NATIONAL CRAYON DAY

     Today is National Crayon day! I sometimes have to comment on some of the national days that are observed from time to time. So I'll probably have half of my readers upset with me.

   Okay, I'll admit that I'm not arty at all and that colors don't play a big role in my life so when fusses are made over crayon colors I have to say ,"Give your head a shake." Every year my Mom bought me a standard 7 or 8 pack of new crayons for the start of each school year. Then one year some kid had a 12 pack of crayons. The standard pack today is 24. I think you can buy a 64 pack.

    Crayola makes a big fuss when any colors are changed. This year they are ditching, oops , retiring dandelion. Dandelion has been around for a long time and a new color is going to be added. As usual a big deal and process are made to name a new color. The new color hasn't been chosen yet.

    Now the adult colorers (I don't think this is a word) may have something to say about my making fun of naming crayons. Apparently coloring for adults is a great activity for adults and seniors these days. In fact, I am somewhat interested in adult coloring for a pass time.

    Maybe I could color inside the lines now that I'm a senior!

    However, I think this day is a very blatant advertisement for a brand of crayons. . Looking at some of the different websites it's a very smooth skillful advertising ploy.

   After all, they got me to look at it!

   What about you? Do crayon names impress you?

 

A PACKAGE IN THE MAIL

    Rarely do I ever receive a package in the mail...a big fat bulky package that was coming from a real person, a relative. What could this be?

    I finished high school in 1957 and left home to further my education and then I was away teaching in other areas. For the first few years I came home to the farm regularly. Gradually the visits back home became fewer and fewer with longer periods between each visit. My contact with people was limited to my brothers who stayed in the area and a few very good friends.

    I married, had a family and raised them.

    1957 is 60 years ago. Someone who was born after I left could be 60 years old. That means that there are few people left who I know or who have ever heard of me.

    Well I ripped open the package as fast as I could . What was I receiving? My sister-in-law sent me 5 editions of the local paper. I haven't seen the local paper since 1973! She also had 4 memorial service bulletins.  

    Now of the 5 papers , there were 4 obituaries of people I knew. They were all in the upper 80's and 90's! I haven't found anything else in these 5 papers that I know anything about.

    Now the one lady ran our country store. I bought lots of pop and candy bars from her! Good memories.

    So the package reminds me of the passage of time. Two things go on. I change and my home town changes.  We've both got 60 years older. I have lived a life in other areas with new and different people. It's changed me. I love my old home town and still refer to it as home, but there's no place for me in that little village.

    So the package, although interesting, reminded me that our lives go on and we adapt to new people and places. These people and places are two of the many things that shape us as we pass through this world and become the people we are.

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THE END OF THE SPEEDING TICKET

      Some time ago I wrote in great detail about a speeding ticket I got and how I was going to fight it. You wanted to know how it ended. Well, the ticket was withdrawn because of the time taken to deliver the ticket to me.

     However , moving through the justice system was disappointing and challenging.

     I found the justice system to be a complete gong show. People didn't know what they were doing and were reluctant to do anything when they did know. First, the prosecutor's office wasn't going to take my letter of request for disclosure.  It is the prosecutors responsibility to get the disclosure organized. When I did get the disclosure package three weeks ago , I noticed there wasn't much there. When we checked 75% of what I asked for was not there. All of what the prosecutor needed was there. Was the guy inept? Did his staff not check? Did he set this up against me?

     On my first appearance the prosecutor said he would phone me. He never did call back. The Micro manager finally phoned him and his reply was not helpful. Finally, a good advisor phoned the prosecutor and explained that most of the disclosure was missing. Only then was he ticket withdrawn. The prosecutor fully intended to haul me into court. Only when an ex police officer called the prosecutor as the ticket withdrawn. I don't like seeing things done by people who have clout. The issue should stand on its own merit.

  If you're going to challenge a ticket, much research has to be done. It's a lot of work and very challenging.

   One thing that happened is that the city quickly got digital equipment which should cut the time in half and tickets will be delivered much sooner.

   I learned a few things and I think I might be on a crusade. We seem to shut our eyes and think that photo radar is infallible. It's not half as accurate as they claim. The position of the radar vehicle, distance into the speed zone, slopes, surroundings, equipment and operators all have a bearing on accuracy.

    Then I started looking at signage. I've requested the city's policy on signs. So far I haven't got the  policy. That makes me more suspicious and I'm going to find out how they place signs. I've seen places where there's a clutter of signs...seven in a 50 meter space. Who can read that many signs when you're driving?

    So I won what I wanted ,but I think I may have found some more work for myself.

FAMILY TRIVIA

      This week my daughter as in France ...working.

      This week my son was in Las Vegas...working.

      I thought this was pretty neat for my kids.

      My daughter is the manager of education and training for the company she works for. When her company buys other companies she goes out and trains the new company on changes they will have to make to their operation.

     My son works for a high tech company and he was in Las Vegas at a trade show showing the company's products. 

    At least one of them could have taken Dad with them for the week!

SOMETIMES OUR LITTLE KIDS EMBARRASS US!

      I listen to a noon radio talk show most of the time. This week one of the topics was about how our kids have embarrassed us. I had an instant idea but didn't phone in. Instead ,I thought I'd tell my readers the story.

    I have to set things up for the story. Early 1970's. (Wow that seems like a long time ago.) We wore huge bell bottom pants that had large patterns and wild colors. Remember the leisure suits? My son was 3 1/2 years old.

     We were camping. I took him to the campground bathroom. My son pointed to a cubicle and said, "Dad, there's a clown in there." I tried to ignore him and distract his attention. He got more excited than ever and was jumping up and down because there was a clown in one of the cubicles. Since we were standing waiting for a cubicle to be available I couldn't hide. What my son saw was the bottom of a pair of trousers and big shoes. The pant cuffs were huge. The green plaid pattern was gigantic...something like what a clown would wear. 

    The guy emerged from the cubicle and my son was  jumping up and down saying, " There he is Dad. There's the clown." 

    Now I must admit the guy could have been taken for a clown. He was young and obese so the bell bottoms were larger than ever. I don't think the guy caught on that he was being called a clown. 

    When we got back to our camper my son told his Mom that he had seen a clown.

    It was embarrassing but fun once it was over.

SMART ASSED PRICE TAGS

     When I was grocery shopping last week I needed particular item. When I found it I was happy to see that is was on sale for $2.69. Ah ha I said ,  "I'm lucky! This is on sale."  The item was on the top shelf and although I'm not short the writing is hard to see. When I checked my receipt I found that I was charged the regular price of $2.99. What gives? I went back to look at the sale tag on the item. Well, if you bought three they were at $2.69! Now very few people would by 2 or 3 of this item because it's one of those that's on your shelf but not used very much. So pretty tricky. First they force people to buy three items or the suckers like me who miss the small print , pay the regular price.

     Now  I'm used to buy three for a sale price and over three they are regular price. As you see the sale tag above is almost opposite to this one.

     Another pet peeve is a price for assorted with a limit of six. So there are 8 varieties of soup. Does this mean I can only take six cans of the same variety or can I pick six different varieties of soup. Again if I make the wrong interpretation I lose out. 

     I buy almond milk. It comes in packs of 2 two liter containers or a two liter buy itself. So on the double pack it says 2 for a certain lower price. Does it mean I have to buy 4 liters or does it mean the two liter in the pack?

    Now to add more confusion to this mess, the prices are sometimes entered incorrectly and don't match what's on the shelf.

    Now every grocery store has a points system...customer loyalty. Each store you go to has a different plan on how points are collected and spent. Some you just collect points and redeem them. One store offers a sale price with the use of so many points. Good deal? I think not.

    Each store has a different set up at the cash register to see your groceries go through.

     I realize that all these strategies are clever marketing. There are strategies that most customers are unaware of.

    So do you think I'm not a happy grocery shopper? I want one good simple price and no gimmicks. 

ST. PATRICK'S DAY

    Well, a belated happy St. Patrick's day!

    As a child, in school,  every St Patrick's, we would dutifully make our shamrock in art class and have green decorations in the classroom. We were probably told an Irish story or maybe a bit about St. Patrick. Somehow, the excitement of St. Patrick's day never got to us. It didn't have any relevance for kids who lived out in the boonies and rarely got out of their local district.

    St. Patrick has a long history. It is thought he brought Christianity to Ireland in the 5 th century and for a bonus he scared all the snakes out of Ireland. So  St. Patrick is well known in Irish religious and cultural history.

   St. Patrick's celebration spread to many parts of the world as the Irish were great travellers.

   St. Patrick's day celebrations, as we know them today, were largely started in America. Some of the enthusiasm for parades went back to Ireland and now they have the best parades. So again religion and culture are celebrated. The Irish are inclusive as they keep saying everybody has a little Irish in them. So many people who are not Irish get caught up in St. Patrick's day celebrations.

   Much  of Europe had similar celebrations for St. Patrick and his bringing of Christianity.

    A  few bloggers posted on St. Patrick's Day.

   Now there are many other patron Saints. I'm not up on all the saints.

   One very interesting saint is St. Urho. He comes across as being the real McCoy but was a actually the creation of a Minnesotan in the 60's. He borrowed liberally from the St. Patrick  story and invented a saint for the Finnish people of Minnesota. A tradition has been built up around St Urho and Minnesotans of Finnish backgrounds have wacky parades and parties. St. Urho day was originally celebrated in the summer. Today it is celebrated on March 16! St. Urho has now spread to Finland.

   Only one blog I  follow posted on St. Urho's day.

   Now at age 77 I have never seen a st. Patrick's Day parade. We still don't have St. Patrick's day parades where I live.

   Am I missing something?

 
 

I'VE BEEN SNOWED UNDER

    Now from the land of ice and snow my title makes sense. And we did get 20cm (8 in) of snow over a four day period.

    No , I'm talking about being busy. Really busy. So I have not been able to post as often and I admit that reading and commenting on blogs has been less. I have missed reading some blogs meaning I like the blog and would like to read it in more detail.
  
    Sometimes one problem gets tangled up with a couple of other projects and then "I get snowed under". I mean really busy.

   So two weeks a go the micro manager discovered a little water under the kitchen sink. "So I'll just take a little look and see what's the trouble. " I found out the trap was leaking. That's the u shaped thing on the drain. This is a double sink so there are two drains.We went to our handy plumber who sells products and gives advice. He suggested we take out all the pipe under the sink and replace it with ABS (plastic). No, no we said we just want to replace the trap. Off we went to another place to find that we couldn't get what we wanted. We decided to take another look to make sure we were right. Well, we found a leak in another place. Back to the plumber for advice. Well, he still said replace the whole thing. He suggested a couple of options. Well, after puzzling and puzzling we decided to change the one side with plastic. 

    Well lo and behold when I was taking the right side apart the left side fell apart. So then I had to replace both the left side and right side.

    So off we go and buy the supplies. The right side was tough to line up and it leaked. 

   So lesson learned. I buy more supplies and try again. I finally did a great job on both drains.

    So my guy was right at the beginning. He said replace the whole thing and that's what I ended up doing.

   Now some people are saying why are you so silly and do it yourself? Why don't you call a plumber? I like these projects even if they are difficult. Plumbers cost too much money. Plumbers leave you with a big mess to clean up. Plumbers break other stuff!

   However, this is my last project. First, I don't have training or experience so the projects are a challenge. Next , I'm too old to crawl around on the floor and get into small spaces.

   So this is probably my last post on doing a home project.
    

W HAT'S THE FUSS WITH CHANGING TIME?

    With my title I've probably made at least 50% of my readers angry.

     Changing time twice in a year always brings about discussion on both sides of the issue. Some of it heated. Most of the negative comments come in the spring when we spring forward and lose and hour of our sleep. We don't hear so much complaining in the fall when we get an extra hour to sleep in.

    The comments I've heard this spring have more substance than just complaining. People are asking why do we change. People have been following blindly without thinking about the reason for time changes...if there is one. Why do we change time? Who started the time change ? When did it start? Here people blame the farmers for the change. Farmers are the biggest complainers about time change.

    So now people are saying, "Do we really need to change time?"  The next question is but which time should we stay on? The hour ahead or the standard time. This is really when the choices are divided. There are good reasons for staying on standard time for the whole year and good reasons for staying on daylight saving time. The the term daylight saving time is a stretch. We are not saving time. There's still 24 hours in the day.

     Ask shift workers about the change twice a year.

    One place I know. Saskatchewan, Stays on standard time all year and has done so  for many years.

    I would like to see us go in the middle of standard time and daylight saving time. 

    Anybody with me?

ROUND AND ROUND

        In my previous life as a middle school teacher, I had to teach options from time to time. One time the school had  three blocks of six week options. These options were  to be something that was not covered in any other part of the program. We had to name our own poison. In other words, we had to make up an option.

      Since I was keen on cycling I thought well, I'll do a cycling option in the spring and fall. I would do bicycle safety, maintenance, riding skills and you could always find a few games to go into the program.

     One of the  activities I tried was the Gold Rush ride. I took 100 egg sized rocks and painted them yellow(gold). In one of our larger parks with bike trails. I would hide the rocks. Then the kids had to find the rocks while riding their bikes. I was amazed that the kids participated in this activity with such energy. I had one kid choose my option 6 times in a row. 

     Later on we had a welcome to the new class , gr. sevens, in September. Again we chose a large park and bussed 200 grade sevens out for hot dogs. But we needed an activity. You guessed it...the old yellow rocks. We went out the afternoon before the event and hid the rocks. On the afternoon of the hot dog roast we divided the kids into groups. They came from 5 different feeder schools so we wanted to mix them so they got to know kids from other schools. So when we were all organized somebody said "go" and off they went. Liberal amounts of licorice twisters added energy to the hunt. Again the kids went tearing around looking for the rocks. My buddy, the art teacher used to keep the rocks in his art room. He probably still has the rocks in his garage at home even after 20 years of retirement.

   Well, a few posts ago I wrote about finding 150 bird species for our country's 150th anniversary. I'm getting the same feeling about the activity. We're not finding rocks but birds. I can't believe the enthusiasm people have for finding species, reporting them and general discussion.  
  
    I guess I'm a one trick pony and use the same activity over and over but in different forms. I guess it's basically a type of treasure hunt!

THE AILING JUSTICE SYSTEM

   Recently I have been very surprised by what I have experienced at the hands of our justice system. I have really started to wonder if our justice system works the way it's supposed to.

   Now I'm not a crook. But I am currently experiencing the wheels of justice and how they turn. I'll tell you that they don't turn very well.

   My crime is speeding. Yes,  photo radar caught me driving at 41 kmph in a 30 kmph speed zone. We're all surprised when out of the blue we get a speeding ticket in the mail. There were three things that caught my eye when I looked at my ticket(1) The quality of the photo was very poor. (2) You could not identify the location from the photo(3) something labeled 48 Ave NB didn't make sense. If it hadn't been for these three issues I'd have gone down and paid my $105.00 fine.

   So I started with some basic research. It took them 46 days to get my ticket to me. I found out that in our bill of rights we have the right to have justice in a reasonable time. A ticket is to be delivered in 21 days. I decided to fight the ticket.

   I met with a prosecutor and told him I would plead not guilty. He told me to go and arrange for a trial date. This was the most efficient of the whole issue. I then had to make an application for disclosure. These people looked at me if I a nut. I was not amused with these people. They didn't want to take my application for disclosure.

   Now I'd previously written about my issue with entering the courthouse and security. It was not a great day.

    This week I received an email out of the blue from the solicitor general's department. They were answering my Dec. 8, 2016 email. What really got me going was that the writer's name was not on the email. We phoned the solicitor General's dept and got nowhere asking for the name of the person who wrote the email.

     To say the least, I'm not very pleased with how our justice system functions.

     My court date is April 4. With the gong show I have been dealing with , I'm not sure what could happen at my court case. I am asking for the ticket to be withdrawn.

    Okay , stay tuned.

IN LIKE A LAMB

    Here, March definitely came in like a lamb. Wind was light and it was clear. It got nasty in the afternoon with lots of wind. However, when March arrived it was nice. I should mention it was minus 16 C (plus 2 F).

    Now I like weather sayings and once in awhile I will look for their origins. Origins usually turn up some interesting information. I couldn't say facts or even fake facts but I'd be wrong. Research has uncovered various theories as to why we have special weather sayings. Origins are ancient. They may have a religious aspect. Many refer to agriculture. Others refer to stars and constellations in the solar system.

    Origins for in like a lamb go far back and come from various sources. The Leo constellation is high in the sky in March. Some think this influenced the lion part. In many places lambs were born at this time of year. In like a lamb sounds better than in like a kid! Religious beliefs come into play as well.

    One thing I notice is that the sayings like groundhog day have a  European origin. So I sometimes wonder if the southern hemisphere has the same sayings or do they have their own which apply to their schedule? I'm looking for comments from some Australian followers. I'm sure there are many sayings for African weather. Are any of them the same as what we have?

   There are other weather sayings that are not common and we don't know about them.

   So do you pay attention to weather sayings? Do you like the sayings?

    The photos are from Mar. 21 2013.