F 1 D 0 -- 02 08 06 at 01 55 To The Canadian West. Wow, things are happening fast. We are getting close to our road trip: Thunder Bay ON to Edmonton AB. We'll be passing through the towns along the way. I'm excited. We'll be away then, right? Of course. If I'm away, I can't spend a lot of time thinking about this: I found out that I qualify to take courses at the university. So now I'm thinking I want to register for something before all of the good classes are filled up with registrants. I have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday I'm sure I'll be only worried about what I'm taking with us. I've been trying to learn guitar. To that end, I'm playing the only song I know, Indian Point, Tuesday night. Wish me luck. I think I should really practice for a lot longer, but I'll be away! So it is now, or in the fall. I'll do it now, so I can properly embarrass myself in front of people I don't know well. I've converted the song to guitar tablature. indian1a.jpg indian2a.jpg Hey: Am I a dinosaur because I don't have a web cam connected to my computer? It isn't just one of you. Every time I turn around, someone else I know is getting one. Jeez. At first, I just wanted to post the music online so that I could tell the Tuesday crowd where they could download it, but this way, I've written a bit of blather too. Today didn't have a lot of cooking. I steamed some broccoli, and made soup. Had sliced cheese. See? Not much of a cooking day. Tomorrow will have more action. I've got a bag of these Italian Eggplant to make. They'll be good with the zucchini. Sliced the long way and barbecued. On Sunday we went to the Lunch Bunch Fishing Trip. Uh, nobody fishes at this. Well, not really. It was a great get together. Most of them went camping at the Cedar Shores Resort, but we just came up for Sunday afternoon and evening. The mosquitoes at this event were trained. You open the door, and fifty come inside instantly. They reduce the sound of their wings during attack. And most notably, they seem to like the taste of Deet. I guess it is like a gourmet sauce on my skin. "Bitter on the outside, but it grows on you once you suck deeply." One of the campers was David, a criminal lawyer. He's also an expert chef, and prepared this wonderful salad of baby spinach and barbecued onion. Each onion was cut to six, and marinated in a light vinaigrette of mustard grain and six other secret herbs and spices. No, not secret, but he didn't remember exactly what he threw into the pot. The onions looked like soldiers when they were all being grilled this way. And he made mountains of flank steak. Many of the attendees are vegetarian. So there was a lasagne, a chili, and a few other heavy entrees that were for the benefit of the non meat people. The ride was about three hours each way from here. One of the high points for me was the view of the stars. I stopped at the lakeside picnic area. I'm sure I saw a fox there. Just a bolt of red fur in front of me as I pulled into the parking. But after I turned off the engine and the lights, it was such a pleasure to see so many celestial lights outside. Ann liked the sound of the silence, how it seemed to press against us. There's more to tell, and yet, I'm eager to post this. You may not hear too much from me while I'm away. But I'll try. That's all I know.