MELT DOWN

      The micro manager loses things once in a while and she gets very upset. She has a humungous black purse which probably has more than 123 items in it. So what usually happens is that she puts something in the purse  when we are out shopping or doing business and then she can't find it. She gets very excited and thinks back to where she had the said item last. There's a lot of frantic digging in the black monster . Usually sooner or later she comes across the item she's looking for. I don't think she has actually lost anything but she spends a lot of time looking for things. 

    Now Friday , I had my opportunity for a melt down. I had to call at five different places to do business. 

    First, I had to call at a bank. Since I rarely enter this bank, as the micro manager does all banking, they asked me for identification. They wanted my driver's license. I'm very careful with that piece of identification. They took it and gave it back and I put it back in my wallet. 

    When I got to business number 4 , another bank, I was asked for identification and I couldn't find my license. I frantically went through my wallet again as it should have been obvious. No luck. By this time I was tearing everything apart. 

    Even though I knew I had put my license back in the first bank , I went back to the first bank. They had not found it.

    Well go to the next business. By this time I had cooled down a bit and decided to become sane and look in my wallet again. I checked in the pocket where I keep my license. I could feel something different between two other pieces of paper. There was my plastic driver's license. 

    Now this was a very upsetting incident which doesn't usually happen to me. If it's a small item I don't worry..

   So how about you. What do you fear losing most? What happens to you when you lose something?

HAPPY CANADA DAY.

     I wish everyone a Happy Canada Day. It's been different this year with covid 19 keeping us tied down.

     I'm happy with my country. We have many different people here and for the most part they are very well accepted and can join in our celebrations and daily life. We work hard and have many resources to use to our advantage. 

     At one time this was called Dominion Day. That came from a time when we were still a colony and part colony. In other words we belonged to another country. They took advantage of us and used our resources . They didn't pay very much for the resources. In 1867 we were classified as an independent country but not quite. Our High court was still in England. Foreign affairs were controlled by the mother country.

    Colonialism was an awful thing. Many of the world's problems are a result of colonialism,. European countries stole the resources or else got them very cheaply. When the colonizers left they left many problems. Problems in Africa and the Middle East result from colonial rulers leaving and leaving different borders than the  aboriginals had. The African people have been fighting ever since. 

    Here in Canada, the land was taken from the aboriginals. Trinkets were given or the aboriginals were treated  badly in many ways that the colonizers hoped the aboriginals would die . 

    I find it difficult to celebrate when our history is full of misdeeds. We are trying to make amends but I don't think it will ever happen. We are still offering beads for a solution. 

    In many places aboriginals are dressed in their regallia to celebrate Canada Day. I feel badly that the land was taken and now the aboriginals join in the celebration.

    So my apologies for raining on your party but I feel we have to acknowledge some serious issues with our history.

STREEEEEETCH

      I am not the perfect example of fitness nor the most knowledgeable. However, I do value being healthy and having as good a quality of life as possible.

      So here's where my limited knowledge shows itself. For a long time I have firmly believed that stretching is valuable. With stretching we keep more flexible. If we're more flexible a number of benefits occur. Flexibility helps us in balance , strength and posture. Balance and strength help to keep us from some falls.

     Stretching helps us to combat stiffness. Being stiff can cause all kinds of simple problems. Our body just doesn't seem to go where we want it to go.

     I'm a bit of a people watcher. Many times I see people who would benefit from stretching. Sore backs, hips knees? These things spoil quality of life. Not all issues can be improved just by stretching but many can.

    It's easy to find some good stretches for seniors. Just go on line. In other places there are excellent programs for senior physical activity.

   I stretch almost everyday for about 20 minutes. I'm sure I could find more or different stretches. I have had plantars fasciitis . I just cheated and went to a site to see how to spell fasciitis . They are selling all kinds of shoes and socks to treat plantars. I'm sure they do help but I found stretching got rid of the problem for me .This is very unpleasant as it feels like there are balls or rollers under your feet. Some people just give up and become inactive. Work hard and you can get rid of this stuff. For years I had lower back problems which were somewhat debilitating. I was told that what I was experiencing was due to small muscle tears in my lower back. A physiotherapist finally persuaded me that stretching would help. I've never looked back and it advertised stretching for me.

    Stretching also helps us to keep in tune with our body. We will notice when we are stiff or when the body changes. Don't let things drag on. 

This is only a small example of stretching. I know there is much more.

    So if we're going to live for a long time we might as well have good quality of life

 

MESSAGE FROM THE HAND

      Mr Pudding, from Yorkshire Pudding, makes some interesting comments. He can be humorous, witty, serious , and very much on topic. Sometimes he will pick up on one small detail and make his comment on a small part of your post. He doesn't care if he uses some imagination. If there's something he doesn't know or care about, he doesn't make a comment for the sake of making a comment.

     Mr Pudding made a comment on my last post that made me think of many more things about my post on my Dad.

     On the post I was trying to show my Dad and myself in two different phases of our lives.

   On the second photo Mr Pudding facetiously suggested that I had a fist behind my Dad and that I wanted money.

    My Dad was not a wealthy man. He donated much to Christian causes that he supported. He really didn't care if he had the money or not, he would make a donation. He was confident that he would be looked after.

    Dad was also generous in other ways. Dad had the idea that his farm would be somehow taxed if it was left in his estate. What did he do? He distributed his land equally to his sons before he turned 65. I said, "Dad , you will need income from the farm to survive. " He wouldn't listen. He had CPP (Canada pension plan) and Oas (old age security) and he would survive . He bought some property and was lucky that the time he had the property as it increased in value. He spent 15 winters in Phoenix. He rented the same old house for 15 years.

   Now he only had one financial goal. He wanted enough money to pay for his funeral. And he did have enough for a funeral and $1600.00 left over.

   Now for the fist behind my Dad? I think I had my thumb sticking in my pocket and Graham from Eagleton Notes agrees with me. Take a look at my photo in my post Father's Day

   So the comment from Mr Pudding made me think of much more on my Dad.

FATHER'S DAY

           
        When I look back I see having a Dad for a very long time even though most of my life was apart from him because of my career. 

         So here is Dad at age 28 with his first child ...me!

       
      Here I am with Dad close to the end of his life. He had been in a nursing home for about 5 years and at this time his quality of life was not good because of Parkinson's disease. He passed away in early 2008 at age 95. So at that time I had my Dad for about 68 years. Dad lived an interesting life and in so doing I also had an interesting life.

THE COVID VIRUS MAKES LIFE COMPLICATED

     I found out the other day how complicated things have become because of covid 19. I organized my bird watching group and found out that there were many hoops to jump through.

     Ordinarily I make up a schedule and publicize it and away we go.   Bird watching is an activity  organized under the Red Deer River Naturalists (RDRN) . This is a registered society and we must have insurance. Check the website to see where we're going. I also have a contact list and they receive an email with all the information. It's also posted on our facebook page.

     So I'm on automatic pilot with this activity.

     So the other day I sent out the schedule. Very soon after someone asked , "Well  what are the regulations regarding covid 19 for an outside group?" I had intended to look. Before I had a chance to look one of my fellow birders had all the info for stage II and the virus.

     I was surprised to find out that there were 10 questions that had to be asked of each birder. Much of this had to be recorded in order to trace contacts in case someone had the virus. We decided that we had to have some way of asking for the information and recording it. Since I described the type of organization RDRN is we had to follow the rules.

    Now when you look around it doesn't look like many people are following rules. Very few people wear masks here. I went to restaurant and all staff were wearing masks. I visited the same restaurant a week later and none of them were wearing masks.

    So I have to wonder how serious we are in our stage II of opening up after covid?

    At my age I will not be birding with a group because of the virus . They will do fine without me. 

HEARING AID DAY

      Yesterday I had my annual hearing and hearing aid annual check up.

       The market is very competitive for hearing aids these days. There are many gimmicks and you better watch yourself. What you're actually looking for is a good quality hearing aid but it's hard to sort things out with all the sales gimmicks.

      I chose a phonak which is highly rated. I get free batteries for a lifetime as well as annual  hearing aid checks. You can go in for service at any time. Now the price? Before I get there we have these things that contribute to the price. My pension plan  contributes $900.00. Our government has an aids to daily living program which contributes $900.00 AMA (Alberta Motor Association )contributes $2500.00 AMA also supply the batteries. So that's $4300.00 and then I get to pay close to $2000.00. 

     So yesterday they did another hearing test and that was fine...not much change from last year. The hearing aids wear cleaned and balanced. Then they downloaded any new updates. There was also some feedback which they said they fixed but today I still have feedback. So the hearing aids were louder and so was the noise. 

    So hearing aids are not perfect but they are much better than the alternative. The Micro Manager thinks I still can't hear. Most people I can hear very well but the odd person is difficult to hear and she's one of them . She is sure that I purposely ignore her. She gets frustrated with me. So the hearing aids are no problem , but some people have trouble believing I can hear.