LATE GREETINGS

     I have been away from Hiawatha House for a week. I usually like to post more often but I have a good excuse.

     The DRK (dirty rotten kid) from Chicago and her DRH (you get the drift) came for a visit. So for such an important occasion I've been busy! We did much eating and visiting. We made a day trip to Calgary and visited the Glenbow Museum. It was the day before the Calgary Stampede started so the partying had begun.

     So what I really wanted to happen was to  wish two Americans in my house being wished  a great Fourth Of July! It would have been the first time I had two Americans in my house. The greeting would have had too be late on July 5. 

    However, the problem was getting time to post the greeting! So here it is. I had the pleasure of wishing Happy Fourth of July . So the late greetings!

   Now somehow or other  serious giggling broke out. The kind of giggling where glasses come off and Kleenex come out.

     All  too soon the visitors had to pack up and head for home.

WHEN YOUR SON USES THE TERM "THIRTY YEARS AGO"

     A few days ago my son used the term 30 years ago as it applied to him. It shocked me for a second or two. I

t was hard to believe what he had experienced was thirty years ago.

     He said , "Thirty years ago I took my basic army training!" It sounded surprising to him.

     Now it brought back all kinds of memories from that time.

     He came home the day high school was finished and swaggered into the house with his buddies and gleefully said. "I joined the army." This bowled me over. We had worked with him to enroll in a quota program at University. Now he's going to throw all that away and join the army!

    Well, after some devilish laughter he explained that he had enrolled in a summer program for the reserve armed  forces. What it meant to him was a well paying summer job with some excellent experience. Of course, he was in with his two best buds.

    The 10 week basic training program was a good experience for him and he decided to stay enrolled in the reserve forces. He also gained some life long friends. This would give him some money throughout the year as they trained weekly.

    That year he was accepted for officer training and spent the summer in Camp Gagetown. It was a good paying summer job with good experience and advancement.

    The third year he spent the summer in communications training again. The fourth year he was Officer in charge of the original basic training program he took. So he learned much about leadership and communication.

    I enjoyed watching some of the ceremonies they participated in.

    Now when he said 30 years ago I found it hard to believe but it brought back many good memories.

CANADA 150

     Yes, tomorrow is Canada's 150th birthday. There will be many celebrations and most will be different. I would like some day to attend festivities in Ottawa, the nation's capital.

     We now call the day Canada Day , but at one time it was called Dominion Day as we were the Dominion of Canada. Canada Day sounds much better.

    We are a young country as far as ages go. We were formed in 1867 by the joining of 4 areas:Ontario. Quebec, Nov Scotia, and New Brunswick. Shortly after that Prince Edward Island became a province. Then British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan , Alberta and Newfoundland. Newfoundland entered confederation in 1949. So you see it took over 100 years for the country to form and we still have three territories which may some day become provinces.

     The other thing I found interesting is that some of the provinces were very small at the beginning and took in more territory . Ontario was only a third the size it is now.

    So we've grown physically and population wise. The population was less than ten million when I was ten years old. I liked the small population.

    The world considers us to be nice. We are pleased to be considered nice.

     We are fairly tolerant. I'm proud of that. We accept diversity fairly well but I think we could do better.

      Canada is the best country for me to live in.

    So here we are marking a happy milestone and looking forward to more.

I WAS ADMITTED TO A MATERNITY WARD...TWICE!

       Now before you get too carried away, I did not have a baby!

        I was not admitted because my wife had a baby. 

       There was no monstrous mistake.

       It was not some grand practical joke.

       But I swear I was genuinely admitted to a maternity ward.

       It has to do with health authorities wanting to make a health buck go as far as possible. Their creative ideas put me in the maternity ward.

       A few years ago my family doc decided that I should have sleep tests. A  sleep test to determine if I had sleep apnea.

       The good old health system had a plan. Since sleep tests are done at night and apparently babies come in the daytime , why not use the maternity ward for sleep tests. You stay over night and leave in the morning.

      So there I was checking into the maternity ward at 8:00 PM. 
  
       I was expecting to find all kinds of new mothers inhabiting the ward. I wasn't sure I was going to like this.

      The maternity ward was like a ghost town. They had no patients except on the second night there was one couple there in the evening.

      So the sleep test people were wired up to the test apparatus and tucked into bed by 10:00 PM. Hoping people would sleep with wires attached from top to bottom  was completely irrational. but I did stay in bed for the eight hour test. 

      I can't say that I had a good sleep but it was very quiet.

BLUE SKIES OF ALBERTA

     Well, apologies to Hawaii for stealing a little of their song. Apologies to Webley Edwards for borrowing from his song. 

     But I just started thinking about "Blue Skies " as song titles or "blue skies" in the lyrics.

     Ella Fitzgerald did a super job on "Blue skies Smiling at Me" Many other people sang "blue skies smiling at me"

    Many other songs have a blue something or other in them such as "Blue suede Shoes", "Blue Moon in Kentucky"

    Well, today I'm not blue. I just happen to have got some photos of our blue skies. We are an oil producing area and our sky can get pretty grungy. Sometimes we get a big wind and there is a complete air change and we end up with blue skies. I happened to stop and get some blue skies on my camera.

     Now can you think of a song with "Blue Skies" in it.

HOT DOGS! HOT DOGS! EVERYBODY LOVES HOT DOGS

    Well, at least most North Americans like hot dogs!

    I had planned to have a wind up for my spring birdwatching group. The plan was hot dogs, squares and coffee. It wasn't to be. The windstorm we had closed the location I had chosen. Even plan B was not available because the area was closed.

   So I got thinking about hot dogs and school. When I was little in the one room country school we would have a wiener roast on the last afternoon of school. We were wound up as it was because it was the end of the year so hot dogs really hyped us up.

   These events were carefully planned. The teacher had some money from the trustees for this event. Plans were made well ahead of time. We were all asked how many hot dogs we wanted. I think three was the limit. Wieners were sold in bulk so the exact number could be purchased. We were also given a choice of the kind of pop we wanted. Oh ya, there were usually marsh mellows. On the appointed day, off we went (running) to a convenient bluff where we could get wood. Yes, these hot dogs were done over a campfire. None of these store bought forks for roasting. We looked around in the bush to find a suitable stick to use for roasting. We all had knives to cut the stick and sharpen an end to attach the hot dog. Much comparison of sticks took place before the fire was ready for roasting. some of the sticks were broken before they could be used. You get the drift. It was wild. How any of us came out of it with two eyes is a  wonder.

    Well it was a very exciting afternoon with kids full of food that spun them right out of control. Some wieners dropped off the young cook's sticks. Somebody always got bumped and lost a wiener. We usually fished the lost wiener out of the fire. Some kids like a lot of burn on the wiener. Each had their own preference.

   So while I was preparing a hot dog barbecue for my quiet birders, I thought back to the excitement we had as kids in school.

THE BEST LAID PLANS OF RED

     I had planned to do a post on summer solstice. I like special days and to me the summer solstice is a special day. I planned to get some photos to show our long day. I'm always impressed when the sun sets after 10 PM. Today the sun rose at 5:13 Am and sets at 10:00PM for a total of 16 hours and 47 minutes of sun.

    However my special post on summer solstice was not to be.

    Tuesday evening a vicious windstorm hit us again with gusts to 112 kph (70 mph) . Again there was damage done in my city. Many trees were blown down and this time buildings were damaged and about 5% of the city still does not have power. Windows were blown out in a few buildings and roof damage occurred . Some roofs were blown right off.

    Fortunately I did not have any damage. Across the street a large spruce came down and landed on a house. A large poplar branch 25 cm (10 in) diameter fell at the school and the same thing happened half a block away. Most schools were closed yesterday. 

   So this is the second major clean up this spring.