Millennium Madness: Remember It?

       Recently I have been thinking about the approach of the third millennium and all the hype surrounding it's approach. In the late 1990's more and more was being said and written about the approaching millennium. I'm sure that in back rooms discussion of the upcoming millennium occurred well before the late 90's. 


      Some of the issues reported seemed very practical. The computer issue was obvious. Computers had been inadequately programmed to show dates. So if changes weren't made a whole host of problems would occur with incorrect dates. When it came to legal, business, government and historical issues the possible effects were enormous. Frantic efforts were made to update the computer system to handle the 2000's in dates. Stories on this issue were common and they always emphasized the doubt about the success of changing computer programs. It made for good story telling. Stories abounded about a total computer collapse. So there was tremendous fear mongering. 


    Well, the millennium came and surprise, surprise the world of computers did not end. Nor did the world end.


      Aside from the computer issue there were many other wild stories about the coming of the millennium. The end of the worlders added their two cents worth. There were various groups who had reasons to predict that the end of the world would come. Many other religious groups had discussions as it related to their faith.


     When you think about it it seems like the millennium issue happened only recently. Twelve years have passed since that momentous change from one millennium to another. Slowly the issue has left our minds and it seems like a distant dream. I'm sure someday we will look back and ask what all the fuss was about.

Snow, Snow and More Snow

      Snow seems to be a popular topic on Hiawatha House. There have been four posts on snow in 2012.  I like snow and where I live we have some interesting snow occasions.

The lilac hedge full of snow

     Yesterday we had weather warnings for heavy snowfall. We were warned that we could get from 10 - 25 cm(4-10 in.) of snow. About 7:00 PM light snow started but it melted as it hit the ground. By 10:00 PM it was snowing heavily. I looked out at 2:00 and 4:00 AM and the sky was full of snow. If I wasn't so lazy I would have gone outside and taken a picture of the snow falling in the street light. 

The poor old car was heavily covered

     Now I know that I can blame this snow on followers in the north west U. S. The forecaster guy said that this system got organized in the north west U. S. So what happens is a moist Pacific air mass hits the west coast. Winds begin and a low pressure system forms. If conditions are right the low pressure system can become very large. As it moves eastward the winds will turn and blow toward the east side of the Rockies. The air mass has to rise as it approaches the Rockies. So when air rises and cools moisture drops out of it. That's where we come in and get the big dump of snow.

A snow laden juniper

    So this morning there was about 8 cm on the ground. Trees were covered. The temp was about minus 2 C or plus 27 F. Needless to say it was a very beautiful morning. 

You just have to look at these kids and you know they're having a ball.

My neighbor's house decorated with snow.

Reflections on my Career

   I originally posted this piece in 2009. I'll use the usual excuse when I repost something. "Nobody was reading me in 2009."


     I was a teacher for 37 years from 1958 to 1997. I taught in three provinces and one territory. I look back on my time with the feeling that I would do it all over again, but change some things which experience drilled into me.



    Now for starters, I have to be careful what I say because one of my previous administrators reads this blog. He's a wonderful human being but can be a bit critical at times. I might have to defend myself strenuously if I go too far out in left field.



     I took the compulsory administration's class in education. It was a survey course and explained and justified why the system was organized the way it was. The grade system was dealt with thoroughly.



     Looking back, some students jumped through the hoops (grades) willingly and paid their debt to society and got an education. However, not all students learned at the same rate or had the same learning style. So some kids had difficulties as they were not prepared or ready to learn the concepts being presented at a certain grade level. Some of these kids went on and never did pick up the concept and as a result were challenged later or met with failure. A simple example would be some student who did not learn to read in the primary grades. Some of the obvious behavior problems were a result of students not being ready for a concept and acting up because of the difficulties experienced.



     Now I'm not the only one to make these observations. Various attempts have been made to accommodate the variation in student readiness. "Continuous progress" - remember that one? Open classroom concept? Portfolios? These were attempts to solve the problem of different learning stages of the student population. They were good ideas and would have worked, but they didn't. A teacher was left with the same number of students and found the strategy too challenging so gradually backed into what they were doing previously .



     My favorite teaching assignment was to be given 12 to 15 students who were labeled as having problems. I was able to go away with these students and modify a program to where they were able to succeed. At the end of the year I would come back with my charges. Would they have achieved grade level? No! But they would have met with some success and avoided the hassles they would have met in the regular program.



     So it bugs me to some extent that I saw students experience problems because of a system which was set up to accommodate administration rather than a system set up to meet the needs of the individual student .

Somebody's Always "Gotta" Be The Bad Guy

      Somebody's always gotta be the bad guy. Somebody's always gotta rain on your party. Somebody's always gotta bring you the bad news. So here it is. I still have lots of snow! I was trying not to tell anybody as I thought it would go away. However, my snow is still here. So for all those people with flowers that are blooming and all those people who have green grass I hate to disappoint you with my news. For all the southerners who are experiencing hot weather I apologize. For my Australian readers who don't know snow, I'm sorry I have to tell you about snow.

My front yard

You've seen this before. My ski trail was here.

More of my ski trail.

    Now on a brighter note I saw a robin yesterday. This morning while I was doing snow pictures a robin gave it's warning. It was in a Mountain Ash right above my head. So you say "What are robins doing there with all that snow?" Robins are smarter than you think. They go on the ground and eat Mountain Ash berries that have fallen off the tree. 


     We had 12 hours and 47 minutes of sunlight today. With the coming of long days things develop very quickly here. We may have a late start but we catch up to everybody.

Hiawatha Ground

       I went to a one room country school for nine years and left it in June of 1954. The next year in June of 1955 the school was closed. In 2006 a marker was placed on the original site of the school and a celebration was held. I was not able to attend the ceremony so I wrote a poem. This poem has been sitting around for six years as I was trying to find a picture of the building. 

This picture was taken in 1948 and shows an interior view of the school.  I am in the second row from the back , third from the left!

This shows a little bit of the weather beaten building and the class from 1947-48


HIAWATHA GROUND

Quiet earth lay covered by prairie grass and buckbrush ,

Meadowlarks,crows and hunting coyotes occasionally passed by,
Briefly visited by many spring blooms ,
And ancient quiet people who scanned the willows for big brown bulks ,
Of many life sustaining energies.

Dustyhorn, Bitternose, Whitefeather, Asqpace...

Suddenly, settlers appear to till the land
And put down roots of settlement
Which spawned wire fences , trails ,roads
And dwellings to house their families
And patient beasts of burden.
King, Clark, Minnings, Paul...


Then their children required an education
So a school house was  patiently planned
By careful applications to the powers of the land
Who controlled the many details of
Official school district formation.
Hawes, Weurfel, Winks, Rathwell...


So with patient effort acceptance was gained
To build a school with gifted labor
Borrowed money and volunteers who
Undertook the time consuming supervision
Which produced a shining building for the children.
Ingelton, Bushell, Taylor, Wildeman...


Years of care to run the school
Find and pay a teacher
Repair the roof and walls
Fill out the required forms and reports
For the privilege of keeping kids in school.
Barber, Johnson, Langille, Stevenson...


Quiet Christians gathered there
In the name of the Lord to sing
And pray and study God's word
Which supported their souls
And daily trials and tribulations.
Mehaffey, Ronald , Kline, Muir...


Years ground by with depression
Drought ,war and changes slowly
Came to settlers and their way of life
As some moved on to other grounds
To find an easier success.
Manke, Brust, Kabernick, Leggott...


The silent end quickly appeared
When only six lonely scholars filled the desks
And sad decisions were made
To close the Hiawatha learning center
Which had faithfully served quiet locals
Epp, Kreiger, Enns, Freisen...


Now, the ground sleeps deeply once again
Visited by passing hawks and goldfinch
Covered by annual snows
While the joyous shouts of children
And devoted settlers are no longer heard .

Red tailed hawks, ground squirrels, butterflies...

Ten former students and three former teachers.

The marker set up on the school site.

My Do It Your Selfer Mentor.

     My daughter is a confirmed do it your selfer. I was surprised to find out that she was a do it your selfer as I hadn't included her with much of what I did in the home. I did show her how to take the wheel off her car in case she ever had a flat tire. I don't think I ever had her cut the grass.

    So how did she become such an avid do it your selfer? Before she bought her first condo she had been watching home improvement shows on HGTV. As soon as she got into the condo, the first thing she did was to paint the thing from top to bottom. Now she had been fairly artistic, so she could pick super colors. She lived in another city, so Dad couldn't just drop over to help or give advice.


    She moved again and bought a townhouse which was only 3 kms from me. According to her, the "Pepto Bismol" pink carpet had to go, along with the matching pink walls and counter tops. The carpet and other items were the popular rose color from the late eighties. Before she moved into the townhouse she pulled out the main floor carpet and painted the place from top to bottom. Again she had super taste when it came to color. She painted the plywood sub floor and kitchen vinyl floor because she didn't have enough money to cover it with anything. All of this she did on her own.


    The next summer she bought laminate flooring and Dad helped her install it. She had the mitre saw and Dad held the boards. This project worked out quite well. She then got the idea to cover up the pink marble on the fireplace, so framed it over with MDF and painted it. She replaced toilets. Then I accidentally showed her how to take out a light fixture and wire it back in. That sent her on a trip to Ikea where she bought new light fixtures and installed them herself. After that she had some rotten parts on the deck, so she bought the lumber and enlisted Dad to tear the deck apart and haul it to the dump. Then the new deck was put together.


    My daughter likes renovations and redecorating. She used to have a small business on the side where she consulted, giving people plans to redecorate a room, or a whole house. Sometimes she did part of the work. She liked it when people came to her house and complimented her on how nice it looked.


    When she bought her first detached house (this time with her husband) she again started up with the renovations, but contracted some of the major things out. Her mother warned the new husband that "Oh, it never ends!" when it comes to his bride's desire for fix-it and improvement projects, big or small.

Still creative with Lego!

    Now when I look back, the only sign of her being a DIY type was her continuously playing with Lego. I always thought Lego was more for boys, but my daughter certainly spent much of her play time with it. And ya, she still has Lego - her husband got her a set for Christmas!

Psst: You Can Speed in Alberta

    What's that you say? You can speed in Alberta? But you say,"You''ll get caught." You might get caught. But if you get a ticket, depending on how busy a road you're on, 200 or 1000 speeders go by while your ticket is being written. That's not very efficient policing. .5%  or .01 %. The Alberta government is so obsessed with not raising taxes that the number of policemen has declined while the population has increased. Very little traffic patrolling is done.


     So you say, "If you get caught you'll have to pay a fine." Never mind. Don't pay it. July first of every year a statistic is released. Last year on July first there was $110 000 000.00 in outstanding traffic fines! Very few people are paying traffic fines. Some how the government is unable or unwilling to collect traffic fines.


    So you say, " If I don't pay my traffic fine I'll lose my license." Not to worry. A large percentage of Albertans drive without a valid driver's license. 


    So you say, "If I don't have a license I won't be allowed to buy car insurance." Not to worry . A large percentage of Albertans drive without insurance.


    So I rest my case. You can speed in Alberta. 


    One of my extremely nice little old granny friends got a speeding ticket when she was less than 500 meters from a seniors picnic she was going to. Shirley was very upset. I told her she didn't have to pay the ticket. But I know that she was one of the few people who pay tickets here.


   A few years ago I met a young Nova Scotian who had come to Alberta to make his fortune in the oil patch. Sergio was a very nice twenty year old. Two weeks after he got here he got a speeding ticket. He didn't know he got a ticket because it was photo radar. The ticket was sent to his Mom in Nova Scotia. Since there were demerit points it put him in the situation where he lost his driver's license. I told him not to drive. I asked him what his mother told him. He said, "Mom told me not to drive." Two days later he accidentally told me he was driving. I'd done all I could. So the next thing I know he's got an impaired charge. He got more that an impaired because he didn't have a license or car insurance. On top of that they tried to play games with the police and he got an obstruction charge. He went to the first court date and it was put over. The second date he missed. The third date I dropped him off but didn't go in with him. He told me it was delayed again. A few weeks after that he came to the house and I knew he was saying good bye. So he left the area without notice. His charges were not settled and I'm sure the justice system would not find him. During a three month period he made $10 000.00 and was always broke.


    So I guess the moral of my story is that the justice system is so understaffed and weak that it can not enforce anything and if you want to be a scofflaw you can get away with almost anything.


    Now would I pay my fine? You bet I would.