A happy Saturday morning to everyone.

Personally, I am fighting round something or other in my battle with a cold.

It’s to a point where now Marcia has begun to tell me I have allergies. Whatever, all I know is that the nasal spigot is wide open. Even a solid intake of coffee has difficulty maintaining the required balancing act of my bodily liquids.

“I can count sneezes as ‘crunches’, right?.” ~ unknown

We’re plodding on.

Actually, I am trying to hold off taking another “plop-plop-fizz-fizz” pill. It does what it’s supposed to do, but then for the next couple of hours I find myself sitting on the couch staring blankly at some wall.

The Martian – came out as a movie last autumn. While visiting with Vince & Kirstin I spotted the book the movie was based on. She had read it, gave it to me, and now I am reading it. It’s depressing!

Not so much the book as the never-quit-never-say-die main character. The only living person on the planet Mars; stuck on a freezing desolate desert-like hell-hole. So what does he do? He works his tail off.

Time after time anyone else would have tossed in the towel – not our hero!

Do you realize how depressing it is to sit with a box of Kleenex, staring at a book, feeling like you’re too ‘achy’ to be motivated to do much of anything. Then, page after page, this ‘Martian’ acts like some sort of futuristic MacGyver?

Are we on the same page?

Birthdays – Early April appears to contain a heavy slew if Birthdays. Now, I can do the math and am wondering if some long-past Christmas or New Year celebration had a part creating these glorious events.

What I am noticing is, when sending an e-card containing the person’s age that I have to scroll down further and further to get to the birth year.

Spring Break – For the grandkids here in town the schools had spring break this past week. For the parents it was headache. For grandparents it was opportunity.

Worked into the mix was a trip to the Museum Center, a fancy lunch, and the Zoo.

Not to be forgotten was time at our hovel, after all, there was a bit of homework that needed working on. After the homework stuff it was computer time – this means PBS Kids games.

My laptop sits in my little office immediately next to the window. On the window sill I have a few ‘bits’ of folk art I picked up on my travels through Central and Latin America – see picture below.

One of the figurines is a native mom breast feeding her baby. This morning while sitting here working on this post I noted that Seven year old Vaioleti had re-arranged my collectibles slightly.

How cute is this?

Fini – I am noticing that slowly some of the go-to-Canada bins have appeared and that a variety of food stuffs meant to head north have been parked nearby. Monday a box of water filters, also destined for Northern Comfort will arrive. Currently we have plans to head north the first week of May.

Happy Birthday – today – to Baby Brother Arty; happy Birthday guy. This coming week it’ll be Jeanne P and Dia K who’ll be feted – happy Birthday to you ladies. See, I was right about this April thing.

To everyone, make it a great week everyone, stay safe.

Cheers.

Dirk