Late B'day

A week ago was my birthday and having been busy, busy, busy I didn't even think of squeezing out a blog. It was a quiet day and BBdaughter took me out to supper with her "significant other" (hereafter named BBbf = BB beau fils). We all went to a steak house called "Houston's" (I'm sure geewit that it's not in the same league as a steak house in Houston) The steak and wine were good and the company even better. They gave me a Fossil watch that has an animated Atari game as the watch face. Really nice, it brings back memories. The last time I had seen BBbf and BBdaughter I had admired his Fossil Matrix watch, so they found me one.
I bought myself a new car radio for my b'day, not that the old one had ceased functioning but I needed a radio where I could plug my iPod. I had one of those radio things, but the airwaves are so saturated here in Montreal that it is next to useless. So I finally bought a good radio and plugged in my iPod... BB music, all the time with no interruptions... yesss.
And last but not least, Mrs BB said that she would split the cost of a 70-300 mm zoom lens for my camera. The said lens having just arrived a couple of minutes ago by courier. I love taking pictures and the lens was something I had wanted for a while, so since we are going to Ireland this summer, I decided that now was the time to get it. (Income tax refunds are so much fun to spend)
So that was my B'day week in a nutshell. This b'day is a special, I was born in 1954 and this year I turned 54, so maybe it'll be a lucky year. ;o)

Photos

I haven't had much time to blog these last few weeks, since things have been rather hectic. On top of it all I caught a "man's cold" from the kids at school. I don't get them them often but when I do, I hate colds... (see Josie's blog about them...). So I'll post a couple of pictures I took the other day. The West Island is the western most part of the island of Montréal but what many people don't realize is that a good part of it is still rural. There are even working farms. Even in the suburbs themselves there are still the remnants that we call the villages and that is what they are, the remnants of the original villages that were there before the encroachment of the city. I'll try to get more pictures to document each of them when I have the time.
So here are a couple of pictures taken in the more rural aspects of my corner of the island of Montréal. The truck and garage/barn are taken on Senneville road on the way to Ste-Anne de Bellevue and the sunsets on the shore of Lac des Deux Montagnes.

History burns

Last week end, the Manège Militaire, a big part of Québec's military history burned to the ground. This building built in 1885 was designed by Eugène-Étienne Taché, the architect that designed Québec's parliament buildings. It was one of the city's most beautiful historic buildings, and in a city that was named a world heritage site that's saying a lot. Will it be rebuilt in all it's glory, only time will tell.
I hadn't thought about it in years, but watching it burn on television brought back many memories. I started my military career there as a private in the 58th Battery of the 6ième Régiment d'Artillerie de Campagne and finished it there as captain and commanding officer of the same unit. (We were housed in the square tower on the right of the 2nd photo) The 6ième Régiment is a militia unit and was a family tradition. My great-grandfather had been its Regimental Sergent-Major. I also met Mrs. BB there, when she was one of the first women officers to join a combat unit. (I always did like women in combats.:o)
Not only did Québec lose an important part of her heritage, but many of us who served in units based there, have lost a big part of our past.

Air Canada, got to love 'em

Air Canada announced a new program called On My Way today. This program will fix things for you if ever you are delayed by flight, traffic or weather-related delays beyond its control. Here is what is posted on the Air Canada web site.
"One call gives you around-the-clock access to a dedicated group of specially trained Air Canada customer service agents who will rebook the first available flight, on Air Canada or another airline," and "arrange complimentary hotel accommodations, car rental or other ground transportation and meals," if necessary. All of this for an extra $50 (round trip) for flights of less that 1000 km and $70 (round trip) for flights over 1000 km.
Michael Janigan of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa isn't impressed. "It's part and parcel of a continuing effort to try and make the service extended to you when you buy a ticket less and less. The expectation would be that if you paid for a flight, you'd be rebooked on the next available flight. I'm hesitant to figure what's next with the airlines. Maybe washroom privileges (for a fee)? We'll have to wait and see."
Makes you wonder what will happen to the poor schmucks who will dare not to pay the extra fee, will they end up stranded in the airport like the man who has been living in the Charles de Gaulle airport for many years. Seems to me that the service they now want us to pay for should be a normal service in case of delays and imponderables. When there are flight delays like the ones we had here not long ago because of the snow storm, will the people who paid jump to the head for the line ahead of everyone else, leaving everyone else waiting that much longer?
To say the least I am not impressed, who else but an airline could get away with something like that? Much like when the airlines quote a price, then when you come to pay, hike it up because of the fuel supplement, airport tax etc... Hey buy my ticket to Vancouver, it's only $300... ooops forgot to tell you there is a $200 fuel supplement and $100 airport tax.

20 x 2: What's the difference?

Found this while browsing the web... It depicts quite nicely that despite our differences, fundamentally we are all the same. It is the work of Rannie Turingan a Canadian photographer. A really nice piece of work.


20 x 2 : What's The Difference? from photojunkie on Vimeo.

Top o' the day to you!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all. Have yourself a nice pint o' Guinness (my favourite alcoholic beverage) and forget all your woes. Mrs. BB and I loved visiting Ireland. It really is a bit of paradise, with 10000 shades of green. Of all the countries we have visited it is probably the one that I wouldn't mind moving to. (Mind you I'm very partial to Guinness and their Guinness is even better than ours.) In fact we have just bought our tickets to return there on vacation this summer... There are still some places that we haven't seen and we want to return to Achill Island, County Mayo, a bit of paradise on Earth, to relax.
Did you know that almost half of all Québecers have Irish blood flowing in their veins, must be why we are almost as fun loving as they are.

So let us try to forget the tons of snow that are still around, raise up our pint of Guinness and all yell "Slainte" before downing the pint.

Achill Island, Co. Mayo, Ireland

Buried under snow

We are in the month of March and we should be seeing the first signs of spring. Instead we are seeing the start of a new ice age... In the last week we have had two major snow storms. On Wednesday we got 25 cm of snow and yesterday over 30 cm and it isn't finished yet since the weather man is predicting another snow fall on Tuesday and four more days of snow before Easter. Right now we are officially at 350 cm of snow, that's 3.5 meters, or for our American friends 11.5 feet of snow that has fallen since the start of winter. The record is 385 cm in 1971-72 which will surely be broken soon. Will we hit 400 cm? Most probably since in the last week we accumulated 55 cm of snow and there is now sign of it slowing down.
The cities and towns have busted their snow removal budgets for 2008, which means there is no more money for snow removal till the end of winter (if ever it comes) and also no more money for snow removal in November and December 2008. They'll surely continue their snow removal but I think that we are probably either going to lose other services or our taxes are going to go up. Many companies that clear driveways will also be going belly-up since they charge a fixed rate and with the snow that has fallen most of them are working at a loss.
Here are a couple of pictures I took to illustrate just how much snow we've had...

New Status

Comes a time in ones life when something happens that changes all the parameters. As of late last Tuesday, there are two new members of our family, Zoé and Allison... These two bits of human fluff, weighing in at less than 10 pounds for the both of them, have changed the parameters.

Yes I'm a grandfather. My son has two brand new twin daughters. It has taken me a bit of time for it to sink in, I don't feel old enough to be a grandfather but there we are. It's hard to describe the feeling. In my heart I'm still too young to have grandkids, but the evidence is there. The girls have already taken up a place in our hearts and even tiny as they are, it is a very big place. So I guess I'll have to get used to being "Papi" and submitting to the whims of my two little granddaughters.

I'm back, I think.

Well the trip is over and we landed at PET airport at 23:45 on Thursday night. We had left Guayalquil at 10:30, stopped over in Miami, where we had to go through US customs, get our baggage, recheck it in and then go back through security. In every other country I've travelled to they keep the baggage and you can stay in the secure departure area so you don't have to go through customs and security. Go figure.

The trip started on the February 7th from PET airport and we landed in Quito around 10 pm. From the airport we went to a small hostel. The next day we visited historic Quito in the morning and the National Historic Museum in the PM. Then we left by bus to go up to the native village of Chilcapamba where we stayed for two days. On the way we stopped at the geodesic point that shows 0˚0' 0" latitude. I stood there like a giant with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one foot in the southern hemisphere. One really interesting little factoid. At the precise point of the equator you can balance an egg on its end since the centrifugal force of the earths rotation is perfectly perpendicular to the ground. It is the only place where this is possible.

At Chilcapamba we got to know the villagers and how they live. We also participated in a "Minga" (the name given to a community project where everyone pitches in to help for the good of the community) There had been a landslide that wiped out the canal that carried water to the village for irrigation etc. So we helped them dig it out and get the water flowing again. The students were really proud when the water started flowing again. That night we had a cultural exchange where they sang and played typical Andean music and the students sang and played typical Québecois music.

The morning after we were off to Othavalo a small town not too far from Chilcapamba. Once there we hiked around lake Cuicocha, a beautiful blue lake situated in the crater of an extinct volcano. The hike took us about four hours as we climbed around the rim of the caldera up to an altitude of 3900 meters. That afternoon we visited local artisans who make many beautiful woven goods and a local instrument maker where I finally found an instrument that I can play, a rain maker, just tip it upside down and listen to the rain... ;o)

The next day we visited the local market where you can buy just about anything under the sun. There was a tourist market but the other teacher and I went exploring and soon found the regular local market. A very interesting experience, you could buy fruit, vegetables, just about anything you can imagine. There was even a meat market although that really left nothing to the imagination...

That afternoon we left for Aloasì where we slept in a really nice inn. The next morning we left to go climb Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world. We left the bus at 4500 meters and then hiked up to the shelter at 4800 meters, where we had some hot chocolate and then we hiked up to 5000 + meters to the glacier and the snow pack. Best way to go is to put your body in gear and turn off your brain, kind of like a Zen thing, but we all made it to the snow. (At 5000 meters there is only about 50% of the oxygen available) We even had a snowball fight and made angels in the snow. It's strange to be at the equator and still be in snow. We could also see the effects of global warming as we could see that the glacier was melting at a very rapid pace and retreating up the mountain.

The next day we travelled from the snow to the humid heat of the Amazonian rain forest. What a contrast. To be perfectly frank, I much prefer the cold, dry, oxygen starved atmosphere of the Andes to that kind of humid heat. It was like being in a sauna. We lived in typical amazonian huts up on stilts with a thatched roof made of palm fronds. We visited he jungle with a native guide where he pointed out the different plants used for medicinal purposes. There are a lot of them and they work quite well. I had a really bad headache and the guide picked some leaves from a bush and told me to make a tisane with them. As soon as I got back I did so and it completely cured my headache. We also got to ride a a pirogue (dug out canoe), tried a blowgun (they are about 6 feet long and very accurate once you get the hang of them), and visited a centre where they help animals captured for the black market and try to re-introduce them into the wild. The last morning we did a minga and helped with the construction of a house before leaving for Baños.

Baños is a small town at the foot of an active volcano that in erupting ant the moment. If the mountain ever blows its top the town will be wiped out much like Pompey and Herculeum. (You can see the plume of ash to the right of the summit in the picture. ) There is a hot spring there and we spent a couple of hours the next morning early (around 5 am) soaking in the deliciously hot water. The towns people say that they are protected by the Virgin, let's hope she continues to do so.

Then away we went again up to a small native community at Casa Condor. This small village is at 3900 meters and it is really cold up there. The village is very primitive and people still live in small houses dug into the mountain side with thatch roofs. They have no running water or electricity and their heating and cooking is provided by a fire in the hut. There is no chimney so the smoke trickles out thought he thatch.. We stayed at the community hall where there was dormitories, toilets but no heating. Believe me it gets really cold at night.

We left Casa Condor, which was the highest altitude that we slept at and drove down for 6 hours to Gualyaquil. What a contrast. We were now at sea level and the temperature was in the 30˚ to 40˚ Celsius (85 to 105˚ F) with a relative humidity of over 100%. It was hot and humid and every night we had tremendous downpours (we could have taken a shower it was raining so hard) There was major flooding in all of the coastal region. I read in the newspaper that they had over 355 mm of rain in the first 19 days of February. (That's 14 inches of rain for our American cousins). We went to an
orphanage-day care run by the Sisters de la Miséricord from Québec. They are in Pasquales a small barrio to the west of Guayalquil. I have never seen such poverty as this. The picture is taken from our hotel window in one of the richer parts of town. A tourist can't stay in Pasquales unless he has a death wish, for there is at least one murder each week there and robberies and highjackings are common. I think it is the contrast, in Guayalquil there are only two social classes, the rich and the poor. A teacher there makes around 150 dollars a month and the average daily wage is about 2$, yet we saw mansions and there are huge houses with armed guards. There is no middle class since the world bank forced Equador to adopt the American dollar, this literally wiped out the middle class, their savings disappeared, their salaries dropped drastically. The poor stayed poor and the rich stayed rich , but the middle class was hit hard and disappeared over night. I'm kind of surprised that there wasn't more civil unrest than there was. I guess the people were too busy trying to stay alive.

We also went to beach which the students really liked, a final relaxing day before departure. Plenty of sun block, T shirts on and still we were rather red at the end. ;o)
And finally, the airport, takeoff at 10h30 and home we came. Tired (exhausted more like) but happy to see our loved ones once again.

Awards yet

Looking over my blog I've realized that I've been blogging for two years now. The whole concept started out while joking around with my sister Jazz, (even my avatar is a joke with the concept of being her big brother) and I kind of figured that it would peter out after a couple of posts, but here I am two years later still posting. Ok, I admit I'm not as prolific as Ian or CS but I am still posting. Speaking of Ian and CS, they have both given me an excellence award. (How's that for a segue? ) Coming from them, that means something.
Cs is an intelligent gutsy woman, for whom no obstacle is too much. If I had to make a team to climb Everest, I'd bring her along because I'm certain that, come hell or high water, she'd get me to the top. She is also a super mom and being a teacher, I can tell. I've seen more than my share of less than optimal parenting, so I know good parents when I see them.
Ian is a professional word smith. He is literate and thoughtful and I never go away from visiting his blog without something to think about. His life experience is vast and varied and it always shows in his work. The man knows about what he is writing. I only wish I had his ease with a pen (or in this case a keyboard) Getting an award like this from him makes my day (or in this case rather stormy night).
It says in the award that I must name 10 bloggers. That'll be tough since most of the bloggers I follow have already been nominated. (As they say I don't know anyone and my friends all hate me.)
Well here goes: first of all a bit of nepotism: I'll nominate my lil sister Jazz. Although it is not my wont to go out of my way to praise her (lil sisters get a swelled head so rapidly) I hereby freely admit that she kicks ass. Her blog is irreverent , funny, iconoclastic and her sarcasm makes me proud. (I taught her everything she knows.)
Then I'd give it to CS and Ian for the reasons mentioned above.
Voyager would also get one, I love reading her blog and I know that she'll get back to it one day when her trials and tribulations are under control.
Geewits... the texan gal would also get one because of her humour, and also because she is a very caring human being, as well as being a carpenter and a plumber. ;o)
Choochoo definitely, I love her weird sense of humour from Hellhole. She hasn't blogged much lately but if my microbiologist daughter is any example, splicing and dicing genes (it splices, it dices and all for only 3 easy payments of $19.95) really takes up a huge amount of time.
Tai the traveller. Hey anyone who can back a luxury car into a container and then get out through the sunroof has my vote. I always look forward to reading about her trips or her musings on just about anything.
Evil Spock who has been off in the twilight zone for a while. He is the only person I'd vote for in an American election. Too bad he didn't get into the primaries this time.
Josie writes her blog like I imagine people used to write letters to each other. A cozy, thoughtful little blog. She is also so very prolific at least a blog a day.
Dr. Deb give us insight into the latest news about what goes on between our ears, (and she's way better looking than Dr. Phil) , There is an eclectic mix of seriousness and humour and you are sure to learn something.
Hey I actually did it...I got all ten. Youpiii!

On a different note I won't be able to blog or read about your adventures for the next two weeks, since later this week, I'm off with another teacher and our students to do some humanitarian work in Ecuador. We'll be visiting the country, staying in local villages and helping out at an orphanage. Never let anyone tell you that kids today are all selfish and egotistical. These kids have been working on this trip for over a year and I am always amazed by their commitment.

Our own eccentrics

In the interest of full disclosure to our friends in the homeland south of us, we have also had our share of weird and wonderful leaders. Our first Prime Minister, John A. McDonald, (the equivalent I suppose of your Washington) was a binge drinker. No holier than thou, I cannot tell a lie type of guy, but a larger than life personage who could drink like a fish and still function. He was once quoted as having said to D'Arcy McGee (another heavy drinker, today there is a great Irish pub named after him in Ottawa) that there was only room for one drunk in the cabinet so he (D'Arcy) must reform...

Then we had William Lyon McKenzie-King. This was the prime minister who would go for a walk on his estate and discuss the nation's business with his dog and his mother. Now I know that this doesn't seem all that strange, but you have to realize that they had both been dead for many years. His hobby was building ruins. Some men build houses, mansions even castles. He deliberately built ruins. No not let a building fall into ruins, he built new ruins. He would scour Ottawa for buildings being torn down so that he could use bits and pieces in his ruins.

We also had our philosopher prince, Pierre Eliot Trudeau. Canadians either loved him or hated him. He was charismatic, flamboyant and down right arrogant. He would wear sandals to parliament and once did a pirouette behind Queen Elizabeth's back at an official function. He once told the opposition to, as the journalists put it, "fuddle duddle" I'll let you guess what he really said. He is probably the only thing that Québec Separatists and Western Conservatives can agree on... they both hate the man. Like him or hate him, he certainly left nobody indifferent.

In the last couple of years we have had Jean Chrétien. He was perfectly bilingual. Not strange you say? It has been said that Jean Chrétien was the only Prime Minister to speak both of Canada's official languages poorly at the same time. He also once tackled a demonstrator who got too close and scared the hell out of his body guards. But to give the devil his due, he did tell Dubya to go somewhere when he refused to be drawn into the debacle that is Irak and the wily old fox served 3 terms as Prime Minster (1993-2003) and had one of the highest popularity ratings in recent history despite the scandals.

It is somewhat ironic that Canadians, who have a reputation as being rather staid and middle of the road, elected and then re-elected these men to the highest office in Canada. McDonald served for 19 years as Prime Minister, McKenzie King for 22 years, Trudeau for 15 years, and Chrétien for 10 years. Hmm I wonder what that really says about us?

Congratulations Dubya

I was reading in the Gazette that Dubya has finally won something other than a dubious election. His quote, "I know that the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." has made it to this year's 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said calendar. The man must definitely have neurological problems, either that or he's the idiot brother of the family. It is a truly frightening thought that the person who uttered such inanities, is the man who has his finger on the nuclear button...
The quote can also be found in the poem "Make the Pie Higher" which is made up of Bush's bloopers and remarkably stupid utterances. The poem was collated from Bush's sayings by Washington Post writer Richard Thompson. For those of you who might be curious here is the poem in its entirety.

Make the Pie Higher

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of manmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.
Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg
of opportunity.
I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope,
Where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
I am the Decider!

** Thanks to Bill Brownstein of the Gazette for the idea.

Death of a Hero

In the year 2000 I finally fulfilled a long standing dream, that of going to Nepal and trekking to Everest. I had had this dream for a long time and it was worth the wait. As Jazz and I were trekking in the Khumbu, we could always see the great dark grey pyramid of Everest looming at the horizon. It is not the most beautiful mountain, for me Ama Dablam is, but it is imposing even partially hidden behind Lotse and Nupse. (In the photo Everest is the pyramid on the left behind Nupse.)
Last Friday Sir Edmund Hillary, the man who first climbed to the summit, died at age 88 in New Zealand. This tall rangy hero was a modest man and for the longest time after having won renown, still listed himself as a "beekeeper" the job he had done before climbing into fame. He was also a true gentleman and friend and always said that Tenzing and himself had arrived together at the summit when in fact he had gotten there a few minutes before his friend. That shows a real sense of chivalry, because even today, the role of the sherpa is often down played.
On May 29th, 1953, Edmund Hillary and his sherpa, Tenzing Norgay made history by being the first to climb to the top of the 29035 feet or 8850 meter Mount Everest or Sagamatha for the Nepalese. That is about the height that modern jets fly. At that altitude you are in the killing zone, where your body is slowly dying from lack of oxygen. (Believe me it is deadly, Everest has killed over 200 people since Hillary climbed it for the first time and that doesn't count those that disappeared like George Mallory before Hillary's time)
Many people would have been content with this, but Edmund Hillary went on to explore other mountains, cross Antarctica, touching the South Pole in the process, landed at the North Pole in a ski plane becoming the first man to touch both poles and the summit of Everest.
More importantly, he never forgot the sherpas and the Khumbu. He raised millions of dollars to build 30 schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and many other things that the region needed. In fact the Nepalese made him an honorary citizen of their country, the only foreigner to have been so honoured.
He was also an environmentalist, spearheading the clean up of Everest. When he pushed for the cleanup by climbers, there were tons of garbage such as used oxygen bottles, tents, packs, ropes and just plain garbage that had been left on the mountain. There were even many bodies and everything would be perfectly preserved for all time by the freezing temperature and lack of oxygen. (In fact George Mallory disappeared on the mountain in 1924 and when they finally found his body in 1999, they where able to see what had happened to him.) Because of his leadership the Nepalese government has put a garbage tax on the expeditions, they have to post a bond for a large sum of money (thousands of US $) and their equipment, food and stuff is then weighed and they must bring it back. They then pay so much for every kilogram they left. So everyone is forced to follow the trekker's credo, "What goes up, comes down!"
They don't make men like him anymore. Being an atheist, I don't really believe in an afterlife, but I'd like to think that if it exists, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay are now together on the summit of the Sagamatha, the mother of all mountains.

Human Stupidity

One of my friends sent me this picture... If this is a real picture then these guys a just itching for a Darwin Award... Never underestimate human stupidity.

Icicles

Since I am in over my head in corrections to be done in time for report cards, I really don't have time to post much. Instead here is one of my pictures called "Icicle in Blue". The picture is not touched up and the back ground colour is the sky, with a polarizing filter. A rather cool effect if I say so myself. The icicle itself was hanging from the roof this morning when I got up and was melting and changing as I was taking the picture.

Homo Faber

Homo Faber or in English Ingenious Man. The meaning of this come from the International Education Program (I teach in an International school) and pertains to all aspects of man's creativity. Today while surfing the Net I came across a perfect example of this.
A French engineer and his son have invented a car that runs on air, no, I kid you not, the car runs on pure air, compressed air. The MDI car is made of light weight composite materials and has under body reservoirs made of light weight carbon fibre containing 200 litres of air each at 4000 psi. This gives the car an autonomy of 150 kilometres with zero pollution. To recharge the air system you can simply plug it in and a mini compressor fills up the tanks in 4 hours or you can "gas up" at a high pressure "air station" in about 3 minutes. Total cost between $2.50 and $5.00.
Man's ingeniousness never ceases to amaze me.
If you are curious here are a couple of links that give information about the technology.
http://www.theaircar.com/ and Discovery Channel's Daily Planet

Pretty in Pink

It seems that in a county of Texas they are using the colour pink to keep inmates at the Mason County Jail from becoming repeat offenders. The inmates wear pink jumpsuits and slippers, the walls of their cells are pink, and their bedsheets and underwear are inadvertently pink because of the wash. The thought of 250 pound inmates running around in pink is hilarious and I can see how it would be a deterrent for coming back to prison. All they need now are frills and froufrous to complete the picture. The measure, instigated by Sheriff Clint Low, seems to be working very well. Maybe we should try it here in Canada.

Odds and sods

I've spent the Christmas holidays doing not much of anything, except doing a lot of reading and watching some good old fashioned murder mysteries with Mrs. BB. Since we have had a vast amount of snow since the beginning of December, I did get in a lot of cross country skiing at Cap St-Jacques near my place and did 25 km on Friday in Gatineau Park. The conditions were superb, cold enough to be comfortable and have good snow conditions but warm enough to not freeze when you stopped. Having not much to do and plenty of time to do it in, I took some of the pictures I took and turned them into a 360 degree panorama as a QuickTime VR. Here is what the trail and Lac Pink looked like (You'll need the QuickTime plugin. They are 360 degree panoramas. All you have to do is click on them, holding down your mouse button and move the mouse in the direction you want to go.) The The scenery was beautiful even if the cloud cover made it very grey.

Christmas Traditions

Most people put up Christmas trees in their living room for Christmas, we haven't done that for years. In fact we gave our Christmas tree to BB daughter so she could put it up in her living room. What we have is rather special and unique, Mrs. BB's Christmas village. Now we are not talking about a couple of houses under the tree, we are talking about a full blown town, with ski hill, farms, train station, airport, sea port, lumber yard, hospital, a couple of churches, an Indian village and many other things. The main street is teaming with people and vehicles and there is even a historic old part of town. It is awe inspiring and takes up about 3/4 of the living room, about 10' by 10' at least. Mrs. BB has been adding to it over the years with my modest contributions and let me tell you she works very hard at putting it up. Everything has its place and every place has its thing. When we have visitors they sit there looking at all the parts and are fascinated by all the details. At night we turn off the lights in the living room and turn on the lights of the village and it is simply beautiful. Here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea of what I am talking about. So with that, in the words of that immortal poem, "Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!"