Back in the Pool Deep-Water Walking Blues: Tuesday, January 3rd!

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. -Abraham Lincoln 

Radha, an avatar of goddess Lakshmi (detail)

Art: ISKCON

Hello Tinsel Town, et al! Trust everyone is well and enjoying the first week of 2017. Deep freeze here in Penticton at -14º C, [-6.8º F], so no riding outside. However, will be going to the community pool this afternoon to do a session of deep-water walking with a flotation belt. Then into steam room and hot tub! Etta and Duke are happy we are home! Fondestos from Lady Dar/Nana, busy putting away Christmas decorations. Cheers, Dad/Poppa/Patrizzio!
 

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Pics: Duke and Etta as tummy and foot warmers! Duke guarding Nana's new slippers! Finally,chair all to myself! PS: Just clipped Etta's/Duke's claws, needle-like talons! Hi P, Happy New Year 2017!!! Again...Awesome pictures and David did make them come out good too. Thank you for sending the fun time pictures my way. Oh tell me all about the deep water adventure, just reading that line ales my ears freeze lol. Extend my regards to Lady Dar! Best wishes, WAD

Great to see you and Corinne! Hope you are safely back in Penticton. Yes, thanks! Just sent you a message! Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio!

Hi Jo-Anne and Colin! Wonderful to see you both as well as Eric and meeting Olena/Elena(?), of course. Thank you for all the delicious appetizers and fantastic cookies. [I enjoyed some of them last night for dessert!] Thanks, as well, for the best wishes and kind thoughts in your card. You are a darling, Marps! Fondestos from Lady Dar to one and all. Take care of each other. Cheers, Patrizzio! Pics: Famiglia Naslund

Hello Marvinator and all the rest of The Lower Mainland Millionaires & Billionaires, now that Property Assessments are out! Here are a few more snaps from earlier on the day of New Year's Eve. Off to Naramatia tonight to have dinner with Lurkin' Lynne and Jugos Dom Pedro. Bridge tomorrow evening, here! Learning to play Maj Jong on Friday. Life in the Fast Lane in the Metropolis of Penticton! Etta and Duke are happy we are home but are sorry Autumn isn't along! Fondestos from Lady Dar, busy putting away Christmas decorations. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Hello all, I have to miss this Wednesday,but what about the following Wednesday at my house? Jos Happy New Year to all. I would love to play Bridge tomorrow night. Happy New Year everyone! I just got back yesterday. Unfortunately I've got a cold, so no bridge for me this week....Pam Hello Patrick and the rest of the bridge enthusiast. I am in for tomorrow at your place Patrick, thanks a lot for the invitation. Regards. Mike

Hi Pamela/Mike and Josinta/Spumoni! We are on with one table tomorrow so that works well. Any time after 6:30 pm. Sorry you are not feeling well, Spumoni. We will plan to play at Il Palazzo di Josinta next week, so thanks for offering to host then, Jos. Look forward to having fabulous cards to start off 2017 with a Grand Slam, made when Vulnerable and Doubled! I'll win all the bridge prizes! Fondestos from Lady Dar! Cheers, Patrizzio!

Looking forward to seeing the Bridge gang tomorrow night. Pamela Sounds great Patrizzio and Lady Dar, indeed a fabulous bridge start in the new 2017.
Pam get well quickly because, outside of bridge, snow in hills around is excellent. Thanks Jos for the invitation, I plan to be in as well. Cheers everybody Mike

Hi Patrick! Just got your email sent from California! I don't check my email while I'm away. Glad you and Corinne had a fabulous Christmas complete with lovely Californian wines! I had a lovely time with my family and friends. I went to Victoria for a couple nights to visit with friends Danielle and Hans. They live in a small house near the parliament buildings on a very quiet street. We went to the Royal BC Museum to see their Mammoth exhibition put together in collaboration with the Field Museum of Chicago. North America used to be covered with elephantine creatures! And the original creatures had tusks in the lower jaw as well. Mastodons evolved on a different evolutionary line from the mammoths, with ridged teeth (mammoths have flat teeth).

You will be glad to know that I took with me a bottle of Joie's Gamay wine for Danielle and Hans. It was quite tasty, I'm glad to say! Nice and smooth. They had discovered the winery in a wine store in Victoria and I took them to the winery for a tasting when they came to visit me last May long weekend.

Back at the home front we ate well, put together a puzzle, and I knitted a pair of mittens so I'm ready for some snowshoeing when I get rid of this nasty cold. My 25 year old mittens got too many holes to be useful (even the darned areas got holes!) so it's time to retire them. I like using single layer mittens cause my hands get quite warm and it seems to be the right amount of protection from the cold.

Thanks very much for your two Jacquie Lawson cards. I always enjoy receiving them! I wrote the one I sent to you and Corinne before I left (they enable delayed sending) so it's a bit out of date..... Sorry to miss you and Corinne tomorrow night. Have a great time! Have a wonderful 2017! Pam

Hi! Mr. Patrizzio .................. Happy New Year!! Thanks for your detailed email & adventures & pics. You definitely are a detailed story writer. In reply to your request join the 'Maj Jong Girls' Club .................... I'm sorry but this is a GIRLS ONLY club!! The girls just want to keep it to 'Girls Only', so if your lovely wife wants to join in ................. she is more than welcome!! I know that you play Bridge with mixed couples and I play Euchre with mixed couples too. But Mah Jong is only for the gals. So, please extend this invite to Corinne to join us when she is free. Mary Lee :-)
 
Hi Girls Only Club! I understand The Sisterhood's desire to keep the club a Man-Free Zone. However, I would like to learn how to play the game so if you are willing to teach a number of others, I'd certainly be keen to take some lessons. I know you are pretty busy but please keep it in mind. Thanks for including Lady Dar. She has a regular volunteer shift at the hospital on Fridays but it is over at noon so she plans to attend. 

How did your oral surgery go? I had a number of wisdom teeth out in the early 70's, under a general anaesthetic, in the dentist's office. Guess you will be sipping soup for a few days. Anyway, hope you will recover quickly. Best wishes to Paolo on Thursday. Just back from the pool where I did an hour of deep-water walking and my standing leg exercises afterwards. Bumped into Colonel Klink and Button Woman in the hot tub when I arrived. Steam room was wonderful! Cheers, Patrizzio

Hello Gayle and Derek, and Super Spud! Wonderful to hear from you! Thank you for the wonderful Christmas picture as well as the stirring rendition of Auld Lang Syne! Must apologize for not replying sooner. My standard response; no excuses but plenty of reasons! Fondestos from Lady Dar and a Healthy New Year to you both, Gayle and Derek! Take care of each other. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Hi Patrick this is a drunken email I'm sending you I hope you'll be able to understand it in the morning but as you can see except my words absolutely perfectly and everything I say is beautifully transcribing here and I can now send it to you. Peter 

Pat, Thanks for sending the photos. I think Sylvia has relayed the ones with Ken and Liese to them and Jenny and Sean have seen the other. Glad you made it back to Penticton safely. You did better than me as I'm stuck at 13th and Highbury. I wasn't able to turn left up the hill at 13th and Highbury and had to backup and park. Couldn't even get out with lots of family help, so I'll leave it for a day or 2 and try again. My own, stupid fault.
 

Heard from the Brownlees before Christmas with photos of their son Richard's wedding, in Ireland. Christine seems to be managing quite well with her MS but she does tire easily by all accounts. Hope it's not one of those progressive cases.
 

Jenny and Sean were snowshoeing today at Seymour and they are skiing with Sylvia and a friend on Thursday. They'll soon be on the plane but it has been great having them around. Some of the roads and most of the sidewalks are treacherous, as few have shoveled their walkways. I walked from the Kerrisdale Library this afternoon and it was hazardous, probably the worst I've seen in Vancouver. Lots of older people walking around Kerrisdale, one even with a walker- so dangerous. There must be lots of injuries and car accidents. Hope you are both safe and warm in Penticton. Ray

Hi Raymond! Really sounds as if you are well and truly in the grip of a deep-freeze winter! Have been listening to CBC and all the reports about state of city. Of course, coming from Winnipeg we find all of this laughable but obviously realize that Vancouver's engineering equipment and labour infrastructure really isn't set up, in terms of street/sidewalk snow clearing, to deal with current conditions as is rest of the country. For our part, we only bought snow tires when we moved to Penticton, for obvious reasons. Never had them when we lived in Vancouver. At any rate, I hope you are able to retrieve your stranded vehicle. Glad you enjoyed the snaps and shared them with others. Thanks.

Must say that we were both distressed to learn that Christine is suffering from MS! Had no idea, at all, [No reason, necessarily, for Jim to have mentioned this, to us, at least.], that this was the case. When was she diagnosed? Pretty difficult situation and our hearts go out to them.

Was around -12º C this morning so I have a fire going in the living room. Our insert isn't quite as large as yours but works well and keeps our main living space very comfortable. Most of the time, I only use a low fan setting. Lady Dar has the electric fireplace going in our so-called Rumpus Room as she likes the large flat-screen, (came with the house!), to watch The Young and The Useless! [For my part, I watch something on Netflix, [Currently Blindspot: "...a beautiful woman with no memory of who she is or how she got there is discovered naked in New York's Times Square, the conspicuous etching of FBI Agent Kurt Weller's name across her back quickly makes it obvious to whom the case should be assigned." Not really as gripping or as well-scripted as many of the other series we've watched but keeps my mind off my sore bottom!], to while away the time when riding the stationary bicycle.

We close the doors to the two rooms, (my so-called "office" and spare bedroom), we don't regularly use, (unless we have guests), in the winter. Have in-floor heating in the two bathrooms and the work area between the sink and island in kitchen. It is quite amazing how efficient such wiring is, tiles retaining heat for quite some time after one turns off the thermostat controlling temperature Lady Dar loves to have them on, even in the summer! Not kidding! [Same goes for car seat warmer. I never use mine but she would turn on passenger side by remote if she could!], but I prefer to put on a pair of hiking socks with temperatures we experience once winter sets in.

Will be in touch about attending Rugby 7's once we've had more of a chance to think about next coming few months. As I'm sure you can appreciate, we try to organize our time, to best possible advantage, when we do make a trip to Vancouver. Again, Fondestos from Lady Dar to one and all. All the best, Raymond. Cheers, Patrizzio!

PS: Just finished Adler-Olsen's A Conspiracy of Faith last night, [Only had two or three chapters left but didn't seem to have a moment over holiday travel to get to them!], and now want to pick up The Purity of Vengeance, his latest, as first chapter is included at the end of Faith! Now that Lady Dar is finished reading it, will settle for Connelly's The Wrong Side of Goodbye, [one of Chloë's Christmas presents!], until I head down to the fabulous used bookstore, here in Penticton, to see if I can find Vengeance.

Again, last Thursday, the eagle landed, then was floored by a really nasty cold, and this morning shakily rose up from his stretcher. See you soon, I hope, KjellHappy new year, Kjell! Great to hear you're back in this part of the world. Do give me a call when/if you're coming to Vancouver. I'd love to catch up with you and Jane -- and perhaps catch a concert or two. Keith