TROUBLE

      THE TROUBLE WITH TROUBLE IS THAT IT STARTS OUT AS FUN.

                                                                    Naomi Judd

    I was impressed with this quote from Judd.

COOL BIKE

      I walk most evenings I walk from 3 to 5 km. I usually go by the beaver pond and check on what is going on. Usually there are  other people on the bridge as well. It's a good place to visit.

     Well, yesterday I happened to be on the bridge and a cyclist came along. We talked about beavers and muskrats for a few minutes. By this time I noticed a suitcase on the back of his bike. Jokingly I asked him if he was going on a trip.  Oh he said, " I keep my batteries in there. " I was beginning to notice  few things. This bike looked different and he was going to tell me. He got the motor on Ebay or one of those sites. He attached a seat not a bicycle seat. It was a bench seat.

    He had foam rubber strips attached to his helmet straps so the wind didn't interfere with listening to his music. He had attached lights. He had a special holder for his phone.

    I'm probably missing a few things.  All of this was  set on a recumbent bike frame. Now I was impressed at what this young fellow did.

     I'm sure he will find himself in some kind of fabrication later on.

    However , this was a different visit at the beaver pond than usual.

SAVING

       EVERYBODYWANTS TO SAVE THE EARTH. NOBODY WANTS TO HELP MOM WITH THE DISHES.

                                                                 P. J. O'Rourke

      The simple is compared to the complicated.

OUTDOOR ED ACCOMMODATIONS

        Some people think that riding in a bus with 30 middle schoolers is a bit much. Well it gets better.

        We would do one overnight trip with each of the classes. We stayed in youth hostels. There are  hostels with very few amenities and other hostels more like a hotel. We stayed in the limited hostel. It would be heated with propane and had a propane stove. There was a kitchen and a few very basic pots and pans.

     The overnight stay was to get kids to practise what they learned about food. What we found out is that they had poor teachers, Food  was a riot. So pork and beans, ichaban soup, soup, tuna, sandwiches, hot dogs. Now remember there was only one stove so the operation took a lot of time. You'll never believe how many pieces of cutlery could be lost. They would leave their stuff in a place waiting for their turn on the stove and somebody would move it. So you he kids cooking. Others eating and some looking for their  food.  Bedlam is a good word to describe the scene.

    There was always a male female hostel. We did have girls in out door ed.

    They got water in a little stream close to the hostel.

    Now sleeping accommodations? There were  6  bunks . We had around 20  kids. We had  a couple  of volunteer supervisors. So the kids got to sleep on the floor. It was some job trying to navigate through the bodies. 

    And in the   morning we went though the same routine again except you  add quite a few lost clothing items.

    We had fun and the kids certainly did. 

    I'm not sure how much anybody learned.

A STRANGER IN THE NIGHT

         This morning I was up at 5 AM to visit the bathroom. When I'm up I usually look out one of the windows for a few minutes. Usually I see nothing but an empty street. Interesting eh! But sometime people or one person is going by.  And sometimes the  critters are around.

       This morning I looked out and all seemed quiet. There was a strange car parked on my side of the street. Then all of a sudden the security light came on. So I thought is someone walking around yards checking for things. All of a sudden a head popped up on the other side of the car. It was a mule deer doe. She gave me a very disgusted look for about 5 seconds  and left

      Deer have been coming in my yard and eating the white blooms. That's bad enough but when they started on my  tomatoes that was too much.

     I do not have a camera set out in my yard, but if I  did, I think I would be surprised at what I see.

EAT YOUR WORDS

            The best of us must sometimes eat our own words.

                                                        J.K. Rowling.

           Well, I can say I've found myself in this situation

OUTDOOR ED HIKES

A few posts ago I wrote about all the fun on field trips singing 99 bottles of beer on the bus. Now real fun began once we got off the bus .  

We were very careful to be organized because you wouldn't want to lose somebody's kid. Instructions were given. The kids were told where we were going and what we might see. When the teacher said "listen up" they listened. 

       We also had parent supervisors who were not just along for a day's outing but had responsibilities.        So at the end of the hike we took a photo. We usually wanted it to be funny and these kids are all about funny. The other tradition was to have the school flag with us and include the school flag in he photo. 

       And then it was back down the trail to the bus and on the road again. We had to make sure everything was on the bus and nothing was left in the parking lot. Oh yes , everybody had to go to the bathroom. 

      One time all the kids were on the bus and a squirrel got on the bus. All hell broke lose. We took all the kids off the bus and I was appointed to search the bus for the squirrel. I could just  see  finding a squirrel under one of the seats. I had to look under all the seats. I think the kids saw the squirrel get on the bus but the squirrel decided to get off the bus and in all the confusion the kids didn't notice. 

The ride back home was much more subdued. Some kids actually slept.

 

 

 

PR0GRESS

       Progress isn't made by early  risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.

                                                                                     Robert A.  Heinlein

                  This turned a common phase backwards and it makes more sense.

A FOOL

        A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts in either one of them.

                                                                                         P.J. O'Rourke

          I like this as it has a lot of truth in it

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIKES

Stream coming from snow above us.

Venturer scouts hiking from Sunshine village to Mt Assiniboine which is one of the highest peaks in the Rockies

        I recently wrote   about students on a bus trip. I intend to wrote about their out door ed. experience  once I get some photos.

            Instead I'll write about some of the scenery that we have for hiking.

              The Rocky Mountains are roughly 100 miles from here. The Rockies are a range on the eastern side of  the mountains of north America. The Rockies are not a giant range of mountains. Very few of them are more than 10000 feet. However they are beautiful with colors shapes and snow.

       I  was fortunate enough to go on some back packing trips with friends. Very few areas actually required climbing. Mostly we  followed trails until we reached a peak.

      In one area we drove by what we thought was a peak. We looked at it for several years and finally said lets walk up there. We got up only to find that it was the end of a ridge.  We had to scramble up the las 300 ft of altitude. The ridge carried on for several miles. A gust of wind caused us to flatten out on the ridge as it was very narrow and we could have been blown off.

    So we took the kids up Whirlpool Point Ridge many times. This was our name for the area.

    So here we are in the beautiful Rockies looking at where we were going.

Cairn on top  of one of the peaks

Watching some mountain caribou

Posing on a peak

July seventh snow 

scrambling over  rocks

Nice lake below.

Cross over the bridge

Knowledge

      It's harder to conceal  ignorance than to acquire knowledge.

                                                    Arnold Glasgow

     Glasgow was an American humorist and business man.

MISSING IN ACTION

       For the last few days Mr. something or other has not let me sign into my blog or is it that Mr Something tried to get me to do something and I didn't catch on. 

      Anyway this is just a way to say that I didn't get to read all blog or make comments.

     I'm not sure what happened or what I did to get back into blogger.

DESMOND TUTU

       My father used to say, "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument.

                                                              Desmond Tutu

           I don't remember hearing anything about Desmond Tutu's father.

FRIENDS

               One friend in a life time is much, two are many, and three hardly possible.

                                                                                    Henry Adams

              Henry Adams was an American, writer, historian and commentator.

FRIENDS

     Close friends (make)the music sound sweeter , the wine taste richer, the laughing ring louder.

                                                                                           Judy Viorsy

                   Judy Viorsy was a newspaper reporter and wrote many books.

99 BOTTLES OF BEER

                      I have told you many times that I was a teacher in  middle school grades for all my 37 years of teaching. I received many interesting assignments. I liked changes because it made things more interesting.

       One of the assignments I liked was outdoor ed. For many years I was given an outdoor ed class to teach. We covered food, clothing, map reading and safety. Of course the kids had to try out what they learned on field trips. We went back packing in the fall. We winter camped in November. We cross country skied in the winter. We stayed at Youth Hostels.(That's another story)

     So we took the bus to all these  activities. I didn't have a bus license so I got to ride in the back of the bus to patrol all the rowdies, We usually had a 3 hour trip so there was a lot of time to get bored. Some kids listened to their walkman. (This was a long time ago.)Some read a book in all the noise. Some brought games. However, In the back of the bus where I sat with all the rowdies there was a lot of singing. One tune I remember them singing was 99 bottles of beer. I  don't remember any of the words. I think it was a repetition where each number had a made up verse until they got to one. They were enthusiastic as  they tried to make up silly lines. And let me tell Middle school kids can get very silly

    So after hearing 99 bottles of beer many times, I do not remember one line. The ride back  home was  usually much quieter.

MIRRORS

          THE BEST MIRROR IS AN OLD FRIEND.

                                                 George Herbert

THE FLAG POLE CLIMBER

        I have written a few times about attending a one room rural school back in the late 40's.  In all ways it was different from what we have today.

        Many times we would go to school an hour before it started. Not because we liked  school , but so that we could play. There were 17 kids in the school so we were much like one big family. For play we had one ball and one bat. Did we play ball? Well not often. There were seventeen of us so that ends full sides. Some were in first grade so we lose some players there. Some of the girls wouldn't play.

        So what did we do. In a school yard there are many things to play with. We went into the school even if the teacher wasn't there. We made toy farms. We built roads in the dirt. We played in the barn but the was a no no. One kid kept an eye out the window in case the teacher was coming out.

  Very little supervision took place. 

   So one thing every little boy had  to learn was how to climb a flag pole. This was  strictly against the rules but rules only mattered if you got caught.

    So on one of these early morning school times , I decided to climb the flag pole. The teacher was walking to school and was about half a mile away. I didn't think she could identify me from that far away. Kids think adults can't see! When I was at the top we all heard a yell. The teacher had seen us but we weren't worried as she wouldn't be able to identify us. Well, she didn't identify me but took the opportunity to lecture all of us about climbing the flag pole.

COMMENTS ON COMMENTS

          A few weeks ago I changed things on my blog. It was my intention to post a comment every day.

         I admit that I have been struggling the last while. I've found topics hard to come by and the writing wasn't up to what I expected of myself. I've also discovered that my aging slows things down.

         I've had a list of quotes that I wanted to use on the blog for a long time. I wanted to make a side bar with a quote of the day. I collected the comments in my teaching days as I had a quote of the day on the chalk board to get kids attention before I entered the classroom. So my secret for comments was  to get them out of the local paper. Today you can find books of comments.

         I've had some comments on the change. I know I lost some followers but, I also gained some. Some expressed their opinion which was great. I like to see both positive and negative comments. I also like the comments on the way the blog was written before.

     I appreciated one comment more than any other and it didn't make it on to the blog. My son said, "  Dad, it's just not you!" I appreciated his keen sense of who I am and that he will miss that part. By the way he said , " Dad  go back to what you had before."

   A funny thing is happening. I seem to be writing as many posts as before so you are getting two types of blog.

   Thanks for reading from 2008. I've learned so much from this activity. I've found so many interesting  on line friends.

SEND KEYS

      NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN IF YOU HAVEN'T   HIT THE SEND KEY.

                             Dave Shipley and Will Schwalbe

           This quote could apply to many more situations.