A Little Weather Excitement

       We had a major blizzard this past Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We had 25 cm ( 10 in ) of snow and lots of wind. The temperature gradually dropped to minus 20 C (plus 3 F). 

       Needless to say I had lots of snow to shovel. I good neighbor came with his snow blower and really helped me. It was drifted in the next morning so I shoveled. Cars were getting stuck on my street. Monday afternoon the storm was about done.

      We have had 65 cm of snow this winter so far. Most winters we don't get even close to this amount of snow.

     Because there was wind we had snowdrifts. We rarely get snow drifts. So the wind made some great carvings for us.

The little old wishing well has a full load

There's a canoe under that snow bank. 

It's a good thing I put a roof on the bird feeder

A nice snow carving on a roof edge

A full load of snow on another garage

Oops! It's December

    I was a little surprised today to realize that it's Dec. 1. Things have been so busy that I wasn't considering the date.

   We've had two major dumps of snow so I've been busy shoveling. We're going to get another dump of snow tonight. A couple of other things are going on in my life and they have stolen my mind and kept me busy.

   Usually I'm obsessively watching sunset time for each day. Usually I have noticed that the days are much shorter and the sun is going down very early. I haven't even thought of those things this year.

If I watch we also get some great sky colors at this time of year. Reminder to self. Take the camera in the afternoon.

    So today the sun rose at 8:22 AM and is setting at 16:26 PM. That gives us 8 hours and 4 minutes of sun. We are very close to the time when the sun doesn't set much earlier. Here the earliest the sun sets is 16:23 PM so you see we're almost there. 

Lights on the house from last year

    December may have surprised me but I do have my house Christmas lights up.

Happy Thanksgiving to My American Daughter

     My daughter's life fits nicely into four sections. First, she lived at home until she finished High School. Second she spent 11 years attending university and working. Third, she came back to the city and taught for 7  years. Fourth, she moved to Chicago.

     When my daughter came back to town she was a well established adult. She insisted on having Thanksgiving at her house every year. She's a rebel and would not do the traditional Thanksgiving feast. She liked to try other things. So we had leg of lamb, steak, chicken, duck ... a variety , but never turkey. Thanksgiving at her house was always a good time. It was something to be thankful for.

    Now she does thanksgiving at a different time with different folks. She still has a great celebration. She still shares with everyone what she is thankful for.

    So Happy Thanksgiving to my American daughter! Happy thanksgiving to all my American readers. I am thankful that you follow me and share your blog.

Football Lost Me!

    Today is Gray Cup day in Canada. The final in the Canadian football League ( CFL ) is being played today. Football is a big deal in Canada. There are nine competitive teams and markets. The league has been in business for over 100 years. We could say that the game is well established in this country.

     However, I'm not watching the biggest game of the year in the CFL. I quit watching football a long time ago.

     I was a big fan of football. I played football in high school. I'm from Saskatchewan and was a big Saskatchewan Rough Rider's fan. I went to some games although I lived 200 miles from the city. The Rough Riders are in the Gray cup today. I'm not watching!

    I have watched some American football but I didn't get interested in it. American football has a huge following in Canada.

    What happened? I guess I changed and the game changed. 

    I lived in the arctic for five years. I was not able to follow the sport. I was still an avid Rough Rider fan. I moved again and was not in my team's area. I found other interests. Football gradually faded  away for me.

   I also found TV coverage to be a pain. There was too much talk from color men. There were too many long commercials. I just wanted to see the action. 

   So I have not watched football for at least 20 years. The game continues to grow. There are more fans than ever who enjoy the game. I'm happy that they get so much out of football. But foot ball for me is gone!

   My local followers will be razzing me tomorrow!

By Request

     Yesterday, Daniel, at the Pixel Collective featured photos of a number of water towers.  In my comment I told Daniel that we had a water tower  in Red Deer. So Daniel said, "Do a post and put in a recent photo. So here is Daniel's request."

The green Onion

     The official name of our water tower is the Horton Spheroid. Locally it's affectionately known as the Green Onion. It was built in 1959. It's  132 ft. high and holds 500 000 gal. of water. It's built in top of a reservoir which holds 2,300,000 gal. It was first built to provide water pressure for the town. Now it's just used for back up water storage. There are two tennis courts on top of the ground reservoir so you get some idea of the size.

    The green Onion wast built on a high point in the town so now it is visible from almost any part of the city. Strangely there's no sign in this water tower.

   http://danielspixelcollective.blogspot.ca/

I Don't (Can't) Sing

    The other day I listened to an hour long radio documentary about choral singing. They examined four different choirs and the values singers got out of the activity and what others received from the music. It was fascinating and got me thinking about music.

    Now it doesn't take much to get me thinking about music. I love music and I listen to a many different kinds of music. I not only like to listen to music but to listen to information about the music.However , I have absolutely no musical talent at all. I admire people who do have musical ability.

    The first time I remember participating in music was a disaster. In gr. 2 I got kicked out of the rhythm band! My brother and I were playing sticks. Somehow or other we got carried away and started hitting each other with the sticks. I must have been the aggressor and  my music career ended early. I also remember the pleasure of singing in Sunday School 

   So back to the documentary. I got thinking about how singing is so very important to people. People learn much about themselves as they sing. They have to take directions and cooperate with others to produce the music. Each singer has to know their part as well as the other parts. Then they have to sing their part and not the other guy's part. What talent and discipline! Each of the four choirs spent a tremendous amount of time practicing. Each choir had a specific goal. A youth choir got to sing in Carnegie Hall in a mass choir. Were these kids excited!

    I have had the privilege of sitting in a choir and to be surrounded by the music. It was awesome! It's a different sound  you  heard  from being  in the audience. It was "surround sound" that you heard with your body.

    I certainly support the teaching of choral music in schools. For many kids this is their only exposure to choral music. They learn to listen to themselves. In many cases they develop a life long skill and participate in many different areas.

   Many of you are singers. At this time of year you are working on beautiful Christmas music to be presented in the season. So enjoy your time learning the Christmas pieces and I will enjoy listening to you and think of all your hard work to make beautiful music.

   I would be curious as to how many of my readers are singers in some way. Do you sing in a group? Do you sing as you go about your work? Do you sing in the shower? Are you a professional singer?

A Surprising Position.

     As most of my readers know I was a teacher in Middle School for my whole career. I taught all core subjects except one and also a number of options. I also held down three department head positions over the years. I liked Dept. Head positions as you got to actively direct your program and select materials with staff. One department head position was a big surprise and a bit of a joke that I played on myself.
  
     I never found a  conference or professional development activity that I didn't like. These activities provided much personal and professional growth.

    Our jurisdiction decided to bring in and implement a health program. There were 6 parts to it and the main focus was more on getting along with people.  It was fun to teach as there was much role playing and debriefing. There were many excellent group activities and projects.

    Our Principal decided that for his school he would take one hour per week out of the language arts program and teach the health program in that hour. He would automatically have the teachers...the language arts (LA) staff.

    
    One day the LA dept. head asked me if I would like to go to a week long work shop on the new health program. He was supposed to go but had some lame excuse. Sure I would go. The program was more about teaching strategies than introducing the new health program.

    About a week after I got back the Principal called me in to tell me that he was going to set up a health Dept. and health Dept. Head. Would I like to be the Dept. Head. Okay sure! I was to see that all staff received professional development before teaching the new program and provide guidance for using materials. I believed it was a good program and was enthusiastic. 

    Now as most people know one of the six sections was called human relations and most kids referred to it as sex ed. It was a fun unit to teach and I think very worth while.

    We had to hold a parent night before we taught unit 6. Guess who got to run the meeting? The Dept. Head of course! I'd had lots of experience with parent meetings, but this one turned out to be a big challenge. There was an organized group who were adamantly opposed to teaching about birth control. Surprise!  Surprise! They dominated the meeting and vigorously pushed their agenda. We had no clue this would happen and were caught totally off guard. My principal wisely left me hung out to dry!

     So a position I got by surprise turned out to have a big curve in it that was thrown at me. I learned a lot through the experience although it was tough to go through. I still think the LA head and Principal worked together to set me up!