Hi, Richard!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

AH>  1)  folks who live elsewhere aren't familiar with
AH>  the name
AH>  2)  they can't remember how to spell it
AH>  3)  they're not sure how to pronounce it, and
AH>  4)  even the locals may not be in agreement
AH>  about #2 and/or #3... [chuckle].

RW>  .  Liked that one.


          Glad you enjoyed it!  And, BTW... since you also lived next door to
Washington State... I don't recall hearing any songs about places like Sequim
& Snoqualmie either.  Never mind.  That can be our little secret.  I've heard
quite a lot lately about how Vancouver is a World Class City now, but in some
ways I liked it better when it was a backwater others didn't know about.  ;-)



RW>  PLayed western Canada, LEthbridge and some other
RW>  cities with a country band years ago.


          Ah.  I've heard of Lethbridge, but I've never been there....  :-)



[re life on the Wet Coast]
RW>  I always joked you could tell the real natives, they
RW>  didn't carry umbrellas .


          I've also heard it said that real Vancouverites have webbed feet...
and I see that a lot of folks around here don't carry umbrellas.

          As a high school student I noticed that some of the macho types who
wouldn't be caught dead with a plain black "man's" umbrella would
often use a
flowered one if the rain was heavy, though.  Awhile later Dallas explained to
me what was going on there.  For these guys it wasn't cool to own an umbrella
but it was okay to borrow one in extreme circumstances.  If a guy was using a
rather ostentatiously feminine umbrella others would know it wasn't his.  ;-)



RW>  I actually liked the pacific northwest, just couldn't
RW>  make any money up there.


          I like it too... but I hear what you're saying about the money.  If
you must go where the work is, you're probably better off where you are.  :-/



RW>  Kathy and I tell our relatives (Iowa and MInnesota)
RW>  that they'd best not die or marry between October 1
RW>  and July 1 because we won't come.


          Years ago, I spent a couple of weeks with relatives in Saskatchewan
during Christmas holidays & had a great time.  The cold bothered me less than
it bothers many of the locals.  The winter before last, however, we were more
or less confined to barracks for a month because of the difficulty of getting
around in the snow with a wheelchair.  We have warm clothing & we know how to
use layering to maximum effect.  We have rain gear.  We don't give up easily.
But when our fifty-six+ inches of precipitation per annum arrives in the form
of snow, we sometimes find it best to yield to the forces of nature....  :-))



RW>  You can't have a Blues death if you die during a
RW>  tennis match or while getting plastic surgery.

AH>  Anybody who can afford these things can probably
AH>  afford a getaway in a sunnier climate.  It's not
AH>  so easy to feel sorry for them....  ;-)

RW>  YEp, and if I were going to play Tennis etc. I"d
RW>  rather do it somewhere like Hawaii.  I could like
RW>  living there, visited there many years ago, again
RW>  touring with a band.


          Okay.  I understand Hawaii is one of the best places in the world to
be if you have a heart attack.  Now, here's the caveat!  Many tourists who are
unaccustomed to the climate can't wait to play tennis & other active sports as
soon as their plane has landed on terra firma... with the result that a fairly
high proportion end up in hospital.  In short, the medical professionals there
are *very* experienced WRT such matters.  My sources are an octogenarian & his
daughter & son-in-law who were visiting Hawaii when he had a heart attack.  By
all accounts Dallas & I have heard the care he received was excellent....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+