SO MANY QUESTIONS

 

• what was the best part of parenting for you, and what was the worst?  why?

               For this topic , I have to go back before kids. When we got married we had a somewhat unrealistic idea about having children. You turn on the tap and out come little children. I had an unrealistic idea about parenting and parent responsibility. I had a lot to learn and I didn't know it.  

              Then surprise surprise we found out that we weren't going to have children . Oh! So what do I do now? Mom said right away "Let's adopt." I wasn't that keen about adoption and said ,"There are other things in life that can be fulfilling. " Well, you know who won that issue.  Adoptions were somewhat common at that time. Since we were northerners we had the idea of adopting aboriginal kids. 

               However, we applied in Red Deer and were very surprised  to receive a placement . They had told us that it might take two years so it was a big surprise. . 

               Here's my first point. The adoption procedure is thorough. That is there isn't anything they don't ask so there isn't anything that you aren't made to think about. I've often said that all parents to be should have to go through the rigorous screening of adoption.

              So one of the good parts about parenting was having to be prepared physically and in my own head. 

             The best part of parenting? Well as with many things in my life I don't pick one particular thing. Parenting was great. The most important thing was to love two little guys to death and to receive love in return. Well, there I went and said what was best about parenting! Watching two little munchkins grow and learn was fascinating. I noted heights and weights. I noted first teeth and walking and all the other firsts.  It was fun to do things with kids like sledding , travelling and many more activities. 

             Personal characteristics that were discovered and grew were interesting. You were stubborn from a very young age. I asked you to put your toys away when you were about a year and a half old. You refused. I gave you a swat on the bum and that brought about no change. What I did do was distract you for a minute and then asked you to put the toys away and you put them away just like magic. It's one of those times that I wish I knew what was going on in your head. I learned something. 

              Parenting was a lot of work, particularly when you were infants. However , when you are in the middle of parenting infants, you are so busy that time goes by in a hurry. 

                One of the worst parts of parenting was to let go. It was hard to see you leave home. Some of the hassles in teen age years weren't fun but they come with the territory. I can't really think of any big fights or disagreements. 

              I'm sure this leaves more questions so fire away. It makes it more fun. 

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SO MANY QUESTIONS.

 

• what advice would you give your younger self if you could go back and be 25 again?

              Advice? Well, I can think about things I'd like to give myself if I had the information.  I would like to tell myself to aim for 100% in marks in my subjects. My Dad emphasized to get 50% so at times I didn't get 50% or just a little over 50%. This was something that really limited my achievement in many ways. 

             I would be rather vain if I said I wouldn't give myself any advice. It's the same as the above. I did not work my best. So I would advise myself to aim for a higher rate of success. 

• do you wish you'd moved out of the house in Red Deer before now?  do you wish you'd moved away from Red Deer at all?

              I have never wished to move out of the house in Red Deer but maybe I should have. I like the house and of course, the neighborhood. If I'd moved I wouldn't have all the trash stored in the house but then I can blame Mom for that.  When you move you are forced to get rid of stuff. I still have stuff you left me when you moved. The best thing you left me was the little compressor you had. 

               The first year we were in Red Deer we would have moved at any given instant. If someone had come along and said , "Keith , you can go to Yellowknife tomorrow,." I'd have been gone in a heart beat. Once we got you and Brian we never thought of moving again. 

                I did have in my mind to go back home and farm with my brothers for a few years. Once it go closer to the time to make the move it didn't look so good. I'm glad I didn't make that move. 

               So in reality I have never wished to move. 

               Well, now that I think of it, when uncle John moved to Salmon Arm we did think about moving there. 

• if you could meet a famous person (living or dead) who would you want to meet, and why?
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•      Well I'm really no fun on this one. I don't have any famous person I would like to meet. I think that many ordinary people are fascinating. I wrote about Johnny May , our GG's brother. Johnny was a fascinating bush pilot  with a million stories. Now would I like to meet his famous sister? Only if I accidentally bumped into her. I don't really get it about meeting famous people. I don't think anything would rub off on me. As I said before many regular people have done interesting things and have much to teach you. 
•      Maybe , I'm just sour grapes since I haven't met any famous people!

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FALL COLOR

                    Last Sunday afternoon I spent a couple of hours at the Michael Obrien Wetland in Red Deer Alberta. This is a man made wetland which takes street runoff and runs it through a number of ponds which have plants which help to clean the water before it enters the river system. It's a very successful natural system. 

                  It was a very beautiful fall afternoon . I walked for the two hours and the Micro Manager sat on a bench. 

SCRUMBLY PART II

       Yes, I admit that I was pranking with my word scrumbly. You're a very tactful group of readers. Some knew that it wasn't a word and DJan  said,  "Nice new word."  Steve  really knew what was going on and tactfully said , "Is that a word?" Others said they liked the "new" word.

      So it was fun and I hope I haven't lost any followers. I have to single out one reader who didn't get it and she should have. My daughter should have caught me since she was in on one of my pranks. 

     I was put in charge of marking the written part of middle school language arts exams. There had to be  little orientation before we started marking. I usually took three papers, a poor one. a middle one and a very good one. We would mark these and if everything went as it should most marks given would be fairly close. One year I decided to have some fun. I asked my daughter to write the exam topic. She wrote it with a few errors. She gave herself the name "Chrissy" I gave the paper to the markers to mark. They gave the paper a mark from a D to A. Then they got going at each other. They puzzled. Finally, one teacher said, "This was not written by a student" I was busted. It taught us a good lesson about the difference between teen age writing and adult writing. So my daughter should have been on to me. 

     One of the more interesting books I've read was The Meaning of Everything: The History of the English Oxford Dictionary by Simon Winchester. The dictionary was put together over many years and is still growing. It consists of many volumes. Our local librarian commented many times about buying the Oxford English Dictionary , but it's so expensive that he could never find money in the budget.  The process was interesting . It's an easy read . I like Simon Winchester's books. 

      So I'm afraid that scrumbly will never make any dictionary and justifiable so. 

SCRUMBLY FALL DAYS

     Fall here has been somewhat disorganized. We've had nice days and then miserable days. On tree has leaves that have turned color and the tree beside it is still green. 

     So here are a few photos to show you my scrumbly fall. 

MORE MURALS

 I planned my downtown trip today so that I could get some more mural photos that  I found recently.

      I hit it lucky today and found an artist working on a painting. He told me where I could find more of his work. I like what he's doing since it's on a smaller scale. 

Some great work here.

Artist and helper

Artist hard at work.

I'm not sure how the fox and lines behind the fox are related. 

    This one is a little busy with butterflies

Yes, I know these aren't murals but they are part of the sky line right now. 

CATCHING UP?

      Some of the blogs I follow show many excellent murals on buildings. It seems that wall murals are very common in Europe and they have some excellent artists.

     So what a surprise a few days ago when I was downtown and saw a major mural project. It will take us a long time to catch up to other places with murals.

     It looks like more murals are planned so you might see some more photos here.

             

                 Magpies would be a good subject here . Enlarge and read the information. The artist some how or other did not use the lower left of the space?  Some guy tried to help out with the empty space by parking is car in front of the empty space. 

 

      Now I really like this mural. The space was well used and I wonder what the person is thinking about? Freedom?

                  This mural is a waste of paint unless the building owner just wanted a paint job.