A DAY OF WORRY

       Jan. 6 came and went. There was worry and fear as to what could happen on this day. Fortunately, the day passed quietly. I hope that it means that there will be a change which will bring about some progress that the government will start to be concerned about the people who elected them. 

       When one looks back it's hard to believe that such dangerous and scary things could happen. It was unimaginable at that time to think that the Capital could be attacked. Looking back you see that many people were more than willing to lie and that more people again were willing to believe lies. 

     I hope that as we get further away from Jan. 6 some sanity will return.

     The United states has drifted into problems before and as a country they have gathered together and worked things out. I hope the same thing happens again.

     I had to call my roofer a few days ago. He's an amiable and pleasant fellow. We got on to Covid and government. He has been pulled into all kinds of conspiracy theories. It's hard to discuss things with him as he plays fast and loose with the truth. He doesn't listen to reason. He has his own rules for making deductions. He thinks that government and big business is ripping us off so he just doesn't want a different political party in power. He wants a different government. So when some of the loonies start saying that changes can be made he is ready to follow and does not consider what negative could go along with his choice. 

    Some days I feel hopeful about society keeping on a sensible path and other days I'm worried.

     Have we learned any lessons? Can we change?

AN INTERESTING AUTOBIOGRAPHY

      I'm reading Ernie Lyall's autobiography right now and I've just got to tell  you about this story. I never met Ernie but he was well known in the north. I did teach his son Pat. They lived at Spence Bay NWT  and Pat attended school in Inuvik which was 1000 miles away from his home.

     Ernie Lyall was born somewhere on the Labrador coast in 1910. He spent some of his growing up years at Port Burwell, Canada where his Dad worked for a Moravian mission. There was no school so his parents and a police officer taught him some very basic numbers and reading. Ernie went to a Moravian boarding school for two years and that was his education.

      Ernie decided to go working for the Hudson Bay company as a fur trader. When he was 17 years old in 1927, he set off in the company  ship not knowing where he would be placed. 

     This was the beginning of his 65 years in the arctic. 

     At that time the Hudson Bay ship, the Nascopie, took supplies and staff into the Arctic every summer. It would be the next summer before the ship came back. They picked Ernie up and put him at another post. He also got letters from home. So he got mail once a year. There was no radio contact as the Technology hadn't been developed. He became fluent in the Inuit language and many times was used as in interpreter for the police and government. 

    It was four years before he went south to visit his parents. It took him four months to travel to his parents home in Labrador. 

    The next summer he went back to the north and he loved the north so stayed there. He made many very long trips with dog teams. Many of these trips were incredibly tough. 

    He was moved many times from trading post to trading post. 

    He fell in love with and Inuit girl and he married Napisha and they had 8 children.

    He said he wrote the book because there was so much bullshit out there that he wanted to correct it. He spent much time criticizing a well known Canadian author , Farley Mowat. Farley Mowat wrote several books on the arctic and usually only spent a short time in the north where he put together enough information to write a book. I've read ten of Mowat's books and liked them as Farley tells a good story. 

     Later in life Ernie was hired by the government for various jobs. One of his many jobs was Justice of the peace.  He said that the first wedding he did that he was more nervous than the groom. 

    So Ernie has filled this book with many incredulous adventures during his 65 years in the   Arctic. I loved all of his stories. His stories make you feel as if you were right there with him. They make sense to me as I was in the North. 

PHOTO BLOGS

     I like photo blogs and there are many of them to pick from. They can be photo journals that picture everyday life. 

     Some blogs focus on topics like birds, landscapes. sunrises or sunsets, trips attractions such as parks.  . Some blogs show pictures of their local area everyday. Apparently they have many photos to choose from as they can pick excellent photos to choose from. 

     I like birds so I follow several blogs that feature birds. Along with the photos these bloggers have a great knowledge of birds. 

    Some bloggers concentrate on sunrises and sunsets. They show many beautiful skies and post their photos on other sites. Everyday the sunrise and sunset is different. 

    Some bloggers give a great descriptions of some of the places they tour. It's almost like going along with them. 

    Some photo bloggers post one photo every day. Some may concentrate on street scenes or wildlife scenes. Some are just random shots. 

    Then there are photographers who want to illustrate and teach how to take good photos. 

    Some photographers just want a good place to show off their photos.

    I don't mind admitting that I like photo blogs.

    Notice that I haven't singled any one blogger out. If I did, I would likely leave out some excellent bloggers. 

    How about you? Do you follow any good photo blogs?

BLOGGING

      Once in a while a few thoughts run through my mind about blogging. Blogs can be sorted into various types. I'm not sure that there would be a good reason to sort blogs. We would probably get into a long discussion about types of blogs and which category a certain blog would fit into. 

      Now that I've bumbled along and confused everybody this is what I want to say.

      Many blogs are of the blogger's day to day activities. These bloggers tend to blog everyday. These blogs are journals. It's a brief record of what they do everyday and they or anybody else can look back to see what happened. Some bloggers openly say that the purpose of their blog is to let friends and family know what they are doing from day to day. 

      Before the days of computers and blogging, people wrote journals. Some journals were detailed and lengthy. Journals have been valuable as they can be used as a source for research material. All kinds of people wrote journals. Our local well known naturalist Kerry Wood  journaled. His journals are in the local archives. 

     I journaled for about 10 years. My journal entries were very brief. However when I read an entry it tends to remind me of all I did on that day. I wish I had written a larger more detailed entry. I wish I had continued journaling. 

      So here's one page of my journal. The year was on the front of the book I used to write in. I'm always surprised at how much I did in a day. 

    Okay, I forgot how to use my scanner so the reproduction is poor. 

I HOPE FOR A BETTER 2022

      This year has been a very challenging year for everyone because of covid . Covid brought much more than illness but also sad divisions that hurt so many people. 

      However , looking back in the "way back machine" there were better New years.

      One of the first blogs I read this morning was the new Dharma bums. Roger and Robin both posted about how they met at a New Year's Eve party. It's a post that you should check out.

      I have my own New Year's Eve story and I've posted it here.

       Our first date was New Year's Eve 1965. 

      Pictures don't lie...very much.

      So here we are on the official night of engagement. No fancy digital cameras in 1965 where we could take selfies. So we each posed and  the other one took a photo. So you see a very young woman flashing the new diamond. 

       So this young guy was about as laid back as you could make them. 

      It's hard to believe that we were that young once upon a time.

     It's just s hard to believe that we are this old now. We have digital cameras now but we couldn't get our act together to take a selfie. 

     So how many other people have a similar New Year's Eve story that changed the rest of their lives.

LAST RANT OF 2021

      Well here goes . One more rant. 

       Don't you just hate it when smoke alarms and CO detector batteries  die and they just have to tell you of the situation by setting off an alarm. I don't think I've ever had a daytime battery alarm. I've never come home to the house and found the alarm ringing. It's always around 4:00 AM.

      So last night one of my smoke detector's batteries died.

       I was awake and thought I could hear something and then I knew I could hear something. I tried very hard not to hear it. I thought it might be my watch battery in the drawer beside my head. I just couldn't really tell where or what was beeping. My hearing is not good so I find these things hard to hear.

     Well, finally the Micro Manager got up. I thought , "Oh goodie . She can look around for what's going on. " Usually she cannot identify where the sound is coming from. This time she nailed it and told me where the sound was coming from.

      All I had to do was find some shoes and a coat and get the ladder from downstairs Then I got the smoke alarm down and pulled out the battery and that was the end of the alarm business. 

    How about you? I suppose all your smoke alarm dead battery alarms go off in the day!.

     Ya , I know . It just wanted to wish me Happy New Year with some noise. Happy New Year to all my readers and followers. All the best to you in 2022. 

SUNDOWN DEC.27

    I thought I'd have a little fun today and show the progression of sunset here this afternoon. I learned a few things about photography under these light conditions but I didn't learn any solutions. 

      Sunset this afternoon was at 4:28 PM. I started taking photos at 4:38 PM took photos every ten minutes. A couple of them are badly out of focus but show the light.  A few others are out of focus. 

     My first photo was at 4:38 Pm and then the others were at 10 minute intervals.

    Now I tried to get these in order from 4:38 to 5:38 but I've failed so you'll have to look at them backwards .