My Last Request

    A few days ago I attended a small memorial for Joseph. I first met Joseph more than thirty years ago when his children attended the school I taught in. When I retired and started volunteering at the Nature Center Joseph was working there in maintenance so I got to know him quite well.

     The memorial was a simple family run affair. A eulogy was given and prayers read. Prayers ran seamlessly from Christian to aboriginal. I'm cool with that as I've experienced it many times before. Many people told of their experiences with Joseph and you learned much more about him from his family and friends. Many times they referred to Joseph being in heaven to reunite with his parents and some siblings.

     Listening to this I began thinking about the place and journey my spirit might take when my life is over. I began to wonder about things. I wondered if my spirit could go to several different places. Could part of my spirit go to heaven and I could be reunited with my parents and little sister? Could part of my spirit be released in the Great Sand Hills where many other spirits roam. Since I like being in the peaks of the Rockies could part of my spirit forever roam among to lofty peaks?  That would be my last request. 

    I'm not sure if I make this request to those who send me on journey or wait until I get to some other more appropriate place.

    Now I don't know what I've achieved with this post. Have I established a new genre of fiction? Have I succeeded in embarrassing myself again?  Have I ostracized myself from my relatives again? How many rigid religious rules have I broken?

    Well, am I worried? Of course not! If my readers have not already closed their eyes and put their hands over their ears and gone off to another blog, I will get interpretations guidance and opinions from my followers.  After all, I have to trust my blog  followers.
     

Bring Me Back a Present

     When I taught middle school I had a newspaper unit for one of the grades. We looked at all the parts of a daily paper starting with the header and ending with classified ads. We looked at headlines, first sentence of a story, editorials ..absolutely everything. The assignment was to make a scrapbook with about 10 different examples from the paper. The assignment was easy but it made the kids look through a newspaper. I killed a few birds with this stone. It got the kids reading and had them look at writing for a purpose. We did the crossword as a class and generally rooted through the whole paper. For a fine finale we took a field trip through a daily paper and saw how the paper was produced from start to finish.

I think I might need some new glasses

   I hope that some people found newspapers. I know the odd one is working for a newspaper but not likely from my newspaper unit.

   When  someone would tell me they were being taken out of school for a trip, I would look them in the eye and say, "You have to bring a present back for me!" A nervous distraught look would come over their face which said, "Is this guy for real?" I would give them a few seconds to be uncomfortable. The odd one would say ,"No way." Others might say, "Well , what do you want." Usually I got them off the hook and said , "Bring me back a newspaper." A look of relief  flooded across  their face and they enthusiastically said , "Oh sure!" I told them they didn't have to actually buy a newspaper. Their would be newspapers that they could pick up.

    So when they came back with their newspaper , I would make a big deal over the paper and we would briefly go through the paper and pass it around. Later on when they were going away they would ask me if I wanted a paper. Then they would come and say , "My Dad's going to Russia. Do you want a paper?" Some time later they would proudly come in with a paper. 

   I made a lot of mileage out of this gag. Quite a pile of newspapers built up over the years. Sadly there wasn't a lot of storage space so I had to clean out the closet from time to time. When I retired I disposed of all the newspapers that were left. Many memories went with the newspapers I collected. 

    "Bring me back a present" was a lot of fun.

Star Gazers

    The other night when I went out for my walk I found my 12 year old neighbor, Kenny, standing on the sidewalk with her dog. She was supposed to be walking her dog. Instead she was standing two doors from her house and looking up in the sky. I asked her what she was doing. (Dumb question.) She was obviously looking at the stars and she told me she liked stars.

   It was one of the clearest evenings we've had for a long time. She told me, "That's Orion over there." I said, "No way! Orion is in the southeast." Kenny bought her ipad out of her pocket and started fiddling around. Then she said, I have an app to show me Orion. Kenny pointed her ipad skyward and all the stars, constellations and planets were named as she pointed at them. I was completely blown away. I am familiar with star maps and charts ,but never imagined these things would be refined into a computer map. Papers used to have star charts once a week and maybe some papers still do.

    So we forgot the dog. I forgot my walk and we looked at stars. It was clear so we'd point and say, "I wonder what that one is?"  In a second or two the app would give us a name. Jupiter is now very bright almost above us and to the south. Take out your field glasses and have look.

   So half an hour goes by in a hurry when you're star gazing. I think the app is called Star Rover and it's free.      

   Kenny is one of he best twelve year old neighbors you could have. She's a "yakker" and she knows how to talk to adults, even old ones. So had a few pluses in a short time...star gazing, visiting and being outdoors.

An Elderly Challenge

    The other day when I went for my lab tests there was a very elderly lady dealing with the next clerk. This lady was well up in the nineties and her eyes were level with the counter top. In our system we must show our health care card and driver's license. She told them she didn't have a driver's license and wanted to know why they wanted it. They told her they just wanted to check her age . Her reply was, " I used to always be three years older than my brother. " I had a tough time not to roar with laughter. I like comments like that.

    Then I started thinking. Here's very elderly lady on her own in a large , sprawling hospital. She walked with a cane. Why doesn't someone assist  this senior with some of the basics. I'm sure she was very much with it in her head but physically she was challenged.

    She had been dropped of by a bus service from her senior's residence at 7:30 AM. What time did she have to get up and be ready to wait for some bus? 

   A volunteer had offered to get my paper work done and take me to another part of the hospital. I refused this aid as I had been through this routine before.This poor little lady was on her own. 

    I have a hard time to feel fortunate when I see someone who has to struggle on her own to get things done when there should be some help. 

Lab Challenged

      In preparing for my annual physical check up I was sent to a lab for the many routine tests.

      I arrived very early and so they sent me for my EEG because the lab wouldn't be open for 20 min. The EEG went fine and I went back to the lab. I waited two minutes and I was in. They took the usual vials of blood for the necessary tests. This went great as they hit the vein dead on.

    When I finished the blood work I had one test left. I was handed a small extremely cheap plastic cup and a vial with a centimeter diameter(7/32 in.). You guessed it . The last stop was at the wash room. Now I don't think you could find a more flimsy plastic cup. Most paper cups would be more substantial. I was to make my deposit in the cup and then pour enough of the deposit to fill the vial. Now it doesn't take much imagination to know what might go wrong. Yes, cheap little plastic cup and small vial...an accident waiting to happen. And it did. Next there's a blue plastic cap to go on the top of the vial. Put the sucker on and check to see if it's right. Well , it's not . So push harder. Still lopsided so really push and finally the lid went on. 

     Now here's my point. What are these people in the labs thinking when they set up such a system?  You can see this little old guy and many more rocking back on his/their heels and trying to pour liquid in a very small tube . We shake a bit and can't see too well. It doesn't work. It will be messy! So what do I do next time? Smuggle a little funnel into the lab! Take in a drinking straw to use as pipette?  What if they quit giving you the cheap plastic cup? I hate to think of that one!

    I'm going to have to check with my brother who has  health care kind of job. He's going to have to check into what can be done to help his elderly brother with a lab test. 

    So I hope for everybody else that other areas have not gone on such a cheap test and that nobody has to go through this ordeal. 

A Fine Winter Afternoon

    This afternoon I went for an hour's walk through a nearby natural area. It was minus 6 C (20 F) and very sunny. These days the sun has come back and the rays are a little more direct.

Into the woods

Sunshine finding it's way into the trees

Sun reaching into deep woods

Spruce trees catching some rays at the edge of a clearing

Water flowing up on a stream

Still lots of shadow

My trail takes a hook to the left

      So it was a very peasant afternoon to be out in the sun and shadow.

My Close Call in Theft.

     Most followers know that I was a Middle School teacher all my career. Most people know that middle schoolers can be full of mischief.

    Every year there would be a large incident of kids shooting paper wads. Some busy teacher would leave an unguarded box of rubber bands and after that all the bandits would be well armed and war broke out all over the school. You could confiscate rubber bands all day but unless you found the mother lode of rubber bands , paper wads flew for some time. I can remember getting "tips" and I would find somebody with a pocket full of rubber bands and I would make a major confiscation. That usually ended the paper wad fuss. Every year there would be a water pistol event. Usually a couple of stores had brought in a case of water pistols and every little beaner bought a water pistol and of course took it to school. Again , as with water pistols, these were very cleverly hidden. There were wet spots in the class room . Kids complained. There was extra traffic at the water fountain. Either enough armor was confiscated or became unserviceable and the activity ceased.

     For one outbreak of water pistols, the principal became completely frustrated and read the riot act on water pistols. He did announcements just before dismissal on a Friday afternoon. He told kids to take their weapons home. He told the teachers to disarm every water pistol armed kid. After dismissal I was supervising in the hall and a little guy came by with his weapon in his hand all the while admiring it. My jaw dropped. 60 seconds ago this kid had been told to get rid of his weapon. I had no option but to make a confiscation. The kid was a good jail house lawyer and put up a strong argument. 

    Early Saturday morning, before I was up, there was a loud knock on my apartment door. The kid's Dad was there with another guy I knew well and he went ballistic. He wanted his son's water pistol back and he yelled at me and told me what a disgusting human being I was. Since I'd turned the device in to the principal I could not return the goods.  I was shaken up by this encounter. I phoned my principal right away to give him a heads up on what had happened and to let him know what he might expect.

    The guy who accompanied the wild man contacted me later in the day and said he was completely unaware as to what was going on and he wanted me to know that he was no part of it.

    We had a police administration center in our town and the top guy was a superintendent. A few weeks after this incident when I was chatting with him he said, "Say , what was going on with the thing about a water pistol in school?" He said, "The guy came to him and created a big fuss as he wanted the superintendent to lay theft charges on me." He said, "I had an awful time with the guy." the supt. thought it was odd but not serious. So the guy had gone not to a constable to lay a charge but to the very top.

    So this was the only time in my life I came close to being charged with anything. I have often said that I appreciated  the  support I received in all the communities I taught in. However , this was one of the exceptions.