This week, I had an eerie sense of déjà vu all over again as I visited with Laura in BC.

Welcome to the 169^th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a quote of the week. Along with the reason for my déjà vu, this week’s edition has some fun facts about foxes, bears, and train robbers from our visit to the BC Wildlife Park.

On my mind this week: Déjà vu all over again

Hello from beautiful British Columbia! I’m here visiting my daughter Laura for a week. During my visit, the words made famous by baseball legend Yogi Berra were ringing in my head. I had an eerie sense of “déjà vu all over again”.

If you’ve been reading for a while, you may recall a post I wrote in 2023 titled Why I’m never moving. At the time, I had been helping Laura pack up her apartment in Ontario in preparation for her move to BC. The most painstaking part of that move was packing Laura’s prized record collection. She’s a music lover like her mom and has an extensive vinyl collection.

Packing those records was so stressful, and we heaved a big sigh of relief when the boxes arrived safely at their destination after their cross-country journey.

Fast forward three years—almost to the day—and here we are again. This time, we’re packing the record collection for a much longer journey. And, of course, the collection has grown in three years. 

Laura and I spent Thursday afternoon carefully taking records out of their sleeves and putting them in protective sleeves, and then packing the outer sleeves in protective sleeves before packing everything tightly in a shipping box. As we packed, Laura carefully logged the contents of each box so she can track the value for insurance purposes.

Once again, I’ll be crossing fingers and toes and praying that precious vinyl collection arrives safely in Australia.

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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• Team Canada treated us on Sunday with a thrilling win in the FIFA World Cup Round of 32. It was our first ever World Cup knockout victory.
• Wednesday was Canada Day and extreme weather resulted in the cancellation of many events across the country. We got lucky here. After rain earlier in the day, the skies cleared and we enjoyed a wonderful fireworks display on Wednesday evening.  
• It has been fun spending time with Laura and Luma. Luma is getting used to visitors and no longer runs and hides when I arrive. I just hope she remembers me when I visit her on the other side of the world.   

Things I learned this week

Between travelling, packing and visiting, I didn’t have a lot of time for reading and learning this week. On Friday, Laura and I visited the BC Wildlife Park where I picked up these fascinating facts:

Who was Billy Miner?

If you’ve ever celebrated a special occasion with dinner at The Keg, you have probably enjoyed a slice of their delicious Billy Miner pie. Billy Miner was the American stagecoach and train robber responsible for British Columbia’s first train holdup in 1904.

He was captured near Kamloops after a 50-mile horse chase.

Foxy facts

Silver foxes are not a distinctive species. They’re actually red foxes. About 10% of the world’s red fox population are silver in colour. Both parents must carry a copy of the mutated gene variant that causes the silver colour.

BC’s provincial mammal, the Kermode

The white-furred Kermode, also known as the spirit bear, is British Columbia’s provincial mammal. Only found in BC’s coastal region, this rare protected species is threatened by the destruction of coastal old growth forests.

The Kermode is actually a black bear. Two black-furred parent bears can produce a white-furred offspring if they both carry the same variation of the Mc1r gene. Interestingly, a similar gene variation causes red hair in humans.

The park’s Kermode didn’t want to be seen on the day we visited, but I snapped a picture of the sign.

Quote of the week

As a nod to Yogi Berra, who inspired the title of today’s post, it felt fitting to feature a quote from the baseball legend himself.

If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up some place else.

Yogi Berra

I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.