Good-bye Murray

     Today I attended a celebration of life for Murray and thought of the many things that made the man.

     I first met Murray in '97 when I started senior skating. Murray was a very active skater and influenced others to skate and have fun.

    Murray was lively, feisty and energetic. He was also kind, caring and thoughtful.

    What I really liked about Murray is that he was a great story teller.

     Murray had been a farmer all his life. He was a farmer from his boot toes to the top of his ears. Of course, his stories were farm stories. Since I was brought up on a farm I appreciated Murray's stories. It was easy to set Murray up to tell a story. Mention tractors and Murray had stories...green tractors , yellow tractors, red tractors. He had tractor stories! Mention storms and he had stories of snow storms, hail storms, wind storms, dust storms and thunderstorms. Mention crops and there were good, bad and bumper crops. Wells? He had many experiences with wells. Machinery breakdowns? He fixed them all. Cows? There wasn't any experience Murray didn't have with those darn cows.

     So these stories were about a way of life and there was always something you could learn or take away from a story. Murray's stories were descriptive and memorable.

   I mentioned Murray's story telling to his son today, and there was a big chuckle of agreement about his Dad's stories. He told me that his Dad had his first heart attack when he was 48. He said, "I don't think Dad thought he would have a long life so he lived and cherished each day that he had."

   Murray was a great example of how to face challenges and live life to the fullest.

    Murray and his stories will be missed.

    
     

Freaking Out When You Think You're Old

    About 1992 we hired a young single male teacher. Tom was well qualified and quickly became a very good teacher.

    Tom was single and as single guys go he could have  good time. 

    Soon Tom was married to his long time girlfriend and of course children appeared. Now Tom is a very affectionate, caring and sentimental guy. Tom's wife is a very lucky woman and his kids have experienced a solid family upbringing. The family traveled and participated in sports.

   I saw Tom and his family from time to time and it was always interesting to see the kids grow. Tom was very proud of his two boys. Oh yes, they learned how to fish! They also became good hockey players.

   Tom is a Face Book friend. The other day he said, "It's happened and I can't believe it. We took Gord to the high school orientation night!"  Tom couldn't believe that his son had grown up so quickly and was ready to enter high school. Yes, Tom was freaking about his age.

    So we have kids and are extremely busy with them and don't notice the time going by. I was surprised when my kids were ready to start school. It seemed like the time they were little went by very quickly. Where time really seemed to race is when they were in Middle school. Once they were through Middle School they seemed to be out on their own much more and away from home. I still wanted to have them at home. 

     All at once a certain milestone is reached and we are keenly aware of time going by rather quickly. Our kids are growing up and we are getting older.

     I'm sure the people who have children mark the passage of time by what happens with their kids.

    

Hiawatha House Goes Dark for Today

     Today I don't have anything ready to write about. I have a few ideas in the back of my head but I'm not ready to work on them. Maybe I'm a little lazy today.

     So today, Hiawatha House will be dark!

     Dark comes from the theatre when there's no show on for the day. The lights for the stage are off so it's dark. Dark also comes from horse racing when there's a day with no races.

    I know that bloggers quite often have dark days. We need breaks. Forcing a post probably results in so so post. Forcing a post puts stress on the writer. 

    I've been following some rooky bloggers and they find it challenging to come up with ideas for posts. I think some of them are too fussy. You have ideas and then you have to build a post on that idea. Tell an interesting story.

    Do you get stressed out when stories dry up? What do you do when the well runs dry?

Spring Limps to Hiawatha House.

      We are experiencing some spring weather. We've had above 0 C (32 F) highs for 7 days. Some of our snow is starting to disappear. However , things have moved very slowly.

      We've had snow since the end of October. When snow melts all the grunge that has been mixed in over the winter shows up. It's not a pretty sight.  Some leaves fell after the snow fell and they are pretty messy. We have bare patches of ground but the grass is still brown.

It's incredible how dirty snow can get

Snow plows make windrows when they take the sow off the road.

Now the camera has picked up some green bit I assure you I don't have green grass.

     Sunrise today was at 6:56 and sunset is 8:20 so we get 13 hours and 24 minutes of sunlight a day. 

     Now if I could only send some snow to Far Side of Fifty I might win here prize for guessing the day her snow disappears!

     So as you can see, spring is slowly coming to Hiawatha House.

Behind in Music

     I seem to be listening to music 20 or thirty years after it comes out and is popular.

     I like music. To be more exact, I like listening to music. I am not a musician. I listen to a wide variety of music. It would be easier to say what I don't listen to. I have only one problem and that is not enough time to listen to all the music I like.

     Now it always seems that I am years behind on the music scene. I've never heard Justin Bieber, the Dixie Chicks or 101 other modern groups. I have heard the Spice girls but they are an old group. I don't listen to rap so that makes many artists I've never heard of. 

    I guess I find some music that I really like and enjoy. So I don't pickup on any new music. 

    It goes like this. when Elvis hit the scene. I was listening to Pat Boone, Perry Como, Country and Western and Folk music. I did pick up on Elvis and all the 50's rockers fairly soon after they hit the big time. The Beatles were out for some time before I began listening to their music. It took me a long time before I listened to Neil Diamond, Bruce Springstien, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dillon and many more. 

   Along the way, I discovered   Blues music. In Blues there is a huge variety of different classes. I also made an acquaintance with jazz. All this time I listened to classical music. For each of these I found that there were always sources that provided interesting information on the music. Radio stations I listen to not only play the music but talk about it. 

   I suppose that I was discovering so much music that I didn't have time to listen to new music that was coming out. 

   However, I have been able to find more than enough music that provides listening pleasure.  

    How about you? Are you years behind in listening to new music? What's your favorite type of music? What has been some of the best groups you've listened to? 

I Have Seen the Future

     I went to the Medical Lab this morning for a test. While I was waiting a man brought in his very elderly mother. He had thoughtfully picked up a wheel chair at the hospital entrance as these institutions are extremely large. Again, he thoughtfully picked out a  place at the end of a row of chairs to park her wheel chair. This waiting room has a combination of chairs and tables which are the same height and color scheme . The little tables are convenient for people to put their stuff on while they're waiting.

    The little old lady was parked beside one of the tables. Her son had to sit on a chair on the other side of the table. The lady decided that she wanted her son to sit beside her. The son told her that he couldn't sit beside her as there was a table between them. She completely ignored this information. She wouldn't give up and kept bickering. She got up and before the son could react , parked herself on the table. Once she was sitting on the table he couldn't persuade her that it wasn't a chair but a table and she wasn't supposed to sit on the table. He also had some concern for her safety. Finally, he persuaded his mother to get back in the wheel chair and he sat on the table. Now the son was extremely large so he had to be very careful or the table would collapse. 

    By this time everybody in the waiting room was aware of the situation and couldn't help but be amused. The son was someone who dealt with his mother's behavior in a very unruffled  manner. He was very aware of the audience he had. He knew the value of not treating the irrational with the rational. His mother must have been an English teacher as she constantly corrected his grammar. She was still right on with her grammar.

   So I thought for a second...this could be me some day! So you see I saw the future.

    On another level I had to admire the way the son handled the situation. He was in some control of a chaotic situation. This lady was obviously a very bright person and she still had some of her mind but other parts of it were completely missing.

   It reminded me of the last visit I had with my Dad. I went to his nursing home and found him sound asleep  at the breakfast table. He wakened when I talked to him. He was an old farmer. He said that he wanted to stop and have dinner but he couldn't find the barn to put his horses in. I tried to distract him so that he would be in the present moment so I could visit with him. I told him I knew where the barn was and I would put the horses away. Don't worry. This didn't work. I took him on a tour of the nursing home. He still fretted about his horses. 

    Finally I gave up. I stayed until lunch time. 

    I've thought many times about how to deal with the irrational. What would I do today? I would ask him the names of his horses. I would ask him which field he was working in. I would ask him if he was sowing a crop or cultivating the soil? I don't know if this would work, but I would have been on his topic. The little old lady and Dad would not let go of their ideas. It's difficult to understand their persistence in holding on to an idea. Irrationality is hard to deal with.

   

Weird Medical Arrangements

     I like the little walk in medical clinic that I go to. I can request the doctor  I want to see. Sometimes the wait is long but they give you a time and you can go away and do something else. I've found a really good young doc who's with it and shows an interest in patients in general.

    Now it's time for my annual medical check up. The system they have for making an appointment is just plain wacky. Appointments are made on the first of the month for the next month. Bookings can be made by phone or walk in. There aren't very many spaces for yearly medical check ups.

   Now the door to this clinic opens at 8:30 AM. They open their phone lines at 9:00 AM. So if you phone you might find that all the appointment spaces have been taken. So people line up outside the clinic to be able to book their appointments at 8:30 AM.

   So there I was this morning at 8:00 AM waiting half an hour to get in the clinic. I was second in line. It was minus 15 C(plus 3 F). By 8:30 AM there were about 30 people waiting. There was lots of good chatter.

    So once the doors were open it took 30 seconds to book my appointment and I was back out on the street in two minutes.

   Before I left, my wife was criticizing the procedure I had to go through to get an appointment. 
She said, "Just think how difficult this must be for old people!" Well, whether she knows it or not, this old person waited in the cold and did very well thank you very much. On the other hand I'm happy not to be classified as an old person.

    So tell me now, does anybody else have to jump through weird hoops to get an appointment for a yearly check up?