Spring Surprise!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The calendar says “Spring!" The sun’s cross of the equator says, “Spring!” But the view out the window says, “Surprise!” Another late Winter flurry is turning our world white, and our hands back to the shovels and snowblower—sigh! I thought we might be done with the snow-blowing, but Surprise!

Surprise!

We keep busy with our choirs and Wendy often adds a business meeting or two. I had a colonoscopy on Thursday afternoon, so that was a wonderful feature of starvation for two days, and a 4L jug of their awful Koolaid! The Melon Felon continues Israel’s war in the middle east. He keeps calling/demanding NATO to help, but NATO is only obliged to help if a member has been attacked, and it’s not expected to help at all in an Asian battle. Meanwhile, the stock markets keep crashing—all North American indices are in the red for the year now. Gasoline price keeps climbing—it’s up over 41% here since the start of the war! No end in sight, although Trump seems desperate to find a way to declare victory and go home. We’ve been busy with the Women’s World Curling Championship this week. My gal, Kerri Einarson, has guided her team into the playoffs and will play for the gold medal tomorrow against Schwaller of Switzerland. The World Baseball Championship concluded with Venezuela winning—it seems many of those Caribbean nations produce some great ball players. MLB is closing in on opening day, and final cuts are being made. The NHL is into the last dozen games of the regular season, and there are many playoff races still to be settled. March Madness is maddeningly underway, and my Jayhawks got a #4 seed as expected! My bracket is already busted, of course, but KU is still alive. Rock Chalk! 

Erica writes, “I ended my first ten-day stint up in the Athabasca basin. The highlight of my time was sitting in the copilot seat of a Cessna Caravan on our quick trip to Fond du lac. Being up here reminds me of growing up in Yellowknife. The quiet, the cold, the dry air. I’m going to have to stock up on moisturizer! Our friends, Tina and Guido lost Tina’s brother to ALS last weekend and so we are in Red Deer to support them this Saturday. Liam and Mercedes were up last weekend and returned on Monday. I missed them. They are doing well. We are haven’t heard from Haaken, Greg or Kiersten. So, I assume they are doing well!”

Erin reports that the weather is fine in Regina, but things are a bit stressful at work. They got some rain, but would like some more to clear away the remains of winter snow and ice. She saw a bunny the other day, and it was turning brown, so… winter is over! [that’s what we thought, too!] Kristian notes that everything is going well, and that they have a new guy starting on Monday. He’s featuring a movie night tonight, but his cats have their own TV! 

Ellie's on TV

Travis and Joanna keep busy with work and dogs! They had a movie night tonight as well. They took in the Project Hail Mary! I’ll look forward to hearing their report, as it’s kind of a multi-dimensional sci-fi kind of movie. 

And that’s enough for this week.