Run to Kelowna for Spirit Ridge Completion. Costco and Mec Blues: Friday, November 24th!

 Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead. -Arundhati Roy, writer and activist (b. 24 Nov 1961) 

Patriçio, Greeting from the lower mainland banana belt and pineapple emporium! According to your webcams, you guys have snow!! Bet it’s cold too! Well, it's coolish here, because it's wet, and I am not buying shares in the North Shore Ski Resorts despite their record-early opening - at least the ones with snow making equipment!

Highway 1, in case you didn’t know, has been closed between Hope & Bridal Falls, due to mudslides, leaving Hwy 7 as the detour route .. hmmmm. They hope to open ONE lane soon! Other than that, nothing a 4 x 4 could handle!
I am very inclined to attend your Xmas open house on the 9th, hopefully arriving Thursday the 7th, and departing Monday the 11th, with a couple of cases of Cannery Brew in the back, just for weight on the rear tires!!! I trust you can offer the usual accommodation?

On another note, I read your summer plans with great envy, but of course a number of circumstances make it virtually impossible for me to take that kind of time off at this point. On the plus side, my last ecg looked really good, as is my self-monitoring on my iPhone app, so my heart may be fixed! This, plus losing some “flotation” to get my blood pressure under control (it’s not bad now!) would reduce my daily drug intake and should reduce my medical travel expenses. Pics follow ... from the Marine Drive Viewpoint! Note the tugboat. To the naked eye, it was just a spec in the dark. At 30x optical magnification, with image stabilizer, came out well I thought. I am beginning to really like that tiny little camera! Branko 

Hi Ragin'! Great to hear that you plan to join us for the 3rd Annual Burns Street Xmas Bash! Proposed dates work well, [Will try to put together a bridge game on Thursday if you will be here around 5:00 pm. We'll put you up in my study, the better able to tinker with the printer to see if you can enable wireless printing! Even better news is the fact that things seem to be going so well with your heart. Couldn't be happier to hear this. Would have been terrific if you could have joined me for proposed cycling trips but understand the situation with your Dad more than complicates things. Perhaps another time. Wonderful pics! I'm very, very impressed with results form such a "tiny, little camera!"

Album below, was taken yesterday. Now Lady Dar's nightmares, [She woke, screaming and drenched with perspiration, most nights, the week before event!], has shifted to The Open House preparations, decorating rooms and food array. I'm steeling myself for amounts that will feed the Bolivian Army for years! [Picked up a lamb roast at Costco, in Kelowna, after we signed papers for "fractional condo" in Spirit Ridge, this afternoon, so perhaps we can have it while you are here, done with your special touch!] Cheers, Il Conduttore!

Congrats on the new Spirit Ridge acquisition! Had a lovely night at Rick and Rae's with temps in the 80s last night. Pierre brought his new amour so she could meet Alex and Sam. Loved the cats on the Open House invite Love Ayn
 
Up at 7:30 am to drop Lady Dar off at PGH for her volunteer shift. Back home to chorify and then, after a bite of brunch, off to the bank to obtain a cheque for Spirit Ridge. Mission accomplished I headed back to PGH to collect Lady Dar, just after noon, from PGH, and then we returned to Burns. She had a bit to eat before we stopped at the doctor's office as she needed to have a prescription renewed. Once she had a her script for heavy duty painkillers we drove to Kelowna to sign papers, etc., for our new recreational property at Spirit Ridge.

We were about an hour early so we made for MEC where I bought a Garmin Edge Touring and sent off the Edge 200 for a repair estimate. Its batteries finally gave out. Then to lawyer's to sign papers. Very pleasant individual the view from her corner office was about 270º worth of the snow capped hills on both sides of the city. Then to Costco for a some of the things we will need for Open House on December 9th. Drive back went easily once we were out of gridlock that characterizes Kelowna. Lazy evening enjoying dinner and watching a few episodes of The Sinner, a Netflix offering suggested by Chloë, sipping some of Jugos Dom Pedro's home-made Riesling, very, very tasty indeed! 

Good to hear from you. I am having my knee done on December 4 so i will pass on the 9th. Pat's two sisters and husbands and niece are coming on the 29th so they will be trampling through the guest house for a few days. Your drop by will be nice. Yes, you have a case of wine to PU but the other one will not be bottled until January..........see you........Dave Hello Soon To-Be New Knee, as Ever, Know-It-All, Grumpy Winemaker and Long Suffering Patrizzia! Buona Fortuna with whatever procedure you are undergoing on December 4th! We will be discussing The Sellout, at our book club, that evening, so will raise a toast to you, insisting upon a full and speedy recovery! Y Fondestos from The Militant Sisterhood. Cheers, Patrizzio! Pics: View from lawyer's office; Miss Etta in Chloë's bedroom this morning!