Christmases Past

       My friend Willis, who I finished high school with, posted on face book the other day that his tree was decorated and things in the house were fixed up for Christmas. So, Willis was sitting back in his easy chair thinking about friends and "Christmases past".

       So even though we are elderly we still act like high school students and never miss a chance for a friendly dig. My comment on his face book post was "Ya, that's a lot of Christmases!" Like, you're old!!

       Well, I got thinking about Willis's comment. Yes, it's many Christmases. In my case 76 of them. The first ones I don't remember. However, I do remember the Christmases when I was a child and safe in the care of my parents.  They made Christmas interesting with baking, decorations, gifts and very festive meals. We also had community and church festivities. Christmas day was a long day of good food and visiting with neighbors and friends.

       In my late teens I was not tied as closely to family and spent more time in the holidays with friends. Once I left home the time for Christmas with family was shortened. You raced home just in time for Christmas. You missed all the Christmas preparations. Some of the excitement was gone as now you were an adult.

       Then came the first time I was not able to be home for Christmas. I was in the Arctic with many other young single people who were away from family. The 30 of us in the residence, got together and prepared a very festive meal. I'm sure many of us were thinking about home, but we had a very good time.

       Next, a new pattern was formed when I married. Problem! You can't get to both parents for the holidays so what do you do?  A couple of those dilemmas were solved when my wife had to work.

      When you have children of your own you start making your own traditions for the holidays. There's excitement about decorations, gifts, stories, songs and a special meal. Many of the things I did were what I learned from my parents.

       My kids live far away from me and they don't get home for Christmas. They have their own kids to make traditions.

      So , yes, we do have great memories and friends formed around Christmas. As we age the celebration of Christmas changes. Celebrations change with the times. 

     Now matter what, Christmas is a joyful time of the year.

     

Skaters Christmas

     Each year we have a special lunch at skating and invite retired skaters to attend. We enjoy seeing retired skaters and the retired skater love to visit with each other.

     The recreation dept supplies donuts and we bring potluck goodies. 

     People are excited to see one another . The old skating enthusiasm is still there.

Lots of good eats

Retired lady skaters

Retired male skaters. The guy across the table is 93 and skated until he was 92.

The last of the pair skaters. Jerry is 88.

TRUMP

         I'm a Canadian.

         I take pride in thinking that I mind my own business. I don't pry into other people's business. Other people can live their own lives as long as they don't interfere with my life.

         But lately something has been bothering me.  Donald Trump.

         I've been watching news coverage of Trump's campaign. The logic Trump uses bothers me as he plays fast and loose with the truth and uses misinformation to back up his ideas. So Trump is an outright racist and is dividing people rather than uniting and proposing policy that would benefit all people.

       Trump seems to find it easy to say that people are rapists, criminals and drug dealers as he did with Mexicans. Of course , he uses this to back up his ridiculous proposal to build a fence between Mexico and the U.S. And what I really like is that the Mexicans would pay for the fence.

      Trump also has erroneous things to say about Muslims to back his proposal to not let Muslims into the country. All the time Trump forgets that many Muslims live in his country.

      Now why I'm really concerned is that his fast and loose logic could influence me. What if Trump decides Canadian water and resources would be nice to have. So he makes the usual charge that Canadians are rapists criminals and drug dealers so this gives him the right to come and take what he wants. And oh ya, he won't let any Canadians enter the U.S. Oops , I guess I won't be able to visit my American daughter anymore!

Fresh Snow

      Yesterday it snowed for about ten hours...wet, heavy, dense. snow. The kind of snow that is fresh and energizes me except when it comes to shovelling.

The snow stick got set up a few days ago. Inches are on the left and cms on the right. It shows about 5 1/2 in and 14 cm.

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The wet snow stuck to the trees.

Today was very dull, gray and foggy.

Even the small cedars had to accept their load.

Beautiful Skies

      There are sky memes where beautiful cloud and sky photos are posted. There are some very talented photographers out there. 

       What I'm thinking about are the night skies and what we can see and enjoy.

       We've had a week or two of very clear weather. I get up at 7:00 AM and usually take a look out the window. I noticed a very bright object in the southeast sky. It was obviously a planet as it didn't twinkle. finally I used my sky watch app to see what was out there. It turned out to be Venus.  A little higher up and to the right is Mars. I could see these from my window. In line with Venus and Mars is Jupiter, but you have to go outside to see Jupiter because it's further west and maybe is northwest. . 

      So if you have some clear mornings take a look at the sky. These planets rise around 3 or 4 AM. They set sometime in mid afternoon or early evening. You can check for times if you check a chart. You may see Venus again at sunset.

    This week there is a meteor shower that I'm looking forward to. The Gemini's meteor shower will happen this weekend. Look in the eastern sky. The peak will be Dec. 13-14 night. You should see meteors Dec. 12-15. Now most of the activity will be after midnight? If it's clear, I'll be up.

    As for meteors there's one I'll never forget. Half a dozen of us were in the farmyard in the middle of a very bright Sunday afternoon. In the north west sky there was a brilliant  flash and a trail of smoke. All of us were startled. Being very young at the time we did not think of a meteor in the daytime. It was a mystery until later newscasts reported the meteor and the flash was explained.

     By the way , there are many free apps for looking in the night sky. These apps tell you what you're looking at.

     So do you watch night skies?

    

    

Joy of Walking

     Walking is one of those very common things in life that we do without thinking about. We don't notice the importance of walking until it's gone or impaired. 

      Many experts claim that walking is the best activity for many things...fitness, weight loss, and many more.

     We also don't notice how much of our daily activity includes walking even if it's inside.

     One of my main winter activities is walking. I don't mean a fantastic amount of walking. I try to walk everyday, but weather sometimes limits walking. I have a 2 km route that I follow and I usually walk in the evening. I don't use a pedometer although I have one.

    Over the last couple of years I've had a few brief nagging irritants in my walking. I've also noticed that I've slowed down and my stride is shorter. Balance is sometimes a problem.

    So I was thinking recently that I better do something about these conditions. The  book I recently read on Parkinson's had some basic suggestions on walking. So very simply, we lengthen our stride a little bit and speed up the steps. One simple thing is swinging the arms. The arms help to balance the body as the arm swing is opposite to the leg swing. I found this really works to improve balance. I had noticed before that my right arm didn't swing. This book made me look at other information on walking.

    Good posture is crucial when it comes to walking. So straighten up. Try this . It really works. One site suggested that you should be able to draw a line through the ear , shoulder, hips ,knees and ankles. 

    Don't forget about the good shoes.

    So my suggestion is to look at a good site on walking and then put as much of it as possible into practice. 

   I took my bird group out this afternoon and yes, we walked. However, I don't know how far we walked but we did see many birds. There were hundreds of white winged cross bills. They only show up about once every five years.

    How about you? Do you have a regular routine for walking? What tips do you have?

      The micro Manager has the green backpack. Notice the lady in the black coat has a cane! This was one of the Sunday afternoon bird walks.

Nice Appreciation.

     One of our malls puts on a seniors appreciation lunch every December. Today was the day. We arrived around 10:30 AM. Most tables in the food court were full. Seniors started lining up about 11:00 to get their lunch. Lunch was started at 11:30.

     The lunch was catered by Tim Hortons so we had soup, sandwich, juice , cookies and coffee on a sort of all you can eat basis.

     And there was appropriate music. There was as seniors jug band which played Christmas tunes and popular tunes from "a while ago." A young guy played guitar and sang, seasonal tunes and other great tunes like Four Strong Winds. A very popular older country and western entertainer played and sang.

    So it was a good time and with the music you could have hung around most of the afternoon.

    Now when Mr Introvert says he enjoyed it , it had to be good. Mr Introvert would rather be visiting in a small group or out in the bush wandering around. I have been dragged kicking and screaming to this event before but today I honestly enjoyed it. The only downer was that the micro manager didn't get there in time to get her coupon for a free picture with Santa!!!

      Next year I'll make sure I take my camera!