I TOLD YA I'D BE BACK

    We were forecast to get about 10 cm of snow today. It didn't happen . We got about 5 cm (2 in ) of snow.

     From comments yesterday. We can get snow in September but it's not common. We usually get very pleasant fall weather in September.  This is our third dump of snow and we have no warm weather in the forecast.

     The eternal optimist here says we will get lots more nice weather.

JUST FOR INFORMATION

     Just for information:

          ... it didn't rain here today.

               ...but it did snow!

     Just for more information:

          ... it's going to snow  tomorrow.

                 ... about 10 cm (4 in).

QWERTY

Photo from the Internet

      Now I used to know what qwerty was. Today , I was reminded about what qwerty is. I didn't really need to know what it is again.

     Most of us have wondered about the arrangement of keys on a keyboard and why they are arranged in that order. I posted on it a long time ago. In the qwerty arrangement all the other keys are arranged around qwerty.

    Typewriters were invented in the 1870's. There were a variety of keyboard make ups tried. One inventor tried having the letters in alphabetical order.  The problem with most patterns was that keys that were often used were close to one another and so there was much jamming of keys. Somebody by the name of Mr Sholes spent about five years trying to develop a key board so that there would be a minimum of keys jamming.


     This pattern gradually became the pattern used on all keyboards,

     Well, the old typewriter has been obsolete for many years. My wife just sold her manual typewriter to an antique store this summer. With electronic key boards we don't have to worry about jamming keys. Will we get a new keyboard pattern? Somebody is probably working on a new pattern right now.

    Wait a minute. Don't they have voice "typing". Just say what you want and it's printed!

    Just think, you won't have to put up with all my typing mistakes. I make lots of mistakes and some of you are good at seeing them.

SOME BIRTHDAY WISHES ARE HARDER THAN OTHERS

     Today and old pal of mine turns 81! Well, maybe I should say relative. Our mother's were cousins.

     As kids , we lived on adjacent farms. We went to the same school. We went to the same Sunday school. As little guys we often played together. Cal was creative so things were interesting.

      Cal is second on the right in the back row. I'm to the left of the teacher's head. Aren't we sweet little innocent guys?

     When we got to be teenagers things got very interesting. Being of a very rural background we learned to drive at an early age. I drove the '29 Chev before we got the '50 truck.

    So long before we had driver's licenses we would "tear around." In other words we took somebody's car and drove around all evening and night. Needless to say these adventures became wilder and wilder.

    I left the district in 1957 but came back for long weekends. Call was away from time to time on various jobs. In 1962 Cal left for California and has stayed there. Cal comes back to the farm from time to time but I've never been able to be there when he comes.

    We've kept in contact but usually from other people.

    Years go by quickly.

     Today I noticed he's 81? How could that be?   It's hard to realize that someone is 81 years old.  When we last saw each other in the early 60's  we were carefree and careless.

      So the best thing I can tell him is life begins at 80 so he's well on his way.

IT'S WHITE AGAIN

      Yes, we had another good dump of snow last night. We got about 7 -8 cm ( 5 in). I got up several times in the night to see heavy snowfall. 

      The snow is quite wet so some large tree branches broke off trees.

       It's been about minus 2 C ( 28 F)  all day .

      So all in all it was a very dull day.

  Lilac leaves holding snow

Lilac bush loaded with snow

  Mountain ash

Car loaded with snow

The large poplar across the street

THE MOUSE

     I wrote my last post because I had just heard an explanation about something I'd been curious about for many years. As I said before, I had listened to a radio interview of Carolyn Anderson , head of African American studies at Emory . She gave information as to how the African American vote has been suppressed.

    Now I hope I didn't come across as a smart ass on the last post. The "mouse" Canada has a few tricks if it's own when it comes to voter suppression. The most common operation is gerrymandering. Our constituency boundaries have to be adjusted governed by terms of the elections act.  That's when the fun begins. Parties know the exact location of where their votes come from. So why not get the new constituency boundary to corral in these votes into one constituency.  The parties have in put into the redrawing of boundaries.

     People can be easily discouraged from voting. All of their reasons are wrong. Some people are convinced that their vote won't count. Well, having worked in elections I know that all votes are counted. People think their vote only counts if the party wins. It doesn't work that way. 2017 was the first time my candidate and party of choice won. I still feel that all my other votes mattered.

    In our last election many people were told to go to the wrong poll. Several of our politicians have done some jail time over this trick when they were caught.

    So the mouse is not innocent of dirty tricks. We just have to keep participating and make sure that elections are fair and just. With the electronic age it's become easier than every for outsiders to influence an election. I think we'll find that many elections have been tampered with by the Russians.

    So let's keep our noses in current affairs and remain well informed so that government will work like it's supposed to work.

    

SLEEPING BESIDE AN ELEPHANT

     I live in Canada . You know who my neighbor is. We have a saying that we are like a mouse sleeping beside an elephant. If the elephant rolls the wrong way it's game over for the mouse.

     The U.S. has been a good neighbor since the war of 1812. President Trump has given us cause to worry about our relationship.

     But this isn't where this post was supposed to go. I have always been interested in the American people and their government. I have tried to understand how their system of government works.

    One thing has always puzzled me. Why is the African American vote so low? What exactly does voter suppression mean? Do the African Americans have nothing to gain by voting.? Would they not have some power if they voted as a block?

     Today I found out.

    I have heard all these terms used before but their meaning escaped me until I listened to an interview today.

    There are many laws that have been passed which very efficiently prevent African Americans from registering to vote.  I've heard the term poll tax but had no idea what it meant or what it did. Pay to vote? That was news to me. Of course, many people don't have the money to pay a poll tax and why should you have to pay money to vote ? So many African Americans did not vote. Now here's a kicker. If you didn't pay your poll tax it accumulated. So later on you ended up with a large tax bill because you didn't vote. Nuts!

    Various eligibility laws were passed. African Americans were neatly cut off at the pass because they had the poor schools and school systems so could not pass the eligibility test. 

    Another trick was to demand identification like a drivers licence. Many African Americans didn't have driver's licences. Well, get one you say. Problem? They had to drive 50 miles to a licensing bureau.

    So over the years there has always been roadblocks set up to limit African Americans from registering to vote.

    So today I came to understand why African Americans don't register to vote and then go out and vote.