Morning all:

After I had a couple of sips of coffee I realized that starting this post with a headline such as ‘Free at Last, Free at Last’ would really be pretty lame and only get me in trouble. However, now that Marcia is safe and sound in Tonga the truth is that our attention starved critters won’t allow me any freedom.

The time spent by myself has allowed for a few more reflective moments. My birthday last month was something I had hardly paid any attention to. This week it came to me that exactly forty years ago I started listening to an album released by the Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. One of the songs from that album had very little meaning then; I just enjoyed it. On the album is the following song, you know the title, “When I’m Sixty Four” and you can probably sing along with me “When I get older losing my hair many years from now….” Let me tell you, this has much more meaning these days.

The one thing is that I am not losing my hair; it has just turned a very different color, every day of this week, and its not over yet. Starting with a lovely and bright ‘I love Lucy’ red it’s currently much like Donald Trump’s straw look. When you dye your hair for a costume party pay absolutely no attention when you spot the word ‘temporary’ on side of any bottle of (temporary) dye—don’t believe any of it. For the first two days I had a steady stream of well-wishers waltz by my office, who then left doubled over with giggles only to reappear an hour or two later to start all over.

Tuesday morning a very confident Marcia strode aboard her Southwest flight armed with an extremely large stack of very important travel instruction cheat-sheets, airport map of LAX, and a seating chart for her long Air New Zealand flight. Wednesday evening dinnertime, with swollen ankles, Marcia clambered ashore on Vava’u. Based on the note that Adrianne sent I know both were delighted. Marcia, while in Tonga enriching your life’s experiences I hope that you’re keeping your diary so that years from now the memories will stay as reality for all of us.

Talking about delighted, what delighted me most this week was sitting for Marin. Derek and Marin have both quickly turned into delightful little 3-year old guys. To spend a little one-on-one time with one of them was wonderful. A year ago communication was absolutely minimal, now its normal conversation. A year ago play was just bounding from item to item, now it was projects that easy covered a half hour at a time. A year ago everything was initiated by the adult, now the suggestions were made by him and they made sense. I loved it! Thanks Marin.

The start of spring is something Marcia is missing now that she has landed into a hot and humid late summer world. Here for us the weather has been all over the place, yet slowly and quite steadily we’re launching into spring. The crocuses are in full bloom. Half of the daffodils are out. Forsythia, at least on the east side of the house, is in bloom, and trees are into that early reddish blush as the buds are starting to pop.

All of this creep towards spring also means that there is renewed energy. So, yes Shang, we’ll go on an extra long hike today. We’ll see about going for a four-miler in about an hour; its not about the exercise mind you, its all about procrastinating to avoid finishing up the taxes.

Make it a great week everyone.
Cheers,
Dirk

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