A great Saturday morning to you. Mid-week I spotted my first Crocus of the year in full bloom – purple with a yellow center. Couple that with current day-time highs of near 70 and it’s a February for the history books. Loving it!

Now, pour that coffee Dirk and reflect on that upcoming birthday.

”Zero to Seventy-Five in Seven and a half Decades flat” ~ Dale Scott, Peacemeal String Band (paraphrased)

Have a listen to “Zero to Sixty” by the Peacemeal String Band –

Zero to Sixty

Best ever – when reflecting on another birthday passing by is watching the grand-kids growing up.

Sure, I fully understand all the little-bitty turmoil and quirky behaviors as they learn to spread their wings, their selective hearing bit and the newly noticed acne stuff. Or the; can’t get them to or out of bed routines, and the; “I can’t eat anything unless it’s labeled chicken-nugget” habits.

But, that all makes the growing up process ever more interesting.

Our eldest, Derek, is now signing up for his High-school coursework which will begin next year. All of a sudden we realized he’s no longer a bit of humanity to just cuddle with. He’s about to embark on a road with a future.

In his case, he has access to his school district’s new Applied Technology Center. Wow, amazing stuff.

Next in line, Marin, is already in his second year of Latin.

And, bringing up the rear is Kindergartner Viliami doing Taekwondo. Isn’t it all too grand?

Vinyl Cafe – This past week the Canadians lost a national treasure. For quite a while (years actually) I have been listening (via Podcast) to a weekly CBC series entitled “Dave and Morley Stories” and later on “The Vinyl Café”. It’s the ongoing occurrences’ and foibles of Dave. Dave and his longsuffering wife Morley own a record store/coffee shop by the name of the Vinyl Café.

Many of the stories were hilarious, while others were memorably nostalgic. It was just a perfect blend and a lovely way to spend time with a masterful story writer and storyteller; Stuart McLean.

Stuart passed this week of Melanoma which he’d been fighting for almost two years. McLean was sixty-eight.

For over twenty years he produced about 22 stories a year, half in front of live audiences across Canada. One was actually produced on a cross-country Via train.

I do hope that the “Best Of” will continue for a long time. RIP Stuart.

Getting Ready –for the summer season. I was bound and determined to do more hiking and kayaking this summer. Hence, these past weeks I’ve been mentioning some ongoing walk events and my Silver Sneaker gym stuff. This past week, with great weather and feeling ‘chipper’ I did a 5.1 mile power walk.

So, aside from my walk, here is what I did NOT experience. Last evening a shooting at a Shell station I passed. Thursday afternoon a shooting murder at a house I had walked past only a day before (they think it to be a domestic thing).

So, on my walks I can now add to the unofficial Postal motto; “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night…..the phrase; “nor bullets flying” will keep me from my appointed rounds.

5.08 miles, 10,000 steps, 1-hour &26-minutes, 435 ft elevation gain

Finis – Marcia noted that our old house on Linwood sold again. We purchased it for $20,000 and now, ten owners later, it just sold for $350,000. It still needs work!

Make it a great week everyone.

Cheers.

Dirk