Ten things you may not know about Kevin and Ruth

We've been writing this blog for over five years now, and we've shared a lot of our personal day to day stories. But there are some things that you probably don't know. Some of them are important to who we are and how we came to be at this stage in our lives. Some of them are pretty random, and not important at all!

Kevin used to work in a bank. Do you remember when all bank tellers were women? It wasn't that long ago! Kevin was the very first male bank teller hired by Bank of Montreal in Ottawa. He worked at their main branch downtown for about six months back in 1980. Being the only male, and working with a group of much older women simply didn't work out. Had he stayed there he would probably now be a Vice President working in Toronto.

Ruth used to be a very fussy eater. When we first met, she wouldn't even eat fish! Now, she only doesn't eat mushrooms, raisins, bananas, pears, walnuts, corned beef. She still dislikes raw tomatoes and peanut butter, but at least she's trying!

We are not retired. People assume that because we do all this traveling that we must be retired, or independently wealthy or something. We are neither. We are only 50 years old, so we're too young to be called "retired". We're simply not working right now. We aren't wealthy either, and we'll probably go back to work next summer. At least for five or six months. But then we'll travel again!

Ruth won an award for speaking French. But that was back in high school. But, as the saying goes, if you don't use it, you lose it! Now, her Spanish is much better than her French.

We weren't always frugal. Back in 1993, we went to Antigua for a week for our 10th anniversary. We went to a Sandals resort, and our week away cost almost $5,000. We would never do that now, even if money were no object!

Ruth and Kevin dancing up a storm at the Sandals toga party!

We jumped out of a perfectly good airplane! Back in 1987 when our daughter was only a year old. Kevin's mother was not impressed that we were going to do this, and we left Lindsey with her. I'm sure she had visions of having to raise our orphaned daughter!

Kevin and Ruth going skydiving.

We met at a First Choice Haircutters. Most of you know that Ruth used to be a licensed hairstylist. But you may not know that Kevin went for a haircut, and Ruth was the haircutter. Kevin hasn't paid for a haircut since! 

Ruth was in the Katimavik program. Back in 1979-1980. The Canadian government used to run a volunteer program called Katimavik. It was only for young people aged 17-21. They sent you to three different provinces over a nine month period and you did volunteer work. They paid for your room and board, gave you $1 a day spending money, and $1,000 tax free if you completed the nine month program. (Interestingly, our daughter Lindsey did the same program in 2005-2006 and that's where she met her husband Justin!)

Kevin doesn't like swimming. Or more accurately, he doesn't like getting into water that is less than body temperature! He is quite happy sitting beside any body of water and staring at it with beer in hand!

Ruth was hit in the face with a baseball. At a Blue Jays game back in 1999. We were sat in the front row along the third base line when Albert Bell of the Chicago White Sox was taking batting practice. He cracked a foul ball that took one bounce and hit Ruth smack in the face. We went to the medical room at Skydome for her, and after being  assessed Ruth insisted on staying to watch the game. They came down at the halfway point to check up on her, and we went to the hospital for stitches and x-rays after the game. The General Manager of the Blue Jays called us at home a couple of nights later and offered us tickets to a future game. He said he would put us behind the backstop!

Yes, we still have the ball!