I'VE BEEN BUSY

      I've been busy this last while and have not had the time I would like to read and comment on blogs. Summer is a busy time . However, events this week kept me busier than ever.

     We had rain this week. Not inches and inches of rain but about 2 inches and we had some minor flooding of streets and the odd basement got flooded. 

    This area gets about an average of 12 in of rain per year. Because the subsoil is clay the water goes into the ground very slowly.

    However, the photos are in front of my house. The canoeists are my neighbors. My house did not flood but it was worrisome.

SUMMER SOLSTICE

        I had in mind to do a few photos for summer solstice. It turned out to be a challenge that beat me. 

        I looked out at midnight the night before the solstice. There was an excellent photo. Just what I wanted. To the north, north west was light with a row of spruce trees that would how up black. 

        So the next night I was up, not at midnight though. It was cloudy.

       I prepared to try again last night so I set my camera out. Rats! I woke up at 4:15 AM. Well , I'm up anyway so I might as well take a few  shots. 

      For some reason I did not have my glasses on! So this photo is badly out of focus. So remember next time. Wear your glasses. 

     So this is 4:15 AM looking mostly north and a little to the east.

     Now I have to remember to include the photo!

DEMENTIA

  Far Side of Far Side of Fifty wrote a tribute to her Dad yesterday. It was a difficult tribute to write as her Dad has dementia. 

    She very clearly listed the main symptoms of dementia. 

    Memory loss, difficulty finding words, getting lost, unable to problem solve, unable to do two tasks at once. 

   I looked at them and then started to wonder how many people in their 80's have similar symptoms. I know I have similar symptoms . But symptoms can be in various stages .

    I don't have memory loss. I do have difficulty finding words. Somebody usually quickly helps me out. I don't get lost although today I walked right by my parked car and had to think about where I had parked it. I know that solving some types of problems is a challenge but I still get my crosswords, sudokus, wordle and a few others. I don't like having to multi task. I like to be able to do one at a time. 

     Last year I wanted to build another bird house. I had a fence board that I wanted to use up to make the bird house. I had problems to visualize how sides bottoms and top fit together. To make matters worse the one end of the board had been sawed crooked. I didn't catch that and it made problems for me in fitting all pieces together. I wondered why pieces didn't fit. 

    So are we on the way to dementia or just not very sharp any more?

PLANTS

      Spring is the time for new plants to appear. Now we're at the peak of the spring season and looking ahead to summer. 

      But thee are indoor plants!

      I don't know how it happened but at one time I had many "house plants " or maybe to be more exact "school plants. "  

      Well, I do have an idea why I accumulated so many plants. I probably asked a teacher who had plants. I know the Vice Principal gave me a huge Christmas cactus. After that plants just kept accumulating. Somebody had a plant they didn't want? Send it to school with the kid and give it to the teacher. There were many small plants like ivies. I had one ivy that trailed around the classroom. There were large plants like split leaf Philodendrom, diefenbachia. I also had a couple of tree like plants that grew to the classroom ceiling. 

      I was surprised by how many middle school kids were interested in plants. I always had some starters on the go for kids who wanted a plant. I think some of them had a favorite plant that they would visit each day as I would catch somebody daydreaming at a plant. There were many secretive plant waterers. I just kept my eye on things to  see that nothing was missed. 

   I was also surprised that there wasn't vandalism. I had one or two aloe veras. There was always somebody who needed the aloe vera for some owy but they always asked for permission. 

    So one day a kid said to me. "Mr. Kline do you know how many plants you have?" I said "No. Did you count them?" He had counted them so I said, "How many?"  Forty two! So my classroom was a bit of a jungle.

     When I retired I had to get rid of my plants. So teachers wanted some and kids wanted some. Some I wanted to take home. I made my plan to retire a year before so I had lots of time to clear things up. 

    Plants created a good times for me and some students. 

      

FAVORITE WILD FLOWERS.

     I'm not much for flowers in a garden. But when it comes to wild flowers I'm interested. You will hear me say often that that is my favorite flower. If you check you'll notice that I list  few flowers as my favorite.

     Right now one of my favorite wild flowers is in full bloom. The yellow lady slipper is at it's best now.  The yellow lady slipper is one of Far Side of Fifties favorite wild flowers. She carved some a few years ago and I was lucky enough to win a carving. 

     So I went to my favorite patch of yellow lady slippers on Sun afternoon. 

     

GRRR !

      Canada has a program that assists people to renovate their home so that it is more energy efficient. You decide on a project and submit it to the government program and they will give you a grant to do the project. Projects could be for upgrading  insulation, windows ,doors etc. They send out a technician who checks if there is air leakage in any place. They make a recommendation as to what should be done. 

     We decided to put in  some windows under this program. 

     So about 3 months ago we registered for the program. Yesterday I received a confusing email saying that I had registered but not submitted a project. We were not supposed to submit a project at the time but wait until we were accepted. 

    So for the next step I could use my GC to enter the government website or snail mail. The micro manager said, "do this on line." I said, "no use mail." So after about 45 minutes of going around and around and not finding the place to register, well we decided to go the snail mail route.  We phoned and the person answering the phone wasn't much better than trying to use the website. 

    Every time I try to use a government website I have trouble. I know part of is me. When I phone for assistance and they walk me through the process it works. 

    Is anybody else completely baffled when it comes to using government web sites?

SENIOR HOUSING CROOKS

       As you know I have been looking at senior housing options for the last six months. 

      The learning curve is steep. With two of us making the tours, asking questions and taking information home, it's still confusing. Then they throw a few wrinkles in and the whole mix becomes more confusing. 

     The people giving you a tour are sales people. They just want to get their units full with paying customers. They try and make things as glamorous as possible. 

    I guess I've seen too many of these facilities and I'm starting to notice some devious practices. In one facility I asked if there was a damage deposit and how much. So I was told yes there is a damage deposit but you don't get it back. They use it to renovate the place when you leave. So I thought a damage deposit was to cover any damage you did? Nope, they use your damage deposit to replace carpets etc Who's to say what is done or if your damage deposit or does it  just go in their pocket. 

    Some places have a deal where you give them a dump truck load of money and you get free rent. In the case I saw , you gave them $300000.00 . So they take your 300000.00 and use it for another investment. I have never been able to follow the arithmetic on this deal. I can't get the answer they get.

    So if  an elderly confused senior looking for one of these places there easily could be some advantages taken by the business.

    I know I may have to live in one of these places some day. I hope I can avoid the tricks.