Psst!!! Wanna Know How Much I'm Worth?

       Okay, I've been know to twist the meaning of a few words! Worth can have different meanings. We can talk about economic value. We can think of self worth. There are other variations as well. But I am going to tell you exactly how much I'm worth in a monetary way.

      My Mom and Dad were married in 1938. They went out to the little isolated farm to make their fortune. It was the end of the depression. The Saskatchewan Government had developed a book keeping program for farmers to help them with record keeping. My mother became the book keeper and she was meticulous. Every cent of income and expense was recorded. They had very little income and as a result few expenditures. Sunday offerings were recorded. When they went to town for mail they usually bought one chocolate bar and shared it on the long and slow way home.

     My Dad died in 2008. He had very few worldly possessions left. His sons went through these few possessions one evening and all dozen or so items were distributed. One item was  a few of Mom's old record books. As we looked through them we could piece together some interesting details of their life.

      Now I was born in October of 1939.  One of the striking items entered in Mom's record book had the following details and was dated Oct. 14 1939. Paid to Dr. Hinson for Red  $10.00 . I was born on Oct. 14 so this was the amount paid to the Doctor for being at my birth. So I tell you with all accuracy that I am worth ten dollars!

Olympic Trash Talk Disappointing

      I admit that I don't watch any TV. I do follow sports to some extent in newspapers, radio and internet. The Olympics catch my attention to some degree as they are of a high calibre and highly publicized. So I am not highly qualified to express an opinion. However, I must express my dislike for some behaviour I encountered.

       On Twitter Sydney Crosby took a tremendous amount of abuse for scoring the winning goal in overtime. In no time flat Sydney Crosby was a trending topic on Twitter. The comments were sickening to say the least. H6WGQ5V65CYG I can understand that some people may have been extremely disappointed that their team lost. But put things into perspective. Both teams played at a high skill level. The game was highly entertaining. It was sport at it's best. Exciting, unpredictable, full of tension. Enjoy it ! Let the athletes enjoy it.

      The harsh personal attacks against Crosby were frightening, uncalled for, sad and unsportsman like.

      There I've offered my opinion even though I am not a sports expert!

      What do you think of the attacks on Crosby?

Mysterious Lynx Explained by Gabby and Seth Yates

       I have never seen a lynx in the wild even though I have spent much of my life outdoors in lynx habitiat. I knew that the lynx prey mostly on snowshoe hare and that their population rises and falls with the snowshoe hare cycles. I knew lynx were cats. After that much, my knowledge was fairly fuzzy and confused with other cat habits. Many myths have been passed along about the habits of lynx and their behavior.

       This week I listened to a presentation by Gabby and Seth Yates on the lynx and it was fascinating. Gabby is doing research for her PH.d and is studying the lynx and it's habit of travelling great distances and how this relates to population cycles . Many other variables come into this equation such as climate change and habitat destruction.

     This team of researchers is trying to live trap 20 lynx in the Nordegg area of Alberta and collar them with a hi tech radio which gives much information on the activity of the animal. Since the lynx population is healthy, they have no great problem to box trap animals. In fact, the lynx have learned the box trap contains supper so the individuals that have been trapped once keep going into the trap. They sit quietly and wait until they are released. Apparently the lynx is a very calm laid back character. They will leave only when they decide you are a threat. Lynx do eat other animals such as deer fawns. However, they're not really sure if the lynx actually kill the fawns. Lynx will also eat prey that may belong to another animal. They think that lynx travel widely in search of food when the snowshoe hare population crashes. What makes the snoeshow hare population crash? Disease? Lack of Vegetation? All this is being considered.

     The audience asked many tough questions and the tougher the questions the more passionate the presenters became about their topic.  Trapping was questioned. The researchers don't see trapping as a problem as the lynx population is considered healthy. They work closely with trappers and as a result gain much more information to add to their study. Trappers take a small piece of lynx hide to give to the researchers so that DNA study can be conducted. In this way they can detect what area lynx came from.

     So it was an interesting presentation which gave a much greater appreciation of the lynx.

     www.ualberta.ca/~gyates/projectlynx

Olympic Womens Curling Team Tops in my Mind

         My view of sports and Olympic games is a little different than most people's opinions. I don't watch TV and don't follow sports on a regular basis. There are some aspects H6WGQ5V65CYG of sports that do get my attention and the Canadian Women's Olympic curling team certainly caught my attention as they are highly skilled.

          I liked their success in the Olympic schedule. They curled well and conducted themselves with confidence. Most fans expected them to take the gold medal in a shoo in. That didn't happen and the team was disappointed and many fans were just as disappointed. Here's where I take a different path. Any team in the Olympic games has to perform at an extremely high level. To me the skill level is absolutely awesome. Anything can happen in sports competition. That's what makes sports interesting and challenging. People go out and give their best. The game determines the outcome. There's an opponent that has some say in the outcome.

      In my mind the Sheryl Bernard's Olympic team are to be greatly admired. Everybody wins at the Olympic level just by competing. I was disappointed to hear some criticism of the team's silver medal standing. Not me! They are tops all the way! Hold your heads high!

Student Success Brings Pride

        I have written four previous posts reflecting on my teaching career. One of the posts was reflecting on all the types of students one would encounter in a teaching career. I think I admitted that my favorite assignment would be to take about a dozen students who were not having success in a regular class and teach a modified program where they could meet with success. Usually these students had some behaviour difficulties resulting from their lack of success. It was usually at the gr. 9 level as they could continue in highschool with a similar program.

       I found one of my former students on face book the other day. H6WGQ5V65CYG I knew that he had become successful,but I didn't realize how successful. When I had him for gr.9 math he did not know up to the 5 times table and had difficulty dividing with just one place divisors. I had some success in these areas but not a lot. He was very interested in algebra but had not too much hope for success because of his arithmetic limitations. Factoring polynomials takes some basic arithmetic skills.He was pleasant, cooperative and willing to work. He wanted to learn. He was always thinking about some various type of device that would be really cool to do something with and it was always  remotely controlled. He was a little rough around the edges socially. He was a little guy but had a record of being able to pound kids twice his size if he was pushed into it by their teasing.

     I knew that he had some very successful inventions. He had designed remote sensing controls for gas wells in isolated areas. He was discussing a plan to set these devices up for gas companies and then monitor the fuctioning of their wells for them. Smart plan! He was going to borrow $1.7 million dollars . He was a cautious kid and he was hesitant about borrowing this much money? After that I lost contact with him.

     Yesterday I find out that he owns a multi-million dollar oil well servicing company! Was I proud of him! It made my day.

   

Jeremy Wotherspoon My Winter Olympics Hero

        I have followed Jeremy Wotherspoon's speed skating career since he first started skating with the local club.

        Jeremey became a world class leader in speed skating for a long time. This took tremendous dedication to every aspect of his life. Training to get to this level takes determination as well the dedication of your whole life.

       Jeremy had much success in World Cup races. Winter Olympics were another thing.

      For the 2010 Winter Olypics Jeremy was added at the last minute. At  34, age  had caught up to Jeremy. However, Jeremy went out and competed even though his prospects were remote. This is were it really takes guts. You go out and give it all you've got even though you know it's not going to happen. I'm reminded of Rudyard Kipling's line were he says "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing their's ....You'll be a man my son" Jeremy's a great man!

       Now Red Deer, Jeremy's home town, could name a street Wotherspoon Way?? The speed skating oval where it all started could be named for Jeremy. Come to think of it an enclosed speed skating oval would be reallly cool!

Silent Fellow Travellers

       I am always amused when I find that something else has travelled silently and unobserved in my territory.

      Last week as I was doing my paper route I suddenly noticed deer tracks down the sidewalk I was following. Yes, in the middle of a city residential area a deer had taken the sidewalk to go from someplace to somewhere else. I'm sure that it was seen by no one as it would have moved in the early morning hours. Interesting how we share our space with other creatures and few of us are aware of their presence. I wonder if they are aware of our presence or do they just ignore us? I some how doubt they ignore us as they have extremey keen senses of hearing and smell.

     So I enjoyed sharing my space with my unseen silent partner.