Bill and Wendy's ickcillint adventures

The other day, driving in to town from the lake my husband proclaimed, "I feel like a boonie, driving into town for supplies on a old dirt road in a rattle trap car.  Indeed, he had a wild look in his eye and was driving erratically.   He looked like a boonie man;  hair two days from a shower, grey beard with two days growth, duck down growing all down his neck (preparing himself for the thin, grey pony tail) and he wore an old, stained t-shirt.  His attire, along with the wild look completed the uncomfortable image of what my man had become ... a boonie man. Needless to say, he had a boonie woman with him: hair askance, sporting hairy legs and pits.  Yes, we need to get back to town or out of town, one or the other. We do have some news.  It seems we are on track for departure for October 26th!  The Sri Lankan folks advised us today that they feel that we, along with other volunteers scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka at that time, should likely receive Visa approvals.  Therefore

I doubt I have shared with many of you the origin of the word, 'ickcillint' in the blog title.  It came about as a result of my studies in New Zealand.  My PhD professor, Dr. Kate van Heughten, from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand inspired the word! When giving feedback on my thesis, she would kindly say to me, "Ickcillint work, Windy, ickcillint." (the english word, 'excellent' adjusted phonetically to a Kiwi accent). I just loved the way she said it. Using the word in our blog title is Bill's and my way of continuing our connection to New Zealand. As Kate and I have maintained a relationship since my defense and graduation, she has been reading our blog.  She was unaware that she was the inspirator for the title of blog until she wrote to me the following: “Ickcillint” has by now probably acquired a new meaning in the English language across the globe (a mixture of hope, excitement, anticipation, frustration, disbelief, iron

Do you remember back a blog or two when I invented, or rather, conceptualized the Accommodator? You know, the cycle seat that accommodated lips and ball so they wouldn't hurt on long cycle tours?  Anyway, while riding along on this cycle trip, Bill detected a flaw in the Accommodator.  He became concerned that a man's testicles might swell within the Accommodator and therefore, the man (Bill) would then have to take the bike seat off after a long ride and carry it with him until the swelling subsided.  I believe he had determined a definite flaw in the conceptualization and so, I set to work revising the concept. Therefore, I created a Clapper Trapper Quick Release mechanism that allowed the rider to open the trap door and slide out of  the seat, thereby eliminating the need to take the seat off and carry it after a long ride.  So, with that design difficulty out of the way, I was free to carry on thinking of the answers to other questions that arose during the week long cyc

Bill and I have four guardian angels. These angels materialized during our bike trip between Burton and Lumby.   We made it to Burton on Thursday night, hungry and cold. It was a long day.  We found one campsite in Burton; it was virtually deserted.  However, there was one other couple in a neighbouring camping spot.  Now, Bill and I in our wisdom and laziness, don't carry cooking equipment, preferring instead to eat in restaurants.  We do however, carry nuts and cheese and granola bars, in the event that we cannot find a restaurant.  I asked the lone woman in the campground where we could get supper.  She informed me that Burton has one restaurant and it was closed for the season. So, we resigned ourselves to nuts and seeds for our evening meal and pitched our tent prior to consuming our miserable, paltry meal.  Guardian Angel #1 to the rescue. Gordon, owner of the truck and camper, retired Revenue Canada investigator from Victoria mosied over and invited us to eat with him an

Five significant things have transpired since our last blog.  Firstly, we had another scare with my dad. Secondly, we completed our move to Kamloops Lake.  Thirdly, my PhD alma mater city, Christchurch New Zealand suffered a major earthquake.  Fourthly, our daughter, Shelley got married on September 4, 2010 and finally, we resumed our bike trip. Yes, my poor old dad got very sick near the end of August, for no apparent reason. His mobility fell from walking independently with a walker to three of us (Mom, Bill and I) trying to muscle a limp rag doll out of a chair to the bathroom.  Something was obviously very wrong: profound weakness, almost comatose at times, visual hallucinations and severe confusion.  He has been in hospital two weeks now and only in the past few days have they diagnosed an E.coli infection.  He is getting better now,  but oh my, he will need to work hard at strengthening in order to go home.  He is quite determined and confident that his strength will come back.