Every man is a damned fool for at least five minutes every day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit. -Elbert Hubbard, author, editor, printer (1856-1915)
Hi Champagne and O Susannah!
Gather you are back safely from Bali! How was trip? Did you ever make connection between Bev Ferguson and I? I volunteered with her at VIFF.
Clarisse and Dusty arrive on November 15th so we'll have to organize some bridge. I have some fabulous prizes and I mean fabulous, so you better keep score! Cheers, Patrizio!
Hi Patrick:
Thanks very much in advance for your hospitality and possible chauffeur services. You are too kind and I will send further details when I figure out what I did with the e-tickets. Got passport application started.
Still can't quite get my head around Christmas in winter - it's been awhile. We are looking forward to a really good visit - I will wash lots of dishes and Steve will sing :) Are you able to pass on to Plucking Twits Steve's availability for gigs?
Please pass on our fondest regards to Lynne and Peter too.
Cheers, K
Dear Patrick,
Thanks for the cc! Good heavens you guys have been busy. Fashion, wine, theatre, the good life all round! We are very excited for my parents to arrive, and of course staying so close. Things quiet on this end, hope to see you before Christmas.
Kind regards, Zoe
Hi Old Oakites! (And Zoe!)
Had a brief note from Zoe and she said she was looking forward to your visit and seeing us over hols.
We had a grand time with Lynne and Peter, this past Monday/Tuesday. Boisterous and boozy dinner on Monday night with Flamin/Sarge, Ziggy Stardust/Heike, (ski friends of The Millionaires who now see more of F/S), and Diane, Michele's close friend, from Penticton, in for a conference. Cora Lee did wonderful lamb shanks for main course and Peter contributed his famous Caesar Salad. I was to do fried haloumi, Cypriot goat cheese, for an appetizer but Lynne brought some stupendous Pâté, along with a number of different cheeses for hors d'oeuvres so we never got around to my specialty!
Both Lynne and Peter would be delighted to see you, in Naramata, if that works. I'll let you talk directly to them:
Lynne Lighthall: lynnelighthall@shaw.ca
Peter Lighthall: peterlighthall@shaw.ca
Chloë had her tonsils removed, at Mount St Joseph, on Monday. All things considered, she is doing reasonably well. Unfortunately, she really hasn't been able to sleep much and has herself propped up in a recliner, dozing in front of the TV. Her throat is extremely sore, as she knew it would be. Yesterday afternoon, when I looked in, she was complaining of being feverish so I literally pulverized some Extra Strength Tylenol to see if that would help bring her temperature down. Her throat is so constricted and raw that swallowing is agony. She has a prescription for Tylenol 3 for pain but those pills don't really address her fever. Glad to report that she slept for six hours last night and seems to be on the mend now.
Sarge and I took on Cora Lee and Petros, (Lynne almost passed out at the dinner table on Monday evening, [We had been party to a similar situation at a restaurant in Mexico, this past February!], so she went to bed with a glass of warm milk after they returned from seeing The Guard at Fifth Avenue!), at bridge on Tuesday night, after curling, and they had all the cards and I mean, ALL the cards. First hand I doubled their 1 No Trump and we put them down 2 tricks. They played every subsequent contract for rest of evening! Highest point count I ever had, after first hand, was 10 or 11. Poor Sarge often had 0, (with 10 high, so not actually a yarborough, by some definitions: a bridge or whist hand containing no honor cards.), 2 or 3 points! Only consolation was they underbid their hands more often than not so we took mean-spirited and malicious pleasure in pointing this out at each and every opportunity, frustrated beyond belief, as we were!
On Wednesday, I spent most of the day at appointments of one sort or another. Started out at 8:00am, (Cora Lee dropped me off. I should have ridden but I thought it was going to rain harder than it did, at least when I walked back home over Burrard Bridge.), at St Paul's where I was examined by a resident and then orthopaedic surgeon, Jeffrey Pike. Quite liked him and he has suggested the least invasive orthoscopic procedure, (Day surgery, in and out, to tidy up joint. Don't have a "frozen" right shoulder. I'm suffering from same osteoarthritis that afflicted my hip), with an initial recovery of about 6 weeks, (pretty active with appropriate exercises, almost immediately, once arm is out of a sling, week or two, I gather), no lifting or pulling anything for three months! Not sure how this will play with our coming holiday at the beginning of March. Of course, Cora Lee could tote all the bags and discover what it is like to be a sherpa, role we usually play for The Sisterhood!
Don't have date yet but am on the "cancellation" list as well. Short notice, surgical standby! Will just have to play things by ear but if I don't have procedure before mid-January, at latest, I think I'll just have to wait until we return at end of May, beginning of June. Drag, of course, is that one is probably further and further down list. Anyway, at least I have seen the specialist and know what is in store for me. He said I don't really have any restrictions and should continue with exercises to help strengthen muscles but physio will not improve anything. Given this diagnosis, I plan to start swimming again, now that cycling is becoming increasingly problematic with rain and ice!
With respect to Twits, here is Grogg's email address:
Gregg Dawe: gfdawe@shaw.ca
Believe they will be in Hawaii until the end of the month. I know they will be in Vancouver for New Year's Eve as they leave for another cruise the next day: South Pacific this time around!
Clarisse and Dusty arrive on November 15th so we'll have to help Chloë re-nest/de-nest for you! Let me know about your flight when you find your e-tickets!
Off to see Wade Davis, scientist, anthropologist and bestselling author, discussing his latest book Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, ("In this magesterial work of history and adventure, Davis vividly re-creates George Mallory's epic attempts to scale Mount Everest in the early 1920s. He takes us beyond the mountain to the trenches of World War I, to show how the exploration originated in nineteenth-century imperial ambitions. In the wake of a war that cost millions of lives, the Everest expeditions became a symbol of national redemption."), tonight at 7:30pm, St. Andrew's Wesley United Church. Cora Lee is at an event for SLAIS at VPL.
Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizio!
1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man
is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.
-- John Adams
2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read
the newspaper you are misinformed.
-- Mark Twain
3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of
Congress. But then I repeat myself.
-- Mark Twain
4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity
is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by
the handle.
-- Winston Churchill
5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the
support of Paul.
-- George Bernard Shaw
6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man,
which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
-- G. Gordon Liddy
7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep
voting on what to have for dinner.
-- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor
people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
-- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University
9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and
car keys to teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody
endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
-- Frederic Bastiat, French economist (1801-1850)
11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few
short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
-- Ronald Reagan (1986)
12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
-- Will Rogers
13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see
what it costs when it's free!
-- P.J. O'Rourke
14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much
money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
-- Voltaire (1764)
15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean
politics won't take an interest in you!
-- Pericles (430 B.C.)
16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature
is in session.
-- Mark Twain (1866)
17. Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
-- Anonymous
18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy
appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
-- Ronald Reagan
19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the
blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of
misery.
-- Winston Churchill
20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that
the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-- Mark Twain
21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is
to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
22. There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress.
-- Mark Twain
23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
-- Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)
24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is
strong enough to take everything you have.
-- Thomas Jefferson
25. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
-- Aesop
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