Rain, rain, go away...

Stuck at home pretty much all day, no thanks to our capricious weather. Well, we did give Q-tip an outing to West Coast Park's McD's, just in time for breakfast. Must remember that June wants Egg McMuffin, not Sausage McMuffin with Cheese and not order wrongly again (repeat 100 times).

This side of the park is a kid's paradise of things to climb, dangle and swing from. The park was just crawling with hordes of little ones, parents in tow. And dogs tend to be in the tiniest minority. June has the idea of bringing the nephews here at the next opportunity. Guess it will be fun for them, and a good excuse for me to test out the facilities for "safety" reasons. Heh.

But the dark clouds gathered very quickly, so immediately after our hot beverage, we left off our recce of the area before the South China Sea got dumped on our heads.

Back home I checked my correspondence with my contemporaries from the Class of '81. They held an informal meeting last Friday evening. It was the first time in years that they had seen each other. Judging by the 3rd person perspective, obviously I wasn't there, already too tired from the college Open House. Let's see if the lo-res pix they uploaded into our Yahoo! group can be seen at all here:

Hmm... just enough to be unrecognizable. It'll do. I only remember 3 of these good ol' boys: Alex (standing 2nd from left), my best friend in Sec 1-2; "Cherry-ann" George (standing 2nd from right), political commentator and the guy I blame for the permanent scar on my right shin in a soccer-related incident; and Mark (seated extreme right) whom Alex and I used to bully all those long years ago.

The others, well, either I have no memory of, or I never really had any contact with them at all 'cos I was never put in the smart classes :P

Don't they all look like responsible, prosperous chaps with families and important careers? And I have to wonder, what the heck have I done with my own life?

Reading through the forum messages, I noticed the guys were also discussing those of us who didn't make it to 40 years old. I hadn't realized that there were quite a number of us already deceased. Accidents, automotive and industrial; disease; and suicide have already taken some of us along the way, leaving the rest of us to raise a glass in their name as we vaguely recall who they were and what they did whilst we were still young.

Being alive at 40, and of reasonably sound mind and body: guess that's enough to be thankful for, eh?