The Family Picnic

will be held at Joanne and Frank's at 2 pm, Sunday, July 15, 2012.

Family members who plan to attend should advise Uncle Digby so that the menu can be planned.

Please, bring your folding chairs to this event.

All is well and wintry here in Winnipeg. Stuart is in Grade 12 this year and is the president of the Student Council, as well, he works part-time in the produce department at Superstore. Andrew is in third year university, studying economics. He plays trumpet in a couple of community bands. All members of the family made our You Tube debuts during the past year. Carol was part of a 'flash mob' at Portage Place mall downtown, part of the promotional launch for 1HopeWinnipeg, a campaign to raise awareness of and funds for five community/outreach ministries of Winnipeg Presbytery of The United Church of Canada. You can view the dance at 1hopewinnipeg.com.

Last year, during a cleaning bee at the church, a package of letters were discovered. the letters dated to the Second World War. The letters were written by men and women from Transcona who were serving in the Armed Forces. Carol thought it would be moving to invite youth from our congregation and their friends to read the letters (they being about the same age as those who had written the letters originally) A couple of youth read letters which had been written by one of their grandparents. A few read letters written by people whose names are on the Memorial List we read every Remembrance Day Sunday (names of people from the Transcona community who died while serving a war) Carol used a flip camera to record the readings, then edited them into three videos and posted them on You Tube. You can see them by googling You Tube, then searching Transcona Memorial United Church. The video posted Nov 9 features all of the readers, each reading the beginning and end of a letter. Stuart reads the letter from R. Warner and Andrew reads the one from Leslie C. Brewster.

While posting these videos, Carol discovered that I, Jeff, was already on You Tube. You will find this 2 minute video also referenced on the TMUC You Tube site. It is an interview I gave while at River Running - a United Church conference on inter-cultural ministry.

That's some news from Winnipeg - Jeff

TRIVIAL PURSUIT

Chris Haney, co-creator of

TRIVIAL PURSUIT

(Montreal) Chris Haney was one of the co-creators of Trivial Pursuit, but there was lttle that was trivial about the former journalist who died on May 31 at the age of 59.

He was remembered by friends as a kind and generous man who brimmed with ideas and charm.

"He was at least as impactful on my life as anybody, including my parents, my wife and son," Scott Abbott, who co-created Trivial Pursuit with Haney, said. "We did a lot together."

Haney died in a Toronto hospital after a long illness. Born in Welland, he was photo editor at the Montreal Gazette when he and Abbot, a Canadian Press sports journalist, teamed up to create the game.

Editor's Note: Haney and Abbot proved that even trivial things are not trivial when they became millionaires as a result of a simple idea.

Carbon Monoxide

On Friday, May 28, Anne and Digby had their furnace and ductwork cleaned by "The Ontario Ventilation Company Inc." of London. Two young men did the job between 1 p.m. and 2:20 p.m.

Half an hour later the carbon monoxide detector sounded in the basement of the Sargeant home. Digby wondered if the detector was malfunctioning, removed it from the basement, and plugged it in in the garage. The detector stopped beeping.

Clearly, the device was working properly.

Windows and doors were opened. Anne contacted 911. A fire rescue truck and 4 firemen arrived at the house and spent almost 2 hours working to test and remediate the air.

Basement readings were as high as 189 parts per million in the furnace room. In the living room the reading was 89 parts per million.

From 4:30 to 6:30, Anne and Digby were advised to stay out of the house by the fire crew chief. So they went out for supper at Kel's Diner and then watered flowers at the condo.

By 6:30 p.m. the readings were normal, as determined by the crew chief. Many thanks to the Paris Fire Department.

Every home should have carbon monoxide detectors!

SICK BAY

Two weeks ago Joan Cook had a fall in her kitchen. She required five stitches to her head, above the hairline. Her two black eyes have healed.

She will be spending two weeks at a retirement home where she can receive around-the-clock care.

FAMILY PICNIC

Saturday, June 12

any time after 1 p.m.

at the home of Frank & Joanne Bucek

Meet and greet Mandy & Hannah Bucek!

Food will be provided.

Bring your lawnchairs.

Signs of Spring

When the robins come back to ....

March 20th was officially the first day of spring (the vernal equinox) and there were signs in Ontario that spring had arrived. The sun was shining and two male robins were visiting in our backyard ... the first we had seen this year. Well, not quite!

During our March 5 to 15 trip to North Carolina, robins were strutting their stuff, singing their best songs, and flitting competitively about in the garden at the Javidi residence.

Christine, Farhad and Arya were in Florida where Farhad was speaking at a conference. Nanny and Grampa were staying with Hannah, who couldn't miss her school band's competition at a site outside Charlotte. This involved some early mornings when Hannah had to be at school at 7 a.m., either for band practice or for Math tutorials.

Oh, you thought I had forgotten about the robins! No, no, not at all!

Before departing for Florida, Christine prepared a list of things that she wanted us to do for her. One task was to return a metal "plaque" bearing a colorful picture of a male robin to TJ Maxx. We were going to kill two birds with one stone one day. That is, after dropping Hannah off at school, we were going to return the plaque to the store.

That morning at 7:15, as we were about to depart for Hannah's school, I was in the driver's seat and Hannah was in a middle seat of the van with the plaque on the seat beside her. As Anne was about to enter the front passenger seat the fluttering of a bird's wings caught her attention and she swatted at the creature. I only got a sideward glance at the encounter.

Now Anne has always been afraid of birds. That is, when they are close to her in a confined space, she becomes very upset. However, this time she was sure that she had knocked the bird away from the car. A quick examination of the interior of the vehicle produced no evidence of the presence of a bird and so we started the drive to Hannah's school.

On the way, Anne did notice a few fluffy feathers on her window.

As we neared the school, Anne decided that she should apply some lipstick. As she opened her purse, which was on the floor of the car, she was shocked to see a dead robin lying there in her purse. We stopped at the front door of the school and Anne decided that she would try to find someone to remove the dead robin from her purse.

She and Hannah headed for the front door of the school as I drove ahead and parked the van in a temporary parking spot on the school grounds. I carried her purse out of the car and used a J-cloth to remove the bird from the purse. I placed the deceased on the school's lawn and returned the purse to the car. Just as I did so, Anne came along with a parent she had enlisted to "move the body". Somewhat embarrassed, we thanked the man and sent him on his way.

Now, the story should end there, but it doesn't.

Anne and I drove off the school grounds and travelled about twenty feet when suddenly another male robin suddenly appeared from over my shoulder and was fluttering frantically at my window in an attempt to escape from "the muder room". I lowered the window and he was gone in an instant.

Now the question is:
1) Did the bird on the plaque entice the two robins into our car? OR
2) Do American robins attempt to hitch a ride to Canada in Canadians' vehicles? OR
3) Do robins know that Anne is afraid of birds and take joy in scaring her?

I guess I'll never know the answers to these questions.