Opinion

Mount Kilimanjaro, 4 a.m. Thursday March 7, temperature -15C, elevation 18,500 feet. As the minutes and hours ticked by, I was getting colder and more exhausted. My hands and fingers were freezing and I was starting to shiver.

Basketball of any variety has never been a top priority on my list of sports to watch live or on television.

On most sports teams, at least men’s teams that I know, there is the team joker. He’s the guy who always seems to have the newest of jokes but also the guy who can’t stop pulling practical jokes on teammates.

Despite the fact that it appears in the spring, Olympus Has Fallen is the ultimate flag-waving summer popcorn flick with plenty of today’s biggest stars.

Life is never short of surprises, and I’m always surprised at how some people react to simple questions. Like last week’s column on the proposed transit system for Cochrane. Never once in that column did I say I was against local transit.

You have to love Alberta weather — wait an hour and you have a complete change. Equine management during this time of year can be quite the challenge.

The Kibosho Lodge was a great place to spend the night before the push to the top. It is only 200 metre from the Umbwe gate, the start of our attempt. With all the changes to the trip, Lau had dropped the number of porters from nine to six.

I was about to sit down for my usual Saturday noon-hour visit with friends at Cochrane Coffee Traders a few weeks ago, upstairs in the room with the big table, when suddenly an amazing image appeared on the wall.

The morning of March 6 was very peaceful. We were having breakfast at the Kibosho Lodge, only 200 metres from the Umbwe gate, the start point of our climb. It certainly hadn’t been that way the previous 24 hours.

Is the Cochrane transit question a tempest in a teapot or a legitimate issue? Are we being stampeded into a transit system beyond our means or are we judicious in our planning for the future? It depends on who one talks to.