CBC Northbeat clip featuring EZ Street cold asphalt

My kids..

I'm not in a good frame of mind right now to talk about Ingrid. My first baby.. beautiful baby.. that Benj and I lost at the age of two to a genetic disorder that brought on a disease that was similar to muscular distrophy. It gradually weakened Ingrid's body and brought on her death. It's strange how time has dulled the pain and I am not affected by this in my day to day life - but any time I think about her and spend some time talking about her, it's like it happened yesterday and the pain comes back... the pain comes back with such force and reality and hurtfulness... It will never be easy to go back there I guess and that is probably good... Ingrid would have been in her late 30's now and I have to wonder what could have been for this bright and sensitive little soul. One thing I learned from this experience, and this was re-inforced by my illness last year.. is that we have to enjoy our time on this world of ours because it can be taken away from us at any time. Once our time is up, that's it baby.... so enjoy, do things you can while you can.. experience life... don't be afraid to try new things.. learn to love and be loved.. blah blah blah...

If there was any good that came from losing our Ingrid, it opened another door.. a door that we would never have considered if she had remained healthy. The door opened to give us the opportunity to have a family by adoption. We were so lucky to be in the right place at the right time to adopt Jill when we lived up in Inuvik in '85. When we moved to Yellowknife, we applied to social services for a second child and Jesse rounded out our family in '88. Benj and I had first considered adoption as an alternative to having our family but were very afraid .. or concerned that it might not work for us after the pain we went through. We worried that we could never feel the same about a child that wasn't naturally conceived by us.. we soon learned that this was not an issue. Both of the kids, Jill and Jesse, were instantly "our" kids and there was never any difference in our feelings or acceptance of these two wonderful children as part of our real family. I am not sure how to express this, but I am so happy that we made that decision to take in these two kids and especially now - considering where my life has gone. I have two children that are now young adults.. two children that have had their share of distress in their lives in spite of the love that we have for them... my kids whom I love and am so happy to see how they are now gaining some direction in their lives. And of course, my grand daughter.... my baby's baby .. that sweet little child Shaya that I so adore...

Jill is enrolled in Island College in Courtney BC taking a photography course. She has worked hard to get things set up to take this course and I am so proud of her that she has found a way to get trained in a field that helps her to express her artsy fartsy side.. she is so talented and this is only a beginning for her to create her future doing things that she loves to do.

Jesse... ahhh my sweet loving little boy is such a big young man now. I thought that I had lost my boy and I guess I did for a while... but it looks like Jesse is back now and as with Jill, I am so very proud and happy for Jesse that he has taken back some control of his life. He has found a way to get into college attending NAIT in Edmonton and is taking an Aircraft Maintenance course. Jesse could never be accused of being artsy fartsy and this course is step one in developing the "hands on" type of skills that Jesse posseses.

Both the kids are lucky to have S.O.'s in their lives that support them in what they do. Wayne and Nikki have been positive influences for them and I so hope that their lives are happy and fruitful and I want them to know how extremely extremely happy that I am and will continue to be a part of them..

Where do we go from here - what is Jim working at???

I haven't done anything on this blog for a couple of months.. Jeez the time seems to fly by. I have to admit that I have been feeling quite frustrated over the past couple of months. I am involved as a partner in a company called EZ Street Canada. We own the distribution rights to a wonderful fantastic cold asphalt product that actually works when repairing paved surfaces... yes, the dreaded pothole can be cured! Anyways, we have a verbal agreement with a large company to purchase 50% of the business. It will give us the clout to take our business to the next stage and it is already showing signs.. very positive signs of being a huge success with representatives making our product in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta/NWT and BC. The frustration is that the sale has been virtually stalled over the past 2 months waiting for I's to be dotted andt T's to be crossed.. lawyers.. accountants.. but..I firmly believe that this week the deal will be done and we can get on with business. It has been very difficult for me as there has been NO income for a year now and I think everyone would realize that this is not good. I'm really looking forward to getting it done.

In addition to the EZ Street sales, our company had also been involved in sales of another product called Airstar lighting. This product is a highly efficient and easily portable lighting system that can be used in a multitude of situations. We have been marketing the lights in the past to construction, expediting, and mining companies who work in remote locations. We have been salivating at the prospect of getting these lights into the oil sands at Fort McMurray without much success. We recently got a surprize call from a construction company in that region looking for a demonstration of the product and as a result, we quickly arranged a trip up to Ft Mac to show off the lights. It appears that our trip was successful as we have a verbal ..ouch..there goes that verbal word again.. aggreement to rent a large number of lights with a promise to let us use their project as a base for showing the products to other companies in the region. There is so much potential with this product in the oil sands and the client was blown away with the lights and is anxious to get them placed.

Excuse me for sounding optimistic... it has been very tough financially for poor old Jim the past year but... it is going to change very soon and with a few dollars coming in, it looks like it will be a very busy time for the next couple of years. It is exciting and I only wish I were 20 years younger to work at and develop these opportunities.. but I'm not and I'm healthy and I'm happy and who could ask for anything more.

If there is such a thing as "our song", this would be it.

Relationships - The final frontier!!!

I started this blog with the idea in mind that it would hopefully make interesting reading for some of my friends and relatives, my kids, and of course any and all grandchildren that come along in the future. An opportunity to get to know who grandpa was and what his life was like. I can just see it - it's the year 2022 and 15 year old Shaya Latimer Eirikson has been reading grandpa's blog for a couple of hours - finally she walks up to her mom (who is frazzled and preparing meals for Wayne and their other seven kids) and says.. "Do I have to read any more of Grandpa's blog.. all he talks about is the women in his life and it's totally boring.. didn't he have any other interests???!!!

OK..This is my last post regarding my relationships but I had to get you through this part of my life because a person's soul mate is by far the most important part of our raison d'etre - it has just taken me a bit longer than most normal people to find mine. But, find her I have!

The Julie I have referred to several times now is Julie Peterson. *SIGH* Another of those wonderful blond Scandinavians from the great state of Minnesota. Julie and I met several years ago online when we were both playing a word game called Psychobabble. This game helped me pass many long hours in the evenings when I was alone in Yellowknife and tending to my hospital medivac contract. The game had a chat option and I had noticed Julie (One Wise Woman) several times as she was quite adept at the game and not shy about her wordly talents. I started to harass her - but in a nice way - and she put up with me and eventually we started to have some rather deep conversations at the expense of our concentration on the word game. As before, I'm not going to bore anyone with details but after a few months, Julie finally gave in and allowed me to phone her. Being the charming boy that I am, it only took another 3-5 months to convince Julie that we had to meet face to face and finally a rendez-vous was set up for Caddy Lake Resort in the Whiteshell Park. I have to tell you about our first meeting as it is probably the most frightened I have ever been in my life. Arriving at the resort in a steady rain, I pulled up to the office and noticed a purple Grand Prix with Minnesota plates parked nearby. It was so funny when I checked in as the old couple that ran the place were quite interested in the lady from Minnesota and me with my NWT plates. Anyways, I trudged apprehensively up to our cabin and was greeted at the door by an extremely striking blond woman who appeared to be nowhere as friendly as the one I had been talking with online and on the telephone. I think my first words as I stood on the steps as the rain ran down my nose were to the effect that I had left my suitcase in my vehicle (thinking that she would let me in and we could wait for the rain to stop before getting my stuff) but noooooo.. she said I had better go get in now and I honestly thought I would come back to a locked door with no options but to beat a hasty retreat and be forced to give up on Minnesota women forever! It turns out that she was as scared as I was and friendly Julie appeared once she realized I was safe.

Julie and I had a wonderful 4 days at Caddy Lake and it was the start of a relationship that has evolved into something that I often stop to consider how lucky I am to have found her... who would have thought that a simple online game would give us both the opportunity to discover each other and allow us the happiness that we have come to share. In order to reassure ourselves that we were compatible, one of the things we felt that we should do was to try to spend some time together over an extended period - just to see how we coped with each other on a daily basis. Julie actually moved up to the NWT and spent a year with me in the North and that period only solidified what we felt for each other. In addition to my health concerns, the main reason for my move back to Manitoba was the fact that it is much closer geographically to this woman that I love so dearly. It gives us the opportunity to see each other on a semi-regular basis and once I am settled and my business, my work schedule, and my finances are set, we intend to sit down and make some very serious plans for the rest of our lives... we have not talked about marriage yet, other than hypothetically, but I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we were meant to be and it just took a long long time to find each other.

There are so many things that we like to do together and we really do enjoy each other's company. Whether it's cycling, browsing through bookstores, shopping for shoes, snowshoeing, road trips, trying new restaurants, ice cream, kayaking, cross word puzzles (when she lets me help), music, cooking, golf, canoeing, quiet times, long walks, thunderstorms, our grandkids, a good book, attending concerts and sports events, the lake, ice cream (whoops, did I repeat myself), back roads, coffee shops, farmers markets, touristy stuff, finding the best price for gas, and on and on... and there are so many things we have yet to do... ah Jewels, I t'aime avec toute mon coeur.

OK.. lets focus on something new. After all, the title is life after 60 and it's been a history lesson so far. Although, history is required in order to explain how I got here.. oh well, lets see where it goes.

Relationships (cont'd)

Living on my own in the big city...OK, Yellowknife isn't that big, but this was a new experience for me. I was very busy with work at the Travel Agency as well as my contract with the hospital and I settled into a bit of a work rut with the odd golf game thrown in during the summer. I dated a couple of times locally but it scared me because I felt that women in my age group were looking for some kind of committed relationship and anyone who knows me, knows that committment is not something that comes easily. Actually, I shouldn't say that but it wasn't quite time to settle into another relationship at this stage.

OK, I'm not going to get into any gory details (after all, children may read this one day) but since I travelled a fair amount, my thought process at the time was that it would be nice to meet and get to know women that did not live in YK - that way I could enjoy their company and still be at a safe distance. I was home alone many evenings and up late doing medical travel issues and this is where I discovered the internet and the doors that it could open for me. I listed a bio on a "Personal" site in Edmonton and 'lo and behold, I actually was contacted by a few women. I met some of them in person over the next little while, and I found out that there were many other lonely people out there just like me. They were just looking for someone to spend time with, possibly start a relationship and most of them were very nice good people. I started to feel pretty good about myself as I had experienced grave doubts about how I would react or handle myself in any kind of new relationship. It had been a long time as I had been alone for many years... even when Benj was with me the last ten years or so lacked any form of intimacy and I think that finding out that I could actually go out on a date and be able to handle whatever consequences arose from this gave my ego and confidence a great boost. I was having fun, I was free, and I was safe.

One day I received an email from a lady in Minnesota... ahhh.. Minnesota - home of such wonderful blond women of Scandinavian decent (I was to find out later that women from Minnesota would be my achilles heel when it came to relationships *grin*). Cheryl had come across my bio somehow and out of the blue, contacted me. We hit it off right away and really enjoyed the initial online relationship. We exchanged photos, we talked on the phone, and we eventually met in person. Everything seemed to click and after a year or so which included several trips to Minnesota, she came up to YK to live with me. I realized fairly quickly that although I felt I was really ready for a committed relationship, that either I wasn't ready, or it was wrong (probably a combination of both). As I stated above, there are no gory details to be hashed and rehashed other than the fact that a weak relationship got much weaker with the stresses of running a business together that was doomed to fail. Reflections, our restaurant/gift shop/hell hole would eventually break us financially and affect my physical and mental health. Our relationship ended at my choice. It was the first time that I can remember where I actually had the balls to address an extremely personal and tense situation and in this case, force the issue of seperation. I am not proud of myself over my relationship with Cheryl although I feel that we both grew from it and although she hates me, she is probably much stronger as a result of the short time we had together.

Anyways, it was time to cool my jets and park the relationship train for a while... or so I thought!

Thoughts at this stage.

Well, for someone that is totally computer illiterate, this is coming along fairly well. Chris would be so proud of me actually moving a YouTube music file onto these pages - actually he would probably shit his pants he'd be so surprised!

Anyways, at this stage there has been a lot of stuff posted about my past and that doesn't co-incide with the theme of "Life after Sixty"... but... I had to get here somehow and my posts to date along with the next few are going to relate more to how I got here. It will probably be boring but I keep thinking that in addition to my kids and friends having a bit more insight as to who this Dad/Jim Eirikson guy is and why he acts so strange at times... this is for me to open up a bit and for my grand kids so they will know more about grandpa one day. I can't imagine that the internet will be around when Shaya is grown up.. well, not in the form it is in right now but I would think that history will always be accessible on this medium.

I'm actually enjoying this so far and I think it is good for me to reflect and jot down thoughts and memories. I hope that it is something that I can continue to work at and that it remains interesting and fun.

OK..that's all I got for now. Let's get on with it.