REFLECTIONS ON FATHER'S DAY

     On Father's day I found that a number of bloggers wrote very elegant tributes to their Dad's.  Some tributes were written about Dads who've been gone a long time. Some posts were written about or, to Dads who where were still living. In other cases , wives took the opportunity to write some very good things about a husband and what a good Dad he is. I enjoyed all these posts.

    However, I look at my own experience with Father's day and there has not been a very significant celebration.

   As children , I cannot remember any experience with Father's day at home. I remember making some sort of card at school. Father's day was just not a big issue. My Dad's family were German pioneers and I don't think they had such a thing as Father's day. My mother came from an English family and I don't think they celebrated and any special days. 

    So when did Father's day begin. That's maybe why my folks did little for Father's day.

    It's thought that Father's Day may have come from Pagan customs. In modern times Father's day was started in the U.S. about 1910. So it was probably quite some time before Father's day caught on in Canada.

    In my own family I don't remember anything special on father's day. So both my kids sent me greetings for Father's day. My daughter in law sent me a greeting and a neighbor sent me greetings. I am happy.

    What are your Father's day celebrations like?

A DECISION IS FINALLY MADE

   A while ago I wrote about getting a pair of hearing aides. I didn't tell you that I took them back. Most hearing aid places have a policy that you try the hearing aid for a period of time...some up to 90 days. After about three weeks I decided not to buy the set of hearing aides. The customer service at the business was absolutely terrible. Then I decided that the hearing aides were junk and service would be hard to come by. 

    So because we were busy it took a while to get back on the hearing aide trail. We finally decided to try Connect Hearing. What a great business! They gave information that you could understand. They tried very hard to give you the best experience possible. I now have hearing aides to try for 12 days. I know already that I will buy them. The first time I went out in the yard I heard chipping sparrows. The sparrows have been there all the time. I just couldn't hear them.

    The hearing aides I'm getting will cost much more money. They are from a highly rated brand.

    Now the previous hearing aides were from Costco. They have a very good price for their brand. I believe Costco gets all the old brands that haven't sold and puts their name on them. The hearing aides you buy are not the latest models. You are getting an older technology.

    Things are changing very quickly with technology . It's important to get the latest.

    I have a second level hearing aide. It will cut out some of the back ground noise. But it doesn't have all the bells and whistles to let you adjust TV volume and phones. I don't watch TV and I don't have a phone so I don't need those features.

    So if you're buying hearing aides , do your home work. There's a tremendous difference out there. Each hearing aid business has a different gimmick. As usual , some professionals are much better than others so look around until you're satisfied.

A LITTLE UPDATE.

   In my last post, that was too long ago, I wrote about a serious snow storm that we had.

    Now six days later we had a high temp of 30 C (88 F)! That's what it's like here...extremes. I'm tearing down my fence and worked the whole afternoon which wasn't a good plan.

   Today about 3:30 Pm we had a very heavy thunderstorm. There were very high winds. The rain was blown like snow. Our intersection flooded like it always does. We probably had about one inch of rain. We needed the moisture as it's very dry here.

    So anybody want to guess what might happen in the next six days.

JUST TO LET YOU KNOW...

   Just to let you know that in Red Deer Alberta we had snow today!!! Yes, it snowed for about two hours this morning. At one time there was about 2 cm on the ground. It's rained all day...just what we need. It's very dry here.

    There was much more snow in the Rocky Mountains. At higher elevations there was lots of snow.

ELLIS BIRD FARM

   I took my bird watching group to Ellis Bird farm Sat morning. This is an excellent birding site as many things have been implemented to attract birds  and they do it well.

    My birders spotted 27 species  in a little over 2 hours. The biggie was to see a great horned owl and her babes. They are just about ready to leave the  area. It's the first owl I've been able to show my birders. I take them at the wrong time to see owls...10:00 to 12:00 noon.

    So here's some of this beautiful facility.

     This facility uses an original farmstead as it's base. Here's the original home now used as a tea room.

     We can grow tulips.

One of the many ponds

    She has a large purple martin population

   Much of the original farmstead has been kept. Here is the original barnyard.

     Many places have hundreds of nest boxes. They've been used as fund raisers.

     

     I usually don't carry a camera. Many of our birders got some great photos. I've taken the liberty to steal some. The first and third shots are from Lynette. The middle one is from Jurgan

THE FISH STORY

     In my last post I had my photo with a large lake trout that I had caught. I've used this photo before to illustrate my northern experience. A lot went on before I caught the big fish.

      The 24 year old kid having a good time.

     I was hired by the Government of Canada to Teach in Canada's North land in 1963. The Canadian government took over the education system in the early 1950's. They ran things in a very regimented government fashion. In fact at that time a large percentage of the employees were vets.

     So I was required to take an oath to officially make me a civil servant. The next step shows more government organization. As teachers we were given only two weeks of vacation time and the other six weeks that schools were out we were given some kind of employment. The whole thing was kind of a joke.

     I looked forward to this experience. I got a position with stores. I learned a few things about how goods are kept track of from time of ordering to usage. I leaned about purchase orders and a few more standard procedures. It was all dull and boring. I had to put the forms together and file them.

    After a few weeks the stores manager got the bright idea to send me out to the settlements (Really small places) and check the freight that came off the barges. I don't know if the manager didn't like me and just wanted to get rid of me but it as another great experience. During my time out no barges arrived so I had no freight to check. Now I did have plenty of time to fish and that's how I got my big fish. The place I fished was Fort Franklin on Great Bear lake. Look it up. It's hard to believe where I was.I went to three different places and missed the barges. I flew thousands of miles and saw much beautiful countryside.

    After I got back to Inuvik I went south for my two weeks holiday.

    Now arrangements could be made so that you didn't have to work. If you took a summer school class you could get out for the regular two months. The next year I did take a summer school class. The year after that they ended the goofy thing of two weeks holiday and we had the regular two months off.

    Now I often wonder what happened to the oath I made to become a civil servant!!!

A JOB I WISH I HADN'T TURNED DOWN

     I've said  many times that I've lived in the best of times as far as the economy and opportunity for employment is concerned. I was always paid well and had a good choice when it came to finding employment. I applied for one position that I really wanted and didn't get. I wanted to go with CUSO but didn't get accepted.

    Now I was fortunate to be in a large school for most of my time and was given different assignments which made the career interesting.  I was asked to teach industrial Arts once. That would have been way out of my comfort zone. I was also asked to teach music once and that would have been sad. I'm not in the least musical. The guy who offered me that job had not done his homework.

   Now this was teaching! I was on Great Bear Lake and got a chance to do some fishing. This is a 34 pound lake trout. At the time teachers did not get a summer off . We got a two week holiday. However, the pay was very good.

    However, there is one position that I turned down and I have always regretted it. I was very active in the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) . I was familiar with staff officers. 

    A new president took over. She did not like flying in small planes . She was not comfortable in northern situations. She knew that I had much northern experience and was familiar flying in small planes.  She asked me if I would do her appearances in the northern part of Alberta. I turned it down very quickly . It would have meant being away from home for quite a bit of time. It would have meant extra work as I would have to make sub plans and sometimes I would get home very late and have to teach the next day. I also felt that the northern people deserved to have the president visit them. 

     So at the time it was easy to not accept the position. Over the years I've continued the think that it would have been a very interesting position. Bonnie was president for her two year term and then my job would have been over. I have regrets about not taking the job but I know it was the right thing to do.

    So have you had to turn down a very interesting opportunity?