ROADS

 If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.

                                                                Lewis Carroll

This one is a bit tricky because we think it will end with something else.

LEADERSHIP

     Leadership is the intangible, and therefore no weapon ever designed can replace it.

                                                                            General Omar Bradley

                    Seems like only yesterday that General Bradley was leading.

TIMES ARE CHANGING

           In times like these it is good to remember that there have  always been times like this.

                                                              Paul Harvey

             I always listened to Paul Harvey's "And that's the rest of the story."

THIS OLD BEAN WILL NEVER BE 86 AGAIN.

      That's right . I recently turned 87.  86 had a nice ring to it. It was a nice number.

     However,  87 is what it is. I enjoyed being 86 and I will enjoy 87 as well.

    The hardest thing about being 87 is to wrap your head around the number. It's hard to realize one is 87. We have it in our head that we are much younger. Do you think your much younger than you actually are? I have been guilty all my life and looking at people in their 80' and think they look old. Once in a while it hits me that I'm in my late 80' and I look just like those old people. 

    In reality, I'm in excellent health and am thankful that I am fortunate to have the good health.

MIEUX

         Mieux vaut prevenirque guerir.

                            From my Chinese saying in my cookie

     So most of you will run to change this to English. I feel  little mean on this one but thought I'd have some fun. My daughter will not change it to English and will probably not notice that it's French.

SADNESS

         I have one memory of my son's sadness that remains with me.

        Me !  of all people went to cub camp. There were about 50 kids and we were at a permanent scout facility 

. We were tenting and I was with my son and two of his friends. The tent and tenting was chaotic. They had a hard time getting ready for tent inspection. Many good  activities were organized for the kids. 

      One activity was archery. Supervisors took a few kids and showed  them how to shoot with a bow and arrow. the kids plunked away at some targets and had a good time except for one kid. MINE!

      When the activity was over and the equipment was being put away, I found my son in great distress. He did not have any success in archery. I could always tell when my son was in distress. There were sobs and tears. I suggested to him that we get the archery equipment and go by ourselves and try archery.

     Brian is a lefty. Right handers were teaching the kids to use the archery equipment. He could not function from the right. It was hard for me to show him how to shoot right. Somehow we got the proper procedure. You guessed it. He nailed some targets and immediately he was happy with his success. 

     I will never forget how absolutely crushed he was by not being able to use  archery equipment.

MUSIC

              In my music, I'm trying to play the truth of what I am.

                                                                     Charles Mingus

              This is a very deep thought of an artist. Charles Mingus was an American Jazz artist.

MEMORIES

           Our children give us  some fantastic memories over  the time we have them. Well, I still have my children. They just don't live with me.       

         Both of my children have given me one striking memory.  I will describe these memories in separate posts.

         One pleasant summer evening I took my daughter on a bike ride. I think she was only seven or eight and we rode 18 miles. I don't know what I was thinking by taking her an such a long ride. We had just finished a major city park development plan. One of the parts of this plan was a major trail system. There were several areas where the trails went through old gravel pits. On my own I would often stop in various areas for a look.

      So I stopped with my daughter in a quarry. All of a sudden I saw two very young fawns lying in some sand. They never moved. I nudged Michelle very quietly and told her to look. When she saw the new fawns her body froze. We watched the fawns for several minutes. They never moved. We moved on.

     I will never forget the instant freezing of her body when she saw the fawns. She knew that it was an important sighting and was something many people do not ever see.

WRITING

                   I like to write when I feel spiteful, it's like having a good sneeze.

                                                         D.H. Lawrence

                Well I can write easier when I'm not spiteful.

LIFE

        What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for each other?

                                                               George Eliot

        Excellent suggestion,

EAR BUD BLUES

            I listen to a lot of music. I discovered earbuds a few years ago. Well, I really didn't discover them. I won them in a draw at the casino. I started using them and liked them. I listen to music on you tube and play a few games. I don't have a phone so I don't use them outside.

          They were a bit temperamental or maybe it was my lack of experience with them. I found that they would stop working and needed to be paired and "hooked" up again.

         I'd gotten to the point where I had them working for a long period of time. Then last week they stopped working , first one and then the other. Since I don't really understand their system I just try things and it usually works. 

       This time I tried a few things and I couldn't get them back. I asked my son for advice but it's difficult for him when he's not here to give advice. So I tried things. I think I tried the right thing at the wrong time and the wrong thing at the right time. I managed to get my earbud completely confused.

      So one afternoon I said , there must be a logical solution here. I went through the instructions again and again. The left earbud was on but the right one was not on. I knew they had to be paired again. but I couldn't get them to Pair. Somehow I had them side by side in my hand and the led came on. Hey!  They were pairing. 

     All I had to do was go to you tube and connect them. 

    So I'm in business again and listening to music.

    At this time I listen to Austrian folk music and South African folk music. Austrian folk music has lots of vocal and brass. The South African has no vocals and the main instrument is the concertina.

    So What will I find next? What do you listen to?

SNOW

     Into every life a little snow must fall. 

   Well, I guess this would be impossible for the tropics and many other parts of the world.

   Well, I'm just trying to tell you that we had  a little snow last  night. It's common to get snow at this time of year. Most of it has already  melted.

      For all Canadians, have a great Thanksgiving.

   

MONEY

       Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.

                                                 Oliver Wendell Holmes

        Common advice here.

FALL COLOR

       I spent a few minutes after supper checking out some fall color in lower light. These are all non native species. I see where the tops of the trees are cut off in some photos.

GETTING RESULTS

              You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

                                               Mahatma Gandhi

            Gandhi was controversial in his time.

BEING USEFUL

    It is not what we intend, but what we do that makes us useful.

                                                  Henry Ward Beecher

      Great sense in his one. We can sit around and think about things but that doesn't get anything done. 

GREAT FALL DAY

        Today was a great fall day. It was bright so the fall colors showed nicely. I finally got out to take some photos. I was able to show some harvesting that was complete. Then I was able to look out across the Red Deer valley. You can see some of the city in a couple of shots.

     I had actually gone out for lunch with some elderly colleagues. I'm the oldest. So while I was waiting for them, I took the photos.

RESULTS

     I've always believed that if you put in the work , the results will come.

                                                   Michael Jordan

  This would be a typical sports saying.

LIFE

              As you simplify life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.

                                                   Henry David Thoreau

             I don't know what he's talking about here.

FALL COMES SILENTLY

      Fall sneaks in silently. One day it just  fall. Summer is over.

     One day there is a new pleasant odor. Photosynthesis has stopped.  Leaves have started their journey of breaking down. So  one day I suddenly say, hey it smells like fall.

    All of a sudden on one day you see that your plants don't need  water poured to them any more. They are finished. You look around and say when did these changes happen? Everything seemed to be like summer yesterday.

     Sunlight has changed a little in color. Sunlight has suddenly become a little weaker or fainter. It also  doesn't pack the heat it did a few days ago.

    Suddenly there is a dryness in the atmosphere. Plants are finished and less water enters the atmosphere.

   I like the pleasant atmosphere of fall. We can slow down. We know that many of our summer duties are over.