The Pleasure of Meeting Dr. Barry

         The other day I had occasion to visit the emergency department at our local hospital. There are about twenty doctors who staff the department twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.

         So it was a real treat to have Dr. Barry drop in to see me. Why Dr. Barry a special treat? Well Barry was a former student of mine in junior high school.

         Now whenever I meet a former student I truly enjoy the contact. I knew that Barry was an emergency physician and that he worked in the local hospital. However, I had never bumped into him. I hadn't seen him since he left the junior highschool. Barry is now 40 so it's been awhile since I've seen him. I had kept bumping into his parents so I kept up with Barry's whereabouts.

         I remember Barry as a quiet, bright and  pleasant person. I had Barry for language arts which probably wasn't his favorite subject since if he was moving toward medicine I would think he would like science. I remember him being an extremely keen student. In those days we still taught spelling. I didn't mind using a few gimmicks. If you got 105%  five times in a row you could miss the next spelling assignment. Barry liked this idea and I think he got 100% all year. I would also bonus assignments that were done above and beyond what was called for at that level. So I didn't have any problem giving kids 11 out of 10 or even 12 out of 10. Barry could think ahead so he asked me if his average was over 100% would it show on his report card? So you see that he was not just bright but keen.

      So we had a little visit the other day which I enjoyed. I was also looked after very competently...probably 110%!

      Now you can see what happened to me. There was spontaneous bleeding in my eye. I had the same thing about 10 years ago and I thought that's what I had now but I didn't want to self diagnose so that's the reason for my emergency department visit. It's not a serious condition and the blood will absorb in ten days. There is no risk to my eyesight. It's a little hard to look at.

Owl Web Cam at Ellis Bird Farm

        I recently put a link to a web cam on a great horned owl nest. Now I admit that I'm not someone who will spend much time watching any web cam.

       I have seen many owl nests from the ground. There's not really much to see as the owl sits low on the nest. Many times you're not really sure that there's an owl on the nest. I've seen many excellent photographs of owl nests.

     However, this web cam gives something I have never seen before. We have had seven days of continuous snow. We have received about 30cm (12 in.) of snow. This makes for a nest view that I have never seen before. The edge of the nest has a good build up of snow and the owl seems to be sitting in a snow bank. The owl shakes her feathers from time to time to get the snow off her body.

     I have a better idea. Click on my link and go to the web cam and see the owl on the nest with all the snow piled up around her.

I'm Back!

         I'm back on the net after a frustrating day of being away. I missed reading blogs, checking Face book, email and Twitter. I also missed visiting sites that give me information.

        When I signed in to the internet yesterday morning I was given a message that my web browser wasn't working. I tried entering two or three times and then left. I came back a few hours later and the same conditions were found. Now this bothered me. I usually fix most stuff around my house. Although about a year ago I wrote a post called reluctant handyman. I even fix my cars. My first step is to wait and see if the problem clears up on it's own and then go on to other plans.

       So after supper when I found the same condition I phoned my friend Bill. Bill told me to unplug the modem for at least a minute and that the computer would find itself. I had done this about a year ago. It worked then. Sadly last night nothing happened. So I phoned Bill again for plan B. I was advised to phone my internet provider. After waiting on the phone for twenty minutes a tech answered. He said that a web browser that doesn't work isn't part of delivery service, but he thought he knew what to do and would walk me through the procedure. So within two minutes my web browser was back in business. He had me go into the control panel and reset my internet settings. Wow! Was it great to be back on the internet!

      Now I remember someone making the "I'm back!" comment about three years ago. About three months before my Dad died he went into a very quiet period where there was very little communication. One day my brother dropped in to visit Dad and Dad cheerfully told him, "I'm back!" My brother felt like asking where Dad had been but this would have gone over Dad's head. Dad told my brother that he had been really sick but now he was feeling better. Sadly Dad's recovery was brief and he lasted three more months all the while becoming quieter and quieter.

      I hope my computer coming back is more permanent than Dad coming back.

Another Good Dump of Snow

      Last night we had another 5 cm of snow and it snowed all day. This spring storm was forecast for Alberta so we were expecting it and it wasn't a big surprise. I looked out at 3 AM and the sky was full of snow as it was snowing heavily. So by the end of the day we had a good dump of snow.

      Now some of you may be saying, "Why is he telling me about all the snow?"  I know that some of you do not want to hear about snow at all. But I thought if I tell you about all the snow here it will make you feel so great that you don't have snow. Probably 95% of readers will be in the no snow category. 5 % will still be in winter mode so it doesn't matter.



March snow



     Heavy spring snow storms are common here. We get most of our snow in March. It doesn't worry me as I know that our snow will disappear quite quickly as the days are lengthening rapidly. The sun rose at 7:38 this morning and sets at 7:49 tonight so we get a little more than 12 hours of sun.

     I saw the first crow yesterday which is a good sign of spring. This morning at 7 AM about 20 crows were sitting in a big poplar tree about a block from my house. Crows are very hardy birds and they will have little difficulty putting up with a spring snow storm.

Energetic Spring Storm

        We had a very energetic spring storm here this morning. It was a typical March blizzard.

        At 7 AM we had 3 or 4 cm of snow. When I looked out at 8:30 I said, "Ooh, We've had a lot of snow!" It was snowing heavily and the visibility was down to 1 Km.

        We had an appointment at 10:00 AM. The road was still good...not slippery. By the time we left the appointment at 10:45 much more snow had fallen, the temperature had risen to close to zero and the visibility had dropped some more. Needless to say, the road conditions had deteriorated greatly. The highway between Edmonton and Calgary was treacherous and not recommended for travel. Many people had hit the ditch.

      The snow slacked off just before noon and stopped during the noon hour.

      I had shovelled snow before leaving for the appointment and shovelled after returning from the appointment. I went out after lunch and shovelled again. We had about 15 cm of snow altogether.

     So this is a typical spring storm here. Short of duration and heavy snowfall. It was not forecast to any extent. We were told we would get 2-4 cm. So I got my exercise today!

Ellis Bird Farm Web Cam

         Today I have installed a link that takes you to a live web cam of an owl nest at the Ellis Blue Bird farm. I hope enjoy watching a great horned owl on its nest.

        This great horned owl has nested for several years in this location. The nest is built in shelter belt trees of the Ellis Blue Bird farm. The Ellis blue bird farm was established when a large chemical company established a huge petro chemical plant on farmland near Red Deer Alberta. Charlie and Winnie Ellis who farmed the land had been great bird lovers. They had put out bird boxes for blue birds and had a sizable nesting population on their farm. It was decided that the original farmstead should be turned into a research facility on birds The nest boxes are still maintained and research is carried out at the site.

       Visit the Ellis Blue Bird Farm website for more information.

Book Review: Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson

        I few weeks ago I did a small review of Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea. Since that time I have finished Greg Mortenson's second book Stones into Schools.

        Stones into Schools is a continuation of Three Cups of Tea. The work of building schools and establishing positive relationships continues. There is more of an emphasis on girls education and the expand into Afghanistan. With all this activity the challenges faced also grow. There's no free ticket that comes with experience in these projects.

       At the end of Three Cups of Tea some tribesmen from Afghanistan meet Greg and want a school . They have ridden a long way to find Greg and of course Greg promises them a school. However, it takes ten years before the school is built. All sorts of road blocks appear that delay the project. The location is extremely remote and pack animals have to be used to carry supplies in the last few miles. However, the school is finally built and a desperate people have an asset that their government and no other NGOs could produce.

      Greg suffers some break down as a result of pushing himself for too long. He deals honestly with his difficulties .

      I find Greg's story fast paced and he has an excellent segway from one area  of his activity to another area. He spends time in Montana with his family, speaks at fundraisers and travels to Pakistan and Afhganistan so all of these activities take place at the same time. He tells of one activity and when it's just right he leads you into another area.

     I enjoyed Stones into Schools every bit as much as Three Cups of Tea. I'm looking forward to the third book Listen to the Wind.