March 21st, 2010:
First day of Spring! We had some cool and windy weather last week, and just a skiff of snow, but yesterday and today have been beautiful and warm. You have to look pretty carefully to find any snow in the city, and that is just dirty little piles in the shade. Hard to believe that winter is officially over. Forecast for next week is pretty decent, too.
Garage sales and yard sales are starting again. We went to one in a church yesterday; it was a disappointment, though I did buy a book.
After lunch, we picked up Lucille and went to one in Clavet; Doreen had found an ad for it on the Internet and it sounded like a huge one, indoors in a greenhouse. Well, there wasn't much there, either, but they did have an interesting yard. A couple of emus,(top of page) multi-colored turkeys (bottom of the page) like I never saw in all my years in the poultry business, and some glorious bantam chickens running around. I took a few pictures, then went out to the car and did puzzles while the girls checked things out.
After all that excitement, we decided we needed some refreshment, so we went to Wal-Mart at Stonebridge and had coffee. Very wise – no calories in coffee, but the sundaes that went with it were not calorie-free. They tasted good, though.
While there, Janice Lasuita and her mom, Anne, came over and chatted with us. They had recognized Doreen, but not me. That often seems to be the case – I must have changed in appearance in the last thirty years. Doreen doesn't change – she just gets prettier.
They introduced us to Anne's son, Ken, and other daughter, Joanne. Anne and her late husband, Mike, worked for me for many years in Wynyard; Ken as well, after grad. Janice worked at the plant but not until after we had left. She had chummed with our daughter, Jenny, so was around to the house sometimes. Anne's mother, Mary Karakochuk, was our next-door neighbour on Fifth Street East. Anne was in a wheelchair; she now lives at Golden Acres in Wynyard.
We went to another stage show at Persephone Theatre last week – Billy Bishop Goes to War. Can't remember the names of the two actors, but the one who played Billy Bishop is the same one who plays the idiot employee in those A & W ads. It was very well done – it's amazing how two people and almost no props can get one so involved. You could see the German planes spiraling down, trailing smoke.
The Paralympics are over, and once again Colette Bourgonje has done herself proud with a silver and a bronze. Congratulations, Colette! Funny how we feel a personal pride in someone else's accomplishments, but it feels good.
The sports announcers sure had a field day with Colette's name – it was worth listening to the sports news just to hear how they could mispronounce it. Colette herself said, “It's just like the flower – Begonia.”
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