Face to Face with my Face

       Now I look in the mirror once or twice a day to check and see if I'm still here and that no parts have fallen off. Fortunately our features change so slowly that we are fooled into thinking that few changes have taken place and the face we see is the one we always had.

      Every once in a while something happens that brings a striking end to the idea that we still look the same. We can look  at old photographs but even then we still have in our head that tht's what we still look like. We c an meet old class mates and they don't know us.

     In one Innuit community that I lived in for two years I was called "Ehunga." I knew that they called me "Ehunga" and gradually I discovered that it meant "Crooked Mouth." This disturbed me quite a bit because I have always prided myself in being honest. One day I got up enough nerve and asked why I was called "Crooked Mouth." They instantly used their hands to demonstrate that my mouth slanted upward from left to right. Was I relieved! At least I was honest! I also had a major lower  jaw protrusion. These issues were what I was born with.

       When I needed some major dental work they did surgery to repair the jaw issue. There were some complications with the surgery and some nerve damage resulted. I don't have much feeling on the lower left side of my face. Aging has resulted in some more sagging of muscles on the left side. All these years I have been looking in the mirror and have not noticed much change. I guess things my eyes were seeing didn't get to my brain.

      What brings about this major discovery that everybody else is aware of? Well, when I went on Skype the other day I saw myself on video for an hour and a half. I haven't been on video for a while. I was able to watch myself talk, smile and laugh. I was able to see these facial features that aren't always obvious when looking in a mirror. You usually don't talk or smile when you look at yourself in the mirror.

      So I came face to face with myself while watching video. It was interesting, amusing and provocative. I was able to think about how we see. It's the brain that does the seeing. Sometimes our head really influences how we see.

      Now if I had the technical expertise I would show you pictures for examples of what I mean. On the other hand consider yourselves lucky!

     So some people see great beauty in a certain art piece and others consider it downright unappealing.

  

My First Day on Skype

        For those of you who follow Hiawatha House you will know that Red is somewhat challenged when it comes to all things technological. I have told you that I had a digital watch for twenty five years before I learned to set it. I struggled with my new ipod last year. I don't set the timer on my DVD. Some day I'm going to have to down load a podcast? I missed Sunday Morning today and it was a good show. How am I going to hear it if I don't download a podcast?


       Now some people will be saying, "What in the world is wrong with Red if he can't do these simple technological things." If you look at my birthday post you will get part of the answer.


      Three years ago my brother said I should get Skype. He had all the reasons why it would be great to have Skype. I understood all his reasons. But I still thought about it . For my birthday this year my daughter gave me a webcam. HINT, HINT. So I knew she was getting a webam and wanted to talk to Mom and Dad on Skype. The webcam  had  a disk to download. That went fine. I set up a Skype account. That was pretty hit and miss but I got it done. I've never had my sound working properly on this computer so I wanted to fix that before going on Skype.


     This morning we phoned my daughter for her birthday. Then she said lets try to get on Skype. She added me as a contact as we hadn't done that before. I added her as a contact. She clicked something and there she was . I clicked something and there I was at her place in Chicago. We talked for an an hour and a half. My wife thought it was absolutely fabulous as she was really wowed by speaking and seeing the image at the same time.


     So here I am a veteran of one call on Skype! I have much more to learn but I'm sure I'll get to it. Now I just have to catch up to the guy who told me to get Skype in the first place.

The Birthday Issue

         Recently I posted on my 72nd birthday. I got thinking more about the birthday issue after that post. I guess birthdays were on my mind since my son recently turned 42 and my daughter will soon turn 40. I stopped and said "Wow" I have two kids who are in their 40's. I had never thought of things in that way before.

      I was fortunate enough to be 68 when my Dad died. I know he found it difficult to consider me as elderly. I sent him a birthday card and told him that on my next birthday I would be 65. Apparently he thought about this for a bit and then said to my step Mom, "You know Red's and old man." My step Mom thought this was a hilaroius comment. For my Dad it was one of those moments when time needed an adjustment in his head. I had left his house at age 17 and had not spent much time with him after that so experiences we had together were limited.
 
        It has always seemed to me the first sight of my children is the one that sticks in my mind.  I remember them as preschoolers as they were always in the house and very dependent on me. In their school years they  were out of the house for the day but with me at home. So they were spending less and less time with me. They finished high school and left the home. They came back for visits. Less time was spent with them. So suddenly a large amount of time has passed and I'm sorry to say that they are middle aged. So maybe I should have been putting more emphasis on birthdays.


      When a child is 4 they concentrate on the present time. They don't spend much time considering their short lifetime experience. A four year old will find it very difficult to look toward the future. I'm wondering if this is why as adults, we remember almost none of our early life. We don't spend time remembering when we're young and don't establish much in our memory bank.


     As we age we think about our past much more. At my age there is a tremendous amount of past to think about. Some of it gets muddled. I find this out when I visit my brother and sometimes we have some different views of our past experience. Some of my childhood memories have faded as I'm not with my family to constantly remind me about them.


     The four year old probably cannot see himself as 16. Just as I could not see my children as being in their 40's. And I can't realistically see myself as being eighty although I am getting close to it.


     I think the most important part of the living process is that we stay positive about our life. It is important that we look forward in a positive way and in so doing we will enjoy getting there

The Mule Deer Snubbed Me

     Yesterday was the day to go out to the lake and do the last yard work of the season. It was a cool morning as there had been a good frost the night before...minus 6 C. By the time I got to the lake about 11:30 there was still frost on the grass and it was cool. I  put my cranky old lawn mower in the sun to warm it up a bit so that it would start. I had some leaf raking to do so that helped to warm me up. I had some things to find in the trailer that had to be taken home. After this the lawn mower still wouldn't start so that was excuse enough to stop for lunch.


     Even on a cool day lunch out in the sun and fresh air is pleasant. I had three bites from my peanut butter sandwich when I thought I saw somebody on the road or walking trail. They sort of disappeared and I became more curious and watched very carefully. I kept absolutely still and did not munch on my sandwich. Finally I could make out the silhouette of a deer so I really held my position. A mule deer doe came through the trees into my yard. She go to about 12 or 15 meters from me before she stopped and took a careful check. She knew that there was something there that usually wasn't there. She sniffed and listened and then retreated 10 meters or so. Then two fawns appeared and I could see an outline of another deer where these three had entered. After some more checking they finally crossed on their well beaten trail to my neighbor's place where they knew lunch was waiting.


     They had a quick lunch and then retraced their steps through my yard .They took their time and then leisurely left my yard.

     Now I could finally move and continue with my lunch. By this time my coffee was cold! However, I had the thrill of watching four mule deer walk right by me and decide that I wasn't a threat. In other words they snubbed me.


     Oh yeah. I had thought of taking my camera with me! I probably wouldn't have had it on a chair beside me while I was eating lunch. And oh yeah if I'd picked the camera up my picture would have instantly disappeared. My picture taking has got to improve. The first thing would be a little patience.


     It was a fun day. Much the the same thing happened to me last year.

Red Turned Seventy-two a Few Days Ago

       That's right . My birthday was a few days ago and I turned 72.

      Now birthdays don't really excite me. If I was on my own, I would probably miss my birthday. Birthdays don't get me bent out of shape for various reasons. I have no angst about growing old or oncoming poorer quality of life. My Mom died at age 59. I was worried if I would outlive her. Now I see how young she was when she died. I don't want to outlive my Dad who died at age 95.


     Now I realize that most other people are quite concerned about their birthday. It's a big deal! I only forgot my wife's birthday once! But I think it was ingrained on my mind from school as to how important birthdays were. We read the birthdays over the intercom each day. Once in a while some little kid's birthday was missed so I had a very sad and worried little kid coming and telling me that their birthday was missed. They knew that I would go to the office and make sure that the error was corrected. I also said happy birthday to the kid each time I saw him or her that day. I'll never forget the look in those eyes when their birthday was forgotten. It was like they'd received a message that they didn't exist.


     Now before I turned 72 my brother was also 71. When I turned 72 he stayed at 71. So what's the deal? My brother was born less than a year after I as born? We have always enjoyed this situation. When we were little guys somebody always asked us how old we were . I would say 8 and he would say 8. Then the person would say , "Oh you're twins'  and  we  would say "no." It would leave the person scratching their head. I often think back to the time when we were born and wonder how busy our Mom was. It got worse because 14 months later we had a baby sister. So a two year old was looking after one year old. Very likely neither of us were potty trained. So a one year old and two year old were sleeping in a double bed.

     So I am very happy to have turned 72 . You can see the standard muffin and one candle. I got a web cam for my birthday. My wife took me out for dinner and then we went to a hockey game. Times are good.

The Surprise of the Anonymous Gift!

         Last Tuesday a number of us received an anonymous gift out of the blue.


         Tuesday is skating day and after skating we go the the nearest Dairy Queen for coffee. We have done this for close to ten years. The Dairy Queen staff are excited to see us and treat us as special guests. They can ask why someone is not there on a certain day. If we accidentally spill a coffee they give us a free refill!


         Last week we had all just sat down to enjoy our coffee when one of the young staff came over with a tray of blizzards. We told her that she must be at the wrong table because we hadn't ordered blizzards. Then the young gal tried to explain to us that someone had ordered the blizzards for us . We all looked at each other with puzzlement. She explained that a young man had ordered the blizzards for us and wouldn't give his identity and left. Although I doubt that he left because it would have been worth  much more to stay there and see the look on our faces. So the waitress finally persuaded us to accept the blizzards.


       So if someone had been watching they would have seen major confusion on our faces. Then some doubt and disbelief. Then there was our wondering who was the fine person who bought us blizzards and why he bought them for us. Soon we began to have delighted looks on our faces as we began to dig into the blizzards. I'm sure that our faces showed our appreciation. I hope the person who bought them stayed and had the pleasure of watching us. It would have been worth his investment.


       I would suspicion that the guy was familiar with us coming in on a regular basis and probably knew one of us. One of our skaters ran a day care for twenty five years and runs into some of her former charges. They are always extremely happy to see her. Of course, since she had them as preschoolers she has no way of recognizing them.


      A great picture opportunity was missed because who takes his camera to skating?


      So an anonymous act of kindness brought some old people much pleasure.


      A big thanks to the anonymous blizzard buyer. We enjoyed every last spoonful of ice cream.

"Occupy_______Protesters" Give me Optimism

          Four weeks ago a group appeared in New York with the vague slogan that they wanted to occupy Wall Street. They had many signs and walked back and forth but their slogan could have meant different things.

         I think this group would have quickly disappeared except that the police arrested 700 of them for rather poor reasons. This gained the group massive publicity and as a result the movement grew by leaps and bounds with sections forming in many different centers.

        We have all seen the development of obscenely high salaries for top executives for the last ten years. It had started on a slower pace 25 or 30 years ago. Companies piled up huge amounts of money. Sports would be an example where athletes make enormous amounts of money. This is a competition between players and the leagues. Any first year hockey player gets close to one million dollars in his first year.

       The "Occupy " group is very shrewd in it's tactics. There is an emphasis on no violence. Their aims and objectives are vague. They are extremely well spoken so communication is excellent.They are using social networks wisely.

       I think that this movement has a good chance of success in bringing about a change so that the wealth is more fairly distributed. That's why I'm optimistic.

       I started my professional career in the late 50's. Times were good . Jobs were a dime a dozen. Salaries were quite adequate. I have watched with dismay as many labor groups have lost benefits such as wages, pensions and  health care . In the 80' I saw many parents with five or six jobs between them over an 18 hour period. They were trying to make ends meet. Many times their children were neglected. These people were hard workers and had finished high school and often had post high school training yet they could not get employment that was productive. No doubt some businesses were benefiting from their labor.

       I think these groups will continue with their low key actions for a long time. They will keep up the pressure on government and business until Govt. and business begin to worry. I'm sure that political parties are already looking at how they are going to be maneuvered. In Canada where we have three main parties it's easier for them to influence political parties to shift. It may be more difficult in the U.S. with only two political parties.

      I see  link to demonstrations in the Arab world although they were looking more directly for regime change. The English riots were about the same thing except they were put down with force as the rioters gave the police good reason to arrest them . Many of the English demonstrators were of color so it made it easier for the police to take action.

      I would think that at this time government and business is totally ignoring the "Occupy  Group."  This will be to the peril of govt. and business. A few weeks ago they could have thrown a handful of change to the protesters and made a few vague promises and the protesters would probably have disappeared. The longer this movement stays around the more change they will demand.

      So I am optimistic that the "Occupy Group" will bring about change. They are asking for an adjustment to make the sharing of wealth more equal. I think such an adjustment is needed and cooler heads will find a way to do it.