It seems counter to rational consideration that a man of 80 who has recently undergone open heart surgery would seek to 'test' his returning strength and endurance by changing the tires in his vehicle from ice tires to all-season ones at the arrival of spring, but that kind of consideration has never given my husband pause. He has resumed his regular weight-lifting exercises, and as he said, he doesn't quite trust those who are in the trade of doing such things, preferring to do them himself.

This, from a man whose working career was that of a government bureaucrat, sitting at a desk all day or trotting on government missions around the world. But a man nevertheless who always believed he could do anything he had an interest in doing, and looking after the mechanics of items he owns is one of them. Another, far more important one to him being satisfying his own anaesthetic by engaging himself in creating art, and at the same time becoming familiar with the operative wherewithal to enable him to make his own home renovations.

His imagination never tires, his passion for productivity only increases, and his drive to challenge himself never goes unanswered. It's been quite an experience, going through life sharing, in however passive a way, his curiosity and determination to engage himself in enterprises that most people would hesitate to involve themselves in. Caution is not a word he places great store in.

That, and his irrepressible fascination with the world around us, from omnivorously reading the accounts of others who have moved forward toward their own destinies in which adventure was no stranger, to hauling us all off as a young family in our early years as parents to become closely acquainted with the nature around us. Now, that has always been a mutually shared drive, the need to be close to nature, one that our children became themselves intimately involved with through exposure and familial recreational choice.