A Pleasant Surprise

     First, I'm easily surprised. Second, I like a surprise.

     I've know Patsy , who lives one street over, for many years. Her husband was a teacher and I taught all three of her kids. Patsy does a lot of walking and usually has a little dasch hound or two. We wave and every two years or so I stop and visit. Patsy usually has the same friend , Carrie,  walking with her. So this is all very normal stuff.

     Carrie is on a naturalist facebook page that I administer. Carrie comments on my photos and posts. Carrie also contributes some awesome photos.  So I had a last name for Carrie. It didn't ring a bell as it is a married name

    Now the micro manager walks a bit. The micro manager also knows Patsy. The micro manager is a champion visitor so when she meets Patsy there's a big visit. On one of those sidewalk visits it came out that Carrie was Patsy's daughter! 

   What a pleasant surprise!

   I was not thinking daughter at all. Usually there is some resemblance from a middle school student in the adult. Carrie obviously knew who I was but didn't identify herself and probably thought I knew her or should have known her.

    So the next time I saw Carrie out for her walk I stopped for a visit. She was waiting for me to stop.

    Now I meet many former students. They have some reservations. The biggest reservation is that I will not remember them. It would hurt a former student if you had no recollection of them. Another reservation is that some former students hesitant because of their perception of their own behaviour. Former students quite often think that they were poorly behaved. I looked beyond the poor behaviour . Yes, I had to deal with misbehaviour but I rarely let that be the defining characteristic of the person.

    Now I hope I'll meet a few more former students. It's always a pleasant surprise.

I Like the Power in Clouds

        We had a hot and cloudy afternoon. It was one of those afternoons where it looked like a good thunderstorm could happen any minute.

         Around 6:30 PM a thunder cell formed and grew rapidly. It disappeared just as rapidly an hour later without one drop of rain.

        When I see the cloud build up I think of the tremendous energy that it takes to build the cloud and pile it up. I also like the beauty and movement as things build up.

      You really need a horizon to show off a cloud. My neighbor's trailer isn't a pretty horizon.

Perspectives

      I was in a classroom teaching before my 19th birthday. I remember very clearly being in a teacher seminar when they were discussing retirement and what the requirements were for full retirement. 

      Now an 18 year old is not going to be able to get his head around retirement. Apparently they were showing teachers a formula that would give them the time when they could retire on full pension. I remember the numbers I got when I used the formula. It was 1958 and I would qualify for full retirement in 1995. Now for an 18 year old kid  in 1958 , 1995 was an impossibly long way off. It was something I could not wrap my head around. I was too busy having fun at the moment.

     Well, time moved on. In fact, time moved on very quickly and 1995 did occur. As time was moving on I seldom thought about retirement. I was too busy. The teaching load was heavy. I was involved with professional development for teachers. I went to every conference I could find. I even went to a conference in Washington D.C. in 1992.

    I did not qualify for full retirement in 1995 but finally retired in 1997. 

    Now time really flies! I've been retired for 19 years. Looking back to the start of retirement seems like yesterday. Looking back to when I was 18 seems like an unbelievably long time ago. It was. It was a very different time. 

     Who could have imagined that when I retired the world would be so much different. Technology changed things. The economy changed our economic status. I taught through the best of times as far as the economy was concerned. 

     I've been fortunate to have a pension and to have defined benefits. What did I know about this as an 18 year old? 

     I  wish that 18 year olds today could look ahead and see the same opportunities that I had.

    So perspectives give one a different point of view.

    Here I am as an 18 year old with my first class. 

    Here I am in the summer of 2016 ...58 years apart.

Where Should We go to Eat?

     When I was a child eating in a restaurant only happened when we went to a distant town (30 mi) for a day's shopping. Sometimes we took sandwiches and ate in the car. So it was a big treat to eat in a restaurant.

     As a young person I had a few bucks of extra money. You know how teen agers can eat. So it didn't matter what time of day you could always tuck away a hamburger. I remember eating in mid afternoon and later in the evenings. In those days most places were closed by 10:00 PM.

    As a young broke couple we rarely ate out. By that time the chains had been established. We had fast food such as A&W. 

    With young kids there was another challenge. It was easier to eat at home.

    With older children we ate out once a week and everybody had a week for their choice of restaurant.

    Now my kids are gone many years ago. We didn't eat out much.

    Now that we're older we,ve got tired of cooking and so eat out more often. However, I still prefer home cooked meals even if they are very simple.

    So this post has got to where I planned. We have an awful time to decide where to go to eat. One of will say I like Chinese food. The other doesn't like Chinese food. One of us likes Mexican. The other doesn't . So for starters we agree on very little as far as food is concerned. 

    So the discussion goes on and then out come the coupons and that complicates things again. In our town there is a shortage of good restaurants. There are a couple of fancy places. These days most other restaurants are chains. There are a few Vietnamese that are private. 

    So sometimes we find a place that will have enough choices that we both find something we like. For example, one place has a great soup and salad bar and also great steak sandwiches. Sometimes we can make a compromise. 

   So for eating out there's more pleasure than just the eating out. There's lots of fun to decide where you will eat.

    How about you? Is it easy to find a place to eat?

At the Ranch House with the eboys.

    

Territorial Squirrels

    This morning I was looking out my front window to check on  feeder. I got more than I bargained for.

    Two squirrels were chasing each other around and around the trunk of a large green ash. They continued this torrid pace for at least two minutes. I was expecting them to quit from exhaustion. I found out that they had a very high level of fitness.

    Now my interest in watching the chase was to see how it ended. Was there going to be  big squirrel dust up? Was one squirrel going to escape? Would it end up in a draw?

    Well it ended in a draw. One squirrel ran into the upper branches and the other squirrel did not pursue. 
   
     Red squirrels are very territorial. Usually they just chatter at one another. You hear the chattering going on and again you wonder when they will be out of breath. 

     So the territorial squirrels can get very physical in claiming their territory.

     I wish these characters would chase each other far away. They are a nuisance at my bird feeders.

    How about you? Have you seen squirrel fights? How do you control squirrels at you bird feeders?
    

     

Quotes

     Today I noticed a quote that would have fit my previous post. In my last post I got on the topic of

unity rather than division. My example was that it's easy to ignore skateboarders but at what cost.

     I was doing the cryptoquote yesterday, and this was the quote. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they're stones that don't matter. -Maya Angelou

    After Angelou's quote, I feel guilty. A friend has been very ill. He shares his facebook page with his wife. I was telling his wife to keep us posted on Willis's condition. Then I thought, Willis is reading this and I'm talking about him not to him. Embarrassing?

    I thought , why didn't I think of finding a quote to go along with my post?

    Now there are many excellent blogs that use quotes to great effect. One photography blog The Smitten Image, has a very suitable post with each photo. Some blogs, Button's Thoughts, Just another Day on the Prairie, start with a good quote.

   So now I've talked myself into thinking about quotes for my posts. That's going to be a challenge because some of my posts are so odd it may be hard to find a good quote.

    Do you use quotes? What blogs do you read that make excellent use of posts?

I Talk to Skateboarders

    Whenever I get an opportunity to talk to skateboarders I take advantage of it. I know some people will say , " What does he think he's doing?" 

     I think most people think skateboarders have extreme attitude so stay away from them. Skateboarders are sometimes intimidating as they can be loud, rough and unruly. It's easy to see that an out of control skater or board may hit you. 

    By ignoring skaters we tend to isolate them

. Two groups of people ignore each other and do not know what the other is about. Without communication, misunderstandings can develop and then it's downhill from there.

   So anytime I have an opportunity to talk to skaters I jump at it. You can't just barge into a group of skaters. The opportunity has to be there. Not an invitation, but an opportunity.

   Last night I had an opportunity and used it. Three skaters were stopped on a small footbridge. A couple of little skaters cut me off and I had to stop. There I was with the three boarders. I made some comment about an awkward move and that got things going. Skaters love to talk if you show that you are the least bit interested in their activity. These three were very late teens and one maybe early twenties. They were well spoken and knew about their equipment and activity. 

    These three skaters had long boards and used them for travelling. In other words they went from place to place on skate boards. They think that skate boards would be great for commuting to work. They told me about the structure of the boards and how they were laminated with special glues to make them strong. Two of these guys weighed over 200 lbs. They talked about the smaller skateboards used for tricks. 

   Ages of skaters were talked about and what each age was interested in. Some of the long boards are used for going downhill at the highest speed you can get. These skaters continually look for different hills. 

   After 10 - 15 minutes these guys were ready to continue their trip and politely took their leave. 

   I've also talked to individuals who try various tricks. I met a young guy numerous times last year when I was riding. He explained some of his moves. Just by watching I couldn't tell how he did things. I met this kid a half dozen times when we would stop and talk.

   I think it pays dividends all around to talk to skaters. I'm passionate about not creating exclusive groups. Make people feel as if they belong in this world and they will contribute positively to life.

The old cyclist from 2009