SHAKY START TO AN ADVENTURE

    In 1963 I as 23 years old and had been teaching for 4 years. I was at a crossroads. I had to either go back to school or leave the territory. I couldn't make up my mind. I didn't want to leave teaching but I didn't have any other option that jumped out at me.

    I had noticed an ad in the paper to teach in canada's northland. I thought maybe I should try this and if it's exciting I can continue and go back to school or just leave. A package of information came with an application form. I thought I might as well apply and see what happens. Since it was a government position the application was detailed.

    A few weeks later I got a letter asking me to come for an interview. I'd never been interviewed before. However, I thought what have a got to lose, I'll go to the interview. A few weeks after the interview I was offered a position. Now what do I do? Well, I thought it sounded exciting and what have I got to lose. The pay was very good! I accepted the position to teach gr. 8 in Inuvik NWT. This was a large school with 50 teachers. I was excited but nervous.

    More information was sent about what I needed for living in that location. They also sent instructions as to travel. I was to got to Edmonton Alberta on Aug 23, check in with the airline and fly north the next day. They assured me that my ticket would be there.I phoned the airline. They had never heard of me and claimed the government had made no plans for my transportation. However, they said come down tomorrow and we'll see what we can do.

   I went to the airport and checked in. They definitely told me there was no seat for me. I was told to come back tomorrow so back to the hotel I went.

   I went out the next day and they said they didn't have a seat. I was very discouraged by this time. Before I picked up my bag to go back to the hotel I asked what happens next. They said wait a minute. Well ten minutes later they said there's one seat, give us your baggage and go out to the plane. Wow!

    Now I had never flown before. After all this I was a little stressed out. I had seen pictures of people in passenger airplanes and they were dressed up. I had my best jacket on. But when I looked around not many people were dressed like I was. Most of them looked like construction workers. What was going on?

    The airplane was a very elderly DC4 which is an aircraft from the 1940's. they were used in WW II. The airline I flew on was Pacific Western and they maybe had 2 or 3  DC  4's so I could well have flown on this one.



     Off we went. About half way we ran into some violent thunder storms. The plane was tossed around. So this wasn't quite the thrill I had bargained for. After about 20 minutes a leak started right over me. Well, I was sure I was a goner. This old bird was falling apart and my adventure would be over. They moved me to a seat where there wasn't a leak. We got out of the thunderstorm and soon landed.

    I really hadn't thought that there would be this much adventure to get to my northern teaching position. I was only halfway there so I lots more flying was ahead of me.

POETIC JUSTICE

    I was bragging the last two posts about having clear skies so that I could see the supermoon.

    Well this evening I have this!

    A front went through this afternoon and evening and dropped 3-4 cm(1 1/2 -2 in) of heavy wet snow!

    I can also give a heads up to Far Side of Fifty that snow is coming her way and that she got her snow stick set up just in time.

I'M GLOATING!

      Last night I took some moon  shots because it was very clear here. I was worried if I waited until tonight we might have some cloud. Well, it's a very clear evening so I took a shot just to show you how lucky I am.  Now it's not a good photo as my camera and the operator are limited. 

      I hope all of you get some shots tonight or tomorrow.

     This makes up for the last three weeks when I wanted to see northern lights and we had nothing but cloud.

SKIES

     The sun is just rising when I get up these days. I noticed on a couple of days that there was a pretty colorful sky. I tried. I took photos out of the window. Excuse? I would have to go a long way before I'd find a better shot.

     Now we are at a special time for the moon. It's closer to the earth since about 70 years ago. the next time it's this close will be 2034. I took these tonight because it might be cloudy if I wait until tomorrow.

LEONARD COHEN 1934-2016

    I've always been a fan of Leonard Cohen. It was always hard to believe that Leonard was growing old as he kept on writing and making music. It was a shock to learn of his death this week.

    It was also a shock for me to realize that he was well known in many parts of the world. I had always thought Leonard was mainly known in Canada.

    Leonard wrote about religion, politics, isolation ,sexuality, personal relations and much more. His words kept on smoothly flowing until he had said what he wanted to say.

    Leonard was a master when it came to music. First of all, he had the voice that everyone recognized. The voice could change from time to time. There was the usual low haunting whisper that he is well known for. Then he jazzed it up for closing time and other tunes. I wish he'd sung harmony more as in Mary Anne. He used back up singers extremely well as in closing time. He played a number of instruments. He used different instruments to great effect. He touched jazz, rock and roll, folk and more.

      So thanks to Leonard for all his poetry, songs and music. I will listen to the music until my closing time.

IT COULD ONLY HAPPEN TO RED !

      I've written about being fortunate in finding a new family doc.  Now don't worry. I still go to the guy and every time I visit him I'm more impressed. He's at a walk in clinic and sometimes there's a long wait. However, he told me I could make appointments. There are 4 to 7 physicians in the clinic.

     Sometimes the wait at the walk in clinic was two hours. I noticed that many of the patients were pregnant women. I also noticed that there were many women checking in with brand new babies. I didn't think anything about the people I saw in the waiting room.

    Then I noticed that the pregnant women and infants were all going to my doctor.

    Still nothing twigged.

     Then one day I noticed that some of the  letters behind my doc's name were an indication that he had some extra training in obstetrics!

     Wow! How did I become this guy's patient?

     My doc practises as a general physician first. I think he must be very good at obstetrics and so has many patients. He's also very good at looking after an elderly man. He's bright, knows his stuff and is a good communicator.

     However, I did wonder for a little while how I got to have a doc with training in obstetrics.

    Well, I guess this situation could only happen to me. Okay, he has  other men for patients!

EXTREME LUCK

     Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you get extremely lucky. I got extremely lucky a week ago Sunday but didn't realize it until Saturday. No I didn't win the lottery.

     I had gone out to a viewing deck looking out over a small shallow oxbow lake. It was late afternoon. I was facing south and the bright sun was causing a big problem with trying to see things. Mainly the problem was to focus my camera. I couldn't see much on my camera. I accidentally clicked the shutter as I was trying to see what was in the viewfinder. I deleted the shot. I fussed around some more. About 300 meters out I saw white birds and was sure they were gulls. I tried to get a good look at them with the zoom but gave up.

    So Saturday I had more pictures and downloaded them. What's this? A picture of the lake? How did that happen? So I guess I accidentally hit the shutter again. This time I got a good shot of the lake ...or at least I think it's a good shot. I didn't see this in my camera and didn't see it as I was looking for some birds on the lake.

    I was on the second floor of the viewing deck. It makes me feel as if I'm coming in for a landing on a float plane. I have very calm water for a landing.