For us, another visiting day in the exotic land of the Ogopogo.

For the rest of the world, a pretty typical day of chaos and weirdness. But since you’re likely reading about all the rioting and the Minneapolis city council defunding the police but hiring private security to protect themselves, let’s just deal with kinda cool stuff.

In Ethiopia, a 114-year-old monk survived the coronavirus. HERE. If I was his age, I think I’d be happy if I survived a trip to the bathroom, so he must be ecstatic to have beaten the pandemic.

I want a cake like that.

Meanwhile, Augie, the world’s oldest golden retriever had his 20^th birthday. Look at his face. He looks like how I feel these days.

In BC, along with hotels, campgrounds, and parks, the film industry is reopening.

Personally, I’m skeptical that there’ll be any social distancing, especially with the extras as they are stuffed into tents like lies into a politician’s speech. However, I’ll keep an eye on this one as I’ve had some fun being in the background of a few films.

Here, though, we were on the second day of our visiting vacation. Today, it was The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World’s dad and step-mom. Her dad, like her uncle, has a legendary garage, a place so cool it’s his go-to place to smoke a pipe, have a quick drink, and think about how to torture his son-in-law.

Her step-mom is a bundle of energy who has lost 80lbs since retiring by avidly exercising, eating right and quitting things like smoking. It’s like she’s found a new ‘her’ and has taken to traveling to places like Vietnam and Thailand, golfing like a pro and baking more pies than whoever invented the pie chart.

The trip began well enough. The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World said she “Had a shower that massaged right down to my brainstem,” which I would have thought was a terrible experience but apparently that’s not so. The water pressure in our hotel was epic.

We picked up breakfast in our room, again, and were on the road by 10. Traffic was heavy, a great indicator of how people are thinking about the pandemic, but we made good time and arrived in time for lunch.

We had a great time, doing our best to socially distance, and even had our first meal out. We went to a golf club restaurant where they had few enough people that we could sit safely apart from the golfers in their tartan sweaters, white knickers, and yellow socks.

The highlight of the visit was the homemade pie afterward. Gosh, that was good. The-Oldest, however, would say the highlight was his graduation gift – an expensive watch. Now, remember, his generation has trouble reading a clock on the wall that’s not digital, but he LOVED the watch, even if it took him a good 40 minutes to figure out how to put it on (his brother looking on and laughing the whole time.)

Now he can know the time without having to get his phone out. If you see him, he’ll likely wave his hand at you so you can see the watch, so ask him any time you see him. “What time is it?” “What time is it now?”

I tried to tell him it would measure the greatest resource he had, time, but he’s 17 and has all the time in the world, doesn’t he? All 17-year-olds believe they do, don’t they? All old guys like me know otherwise.

On the drive back, being so full, we didn’t stop at any shops, not even Tickleberries (what a name, right?) or Granny’s bakery. However, we managed another quick visit-and-run with The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World’s mom and step-dad, then we retired back at our hotel. Due to the pandemic, the room hadn’t been cleaned or restocked, but you know what, that’s not really that bad, all we really needed was more towels, and they brought some up.

The-Oldest’s nifty backpack and new watch. He is set for life, now.

Supper was pizza, (picked up), and we all retired to watch our own shows on our devices. The-Youngest continued his quest to watch every single video on rollercoasters, twice, while The-Oldest worked on beating his latest Mario game and answering the question, what time is it?

All in all, a good day. I was exhausted from all the socializing, (see golden retriever picture above), but The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World looked like a new person, smiling, her eyes bright and sparkling, a bounce in her step.

That made this trip totally worth it.