More on Nine Lives

     Long before I'd ever heard of hypothermia I had a serious brush with it.

     When I was in the Arctic , a buddy and I decided we would spend some time on the weekend goose hunting. It was late September so the nights could get very cold. The place we chose to hunt was about 90 miles away and of course, we had to travel by boat on the river. We had a tent, sleeping bags, stove and food.

     We woke up the next morning and could hear what we thought was rain on the tent. When we looked out the tent it had snowed. We decided to quickly break camp and head for home. The way home was with the river current., but the wind was against us. When wind blows against a current a placid stream can get rough.

     We traveled hour after hour. It was slow. Our boat was open and we were exposed to the wind. My buddy crouched down in the front of the boat out of the wind.

     When we arrived home I was extremely stiff and had difficulty getting out of the boat. I took a few things up to my apartment but the walk was difficult. My whole body was shaking with shivering. I thought once I got in the warm apartment I would warm up. I couldn't stop shaking. I was really cold. I decided to get in a hot tub. I remember still shivering in the hot bath water. Slowly I warmed up and the shaking stopped.

     When I look back this is one time when I used up one of my nine lives.

      Since I've been involved in outdoor education , I've learned about hypothermia. I now recognize what a dangerous situation I was in.

Let's Standardize a Couple of Things

     I admit that get caught clicking on the wrong computer icons from time to time. I get in a hurry, have fumble fingers or just make a simple old error. So I'll confess to my own mistakes.
     
      What I find frustrating is that some clicks could be standardized to make things smoother. For example, the customize Google chrome icon on the top right hand corner should be somewhere else because I accidentally click close instead of customize. Then I say some very bad words to my computer. Another gripe I have is that when you sign in to a site and put in your pass word, sometimes the cursor moves automatically and sometimes you have to move it. On Face book you have to move the cursor to pass word. On blogger the cursor moves automatically to pass word. So when I sign into Face book and put my pass word in only to find the cursor wasn't there, I say some very loud bad words.

    There are probably many more of these situations that I trip over and I never notice them. What are some examples of arrangements that bug you?

    Now am I being overly picky? Should I just get over it and never mind? 

    Now I understand that each organization is trying to provide the best arrangement on the screen so that we will pick their site. It's called competition. They can compete all they want. Let them box with each other and they can compete that way. I just want a standardized screen to work with.

Depression Survival

     Comments on my last post prompted me to add more information.

     My Dad was somewhat inconsistent and complex. He was generous to a fault. He worked hard and lived frugally when he had to. He enjoyed life although he had very little.

     When he bought things on auction sales they were for very little money for several reasons. He usually bought something that was old. He was quite happy to live with second hand items that had long since passed their prime. Since most people didn't have money to buy things the prices on auction sales were low.

     So Dad provided for his family by working hard and doing with second hand items.

      Mom and Dad were married in Feb. 1938 and the depression was still a big challenge.  They came back to the farm in April 1938. They had $60.00. That  had to do them until harvest time when they could sell some of their crop. Dad did get some work over the summer. Dad liked chocolate bars and candy. When they went to the village for groceries and mail they bought one chocolate bar and shared it on the way home. I can picture them riding home in their buggy with a shambling old horse pulling them while they enjoyed their chocolate bar. How do I know this? It was recorded in the account book!

    The war came and candy and chocolate bars were no longer available. As soon as some candy became available after the war Dad bought it. He brought a bag of marshmallows home to give his little kids a treat. We'd never seen candy and didn't know what it was. We played with the marshmallows and rolled them on the floor. He was disappointed that we didn't eat the marshmallows and spoiled them so he couldn't eat them.

    So depression life was a struggle but if you were willing to do with very little you could get by and be quite happy..

Tales From an Accounting Book: Who Would Name a Cow Oscar?

      Well, my Dad would name a cow Oscar!

       In the accounting book my Mom and dad used for their farm was a place for inventory. Mom listed the cattle - by name.  So the names of six cows were listed. Small farmers with only a few cows gave the cows names.

      So how come a cow gets named Oscar? That's the story.

      My Dad started his farm in 1935. So most people know that this was in the depths of the depression. At the time many farmers were broke and had to sell and move somewhere else. There weren't big fancy moving vans. They had an auction sale and sold most of their belongings. These auction sales were not highly successful as very few people had any money to buy things.

     This is where my Dad stepped in. Things sold very cheaply on these sales. Dad would buy things on these sales. No two chairs in Dad's house were the same. He bought them on auction  sales for probably ten cents a chair! His dishes and pots and pans where the same. No set of dishes for him. Lots of cups and saucers but none of them matched.

    Now back to the cow. He bought the odd cow on a sale. He would name the cow after the person who had the auction sale. So Oscar was a cow that he bought on Oscar's sale. He also had a Neufy, Lowdy, Strong and Burr...and maybe a few I've forgotten about. 

    He also had a horse called Teddy and  a very ancient model T truck that he got by trading a cow?

    So there's a story I found by looking in Mom and Dad's farm account book. By the way, I don't remember the cow called Oscar.

Another Snow Post

     I keep trying to ignore the snow we have been having recently but I can't. Each dump of snow adds another layer to what we already have. We have over 97 cm(39 in) of snow. This is what has been measured at the weather station. 

So the snow stick is on a table 

    I accidentally got myself  connected to Far Side's snow stick. I was only going to use the snow stick idea once but here I am again and the best way to show my snow is with the snow stick!

A nice cornice on the end of the house.

    December 29 we had about 10 cm (4 in)of snow. Again there was lots of vigorous shoveling.

And you remember this old guy. Now he's almost neck deep in snow.

    Now I think I've done more posts on snow than any other topic. My interest isn't snow. It just happens that we have been getting a lot of snow.

Pale afternoon light and shadow.

Celebrating New Year's Day...a Long Time Ago

     When I was a child, in the forties and early fifties, we celebrated New Year's Day with a meal and day similar to  Christmas with out the gifts. The menu was the same.

     We alternated celebrations with Mom's cousin. The big meal took place at noon. The cousins would arrive by horses and sleigh. This was not a fun sleigh ride but was the standard and only transportation at that time.

     We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy, veggies, cranberry and lots of pickles. There were usually twelve of us and we were all boys with big appetites so there wasn't much left. Delicious pie capped off the meal.

    Now I remember the delicious turkey. It wasn't the super dooper butter ball turkey which is filled full of sugar and other junk to make it taste better. We just had a plain old turkey that lived on the yard all summer where it ate grasshoppers, bugs, blades of grass, weeds and seeds. They were also fed some grain. They were the turkeys that really had flavor. To eat the turkeys sold today almost makes you cry.

    Now the afternoon was spent visiting and playing games. Sometimes the monopoly game went on all afternoon.
  
     Around 4:00 PM the Dads would go out and do the chores. The cows still had to be milked and fed.

    The evening meal was made from left overs of the noon meal. Much Christmas baking was still available and on the evening menu. After supper, more visiting and games. Sometimes there was singing. To wind all this up, there was cold turkey and ham at midnight with tea and more great Christmas baking. 

     So you see it was a full day of celebration.

    So New Year's Day , when I was a little kid, was an all day celebration.

When You Fly, Don't Forget the Airplane

      Yesterday I took a flight and I didn't have an airplane. I didn't even have a parachute like DJan. 

      So my last post was flying when the airplane iced up. Conveniently yesterday, I took a another flight! I fell down the stairs!

     I survived the fall and the biggest wound was my pride. I was very fortunate and other than stretching a few things I had no injury.

    I was taking groceries downstairs so that they could be put away. I picked up a plastic pail that had a unattached lid  and a little box on top of the lid. This was a delicate balancing act. So with a bag of groceries in my right hand and the pail in my left hand I had to pivot on a step and then go down the stairs. Sounds simple, but I didn't make it. My feet were slower than a lot of other things.

    I fell from about 2/3 s up the stairs and went to the bottom and landed on the bread and some tin cans. The bread was a mess and the cans were badly bent out of shape. My micro manager was not too happy. She came to the top of the stairs to find out what all the noise was. Then she got in a huff about the mess I made. Somehow there were a lot of bread crumbs spread on the floor and she didn't like that!.

    So that's not a bad trick for a 74 year old. If you want my advice a 74 year old shouldn't even risk falling on the floor.

    So of course, here's for a safe 2014.