Birthday Present from My Government

    Now the title sounds very suspicious. What government, in their right mind, is going to go around giving people birthday presents? 

    On my next birthday I will be 75. Here , driver's licences are renewed every five years on your birthday. At age 75 , in this province, you must get a medical before they will issue you another licence. Now the medical is free! So there you have it. The province gave me a medical for my 75th birthday. I've already taken advantage of my gift and had my medical and will be going down to renew my licence shortly.

   Now the medical was cursory at best. I was given a basic eye test from the chart. My blood pressure was taken and a number of questions asked and check marks put in the appropriate box. That's all folks. I can now drive for another five years unless something incredibly severe happens.

   This last while I keep noticing poor drivers. I don't know whether drivers are getting worse or if I'm getting crankier. People seem to be doing really stupid things on a regular basis. This week I was at a red light on a one way street. The person on my left was stopped beside me. Then for some reason they just started to cross the intersection and proceed through the red light. I couldn't believe it. Twice this week I've had to come to a stop when some one is stopped and either lost or trying to find out where to go. People do not seem to have any ideas of the basic rules for driving. I could go on. 

   Maybe, the medical should be stricter and IQ's taken? Maybe a driver's written and road test should be done every year? Here it seems anybody and everybody gets a licence to drive no matter what.

   So as a senior I want to continue to drive, but I want to drive at a high skill level so that I'm safe and everybody else is safe.

   Are drivers getting worse or am I just being super critical?

    

Misstep into the Court House

      In my last post I related how I had received a speeding ticket. So that means at some time I have to pay the ticket as I wasn't going to fight the ticket. There were several options for paying the ticket. I chose to go to the court house and pay the ticket because the court house is near by.

     Now I haven't been in our court house for 15 years. The last time was when I was called for jury duty. Things change.

     If there are double doors, I always use the door on the right. As I was approaching the court house doors , the right one opened as someone was leaving. I thought , "Nice. I have an open door."  I took three steps and noticed a prominent "Do Not Enter"  sign. I was looking for a place to enter before the do not enter sign. I even thought of hopping the rails. Out of the din I heard some one say, "Sir, go back out and use the other door." Then I noticed a substantial security station on my left. Okay, I just made a big boo boo!

    I did as ordered and then they were asking me if I had a belt? This seemed odd. Then asked for my wallet and keys. They put these in a tub so I thought why are they taking this away from me when I might need some identification. Next , step through here!  Was I being herded into detention? I was going to walk away from the tub, with my pants about to fall down, when they shoved the tub out and told me I could have my stuff.

   Well, after going through a weird process like the security I was a little upset. This procedure was so lacking in communication it was mind boggling. I was totally unprepared for the procedure and they didn't help me. I am not unaware of security. I've been though enough airports. That's another story.

    When I left, it was through the right door. I stopped to look for a sign. There was a do not enter sign. I was unable to see it when the door was opened by the person leaving.

    In my little city , far from any big city action, I was not prepared for such high security. I thought after, that some very upset people could be entering the court house and that the security was necessary.

   So I guess , in this ultra modern world, I will have to be alert for those security guys or else move far out into the boonies where the security guys would not like to go.

Rippin' Mad Again

       Last week a letter came and there was no return address. I thought that's odd. Who would send a letter without a return address? My wife opens the mail. It works better that way.

     About the middle of the afternoon my wife stomped up to me outside and said, "Come." It was the tone of voice which indicates super trouble. 

     She had opened the letter and asked me to look at it. It was a speeding ticket! It was a speeding ticket that I picked up from photo radar. Now I became angry and upset. I was mad at myself for speeding and getting a ticket. I was upset because there was no warning. Just a letter that says you're a bad guy.

     Yes, they caught me going 67 kmh in a 50 kmh zone.

    Now I'm a life long speeder. My wife is constantly after me to slow down. So I admit that I deserved what I got. But everybody hates to get a speeding ticket. Now am I going to get a couple more tickets in the mail in the next few days as they say bad things come in threes? I hope not.

    By the way this is the first speeding ticket I ever got. Maybe I shouldn't say this.

    I have definitely slowed down. 

   So do you like speeding tickets any more than I do?

Rippin' Mad

     Now I'm a fairly cool and collected kind of boy. I don't get excited . It bothers me when somebody does show a loss of control.

    However, the other day I did get upset with myself.

   I decided to put a small bracket on my desk so that I could mount a fancy lamp. The desk has always been dark. The lamp was an extra so why not use it.
  

This should give me the precise light I want

My fancy block to attach the lamp

    I cut a piece of wood and sanded it nicely and painted it the same color as the desk. I attached the block of wood to the desk with four screws. I measured carefully. I drilled a hole in the block. I then used the drill tip to mark where I wanted the hole drilled in the desk. Here's where the wheels fell off the bus. To drill the hole in the block I needed  solid surface. I know! I'll use the desk. To begin with I watched carefully that the drill was over the edge of the desk. I was distracted and started again. I wondered why the drill hadn't gone through the block? Darn! The drill was going through the desk! A few choice words were said! Then I regained composure.

    I still had more painting to do. I filed the hole and painted it with the other touch up I had to do.

    It was a lame brained mistake. Am I the only one who makes this kind of mistake?

Surprising Coincidence

      Yesterday I went to a memorial for a long time neighbor. My wife persuaded me to go to the lunch after the memorial.

      A couple from Winnipeg came to sit at our table. Now Winnipeg is 1600 km (1000 mi) from us. Polite conversation was made such as what was their relationship to the deceased. My wife mentioned that she took her nurse training in Winnipeg. The other lady said, " Yes, she took nurse training in Winnipeg." So it only took a second to find out that they were in the same nursing school at the same time. Her husband and I rolled our eyes and said at the same time, "This could be a long time!" 

     The two women tried to make more connections by seeing who they knew. They shared their work experience. Meg was mentioned and her ex husband Harry. Winnipeg guy's ears went up as he knew Harry and had worked with him. These two guys had hung around together and some of the time at the nurse's residence to pick up girls.The conversation widened quickly with the third character having some ownership. There were some great laughs as connections were made.

    Finally, Winnipeg guy pointed across the table and said to my wife, "I took you out!" I happened to be watching my wife and her jaw dropped. My wife asked him his name and yes she remembered. Now the laughter became uncontrolled. Yes, they had gone out a few times. She had also gone to his parent's house a few times and remembered his parents as very supportive people.

   So what a surprising coincidence!  You sit with two people and try and be sociable and welcoming and then make an amazing discovery.  Have you made some surprising discoveries?

I Think I Blog Too Much

      Most people dream. Some dream often. Some have a recurring dream. Others have scary dreams. Some dreams are very realistic. There are probably a couple more kinds of dreams too!

     Last night I had a very realistic dream. I dreamed I was on a long bus trip from Saskatoon to Edmonton return. It was a school trip. I'm not sure if I was a teacher or a student or if the students were adults. That part was fuzzy in my dream. 

    The realistic part comes in when I dreamed that I left my nice red jacket in Edmonton. I was upset about leaving the jacket. Then I discovered that my nice red cap was missing. I was really upset. Had I left it at the last place we stopped? I stopped the bus to decide what to do. We decided to carry on as the cap was not worth driving the bus back to look for it.

    As soon as we got going on the bus I noticed a cap peak in front of me. I touched my head and there was the cap. The cap had been on my head all the time. I was embarrassed for having stopped the bus and making such a big fuss.

   I remember dreaming , "This would make a good blog post!" Then I woke up. It took me a minute   to come to my senses and realize that I had been dreaming. 

    So is this an indication that I have been blogging too much that I dream about it? Do you have dreams that seem very realistic until you wake up?

Volunteering Can Bring Surprises

       I am active in my community. I volunteer and serve on various boards and committees.

        I am a board member of a group which is providing some funding for another group's  project. The second group likes to do projects which are different and hopes that by demonstration they can influence the city to carry out projects which are much more environmentally sensitive. The group's name says it all.. Rethink Red Deer!

        The other day I volunteered to go on a walk to look at a piece of property for which they have a rehabilitation plan. The area is an old farm yard. The city has expanded and taken this land into it's boundary. They have also bought the property to hold for development. The farmer rents this land from the city. There was a cattle operation on the property so it's like many abandoned farmsteads...incredibly weedy. A stream meanders through the property. All native riparian species have disappeared long ago.

A very pleasant stream worth some restoration

The stream winds through the weed patch

No native plants are left

There's lots of overgrown grass

     The farm stead has been turned into community gardens. The gardeners are extremely fortunate as it's perfect gardening soil. 

    As we wandered though the property we saw what we guessed was the farmer repairing some machinery. Well, let's walk over and meet the farmer and introduce ourselves. At first, I didn't think he heard us so I repeated myself. I got a sound which certainly wasn't a word. We tried to ask for some background information about the area. We did get some one word answers but nothing else was volunteered. By this time we knew we were not welcome. He then wanted to know what we were doing. We told him about the project. Again there was a sort of grunt of some kind. By this time I thought we should maybe get out of there so I said, "Nice talking to you!" and we left.

    It was certainly one of the frostiest conversations I have had for a long time. It was a surprise for our group to run into such a reception. Nothing had warned us that there might be a negative reception.
   
    So volunteers have to watch out where they step or they could get a surprise. We are dealing with the city so have permission to enter the property and make plans. I suppose the farmer may not be happy as he may have had enough of dealing with city officials