rolling through, libraries, bikes, and more

The other night I dreamt of being together with my colleagues at McGill. The dream covered an entire day is work meetings and ended dining out followed by drinks. When I woke a felt a bit sad. The dream reminded my how much I valued my colleagues and in some ways how I miss living in Montreal. There funny part is that we didn't always agree but we were able to still dialogue, worked through solutions, etc... It's hard to put my finger on it and my wife doesn't share my perspective. The winters are hard and long, but I embraced it, I was out in it. Running on Mont Royal in winter bordered being spiritual experiences, the cold, the snow, the bare trees and the quietness as you earned the views provided at the top. I miss not only hearing (and understanding) French but also how interesting the accents of francophones speaking English.  Cycling was a dream in Quebec and swimming at Parc Jean Drapeau in the outdoor beautiful 50 competition pool was epic.  ...

Buddy, the older of our two dogs, has what I think was a seizure this morning. I got him down on his and just tried to comfort him until it passed. He's only had one other one back in Montreal in the spring.  The last time I saw my son Anthony alive was via a video call with my daughter Jennifer. Anthony was his side on the floor next to his bed. It was a difficult one and the medics were just arriving while Jennifer was trying to calm him.  Jennifer and her two oldest daughters, Paige and Anasia, were used to helping Anthony through the seizures that were becoming more frequent. This seizure seems to take a lot out of Anthony as Jennifer told me that he stayed close to home for the next couple of weeks until he passed in the night due to the seizure. I am so proud of how they took care of Anthony the last three years as he battled the brain tumor. He died on August 7th.

Loan application tasks, dental cleanings, weeding belongings, etc... Abigail and I are in checklist mode. Lucky for me, Abigail is a mastermind at planning and writes everything down in transition notebook. Today I will start a 'leaving McGill' and 'transition planning for Baylor.' For Baylor, I am going to try to do it via Microsoft OneNote. Actually i already have this notebook created, it's just empty.  Baylor has the full Microsoft suite of tools available. I am already using Teams with a few new colleagues. Returning from our trip, I am aware of the expectation for both leading and collaborating when I arrive. It's within that framework that I need to plan.   My morning stops at Second Cup are becoming essential.  My saying 'je voudrais un petit café ici' felt special. Here, I take the time to just breathe, sip a little café.  Sitting here, I am fully aware of the blessings that God has provided in coming to Montreal and the promise of more good to ...

The weekend before going to Waco, we made an offer on a home.   After a few counter offers, we accepted the seller’s last offer.   The timing was perfect in that we arrived on a Thursday and saw the house for the first time.   I could tell that Abigail was relieved finally seeing the home in person.   The home inspection was Friday and detailed a number of major issues.   Abigail was there for the inspections, which would not have been the case if we saved the house hunting for our trip. We asked that the seller address the roof, electrical, and HVAC deficiencies, which they accepted.   Abigail is hard-core was clear that we would pull out of the deal if they were not going to address the roof and electric.   Saturday, Cornelius, Amber, and little Neil came down to stay the night.   We all went to our first Baylor athletic event, the Lady Bears (basketball) won the game as well and the Big 12title.   They are ranked number 2 in the US. ...

We made another step toward getting a home in Waco.  Even though we have our house hunting trip scheduled for the 27th, we made an offer on our favorite house yesterday.  The stock of homes in our preferred price point is small.  Our list of possible home was around 16 with some of them already going to pending, we starting to get concerned our top choice might not be available for our visit.  The realtor we are working with, Cristy, has been excellent.  Earlier in the week, she facetimed with Abigail, going through the home.  Next Abigail was going to have Neil and Amber go down Sunday, facetime with them as they went through the home.  Yesterday morning, we decided that we didn't need Neil to go and Cristy did another facetime walkthough.  Friday night, we did the electronic signature program sign/initial the offer documents.  Now it's a waiting game.  We will still need to visit other homes on the top of our list in case the negotiati...

I'm glad the weekend is over. Much of our time was spent together on www.realtor.com reviewing possible homes in Waco and the surrounding area.   At some point the top 15-16 start blending together. Currently there are top choices in McGregor, Woodway, neighborhood of Mountainview, and China Springs. Regardless of where the home will be, it will be a drive everywhere lifestyle, dictating we go back to a two car household. It's hard because some of the hinges we like are in isolated 15-20 new home developments which lack the visual feeling of community. One more weekend of reviewing on Realtor.com then we are off to Waco for the real house hunting with the goal of making an offer before we leave with at least two homes as backups in case the first doesn't work out.