This week marks a big anniversary for us. One of those landmark occasions when you stop and take stock. Five years ago today we arrived on Vancouver Island. We had no job, no home, no real firm plans, just two trucks of stuff and a vague idea about starting over. We’ve found a small town away from the rush of Minneapolis. Jobs that are less stressful. Marsha even liked retiring so much she’s now done it twice. There have been some rough times. Barbara falling down the stairs, Marsha having a fender bender in the Prius, and my getting laid off. On the other side there have been many more good times, getting to know this side of the family, walks on  the beach, sunsets, starry nighttime skies, time to write, and take pictures, and relax.

Speaking of taking pictures, that has been one of the biggest changes. In Minnesota we took pictures but to really get great shots we went somewhere. To the lake, or the farm or an event. Here I just have to walk out the door and there will almost always be something worth photographing. As a result our computer hard drives are filling up with thousands of shots of sunsets, and beaches and trees, and the yard and of course the cats.

Oh and we have had an addition to the family since we arrived. Momiji joined us and has settled in quite nicely. She and Geiger are our mixed marriage, a Siamese from Minnesota and a calico from Vancouver Island. They run and play and fight and cuddle, and get along famously.

We’ve lived at three places since we moved here. First we lived upstairs from Barbara. That only lasted about five months until we bought the Rutherford House. That was a nice place, it had a great deck out back and almost but not quite a view of the water and the mainland. As it turned out I spent two and a half years with the Rutherford House as my workplace. This was a bit weird at first but I got to really like it. Rutherford House was quite comfortable and we were even starting some serious planning for remodelling and expanding it when we found our current place. Harby House is in Lantzville, has a spectacular view of the mainland, and a wonderful yard and garden. Yes I’m a gardener now. OK, technically we live in a place that has a garden but I haven’t had a chance to actually do anything with it yet. So, theoretically I’m a gardener, but this year will tell. Our plan is to stay here for ten years and then retire. Then we want to stay for another twenty years. We really like this house.

There have been a number of trips over the last five years. Several to Minnesota and Nevada, and Seattle. We even got a chance to do a big eclipse trip to China, Korea, and Japan. That’ll be the last big foreign eclipse trip for a while though. The eclipses we plan to see this decade are all in North America so no need for a cruise ship or long flights. Of course when WE go to the US it is technically a foreign trip for us. In May we’re travelling down to Carson City, Nevada for an eclipse and a family gathering. 2017 there’s a great eclipse that crosses through the middle of the US. It’ll be best viewed from Southern Illinois or Missouri. We’re expecting to have a real major party for that one with all of you. And if we miss it, there’s a very similar one in 2024.

Those of you that like to follow these letters and pictures on the web may have noticed that the site hasn’t been updated in a fairly long time. Suffice it to say that the old web tool I was using broke, and the company that made the tool and was hosting the site is getting out of that business so they weren’t any help. It’s been a real mess. I had trouble getting my site back in a usable form so I had to recreate the whole site from scratch and find a new host. The upshot of all that is that we start our next five years with a new web site. I even got our own domain. To see our letters, plus some of my writing, plus some other stuff go tohttp://www.aalseth.net/.

Traditionally each anniversary has a different gift. In the US the first anniversary is paper, the second tin, the third glass, the fourth brass and if I remember correctly the fifth anniversary is ammunition. In Canada the first is woodchuck, the second otter, the third porcupine, the fourth cedar, and the fifth narwhal, though I’m not sure how you would wrap the last one. We will forgo all that just raise a glass to five good years. We look forward to seeing you when we can (and with this new place we have a third bedroom and plenty of other space if you want to crash). In the mean time we’ll keep writing, keep taking pictures, and keep enjoying the sunrise over the mountains and the eagles soaring overhead. This may not be paradise per se but in our eyes I’ll be damned if I know how it could be much better than it is.

Take care

Doug & Marsha

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