Log Book (fEBRUARY) 

february 5

This is my birthday cake made by my loving wife Deb.  I turned 38 today.  I never believed that I would live this long. 

This is what I look like after I go running in the morning.  My kids think that this is hilarious.

They still like me.  (Not teenagers yet.)

Another year.   I am richer than I have ever been. 

Feb. 10

The girls sporting the latest in fashion on the ice. 

Deb has gotten hooked up with the home schooling group in the area.  This has been great, because our girls get to meet and play with other kids, and they get to go swimming and be part of field trips.  The home schooling group also rents an ice rink once a week so that the kids can go ice skating.   Once I found out that they were also playing hockey on the same ice rink simultaneously with my girls skating I got to be the bad guy.  No ice skating with pucks flying around, and no spending 200 dollars on face shields.  Deb managed to find two face shield/helmets and saved the day.    The home schooling group has been good for Deb in that she gets to know weekly that she isn't the only one going completely batty trying to teach her own kids.  It was easier with 26 of other people's children. 

I guess being married to me isn't so hard, its teaching my offspring.  At least that's how it will seem until they leave home.  Then we will see. 

Field trip at the marine institute.

One of the perks of the home schooling group was a field trip to the Marine Institute, led by one of the home school fathers who work there.  . 

Here is a picture of a group of kids totally grossed out.   The next picture will tell you why.

This is the lovely hag fish.  The fun stuff that looks like beans are eggs.  These are considered a delicacy in some Asian Countries.   They secrete a slime that expands and turns into a viscous gel when it contacts water.  One hag fish can easily turn a five gallon bucket of water into snot.  This makes them hard to catch by other predators.  It eats by attaching itself to a fish, making a knot of it's body and pulling its head through the knot pulling a chunk out of the fish.  It then goes inside the hole it just made and eats the fish from the inside out.  Probably the most disgusting creature I have ever heard of. 

This is Jannelle pretending to be a crab inside a crab pot.  These pots are stacked up all over the Atlantic Provinces. 

February 13

These are eagles playing around on the rock wall above our boat.  They eat seagulls. 

Every time the temperature warms up, we spend about three hours chopping the ice up so it doesn't hit the back of our boat as it leaves the harbor.  We pretty much have it down to a family routine, like mowing the lawn. 

This was new to us.  When the ferry to the island gets delayed because of bad weather the grocery stores run out of produce. 

Feb 22

Fred showing his true color.

On December 13 I went for a run up Signal Hill and ended up resuscitating a man who's heart had stopped.  I went and visited him in the hospital later that day and he thought he might be going home that same day.  The doctors ended up keeping him in the hospital and the next week he had a five way bypass.  They doctors don't think that the blocked blood vessels to the heart are what caused his heart to stop, but they may have contributed.  Either way, Fred was very grateful to me and my family.  I don't really know what to make of it all.  I do know that if I had not been there he probably would not be alive.  Their whole family showed up and invited us over for a Sunday dinner.   It was an odd way to meet someone, but I am very glad I did.  I would be glad to grow up to be like Fred.  He has a contentment and peace and gentleness about him.  He isn't proud or loud.   I would like to think that he is the kind of person to inherit the earth.  He was worth saving.  I read all this and think about what a strange thing life is, and what a gift it is, and what a gift we can be to each other.  Several months before this all happened to Fred he had written a poem.  One of the verses of the poem said this:

When I die and met St. Peter at the gate

For sure I will have to explain why I am late

It had to do with a far and scenic shore

I just had to walk that Northead Trail once more

Deb has met him walking that same trail several times more.  He is doing just fine.  And so am I.  Good to meet you Fred. 

Bianca and her first Violin

Bianca made a request that startled us.  She asked if she could start taking violin lessons.  A week later she asked for a violin for her birthday.  I told her that if she started violin now she would have to practice it a half hour a day and she would have to practice even if she later decided she didn't like the violin.  I asked her again the next week if she really wanted a violin.  Even after listing off all the reasons to her why she shouldn't get one she still wanted one.  I asked around and found a teacher.  The teacher pointed me to a luthier.  The luthier fitted a violin to Bianca.   Bianca has been practicing.  She has since upgraded to a new violin and bow much nicer than in the above picture. 

February  26

Learning about the blood supply system

As part of her homeschooling, Deb has been doing field trips.  Today she went and donated blood and got a tour of the St. John's blood donation center.  They even came back the next day to watch plasma being separated in the centrifuge. 

The wind here is strong enough to knock you off your feet.

Feb 28

Roy the brewmaster proclaims the first day of spring is when you can write on the sidewalk.

Precipice in Chalk on a wharf.

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