March 2026 – a month of winters

March 2026 – a month of winters


The lemon tree bloomed before the backdrop of winter

Happy spring to those of you who aren’t still in a deep freeze!

March has been a freeze-thaw bonanza: just when it gets beautiful and warms up, in comes a snowstorm. It’s felt like winters have been milder these past couple of years so to have snow essentially from November to March has been wild. Instead of bemoaning my fate, I lean in to it and tell myself that it means more cozy nights by the fire with a book, snuggled under a warm blanket. It’s not much to grasp onto, but it’s honest work.


Absolute slaughter

This past month has seen me do a trivia night and a Pysanky workshop with friends and next week we are doing Bingo! Forget your Carlsberg years, I am onto my Bingo years. The charity trivia night we did is probably the most difficult one we’ve ever encountered. It was really hard and it was probably the one with the lowest scores (for us and the other teams) that we’ve had so far in all of our trivia nights. Honestly, it’s probably pretty difficult to come up with questions that will have enough difficulty to engage the nerds but still has enough range that your average person who has never done trivia before will still enjoy it. We have a pretty solid crew and usually place in the top 5 (of about 20+ teams) and manage to get at least one name drawn for a door prize but none of that happened. You win some, you lose some. The company was great and it was a fun night out.

I had also never done Pysanky before so I headed out to the Ukrainian Community Hall last weekend for a workshop with two friends. Once again I am confronted by the fact that I am #notanartist. We learned the drop & pull method but bought kits to try the traditional method when we all get together for Easter weekend. I remain steadfast in my belief that you should still do things even if you will never be good at them.

As I mentioned in my 2025 wrap-up post one of my oldest and dearest friends is moving here from California. I am happy to say that I finally found her a gorgeous two bedroom in an older, walk-able area of the city. I have to say: damn, the housing crisis is brutal. Despite having a great job with a long tenure, good credit and a reasonable budget, it was a real challenge to find her something that met all of the things on her wish list. I basically searched daily for 3 months to find something that ticked off all of the boxes and it was a very long 3 months. I have no idea what people with bad credit and lower paying jobs do, because this was bonkers. When I booked the viewing the landlord did them in 15-minute increments and folks were lined up to get in. I am unsurprised: it was a large place for good price in an expensive neighbourhood, close to everything. We hopped on it right after and managed to snag it before anyone else did, so I am thrilled. She gets here next month and I am so stoked to be in the same city as one of my besties.


The shortlist

It’s been an insanely busy and expensive month. The Youngest had a lot of school events, work, and volunteering this month. It is the Eldest’s 18th birthday next week so she is heading to the casino with her brother. Since she is also graduating this year, I paid for her grad photos and we have to search for a dress for prom soon.

We all had dental cleanings booked and in a surprising turn of events, the Youngest needs surgery to remove her wisdom teeth and both Mr. Tucker and I have dental work that needs to also be done. Mr. Tucker and I were also due to get new glasses and even after our benefits paid out the maximum, we still paid an eyewateringly high amount of money on the hardware. On top of the pain of the price tag, I also managed to accidentally smash the emergency button in the bathroom when I went to put my crutch down. Suddenly there was a bank alarm level of noise throughout the entire store and shoppers were heading to the exits, mistaking the sound for a fire alarm, while the staff frantically tried to corral them back inside. Since no one had ever pressed the button before, the staff went into full panic mode trying to turn it off, as it had never been set off before. Basically, I got to stand there embarrassed while staff ran around and customers peeked over to see what was happening. Hundreds of dollars AND a mortifying experience? Lucky me!

But new glasses are always nice and you never know how bad your eyesight has gotten until you put on those shiny new specs and realize how clearer the world suddenly is.


I do have other news but it’s on hold for now as the details work themselves out. Until then, here is a photo of the gigantic Bay tree that lives in the vestibule of our local diner. This thing is an ABSOLUTE UNIT for being a Mediterranean plant in a northern climate. May we all thrive under as difficult conditions as this guy.


Legend

Accessible ski season: a success story

Accessible ski season: a success story

Around November of 2024 I got it in my head that I missed skiing and I wondered what options there were for accessible winter sports. After a quick search, I discovered the Canadian Adaptive Snowsports (CADS) but unfortunately, they had already booked up for the 2025 season. I did get them to add me to their mailing list though so as soon as they opened their rosters for 2026, I tossed my hat into the ring and to my surprise, I was accepted into the program.

Because I didn’t want to take a spot from another participant, I asked The Eldest to sign on as a volunteer with me. She was happy to sign up because a> she would get more volunteer hours to put towards the hours she needs to graduate high school[1]; and b> she absolutely hated teaching skiing. Like, really, really, really hated it. So she was happy to keep skiing as a volunteer as long as she didn’t have to teach multiple kids. FAIR. She did her time. She applied and was accepted into the program!


The snow machine in full force over the hill

What surprised me the most about CADS is the cost: it was only $250 for 8 weeks of skiing! When I expressed shock about this the volunteer I spoke with thought I found it too expensive and was trying to explain how it was the minimum they could charge to keep the lights on – but really, I found it super cheap! As someone who grew up skiing and who has two kids who did skiing and snowboarding since they were in kindergarten, most years it’s been three times that amount and the cost only went down when we bought them their own equipment[2]. It used to cost between $600 and $750 per season, per kid. Snow sports are not cheap, for sure. But since I was so used to that price that I just ended up donating $500 to the program on top of my fee because that’s what I had assumed it would cost to do adaptive skiing – at a minimum! I get why they try and keep it as cheap as possible though: most disabled folks don’t have a lot of money, not only is being disabled wildly expensive, most of them also live on incredibly small incomes. Even with just the price of gear not covered by the program (winter clothes, a helmet, hand warmers etc) it still makes it too pricey for many folks.


Early morning mist on the hill

Early in the new year Mr. Tucker and I went up so I could get fitted for a sit ski. I had justjust met the weight requirement for not only the equipment but also for the tethering. Because every participant requires two volunteers and with a sit ski at least one of them has to be certified to tether with a sit ski, it limited the amount of people who could participate in the program because of the amount of volunteers trained to do it. While there is a lot of variety of the types of disabilities CADS folks have, the physically disabled people have a bunch of different equipment types they can use depending on the severity of their mobility challenges. Because I have no balance, I wasn’t able to just tether standing up or use a “slider” which is similar to a walker on skis. So I ended up with the sitski.


Gearing up first thing in the morning

Our Sunday mornings were pretty chaotic for the first two months of the winter season. Mr. Tucker would drive The Youngest to catch the bus for her Snowboard Instructor job, then as soon as he got home, The Eldest and I would hop into the car and head north into Quebec for our CADS ski day. Because they prefer that their volunteers stay all day, she did both the morning and the afternoon sessions that ran from 10-noon and from 1-3 with an hour lunch in the middle. I just sat in the chalet in the morning and read books or watched videos, we ate lunch together when she got in from the morning session, and then we both headed out for the afternoon sessions after the break.


Balaklava, heated socks, handwarmers and a helmet…oh my!

The Eldest was paired with a couple of different folks at the beginning but after week three, she had the same skier and the same head volunteer for both the morning and afternoon sessions. Her skier had an intellectual disability so she just needed some help with guidance but generally was great skiing on her own. My kid really enjoyed working with both the participant and the other volunteer and actually enjoyed the entire experience much more than she expected to!

What was surprising is that they give the volunteers a free season’s pass to the hill (which apparently also includes the tubing, which is rad!). So on Family Day The Eldest took the car up to the hill by herself and did some skiing on her own, which is a nice little bonus! She would sometimes tackle a few runs during the lunch hour as well because the lifts were less busy then.


The Eldest and her team on top of the hill

The sit skis are absolutely wild in the fact that the volunteers unlatch it, lift the seat from the ski part and then you basically sit on the chairlift in the sit ski as it sweeps you up. Getting off, they click a button that releases the seat back down towards the ski and then you glide off of the chairlift like you would if you are standing. It’s a terrifying experience and you have to give up complete control to the volunteers (who know what they’re doing! I had zero issues with the chair lift!).

The person I was paired with weekly was a guy named Jeff who has to be the kindest man on earth given that he volunteers almost every day of the week with either training, guiding various programs or doing lessons at various hills in the region. He is the king of the dad joke but you can tell he is just a really outgoing, giving guy. In many ways he is the backbone of the organization and while many volunteers keep the entire ship afloat, more than one person mentioned that CADS would be lost without Jeff’s dedication to it. Along with Jeff I had a few other volunteers – all wonderful, lovely people.

Also, Jeff also only lost me once in the woods – on the last day, no less! Some kids cut in front of us so we turned, but then they saw us at the last second and ALSO turned which lead us onto a collision course that Jeff narrowly missed by letting me go off the side of the hill. Sadly, the other volunteer, Andrew thought Jeff was going to stop and when he didn’t Andrew tried to grab me and then ALSO went off of the side of the hill and landed in some trees. We were both laughing so hard at the absurdity of it all as I dangled half on/half off of the packed snow of the hill and the soft snow of the forest that Jeff had to come take Andrew’s skis off so that he could climb out of the woods. The soft powder of the woods was so deep & deceptive that when he stood up, he was actually waist deep in the powder[3]! Thankfully, one of the other volunteers, Greg, saw us careen off of the hill and came and helped Jeff and Andrew haul me back up. That was the last run of the season for us!


It’s as comfy as it looks

Driving home early in the season we were chatting and my daughter said, “I like volunteering way better than I like teaching. People actually appreciate you and are grateful for your help where with teaching I never felt like that. Also, the people are all so nice and welcoming and I never felt like I fit in with teaching.” It’s so true, too: I didn’t meet anyone in the CADS community who wasn’t just absolutely welcoming and kind. On our last day, we brought one of my best friend’s kids with us and even he was amazed at how welcoming everyone was to him. Although, you could argue that people don’t get involved in volunteering with an organization like that if they aren’t the most kind, amazing folks around.


Our friend’s kid drove up with us and at lunch him & The Eldest did some runs together

Yesterday was the last day of the season. After 8 weeks of skiing, I feel like it’s time to hang up the sit ski. The birds are singing and it is brighter in the mornings so I am happy to enter into the spring season after a very successful first season of doing adaptive skiing. The Eldest may go up on March break and take advantage of her season’s pass one last time, but overall we had a great year and are ready to have our Sundays to ourselves again.

I am not going to lie: even though I was brought up skiing and was a skier my entire life, adaptive skiing was a whole new ballgame for me. I had to give up control to the volunteers and learn an entirely new way of navigating the hill. I was never afraid of heights or the hill in the past but this year it took me a little while to find my bearings in the sit ski. I was scared the first few times I fell (and one of those times I rolled right over like a bad car crash – much to the horror of my kid who was there at the time!) and I hit more moguls and icy patches than I would have liked to while I learned how to navigate the slopes. Being closer to the ground also gives you fewer visual cues than I am used to. I won’t say I became a great sit-skier this year but I managed to feel a huge amount of anxiety and then do it anyway.

The Eldest ended up enjoying it so much that she plans to come back and volunteer again next year. I ordered an official CADS jacket for her as a thank you for doing this with me. I think she initially did it so that I could do it but was surprised at how much she enjoyed the people and the skiing community they’ve created (and the ability to ski for free was a nice bonus she didn’t anticipate!). I hope to be back again next year but even if it doesn’t happen, I am grateful I did it this year at least. It’s so easy when you are disabled to just give up so many things because it feels like you are climbing a mountain to just do the things you used to do. It’s just nice to know that there is an entire world of people who are out there volunteering their time to help you be able to do things that most folks don’t even think twice about just doing. I am eternally grateful to them.

[If you have a few extra dollars to spare in your budget, a CADS donation is certainly appreciated. Many of these programs run on fumes so every dollar helps. Thanks, friends!]


The last day was costume day! Here is The Eldest as PB sandwich.

[1] She had a few hours already logged but needed a few more. I absolutely hate that this is a requirement to graduate from high school. I think it turns volunteering into a chore instead of a great community building exercise, and because it needs to be done outside of school hours, it punishes kids who need to work to help support their families.

[2] When your kids are young it is so expensive to outfit them that it just made more sense to rent until they grew all that they would grow. In fact, my dad actually bought them their equipment a few years ago and they’ve both taken really good care of their stuff. We just wax & sharpen their gear every year.

[3] We laughed because we were safe, but the snow off of the mountain can get incredibly deep and you can die by Snow Immersion Suffocation (SIS) which may have killed a woman in Banff earlier this season.

What does money matter?

What does money matter?

I love the BBC Archive channel and I have posted videos from there before. There is always a fascinating array of videos from the past and while not all of them are of interest to me, there are always a few here and there that pique my interest. I loved this one comparing the lives of two Glasweigian women in 1974 and the stark differences between what it means to have money and to not have money.

I absolutely love that the top comment is from Ina’s son:

For all the comments asking about Ina and what happened to her…

At the time of filming in early 1974, she was living with her parents in Barlanark, Glasgow. She married her boyfriend Jim in 1975 and the had 2 children – a son born in 1977 and a daughter born in 1980.

In 1983, she got her dream home, a new build semi-detached with front, back and side gardens. She said that moving into that house was a dream and it was like being on a caravan holiday as the children could go out to play and the garden was only a few steps away – she had spent her entire life living in flats until then. She was always waiting for the “caravan owner” to come back for his keys! That never happened, as Ina lived there for the rest of her life and Jim still lives there to this day.

Along with the house, those gardens were her pride and joy (after her children) and she spent a lot of her free time planting flowers and cutting the grass. The side garden was on a corner and she loved speaking to neighbours who walked by admiring her (and Jim’s) hard work.

She left the factory job and found her calling in elderly care, she had such a big heart and loved to look after people. Ina & Jim went on to have a good life together, they worked hard, had a lovely home and enjoyed going on holidays.

Friends and family tried to get hold of this footage around Ina’s 40th birthday but were told it had been destroyed.

As you see in the programme, she loved knitting and enjoyed it throughout her life. In her later years she spent a lot of her time knitting hats, mittens and bootees for new born babies that she donated to Princess Royal Maternity in Glasgow.

In later life, Ina had 3 grandchildren who she adored…..and she loved nothing better than playing with them in her back garden.

Ina passed away in May 2020 during the first COVID lockdown, and all the restrictions that came with that meant only 20 people could be at her funeral – there would have been hundreds there in “normal” times. Her ashes are buried in her beloved back garden.

How do I know all of this? I’m her son, Paul – my sister Dawn and I have watched this video on repeat in the last few days since we became aware of it. We visited my dad and watched it together, including the grandchildren…..not a dry eye in the house (Ina’s house!) and my dad let us into a few secrets around the filming of the programmes.

We are all so proud of my mum, where she came from, the life she carved out for herself and the start she gave us all in life.

Someone else did some digging and found this on Valerie:

“Valli” was the nom de course of Valerie Stack, a 1970s saloon racer, and Biba model, who managed to claim some good race finishes and a string of lap records too. She raced between 1975 and 1977, driving an MG Midget, Lotus Europa and Triumph TR7 with Biba sponsorship.

Her name first became known in motorsport circles in 1975, for reasons not related to her on-track performance. She was photographed sunbathing topless at Mallory Park, and the pictures were published in the British motoring press. Valli was already working as a model, and at that time, was in a relationship with racer and track owner, Chris Meek. He encouraged her to drive one of his racing cars, and her first track appearance was more of a modelling assignment than a race, just doing some demonstration laps in an MG Midget. Meek saw that she took to the car quite well, and offered her some actual racing, in the Midget. Despite having few ambitions in that direction, she decided to give it a go, and entered the BRSCC Production Sports Car Championship. Her early races were hard work, and some ended in spins, but she was soon picking up class awards, including two at Croft. Biba, the fashion label for which she had modelled, was the main sponsor of her MG Midget, which carried a striking black and gold livery.

Away from motorsport, Valli’s professional life took a different direction in 1976. She moved away from modelling and into music production, working alongside her future husband, Emile Ford, and producing one of his albums. Her relationship with Chris Meek must have been over by then, but he continued to support her in her racing activities. She was active in Production Sports Cars again in 1976, and was one of the leading drivers in her class. She set lap records for production sports cars worth £2000 and under at Brands Hatch, Aintree, Castle Combe, Rufforth and Ingliston.

The BWRDC gave her their award for the most successful woman driver in 1976, as well as its Best Newcomer title.

In 1977, she raced a Triumph TR7 in Production Sports, also owned by Meek and sponsored by Biba. She came second in at least one race, at her favoured circuit of Croft. At some point, she raced a Lotus Europa, again owned by Meek, part of a two-car team with him, but no results are forthcoming.

That year, her name was linked to a Land Speed Record project, Blue Star, led by Dave Gossling. Valli was said to be considering an attempt on Lee Breedlove’s women’s record, by no less than Motor Sport magazine. Drag racer Tony Densham and Formula One driver, David Purley, were linked to the project too, but it never came to fruition, as Dave Gossling was killed in an accident before the car was even built.

Valli retired from motorsport after 1977, following her marriage to Emile Ford and subsequent pregnancy. She is rather an obscure figure now, although she is remembered fondly by some motor racing fans who saw her in action.

She died in 2018, aged 65.

Material World vs. Statistical World

Material World vs. Statistical World

And now a word from our fav Gen Z economist…

This creates two very different worlds – a material world and a statistical world.

For people in the material world: time is real because bills are due Friday and kids need pickup at 3pm. Space is real with a 45-minute commute and you can’t afford to move. Bodies are real with exhaustion and aging. Other humans are necessary – coworkers cover your shifts, friends lend you money.

For people in the statistical world: time is arbitrary. Space is irrelevant. Bodies are optional through bio-hacking and outsourced physical labor. Other humans are signals understood through sentiment and labor market data.

Claude and a hedge fund manager are similar. They find patterns and maximize outcomes. The human understands the machine because of the work they do. And because this hedge fund manager exists statistically, they’re naturally drawn to AI – which also exists statistically. The eagerness we see in some of these breathless takes is finding something that shares your ontology.

That’s why people who exist statistically think AI is evolution.

The people who exist materially think this is apocalypse.

And rightly so, as the material world continues to suffer.

– Kyla Scanlon, Buying Futures, Renting the Past: How Speculation and Nostalgia Became the Economy

Emergencies are easier with money

Emergencies are easier with money


If you haven’t watched Big Mouth, do yourself a solid and get on it STAT!

We knew that our car needed a new battery. Mr. Tucker was told this in the fall when we had the winter tires put on. He had planned to do it at the end of January when we were due to get the oil changed (this is what they call “foreshadowing”). So neither of us were shocked when it hit -35c this past weekend and the battery died on the car. Of course, we figured this out when Mr. Tucker headed out to warm up the car before taking The Youngest to roller derby but at least it gave him enough time to call a cab and get her there.

As he sat in the gym with a lukewarm coffee and his kindle, I suggested that since he was in the south end anyway that he should just rent a car from the airport (pro tip: in general, airports always have the cheapest prices on rentals). So he did just that and then ran the errands he wanted to while he waited for derby to be finished.

Renting the car meant that we could get The Youngest to her snowboarding job the next morning as well as get The Eldest and I to our skiing (her volunteering and me participating) commitment on Sunday. Without even blinking, I just thought, “throw money at the problem.”

You know what’s nice? Being able to throw money at the problem. I remember that there was a time in my life where a dead battery would have been devastating for me. Not only could I not afford to rent a car but I also probably would have not had the money to spend on fixing the battery. I would have just thrown it on credit and paid a premium to do so. Instead, we dropped The Eldest and her friend off on Monday morning at school (it’s exams this week), jumped the car with our rechargeable car battery jumper (everyone should have one of these), brought the car in, and then Mr. Tucker and I hit a diner for a hot breakfast date. As luck would have it, the car was done within the hour and so we nabbed it and dropped the rental off, swinging by on our way back to The Eldest’s school as she was finished writing her exam. It was all serendipitous timing and we were home by noon.

I am just so grateful that we are in a place in our lives where we don’t even have to think twice about spending money to make our lives easier. It’s so freeing to not have to live on the edge and worry about how you are going to get everyone to the places they need to be. I just wanted to take a hot minute and be thankful for this and I never want to not be grateful that we’re in this place in our lives.

Th…th…that’s all folks!

Th…th…that’s all folks!

Well today I made the *very last* contribution to The Youngest’s RESP![1] The goal was to a> maximize the government grants; b> be able for the kids to do a 4-year university degree IF they lived at home and chose a school in the city. As of today, that is a fait accompli.

I am so proud of Mr. Tucker and I for managing this. We wanted our children to be able to get an education debt free and (theoretically) we have achieved that. It feels like an incredible milestone for us and probably one of the best gifts we could ever give our children. I hope they appreciate it and use this opportunity to jump-start their lives.

[1]The Eldest’s was fully funded last year

No resolutions in January. Theme of 2026? Scholarship

No resolutions in January. Theme of 2026? Scholarship


Ganked from Austin Kleon

One of the creators whose content I adore is by the writer/artist Austin Kleon[1]. He posted the gem above last week and it blew my mind. It just is an absolutely sensical way to go gently into the new year. It also gives people (especially parents who need to start school/activities again and get back on schedule!) a wee break and time to consider what they want to focus on in the new year after the chaos of the holidays. Also, if I remember correctly, there is often a steep drop-off in interest after the first month for the more popular resolutions, which may make it easier to stick to if you aren’t elbow-to-elbow with people at the gym or if you can get into the classes you’d like to take.

Also, check out how February lines up into four perfect weeks:


Starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday. Perfection!

You say there’s gonna be a resolution, weh-hell, you know…

I don’t really have a resolution set for 2026. I do have a theme though, and that is the theme of scholarship. Basically, I want to do a deep dive into a variety of topics that I have always meant to learn more about.

After a year of re-calibrating the brain meats by staying off most social media (or social media, mostly – as it were) I realize that most of my problems stemmed from the fact that I’d find myself in a comment spiral. I was addicted to the conversations on social media which gave me a hollowed out version of two things I love: being social and debating. I would get dopamine hits from having rousing debates with friends online – especially during the years when my kids were young and I couldn’t get out as much. But I also came to terms with the fact that it also brought too many negatives: arguments between friends-of-friends, the nonstop highlight reel of negativity, the hours I spent glued to a platform that was serving up less content that I wanted to see and more slop and ads.

I read a lot in 2025 and now in 2026 I want to hone in and learn more about *specific* topics. Delving into Celtic history is high on that list. I also want to continue to work on my drawing and watercolour skills, which I think is just me doing more practice. Part of this is also setting up a well-lit workspace to be able to work in which is separate from my computer space in the shared office. I want to reduce the friction of working on my analog projects and increase the friction of just flopping down and reading/watching internet content all day.

Of course, I really ramped up the social events in 2025 and I plan to absolutely continue that into 2026.

Budgety

It feels weird to just…coast? To not have any financial goals or to have to think about money?

Mr. Tucker and I sat down and discussed how weird it was to have achieved everything we set out to achieve: our house & our car are paid, the kids have enough in their RESPs to each do a 4 year undergraduate degree, we have savings and investments, we’ve pre-planned our funerals, we gave my stepson some money to help him get his financial house in order as he turns 30 this month, and we basically are content with what we have. So what next?

We decided to use the money from Mr. Tucker’s work to save up for a cruise around the world. Of course, it wouldn’t happen until The Youngest is 18 and off to post-secondary, which gives us two years to save and figure out a game plan. We also would probably only want to leave for 4 months or less because that’s as much time as I can see me being away from home. We’ve only done a couple of 1 month trips so it would be a big leap for us. So essentially, the plan is to see the world over a few years – in 4 month increments at a time.

Milestones

It is a big year for our entire family:
My Stepson turns 30
The Eldest turns 18
The Youngest turns 16
Mr. Tucker and I will celebrate our 20 year wedding anniversary

I suspect we will spend a lot of our time celebrating our children and not celebrating our anniversary but that’s ok. We celebrate our marriage every day, really. But our kids will only get these big milestones once. My Stepson will be moving in with his girlfriend and opening a new restaurant, The Eldest is graduating high school and off to university in the fall, and The Youngest will be celebrating her Sweet 16 and getting her driver’s license in the spring. So it will be a busy year full of life events. I am excited.

I guess that is part of the reason why I am not really leaning into a lot of personal change right now: because life will be full of changes this year anyway. To be honest, I am so proud of all of our children and what amazing people they are that even though I am a bit sad and nostalgic, I am glad they are growing up and starting to live their own lives, seperate from us. This is, after all, the goal of successful parenting.

[1] I won’t ever spend money on Substack because a> they platform nazis, b> their payment tiers are ridiculous, c> no social media company is gonna save us – and have we not learned this lesson? But if you don’t have the same reservations, then I highly recommend his content! Also, you can just do what I did and buy his books. Here is a handy dandy link to his stuff on Bookshop.org.