Yesterday contained multitudes, and had its sad and happy moments.

Our first task was both long-expected and a sudden surprise. Our friend Ann Olson died Saturday; her funeral was yesterday morning. She’d been living with the knowledge that her cancer was terminal for the past year; nevertheless she was still irrepressibly positive. She didn’t fool herself or anyone else into thinking she had a chance, but was still determined to live her life to the fullest. Her husband, Bob, gave the eulogy, and it was wonderful: funny, and warm, and full of affection. She will be missed by a great many people.

The funeral was in Maitland, just east of Brockville; we went through Merrickville to get to and from. On the way back, naturally, we stopped for a bite and a stop at the most dangerous model railroad store in these here parts. Here, Jennifer decided to exact her revenge for last April’s iPod incident and bought me what she called “an early birthday present”, viz., an A and B set of HO-scale C-Liner diesel locomotives in Canadian Pacific livery. Of course I was all flummoxed and discombobulated.

Since she decided to up the ante, I raised her; later that evening I bought her a digital camera. Now the flummoxing and discombobulation were on the other foot, so there!

Suffice it to say, the two of us are doing very well with, for and by one another. In some ways I think Bob and Ann (to segue back to the beginning of this entry) make great role models: they always seemed to complement each other’s strengths. We could do worse.