Antique Dilemma

      Many people are very interested in antiques.  Some people have a general interest and anything that is somewhat old is interesting to them. Some people are mainly window shoppers and they enjoy looking through antique stores just to see what's there. Some have very specific tastes and collect only salt and pepper shakers . Some want salt and peppers from a definite time period made in a precise fashion. Many people spend much time and money on their antique hobby.

    My Dad had an auction sale in 1974 to dispose of his household effects. Dad was really pleased and happy with the prices paid. When he found out that many items were bid up for their antique value he was somewhat insulted. Many things he had were bought on auction sales so by the time he was ready to part with them they were old. At that time people were becoming more interested in antique articles.

     I have a lake property which I never developed. We spent much time out there. My last post told how I sold my travel trailer. The trailer had been used when we spent time at the lake. We also built a garage and set the garage up as a summer kitchen. We bought a propane stove and fridge. We hauled a picnic table  in and had  a comfortable camping facility. We had many fun summers.

     The other day someone was in the garage. A few days later they emailed me and asked if I might be interested in selling my  stove and fridge. What a deal! I thought I'd never sell those items. I thought I would have to take them to the waste disposal site. 

    My wife wanted to know what the guy wanted these things for. You guessed it. He wanted them for their antique value. He is planning to set up a place and wants to work these items in somehow as antiques.  

    I don't remember where we got the stove from but the fridge has a story behind it. We started looking for the propane appliances in 1980. At that time there were radio spots where some one could advertise items. Somebody said they had a propane fridge. We phoned and it sounded like something we might like. We went out to look at it and found that it did not have a freezer. The old fellow thought for a while and then said one of his old farm neighbors might have one. He phoned for us and yes they still had their propane fridge. 

    So away we go and found that the fridge was in an open shed and hadn't been used for a while so it was pretty dusty and dirty. The fridge had been purchased in 1948. The lady assured us that it would work and told us how to start it. She looked around the yard and found various draws and shelves.  Well, we wanted a used propane fridge and this might be the only one we could find so we bought it.

    My wife spent many hours cleaning up the fridge so that it was perfectly clean. This fridge served us extremely well.

    So now I know how Dad felt when his household effects sold for antique value. I don't know whether to laugh or cry or does that mean I have mixed emotions. 

On Losing a Longtime Friend

     Yesterday I said goodbye to a friend of forty years. The parting had been coming for a few years and finally it happened. Yes, I sold my old travel trailer yesterday!

     I bought my 16 ft travel trailer in 1969. It was the same day that I picked up my new son from the adoption agency. So as the saying goes if walls could talk this little trailer had a million stories to tell.

    We had been campers as a couple. We wanted to keep on camping but with little kids we needed something that had more protection and conveniences. In the trailer we would be dry, warm and have all kinds of space to bring along necessities. So supplies and clothing were much easier to handle. 

    We didn't travel extensively but did get far from home once and made many short local hops. Mostly the trailer sheltered us at a lake lot that we bought. The lot, development, lake and beach provided the kids with all kinds of places to play and explore. We have many stories to share. When my daughter was six , she accidentally stepped on a wasp ground nest. As the wasps came up and started stinging her she froze and howled. We could hear her from 400 m away. It wasn't a funny story but just one of the many adventures. Most adventures were of the happy type. Many hours were spent sitting at the table playing games. When we cleaned the trailer out we found the old games and left them there.
  
     We advertised the trailer for several months. There were many inquiries and some people seemed really interested. The last caller seemed really interested. He came to look at it and I'm sure had made up his mind before he came as he had the money in his pocket. What's more he had two boys who were five and six. These little guys were just bug eyed over the trailer. They took it home and slept in it the first night.

"Out of the garage the old girl's easin."

"Out to the road she bounces"

Out of the gate so slowly

"The last time ever I saw her." I get tears looking at this shot!

    So it was with some mixed feelings that I parted with my old friend. But the writing was on the wall. I had not used it for seven years and I was not ever going to use it again.

    So goodbye old friend with some sadness and a lot of happy times.

Fall Equinox

    Sometime in the next few hours the sun will be shining directly on the equator for a few brief moments before it crosses to shine more directly on the southern hemisphere. That means we get the last day of summer and first day of fall. So it's the beginning of a darker colder season for us. In the southern hemisphere they are looking forward to increasing light and warmth. 

A huge aspen in brilliant color although the left side is still hanging on to the green.

Contrast with green and yellow on the same tree.

     So the equinox is a day with some significance. Ancient peoples knew that the day and night were equal. They also had a pretty accurately established the time. They had more fun than us because the equinox was celebrated in some fashion according to the different cultures. 

A green ash  in fine color.

Some maple behind caragana which hasn't turned color.

     So here we go enjoying colorful foliage and reaping our crops. I have harvested most of my vegetable garden. I'm waiting for a few good frosts before I take out carrots,  turnips and parsnips. My few carrots may be finished before we get the good hard frost. 

     So to the southerners enjoy your spring and summer. For us northerners we will have to make some changes to survive comfortably and find different things to do outdoors for fun.

A Senior Ripoff

      Yesterday while I was having breakfast, I discovered a ripoff the affects mainly seniors.

      I had two boxes of the same cereal on the table as one was just about empty so I had  a full one so I could have the usual cereal serving. I happened to notice that the weight of the old box was 1.45 kg. (Sorry, I don't know what this is in the English system.)   The weight on the new box was 1.24 kg. So the new box weighed 210 gm less or .21 kg less. So this is almost 15% less. And you guessed it the price was the same for both boxes. 

     Today when I did my shopping the price on the 1.24 kg box was $7.49. That's almost a twenty percent percent increase from $5.99.  Now that's a real big kick in the pants. How low can some big food companies go so that they can squeeze out more money from little old age pensioners ?

    So why is this mostly for seniors? Well, many young people don't eat breakfast. Raisin bran is consumed mostly by seniors as it keeps them in great condition. Would kids eat raisin bran? I think not. So this company hits hard on seniors.

    So therefore I have made the accusation that seniors are being ripped off. 

    Now I could include pictures of the boxes of cereal to provide evidence of this scam but I would have to take off the name of a very big cereal company or I may be liable for slander just because I inform seniors 
that they are being ripped off.

     I think I'm going to have to find some hot cereal that is far less expensive than the cold cereal. That'll teach them for ripping me off.

Summer Cycling Goal Met

    Regular followers have seen a post like this before. They know that I set out to ride 1000km (625 mi)  each summer. Today I turned the 1000km for this summer!

And here he comes down the trail!

    Each summer is different. This year until early July we had cold, cool and wet weather.  AS a result I had not done much riding by mid July. What got my butt moving was  when a fried accused me of being a "fair weather cycler." That did it . I go out when it was windy and cool. As a result the kms quickly built up. 

 Photos from 2008 when I was speedier

    What was different this summer is that I felt I was always pushing. It was hard to ride. I felt like I was weak. I oiled my bike. I tuned my bike. I checked the break adjustment. Something wasn't just right. Was it me or the bike. Was age catching up to me? I didn't feel that it was age or my physical condition. I gradually began to suspicion something. It took me a while to get around to testing out my theory. 

    Finally , one day I got around to changing the seat. That did it. Immediately I could feel that the legs were different and that there was lots of power left in my legs. So it was  both me and the bike that were at fault. I was using a big wide seat and it was putting pressure on the inner thighs and somehow a nerve must have been pinched so that leg power was reduced.

    I felt much relieved when I made that discovery. there's still lots of time left to ride. I'll keep going as hard as ever and see how much I can do for the summer.

Child Security

     My last post covered an aspect of seeing that our children are safe. It was a somewhat tongue in cheek post.

     Our children are the most important part of our lives. You hear many people say, "I don't know what I would do if I lost a child." Many people have lost children through disease, accident or crime and it's a horrendous experience for them. My parents lost an eleven year old daughter from illness. It was an extremely painful part of their lives and it stayed with them and altered their lives forever. The last time my Dad talked about the loss of his daughter he was 94 and it was still painful for him to talk about it. He never went back to the city she died in.

     Therefore the security of our children is of utmost importance. We want to do everything we can to see that they are healthy, safe and secure from any risk that would harm them.

    There are many workshops and programs to assist parents to raise their children in a safe manner. There are organizations such as block parent which tries to set up  community programs. 

   After my last post and the experience I went through as a teacher I have reflected on the security issue. I have thought about this issue since it's beginning. I'm of two minds. We must be prudent and err on the side of caution when it comes to security.

    However,  there are some side effects which concern me. Parents fall into a trap and begin micro managing their children. Some micro managed children do not learn to think for themselves and lose a very important skill. Some children who are closely supervised do no learn and practise the necessary social skills to get along with their peers. Their self confidence just doesn't get developed. These children tend to spend more time indoors and watching television or playing electronic games. 

     As a middle school teacher I saw some kids who had difficulty coping at that level. They had been walked to school for five years by a parent. When they started walking on their own, they weren't prepared for all the challenges. What's a worse situation is when kids are driven to school . Then they move in complete isolation.


     Many times we get caught in the trap of saying when I was a child. Those memories can be very selective and  only the good things are remembered. My daughter who is forty, likes to talk about her experiences. She reminisces about being out in the neighborhood from preschool and that many times her parents only vaguely knew where she was. Later she had free range over the subdivision. She talks about activities they participated in and I didn't know about it. These were not bad things . It was just children playing. We didn't worry about bad guys or bad kids harming our children. 

    So I have questions when it comes to the security practices we use today to protect our children. Some where there has to be a security system that protects and still allows children to learn to become independent when it's the proper time to learn. There are times to learn something and if that time is missed it's very difficult to learn later.

I Was Eyeballed Yesterday

      Yesterday I was eyeballed. Not once but three times. It's gone to my head! My head is two sizes bigger!

       My friend Tom believes that children should walk to school. My place is between his place and the school. Since I've known the kids from the start. He asked if I wouldn't mind if the kids could use my house in case they had any difficulties. The kids haven't had any difficulties and they've not had to call at my house. But I have had many awesome visits with them. If I'm out in the yard and they are coming up the street , I get a wave and that means a visit. Since they are both great talkers that means a rather long pleasant visit. They are both bright and the topics they talk about are quite advanced. They are still kids and very enjoyable.

      This year April 's brother goes to Middle School and can't walk with her. April has a good friend Philip to walk with. So yesterday I got the wave and met them for a chat. I had not met Philip before but it only took him about thirty seconds to warm up. I learned that obsidian also has a green form. I thought obsidian was only black. That's the kind of kids they are. We had our visit and off they went.

     Now I talked to Tom and he told me that his neighbor had seen April talking to a strange man on the street. Tom's neighbor drove around the block so she could check again. April seemed to be comfortable and happy talking to the strange man. Another trip around the block and the man was keeping a proper distance away from April and Philip. So the neighbor concluded that everything was alright.

     So I was eyeballed and didn't know it!

    So I'm happy that a neighbor knew these kids and was caring enough to keep her eye on them. I'm happy that she reported to April's Dad.

   A picture of these two kids would have been awesome. Would I post a picture of them? No. Pictures on the Internet and blogger are not secure. I wouldn't want pictures of children to get into the wrong hands. The only thing I can do is not post their pictures.