Call August a transition month.
It’s like the calm before and after the storm and, in this case, both in and outside the office.
People always seem to be excited for July outside of the office, with the beginning of summer adventures and its glorious temperatures. September offers the commencement of the new school year and the new television season.
But what about August? It often seems to get lumped in between with afterthoughts, forethoughts and reruns.
At the office, meanwhile, July had a hectic pace with the wrap-up of the Airdrie Pro Rodeo, the 10-day craziness of the Calgary Stampede and Canada Cup gymnastics event at Genesis Place in Airdrie. September has the launch of the new Rocky View Sports Association seasons and the return of hockey.
But what about August? There is the Western Canada Summer Games in Kamloops, B.C., featuring several local athletes, as well as the Calgary Police Rodeo, the Edge School Alumni Hockey Game and the Wild Rose Hockey Challenge, but overall it’s starting to develop an identity crisis by now.
Outside of the office, my July involved putting 5,000 kilometres on my car and adding another 6,000 in the air. As soon as my last story on the Airdrie Pro Rodeo was filed July 2, I hit the road to a friend’s lakeside cottage near Jaffray, B.C. There, I was able to read, relax and catch up on my knitting (translation: boating, then libations and endless bocce ball games).
The next adventure involved heading into uncharted territory – literally – as I drove up to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (a 3,522-kilometre round trip from my residence in Airdrie) to visit a friend and see the Folk on the Rocks music festival.
Often named as one of the top 10 festivals to see in Canada, FOTR (as the locals call it) is held right on the shores of Long Lake, with its five stages spread across the beach. It usually attracts a variety of performers from the North and one or two bigger name, mainstream Canadian acts, like Blue Rodeo, Sloan or Gob, every year.
This year’s two headliners were Fred Penner, known to most as the children’s performer from CBC in the late 1980s, and Luke Doucet, known to a few as Luke Doucet (he is a brilliant guitarist if you haven’t heard of him).
But that Penner sure knows how to put on a show. It may have been the two hours in the beer gardens before his performance contributing to my enjoyment, but his hour on the main stage was really entertaining. He even tried to show a modern edge to his music by seamlessly tying in the chorus from K-Os’ Crabbuckit into a seven-minute set-closing version of The Cat Came Back (just a cat in a bucket, replacing just a crab in a bucket).
There’s nothing quite like the festival headliner occupying the 5 to 6 p.m. timeslot either.
Doucet (whose father was behind the 1970s band Doucette and the popular song Mamma Let Him Play), actually played two sets on the Saturday – one on a side stage in the afternoon and one on the main stage during the midnight sun.
Yellowknife was a great time all around.
At the end of July, right around the time I was finally able to wash the last Northwest Territories-sized bug off my car, and after co-worker Stacie Snow’s wedding and open bar, I decided to surprise my sister and her family in Montreal for a few days.
Now it’s August, also known as the month before September. And the month before my 16-day, 11-state, 7,000-kilometre road trip to Texas and back.
Poor August.
