Music Monday

Today on my walk/jog ("walg"?  "wog"?), "No Time to Kill" by Clint Black (1993) came on my mp3 player.  I decided to actively listen to it, instead of passively.  I found the lyrics quite motivational and thought I'd share them today as part of a new series, "Music Monday"

No Time To Kill
(Clint Black/Hayden Nicholas, 1993)

There's no time to kill between the cradle and the grave
Father Time still takes a toll on every minute that you save
Legal tender's never gonna change the number on your days
The highest cost of livin's dyin' that's one everybody pays
So have it spent before you get the bill, there's no time to kill

If we'd known ten years ago today would be ten years from now
Would we spend tomorrow's yesterdays and make it last somehow
Or lead the cheers in someone else's game and never learn to play
And see the rules of thumb are all the same that measure every day
The grass is green on both sides of the hill, there's no time to kill

No time to kill, even I've said it and probably always will
But I can look ahead and see that time ain't standin' still
No time to kill but time to change the kind of hurry I've been in
And quit this work and worry lookin' back at where I've been
If you don't look ahead nobody will, there's no time to kill

If we had an hour glass to watch each one go by
Or a bell to mark each one to pass, we'd see just how they fly
Would we escalate the value to be worth its weight in gold
Or would we never know the fortunes that we had till we grow old
And do we just keep killin' time until there's no time to kill

This song came out while I was dating Jim, and we also saw Clint Black on the tour for this album.  If I had known then what the next 10 years would bring, what would I have done?  Continue to enjoy the time we had until it ended, or just give up then?  We did have some great times, but I could have been having those great times with someone else!  Dr Phil often says that time is going to pass anyway, so why put off what ever it is that you keep putting off for a better time?  How do you know there will be a better time to travel/have kids/get fit/learn Spanish?

Ten years ago, 2001, well, we all know what that September brought.  For me, I was still emotionally recovering from a 13 week miscarriage.  Hugh was 15 months old and a handfull and we were still trying to figure out our lives together, LOL.

Ten years from now, what do I want to look back and remember?  That I re-found the inner strength in me, and really, truly started pushing myself when I exercise!  That we went through some rough times this summer but came out WAY stronger and better!  That the kids could go through another major change and start taking a bus to a new school!  Life is really good right now and I want to be able to remember this in the future when hard times come around again.  I'm trying not to waste my days, but I'm also not trying to "save time".  The kids are going to grow up; I can't save time and deny that.  Enjoy time!!

Indianapolis, Day 8

As we were getting ready for our last night in Indianapolis, we had a special visitor!

Apparently there is a red fox family that lives on the hill behind the house, but we never got to see them, so seeing the deer so close to the house was a treat!
Day 8 was Saturday, and we left bright and early (6:20am) to come home.  The sun was barely up, and it was going to be another hot day!

 The trip home was pretty uneventful.  There was no construction this time, and we stopped for lunch at a Subway instead of a picnic.  I even got to access the free Wi-Fi from the Wendy's across the street to update my Facebook status, LOL.

 The border crossing was pretty slow...slow enough that we could snap this picture without holding up traffic!

We did have two slowdowns coming through Toronto at 5pm on a Saturday.  There was this crash in the westbound lanes.  There weren't very many emergency personnel there, and the people standing around looked horrified and shocked.  I googled when we got home but I couldn't find out anything.

Shortly after this, while we were in the eastbound express lanes, Meg said she had to go to the bathroom!  She had just gone when we came through Kitchener!  Nothing like having to move over 8 lanes of traffic and find an exit with good bathroom potential while travelling through Toronto! We were lucky though, and there was a nice Shell station just off the highway.

We got home shortly before 6pm and the kids instantly turned on the TV!

 I was hoping to get some pictures of Indianapolis, but you couldn't walk around the neighbourhood we were in.  The city itself feels like Calgary or Ottawa.  Sufficiently large, but not overwhelming.  It's easy to get around (except for a bit around Broad Ripple where the river gets in the way), but the residential areas within the city are not like they are here.  This area was developed in the mid-late 1930s.  The houses are spread out and well treed.  However, there are no sidewalks, and not even any shoulders to walk on!  The public school is just up the road, but even as an adult, I felt unsafe when Rob and I went for a little walk up the main road. 

 (Obviously, we were driving here, LOL, but we did walk one night).  A large area of Indianapolis is like this.  Comparable streets in Orangeville (Ontario),  would be Hansen Blvd, Blind Line, Alder Street....the main roads through areas, but in this case, there are many homes on them too!  In Whitby, think of Manning Dr, Garrard Rd, Thornton Rd, Adelaide St, Burns St, even Henry St and Cochrane St.  Two lane roads that are thoroughfares but also residential (albeit, low density).  Makes for beautiful drives, but not for exercise.  Rob also noticed areas like this on a recent trip to South Carolina.  Perhaps the fight against childhood obesity should start with re-vamping roads so that they are child-exercise friendly! 

This is a small ravine, or gully, between Lou's house and the neighbour.  The landscape is very interesting.  Although Indianapolis is fairly flat, the micro-topography shows a different story.

This is a bed of beautiful hostas at the neighbours.  It was stunning; this picture really doesn't show it well enough!  The flowers were a much more intense colour in real life!

I'm not going to show any house pictures, but I did have to share this one.  Who wouldn't love this in their family room?!  It was custom made to fit the wall/TV and houses everything a child could need or want.  Imagine how much tidier we could be if we had something like this (we used to have some great built ins in our townhouse, but not here).

Our trip to Indianapolis was great, despite the high heat.  I know it might not sound like a tourist town to visit, but really, it is very tourist friendly, with lots to see for visitors of all ages.  Great food, incredible architecture in the downtown and  along the residences on Meridian Ave, shopping (a Cutco store!!), trails, etc.  I would definitely recommend it for those who don't want a beach vacation or don't want to visit a large city.

Indianapolis, Day 7

Phew!  Life got a little crazy there.  Last week was the last week of summer break and the girls were in daycamp and Rob was away for 4 days so I thought I'd get lots of blogging done.  Ha!  Especially since I had to upload some videos to YouTube and for some reason it takes like 1/2 hour for a 2 minute video.  Anyone know why?  The video was shot with my old Canon Powershot compact, 5.0mp camera, nothing fancy.

Anyway.  Day 7 was the last day of camp for the kids, and this meant Lucy's camp was putting on their performance.  It was a 20 minute musical called "Annie Jr. Jr".  The orphans tell the story of Annie, without characters like Annie, Miss Hannigan, or Mr Warbucks.  Just the orphans.  I hadn't realized that Lucy was the first one to actually speak in the play, and I totally missed taping that :(  But I did get some other videos.  If you go to the YouTube link in the first paragraph, you can see the three videos I took of the production.  Lucy is the one with blonde braids, glasses, and the brown t-shirt dress.

We were VERY impressed with Lucy's performance.  She was on the younger side of the group, but you couldn't tell.  It's hard to believe this is the same girl that wouldn't even look at strangers as a toddler.  She's thinking she might like to join a youth theater group now!

 Hugh's class didn't come to the production as they were still fine-tuning their robotic vehicles and vying for the title of camp champion.  Most of the kids didn't want to leave and it was only when the parents started dismantling the cars did they finally concede to the end of camp.

Meg didn't mind coming home, although carrying two Dixie cups with sugar solution and Popsicle sticks that "CAN'T MOVE!!" was a chore.

For Friday afternoon, Rob, Lou's husband and I took the kids to the JCC again (Jewish Cultural Center, where they have an awesome outdoor aquatic park; see Day 3).  Meg had been asking to go every day!  Unfortunately, the smaller kid area was closed, so the other areas were a bit more crowded, but that resolved once the day camp kids left.  To celebrate our great trip, I even tried the water slides!!  The tube one was very dark and kind of scary but I figured if the kids could do it, so could I.  And it was fun!  A couple weeks ago I even went down the water slide at a pool here!

It was rather sad to pack up Friday night.  The kids had a great time together, although it was definitely tough on everyone at times---adding 7 people to a family of 3!  They have great memories of the trip though and we'd love to do it again.