BRIGHT WINTER DAY

  Today was a very bright winter day. There was not a cloud in the sky so we received all the light possible from the sun. 

   It was minus 31 C at about 10:00 AM this morning when I took these photos. 

SIDE BENEFITS

     All my spring cleaning has brought about some surprises. In moving furniture and cleaning drawers I've found some things that I had forgotten about.

     When I retired from teaching, 25 years ago, brought home some treasures that I thought I might look at and throw away. I did look at them but didn't throw any of it away and then promptly forgot about them. My classroom was full of "stuff" that I used. Since I made up my mind to retire a year before I retired, I had lots of time to get rid of things. I had free garage sales where I laid things out and people could take what they wanted.

     I taught language arts to middle school kids. I had many prompts to get kids writing. For example , I would say make a list of ten relatives. Then we would go through the ten names and pick the one you wanted to write about.

   I always did the assignments that I gave the kids. Sometimes I wrote my piece of writing on the chalk board and got them to discuss it with me. Usually they wrote a rough copy and brought it to me and we talked about a few things and then they wrote a finished copy. I would prompt them for more detail. Maybe change the order. Check the words they chose to see if they could find something better.

    Well, all these pieces of writing came home. The other day I got to look at them again. 

   I wrote about one of my brothers and since it was his birthday a few days ago , I said I would send him a birthday present. When I went to scan the piece of writing the scanner wouldn't work but that's another story. 

   So here's a piece I wrote about my daughter. Of course, all of you know her. 

    I hope you can make this darker so you can read it. 

      It was about this age that I first met the determined streak . She's seven months old here. 

SO I HATE SHOPPING

       Did I ever tell you I hate shopping? Well, my blog says I told you in five posts that I dislike shopping. 

       So what am I having to shop for now?

       The Micro Manager and I are both in our 80's. Our kids don't live near us. One in Chicago and one on the west coast. We don't have any relatives here. But this is home and we like it. However, common sense tells us that we should make some arrangements just in case the wheels fall off the bus. So we decided to look at the facilities and see what they're like. 

     So we started looking at the various types of senior accommodation. I'll tell you, "It's a zoo out there." 

     Each facility has it's own unique business model for care. So one place looked pretty good. The people were active and looked happy. The food was good and people told us they like it there. People were visiting and participating in activities. But, you pay a damage deposit and you don't get it back.

     The next place is larger. They look after dementia people . They have personal care and then independent living. People didn't seem to be doing anything. In fact, I saw very few people. The people I did see didn't look very happy or stimulated. In this facility you can transition through the stages. In the first smaller facility If you can't live independently you have to move to another facility. 

     I also found out that there are certain situations where you could be government funded but that would get very complicated and you wouldn't have a choice of where you lived. 

    There are many smaller differences too numerous to mention . In one facility you need to buy very little and the other you buy many personal items. 

    Rents are similar. 

   So we are going to look at more facilities.

   I can tell you one thing and that is that we wouldn't want to be in these facilities with our present health. People in these places are in much poorer condition. 

   However, I'm kicking the tires to see what's out there. 

    And I still hate shopping!

SPRING CLEANING

      I have been conscripted into a job of spring cleaning. 

      I started to think about the topic of spring cleaning. At one time it was strictly done by women. Nowadays this male participates . I'm not sure when the process of spring cleaning started. But I know in rural areas and in housing that we had when I was a child, spring cleaning had to be done.

      We had wood and coal heating. The heater was set up in the house before winter started. Coal and wood are dirty and they do not burn cleanly. They leave ashes which had to be taken out of the stove from time to time. All my Mom had to clean with was a broom and a mop.

      So by the time spring came the house was very dirty. Smoke and soot came out of the stove pipes that went through the room. Walls had to be washed. Curtains were washed. Sometimes the walls were just given a new coat of paint. Usually my Mom had somebody help her for a week when spring cleaning took place. 

       My  Mom as a young woman and a young guy who wasn't much help with the cleaning. Yes, the young guy is me. 

 Nowadays we don't have most of the stuff my Mom had to clean up. However with central heating and ductwork dust blows around. We have vacuum cleaners and in my case central vacuum systems, to pick up dust. 

      So in my house spring cleaning is done. Maybe it comes from my rural background and the tradition of spring cleaning continues. 

     Now I  said, I was conscripted. However the Micro manager is not really up to cleaning work anymore. So I've got an early start on cleaning so that I'm finished by the time it turns nice.

    I've done two rooms this week. I vacuum curtains, wall hangings. baseboards, closets, furniture,  and down all corners and any other place that there might be cobwebs. After this I wash floors.

    Now I made the mistake of consulting the micro Manager and much of the stuff around the computer room was neatly organized again. There are a few things I can't find. I found a few treasures in my disorganized mess. 

    So is spring cleaning just done by old fogies like me? 

NEVER AGAIN

       A few days ago I went to an ophthalmologist who has been checking my eye pressure for 5  or 6 years.  Ordinarily my eye pressure would have been high but they have discovered that people with a thicker cornea have higher pressures but it's normal and not to worry about glaucoma. 

      So this was the start of many regular checks from this ophthalmologist 

      He is known as very abrupt with very few words however he is known as a good ophthalmologist. 

     My visit this week was not pleasant. You go through a series of three test stations. The first station was with the eye chart and pressure measurement. The "tester" tried about 10 times for each eye and didn't get a pressure measurement. Her machine said that I had blinked. No one has ever had to give me more that one shot of air to measure my eye pressure. She also put some kind of drops in my eyes. Then someone came to the door and called her out and said it was necessary. I sat for 20 minutes without explanation. Two people walked in and out without communication. Then someone came in to complete the tests. They retook my eye pressure and put in more drops even though I told them I had drops. By this time I was somewhat upset. I contemplated just leaving. The rude "tester" took me to do the peripheral test. I was so unnerved by this time that when asked to take off my glasses , I told her they were in my pocket and she rudely said , "You're wearing them." 

    After the three sets of tests, his royal highness saw me. His conclusion:(1) you're seeing alright and (2) you don't have cataracts.

   Well unknown to him, my optometrist decided I should have cataracts removed. I have been referred to another ophthalmologist .

    So the staff was rude and the guy's conclusions were both off the mark. In the last year and a half my vision has deteriorated. 

    So never again will I visit this guy. 

    I'm fairly tolerant but not tolerant to put up with this service. 

THE PLANS FELL APART

       For some time I have had it in my head to do and oral post. Yes, I would sit there and talk to you instead of writing a post.

       So with my limited computer and blogger knowledge, I started to look around and see how it could be done. Spoiler alert: I didn't look on You Tube. 

      I found on windows 10 how to make a video. I also found how to move it to blogger. I am bragging! In my test I had 12 seconds of video. It took forever to load it on blogger. So thought if I talk for 5 minutes It will take the rest of the winter to load it to blogger. 

     So I have a got to learn about condensing files or some other process.

    That just wouldn't work.

    Now I know there must be a few ways to do this project so I'll have to keep working at it. 

    Who knows? Maybe someday I can make an oral post. 

SNOW ROLLERS

      I have spent 82 winters in the snow and I have never seen a snow roller. You say, "What are snow rollers?" Well snow rollers are when certain conditions are met and snow automatically forms a snow ball. Wind, temperature and snow conditions have to be just right for the little snow ball to form. So it's like when kids rolled up a big snowball to make a snow man. 

        

       Kids in my area still make snow men. 

      This morning the temperature was plus 2 C, there was a high wind and our top layer of snow was soft and light.  When I looked out there were many tennis sized balls of snow. The weight of the snow limits the size of the roller. The snow stops rolling when the ball of snow gets too heavy or rolls into a place that is partly sheltered from the wind. 

       Light conditions this morning made it very difficult to get photos. Most of these rollers were about tennis ball size. 

    In the mountains these snow balls or snow rollers can get to be very large diameter about one meter. They usually form above the tree line where there is lots of fresh snow and it it can become very windy. Then if the snow roller happens to catch a slope to roll down it can get quite large. 

    So this morning was a first for my 82 years.