News from Vancouver

It's been a quiet week in Vancouver, my hometown on the edge of the ocean. The good weather finally arrived. The rain just disappeared one evening and suddenly the next day it was summer with trees and flowers blooming, soft winds blowing in from the Pacific. It's almost scarey, the way it changed so suddenly. Around here people try not to say too much about it or gloat about it to people who live in less hospitable climes for fear that God will send back the other weather just to punish us for being too proud. So we just quietly acknowledge that the weather sure is nice and that we hope it'll stay that way for a while, but we're careful not to make too big a thing about it, just in case.....
Philip had his birthday on the 21st. He turned 21. He got a couple of days off work and spent them over at his brother Chris's place where they had a BBQ and just generally celebrated it with his brothers and friends. Mom and Dad didn't mind as they didn't have to make the usual meal for him. They can't do it the way the brothers and friends can. Phil's a quiet lad. He doesn't say much around his parents, in fact, unless you looked in his room you'd hardly know he was there. He prefers to answer questions with a yes or no and that's about it. It's up to you to figure the rest out on your own. In that way he's rather like his mom. She'd be just as happy if she didn't even have to say yes or no - just a nod or a shake of the head once a day would be pushing it. Makes it kind of hard on Dad as he likes lots of heart to heart conversations. But he can't find anyone to do that with now that the other two boys have moved out. So often you'll find him just talking to himself in his study or communing with the apple tree in front of the house. Sometimes a whole day can go by where nothing much is said, but, you know everyone seems to understand that that's how the Camffermans communicate. After all, when the son of Dutch immigrants marries the daughter of native Indians, communication has to happen on a whole different plane. That combination and the offspring produced just hasn't happened that often so there isn't a lot of previous history to emulate. For the most part they're breaking new ground and hopefully future generations will have more to draw from.
Brother Daniel is staying at brother Chris's as well for a while. He's in between jobs. So it seems that the three boys are back together again for a while. His Dad worries a lot about him wondering if and when he'll find his calling in life. Dad seems to have forgotten that it took him a long time to find the answer to life's persistent questions. In fact at age 53 he's still not sure about a lot of things.
Brenda is finding that she has to do a lot of talking at work. Her job requires that she speak about the study she's involved in to groups of people. Verbal communication is not her strong suit. Perhaps God put her there to develop her communication skills. He might have noticed that her husband was getting rather quiet and decided that his help meet should learn how to communicate before he stops speaking altogether. It's funny how that happens. One half of the couple is talking less and less and the other half more and more. So the total output of conversation stays about the same. Perhaps that's the way it's meant to be. The head of the study is a young doctor named Scott. He's also a rather quiet person. He doesn't like to be addressed as Doctor as he finds it rather pretentious. Or perhaps he prefers to follow the words of our Lord who said, Call no man Rabbi, for one is your teacher, God. After all Doctor does mean Teacher in Latin. The medical profession would do well to follow his example.
Julia is out of the hospital and staying with friends while she recuperates from her operation. She was in very good spirits after the operation. Although she lost an organ or two (we're not sure which ones as she declines to tell anyone the details) she hasn't lost a step and is already planning her comeback to society as well as a trip to Holland some time this summer. So, whatever organ was lost it certainly wasn't one that would interfere with her mobility.
That's the news this week from Vancouver where people are mostly good looking and the children are mostly average or above