Served by Sydney

First, Morgan at Beauregard's, having a laugh about too many chips with the fish tacos.  Then the quiet Sydney serving Starbucks at Unclaimed Baggage, followed by Dana's declaration that the 8th of May is just as important as the 21st, then interestingly enough (but never enough) blocks of Sweetwater Valley (not Philadelphia cream) cheese and Mayfield ice cream served by Sally Anna, and lastly Kayla kangaroo (or kale or cabbage or koala, but not Banana Anna) at Crazy Tomato's with chocolate cake (but not tiramisu).

Who is Saint Anthony and why does his image appear on the medal hanging off the neck of an electronics salesperson who sold us a Canon SD1200?  Where did the French-speaking salesperson go and has she been practicing?

Time for time to read another short stack of pancaked pages:

• "The Age of Spiritual Machines" by Ray Kurzweil
• "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin
• "Cotton's Renaissance" by Jacobson Smith
• "A Place on the Water: An Angler's Reflections on Home" by Jerry Dennis
• "for Entrepreneurs who considered Suicide when business Got TOUGH!" by Dr. Robert S. Shumake

I rarely touch money these days, it seems, because the missus handles all the bills.  The less my signature appears, the less I have to worry about later on.  Fewer fingerprints, fewer traces left behind, fewer trails to follow than the ones I'm on.

Today, for instance.  I had received a message to sort through some used cameras at UBC (thanks, Patti!), looking for tiny marks that to sensitive fingers were instructions written in Braille.

While looking for the right camera with the right writing, I bumped into some lovely ladies - what is it about women my age that makes life so darn ... well, worth living?  Is it knowing their wisdom makes them wise up to wiseguys?  Why's that?  Today wasn't one of those days.  When I'm occupied looking for the clues that give us clueless clutzes the information we don't know we're looking for, we tend to ignore the body language and "Hey, I'm having a party at my lakehouse" kind of simple invitation any other day of the week I'd nod my head and say, "Why not?"

Instead, I was told I had to look at the front page of a few books (those listed above) for more Braille superimposed over prologues, introductions and praises.

Many snowbirds flying north for the summer today.

Many DoD stickers in the UBC carpark, too.

A leatherclad fellow buying for Flag Day.

What have geoengineering and the UK space program got in common?

When was the last time I played with a geehaw whimmy diddle?  'Bout time I picked up my grandfather's craft and carve a few for my family, is it not?

Family's all I've got.  I watch the family struggles on our planet and ask you what you're doing to clear up family troubles.  A colloquial question: why ain't you putting family first?  You think you're so uppity and special you can ignore family what mightn't've treated you the way you think you should've been treated?  Life ain't a smooth patch of pavement, my friends.  You ride your chopper without helmet or seatbelt and take your chances from birth.  There aren't enough parachutes to go around for those of you who fly, and no guarantee of a safe landing, neither.

I don't have time to read the Book of the Future today because I'm putting immediate family needs ahead of the rest of you.  But I've got time to say this:

We can squeeze and squeeze this planet for all it's worth.  No one will stop us - in fact, some will enjoy the show.  With that knowledge (we're the only ones responsible for ourselves), let's have fun turning ourselves around.  The planet is one big factory or playground.  We bipeds can count the resources available to us as one species among many.  Let us see our worth in relation to what we use as if we're one big family sharing the same bathtub, sink, kitchen and bed.  Take turns without using up all the hot water.  Do our chores - washing dishes and clothes, tending the food supply, changing the bed linen - with ingenuity and thankfulness.  We depend on one another, period.

That's all for now.  Time for meditative silence to appreciate the living while remembering the dead.  We grow too soon old and too late smart, becoming fodder for the early bird's earthworm by the time our mourning gives way to morning, catchphrases unimportant in the light of day.  Leaders, followers, opponents, observers, apathetics, up top or Down Under - we're all the same in/to the end ... family.  Surely, you're used to it by now.

Should Apple be punished for supporting inhumane working conditions, no matter their claim to innocence - a surcharge for using suppliers who exploit their workers?  Was it Nike or Kathy Lee Gifford who already answered that question once before?  Should a country like China or the U.S. have to answer their part in that question?

Maybe a South Korean sinking ship will help us remember the Maine?  A main cause often rises long after the "facts" raise a cause.  One fact is overdue.  Do you have a clue?

What about real estate prices in Oman?  Should you abandon your debts in Dubai and if so, can someone extradite you to face the executioner ... I mean, the executor?

A family is not an anomaly when you feel the bumps beneath your fingers properly.