DEAR FRIENDS,

My-oh-my. It has been a trying two years, hasn't it? We thought it was gone, and then it wasn't. Now you see it, now you don't. And it fooled us a couple more times. I'm talking, of course, about the covid 19. I hope you all got your shots. I'm not trying to promote anything. It's just that the powers that be assure us that it's a good thing to be innoculated. That's all I'll say about it. Meanwhile, the rains are here so bundle up when the temperature goes down.

Those shots protect you from covid 19, but cold germs are still around. I once read that there are around two hundred kinds of cold germs. So even if you get a cold every year and that makes you immune to that germ you still have to live two hundred years to be totally immune to getting a cold. And meanwhile the germs would develop variations and mutations. So bundle up and keep warm. Drink hot fluids (do I sound like your mother?) and keep your neck warm.

O.K.,  I'll be quiet. But take a look at what's doing. Do you have an idea for an activity? Let us know about it. Call or send an email. We'd like to hear from you.

Now, for your pleasure and entertainment, we have a list of things you probably didn't know and probably (and gratefully) will forget within a few moments of reading. Don't blame us – blame the Internet for bringing it to our attention.

1. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated. (Are you really going to try it out?)
2. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite. (Definitely DON'T try this out.)
3. There are more chickens than people in the world. (Who counted?)
4. On a Canadian two-dollar bill the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.
5. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends with the letters "mt." 
6. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
7. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people whose…..never mind.)
8. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. (PLEASE don't try this.)
9. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
10.  A cockroach can live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (So be sure you get the rest of it.)

Wasn't that interesting?