A week before my birthday, I received some sad news.  A friend of mine had passed on after a short bout with cancer.  Florence only was diagnosed with cancer in November of last year.   She influenced my life greatly as she was the sister of a previous girlfriend (before I met my wife).   Though I hadn't kept in touch with Florence's sister, I had kept in touch with Florence and we had shared thoughts and ideas especially regarding our common faith in Jesus Christ.  I am deeply saddened to see her go, but both Florence and I believe God has taken her home and she is in a better place today.   We'll see each other again someday.

 

Cancer has affected my life in a great way.   I have lost many loved ones to various forms of cancer.  I've lost my sister, my father-in-law, mother-in-law, my best friend's parents to name a few.  I also have a few of my best friends currently fighting the disease.  I feel helpless about it and wished there was something I could do other than contribute money to research and various cancer agencies as well as be a friend.

 

I've added a few pictures to the gallery.  Some of you will have noted that I appear obsessed with my cars.  Actually, I'm pretty materialistic.  I play with cars, stereos and music, guitars, computers, cameras, bicycles, golf, hockey etc etc etc.   But I am very cognizant of these things and will not let them become my idols.  Seems the harder I try to not let things become my obsession, the more things I get to play with.  Right now, I'm taking lots of pictures of the MINI because the shape of the car interests me.  Those of you who enjoy the experience of driving and have never driven a MINI should take one out for a testdrive.  They are rather fun things to play with.  The toys take my mind off of the bad things that happen around me and relieves the stress of the day to day grind.

 

There's also a couple of pictures of an owl that paid a visit to our neighborhood last week.  We've heard owls in our neighborhood before but this was the first time we actually saw it.   This owl was a bit of a ham.  It just mounted itself on the post and let me take pictures of it.   It even faced the camera.

 

Thanks for reading.

Wow...it's been that long since I added my last entry.  We're in the middle of Chinese New Years celebrations.  Lots of food and since I'm married, had to give away lots of red envelops.

 

Not much happening other than having an owl come and visit.  Yes an owl.  I've posted it up on MINI2 in the galleries under the member name beken.  Or you can click on the MINI2 to get there.  It was pretty big.  No wonder they're so loud.  The last few years, we've heard them at night.  This one is about a foot and a half tall.  It wasn't shy at all.   The digital camera was a pain to take pictures of it with.  You couldn't see it in the view finder or the display so I estimated and took the picture and then had to doctor up the picture in Photoshop.  After taking the pictures posted, I went home, pulled out one of my trust 35mm SLRs and a zoom lens and my big powerful flash and went out and took a few more pictures.  The owl was still there.  Either it wasn't shy and didn't mind having its picture taken or it was so scared it wouldn't move.  The only drawback of film photography is having to finish the roll of film and then having to develop and print the pictures.  But the picture quality is much better.  So stay tuned.  I'll post better pictures at a later date.

 

Being February, there's lots of birthdays of note this month.  My nephew Marcus, a couple of my best friends Park, Boaz and James, amongst others.   Also mine.   I think I'll take the day off and jump on a ferry and go over to Victoria for the day.  A getaway.  I'm smack dab in the middle of my midlife crisis.  I need to hang on for a few more years before I can retire.  I hope I can afford tuition for my daughter's education when she gets there.  I might not be able to retire afterall.  Boaz and I have our birthdays on the same day.  We used to go to Denny's together for breakfast when they had their "Birthdays are Free!" deal going.   But we've been pretty busy in our separate ways the last few years and I fear we are losing touch with each other.   Maybe once it warms up we can start our BBQ group going again. 

 

As for motoring, I noted the traction control coming on more often when driving my MINI now.  I know it's cold and wet this time of year but it was cold and wet in November/December too.  Am I driving harder or are my tires wearing?  

 

Cheers!