The ten year old is back in school.
We had an excellent summer - the biggest highlight was likely our trip to Campbell River to visit my Dad and stepmother. Air Canada was absolutely incredible and they have become my favourite airline because my kid is aviation mad and got to talk to two pilots on our way into Comox. It was one hell of a moment parenting when I got to see the tiny baby who I could fit on my forearm transformed into a ten year old with serious passions.
The trip to Campbell River had a bunch of other highlights... including an open cockpit day at the Comox Air Force Museum. That was really fun - the ten year old sat in the cockpit of some really amazing planes. Then when we got back, her mom took her to Moose Jaw where she met some Snowbirds.
There was one moment in Campbell River however that really helped my kid's passions fall into place for me. My Dad has a favourite coffee haunt and he is a very loyal patron. Well... one of the employees is working on their commercial licence and pays $500 per hour. When the kid and I were on one of our nightly adventures around Campbell River that night she bluntly told me that she wasn't worried about the cost of becoming a pilot - I was going to pay for it. All of it.
So, that's when I crapped my pants on vacation.
The kid also got really heavy into music. She's mostly into electronic music but when we were walking around Campbell River listening to music together, she got into Wipers and Abba; and got me into Grouplove and a techno DJ named Novah.
And now after that excellent summer she started school again yesterday. Another year, an excellent teacher and a whole year of learning. The kid will turn 11 this school year, and next year grade six will hit like a tonne of bricks and I keep waiting for that inevitable time when we're not so much alike and I become a source of her teenaged wrath. But for now, I like being the ten year old's sidekick.