I am a member of the Crown Isle golf club.

You know those movies from the 60s where doctors and lawyers belonged to their local country club and went every weekend for a drunken party wearing fancy dress and the guys in dinner jackets?  You know the movies.

Pat and I do not partake of the many social events that our club provides except for  the Christmas party for members that we went to last night.  Fancy appies from the dining room chef and local wines and beers.

As it turns out we know more and more of the people we meet at this party including many of our friends.  But I did get the occasional guy that approached me and tried reminisce about this shot he took while playing with me last summer on the whatever hole where it faded into the fairway..  and I am going, I barely remember your name, let alone some obscure golf shot you made, but you have to make allowance for golf nuts.

The dancing went on until late but our friends and Pat and I were heading home by 10 because the food was gone and it was a cash bar.  We are retirees after all.

Great party but mostly because the weather returned to the normal for this time of year with clear skies and + 8 C.

Almost makes you forget the past 2 weeks of heavy snow and frigid – 6 C temperature.

I was reading this week that the last company still producing VCR machines closed down production.  (For my younger fans, VCR means a Video Cassette Recorder, an ancient version of DVDs, and if you are so young you do not even know what a DVD is, ask your grandparents).

We actually have 3 crates of VCR movies (including all the great Disney animations that our kids loved) and a VCR player in the basement. I am thinking of thinning out the storage space and getting rid of this, but with this news, who knows?  This might be worth $100 one day to our great grandchildren.

It is not like we are in the new age.  I had to hook up our printer so Pat could send a FAX to her CWL headquarters.  Again for my younger fans, a fax is like an ancient tweet with a hard copy at the end.

Darn we are old……

Well I hate to say this for the dozens of blog fans that signed up to come here next fall for the opportunity to make big money on the 7 swans,  apparently I missed that important step in the business plan (which I should have learned when I studied for my MBA at York) about the size of the market ie the demand.

I have been advised that there probably not 100 consumers lined up to pay $18,000 US for a gift of 7 wonderful Comox White Swans swimming in a blow-up Canadian Tire paddling pool.

Who would’ve thought?

Which of course makes me doubt all those other business opportunities for the 12 days of Christmas song regardless of the price estimates.  While I might agree with the cost of the gold ring I begin to think that,  even with Brexit… we could not find 10 British Lords prepared to leap about even if they were young enough to do so.

So I am advising my Blog fans that I will have to find another opportunity to make you rich.

Down in the workshop finishing the details on my model of the Diana.  This is getting near the end so I am spending my time on the little details that just make the model what it is.

Along the side of the waist of the ship are double rails that hold a net where the crew would put their rolled up hammocks each morning to air out.  The frames are called Hammock Stanchions and most model builders skip this trivial step.  I do like to add this but each stanchion has to be hammered at the tip to drill a hole for the cables and then welded to an extension that holds the frame on the deck rail.

Kind of tedious work but I love it.

In the afternoon between 4 and 5 pm I watch reruns of old CSI episodes (the good series from Vegas).  I know them so well I can practically relate the dialogue.   The last couple of days they have the episodes about the Miniature killer.  This was a serial killer that built elaborate scenes at 1/24 scale of where the murder took place.  Beautiful detail.

Anyway I am hunched over with my bino glasses working on one of the stanchions (I need 40) and look up at the TV and there is the miniature killer doing the same thing.   Makes you kind of wonder….?

Think of this as a Dragon den opportunity.

Janine came to visit this week.  On Thursday (before the snow hit) we were driving back home from west Courtenay along the estuary road.

At this time of the year the fields in the valley are filled with snow geese and cranes and swans.  This is a huge flat area that is farmed but is actually owned by Ducks Unlimited to give an area for birds to stay over the winter or stop on their way south.  A multitude of birds at any one time, each keeping into their own areas.

We are so used to seeing this that it barely makes notice,  but it is one of the sights we enjoy over the winter here in Paradise.    The local bird watchers publish that we get close to a thousand swans stopping in.

Janine pointed out that she noticed hundreds of swans in one area.  She commented that the latest analysis for the price of the Twelve Days Of Christmas song is that the ‘7 swans a swimming’  currently cost $18,000.  And I assume that is in US dollars.

So I am driving home and thinking.  Hey, here is an opportunity.  A bunch of my blog fans could come out next year and help net and capture all these swans.  Even if we only get 700 of the swans that could amount to almost $2 million.  Granted we would have to invest in nets and some kind of plastic pools to present them in, but we are talking of a good profit.

Granted I would be the idea guy so I would not actually be involved in chasing the birds down, and Janine would be in charge of the marketing, but a good profit for the rest of you.

We have had a couple of days of heavy snow.  About 8 – 10 inches.   Then the temperature went up and we are now having a light rain.

I stepped out back last night and noticed this peculiar pattern in the back yard.  No animal tracks just these evenly spaced holes.  Looked just like a big quilt or pillow.

To my many blog followers, you may wonder why I am spending less time sharing my thoughts and views on life with you.

I am reminded of the movie Forrest Gump when Forrest while running, was being pressured to express his perspectives on life for those needing enlightenment.

There is no question that my opinions should be shared with the multitude (for the good of mankind), but there is a slight issue.

Apparently my wonderful blog site has been discovered by those that want to share the insights that I intended for my family and friends.

They are so excited by my ideas they want me to connect them to their sites.  Which I block.

There is no question that when Meagan gave me a great name for my blog “views from paradise”  (and by the way I actually own the domain name) , I should not be surprised that others are checking it out.   Actually I hope to retire one day by selling the domain name.

Anyway, anyway….it is snowing here in Paradise.  The views over the trees and mountains covered in fresh snow are like those prints you find on Christmas Cards.  Beautiful… until you actually have to shovel it.