So I'm sitting there in the dark early this week thinking how dumb I was. I mean how could I have forgotten to change out that router for the computer network at the Nanaimo Office? I mean I was there just the day before? It was on my To Do List. No one is even IN that office right now. It's a simple 2 minute job, unplug a few cables, pull the old unit, drop in the new one, hook up the cables, replace the access panel made out of lemon meringue….

Hold it.

This woke me up fully and I realized that the whole thing was a dream. I didn't forget to replace anything. It was especially weird because I don't usually dream. Only when I'm not feeling quite right do I dream. Marsha on the other hand has these epic Tolstoy scale dreams. They have plots and sub plots and characters, and lighting and sound effects. Truly monumental stories that I find rather moving. Well, that is they move me back to sleep, but usually that's when she insists on telling me about them at 2:00 in the morning.

So yeah last weekend neither of us were feeling 100%. I guess abruptly shifting weather (rain, sun, wet, dry, snow, sun rain…) and both of us working extra time had taken its toll. Both of us were quite' strung out last weekend. That's probably why the letter was a tad weak, but we're doing much better now.

One of the things keeping us busy is our Japanese class. It's been a lot of fun. I'd studied Japanese before, but one can only go so far with books and web videos. At some point you actually need to talk to somebody. Marsha and I are both in the class. Actually there are only three students so Marsha and I ARE most of the class. We've been learning to say things like "Watashi wa dorkus desu." which I understand means "I'm a brilliant person". We've also learned numbers and dates and such. One of the most challenging parts has been the writing. Japanese is a true syllabary, that is the symbols represent sounds used to build words. Written English is another syllabic language. I brought the class to a stop when the teacher put up the Hirigana symbol for ka



and I pointed out that it looked like a chicken.



You see with the eye now and the beak is open as it makes the Ka! Ka! noise? Right there is the comb and…
Well, they didn't get it either.

So that's what we've been working on.

In other news I don't know if you noticed that April 12, last Tuesday, was the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight. He was the first man to orbit the Earth. Lost in the news of that, and all the machinations about where should we go next in space was another anniversary. 150 years ago on April 12 the Confederates shelled Ft. Sumter to start the American Civil War. If you remember this year I also turned 50 years old so that makes three ancient historical events in one year.

History is full of interesting coincidences.

Speaking of history, there is a federal election going on up here. This is a parliamentary system so whenever Parliament passes a no confidence vote, basically saying 'We don't think you are doing it right", the government falls and there is a new election. This can happen at any time so elections can happen more often in the US, however, the campaign is only five weeks long so it seems like a very fair trade.

This week was interesting because they had two debates for the candidates. The first was on Tuesday and the second was scheduled for Thursday. It was then pointed out that the debate was scheduled for the same time as Montreal's first round Stanley Cup game. They immediately moved the debate to Wednesday and scheduled it to end BEFORE the Vancouver game started.

Canada: They have their priorities straight.

Doug & Marsha





They're Birds