How I Met Your Mother

This blog post is dedicated to our children, Shelby and Sherilee.

On the 20th of October 1962.... 50 years ago... I had my first date with Shirley Ann Kandt.

The day Shirley gave me this picture at the end of 12th grade I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  It was so awesome!  It was the first time a girl had ever given me her photo.

We were at CUC...a boarding school near Lacombe Alberta.  On this particular Saturday night 50 years ago tonight, most of the students met in the chapel where we broke into groups of about 20 for a Progressive Party.  Each of the groups would spend 15 to 20 minutes at one place and then move to the next.  Thru the course of the evening we likely went to 8 or 10 departments or faculty homes.

I already knew I wanted to get into the same group as Shirley Ann.  Our first stop was in the Biology Department, where we walked around looking at various things that Mr. Irvine had set out for display on tables.  As we walked around the tables I made my way to get next to Shirley and we spent that first evening together going from one place to another.

I remember in the Physics Lab we were each given a piece of copper wire... and we were asked to make something with it.  I bent it to write my name and gave it to Shirley Ann.  Just recently Shirley showed it to me.  I didn't know that she had kept it all this time.  So, I wanted to take photo of it for this  blog.  But after looking thru our souvenir boxes tonight, zippo.  When we unpack the boxes of stuff and move into our new studio, it will likely show up.

It was common in those days to make a protective cover for our text books.  I wrapped the cover with heavy white paper and spent the next couple of weeks writing the names of popular hit songs on my Chemistry 20 book.  There actually was a song back then "Shirley."  I saved this cover and today it hangs on the wall in Shirley's office.

We didn't have very many classes together, even though we were in the same grade... our class had over 70 students in it... so there were usually two or three classes for each subject.

I remember buying Shirley a cyclamen plant for her Valentines present.  She loved it.  Since then I have bought her a cyclamen nearly every year.  This plant has high sentimental value to us and it comes with lots of good memories.

In the last 50 years we have shared a lot good times together. We've lived in a lot of neat places.  Built some pretty interesting homes... and we are still building things together.

We have set a goal to get this last side of new addition finished and then head out to Tucson... but this past week the fall rains have started.

Here Shirley is high up on the scaffolding painting the cedar shingle siding wearing my orange rain slicker.  The rain is pretty light and coming straight down, so with 30" overhang the rain does not touch the wall.

Here you can see how I put plywood above this window to keep the rain off the wall so that I could finish these corners during the rain.

Shelby, Kim and the girls came for the weekend, so today we went to Saturna... East Point Park.

Shirley and Shelby stop for this photo as the girls and their dog play around behind.

There was endless photo opportunities.

Lucy was happy to give her Grandpa some of her best poses!

The sea lions were relaxing on this rock off the point... the tide was high.  There were also some seals who gave us some entertainment.

Our day started out more sunny than it ended... and ferries were coming and going as we headed out to Saturna.

The bonus of taking our outing today to Saturna was to see our home from the water.  With a 300mm lens these are the first photos showing the studio and loft.

This angle shows the loft dormer which we added to our original plan... a good decision, as the view from this loft is truly special.

You can see the fresh unpainted cedar shingles that I installed yesterday and won't get painted until this coming week.  You can also see the freshly painted blue/green propane tank just below the unpainted cedar in the photo.  This new larger tank is for our new Kohler generator.

Wishing us all a good week... with just a little sunshine so we can get our outdoor work done!  It is best not to paint in the rain!