Jim Dalrymple.com

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.

Michael is such a good kid. He really deserves some good news, but this summer seems to be a non-stop run of bad news for the poor kid. The latest came today when he had another appointment at the dentist.

When Michael went to the dentist for a follow-up after the accident, he had feeling in his teeth, so he canceled the planned root canals. He told us to come back in two months and we would see how things were going.

After receiving the report from the ER doctor, they decided to do another check-up. Sadly, Michael had some discoloration in two of his teeth. While he could feel cold in a couple of the teeth, he lost all sensation in the others.

That means he will have to go for several root canals. The doctor said he isn’t giving up yet, but with discoloration it’s pretty much over.

I get no respect. I work hard, so when I sit down to eat to a simple sandwich for lunch I expect a little privacy. Apparently, Twiggy doesn’t think I deserve the privacy or the sandwich.

Twiggy is a really intense dog. She loves to play ball or tug or anything else and when she does, she is completely focused on whatever the game is — she has injured herself for the game.

There are very few times in a day that she ever likes to cuddle. One of those times is if you have food. Sometimes, she is very friendly … too friendly.

Yesterday, I was doing some work and having a sandwich. Twiggy went from sitting in front of to coming up on the couch and staring at me, to pawing my arms and laying on my chest. She finally did get the sandwich.

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Friday night my father, Michael and I went to the stock car races about 15 minutes from our house. This is the second time this season that we went and it was more fun this time than the last.

Michael really likes to watch the “junkers.” You know, the $300 cars that are held together with string and bubble gum. There may not be much money in the cars, but the drivers sure do take the race seriously. They are banging in the corners and jockeying for position every single lap.

Of course, this usually leads to many accidents — that in turn gets Michael laughing and jumping. All three of us pick a car in every race — we don’t bet or anything, but we have a lot of fun picking on each other when we don’t finish well.

The Sportsman series was there this weekend, which is a step down from the MASCAR. These guys put a lot of time, energy and money into their race teams and it shows. Very serious racers in this class, but the accidents are few and far between. Unfortunately for a few, one car lost its engine going into turn three on the last lap and sent three cars flying off the end of the race track.

My father was very involved in racing when he was younger, so he knows a lot about the cars and the setup. He said on Friday that he never raced one, but I think he was probably in one driving at one time or another.

I would love to get behind the wheel and race. I probably wouldn’t last long after bumping a few people off the track, but at least Michael would be screaming and laughing the whole time.

Don’t take my word for it, just ask my daughter. I found out recently that I am the coolest father in the whole town! That led to me taking Nicole and two of her friends to a concert last night.

Nicole’s favorite band, Hedley, is led by one of the Canadian Idol contestants from last season. A few weeks ago there was a segment on the local news that Hedley was coming to town, so Monique went online and stayed there until she came away with four tickets in the second row.

The plan was this: Monique would take Nicole and her two friends to the concert and I would stay home with Michael. Worked for me.

The plan was fine until this week. Nicole decided this week that I was so cool that she needed me to take her to the show. I felt bad for Monique because Nicole fights with her a lot, but I have to say that it’s been a long time since I’ve been called cool or anything even resembling cool.

So, off I went with three pre-teen girls following behind — okay, actually I was following behind, but I was really out of place. Luckily, I wasn’t the only parent at the concert that was totally out of place.

Nicole had a lot of fun. She managed to get up on stage with the band and danced around for most of the last song. After the concert was over, I stood in line with the girls for over an hour so they could get an autograph and a picture.

It all worked out pretty good. The girls had fun and I’m apparently still cool!

After knocking out his teeth a few weeks ago and spending more than his share of time in the doctor’s office, Michael is doing so much better. In fact, tonight he went for a ride on his bike for the first time since he went down.

It seems that Michael’s face took the full force of the impact in his accident. The bike is fine except for twisted handle bars and from what I can tell he didn’t damage the road at all.

He was hesitant to get back on the bike — and I don’t blame him — but he strapped on the helmet and started up the street. He decided to walk the bike down the hill (next to the one he fell on) and ride on the straight stretches. That was fine with me — it was just good to see him riding again.

Besides a car that almost backed over him, the ride was a complete success. He said he felt a lot better about riding and I feel better getting that first one out of the way too.

Michael, Monique and Nicole sat down tonight and watched Scooby-Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed. I was going to watch too, but I had some work to do, so I got that done instead.

Sometimes listening to Michael watch a movie is better than watching the movie itself. He’s one of these genuine laughers that belly laughs — when he gets going it’s contagious.

All through the movie Michael was laughing so hard, it brought a smile to my face.

Sometimes it’s the small things in life that make me happy. Well that and lots of money would make me really happy.