Good morning all:

Weekly obesity control quote:

“Really am enjoying my new raw food diet. Frozen pizza or cold stir fry can be quite refreshing.” ~ Anonymous

Tired yet of the ongoing array of Easter’s ‘restructured’ leftovers? This after many overdid it in the food department last weekend in the first place. Marcia did it right. She placed an order with Cathy to swing by the Bagel man and bring over a bakers dozen.

One reason my coffee is extra special this morning is that we have some; actually more than some. We stocked up with a solid nine pounds of coffee to take up to Canada—our summer stash. But, it’s the fact that there was money left over and we were able to purchase any in the first place, this being “Tax Free” weekend and all, makes it taste even better. “Tax Free” means that all earned income from the 1st of the year till now has been absconded by the offices of “Party Central”, aka the GSA.

This week it came to light that those good public servants do really know how to throw a party. Top shelf stuff in places like Vegas. As shown on TV, their theme Raps were hilarious and each face made me think of Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Newman character; “what me worry?”

Additionally, thoughts such as; “we’ll head for Hawaii for a small 1-hour ribbon cutting ceremony, which just has us away from our desks for, say, oh, probably five days” does not receive a supervisor’s; “huh?” And, since it’s all monies volunteered by you and me, there was little difficulty cutting checks to staff as relocation expenses for around $330,000 (probably rounded-up, just in case). And so it goes.

Actually, when there is a lack of oversight and little impetus to perform, what I just described will happen anywhere. This week the German Die Welt newspaper mentioned a retiring state employee as giving a last hurrah in a farewell email to his 500 colleagues detailing how during the past 14 years he’d been paid €745,000 for “doing nothing”.

The tent – Getting ready for Canada is always interesting. This week I purchased a portable car port. The plan being to set it up on our secondary circular drive in the trees and use it to park the little Citroën Deux Chevaux ”Our Duck”.

Tevita had an immediate plan. Little Viliami will shortly be one year old—the major birthday to celebrate in Tongan tradition. This means that next weekend will be big doings at their home. Here is the plan. Wednesday I will drive the “car port” to their house and Tevita and I will set it up in the back yard—hopefully as a shade provider, but if necessary as a rain shelter.

As you can see we first had to try setting it up in our front yard. Marcia was more than pleased by “the look”.

Blooms and Tunes – is back at the Zoo. Even though most of the thousands of tulips have finished blooming the wonderful weekly April evenings, each consisting of two bluegrass or folk bands and food stands along with beer and wine are back.

Probably 1,500 to 2,000 people assembled last Thursday, this included Marcia and I as well as the whole Ongolea clan. Jason, Cathy and the gang were invited. We staked out our little spot. Picnicked on fried chicken and the proper side dishes. Finally, all cleaned up sat back and enjoyed the concert.

Oh yes, Adrianne and Vai did manage to sneak away for a quick visit with the elephants—mandatory stuff.

Closing – The reason we built our deck years ago became evident again last weekend when everyone was over. Warm and sunny made for a perfect time, including the back yard egg hunt. This year we all stopped by a small tree where we could look into a Robin’s nest and its four tiny occupants; a real highlight.

Mid- week I spent way too much time learning all the rules for being on Canadian waters. The ‘teaching’ section of the online event is a mandatory three hour course—it won’t let you proceed prior to that time elapsing.

Then the test, 50 multiple choice questions timed at a maximum of 1½ minutes each. With a score of 96 I guess I did pick up a few nuggets. Days later what I now still remember is; never drive over a buoy, no cigar smoking when refueling, or swimming by the propeller.

The best bit about this is that the license is good for life!

Make it a great week everyone and stay safe.
Cheers,
Dirk