I Love the Quiet

      The most peaceful moments for me are when it's quiet. Yes, I know I enjoy being by myself for long periods of time. I can go without talking so that when I talk again I can hardly recognize my voice. Ever hear a mouse rusting under the leaf litter? It has to be quiet to hear the mouse. Have you ever heard the little noises a nuthatch or woodpecker makes when it's within arm's length?  There are many sounds we never hear because it's too noisy.

       I turn my furnace off over night so that the furnace fan doesn't wake me up. I'd turn the fridge off if I could get away with it.

      Quiet times for me go back to growing up on prairie farm. We didn't have electricity. Just think of all the noise that would be absent if you didn't have electricity. The cook stove fire whispered quietly. The house creaked occasionally. That was it . It was quiet. Yes, we had a radio that used very sparingly. It was only noisy when kids played in the house.

    I had the backwoods cabin once! Then I moved and had to give it up. That cabin was quiet. Again, the only thing that made a whisper was the fire in the cook stove.

    When the power goes off in my house there is a pleasant peaceful feeling. Once in awhile the power went off at school and all the air conditioning stopped. The kids would stop talking. The quietness was beautiful.

     Large commercial buildings are incredibly noisy. Commercial buildings have huge echo power. Hospitals are terribly noisy. These building have nothing that will muffle sound.

    Airport terminals have thousands of people, air conditioning and many conveyor belt. T

here's also that PA system that is constantly giving messages. It's nerve wracking and confusing. Now I learned a big lesson when I left the Calgary airport and arrived in Lahue in Maui. There were thousands of people around me in the terminal but it was quiet. Machinery wasn't running. The terminal was open to the outside. People did not have to yell at each other and were very calm. I couldn't believe how quiet it was.
   
     Now I don't get to enjoy quietness very often but I always long for it.

    How about you? Do you enjoy the quiet or do you need  some noise around you to make you fell comfortable?
   

The Ugliness Of Political Name Calling.

       Be it resolved that all politicians be prevented from name calling, and making any other untrue statements or depictions as in cartoons or photoshopping.

      Okay that's a rather rambling pie in the sky kind of resolution.

     I saw a cartoon on facebook that got me thinking about the issue of politicians slinging mud at each other.

     Now at the risk of roiling up one of my "rellies"

I will describe what I saw.

     The cartoon was produced around April 1. It showed our Prime Minister and April Fool written over him. This cartoon wasn't one of the more obnoxious ones but I thought , "How small does one have to be to create something insulting." Of course, the idea was to insult. 

     Political parties or their agents produce a steady stream of this crap. They put it out there and people copy it on their facebook page and in so doing the idea is promoted and distributed for free whether it is right or wrong. We are promoting this nonsense when we put it on our facebook page. If they didn't have free publicity there might be less negativity.

    Now the defence for the cartoon is that the Prime Minister's party does the same thing and started it. That's may true, but it's not a reason to carry on. No political party should indulge in such immature behaviour. School boys use the same excuse to keep wailing on each other. "He hit me first!" You have to separate them and send them packing in opposite directions and they forget about it in a few seconds. It's too bad we could not separate our politicians and send them in different directions for them to cool off.

    Just think how nice the world would be if we didn't have these buffoons calling each other names.
We might get something done in our country.

I'm Losin It OR I've Lost It!

    At lunch time the other day. I was doing the sudoku puzzle, listening to the noon radio show, drinking my coffee, discussing what groceries were needed and writing the grocery list. 

    Now it was discovered in my grocery list that I had spelled milk "mik" and chunky "junky". How could I do this when I had just done a post on spelling? I guess the spell check was not there to remind me.

     So my multitasking skills were not up to the usual standard. Maybe I'm losing it?

     I have noticed lately that some senior people get very anxious when they make a few errors , can't think of something or forget something easy. The stress level goes up and they immediately feel that they are descending into senior chaos.

     Don't be so fast. It is common for seniors to make momentary lapses. Stress makes it har

der for people to function.

    I have a better excuse. In 2008 I had an incident where I did not make any new memories for two hours. An investigation was made and no cause could be found for my global amnesia. 

    Two years later it happened again. One more test was given. It showed that I was having seizures. I doubted this very much. I'd had kids in school every year with seizures and what was happening to me was not a seizure, so I thought. I went home right after this diagnosis and checked on the internet. It took less then 30 seconds to find out that what I had was senior epilepsy. Much research has been done on this topic and many times senior moments are due to small seizures.

     I was put on medication and haven't had a problem since.

    So don't beat yourself up when you have momentary lapses. If it's a big lapse, then it's a major problem

    Keep on multitasking.

I Found Another Treasure to Part With

      From time to time the Micro Manager and I talk about what's next to be included in the marathon of downsizing.

     The other day the poor old backpack bit the dust. I haven't used the backpack for 15  years and I'm never going to use it again. So easy decision. Somebody else might as well make use of it. The backpack was a good quality and large...90 liters! We carried food, clothing, cooking equipment, sleeping bag and a tent. We usually shared all equipment. It made sense to divide the tent up as well as food and cooking equipment. This bag had a large capacity and it got heavy. In my previous post, I'm leading the scouts and you see my nice red and blue backpack in action.

     So a couple of pictures for Kijiji and I'm in business.

     Now in posing for a photo I made a couple of discoveries. Either I lent the bag to some skinny guy or my pot has enlarged. Now I'm absolutely sure I didn't lend the bag to anybody. I also discovered I'm a little stiff in the shoulders as it was tough to get the backpack on. 

    So as well as getting rid of a treasure I discovered that I've changed a bit or maybe quite a bit.

Bring Me a Present.

       In the 80's and 90's people began taking their children out of school for a week or more to go on a holiday. They could get great prices on tour packages and the travel agents didn't consider school attendance.

       I'll admit that this practice bothered me a bit. I resented kids being absent from class. Yes, parents asked for work ahead, which I didn't have ready. But parents were apologetic and I was understanding.

       One day one of the kids was talking about going away so I said, "You've got to bring me back a present." The kid was uneasy and didn't know what to say. So to ease the anxiety I quickly said , "Bring me back a newspaper." I got a funny look and the kid said "Sure!"

      Sure enough when the kid came back he proudly delivered my present

      Now it so happened that I did a newspaper unit with my students. We looked a newspapers and I had them find parts like "national news, humor. classified ads, editorials etc. Some days we were knee deep in paper. They were also given a choice of many different writing exercises. Then there was always the tour of a newspaper to see how the real thing was put together.

     So accidentally I knew what I was doing when I asked the kid for a newspaper.

     I asked the next few kids for a present. They'd bring the paper and we'd pull it apart to see how it was put together. The kid always got his time to tell about his newspaper or his trip.

     Then I got, "My Dad's going to Russia. Would you like a paper?" Sure!  I got a few Russian Pravda's. Now we couldn't do much with them. It was just fun to see one.

     So over the years I amassed a great collection of newspapers in the bottom of the closet.

      When I retired I hated to put them in recycling.

     I'm not sure who had more fun with this or learned the most. "Me or the kids!

      It was one of those offhand moments where it turned out profitable.

My gr sevens from a long time ago.

Does Spelling Count?

     One of the comments on my post about cursive writing was on spelling. The comment was on her poor spelling.

     Now before I start off there's a caveat. I'm not a good speller.

    The comment was in reference to the use of spell check and that there was too much reliance on spell check.

    Spelling has become something very different since I taught language arts in middle school. Texting (Texting isn't on spell check) has brought about all kinds of weird inventions and shortcuts. I have trouble reading most text messages.

    Now I was one of the last to teach spelling. I thought spelling was important so I used spelling texts, rules and bribery. I had the usual test on a word list each week. If you had all words correct you got 110% . If you got three 100's in a row you could skip the next  lesson. I always had people who wanted to use the system. I was asked if they could get over 100% on their report card if the bonuses pushed up the average. I was the last teacher teaching spelling and I think it was important to give people spelling rules and skills. Many times people are baffled by spelling. For most things there is a rule.

     Now when it comes to blogs,

spelling errors are allowed. We are blogging for pleasure, not for marks! When we're using the computer , by all means use spell check. Keep on trying the choices until you find the correct spelling. 

      Some people write the way they speak which makes for an interesting realistic blog. They tell their stories from their own point of view and expression.

    Mostly , enjoy your writing. Have fun telling your story. Use the type of language and expression that gets your story across.

    Now when I gave assignments, I was often asked,"Does spelling Count?"  I had to say yes and no. You're not getting marked for spelling but good spelling goes a long way to a better assignment.

     Where do you stand on the spelling issue?

     Find any spelling errors in this post?

A Strenuous Backpack Trip

     I went along as a supervisor on many backpack expeditions. I got to go on a trip and people who needed and I provided an extra supervisor where needed.

     The longest trip I ever went on was in to Mt. Assiniboine in Mt. Assiniboine Park. Mt. Assiniboine is much higher than all peaks in the area and is a typical alpine shape. Mt. Assiniboine is 3618 m(11870 ft)  in altitude. No,we didn't climb it.

     A Venturer scout group ages 16 -17, wanted to do a five day backpack trip for one of their activities. We had nine Ventures and five supervisors...three man and two women. So off we went to Mt Assiniboine. Now these kids didn't need supervisors. They were super good kids. They were also in great shape.

     We started at the Sunshine Ski Resort which is a few miles west of Banff, Alberta. We found a pickup truck that was driving to the top and threw our big packs in and he took them to the top of the ski area. We walked up the 9 Km with our day packs. We found our packs at the ski lodge on top. By this time it was 5:00 PM  . We hiked three more kms and camped for the night. 

     The next day was a long hike over rough terrain. When they said Boulder Pass they really meant it. Boulders were the size of houses. We camped for the night and the next morning there was frost on the tent.

     The next day was a short walk to Mt. Assiniboine. We camped there two nights and enjoyed the area. We were at an elevation of 7000 ft. We were across from the mountain and in the late afternoon large chunks of ice would break off the glaciers and fall into the lake below. Some of these chunks would start off the size of houses and end up completely crushed by the time they hit the lake. the peak was about 5000 ft above us.

     Mt Assiniboine is one of the most difficult mountains to climb in the southern Rockies.

   On the way out we went over Wonder Pass which is a very good name for it. One more camp over and then a short walk out to where we were picked up.

    It was one of the most strenuous trips I was on but very well worth while. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

    The photos were taken by my friend Mike.

These kids would sing as they walked along.

MT Assiniboine is the peak on the right