MARCH STORM

       The March storm or storms is quite well known here. Today we had a March storm but it wasn't too severe. By this time of year the air has warmed up and holds more moisture. When a cold system comes in ,we can get lots of precipitation...SNOW. We usually get most of our snow fall in March. 

       Today we had a spring storm. It probably started just before 6:00 AM. At 7:00 AM there wasn't very much snow on the ground but it was snowing heavily and very windy. By noon it had stopped snowing and by 5:00 PM the sun was shining. 

     So I hope my series of photos gives you a bit of an idea what a spring storm is like here. 

     The first four photos were taken shortly after 7:00 AM

      The driveway photo was taken about 5:00 PM

   

   This photo was taken about 7:00 PM

The sun sets today at 7:48 PM

WHO DO YOU TRUST?

     I come from and age when communication was of high quality, reliable and trusted. For most of my life, I've been able to read things and accept them as fact. 

    When I was brought up, we had no TV, not an awful lot of radio and only a couple of weekly newspapers. We did know what was going on in the world. In fact, we knew a lot about the world. 

    I remember hearing Hitler speak. He was scary and as a little boy , I recognized that. I remember a broadcast describing troops loading on ships to come back to Canada after the war.

   Most of all , as an adult, I've appreciated well written news items. Items that were in clear writing and had been well researched. We could rely on the news we were getting.

    Over the years, the news industry has cut staff so there are fewer good writers and they do not have time to do thorough research on a topic. Things have become very sloppy. Errors were easy to spot. 

    With the news business becoming weak as in not good quality, an opportunity was set up so that unscrupulous groups found out that they could produce news features that could be twisted so that their extremist ideas could be  widely publicized.

    Large and profitable news organizations have been formed to pass off slanted material as truth. They are making fortunes. Unfortunately many people are believing and influenced by the garbage they put out. 

    The the war in Ukraine, I realized that both sides are peddling their own views of the war. I pick the Ukraine as the good guys. That's easy. But I have recognized that the Ukrainians are spinning the story the way they want the world and Russians to see it. 

    So recently , I've had to ask myself , "Who do I trust?"

    So for those whose eyes aren't glazed shut, who have we got that we can trust? 

THE AGE OF CONFUSION

     About once a week the micro manager visits with our daughter on messenger. And do they visit. From one to two hours of gossip. The usual time is 7:00 AM when suits them both. 

     Today the Micro manager was wondering if Janey was going to call so she was up about 6:30 AM to get ready on Facebook. 7:00 AM came and went and there was no call so I got up to check and see if the micro manager had things right. 

    I moved to where a call would come in and it said calling so I thought great. they'll have  visit after all. 

     Well out of the  gloom of an unlit room appeared a gray face! It was Willis, my friend from high School. Willis was confused. He wondered what the time was. Well, you know most of the world jumped one hour ahead this morning. However , where Willis lives the time doesn't change. Most things on the internet change times automatically. So Willis's alarm went off an hour early. I was wondering why I was talking to Willis instead of my daughter. I had not called anybody . Then I had to get my hearing aid so that I could hear Willis.

     Willis was happy that I had called. I was wondering why Willis called me!

     Well, we finally got ourselves sorted out  and quit laughing at our own jokes. We exchanged news and had a good chat. 

     Willis and I were in high school together and have kept in touch . We finished in June of 1957. 

    Well, here we are in gr. 10 . Willis is four from the left in the back row. I'm standing right behind the teacher. 

     This is when I'm 82 and  a half!

     I wonder how many other people were a little confused this morning because of the time change?

MORE FROM THE ARCHIVES

        A few posts ago I posted a piece about my daughter that I had written when teaching middle school writing. I wanted to show the students that I could do their assignments. 

      The other day as I was cleaning up once again I found a piece that I had written about my son.

      The five notes at the bottom were things my students asked. They were making suggestions as to how to improve my writing. 

FREEDOM?

     In my last post, the truck convoy people were continuously shrieking about freedom. They wanted freedom never recognizing that they already had freedom. Their wants about freedom tended to revolve around selfish personal things. By their actions they seemed to want the right to bad behavior without consequences. And they had no end of idiotic thing that they could do. They took sandwiches from a homeless kitchen. They urinated and defecated all over the place. They made tremendous noise. They made a general nuisance of themselves. It seemed that they were very creative in coming up with disgusting behavior.

    They had large expensive vehicles that they had no problems to run and not use them to gain income. 

    Now I know that comparisons are difficult to make. We can't go back. It's always a bit about comparing apples to oranges. Or as I have found out lately comparing the various senior living facilities.

    Now it makes me laugh when I think back to my childhood in the early forties, Yes, that's right. The early forties. The second World War was taking place. There were all kinds of restrictions. There was rationing. Some products were not available at all. My parents were young. They had very little money. Gasoline was rationed so much of the time we went to town with the horses. We couldn't buy any more gas. 

The photo shows me with my two siblings . I believe we were 2,3 and 4. All of our clothing was donated! Nothing new on us! A great aunt in the states sent several parcels a year. Our Grandma also found used clothing for us. Clothing wasn't rationed . We didn't have enough money to buy new clothing. 

   Candy could not be bought during the war. Dad loved candy. After the war the first candy Dad could buy was a bag of marshmallows. He brought them home and gave us each a marshmallow to enjoy. We didn't know what they were. We played with them on the floor as blocks. They got dirty and inedible. 

     We did not find these things to be hardships. Mom and dad wanted the war to end so that we would be safe. We didn't miss what we didn't know about.

    I can't help but think that the freedom convoy people are very spoiled babies. 

MY MIND IS A BLANK

      Usually there are three or four topics rolling around in my head for blog posts. They gradually hatch and become a blog post.

     Recently I've been in a dry spell.

     The crazy old Ukrainian war has kept my attention. I'm angry with what is going on in the Ukraine. I see all kinds of news about the war. We can't rely on what we see. I have limited information on the war so I'd best not post on it. I have seen some great blog posts about the war and I appreciate them . 

       In Canada we've just had a truck convoy occupy Ottawa. The protesters were extremely ignorant and ill behaved. They had no idea what they wanted . They had no idea how the system works and that the system does work. They confused the Canadian system with the American system which are both good systems of government. These two systems function well if left to do so. 

     Covid has distressed me for more than two years. I have not had covid and have had my three shots. The virus itself is frustrating as it keeps being able to change it's form and hit us again. It's not been fun staying away from people. It's not been fun seeing people misbehave in a very selfish way about vaccinations or covid rules. 

    These three issues have kept my mind whirling around. There's no easy fix. there's great risk from all three issues. 

   So maybe if I write about these three issues, I will be able to think of something else. 

LINKS

     It's interesting how our thoughts and ideas run from topic to topic. One idea puts us on to more ideas. It's how a conversation takes place. Ideas are linked.

     My neighbor across the street rarely if ever wears a jacket in winter. It got me thinking that high school and college kids did not wear winter coats a few years ago . I guess they thought it was cool.  

     When it comes to winter clothing I'm a bit of a fussy pants. I've spent a lot of time outdoors hiking, skiing and snowshoeing in the Rocky mountains. I know how to keep warm and comfortable. If a kid was cold usually all you had to tell him is put your tuque on and in five minutes the kid was warm.

      This got me thinking about a person in the 1960's who did not wear a winter jacket. But George did wear winter fleece lined under wear and a heavy shirt

     Then it got me thinking about who George was. George was a rather well known Canadian. The first big Alberta oil strike was Leduc #1 in 1947 . You guessed it. George was the driller. 

     George's portrait is a well known Canadian photo. He's pictured with a drill bit on his shoulder. They're heavy. I couldn't even move one let alone pick it up. How many people remember seeing this portrait?

I met George and his family when I was teaching in a town where they lived. George was a drilling supervisor. They moved regularly. Most oil people did at that time. George and his family lived in a small house trailer. George's trailer was 8 ft. wide. Most trailers were ten or twelve feet wide. When George had to move , he just closed the trailer door and hooked it onto his truck and away he went. 

      George was a large man and so were his kids. We often wondered how they fit in such a small house trailer. When we asked his son, he would just laugh and say they were used to it. 

    George was a story teller. We heard the story of Leduc # 1 blowing in many times. They were taken by surprise. Most of the holes they were drilling were dry but this time they were lucky. 

    Now this could keep me going to other ideas but, I'll stop for tonight!