I lead a bird watching group in the spring and fall. Every Saturday morning at 10:00 AM will find us at some site where we will watch birds for two hours.
Saturday was the first scheduled walk of the spring season. Most springs by April 7 we will have mild spring weather. Not this year. In fact, it could be well compared to one of the colder winter days. It was minus 16 C ( 1 F) . There was a wind of about 30 km per hour . It was brutally cold. I had my wind pants on and a good coat with a few layers. Oh yes, I also wore winter boots. The other birders were well clad in winter gear.
However, we did get bare hands out to use cameras and binoculars.
Now none of us expected to see much. Birds usually stay close to cover when it's windy and cold.
Well, on my way down to the location I saw a golden eagle. It was flying across the school yard a block from my house. That was a big sighting for me.
As we were waiting in the parking lot we saw lots of American crows and Bohemian waxwings.
After that it was a bit of a challenge. We could hear chickadees and nuthatches but didn't see them. I asked the group if they wanted to go off the trail and find the chickadees. Yes, of course. About 50 m in someone saw bird in a dark part of the woods. It looked like some kind of hawk. It was very hard to see but someone said, "It's eating something!" Yes, it definitely was eating something. It was hard to get a look at the bird as the light conditions were very poor. Finally somebody got a good photo. Yes, it was a Sharp-shinned hawk eating a bohemian waxwing.
Thanks to Lynette for her fine photo. You can see how close the camera had to be focused to get this one.
We spent about 10 minutes having a look at this little hawk and finally left .
500 m further on we saw a pileated woodpecker sending large chips flying as he was looking for grub. The pileated paid not attention to us and we finally left.
So what we thought would be a poor day wasn't that bad after all.
We recently opened a new arena. It's a very bright modern state of the art arena. It's small but has many amenities worked into it. There's a walking track, meeting rooms and large dressing rooms.
There's lots of art work included. There are large murals so I have another post on this one.
Of course , I'm interested in the ice. It has an excellent ice surface and is comfortably warm.
So I had a good skate today.
Now there are no photos of me but the two ladies in white and pink are both in their mid 80's
Now before everybody starts laughing, I do help the Micro Manager to do spring house cleaning. Spring house cleaning can be a big job and the micro Manager has trouble meeting that challenge.
Now some people may not be familiar with the term spring house cleaning. There is a pattern here where people give their house a thorough cleaning in the spring. Major dusting is done. The walls may be washed. Clothes closets are cleaned out. You get the idea.
Last spring was the first time I participated fully in house cleaning. I admit I wasn't happy about it, but it has to be done.
So there's some bickering during the house cleaning season.
Now we've been trying to downsize for maybe 10 or 15 years. Yes, we've got rid of things but there's still an enormous amount of stuff left.
That's where the bickering comes on the cleaning. The Micro Manager complains that it's a big job. I threaten to go on strike . Why? Well there are many things in the house that are unnecessary in my humble opinion.
We have too many nick knacks and stuff hanging on the walls.
So what did I do yesterday? I went around and counted all things attached to the wall or ceiling and all things set on a table, desk or floor. I didn't count necessary things like radios, knife sets, bread boxes, micro waves, toaster ovens etc. I counted 238 of these objects. Now I know that two of the bloggers I follow will have many times more of these objects. They probably have more than 238 Christmas ornaments. Ornaments are their hobby.
It's just that the house cleaning job would be much easier without all the clutter.
Who does spring cleaning?
Who has more than 238 objects? Maybe I'm just a whiner to complain about the situation?
See any nick knacks her besides me?
I have always liked listening to music. I'm not musician or a singer. I just enjoy music.
So there are many days when a tune, a phrase or piece of music rolls around in my head. Usually this bothers me as it comes back again all day. I can't stop it. It's known as an ear worm.
Now today was different. Bim Bom Bay popped into my head. I couldn't quite place the song. A few hours later Jimmy Rodgers popped into my head and then I remembered the song. Jimmy Rodgers was at the peak of his career in the late 50's. He was a singer and a song writer.
Now this is not the Jimmie Rodgers of country music fame who was from the Carter Family era. The Jimmie Rodgers known as the singing brakeman.
So I googled Jimmie Rodgers and found the song and listened to it. It's been 60 years since I heard Bim Bom Bay. It brought back a lot of music before rock and roll took over.
There was much good folk music in the late 40's and early 50's. ...the Lime Lighters, Burl Ives, There were some fantastic quartets like the Four Lads. the Four Aces.
Some of his will start rolling around my head in the next few days and I will remember the groups.
I'm sure other people have the same experience I do and music pops into your head.
So I looked up Jimmie Rodgers and found much more than Jimmie Rodgers.
Oh , Bim Bom Bay comes from a place in Portugal which has a similar sound but different spelling.
What music rolls around in your head?
As if spring wasn't late enough here , we got 12 - 13 cm ( 5 in ) of snow last night and today. To go with the snow we have cool temperatures for this Time of year. We had a high of minus 5 C (23 F) The forecast low for tonight is minus 21 C. So usually I'm patient about seasons , but this is a little much.
Some years the snow has melted and my lilies behind the back step and the blue bells are up. I've checked this year and there's nothing.
One thing I do know is that the season will advance very quickly when the snow melts as we have long days and our plants do well with the long days. However, there are no above 0 C highs predicted for the next 7 days.
So my photos are very dull to show the cloudy snowy day we have.
Every once in a while I have to give my head a shake and say I'm writing too much about myself. I prefer to write about other people, things and places.
However , some topics keep giving and giving. (I think I invented that saying!)
Now on Mar. 14 I wrote about how I fell off my back step in the dark. Now my detailed assessment of damage was that there was a small area bruise right on the hip joint. So I joyfully thought that in seven or so days the discomfort will go away and I'll be back to normal.
Now it's difficult to check your own backside. For me it's just not possible.
Now at about day 10 I could feel that down the outside of my leg from the hip joint to the knee joint was pretty tender when something touched it. This went on until I took a wee peak and saw bruising from the hip to the knee. Then I got the mirror and saw that the back of my leg from the hip to the knee was one big bruise.
So other than being a surprise it's okay and will take it's time to clear up. So I have a couple of photos that show the extent of the bruising.
These photos show the back of my leg. The dark spot at the bottom is behind my knee.
Now I also discovered that taking selfies of your backside is more complicated than I thought. Anybody want to try it?
This is a topic I know about. I had juvenile epilepsy and now have senior epilepsy. Juvenile epilepsy disappears with the onset of puberty. Other epilepsy will stay with you for a life time. Senior epilepsy shows up in seniors and is completely under diagnosed.
As a child I had epilepsy which hit me when I was about 8. I had grand mals which took place just after bedtime. I'm sure that my parents were terrified as they probably knew nothing about epilepsy. The old country doctor knew exactly what my condition was and prescribed medication to control it. Once diagnosed, medication kept me relatively free of seizures. However , in the late 40's and early 50's there was much stigmitism regarding epilepsy. I would not tell anybody I had epilepsy and I don't think my parents went out of their way to tell people either. I also didn't understand what epilepsy was and as a child I thought I was going to die. I knew that there were health risks due to epilepsy. Epileptics were feared and shunned because of their seizures.
Most years of my teaching career, I had kids with epilepsy that was not well controlled so there were seizures in class.
Senior epilepsy is much more surprising because I'm at an age when I understand things much better.
I went to emergency in 2008 because my wife thought I had a TIA. I had spent about 2 1/2 hours and did not remember anything that happened. A multitude of tests were given and there was no evidence of a TIA. A neat little term was given to my condition...trans global amnesia. The medical profession could describe what happened but they didn't know what was going on.
Three years later I had another incident of global amnesia. This time the Neurologist said, "It's no use doing all the tests over again as they won't show anything." But, she said, "There's one test I haven't done yet."
She ordered an EEG (Electroencephalogical) with sleep deprivation. I had to stay up all night and go in at 9: 00 AM for the test. This test showed a section of the brain with faster than normal activity. It indicates epilepsy. So the neurologist cheerfully told me that I had senior epilepsy and that it could be controlled with medication.
I happened to get a top notch neurologist who's bright, knowledgeable and with it. She's an awesome specialist.
I didn't say anything, but I thought , I've had epilepsy and that's not what this is. As soon as I got home I went to the computer and googled senior epilepsy. The first thing I found was all kinds of information on senior epilepsy.
There's much research being done on senior epilepsy. It's under diagnosed so many seniors live in a dozy state and their behavior is classed as senior moments.
So here's my contribution to publicize epilepsy on International Epilepsy Day. I hope that with more information epileptics receive better medical attention and supportive association from the community.
