MY MIND IS A BLANK

      Usually there are three or four topics rolling around in my head for blog posts. They gradually hatch and become a blog post.

     Recently I've been in a dry spell.

     The crazy old Ukrainian war has kept my attention. I'm angry with what is going on in the Ukraine. I see all kinds of news about the war. We can't rely on what we see. I have limited information on the war so I'd best not post on it. I have seen some great blog posts about the war and I appreciate them . 

       In Canada we've just had a truck convoy occupy Ottawa. The protesters were extremely ignorant and ill behaved. They had no idea what they wanted . They had no idea how the system works and that the system does work. They confused the Canadian system with the American system which are both good systems of government. These two systems function well if left to do so. 

     Covid has distressed me for more than two years. I have not had covid and have had my three shots. The virus itself is frustrating as it keeps being able to change it's form and hit us again. It's not been fun staying away from people. It's not been fun seeing people misbehave in a very selfish way about vaccinations or covid rules. 

    These three issues have kept my mind whirling around. There's no easy fix. there's great risk from all three issues. 

   So maybe if I write about these three issues, I will be able to think of something else. 

LINKS

     It's interesting how our thoughts and ideas run from topic to topic. One idea puts us on to more ideas. It's how a conversation takes place. Ideas are linked.

     My neighbor across the street rarely if ever wears a jacket in winter. It got me thinking that high school and college kids did not wear winter coats a few years ago . I guess they thought it was cool.  

     When it comes to winter clothing I'm a bit of a fussy pants. I've spent a lot of time outdoors hiking, skiing and snowshoeing in the Rocky mountains. I know how to keep warm and comfortable. If a kid was cold usually all you had to tell him is put your tuque on and in five minutes the kid was warm.

      This got me thinking about a person in the 1960's who did not wear a winter jacket. But George did wear winter fleece lined under wear and a heavy shirt

     Then it got me thinking about who George was. George was a rather well known Canadian. The first big Alberta oil strike was Leduc #1 in 1947 . You guessed it. George was the driller. 

     George's portrait is a well known Canadian photo. He's pictured with a drill bit on his shoulder. They're heavy. I couldn't even move one let alone pick it up. How many people remember seeing this portrait?

I met George and his family when I was teaching in a town where they lived. George was a drilling supervisor. They moved regularly. Most oil people did at that time. George and his family lived in a small house trailer. George's trailer was 8 ft. wide. Most trailers were ten or twelve feet wide. When George had to move , he just closed the trailer door and hooked it onto his truck and away he went. 

      George was a large man and so were his kids. We often wondered how they fit in such a small house trailer. When we asked his son, he would just laugh and say they were used to it. 

    George was a story teller. We heard the story of Leduc # 1 blowing in many times. They were taken by surprise. Most of the holes they were drilling were dry but this time they were lucky. 

    Now this could keep me going to other ideas but, I'll stop for tonight!

THAT PRINTER AGAIN

      Looking back I can see that I've written at least six posts about my printer not working. Well, I shouldn't accuse the printer of not working. Mostly it was the operator who didn't know what he was doing. 

     This time it's the scanner. I've never used the scanner very much . It always seemed like a guessing game to get the scanner to work. Brother has very poor directions as to how to use things. This last while, I knew the scanner wasn't working. Brother directed me to  program to install new drivers.

     Now I'm pretty scary when it comes to downloads and installation. I admit that I don't know what I'm doing. So we'll download this. I'm not sure if this downloaded or not ! Well , hell, I'll down load it again. There doesn't seem to be any good information for Dummies. 

    Well after trying everything I know my scanner isn't working. It worked one evening and then it died again.

    So I'm going to have to ask Mr Brother again for some advice. 

    While I've been doing all this messing around , I've learned a few things, if only I could remember what I've learned. 

BRIGHT WINTER DAY

  Today was a very bright winter day. There was not a cloud in the sky so we received all the light possible from the sun. 

   It was minus 31 C at about 10:00 AM this morning when I took these photos. 

SIDE BENEFITS

     All my spring cleaning has brought about some surprises. In moving furniture and cleaning drawers I've found some things that I had forgotten about.

     When I retired from teaching, 25 years ago, brought home some treasures that I thought I might look at and throw away. I did look at them but didn't throw any of it away and then promptly forgot about them. My classroom was full of "stuff" that I used. Since I made up my mind to retire a year before I retired, I had lots of time to get rid of things. I had free garage sales where I laid things out and people could take what they wanted.

     I taught language arts to middle school kids. I had many prompts to get kids writing. For example , I would say make a list of ten relatives. Then we would go through the ten names and pick the one you wanted to write about.

   I always did the assignments that I gave the kids. Sometimes I wrote my piece of writing on the chalk board and got them to discuss it with me. Usually they wrote a rough copy and brought it to me and we talked about a few things and then they wrote a finished copy. I would prompt them for more detail. Maybe change the order. Check the words they chose to see if they could find something better.

    Well, all these pieces of writing came home. The other day I got to look at them again. 

   I wrote about one of my brothers and since it was his birthday a few days ago , I said I would send him a birthday present. When I went to scan the piece of writing the scanner wouldn't work but that's another story. 

   So here's a piece I wrote about my daughter. Of course, all of you know her. 

    I hope you can make this darker so you can read it. 

      It was about this age that I first met the determined streak . She's seven months old here. 

SO I HATE SHOPPING

       Did I ever tell you I hate shopping? Well, my blog says I told you in five posts that I dislike shopping. 

       So what am I having to shop for now?

       The Micro Manager and I are both in our 80's. Our kids don't live near us. One in Chicago and one on the west coast. We don't have any relatives here. But this is home and we like it. However, common sense tells us that we should make some arrangements just in case the wheels fall off the bus. So we decided to look at the facilities and see what they're like. 

     So we started looking at the various types of senior accommodation. I'll tell you, "It's a zoo out there." 

     Each facility has it's own unique business model for care. So one place looked pretty good. The people were active and looked happy. The food was good and people told us they like it there. People were visiting and participating in activities. But, you pay a damage deposit and you don't get it back.

     The next place is larger. They look after dementia people . They have personal care and then independent living. People didn't seem to be doing anything. In fact, I saw very few people. The people I did see didn't look very happy or stimulated. In this facility you can transition through the stages. In the first smaller facility If you can't live independently you have to move to another facility. 

     I also found out that there are certain situations where you could be government funded but that would get very complicated and you wouldn't have a choice of where you lived. 

    There are many smaller differences too numerous to mention . In one facility you need to buy very little and the other you buy many personal items. 

    Rents are similar. 

   So we are going to look at more facilities.

   I can tell you one thing and that is that we wouldn't want to be in these facilities with our present health. People in these places are in much poorer condition. 

   However, I'm kicking the tires to see what's out there. 

    And I still hate shopping!

SPRING CLEANING

      I have been conscripted into a job of spring cleaning. 

      I started to think about the topic of spring cleaning. At one time it was strictly done by women. Nowadays this male participates . I'm not sure when the process of spring cleaning started. But I know in rural areas and in housing that we had when I was a child, spring cleaning had to be done.

      We had wood and coal heating. The heater was set up in the house before winter started. Coal and wood are dirty and they do not burn cleanly. They leave ashes which had to be taken out of the stove from time to time. All my Mom had to clean with was a broom and a mop.

      So by the time spring came the house was very dirty. Smoke and soot came out of the stove pipes that went through the room. Walls had to be washed. Curtains were washed. Sometimes the walls were just given a new coat of paint. Usually my Mom had somebody help her for a week when spring cleaning took place. 

       My  Mom as a young woman and a young guy who wasn't much help with the cleaning. Yes, the young guy is me. 

 Nowadays we don't have most of the stuff my Mom had to clean up. However with central heating and ductwork dust blows around. We have vacuum cleaners and in my case central vacuum systems, to pick up dust. 

      So in my house spring cleaning is done. Maybe it comes from my rural background and the tradition of spring cleaning continues. 

     Now I  said, I was conscripted. However the Micro manager is not really up to cleaning work anymore. So I've got an early start on cleaning so that I'm finished by the time it turns nice.

    I've done two rooms this week. I vacuum curtains, wall hangings. baseboards, closets, furniture,  and down all corners and any other place that there might be cobwebs. After this I wash floors.

    Now I made the mistake of consulting the micro Manager and much of the stuff around the computer room was neatly organized again. There are a few things I can't find. I found a few treasures in my disorganized mess. 

    So is spring cleaning just done by old fogies like me?