Blow The Wind Northerly, Northerly and The Hamster Cage Blues: Wednesday, January 8th!

It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards. -Baltasar Gracian, philosopher and writer (8 Jan 1601-1658) 

Hi Open Water Swimmers! Trust you are all well. I happened to come across the newsy message you sent, way, way back in September, when we were still traveling in Switzerland. Don't know how I missed it but anyway wanted to thank you for it and say hello. Since then Rowan James was born and we enjoyed a marvellous visit from Ayn. Christmas was especially magical having the young lad, as I'm sure you can well imagine. He is doing very well and so is Chloë.
 

[Thank you, a very very good New Year 2020 a (little late) but with all our love!! Jacke and Vicky] 

Must away to do a few shouldares. Saw Irene, my physio, yesterday morning and she noted I am making slow, but incremental progress in terms of my arm/shoulder extension and flexibility, so pleased, of course. After that I will suit up for a ride. Although we have had snow over last few days, it was relatively warm yesterday and now the streets are nicely dry. Wind is out of the S at 17 km/h so I will head for OK Falls to have it pushing me home on return leg. At least that is the plan! Stay well. Fondestos from Lady Dar, just off to a Grandmothers for Africa meeting and then to Winnipeg Street to be there for an Ikea delivery as Chloë will be attending Yoga for Mom and Me with Rowan James! Cheers, Patrizzio!
 

Patrick, What a neat card with all the New Year traditions - very good choice. Happy New Year 🎉to you Corinne, Chloe and Rowan. We wish you much good health, happiness and great adventures in 2020.

We were at a friends for dinner and celebrations and their daughter and family were there from Spain so we ate grapes to the 12 bells that rang at midnight. Apparently if you eat all 12 in time with the chimes you will have good fortune - I only got 2 down so I hope that isn’t a message. Gerry was able to down all 12.
 

Kwame Nkrumah

We had a great Christmas in Vancouver with the kids and then Christmas dinner at Gerry’s brothers with all his family. Jeff joined us but Stacee and Sean were in Edmonton. They started the meal with homemade ravioli that was suburb - who cares about the turkey after that!!!! Did lots of walking and tried a few new restaurants one being Oddfish. It was packed so we had to sit and watch the cooks which is always fascinating so we were happy to sit at the counter. They sure worked hard getting meals done. The service and food were delicious - it is basically at First and Burrard. 

Had lots of visits with friends too which we enjoyed. One being Mags and her new partner (she is in LOVE) and he has bought a place in Penticton - I think we may have told you. It is the development above the airport when you come into town. Sometimes we think we should consider moving as we seem to know more people in the Okanagan than in Terrace. We are off to Hawaii in a couple of weeks for a month. Stacee is going to join us for a week which we are excited about. Hugs and cheers to all, Dawn

Hi Hawaii Bound Hoi Aristoi! [Rowan James can hardly wait to be invited to join you, as can his indigent grandparents!] Pleased you both enjoyed card. Thanks for the best wishes. Sounded as if you had both a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. We had a wonderful, wonderful time over the holidays, made even more magical with having Rowan James, as I'm sure you can well imagine. Great that Mags is in love! Even better that you will now have friends, who actually like you, to visit in Penticton! Stay well. Fondestos from Lady Dar, [Who still likes you!], and Winnipeg Booster Extraordinaire! Cheers, Patrizzio! PS: Open House album: In an interesting set of coincidences, one of the guests, Martin, was attending anaesthesiologist at Chloë's caesarean! He went to med school at U of Manitoba so we knew she would be in good hands! We Loyal Winnipeggers always stick together!!!

Portsmouth Square near harbor in 1851 — San Francisco during the Gold Rush.

When I first looked at the forecast, around 11:00 am, the wind was out of the S at 17 km/h so I thought I'd head for OK Falls to have it pushing me home on return leg. At least that was the plan! However, by the time I was ready to leave, at 1:15 pm, Aeolus had changed his mind and it was now coming out of the NW at 15 km/h, [increasing to 24 km/h over the course of the ride], gusting to 20 km/h, so I quickly decided to gerbalize myself. In spite of the fact that the temperature was 3º C with the wind chill it was pretty chilly and even the gulls, usually bobbing in the water, close to the shore, were huddled on the beach!

This being the case, I switched to auto-pilot and began ticking off the loops off Power, making a dipsy-doodle return to the Riverside Mall after completing seven repeats of the ever diminishing circumferences, as I moved towards Churchill. In fact, only required six repeats of this last loop before I had the necessary distance on my trusty odometre to let me head for home. Still quite light by 4:00 pm so it is terrific to know that the days are becoming noticeably longer. Hip Hip Hooray!! Cheers!!! Map and Stats for ride: 

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/4416173803#.XhZ6od6eoK4.email

Patrick, Such an entertaining email. Lots of laughs. Happy New Year to you and Corinne, Chloe and Rowan. We went out to friends at Lakelse Lake as they had family from Barcelona and England home with their children and had a really delightful New Year’s. They had fireworks that were impressive and we brought a game for everyone to play and we had a lot of fun with the kids. The meal was basically Spanish tapas and was delicious. 





We finished with champagne at midnight while we sang and watched the ball drop in New York. We left as the adults were having blueberry tea which is a mixture orange pekoe tea, Grand Marnier and Amaretto served hot to settle them before going to bed. Lucky that I don’t drink anymore so I could drive us home at 1 a.m.

You do live a very busy life being social. We on the other hand are not so social. We have been out for dinner with friends for a 60th birthday party (so young) and of course beer night on Friday night and the odd lunch. We seem to be busy doing a lot of jobs around things we are involved in - don’t know if we are inefficient or just busy. The scholarship foundation that I am chair of is entering the modern world and we have set up being able to accept securities and e-transfers. To set all that up took a lot of time signing papers etc. Quite painful actually as you would think we were Fort Knox. We got our first securities and are all hopeful we will earn more on it than the 2.4% GIC that we just put some money into.

We leave here on the 18th for Vancouver for a few days to get haircuts etc. and then head to Hawaii on the 22nd. I don’t know if I told you that Stacee is coming for a week to stay which is great. Jeff was invited too but can’t come as he is making changes with his business in hopes that it will help increase business. We come home on Feb. 22 for twelve days and then we are off on an adventure with our friends Cliff and Ashley from Calgary. We are going to Israel (without them) then meeting in Oman travelling there and then going to Jordan. Should be most interesting and as our flight home went through Vienna we are going to stay there for 5 days. We are excited about seeing another part of the world that is different from us.

We had a terrific snow fall last weekend and now it is quite cold and is supposed to go to -21. We can’t remember when we have seen as much snow as we currently have and are not looking forward to the cold. Good exercise shoveling though. We sure enjoy the photos you take especially the ones of Rowan with Chloe, Corinne and you. That is really all that is new here. Cheers with hugs,
Dawn

Full-tilt orphanhood: Hello! Just letting everyone know that, late on January 8, my mother died. She was half way to 97 and had had a good life. For the last week and a half, she had refused food and had been suffering from the flu/fever but was well cared for and not in any pain. Deborah

Hello, Patrizzio! Thanks you so much, and to Corinne as well, for your kind thoughts. This year, 2020, would have been my 8th year of providing elder care. It was tough seeing my father decline and then my mother as well. Went to the home today, lots of hugs from the caregivers who are likely more upset than I am. They were a wonderful group of people and while they know their residents are elderly, it probably hurts when, in spite of all their efforts, someone slips away. Deborah

  

I will try to get this message right this time! Yesterday, I sent out the message about Cathedral Lake Lodge. But I missed one important bit. If you are interested or wish information, please get in touch with Rick. Below is the message again. Cheers, Jim

Cathedral Lakes is open for winter business this year. If anyone is interested in a couple of days in that area, probably in mid-Feb, let me know. Cost is $350 per night per person, self-guided, but fully catered. Three night minimum, four to eight people (I suspect the later are sharing beds), in Toms's Cabin. Back country skiing is possible if you have the equipment, though we would stay well clear of avalanche terrain. Snowshoeing for sure, photography, start gazing, and ice fishing are also possible. More details here:

https://www.winteratcathedrals.com/?utm_campaign=ad44fb4c-9e23-4566-80c1-8687e1db56be&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail_lp&cid=23f733f2-4cbf-4fc5-a09f-21f501fa0532