A DRAPERY CORD NEEDS REPAIR.

       It was discovered a few days ago that one of the drapery cords was almost worn out. So simple. Get some drapery cord and replace it. 

       First, you have to get some new cord so we started phoning. We were amazed that we had to phone for about 2 hours to find one place with drapery cord. We looked at that cord and decided that it wasn't suitable. Off to Canadian Tire where they sell rope and cord by the foot. We'd phoned them before and they didn't have drapery cord . We found cord that was the right size and looked suitable. So the guys who said they didn't have cord had cord. 

     Okay, today was a nice day  to change the cord. We'd done this before but maybe long ago. So we first looked at how the cord is strung so that we know how to string the new one through. Then we pull the old one out. So far so good. 

Then we start feeding the new cord through. It was tricky and hard to string the cord through some parts. We got to the last loop and said we'll never get this . Then the oops moment hit. Get a small piece of wire and pull the cord through. We could have done this before on all the hard spots.

     So we had the two lines of cord inside the rail. We had to attach the cord on the anchors in the right place . Okay that's done. Then we measured.  Oops! We thought the rail was longer. We checked with the wall. Yes, the rod had to be longer. The rod had been accidentally pushed together while we were working with the cord.

     Well, you know all the things that could go wrong did go wrong.

     We finally got everything adjusted. We put the railing back up and then hung the drapes. 

       There went one whole afternoon!

PROMISES

     In 2011 I bumbled into a blog called Out of My Multiple Minds. The title caught my attention. It sounded like a topic I'd be interested in. It was not about multiple minds  but it was a fascinating blog to follow. It was also a blog that influenced my life.

     I think I found Out of My Multiple Minds  on DJan's blog and the blogger Pete turned out to be DJan's brother in law. 

     I found that Pete had a well written and lively blog. 

     Soon I found out that Pete was very ill but he was full of energy and intensely curious. 

     Shortly after I was saddened to find out that Pete was dying. 

     I followed Pete for about 3 months as he courageously journaled the end of his life. Pete blogged until a few days before his death. He dictated the last couple of posts as he was too ill to do the typing. His wife or daughter wrote a couple of final posts. The blog has been since taken down. 

      So on my own blog I wrote a post entitled Polar Bears in My House. This caught Pete's attention and he wanted to know all about the polar bears.  Most of all he wanted to see a photo. I had said that I would try to get photos. However, you know the story...the slides were not scanned and at that time I didn't know how to scan slides. If you read the post you will see Pete's comment...one of two comments I got. 

     Well, I'm scanning slides and the first ones I scanned were of the little polar bears that had been in my house. So because I'd promised Pete the photos , here they  are. 

     

        I do not have photos of the bears in my house . These were taken in the hunter's house. 

    The Inuit hunters shot the mother bear and then found out that she had cubs. They brought the cubs into me as they wanted money for the cubs. I was the local administrator for the federal govt. I couldn't give them money but did alert authorities that the bears were here. 

HEALTHY PLAY

      Somehow or other my kids loved to play outdoors in the winter. They could make up their own activities all based around snow. They had sleds. They also went to a nearby playground and played with other kids. They started this a preschoolers. 

      On a cold day I could recognize my kids from a distance. One had a round red puffy face in the cold. The other ones dark features showed up against the snow. 

     One of my favorite photos of the kids is one day when they had been outside playing. Their great smiles showed that they were enjoying themselves. 

WHAT A CHARACTER!

       If you couldn't love this little peanut, there would be something wrong with you.

    

TESTING, TESTING

       As you know I'm on a project to scan my old slides. 

      So far it's going well. It's a learning process. Many of the slides were of poor quality but anything that was a decent slide is worth having. 

       So in doing the slides we often say, "I don't remember that!" Sometimes we just burst out laughing at what we see. 

       I will use two slides to bring an event together. I've written about the adoption of our son. 

      We had to go a hundred miles away . Somehow things got late and we were leaving the city about 5 in the winter evening darkness. The Micro Manger soon found out that Babe needed some food. What would we do?  Most things were closed by that time.

      We found a recreational dealer ship that was open and popped in to see if we could heat some milk. Yes, we were more than welcome and they were happy to hear our story

     By the time Babe was  fed we'd made a deal to by a travel trailer. So we always joke about getting a new son and travel trailer on the same day. 

      So to show you some slides here's the trailer and the young camper. 

I wrote in more detail about the adoption process in a previous post

SLIDES?

 

     So you wanted to know about slides? Here's an excellent example showing a handsome dude!

     The scan is fairly close to the slide .

     This slide is 50 years old. It's hard to believe that I looked this young at one time. 

DECISION ON THE SLIDES.

       I've finally made a decision on what I'm doing with my slides. 

       In the 60's and 70's and more the 35 mm camera was the best technology at the time. 

       So in 1963 I bought my first camera a 35 mm. I forget the model but it as the low end and was all automatic. As I said it's the first camera I owned. To say the least I didn't know anything about photography

     1963 was the year I left for the arctic and I sensed that I should have more than a decent camera.

      At that time , having to pay for film and development one was careful about how many photos you took.

    My photos have been sitting in trays for about 40 years. I haven't looked at them.

    Then I married the Micro Manager and she had a better 35 mm camera. 

     Between the two of us we have quite a few slides. 

     I sold my 35 mm to one of the Inuit.

    I've been dithering more than two years on how to change my slides to digital. I've looked into things and tried things. All the things I tried were terrible and were not satisfactory.  I didn't want to buy a scanner and find out results were poor. I had tried a scanner about 7 years ago and the results were terrible because of the operating system I was using.

     What did I find out that worked. I use the projector and take a photo of the image on the wall. It turns out to be just about the same quality as the original slide.

    So here we go! Wish me luck!