News from Vancouver

It's been a quiet week in Vancouver my home town on the edge of the ocean. The warm balmy weather we were all expecting in May and June did not materialize. Instead we' ve had clouds followed by rain followed by short sunny periods followed by more clouds and rain. This has severely tested the convictions of the local folk who have come to expect marvellous weather such as we've had for the past three years. But this year, it's as if God is reminding us that we humans are really not in control, a rather humbling thing for us to experience. Because it's much harder to describe the beautiful scenery when it's hidden behind the clouds and everything is covered in a damp blanket of clouds and rain. It's just not the same as when the sun is shining and everything is bright and beautiful. So we just quietly go about our business and let visitors know that they'll just have to come back next year or wait around for a few weeks to see if the real Vancouver will come out. It's causing us to pause and inwardly reflect on our lives. That's what rain and clouds do; they force you to look inward and examine yourself to see if perhaps there are some matters we haven't taken care of and if we do we'll be rewarded with brilliant sunshine and stunning vistas of the mountains and sea. And after we've completed our own introspection we begin to look at those around us to see if perhaps they haven't done this and are holding up matters by their delay. Before long there are a lot of people walking around and glancing at one another suspiciously and we begin to mutter things under our breath, but softly enough that others can't hear what we are saying, but everyone knows. And so it goes clouds followed by rain followed by all-too-short periods of sunlight followed by more clouds and rain and the quiet sound of muttering everywhere.

Brenda Camfferman celebrated her 50th birthday on the weekend. Her husband and sons stuggled manfully to prepare everything for the event. Invitations were sent, the menu planned, food was ordered. Unfortunately, Brenda and her husband have no daughters so you can imagine what happened. Dean was busy fixing the back deck and many other things but was unable to help with the food and other more important things. And the three sons.... ah, the three sons.....they did their best, especially Chris who is an excellent cook and prepared a barbequed salmon that was beyond wonderful. Phil cleaned up his room as a token of appreciation and a wonderful job he did. You can see the results by looking at the picture of his room. If there were a picture of the room before you would say that he had indeed done a marvelous thing. So, unfortunately a great deal of the preparations were done by Brenda herself. She did get much help from Monica, Philip's girlfriend. The other two females in the house had a good reason why they couldn't help. They are dogs. I have no doubt that the thought surely crossed Brenda's mind that not having any daughters is a tragedy too great to describe.

A good number of friends and family gathered together to celebrate and a wonderful time was had by all. There were mothers and mothers-in-law and aunts and cousins and friends. Dean ran around taking pictures and invited everyone to come back in 50 years to celebrate again.

The dog population in the Camfferman household doubled last week. Monica was offered a dog by one of her English students and she decided to take it before figuring out how to take care of it. She lives with her mother in an apartment downtown and they can't keep it there. So it was decided that Noori would move in to the Camfferman household to keep Meena company. After many promises that she and Philip would take care of said dogs and do many other things besides Noori moved in. Life had a dramatic change for Meena. She was used to being in the house but now she was summararily evicted and moved downstairs to the sun room with her new room mate. Dean is secretly happy about this as he has finally found a way to evict Meena without creating a major conflict. And another benefit is that now Phil and Monica come by almost every day to take care of said dogs and walk them. He's happy to see more of his sons and their friends.

Speaking of sons, second son Chris started a new job working for a food distribution company. Unfortunately he hurt his hand a few days after starting. While visiting a friend his car was towed away and to show his displeasure he proceed to beat up the nearest garbage disposal bin which promptly returned the favor by not moving in time so that the second punch resulted in a damaged left fist. So after one week's work he is off for a couple of weeks till he can use his hand again. Ah, the joys of being a young man. There's a lesson to learn in there somewhere.

That's the news from Vancouver where people are mostly average and some are above average and some just a little below.