Monday, November 11, 2024

COMPLICATIONS

      Finding out that my SD card was not working was easy. The second step in checking showed me the SD card was not working. To check if the card was faulty I put in an old card. The old card worked perfectly.

      So off to the store (Staples) to buy a  new SD card. Oh wait! I checked the package and the non functioning card had a ten year warranty. I bought the card three years ago. So I felt better already.

     When I got to the store , they explained that the 10 year warranty was the company's warranty and not the stores. The proper way to process this warranty was to check the company. Oh! Oh! But they said they could work something out for me. This is where it got complicated. the store would give me my money on a gift card. I could use the gift card to buy an new SD card or anything else in the store. So  I bought a new card. I still had $1.05 left over. The new card had a one year company warranty. 

     Then they wanted to know if I wanted to purchase a store warranty on the new SD card. The store warranty was $5.00 for 2 years. The new card cost 11.99. So do these boys know how to make money. 

    So is anybody still following me on this deal? It took me a while to get this through my head and if I did this again it would be a different choice. 

   

Saturday, November 9, 2024

SNOW

      Three or four days ago we received 3 or 4 cm. of snow. It was gentle and fresh.

      There was lots of snow to shovel and it was pleasant to be outside. What was extra special were the flocks of geese flying south. 

      At this time of year we have many local geese flying out to the fields to feed. The ponds have many geese. But these geese meant business. They were fairly high up and flying directly south. These are northern geese. The ice has frozen solid where they have been hanging around. They will fly south until they find bodies of water that are ice free and empty of other geese that they might have to compete with. 

    Only very small ponds are frozen over here.  Anything bigger than my yard is clear of ice. 

    Now it was pleasant to see these geese fly over , but I know that there are millions more hanging around. The big migration happens when we get the first deep freeze. Temperatures about the minus 20 C will persuade most geese to move south where they will find food and open water. I remember one boxing day when the flights of geese were almost continuous.

    We do not have cold temperatures in the forecast so geese will be here for a while. Some geese stay here all winter using spots in the river that don't freeze over. 

   Sorry! No photos! I have replaced the card in my camera and ready to take photos.  

Thursday, November 7, 2024

FIFTY YEARS

     Today I received a pin in the mail from the University of Saskatchewan acknowledging my graduation fifty years ago. It seems like yesterday that I was still taking courses.

     Most of my university courses were taken in summer school. Teachers would spend their summer taking a course and then teach to make a living. 

    I had to take one year on campus in order to graduate. I took my one year and did not participate in any University activities. For many students , they were heavily involved in university activities. 

    So today when I got my pin acknowledging 50 years I do not have the great memories other students had as they participated in many activities. 

    Now I finished another  degree in 1968 . No celebration for that degree. I did attend the convocation for my 1968 degree. I skipped the convocation for the 1974 degree. 

    So the pin does bring back some memories. 

    No photos as I thought I had fixed my camera. I discovered that the card was not working so I'll have to get another card. 

    

Monday, November 4, 2024

BAD LUCK

      Well, I ran into a little bad luck this week. I only had two issues of bad luck so I'm waiting for the third bad luck happening.

       I decide to change the ceru disks on my hearing aids. These disks are meant to trap the ear wax before it gets in the hearing aid. I've always had trouble with this procedure. You are given a device which is to take out the old disk and put in a new one. I tried and I couldn't get it and finally gave up. When I put the hearing aids back on the right one didn't work! The stress level went out the roof. Hearing aids are costly and I was much afraid that I had broken something. 

      The next morning I was looking in a drawer and found something that I was not familiar with. At first I couldn't even open it. When I did get it open I was surprised to find a different gismo to change the disks. I tried it and it worked like a charm. So the stress evaporated instantly. I forgot that I had been given this device as it would be better than the old one.

      Yesterday was a fine day so I decided to walk and take some photos. When I tried to take the first photo the camera didn't work. Lights came on and an image was in the view finder but the camera would not click and take the photo. This blew my stress level up as I thought the camera was finished. 

      When I got home I decided to check the batteries. What had happened was not like dead batteries. For dead batteries the camera turns off no warning. 

     Well, I changed the batteries and guess what? Problem solved. 

    Stress is over. So I didn't get photos for this post.

    So I'm anxious again. Isn't bad like supposed to come in threes?


Wednesday, October 30, 2024

I MADE A MISTAKE

     I pulled my camera out the other day to go hunting geese. Well, you saw the photos of the geese.

    But I heard a click when I was getting the camera ready. I had accidentally squeezed the button.

    When I was checking photos later , I looked at one photo and couldn't make out what happened. It took a while before it made sense. There were dark shadows. There was bright light and other things that were not recognizable.


    I will say the photo is interesting but that's all. 



Monday, October 28, 2024

GOLD RUSH

      Spoiler alert. This is a teacher story.

      In education there are many different philosophies  that come and go. Anybody remember the open class concept? Remember the pods? Pods were supposed to limit the number of different teachers kids were exposed to. 

     Well, our school was organized into pods and it worked quite well. The pod I was in had four gr seven classes. I had an assignment of three language arts classes and one math and some options.

    We got the idea that we would take all 120 kids out for an all day field trip. We decided to take them to Fort Normandeau which is a nearby heritage site on the Red Deer River. . This  was where the first white people came to the area. At that area you could ford the Red Deer River. You could walk across, ride your pony across or drive your horses and wagon across. 

     Today there has be development on the site so that there is a credible museum of western history, theater, replica of the old fort and stopping house. 

    We divided the kids into groups and assigned them activities to take part in. Of course , being teachers we made them record what they learned and thought. 

    One of our caretakers had the hobby of gold panning. Small amounts of gold have always been found on the Red Deer river. Glayde got gold pans from the club and showed kids how to pan for gold. Kids did find the odd fleck of gold or bit of gold dust. I can still see their faces today when Glayde showed them that they had a tiny piece of gold. Of course, we had not prepared the kids to take small bits of gold back home so there was some stress until we found some envelopes.  . 

    Of course , we had a big hot dog lunch and in the afternoon we took four bus loads of very tired and dirty kids back to the school. 

    This is just one part of the complex. This is a replica of the original fort and trading post. 



Saturday, October 26, 2024

A GOOSE FIX TODAY

     Today was a beautiful warm fall day. It's the first time all summer that I've had a chance to get out to one of my favorite places. The geese were there to put on a show for me. About thirty geese were gathered in front of a bench. They stayed and chattered. I think they were commenting about me not giving them a handout. All summer people would sit at this spot and feed the geese.

     Since they clustered around the bench I took some photos. I always have to get a few photos of Canada geese.