{"id":432,"date":"2009-01-02T11:47:35","date_gmt":"2009-01-02T15:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/?p=432"},"modified":"2009-01-02T12:51:36","modified_gmt":"2009-01-02T16:51:36","slug":"2008-a-year-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/2009\/01\/02\/2008-a-year-in-review\/","title":{"rendered":"2008: A Year in Review and a First Footer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"first<\/a>

In 2009, Dad was our first footer, carrying drink, fuel (paper) and food (party mix).<\/p><\/div>\n

Happy New Year, everybody!\u00a0 Traditionally, a house needs a good first footer<\/a>:someone to enter the home sufficiently supplied with the staples of good fortune and good times – fuel for the fire, food for the stomach, and drink for celebration – to get the inhabitants off to a good start for the new year.\u00a0 The Juniorvanian first footer, in the wee wee hours of Thursday morning, was my Dad.\u00a0 Carrying a couple of bottles of Keith’s (that had been cooling<\/span> freezing on the beer-fridge\/porch), some paper (as easily portable lightweight\u00a0 “fuel”) and a handful of party mix (dubiously satisfying the “food” component of the traditional trifecta), Dad was the tallest and darkest non-resident male at hand.\u00a0 Subsequent research has revealed that a first-footer ought not to have been in the house at the stroke of midnight, so next year we’ll send Dad for beer with a few seconds to go before the Big Moment.<\/p>\n

A blog needs a first footer too, right?\u00a0 The first post of the New Year ought to bring a little bit of everything in the virtual door, enough to assure its audience of continued reading prosperity in the coming year.\u00a0 Here then, is a compendium of what this blog has been about over the past year.\u00a0 Besides, what better way to shake the fog out of a still celebration-addled brain than to consider afresh the year so recently departed?<\/p>\n

January<\/a> began hopefully, with happy news about the founding of the Great Kingdom of Juniorvania<\/a> and the impending migration of our people to the new homeland.\u00a0 By the end of the month, there was bad news about the sudden and all too early death of a friend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

February<\/a> brought us “Child Bouncers<\/a>“.\u00a0 I also broke up with the television program “Lost”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With March<\/a> came a photo essay on a snowstorm.\u00a0 For the Leafs, there was first hope<\/a>, then the unofficial end of the season<\/a>.\u00a0 Finally, there was news from the fledgling Kingdom of Juniorvania <\/a>of an invasion<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Much of April<\/a> was spent with the Adopt-a-team project<\/a> idea that I came up with:\u00a0 like-minded Leaf fans and I, left without a date for the dance, would follow the Washington Capitals for the duration of their run<\/a> through the playoffs.\u00a0 I had fun getting to know the players on another team more completely and hanging around at two Caps fan sites – Japers’ Rink and On Frozen Blog.\u00a0 Caps fans were welcoming and good-natured, they even cleared some elbow room on the bandwagon for us, perhaps to their detriment:\u00a0 it could have been the mojo of the Leafs that saw the Caps eliminated after seven thrilling games against Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter which angle you look at it from, May<\/a> was a banner month, defined by my struggles with a Craftsman Lawn Tractor<\/a> and my nephew Thomas’ impromptu audition<\/a> for the Juniorvanian Olympic swimming team.\u00a0 Too bad the little fellow didn’t know we hadn’t qualified for Beijing.\u00a0 As for the yard equipment angle,\u00a0 to this day the phrase “Craftsman Lawn Tractor” is one of the search phrases that most frequently brings traffic from Google to this site;\u00a0 I can only wonder what those folk think if and when they take the time to read the post.\u00a0 Incidentally, the inclusion of this review and its two<\/span> (oops, here we go again) three<\/strong><\/em> mentions of the phrase “Craftsman Lawn Tractor” will probably only enhance that effect.\u00a0 Enjoy, Google people!\u00a0 Let me know what you think!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2954\"<\/a>

The JRV Eradicator - The People's Lawn Tractor<\/p><\/div>\n

In June<\/a>, Gord Kirke was looking for a job<\/a> despite the fact that he was “busy”.\u00a0 Meanwhile, I was taking my maiden voyage on the JRV Eradicator<\/em>, otherwise known as the People’s Lawn Tractor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

July<\/a> and August<\/a> were pretty slow around these parts.\u00a0 I had excuses:\u00a0 I blamed a fishing trip<\/a> (the full account of which is in the “promised, but undelivered” category), the hitching of my brother Doug<\/a>, and preparations for the First Annual Founders’ Day, including the inaugural Juniorvanian Open Championship of 3-Par Golf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3890\"<\/a>
\n

My brother Mike and brother-in-law Jono kick off the Founders' Day festivities<\/p><\/div>\n

September<\/a> saw the commencement of my no doubt lengthy career as a zombie shambling along the aisles<\/a> of Home Depot, and the beginning of a\u00a0 too-long period of silence hereabouts that continued into October<\/a>, owing to a certain charity event and the commencement of various local improvement projects in the great nation of Juniorvania, the last of which was the replacement of one battered mailbox<\/a> (mmm, battered mailbox – tasty).<\/p>\n

In November<\/a>, Wendel Clark’s jersey was honoured by the Leafs<\/a>, and I started – and stop if me if you have heard this one before – but didn’t finish (yet) NaNoReMo 2008<\/a> with my faithful Internet friend Mike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In December<\/a>, I posted about Sebastien’s Theme<\/a> and some of my favourite days with the Heroes in Rehab.\u00a0 What I was really thinking about was the imminent departure of my brother Mike and his family for their new home in Chicago.<\/p>\n

What does this year-long review tell us?\u00a0 First, that there are too many lengthy periods where I ignore this site and leave it lying fallow.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m not very good for keeping New Year’s resolutions, but I am going to attempt, in 2009, to be slightly more consistent in my posting habits.\u00a0 I can’t promise a post a day like Mike manages to do, but I promise, promise, promise to be a better blogger.\u00a0 Second, it is my own considered opinion that this blog started to find its purpose a little more clearly – in my own opinion I tend to hit my stride as a writer more when I recount personal stories.\u00a0 It’s fun to write about the Leafs, politics and the world out there, but I wrote truer to my own voice when I tell you about life here in Juniorvania, the many ways that our power equipment is trying to kill me, or the time I busted my head open at Maple Leaf Gardens.<\/p>\n

To all a happy, healthy and successful new year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2009, Dad was our first footer, carrying drink, fuel (paper) and food (party mix).<\/p>\n

Happy New Year, everybody! Traditionally, a house needs a good first footer:someone to enter the home sufficiently supplied with the staples of good fortune and good times – fuel for the fire, food for the stomach, and drink for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}