The Debate About Managing Kids

      When my daughter was here a few weeks ago we got on one of her favorite tops...micro managing kids. Of course, she doesn't have any kids.

     Most of her conversation is that her parents did not micro manage her and she didn't get into any trouble.This is true. She could wander around within for or five houses even as a preschooler. Mom and Dad only knew were she was in a general way. She was predictable so we knew where she would be. As  she got older she went further away and for longer times. It's one of the things she is thankful about that she was not on a tight rope and learned through her experiences.

    It got me thinking about how I was raised and one of the accidents I got into. My  bother and I  were the definition of free range kids. We lived on a farm and my mother had two smaller children and was not always able to supervise us. She was happy that we could be occupied in play so that she had more time for the two younger kids.

     One day we had an accident right in the house. Mom had a set of drawers in the bedroom that were five high. My brother and I decided that we wanted something out of the top drawer. We were too small and short to reach the top drawer. Since we were free rangers we could always figure out some solution. We said, " Let's pull out the bottom drawer and if we stand on it we can reach the top drawer." Simple plan?  We both stepped on the drawer. The whole chest of drawers tipped  over  pinning us against the bed. What made it worse, was there were two old lamps on top of the set of drawers. These lamps  had glass chimneys so there was quite a clatter. There was a four year old and a five year old under the set of drawers yelling their heads off. Mom had another toddler and an infant to look after. So she was frightened as to how she would find her little screaming boys. She got us out from under the drawers and then the clean up started. We probably got something else later on that made us holler again. It also made us think twice about some of the silly plans we made.

     So part of my point is that even if kids are tightly supervised they can easily get into trouble. It only takes a second for kids to act. 

     My brother and I may have got into the odd accident , but we certainly learned independence , judgement and caution  by being free range kids.

    So I really hate to see kids micro managed and I see that these kids have little opportunity to learn from experience. 

    Before I retired from teaching you could see children coming who had little life experience and they were having difficulty dealing with other kids and their own independence and responsibility

    I really wish I had a picture of being pinned under the set of drawers!.

One Place Don't Want to go to

    Now I can't think of very many places that I wouldn't want to go to. I'm sure some people have places they'd like to send me. I probably wouldn't like those places.

     This is about senior care. Most of us will end up at some level of senior care before we take our leave. Since I visit people, I have been in a few senior care facilities. The two facilities my Dad lived in were a community of staff and residents. They did the best they could for Dad.

    I found a senior care facility recently in which I would  not want to become a resident.

     A few posts ago I told you about Mitch finding a long term recuperation bed. I visited him 5 or 6 times while he was recuperating. I made up my mind that it was a very poor facility for seniors.

    The place is a privately owned and run facility. It's huge with about 50-60 suites and  various rooms. So they have people who rent a small suite and are completely independent. There are people who rent a small suite and take meals in the dining room. There are other people who need some care with dressing, washing or medication.

    I saw an exercise room but didn't see any other amenities because I didn't look. Nobody was in the exercise room. There was a lounge for snacks and coffee. People sat around there by themselves but didn't seem to be enjoying a coffee.There was a small library with books, magazines, games and newspaper. Mitch was the only one I saw use the library. Mitch can read three newspapers a day.

    People seemed to be roaming around by themselves and completely unoccupied. These people were not ill or suffering dementia. There was no community. These people were completely lost and alone. I thought what a wretched place to live. They house and feed the people but not much more.

    There were three people around a front desk who were superficially very, very pleasant. But that doesn't transfer to the occupants.

    So I decided that this was I place I would never like to become a resident.

Solid Statements

    Sometimes art pieces make a very strong statement.

    We recently had a creation put in a major park that depicts aboriginal culture. The creation was long in the planning and aboriginals were in the loop from the beginning. 

     So the piece is to depict native elders telling stories to other members of the group. So how did they depict people ? With huge boulders. Why boulders? Arrangements of stones have been found a various places on the prairie. For some of these stone arrangements aboriginals still remember the meaning. Other arrangements have been there for so long that nobody knows the meaning. So in this piece the elders are sitting in the center of the circle in a haphazard order. The listeners are sitting around the elders in a circle.

I hope you can make out the elders in the center.

The elders sit in no order

    It's hoped that younger aboriginals will see the creation as part of their culture and feel good about how they were taught. For the rest of us we can appreciate how aboriginal culture, history, behaviors and technology were taught to their people.

    It's a strong statement about where we fit in.

This was hard to photograph as it should be shown from above. 

The Bridge I Use the Most

     I had never thought about the bridge I have gone over more than any other bridge. I took the picture on my bike trip. This bridge was put in to take traffic from our trails across the river. So there's this bridge on the west end of the trails and the exact same bridge on the eastern end of the trails. I have crossed this bridge walking, cycling and skiing. 

     I ride at least 1000 km a summer. Although there are many other trails I do ride this one quite often. In the winter there are cross country skiing areas on both sides of this bridge. It's kind of cool to ski across a bridge.

    Now I like the look of this bridge although it doesn't compare with the old steel rail way bridge.

I hadn't noticed the clouds in the photo

It's a hard bridge to photograph as there's not a good angle on it.

I did get a shot with most of the bridge.

     So there's the beautiful bridge that I have crossed more than any other bridge.

A Fine Old Bridge

       Hilairy for The Smitten Image quite often advises, "Take your camera and stroll through your neighborhood." She tells us that we will find all kinds if interesting things to photograph.

      On Sunday I did about 20 kms on my bike instead of walk. I did find some things to photograph. However, I would find more if I walked.

       We have a large trail system in the city which was put together in the early eighties. Some interesting deals were made. The railway was moving out of downtown. This old bridge was in the way and the railway was going to take it down. So a deal was made that the bridge would remain and would be used as part of the trail system. The railway reconditioned the bridge and we were left with a bridge with fin decking that could be used for riding or walking. So the railway didn't have to go to the expense of taking the bridge down and we got a fine bridge.

     It's easy to imagine the huge black locomotive easing it's way across the bridge. I can hear see and smell the large beast. The bridge would creak and slowly bend and shift as the heavy locomotive made it's crossing.The bridge brings back many senses.

We don't see this style of steel bridge anymore.

A fine wooden deck was installed on the old bridge.

Serving on a sunny summer day. 

Another Favorite Flower: Wild Gailardia

      On Sunday I did a 20 km bike tour. That's when I found the wood lily or tiger lily. Tiger lily is really the name of another flower.

      So right where I saw the Wood lilies were all kinds of Brown-eyed Susans (Gailardia artista). Brown-eyed Susans are quite common in some areas and again are widely spread across North America. They were quite thick in the area I visited. So Brown-eyed Susans are almost as favorite as the Wood lilies. It was a bonus to find them while I was looking for Wood lilies.

One bloom with some bug feasting

You can see that they grow very thick in some areas.

Another look at the bloom and it's surroundings

I Finally Find Some Wood Lilies

    A few posts ago I told you that I had been out to search for Wood lilies and I didn't find any. I went a second time but no luck.

    Today I went to a location where I had found Wood lilies before. Yes, the Wood lilies were there and lots of them. They seemed to have extended their territory.

    The location I went to was an old quarry. Some of the ground had been undisturbed. The Wood lilies seem to have been able to extend their territory into the disturbed soil.

     I didn't find any doubles or triples but that was fine.