Amazing, 3 golds today... Snowboard, Speed Skating and Pickleball

What Pickleball... a gold, yeh Mandy and Ken at VO, just picked up a gold medal for finishing top pairs at 1:15pm.  The crowd went wild, pictures taken and medals awarded as M & K beat out Laurette & Gail in the 2nd match game.  We came home and watched the Olympic Snowboard Gold winner Jayse-Jay and the three  Speed Skating Canucks beat out the USA team,  yeh, hey, gold, "its a great day in The Valley of the Sun, and Vancouver/Whistler BC".

Its a Great Day in the Valley

It seems like I have been living in valleys all my life.  I surmise as pioneers settled it made sense for people to congregate close to a river where water was plentiful.  The other reason was land was more fertile for growing crops and grazing, once the land was cleared.   I grew up in the Ottawa Valley near Pembroke Ontario. I worked in the Ottawa Valley near Ottawa our nations capital.  I worked in Montreal again part of the St. Lawrence River Valley.  We then moved West to the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, and now we are spending the winter months in the Valley of the Sun, in Mesa Arizona.  I guess I'm not a mountain man or a seashore guy but a true Valley Guy.  So it is a Great Day in the Valley wherever that valley is....

Living it up in AZ…

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Patriots Day & Silver Smithing

I was inspired this morning at our VO church service.  It was Patriots Day with the Canadian & USA flags being drummed into the service. The veterans from the different Armed Forces divisions were asked to stand and be acknowledged.  The oldest one was 93 yr old lady Jesse (WASP) who piloted airoplanes across the Atlantic during the 2nd World War.  We sang the grand old songs like The Battle Hymn of the Republic, great marching and rallying calls to motivate troops and supporters of the cause.  Many a tear was shed as memories and spirits were lifted with pride of country and thankfulness to the veterans who served.
The Olympics dominated the week with great excitement in watching amazing achievements and heartfelt disappointments, but always with pride of our Canadian athletes.  Go Canada Go....
I joined the Silver Smith club this week and made good progress in fashioning a ring for Mandy.  Precise work but most rewarding in creating something unique out of a flat sheet of silver.  80% complete, looking forward to the look on her face when mission is accomplished and it slides onto her finger.....