FIRST LUNAR LANDING

      There are some days in our lives that we remember with all the details. July 20 , 1969 is a day for me that stands out. This was the day of the first lunar landing. 

     I had more than a usual interest in space , particularly the lunar landing. Up until July 20 , I had still been in the Arctic with out much radio reception. I was happy to be south where I could follow the landing on the car radio. 

    On July 20 I was driving in northern Ontario north of lake Superior. It's a sparsely populated area with few services. You just want to cover this territory and get to civilization. 

    I did find a radio station that covered the lunar landing. I was glued to the radio. It's funny I didn't drive into the ditch. I was listening to the final count down and then all of a sudden I had no radio reception. I had to wait until radio reception returned to see if they landed safely. Yes , they had landed safely so now we listened to the first astronaut getting out of the lander and walking on the moon.

   By my calculation, this happened 52 years ago. I still remember all the interest and tension of this event. 

Don't You Just Hate it When...

     Don't you just hate it when you're trying to think of the name of someone or a place name and it just doesn't come out of the memory bank in your brain? It's right on the tip of your tongue but you cannot retrieve the name. You can see the person or place. You can see the setting with all the details but no, the name doesn't come up.

      Two of these frustrating incidents happened to me this week.

      While I was skating, I was talking to my friend Bob who had worked his whole life in the Arctic. we find that we know many of the same people and then the conversation flows to events around these people.

      When I got home, I began to think of a prominent northerner. This guy had been to my house in northern Quebec. He was well known so I knew who he was but had never met him. I couldn't get his name. I knew he was connected to Innuit printmaking and soapstone carving. I thought of other people who were prominent in this field. Yes, he was connected to Eskimo cooperatives. I thought one of my books had his picture. I looked. I found his photo but it didn't include a name. First names came to my mind but they didn't bring any results. Last names? They were people who were active in other related areas. I came up with their names.

      I googled. I found photos but no name. Finally, I found the name and instantly many things bounced back into my head.

     There was a write up about Peter Murdoch on one site. It was an article about him receiving the Order of Canada in late 2014! Wow! Peter had retired in 1997 after being in Northern Canada for fifty years.

    I scrolled down to the next article only to find that it was his obituary. Peter died Dec.15, 2015. 

     So I spent a whole evening puzzling about Peter and finally found the information and it brought back much more.

     A very pleasant lady works part time in the local library. I see her two or three times a year. Everytime I go home and I can't remember her name. Her husband was a highschool teacher. Her daughters went to the school I taught in. All of these things I can see in my mind...her husband, daughters , but I can't bring the name up. I go home and seriously start trying to remember the name. I think the name starts with H??? That doesn't lead anywhere. Then I think of somebody with a similar name and bingo, the name pops into my head.

    So it's a frustrating situation. Why does it happen? In the first example I haven't heard much about Peter for the last 45 years. In the second situation I see the lady several times a year and talk about her kids and new grandchildren . She also know my children.

     So as long as this doesn't get any worse I can live with it. Sooner or later the name does pop into my head.

    How about you? Are some things difficult to retrieve from the old memory bank?

    

I Need Help With Memory

     I do not have a good memory. I have lots of excuses for my poor memory but none of them are good. In fact, I have a very poor attitude towards memory.

     When I was a child I hated memory work. In Sunday School I had to memorize many bible verses. For memorizing a certain number of bible verses  I would get a pencil and then an eraser and God knows what else. Now when I stop and think about it there's very little that I remember of any verses I memorized. I memorized the 23 rd Psalm. It starts...The Lord is my shepherd...there's something about green pastures and something about still waters. That's it! The rest is gone!

     We had to memorize poetry in school.I hated it. I remember not one line. In our final high school literature exams we had memory work on the exam. It was always so many lines of Shakespeare. Again I remember not one line.

     As I said my reasons for a poor memory were all bad. Obviously I had a very poor attitude. Today I enjoy listening to people recite poetry.

     Now for the last few days a rogue blog has been appearing on my blog. This blog is not on my reading list.  It's in a foreign language. Things like this really catch my attention and I stay away from them and don't open anything. I don't want to open  can of worms or worse.

     I immediately began to search and find out how to get rid of this unwanted blog.  So this is what I found. Click on the star in the upper right of the dashboard. Next click blogger help. Then click on trouble shoot areas. Then click on report abuse. Next click on spam, malware and phishing. Under phishing provide the url of the offending blog. This will bring up a form to make your report.

      I did all these things. It only took a minute for them to come back with the answer. They reminded me that I had checked off that I could be informed of new products! Darn! I'd forgotten that! It was nice of Blogger to be able to remind me of what I had done. They were also kind enough to tell me how I could stop the mystery blog from appearing. 

      I find that blogger is extremely helpful when you go through this procedure. They come back with something that is easy to understand.

     Now I have to stop and ask, "How much does blogger or any other program keep track of on me?" I think I know the answer.

Memory Keepers

       On January 1, 2012 my sister, Doreen  would have been 69 years old. Instead Doreen died in February of 1953 at age eleven years.


       Doreen was a very healthy active child. She became ill and it was thought that she had a cold. She did not get over the cold but was up one day and down the next. She didn't seem to be able to beat what ever bug she had. The family Doctor decided to admit her to the hospital. Her condition became worse and she was sent to a city hospital. She continued to go up and down. My Mom stayed in the city and my Dad spent as much time as he could with her at the hospital. Antibiotics didn't seem to be doing any good. At the end of two weeks Doreen suddenly passed away. 


     This death was devastating to my parents, her brothers and the community. The loss of their daughter was something that stayed with both my parents until their passing. 


     My Dad died in 2008. With that the keeping of the memory of Doreen passes to her brothers. Most of the people my parents age are gone. Very few people now would have met Doreen. My youngest brother was born after Doreen's death so he never met her. 


     In the 1950's it was considered that kids didn't mourn and that deaths would soon be forgotten. No one talked to us about Doreen's death. People talked to Mom and Dad and expressed their sympathy and support. My brothers and I just continued on with our lives. My brothers and I did not talk to each other of Doreen's death until we were in our fifties. We know now that this is not the way to handle losses with kids. 


     However, we survived the loss of our sister. Now we are some of the few left who will keep her memory . People will visit the cemetery and be able to place her in the family. Soon there will be no one living who will have actually known her. 

Stroke of Luck

    Yeah ! That's right ! I had a stroke . The luck part ? Well, I survived with no harmful effects and I get to tell you about it and hopefully spread some useful information about strokes . Too often people do not survive strokes and many times are left with debilitation which is so severe they cannot function well enough to pass on information about strokes .
My wife had asked me to make a small shelf for her laundry room . I was outside on a fine May day and had measured and found a suitable piece of wood and tools to make and install the shelf. The next thing I knew I looked at the clock which said noon and wondered out loud where the last two hours had gone. My wife said ," Get your wallet . We're going to emergency." My wife doesn't drive ! Oops ! I remember getting in the car at the house and finding a parking place at emergency . I don't remember the rest of the drive. My wife is one of these people who after they've left home , wonder if they've locked the door . So I turned around and took her back to check the door . Afterwards she told me that I drove as usual.

     The emergency department was fabulous. They took some information and vital signs ... although I don't remember this. I was taken directly from triage to get a cat scan. My cat scan was done within 15 minutes of arriving at the hospital. My memory kicked in before the cat scan and I had continuous memory after that. The cat scan did not show any clots or bleeding .

     Now the incident I had was where the brain does not make any new memories. In other words no experiences you have during this time are retained in your memory. Thus I was able to drive with my usual skill , as I did not forget my driving skills . If I had met someone I knew , I would have recognized them and conversed with them , but I would not remember meeting them . For example, I had come into the house about 11:00 AM and asked my wife why the roaster was in the sink . She explained that I had put the roaster in the sink in the morning. I kept asking her the same question until she lost patience with me and I returned outside . I do not remember the roaster incident . So when I entered the house at noon and asked where the last two hours had gone , it immediately twigged with my wife that I had memory difficulties .

     So lesson number one is to be aware of those around you as to any out of the ordinary behaviours they may exhibit. The sooner a detection is made and you get to emergency the more successful treatment may be . The cat scan can detect any clots or bleeding. Drugs are available to break clots before they cause major damage . Lesson number two is don't let the suspected stroke patient drive . Further debilitation may occur on the drive which could lead to a very serious accident.

    I stayed in emergency for the day for observation. Appointments were set up for further tests. I have no history of high cholesterol or high blood pressure . I'm quite active ...run , walk. cross country ski , skate and cycle at least 1000kms every summer . I'm low key , I eat a good diet . My wife has high cholesterol so I'm fortunate to benefit from her misfortune. I was sent home with much information on strokes and told not to drive for 21 days . An incident is more apt to recur in that time and after that not likely.

     My incident was termed transic global amnesia. After xrays and an EEG I met with my stroke specialist and she reviewed the tests which were all clear . I was discharged from the stroke clinic .

     Since I'm rather low stress the incident did not cause me any worry . However , I realize that for my family there is worry that something may happen which could be much more serious. Later in the summer I was cycling with my daughter and did a major summer sault on my bike . My daughter was behind me and I heard some major screaming . She was afraid that Dad had the big stroke and had expired on the bike trail. No such luck. Tree branches had hit me in the face . I put on the front brake and the bike went over .

     So be aware of conditions that may indicate a stroke and go directly to emergency .