Jim Dalrymple.com

One of my biggest pet peeves is the way society chooses not to remember the fallen soldiers in the wars of the last century. People choose to go about their business every November 11, without recognizing the sacrifice so many men and women around the world made for our freedom.

Every November 11, Monique and I take the kids to the local ceremony here in Bedford — today will be no different. The number of veterans decreases each year and the number of names called out from the honor role increases by the same amount.

I think it’s important to show Nicole and Michael that there is a reason we can live like we do. Literally millions of people have died to give us our way of life — they need to respect that.

Today, I am proud to be Canadian and proud of the sacrifice my grandparents and their families made for our freedom.

A couple of minutes of silence and remembrance is a small price to pay.

This afternoon Monique, the kids and I went to my brother-in-laws book launch. We went to support him and his new book, but we also bought a few for Christmas presents and had him sign them.

His new book is called “Chronicle of our Time,” a photographic book based on events in Nova Scotia. This is Len’s second book in just over a year — last year Len released “Nova Scotia Landmarks: Portrait of a Province from the Air.”

The first book were aerial photographs of Nova Scotia — very well done. It was a bestseller at Chapters and of course, the local bookstores were selling them like crazy.

Len and his family stopped over after the launch and we all had some pizza and beer. It was a lot of fun.

Michael’s favorite subject is definitely not math — turns out it isn’t his math teachers either. Michael brought home his test today that he studied really hard and was disappointed with his B-.

Monique took a look at the test and noticed that the teacher miss counted by 10 points. What does this mean? Michael deserves an A+ instead of a B-. He was much happier when we told him that.

We put a note in with his school work so the teacher could see it tomorrow.

Last week was incredibly busy. It started off with my birthday and ended with a fun weekend with Michael and my father attending the Windsor exhibition. The exhibition had two things that I had never seen before: a truck pull and a demolition derby.

On September 19th I turned 38. I don’t feel that old — I still listen to heavy metal, I’m playing guitar more than ever, work is going well; in short, I feel younger than ever. Maybe I’m just kidding myself — to be sure I think I need to buy a Porsche.

Monique bought me a new Zakk Wylde Overdrive pedal for my guitar, which has made a big difference in the gain level playing my Les Paul. My parents got me a new strap for the guitar and there were other assorted items, as well.

Last weekend Michael, my father and I headed off to a truck pull. I’ve never been to a truck pull before, but it was a lot better than I expected. The amount of money spent of these rigs must be incredible. Many of them were running alcohol and when they powered up it almost blew your eardrums.

Better than the truck pull was the demolition derby. These guys are just insane. They pile in their cars and just go, smashing into anything in their way. Some of the drivers actually had a strategy, but most of them just crashed.

A busy week, but it was a lot of fun.

Yesterday was my father’s birthday and Monique’s mother’s birthday, too. Kind of strange isn’t it, having our parents with the same birthday. It certainly has presented some challenges for us over the years, planning and executing the day, but this year was pretty relaxed.

We didn’t leave the cottage for either birthday this year, which made the decision on what to do really easy. We sat out by the lake and enjoyed a relaxing day of doing nothing.

My parents drove up for the day, so we had a little celebration dinner at a restaurant down the road. Actually, it’s more like a truck stop, so the portions are really big. We were all stuffed by the time we left.

We gave Dad his presents and then we all went out on the wharf and sort of played Trivial Pursuit. Dad and I teamed up against the girls, Michael asked the questions and Nicole kept score. Dad and I won.

Sometimes no matter what you do, it’s just wrong. That’s what happened to Monique and I on Sunday when friends of ours and their kids came up to the cottage for the day.

Nicole and Michael were lobbying for their friends to stay overnight at the cottage even before we left for vacation. We said that we would think about it and let them know the day they came up.

Dave and Brenda showed up and we sat around talking and had a few drinks. Later in the day we had a few burgers on the grill. The whole time Nicole and Lindsey were hinting about the sleepover.

It didn’t matter to us if the kids stayed or not, but Dave and Brenda couldn’t come back on Monday and pick them up. They decided to just take the kids home and we could arrange for a sleepover some other time at home.

Michael and his friend Andrew were disappointed, but accepted the news. Nicole and Lindsey on the other hand started crying and wailing like two year olds.

It was so bad, it was actually funny at first, but then it got old really quick. They wouldn’t stop and it was one of those stupid crying fits that you knew was planned if the news didn’t go their way.

Monique and I have never allowed ourselves to fall victim to such antics, so Nicole should have known a temper tantrum was not the way to win us over. Instead, acting like that only strengthens our resolve.

To make matters worse for Nicole, she will be punished for her actions. I’m not sure what yet, but I believe that she has to learn that there are consequences for her actions, good or bad.

Well, that news didn’t go over well with her, but I’m her parent, which means I’m not always her friend. That also means that I do what I think is right. If she thinks she can get her way by pulling stunts like this now, she may pull stupid stuff like this again.

Not on my watch!

Last night Nicole had a party to go to at her friends, so Monique, Michael and I decided to look for a little outing for us. We decided to take a trip in town and see the buskers that gather every year for the Halifax International Buskers Festival.

Buskers — or street performers — from around the world have been gathering in Halifax since 1987. It’s been 15 years since Monique and I went to the festival — that was before we had kids — so we didn’t know what to expect. Neither one of us remembers much about the last time we were there, but we figured it would make a nice outing for Michael.

Among many others, there were acts from Australia, Portugal, Vancouver and a really good act from Halifax called Squid. They were a group of five guys — four playing percussion and one playing bagpipes. It was kind of like Stomp, if you have ever seen that. They were really, really good.

We walked the one-kilometer stretch, watching jugglers with flaming torches, machetes and various other dangerous items. One guy had himself wrapped in Saran Wrap for about 10 minutes and then managed to escape. Silly, but still it was funny.

Overall it was a good night. We all had a lot of fun.