way up (which made me ner­vous enough), but it was­n’t any­where close to what Adam had on him. I did­n’t need a flam­ing shot to calm myself though.

Thumbnail: Adam's burned eyelashes

Isn’t it fun­ny that Matt talks about burn­ing his lash­es min­utes before Adam singes his own.

Bancroft '05, Part 2/6

There were three main crews vaca­tion­ing at the farm that week­end. The Ottawa crew con­sist­ed of Trolley, Aaron, and I. In the Toronto crew was Adam, Efrem, Lyda, and Jim. The main group, the ones orig­i­nal­ly from Bancroft, were Tyler with Meryl, Eric, Sarah, Matt, and Kate, although Trolley and Adam would also be con­sid­ered mem­bers, and brought their respec­tive crews. Of course, even Trolley’s cousins showed up, as they always do, since they’re only a short snow­mo­bile ride away.

It took a few hours for every­one to arrive, since peo­ple were up to five hours away, so time was spent The Streets lis­ten­ing, card play­ing, and alco­hol induc­ing while wait­ing. When Eric walked in and said, “WOAH”, Aaron and I com­plete­ly stopped what we were doing and looked at each oth­er. It was obvi­ous that Eric was loaded already, because he’s rarely so bois­ter­ous.

Thumbnail: Snifter of Baileys

And Sarah’s brown cow filled the snifter when she start­ed.

Bancroft '05, Part 1/6

A few months ago, Trolley, Aaron, and I head­ed over to the farm for some par­ty­ing, snow­board­ing, and gen­er­al relax­ation. It was only a week­end, but it was one of the best week­ends in years.

During the ride over, we stopped off at a gro­cery store to load up on munch­ables. Every time I see the video, I remem­ber how excit­ed I was, just from hear­ing my voice. A week­end away with two friends and no wor­ries. Of course, I’m so excit­ed that my voice cracks, and it sounds like I’m going through puber­ty again.

Thumbnail: Open farm 
Thumbnail: Starry sky 

Being on the farm is like being in a world of its own. 350 acres of land, includ­ing lit­tle forests, a hunt­ing shed, snow­mo­bile paths, cows, and lim­it­ed light pol­lu­tion. Just imag­ine the pri­va­cy, with the near­est neigh­bour not even at earshot. At night it’s a debil­i­tat­ing dark­ness, and the milky way comes out enough for one to make out the dis­tance of spe­cif­ic stars.