APRIL FOOLS DAY

       Tell me now, is April Fools day still celebrated?

       I may have been some where else, but at one time April first was full of fun. Everybody had a finger in the pie when it came to some shenanigans.

     Radio stations always had a good gag. I haven't heard anything this year but then I don't listen to the radio very much.

    Newspapers also had excellent tricks.

    When we were little kids at school we delighted in trying to play gags on each other. We even tried to pull one over on the teacher. 

    So are you playing any April Fools jokes? Has April Fools day had it's best before date? Or am I just out of the loop? 

EXPRESSIONS

        I am a unilingual Canadian English speaker. I don't know it that makes any sense. I  have a small bit of French and was exposed to German when I was growing up. 

       So I'm an English speaker. 

       I don't know how many English accents there are but I can not understand some of them. Being elderly and having hearing loss makes it difficult to follow accents. Hearing loss means that you miss some of the letters, words or phrases. Just enough so that you do not get the message. 

     But what I'm thinking about today is the different terms we use for the same things. For someone like me who doesn't travel much I find terms difficult. 

    One New Zealand friend talks about a chilly box which we call a cooler ! She also talks about a wheely bin which we call a cart. Lorrie? Yes, somebody told me it meant truck.  "Boot" for car trunk. 

    In different places you find different interesting terms.

    Most people have no idea that they use a term someone else may not understand. 

    So here's my challenge to you. What are some terms Canadians use that others may not understand? Terms that Canadians have no idea that they're not known or understood by others? This is turning things back on me. Have fun. I know I'm going to learn some things. 

CAREGIVERS

      I was listening to my favorite radio show  this morning. The current had another episode on senior care. Today they were focusing on the care giver. 

   Since senior health is unpredictable, setting up a care giver system is difficult  . 

   A large percentage of caregivers are spouses. In that situation you have elderly person  looking after an elderly person. The care giver starts out behind the game. Many of the elderly care givers are soon unable to give the care needed. In some cases the caregiver dies before the person being cared for. 

   One care giver interviewed told the story of looking after her husband who had Alzheimer's . To say the least it was a challenge.

   Many care givers are foreign workers. They are from another culture and have difficulty understanding looking after the elderly as they don't really understand the needs.

   Some training programs have been developed to help care givers understand the situation .better. 

  A training program  has been developed to put the care giver in a similar situation as an elderly person. A system of straps are used to make a person stoop, so they cannot look up very well. It takes no time for the trainee to get it that balance is a real issue. Eye shades are used to get people to understand what limited vision is like. The trainee goes through a number of situations to be able to better understand looking after the elderly.

    Listening to the stories and professional comments has certainly opened my eyes on care giving.

   The program I listened to is called the current and was on CBC  radio on Mar . 28 at 8:30 AM. 

SENIOR CARE

      Most of the time I listen to a CBC program from 8:30 to 10:00 AM. It covers topics of current interest or if it's not of current interest, they will make it current interest. 

     A while ago they had a series on care for seniors. They had experts from various fields and covered the usual topics of health, housing and quality of life.

    They set it up so that listeners could keep on commenting through emails. People write in and it's surprising how many different options there are. There are may family controlled and organized accommodations for lodging and care. Everybody has their own story.

    It's interesting to listen to those stories and realize there are many options. 

    The big problem is that many elderly do not have options. Some have very limited finances. Some have health issues that limit their options. Some people don't want any of the options and want to live independently. Sometimes independence is not an option. So we have some people who are unhappy with the options.

    It's a challenge for society to care for the elderly. In the fifties my grandfather lived in our home for his last 5 years. In some ways it was good and then there were problems. My Mom had an extra load to look after him. I think he always felt that he was a guest who required special treatment. I'm sure he would have been happier living on his own but that was not an option.

    So often I listen to this information and all of a sudden I say "That's me they're talking about." As long as we're healthy we can sail along and remain independent. But there will come a time when independence is not an option.

   All we can do is make some realistic plans. We have looked at senior accommodation. After that we don't know what we're doing. 

    

IS IT REALLY SPRING ?

     Time has been marching on to that time on the calendar that says it's spring. So there is a calendar spring and then there is the weather or climate spring. Whatever it is, spring starts on this date. 

     Here spring comes with some very changeable weather. We get most of our snow in March. We get our worst storms in March. The temperature can also be very pleasant. So depending on the time and weather, we aren't sure if we've got spring or not . And then who says if spring is a set time except for the calendar or a specific condition. 

    What I do know it that there has been a big change in the last three months. The sun shines for much longer in the day time. The sun's rays hit us more directly so we get much more energy from the sun. Today the sun rose at 7:36 AM and sets at 7:49 PM. We have a 12 hour 12 minute period of sun light. So where's this equal day and night thing? It's at the equator. 

   Just for comparison , on Dec 21 the sun rose at 8:42 Am and set at 4:24 Pm and we had 7 hours and 41 minutes of daylight. So the day is much longer. 

  We have very few plants awakening . The days lengthen very quickly with  much more energy from the sun so our plants develop very quickly when they start.

   So where ever you are enjoy the spring season. 

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS

      So for all those who celebrate and enjoy St. Patrick's day, I hope you had a good day. Around this house, you wouldn't know it was St. Patrick's Day. My friend Mike,  missed out on the green beer they had in his residence. 

    So when I was a child going to school in the country we did very little about St. Patrick's day. We may have drawn a few shamrocks and colored them green but not much more.

    To be more exact we did not really recognize St. Patrick's day. We were country people and country people did not take notice of frivolous days. Our community was German Lutheran and they didn't do much celebrating. Garrison Keillor described a young Lutheran's guide to the symphony orchestra and they were very serious. 

    Another more serious hitch to St. Patrick's celebrations was that my family and community belonged to a religious denomination that didn't celebrate things unless it was described directly in the bible and sometimes even then they argued or bickered about it. 

    Well, I left  the little farm community and got another look at celebrating special days. For a while it was more like Halloween and tricks were played. A common trick was to put green food dye in a toilet tank. On flushing the toilet some people were surprised.

   Once  I started teaching in middle school the big issue was that you would be pinched if you didn't wear some green. I only made that mistake once and after that I wore something green or every kid in the school would pinch you. 

   The story behind St. Patrick's day is well worth knowing.

   So going from no fun St. Patrick's to all kinds of fun it's been an interesting ride. 

WEE WILLIE WINKY

      As I was cleaning up breakfast this name came into my head from out of the blue. I tried to remember something about it. 

    First, it was part of a children's rhyme or song. But where did it come from? Could I think of a line. The only line I got was wrong. It was, "Wee Willie Winky went to bed with his underwear on."

    Later in the morning when I had time I looked it up on the internet. It is of Scottish background from around 1841. It was meant as a rhyme to get children to go to sleep. 

    Then I remember Mom used to sing or recite this to us very often when she was putting us to bed. Here's the first verse. 

 Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,

Upstairs and downstairs in his night gown.

Tapping at the window, crying at the lock, 

Are the children in bed, for it's past  ten o'clock. 

      There are 5 more verses.  There are many versions in the original Scottish accent. When I play them I can't understand them. 

    I remember how my Mom was excellent in reciting and reading things to us. 

      So it was a morning with a pleasant memory. Did any of you have this nursery rhyme sung or recited to you? Did you use this nursery rhyme with you're own children.

    For sure I'm going to be in bed by ten o'clock. But then I'm old!