Dear Singers,

Thank you for the many e-mails we’ve gotten from you over the many years since our retirement.  We continue our headlong race toward old-age.  At 82 and 78, we’re quite successful at that.  Connie is very busy with climate change politics and 3 days a week with child care of our 4 year old grand daughter Cadence. 

Alexis teaches at the Duncan Waldorf School and is head of faculty there (chip off…..eh?). She also has a lovely student string orchestra at her School and comes to Victoria for rehearsals with the Victoria Chamber Orchestra in which she heads up the viola section.  

Her husband Eric is a sound engineer for movies and although he went a full year without a gig (Writers/Actors strike), he’s back doing gigs now.

During the strike they sold their Langford house and moved into our Thetis house while they looked for property near Alexis’s School.  They found 1.5 acres minutes away with a small house while Eric (who has vast skills in construction) tore the “guts” out and rebuilt the interior.  In the meantime the local firehall put two of their buildings up for sale and they grabbed them for a studio and a workshop on their new property.  (105k for both including moving them onto their land.)

Although plagued with fatigue spells (over many years) and a bad knee, I’m able to go on long bike rides (10-30k) on my electric bike as well as building “little free libraries” (see video below) and doing layout for a Broadmead neigbourhood magazine.  Connie and I are also producing a book of stories about street people by for Rev. Al Tysick (long time Victoria street “saviour”) – Connie edits and I do layout.  Al retired last year and I have retired having worked with his society for 20 years.

In September, Connie and I took a car trip up to Grand Prairie, down through Edmonton and Regina, to Virden, Manitoba and back through Estevan and Calgary.  We visited old homesteads of my maternal and paternal ancestors that I had researched for my book on my Mom’s family, published 3 years ago.  Really fascinating stuff- mostly open fields now, but the last one was really exciting.  My Grampa’s brother had homesteaded in 1909 near Bengough, Sk, and left with the depression in 1930 to come to Vancouver.  We found his very remote land, buildings and farm equipment as he must have left them in 1930.  A few squatters relics were there from the 50s, and most of the buildings (except the house) were collapsed, but all in all a wonderful finale to our “pilgrimage”.

I hope we get to see you once more, but we send our very best wishes for a happy and long life for you and your families.

Love to you all,

Bruce and Connie