Use It or Lose It

My dad is in Montreal for 3 weeks taking the french language class that I took two years ago.  Well of course he'll be placed in a much higher level class, but it is the same immersion program.  Last month we spent 2 weeks in real France and Dad's ability to really speak the language was incredibly helpful, especially when we had problems like a flat tire and a dead battery.  I mean I can order in a cafe and ask some basic questions, but nothing compared to Pops.  Anyway, Dad impressed us all, including himself, by doing a lot of walking on our trip and I encouraged him to keep up with his higher level of exercise now that we're back in North America.  I also encouraged him to take this 3 week class and I'm real proud of him that he decided to do it and proud of myself for pushing him because I think he'll have a lot of fun and, as we all know, with exercise and our brains, we need to keep challenging ourselves as we get older and occasionally do something out of our comfort zone.


When Dad was contemplating signing up for the class he was most worried about getting to the classroom so early in the morning.  Anyone who knows David Gascon knows that he is NOT a morning person (though since we returned from real France he's been getting up pretty early, taking lengthy advantage of the time difference between Europe and North America).  A few months ago I offered to do a test run with him the day before classes began and I think that was what really pushed him to go ahead and sign up.  Unfortunately I bailed on him and decided to stay home this weekend, but he did his test run anyway and wrote this in an email:


I decided that today I'd do a test run of getting to metro station by 8:00 in order to have plenty of time Mon. to make orientation at 8:45. I was walking to the station when I looked at my watch & saw that it said 6:45 - I had mis-set my clock radio an hour too early, so alarm had actually gotten me up at 5:00!  Made the station a hair before 7:00. Took a somewhat longer route back to condo, so had gotten in app. a mile of walking before real 8:00. No wonder I wasn't ready to take a crap before leaving.


Dad up at 5:00 A.M. and an hour early.  It love it.  I hope he has a fabulous time.