Dalbir was on Zoom as they are going to pick up their grandson later.
Melinda was on Zoom, and has a new phone so was challenged with the unmute. She has another meeting this morning. They are both getting better and are going to the Seahawks game.
John is back from Italy – Rome, Sorrento, Pompei, and Positano. A highlight was the Borghese gallery in Rome where they saw sculptures that were very emotional, thanks to the guide. One sculpture depicted a god grabbing a woman and as you progress around the sculpture, she transforms into a tree – sculpted by Bernini from the ages of 20-22). John’s daughter has over 2000 subscribers now and might be making $100 a month. He is going to Saskatchewan tomorrow for a cousin’s wedding and recalls a moment of engagement and ring-showing from years ago when he worked on the farm.
Chris M. found storage boxes on sale at London Drugs for about $6 each and, as they looked good, she bought 9 of them, got her huge bins of photos (from before 1979 to present day) down off the shelves and has embarked on a long journey of sorting, culling photos and reminiscing. She is dreaming like crazy, people in her dreams that haven’t been there for decades.
Mary Lou has been to 3 events at the Writer’s festival, is going to the opera on Saturday and to the Steveston scarecrow crawl with Oscar today. Her neighbour of 28 years passed away at 70 years old. It was very quick and too ‘close to home’.
Joyce has been traumatized by the photo thing, having sorted and edited over 6000 photos using a software program that was discontinued and dumped all her photos unsorted. She will eventually get over the trauma of the photo fiasco. She just spent a glorious week with her son.
Debbie S. was on the island to see Dad and her sister and to celebrate what would have been Mom’s 92nd birthday. They went to a Dutch store in Victoria and ate pastries in honour of her mom who had quite a sweet tooth. John (who is president of the Scotch Pond Society) has been trying to save Scotch Pond in Steveston. The issue is that it’s silting up and becoming shallow, so the fishermen have to take their boats away in the summer. The goal would be to dredge Scotch Pond. John went with archive photos to the Richmond Heritage Society event a couple of months ago, showing the connections with the Japanese influence as well as connections with the Vietnamese community. Ducks Unlimited is trying to preserve marshlands so dredging is a good thing at Scotch Pond and John is trying to work with them. Debbie won’t be here next week as she will be in Palm Springs.
Garth says it’s starting to ramp up for Remembrance Days concerts, and there is a piece by a First Nations composer, called “Forgotten Warriors” which tells the story of indigenous peoples who signed up to go to war, but were given nothing upon their return, whereas other veterans received many benefits. More research is definitely needed. The epidemiologist doctor in the choir says the new strain of Covid is strong and people are getting quite sick. So, get vaccinated.
Sandra has 11 000 photos in her phone which she says will stay there until she dies - no password needed. She had her 10th annual trip to Palm Springs with Brittany. She missed the Operation Rainbow Fundraiser, but Brian went and presented our cheque. Dr. Rai thanks our club and will come to speak to us after the mission is completed.
Marg loves making photo albums, with dates and explanatory text and always makes a copy for Ben, so when ‘they go’, Ben will have doubles of everything! She was at the Richmond Archives tea last week and recommends it highly. A recent scam tells us that you can’t even trust Clubrunner! She got an invitation for an interact meeting on Tuesday night, logged in and waited for about 3 hours. (She watched the Canucks game instead). While the invitation looked perfectly legitimate, from Clubrunner, it is unbelievable to realize it was a scam. Watch out for scams and viruses. Today she’s making Christmas cakes.
Debbie M. says that whatever is on her phone will stay on her phone. The children might appreciate a different plan, but …. Manuel is back in the hospital, and her daughter is having a hard time so Debbie is just trying to support. Manuel’s mom is coming to town today. Debbie and Miles have been spending more time with Amalia, which is a joy. We will keep Manuel in our prayers. Debbie has just finished all real estate renewal courses and has two more to go for the real estate council. She will be finished before Christmas. This is a two-year renewal process.
Judy has over 13 000 photos and many videos on her phone. When they moved, she had boxes of photos (including those doubles from Costco), and dumped so many, especially the landscapes or what you can’t remember. Now she has mostly photos of grandkids. The Hallowe’en train was cancelled on Saturday night, and they were disappointed, and no more tickets are available, but they have first dibs on the Christmas train.
Kal often questions Lavina’s 4-hour dinners, but he did a 3-hour lunch, so now he gets it. He won’t be here for the next 3 weeks, as he’s going on a Mexican cruise.
Debbie T. says the school board meeting last night was mostly unproductive as they have many irons in the fire but are now in limbo, with the election results and Ministry of Education unknowns. The Rotaract student who graduated is from Afghanistan and a first responder who wants to volunteer. He came to the board meeting. He has been to the Downtown East Side with Rotaract, some of whom are studying medicine, and loved the experience, handing out harm-reduction supplies. Maybe we could invite the Rotaract club to come speak to us. She was feeling uplifted after the board meeting and the input from young students. The school district is currently offering training lessons for staff and one takeaway is to watch out with the QR codes menus in restaurants, which are being covered up with other scam QR codes.
Jeannette reminds us of the Nov. 10 Covid and flu clinic at Yaohan. She has photos on her phone, and has a two-year contract, but after the contract is up, she keeps the phones because they all have her photos on them, so now she has 4 phones. She travelled with her auntie’s urn, and thankfully Jeannette had some photos of her and brought them with the urn. She thought it would be more complicated, but she flew with JetBlue and Porter airlines who were very accommodating. They did multiple cities with the urn. She is going to Tofino on the weekend, and wanted to take the urn, but her mom didn’t want to, so they were going to leave the urn at home with her son – but he didn’t want to stay at home alone with the urn.
Susan lost her photos on a hard drive, so thinks it is almost impossible to both keep and get rid of photos, so we will be unhappy no matter what. She has a medical procedure Nov. 1, so won’t be here next week. (There is a YouTube video of fisticuffs at the Costco parking lot. Susan didn’t know about it.)
Elena cleaned her hard and soft copies photos, and saw the kids when they were young, and was playing a video last week of them performing – they were even on television. She was the manager of their band from 6 years old until teenagers. She attended as a volunteer at Rotary World Help, unpacking boxes of medical supplies and making sure they were not expired. They now only have four helpers as the other two have dementia. She notes that we have a lot of waste in BC, when we throw out supplies that have expired after a couple of months. Her back yard is messy with leaves, so she has started cleaning, and that was her week.
Boshjenia thanks Elena for inviting her. She works 6 days a week and has only Sunday off when she goes to church to ask for power for the other days. It was a rainy weekend and although she knows it’s not sunshine here every day, she does appreciate the sun. She is trying to improve her English on Zoom and has joined a Ukrainian professional choir in Vancouver. Their first performance is in November, about $25 per ticket, children can come, and it will be on a Sunday. They will introduce 3 Ukrainian songs, among others.
Gordon found his old box camera on a shelf and realizes many people wouldn’t know what it is. He doesn’t like the dark mornings driving but loves when the sun comes out and the trees are beautiful, sparkling with red, green and yellow. Look at the bright side.
Moe has Amazon Prime and says they will back up your photos to the cloud. He saw a scam last week when he had a message from a friend asking for help with an e-transfer. Twenty minutes later he found out that What’s App had been hacked, then also read an article about it. He says to check the email address, but Garth says that even that might still not be a solution.
Pat has lots of old photo albums, and lots of notes on a napkin. The DFO blocks dredging and don’t want streams dredged. She played CFUW bridge yesterday, and Joyce and Jean were there. Yesterday she got a parking ticket on her windshield, for $75 now and $95 later. She had paid until 5 a.m., not knowing how long she would be there, but had mixed up the numbers and letters of her licence plate so will appeal it. Apparently, she will still be charged $15 for their paperwork. Tonight is the KPU Foundation endowment event, and Bobby will go to represent our club.
Bobby says you don’t have to pay the $15 fee if you win, especially if you have a few cars, and tap on the wrong one when you pay (his experience obviously). He has 38 000 photos on his phone. He took his hard copy photos and had them digitalized. Last week he was in Toronto and did the half marathon with his daughter and has the medal to prove it. Thanks to Debbie S. for the training plan and coaching. He kept up with his daughter for about 5 km, then lost her, but it was an excellent run, and he is now ‘in the zone’, going back to being the active runner he was in 2012 and will register for the Vancouver half marathon. They were going to Jacobs Steakhouse in Toronto, and he wanted to check the prices online, but they weren’t listed. So, one drink and no appetizers still cost over $600 for 3 people!
Sam had a slideshow made for his wedding to Justin, but as Justin was a twin it was hard to tell which baby was which, except for the photo where Justin was eye rolling – a giveaway. Sam was wearing a sweater he bought in the summer and is happy it is finally cold enough to wear it.
Peter says he only pays bills at work by e-transfer, and now only if they have automatic deposit. He sent $8000 to a company, and they were hacked, so the bad guys got the money. Peter had to pay again. His cousin’s husband just passed away at 73 years old. He was a retired Mountie in White Rock, larger than life, a wonderful guy with a great sense of humour. Very sad.
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