Amanda was on Zoom could see our beautiful faces but couldn’t hear us at first. She’s had a couple of morning surprises with Graham getting called in to work at 7 a.m. She was referred to a neurologist back in June, and, having heard nothing, decided to call and email them daily, and next Tuesday has an appointment!
Carolyn just back from Tigh Namara with the family. The kids had a ball, playing in the pool for hours and hours. She misses them so much while they are in Victoria.
Chris M. had fun with printmaking at the Grand Prix of Art, where baby Eleanor made her first prints at their booth, now hanging in the frames that Carloyn gave us as a gift. She left the next morning at dawn for their off-grid cabin and just got back last night. Baby Eleanor and family are flying to Kelowna for 5 days, Eleanor’s first flight! Chris is staying home with the animals.
John had been to several Olympics, and was at the opening ceremonies, in Athens, impressed by the strong voice in Greek, French and English, saying “People of the world, welcome to where the Olympics started.” Athletes walked in for 3-4 hours, and a woman in front of them with a New Zealand hat danced the whole 4 hours. Darcy rowed in the pair with Buffy and Buffy’s dad wascrying after they won. In Beijing everyone was suspicious, the Chinese guards, the visitors alike. In the final, Darcy was in the Women’s 8, and were contending for the bronze medal, but were passed by the Dutch in the last seconds, and in the video of the event, the final word was ‘shit’. In London, Darcy’s team won silver. John was sitting in a pub, where the fellow at a table next to them noticed the emotions of the bronze winner in the men’s single sculls and wondered how they would feel to win the gold. John still wishes he’d said something, as any athlete who makes the Olympics is incredible.
Sandra follows Darcy Marquardt and loves the Olympics and was going to wear her Olympics hat and t-shirt. She had a great time in Whistler, saw Miller on the bike seat, and did many valley trail rides, including going to Creekside to Dusty’s for a beer, and called to Bobby from the balcony. Miller cried the whole way back, so they didn’t need bear spray. Meghan wanted to get t-shirts for their common birthday, so they went to the pub, and randomly pulled a t-shirt and had to wear it. Sandra shared her winking cat shiny t-shirt that she picked to wear and also showed us what a good sport Brian was to wear the two-sided slinky sparkly tiger face t-shirt. The four girls sang Icona Pop for karaoke, wearing the t-shirts because no one knew them there!
Marg had a great time at the Grand Prix, was amazed by the talent of the artists, and thought the best part was the young artists deciding on the price their paintings were worth. She is an Olympic junkie, and volunteered in 2010 for Olympics and Paralympics, and thinks they should be together. She remembers Hallelujah sung by KD Lang. Some didn’t like the French opening ceremonies, but Marg loved it. She is up every morning watching the events. She is going to Squamish today to visit a friend with pancreatic cancer. Saturday she is going to LA for John Legend, a day at Disney and baseball. They have mice at home and last night the dog caught one while Don was at the airport. So, Marg and the dog were chasing the mouse, the dog threw it up in the air and Marg desperately tried to find something to put over it. That’s the price to pay for living on the golf course and cooking good food, but maybe it’s due to the houses around her that are coming down. She has a bait man coming every two weeks.
Debbie M. is happy to be back and thankful for friends in the real estate industry who have stepped up to help with her business this year that help has allowed her mind to be free while with Sami and Amalia. It is an intense time in weird circumstances, but the bonding experience with her is valuable. She is going to Vernon with Amalia this weekend to her ex-husband’s and have a nice property there for her to run around. But it might be very hot, so she will need air conditioning. She is starting to do courses for re-licensing, so it will be a busy August.
Judy set her alarm wrong for 5:55 a.m., so she was late picking Debbie up and it’s a miracle she’s here. She had a good time in Birch Bay, a few days by herself then Warren with the kids came on the weekend, and she was back on Sunday. Spencer and Sara’s anniversary was on Tuesday, so Judy had the 4 boys Tuesday-Wednesday. Spencer and Sara went to Bowen Island air BnB airstream trailer set up for two people with outdoor lights and an outside claw feet bathtub. Judy walked with the boys to the steam engine, went swimming, got ice cream at Urban Fare, where they take turns, and she writes it down for fairness. They sat by the water at 9 p.m. and the boys recognized how wonderful it is that Judy has her place in such a beautiful setting. She is watching the Olympics too, cheering for women’s soccer. She thought the opening ceremony was fabulous.
Kal says hi for Dalbir who is in Lisbon for a wedding. He was at Earl’s for a 50th wedding party, and Gary Grewal was there and is thinking about coming back to the club (he is a mortgage broker and has converted to being a Sikh).
Bill Jaffe says it’s good to see Lawrence. Last weekend he was at the Pride event at the Dr. Peter Center. Shelley saw the Wrexham vs Whitecaps game and was cheering for Wrexham because she thinks Ryan Reynolds is cute. Bill got a call this week from his Dad’s (who passed away 34 years), best friend, Don Denevi, the famous author of Escape from Alcatraz. They met when they were students, and Don, now 87, found a box full of photos and letters, searched for ‘Jaffe’ and found Bill. They are now exchanging emails, and one of the shared stories was that his dad cheated on his mom not once but twice. But proof that he loved her, (who was a horrible cook), was that he said he’d walk a thousand miles to eat that ‘shit’.
Sam wanted some context to this news which he only found out yesterday about Don and his cheating grandpa. Thinking about a possible lack of speakers in August, maybe we can do a Kiva day? He received a Facebook memory of 11 years ago when he tried to go to Uganda but had appendicitis. He is watching the Olympics and now that he’s doing gymnastics, he is yelling when watching and distracting Justin from his work. Sunday he is volunteering at the Pride festival, and feels that, while he is an ok hockey player, he is a pretty good volunteer. He’ll be at the booth at Creekside Park.
Lawrence C. said he would be away and would be child minding, avoiding Lord of the Flies while his wife was away. Little did he know that Minecraft has a realm where kids play with their friends. So, last Friday, his daughter announced that they have a problem; Wyatt says it’s his realm, but it turns out that Lily is saying that he shouldn’t be the leader as Dad got it for both of them – wait a second, we know this plot! It seems she wants a leader, someone to make decisions, which lead to a discussion about democracy, having a term and protocol. So, it turned out to be a virtual Lord of the Flies. He admires the Olympic athletes who train for this moment which occurs only every four years, a window which, for them. might be super small. His kids enjoyed the Grand “prix of Fart.”
Susan was late and didn’t say hi to everyone. Tsk! Tsk! She loved the Grand Prix - everything was perfect and thanks to Chris P. for generating the idea to participate as Rotarians. This week while working at the Costco membership, she was delighted by a visitor who just came to say hi, it was Sam Jaffe! That was so refreshing! She hasn’t been watching the Olympics, but she recalls when Ryan watched the swimming when he was 4 years old and went berserk saying “You are not going to make me be an Olympic champion”, although the idea had never been mentioned, except that he was in swimming lessons. So, they promised him he would never have to go the Olympics. (And it appears the promise has been kept)!
Peachy worked nights for 7 days and tried to get off to be at the meeting. This week her son passed the Canadian Nurses credentials.
Jeannette loved the Grand Prix on Saturday and saw Britannia Shipyards for the first time, after having lived in Richmond for 16 years. She appreciated the cool inside. She liked being part of the exhibition crew, and thought Marg had the hard part, needing to take the artwork and put it on panels, recognizing the category - they thought they were all in the master category. She got to see all the artwork fresh, then went on stage and announced all the winners. She would like to do it again next year and was sorry for the conflict with the Vancouver event organized by Elena.
Elena had lots of helpers at the Victoria Drive Vancouver event. Last week she was invited to the Rotary Club of Surrey, which used to be three clubs and are now merged into one. She did a presentation about Rotary World Health and had guests who wanted to join right after Elena’s presentation. She was able to promote Richmond Sunrise. Yesterday she went to the Rotary Club of Langley Central, who had 30 members, and presented again about Rotary World Health, with guests from India, and a good mixture of business and local leaders. They are having a Greek festival Aug. 15-18 which is a big community event in Langley and hope to raise about $140 000 during the event. It is always interesting to hear about what other clubs are doing.
Pat is sorry for the conflict in events and hopes that next year will work out. The Grand Prix was the largest event yet and parking was impossible, and she had to park on Trites Road. We awarded the prizes on stage. Celine Dion was amazing. Pat has some photos from the high school scholarship awards and as we don’t have a file to file them in, she is offering them to anyone interested – there is one with Carloyn. Pat will bring them for a few weeks for anyone who wants one. She will be away next week, in Palm Springs and Elena will do attendance. Last week she was in Edmonton at the CFUW conference, and drove through Jasper on the way, unaware it was going to burn down while she was away, then drove back through Banff. The conference was great, they stayed at the Sandman Edmonton, but there were lots of homeless people around. She went to Drumheller, saw the Hoodoos, Horseshoe Canyon and the Museum of Dinosaurs. She sent a notice to the board to please get reports in by Aug.15. She still has a sore shoulder, so no golf or tennis, and she has been referred to an orthopedic surgeon but hopes she will be cured before having the appointment.
Larry does all the buying for the company and often makes a Costco run. The embalming theatre need Depends, and Larry buys 15 cases of Depends at a time but in embarrassment assures others they’re not for him – he is considering buying online in the future. His husband is addicted to the Olympics, but Larry was only interested in the opening ceremonies, especially seeing Celine – he couldn’t talk for at least an hour afterwards. He didn’t know Judy was at Birch Bay and would have invited her for his birthday party. He is seeing the surgeon today, for cancer on his back and further reconstruction on his head. His holiday starts today, and Steve rented a penthouse in Seattle and they’re going to cruise to Alaska. He has done about 35 cruises, and Steve didn’t want to do this one, thinking it would be boring, but Larry is looking forward to the rest. He spent yesterday planning for Linda McPhail’s service on September 7, which will be huge, expecting about 700 people. He can reserve a row for us Rotarians if we’d like. He will be away for a couple of weeks.
Bobby thanks Peter for setting the magical tone for the year. He is sorry to have missed Sandra at Creekside. He went for a couple of hikes and saw a Rotary Club of Whistler bench near Brandywine falls, then on another hike he saw a Rotary International bench. It is good to see that participation. He wonders how we can stay connected and be recognized in Richmond? He sees his dentist today, trying to straighten teeth with Invisalign, but he keeps taking it off, so that might be a factor in the delayed results.
Peter was concerned about filling in the meeting time today, but the Sergeant at Arms took care of that. He was fishing two weeks ago, in 32 degrees and caught 7 fish. He was at Sheridan Lake which is 4000 ft above sea level, so it is cool at night, and he slept like a baby. Then last week he was at the cabin at Otter Lake, relaxing and enjoying the quiet, reading a book and really focusing for several hours. He remembers the Olympics when was young in Bella Coola, when two bronze winners were from Ocean Falls!
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