This book Surprised Me

     I like to read a book that really surprises me by how good it turns out to be. A book was lent to me by a friend why highly recommended it. It was one of those local history biography stories with narrow interest and a small number that were published. I'm interested in local history but it has to have some relation to me or important  events in the history of the area.

      Jack Kates wrote the story of his life while growing up in a small Saskatchewan village during the thirties and forties. The setting makes this story fairly precise. Most people won't have heard of Saskatchewan.

      Well, Jack Kates pulled this off. He wrote a fascinating tale of growing up and the fun he had along the way. This experience shaped him to become a successful man in his field.

       In the early 1900's many Jewish people ran small general stores. Half of the villages had a business owned by Jewish people.

     Jack's family had a small general store in Sheho Saskatchewan. This was a miserable way to make a living. The business was small and credit was given to the customers. Payment of suppliers was difficult. They had a cow, some chickens and grew a vegetable garden. They also picked wild fruit. They survived the many hardships. Things improved for the family during the forties.

      Jack's childhood activities are many. His teenage years and worries are like any other teenager.

     Jack's Jewish faith played an important part in his life and that's what made the book for me. Jack describes his daily life following Jewish religious traditions. They ate kosher food. They celebrated all the Jewish holy times. He describes his bar mitzvah.  the family struggled to maintain contact with the few Jewish people scattered over a wide area.I was familiar with the Jewish faith as I'd read many other books which has Jewish characters. This description was a humorous and laid back and easy to understand..

     And there was a small connection to me in Jack's story. His cousin had a store next to my home town and directed a very competent community band. Jack had also been a friend of one of the best dentists I ever had.

     My wife also read this book. We read in bed and she has the annoying habit of laughing out loud at funny things in a story. She did a lot a of laughing when she read this story.

    Now I won't go out on a limb and recommend that everybody read this book. It's focus is just too narrow for many people to get a feeling of the setting and lifestyle. I just want you to know that this book surprised me and that I really liked it.

Troubling Trump

       First of all a caveat. I'm a Canadian. I feel making comments on Trump is not really my business. But here goes.

       In Canada , we've just finished 10 years with Stephen Harper. It was ten years of mean, nasty, ignorant bumbling. Harper reduced taxes, cut the budget, laid off staff, cut programs. These things were not successful in improving the Canadian economy. We had large deficits for nine years until just before he lost the election.

     Harper insisted on meddling with justice. He wanted longer sentences and fuller jails. In fact, he overcrowded prisons which leads to more problems. Many of his laws were not upheld by the supreme court. Harper did not meet with premiers or any other group such as indigenous groups. Harper passed a law to retroactively protect the RCMP from being charged with a criminal offense. Many government staff and departments were barred from speaking about their work. Our scientists were muzzled and Harper did not believe in science based evidence.

     On foreign matters Harper was cheap and did not aid those who needed it. Harper liked to take his cap gun and stand with American forces somehow thinking that this would make him look big. Harper took us out of the Kyoto Accord...the only country in the world to do so. The world wondered what had happened to Canadians.

     Harper told the American President that the  pipeline decision was a no brainer. What a way to insult someone.

     These are all bozo moves. It was embarrassing.

     Now for Donald  S. Trump. Trump is a train wreck about to happen. If his ranting is any indication, the world is not going to like what he may do. Fences? Are there not a 100 different solutions to the problem of illegal migrants? Does a fence correct all the different problems with illegal migrants. 

     Trump's understanding of world religions is completely lacking except when it comes to going after voters. The guy claims to be a born again Christian and that's alright. It's his choice and conviction. With his understanding of world religions, I wonder if he understands Christianity? 

     With all the bombast of the campaign it seems that all countries will be treated with utter disrespect when the mood hits him. The guy's erratic. 

     The comment, "I could shoot people and they'd still vote for me" is scary. It sends a cold, threatening  message to Trump's neighbors.

     There seems to be very little offered about the nitty gritty daily operation of a country. Smart assed comments and instant reactionary rants don't get things done.

     We've just gone through 10 years of buffoonery. I wouldn't want anybody to go through what we've just finished with.

A New Breathalyzer Test

    

  Again I was listening to a radio interview on quirks and Quarks and heard about a new use for a breathalyzer. 

     The medical researchers have always tried to diagnose cancer as early as possible as there's a better chance for successful treatment. Much research has been done and there's lots more to do. Under certain conditions cancer is diagnosed earlier but there's a long way to go..

     This post fits in with a post I did on Jan. 13 , 2016,    about dogs being used to identify cancer. The researchers I heard about this morning are trying to develop a breathalyzer test to identify cancer. Yes, you blow in a breathalyzer and certain chemicals from different cancers can be identified. They can identify breast cancer with up to 99% accuracy. Dr. Charlene Bayer from Georgia Tech research institute is leading this research. That's much better than some of the invasive tests that are presently used. They still cannot identify a stage one cancer which is the goal for early detection..

     It's one of the technologies that is promising for early cancer identification. They also use a breathalyzer for diabetes. They also use a temporary tattoo to test blood sugar for diabetes instead of drawing blood to test the blood sugar. Moisture on the skin can be used to measure blood sugar. The tattoo is not presently approved for use but it works.

    I'm not sure what stage my mother's breast cancer was in when she was diagnosed in 1973, but she lived less than a year after diagnosis.

    I hope that this research does prove to be successful to identify cancers at a much earlier stage. 

the family home where Mom was boss

How's You're Spring Equinox Coming?

      60 days ago we were in the gloomy time of winter solstice. It was dark, cold and dismal. It seemed like it would never brighten up. We kept telling ourselves that things would get better from the low point of the winter solstice but barely believing it.

     Today  I checked the length of day and it was a very nice surprise.

      On the winter solstice the sun rose at 8:43 and set at 4:23 for 7 hours and 39 minutes of sun.

      I checked on Jan. 21 and found sunrise at 8:32 and sunset at 4:59 for 8 hours and 27 minutes of sun.

      Today I checked and the sun rose at 7:42 and set at 5:55 for 10 hours and 13 min of sun.

       So our day has increased by 2 hours and 34 minutes since the winter solstice! Does this make me feel better? You better believe it. We not only get more light but light from a higher angle so there's more power from the sun. 

       I think I can make it to the spring equinox. 

       How about you? Has your spring arrived or are you still hoping for spring to arrive.

This photo is from Dec.20 and taken about 2:00PM

Making a Connection

      I get a lot of satisfaction when I can make a connection with two different things and discover something about both. It doesn't happen very often but when it does it's cool. 

     Yesterday Teri at Coloring Outside the Lines  had a photo of an old beat up green door. Well it happens that I remember a good song from the 1950' the Green Door. I liked the music but didn't listen too closely to the lyrics. The blogger made reference to green door being code for a speak easy. That twigged something and I remembered more of the lyrics..."the old piano behind the green door". "What's that secret you're keepin?"

    So it all came back. The singer was not allowed behind the green door but wanted to get behind the green door and enjoy the fun.

     I think speakeasies were from the prohibition era so these were illegal establishments for selling booze.

    Now the song was a 1956 hit for Jim Lowe. (Anybody remember him?) (I don't either and I liked the song)       The song was written by Marvin Moore and the music was composed by Bob Davie. Many performers recorded the Green door and had some success, but   Jim Lowe had the most success. You still hear it sometimes.

      So how many of you golden oldies remember this song?

Not All BackPacking Trips are the Same.

      Since I've been digging through my archives I've found some evidence of my backpacking trips. Not all trips are the same.

     I backpacked out of Canada only once and that was to Montana which is the state just bordering Alberta on the south.

    My friend wanted to do a trip to the southeastern part of Montana. He wanted to climb Flinch mountain which is a 9200 ft pyramidal peak. Montana doesn't have much for foothills so you can stand on a mountain or ridge and look far out into the flatlands of Montana.  The ridge we walked was bare, arid and open. The return trip was about 10 km ( 6 mi)

    We arrived in the area about 2 PM which gave us time to do a hike to the edge of the mountain and look out over Montana. It was a very hot dry day so it was tough going and the water went down quickly. We reached our goal, took the mandatory photo, had a rest and returned. Were we dry when we returned!

    The next day we planned to climb Flinch Peak. It was a long walk with a gradual incline. The last couple of kms were steep and the last 15 m (50ft.) of elevation was cliff like.

    Long before we got close to the peak , we ran out of water. Why did we run out of water? Where we hiked there were streams rushing down the mountain every 500 meters( 1600ft) so we could replenish our water anytime. We made the decision to go back. We rested before starting back. A lone female hiker came by and she was on her way back and had lots of water. She kindly gave us lots of water so we were able to finish.

    Now from the photo you will see that the last part of the peak seems to be a cliff. There was no trail. There was a nice chimney so I shinnied up the 50 ft. I was going to step out of the chimney on top. When I stuck my head over the edge there was nothing but space. There was a 2 ft ridge and there was no way I was going to stand up on that thing. By the time I got down my friend had found a very simple way to walk to the  top! The top being less than  1/2 acre of flat ground.

     We celebrated our climb with some photos and a break. We signed the register on the mountain top and started back. The views from Flinch peak were breathtaking in all directions.

    The return is always a long tiring walk. We did meet a rather scary hiker who was going out. We met and passed and never spoke a word.

    The campsite was in a valley lined with a 1000 ft cliff face that was a couple of miles long. All night you could hear pebbles, rocks and once or twice huge boulders that dropped off the cliff face and rolled to the ground. It's a good thing the campsite was 500- 1000 m away from the cliff.

    So, it was a great trip but a little different than our  usual trips.

Beautiful Flinch peak

The top gets steep

Old Man Lake

A rest on the peak with background scenery

Looking out over Montana to the east.

Yesterday a Tear Came to my Eye

       Now there are certain things that can bring a tear to my eye. I don't look at it as a bother or a weakness. Sometimes a situation overwhelms me and a tear or two fall. Yesterday something happened that brought a tear.

      As you know I spent 5 years in the Arctic and I've often said it was a life changing experience. I left the Arctic in 1969 but it's always remained close to me so I've read widely and gained much more insight about the people and the land. Experiences that happened long ago suddenly take on more meaning or a different meaning.

     In all too many cases the Inuit were moved without their consent or awareness as to what was happening. The part I was involved in was moving children 1000's of miles away from their homes so that they could go to a residential school. Communities were moved to where the white man wanted to build a town. Families were moved to isolated areas because the white man thought there was better hunting and trapping in an area. Many Inuit were brought south for medical reasons and some died and were not returned to their loved ones . More than that it seemed that records of these people were lost. In my settlement a toddler was murdered and the body taken to the south for a coroner's inquest. A year later one of the leaders asked me where the baby's body was. I couldn't tell him. I did refer him to those responsible and I'm not sure what he found.

    Before the 1900's Inuit were taken on trading and exploring ships as workers or pilots. Sometimes these people were taken back to their homes and many times they were just dropped off before the vessel returned to Europe.

    Yesterday, I listened to a radio interview about Inuit who were taken to France and exhibited as if they were in a Zoo. People payed to see an Esquimaux. Inuit today remember these people and continue to feel the loss of family and ancestors. At one point in the interview the Inuk was unable to continue and tell the feelings of his loss. There was a TV documentary on this event on the Nature of T

hings.

    The interview continued and at the end the inuk said "nakuriik" Which is thankyou. That is when the tear dropped. To hear the language again from an inuktitut speaker brought back so much of what I had experienced.