My stockpile for idle amusement is admittedly finite. Inexplicably I hesitated this morning – an unparalleled springtime day – before launching onto the county roads for a routine but undetermined dawdle about the local countryside. There were however conditions precedent to be fulfilled. After our conjoined and modest constitutional in the exercise room on the stationary bicycle and treadmill – and upon afterwards having sponged up the invigorating Vitamin D while briefly reposed on the balcony – the outstanding weather at last communicated its irresistible magnetism.

Over two “quad” espressos at Neat Café in Burnstown, Renfrew County during which I fully reanimated my erstwhile lethargy – and between casual asides with Proprietor Mark Enright and petty communications with Marcel the miniature dachshund – I opened a welcome email from Bobby Ball containing photographs of the latest Old Boys reunion.

Shamefully perhaps I haven’t an immediate recognition of all my former colleagues (who, I am quite certain, were able to bear the deprivation of my company). With others by contrast, I have maintained longstanding and repeated interaction. Some are former confederates in historic vacations to the Caribbean and Florida.