I've Been Rejuvenated!

     Well, rejuvenated  could be applied to many topics but I want to relate it to my health.

     I turned 75 this year and a year ago at this time I wasn't doing very well. I was having problems with my right leg. The symptoms were general and non specific , but I was definitely in pain and the leg had become weak. I had trouble getting out of  chair. I thought this is it. I'm facing a disaster. At the best, a cane might help. I even looked at canes in the store. I also had problems getting up off the floor. It was an effort.

    Now in March last year I finally booked in for some physiotherapy. The diagnosis they gave me made sense. The prescription of stretching and exercise made sense. They sent me on my way and I was to do what I was told. So do you think I did what I was told? No! I was to do 12 reps 4 times a day. I didn't do it. Once a day but not 4 times. Guess what? I didn't have much improvement. It finally occurred to me that when she said 12 reps 4 times a day, she meant it.

   I started to do more stretches and exercise. I started  to see improvement. I worked harder. You guessed it . I improved but I was still not back to normal.

   Now I was 75 so I thought some of the problems were due to aging and they could be. But does aging have to be an excuse? I had to push myself up out of a chair. Getting up off the floor was a huge problem.

    I found some more exercises to do. Now I am proud to say I get out of any chair without using arms. I just pop up out of the chair. I also get up off the floor just using legs. No hands Ma!

   So I proved to myself that old age was not my problem. I was probably slowly sliding into this condition over a number of years. I can't remember when I started needing assistance with arms to get up or out of a chair. Yes, I know other things could come along but I am very happy I put in effort to get back into shape. Shoveling snow is much easier this winter. Skating goes better. Last year I quit walking altogether. This winter I do lots of walking and at a very brisk pace.

   I am going to keep working at this because I feel much better when I'm stronger.

 

Indian Ocean Tsunami

     Ten years ago today the tsunami in the Indian Ocean took place. The gigantic wave brought about horrific instant destruction of people and coastal areas. There was a horrible loss of life and property. It was a very difficult thing to understand.

    At first very little information came out as communication lines were down and the infrastructure and people were in complete disarray. Then for days and days we saw and heard about the unbelievable destruction.

    My daughter happened to be in Thailand at the time. She had just landed about ten hours before the earthquake and tidal wave. She was a high school teacher and the school she taught in had a student trip to Thailand each year. The school wanted her to take over the organization of the trip. She agreed as long as she could go to Thailand before taking students. The school board sent her during the Christmas break The previous trip leader took her to Thailand to show her the area. Three other staff members went along on their own dime.

    Now I woke in the morning to hear the news that the earthquake and tidal wave had happened. As I said before news was very limited. I knew that she was in the interior but I wasn't sure of what the earthquake had done. I was looking after her dog so I went to her place and took the dog for a morning walk and then some play. I fed the dog and then went to look at my email. To my utter amazement and relief there was an email from her saying that she was okay. For two terrifying hours I was in that time of not knowing what the situation was. I will never forget that experience.

    My daughter had landed in Chang Mai and toured there for  couple of days and then was going to Phuket which was a very well known resort area. They had originally planed to go to Phuket first but changed the itinerary. There was massive destruction at Phuket because of it's location.

   Now their tour route was changed again. They did go to Phuket for a short time but she said she couldn't get away fast enough as there were massive piles of ruble and she knew there were many bodies in the rubble.

   Now my daughter has a tremendous sense of humor. When she came back she told us that the first morning she was there they had organized a day trip and a vehicle was waiting to pick them up. She went to the bathroom before leaving. While in the bathroom the earthquake occurred. She had never experienced an earthquake before. She thought she must be suffering from severe jet lag and the she was shaking and doors were rattling.. When she came out of the bath room she was surprised to be told that there had just been a major earthquake. 

   Once they came back from Thailand there as major discussion of wisdom school trips. Overseas trips were sharply curtailed.The trip she was supposed to do was cancelled and never run again.

   The events of the tidal wave have dimmed in our memory. This tenth anniversary has caused us to remember the loss of life and suffering at that time and that it is still going on today.

Olie Bolie: A Christmas Story

      I was a Middle School teacher for 37 years. At times my classroom was somewhat chaotic. Group work was sometimes messy. During some of those disorganized times quiet individual conversations occurred. 

      One thirteen year old boy told me that at Christmas he made "olie bolie" with his Grandpa. He told me that "Olie bolie" was really good.  A few days later I would hear about "olie bolie" again and how good it was. He was waiting for his Grandpa to get ready to make "olie bolie". A few days later I would hear about "olie bolie" again. He wasn't sure if he had the right words but it was something like "Olie bolie". Since I'd heard so much about "olie bolie" I began to ask about it. He wasn't sure but it was really good. I asked what it was like. It was dough with raisins . He wasn't sure how it was cooked , but it was really good and he liked it. After it was cooked it was rolled in icing sugar or sprinkled with icing sugar and it was really good.

    I never did get out of this boy exactly what "olie bolie" was . He never brought any of it to school so that I could try it. I even asked him if he could spell it and I would put it on the weekly spelling list. "Olie bolie" was all I could get out of him.

    I've often though about the Christmas experience this boy had with his Grandpa and Grandpa must have enjoyed this too. It's not very many thirteen year old boys who would enjoy Christmas baking. This must have been a highlight of his Christmas. It impressed me and I've never forgotten his story.

    I did a little research after this experience. As near as I can tell what he was talking about was oliebollen which is a Dutch pastry similar to a doughnut. A lump of dough about as big as small orange is cooked in a deep fryer. It sounds great and someday I'm going to have to find some oliebollen to discover what this kid really liked.

    have you heard of this before? I'm sure some of my dutch followers will give me much more information about "olie bolie."

     So I wish that all my readers who celebrate Christmas have a wonderful time.

Christmas Bird Count

      As most readers know, the Christmas bird count is an important event for me. It's fun to be outside for a whole day and have a good excuse for watching birds. 

      In the last 45 years I have done the count close to 40 times. I have always done the same area and the odd year have taken on a second area when no one was able to count in an important area. 

     As you can see I prefer to count in natural areas.

I spend time on this bridge as birds cross the open area of the creek

Habitat varies

There are some open areas.

Edges of treed areas are good places to look

     Sometimes it's been very cold and a couple of times I didn't go out as the birds would not be moving and so there wouldn't be much to count. Besides, I'm not that dedicated that I would freeze my nose.

     Yesterday was just about right. We had temperatures from minus 2 C(28 F) to plus 2 C(36 F). There was very little wind and it was partly cloudy. In my last 10 minutes the wind started to blow. You will see from photos that it's pretty dull for partly cloudy conditions.

    My count was about average. I saw 9 species. (Red breasted nuthatch, black capped chickadee, blue jay, magpie, raven, house finch, house sparrow, downy woodpecker and pileated woodpecker). I saw one species that I couldn't identify as I couldn't get close enough to them. Other possibilities were 3 species of owls, bohemian waxwings, hairy woodpecker, black backed woodpecker, kinglet, pine siskin, crossbills, pigeons, brown creeper, pine grosbeak, evening grosbeak. So there's lots out there to see. Some of these may have been in the area but I missed them.  My total of birds was about 45. I saw a magpie "hissy fit" and I didn't get a count but there were probably 50 birds that flew by.

    To top off the day we had a super pot luck supper. I forgot my camera but last years photo will give you the idea.

More good food

More great people

Winter Solstice

       The winter solstice is one day that I really look forward to. Days start to get longer and we can look forward to brighter days.

       Today the sun rose at 8:43 and set at 4:22 giving us 7 hours and 39 minutes of sunlight. Today was overcast and we had a high of plus 2 C( 36 F). When I came home a few minutes ago it was still plus 1 C(34 F).

       These photos were taken between 2 and 3 in the afternoon.

     

Even with snow cover it's still very dull

Typical winter cloud

Looking directly west about 2:30 in the afternoon

     I like reading about the solstice from ancient times and the celebrations they had. They looked at it as mid winter and they knew that winter would wind down. I could never understand why we were told it is the first day of winter. Different cultures also had a variety of celebrations. Now I'm thinking,  was the solstice an important date in the tropics?

    My mood will brighten now for the rest of the winter.

Skater Christmas Party

     Every year our senior skating group has a Christmas party. We shame the recreation dept. into supplying donuts and then most skaters bring food. Without any organization we have great variety of sandwiches, cheese  and   all the fancy Christmas goodies you could wish for.

     We contact  as many former skaters as we can find.

     So after the Friday skate we are ready to have a good time. Former skaters are always excited to get together. It gets pretty noisy as people great one another and visit.

We get ready

Really steppin' out

On the bench when the ice is resurfaced

this is what we came for

You've gotta be careful to get all the good stuff

Good times

Bumbling Along on the Blog

      A fellow I finished high school with had a look at my blog the other day. He made a couple of comments and a compliment. Since school days take me back to the mid fifties I got thinking about the origin of  my blog.

      Now comments and compliments send me to greater wildness. This set off reflections on how I started blogging. 

      The only thing I knew is that I wanted to write. I thought I had some weighty and serious things to say. Many of you will laugh because my blog is not that serious. I was completely naive. I did not have the Internet at my house. I had an email account and had searched the web. I had also used the word processor. 

    So I set up Hiawatha House. I thought anything I wrote would be hung out there on the net and everybody would see it. People would open their computers and there I would be! I would have the world reading my blog. This would so cool! I made 2 posts in the first 4 months. Click here to see my first post. Slowly I began to realize that nobody was reading my blog.

    So fast forward to Blogging for Dummies. A few things made sense to me in this book that was written in very simple terms. I really got hung up on URLs. I couldn't figure out what they were but they were important. One time I bumbled into what a URL was. This brought about many changes and developments but still no readers. 

     I began looking at other blogs. To this point I had not read any other blogs. I bumbled into comments and related it back the Blogging for Dummies. I read comments for a while and finally learned how to make a comment.

    I discovered stat counters. This showed that my readership was between none and very few. Finally I was very surprised to see a comment. I didn't know what it was. To say the least I was very excited.

    Another hurdle was that I did not know how to cut and paste. A friend accidentally asked me to cut and paste something and I though ah ha this is how it's done. I had done cut and paste on the word processor but it had not transferred to the blog. Cut and paste helped me advance by leaps and bounds.

    The learning curve was steep and very slow. I still spent a lot of time with Blogging for Dummies. 

     When I look back I can not understand why I persisted. I just bumbled along and made discoveries. 

     Little did I realize that I would still be blogging in 2014! Little did I realize that I would some day have written over 800 posts. Little did I realize that I would meet many other bloggers and things would develop into a  very interesting and supportive community.

    My blog has become an interesting and time consuming hobby. I can not see giving up blogging.

     Thanks to all the bloggers who have been a part of supporting Hiawatha House.

      Thanks to my high school friend for causing me to go back and reflect on what Hiawatha House has become.