Dedication

The other day as I left for lunch I saw a couple people who are dedicated to their hobby of fishing. The day in question was cold! A wet, bitterly biting cold held most of the united kingdom under its spell. (Coincidently, it was also the day that my home in Denver got over two feet of snow. As my Aunt Jen wrote in an email that day: "2 feet of snow or fog.....hmmm (both your homes are in the news today)") Yes, both of my homes were in the news. Denver because of the blizzard, London because the local airports were all closed due to the fog! But I digress…

The day was bitterly cold and foggy; the kind of day one finds oneself desirous of nothing more than staying in bed the duvet pulled tightly from toes to nose. Unfortunately, I had work to do and had to be in the office.

When I left for lunch, I was treated to the sight of a couple fishermen in the Thames. Anchored by the completely empty riverside terrace at Ye Olde Swann were a couple people way too into sitting in the water! Sitting wrapped in their parkas and sipping their coffee, these two were obviously doing something they love. Either that, were doing it on a bet or they were escaped mental patients. (This last is possible. I have been told that my enjoyment of all literature and humor British is bordering on manic. The boat they are in is called the Ford Prefect; named for one of the main characters in The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy.)

They were still there an hour later. Heathrow can not get airplanes into the air because of the miserable weather but these two can enjoy spending who-knows-how-long outside. That's dedication!

I hope that wherever you are today, you're doing something you're dedicated to!

Don Bergquist - 23 December 2006 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, UK

Editor's Note:
To those of you who are wondering. The temperature when this picture was taken was reported as -0.5c. Granted that is Celsius (the c following the temperature stands for "Communist" because it was the Communists who invented this temperature scale.)


For those of us who are food old-fashioned Americans, that would be about 31°. For those of you reading this from Minnesota, it may not seem that cold; a fine spring day. Remember that for the locals that is COLD! For those of you in Miami, think somewhere in the fifties… they think this is that cold!