SOMETIMES YOU GET LUCKY

      I spend a lot of time outdoors wandering through parks and natural areas. It gets me outdoors. It gives me some exercise and it certainly does wonders to overall good well being. I lead a bird watching group once a week and sometimes you have to work pretty hard to pursue the little birdie to make an identification.
    Now most days you are going to meet someone to visit with. You meet all kinds of different people. Since I carry binoculars , most people can guess what I'm doing.


    From time to time you find things. These days the woods are filled with junk from homeless people. Sometimes I report the junk and the city picks it up and if it's small I clean it up myself.


    Sometimes you find other things...wallets. Usually there's nothing left. Twice I found wallets and the only thing missing was cash. Then I turn them in to the police.


    Yesterday I found something different. I saw a bit of black cord sticking out of the snow. I thought it might be keys so I kicked the snow away. Surprisingly it turned out to be a flashlight. I wanted to see if it worked and if not it would go in the garbage. One of the birders told me how to turn it on and yes it worked.


    Now the flash light likely belonged to a homeless person as they use the flashlights to navigate through the bush and also as a bicycle light. They also use them for lights in their tent.


     Now when I got home I googled to see what I had. I found out that it was a $50.00 flashlight. I've never found anything of value that I could keep. The light is LED and the beam shines up to 751 feet!




    Sometimes you get lucky!

SEXUAL ASSAULT

     In the past year the topic of sexual assault has been common, regular and often.


     There's much to say about sexual assault but not much seems to do any good.  Sexual assault has probably been committed since we showed up on the planet.


     There are the usual blah blah blahs. Simple ideas are  given as to why sexual assault continues to occur. The common excuses and blame go on forever and are repeated. In Alberta, we've had a judge lose his position as he asked a complainant why she didn't keep her legs together to prevent an assault.


    The law does not seem to come up with a practical process of dealing with sexual assault in the courts. The complainant is forced to defend herself from various lame accusations. Women are reluctant to report assault as the court process is demeaning and not highly reliable or successful.


    So sexual assault goes on and there at very few convictions so males fell that the odds are very good that they can get away with things.


     Over and over we hear about education and talking. Men and women talking?


     Boys, it's time men talked to men. Yes, men talk now . They brag about assaults and egg each other on. Donald Trump is one who openly brags and laughs about his assaults. He gets away with his actions and those assaulted carry the pain of the assaults. Talk is dismissed as locker room talk so it's harmless. Too many clowns go out and walk the talk and assault. This same locker room talk gives many males the idea that assault is funny.


     Men commit the assaults. It's up to men to talk to one another about sexual assault and get it through their heads that it's disgustingly wrong. . It's up to men to control the flippant joking about sexual assault. It's up to men to call each other on yakking about sexual assault and how funny it would be. It's up to men to talk to each other and realize how harmful the assaults are. Men have to step up and take a stand. It won't be easy. The bullies will make it difficult.


    Men have got to get serious and take responsibility for sexual assault. No one is out there asking to be assaulted.


    Maybe, just maybe, the many people making accusations now will have some effect on the rate of sexual assault.

THAT DANG COMPUTER

    Some of you noticed that there were some major glitches in my last post as far as photos were concerned. My apologies for causing anxiety and frustration. All of you who mentioned a problem with photos were extremely tactful. Thank you. If you hadn't mentioned that something was amiss , I'd have never known that there was a problem.


     I was trying to move photos on the blog post directly from email. I found out I couldn't do it. Moving photos from an email to a  post can probably be done but I have no idea how it's done. I still don't understand why I can't use the clipboard and use cut and paste?


    Now since I have a new computer, I've been moving photos to the new computer. Most of it has been easy peasy. However , there were some photos that just weren't showing up. I did two downloads or uploads. I'm not sure which is which. I searched for the photos. I looked all over the place . I went around and around. I really became frustrated. I had moved photos from my new camera and it was very easy. I did the same with the old camera, but some seemed to be missing.


    I was about exhausted and had almost decided to ask my in house advisor for advice. Last night while spending a sleepless couple of hours I got it!!! I remembered that I had another SD card from the old camera Yes, that' where my missing photos were. So today the remaining photos were loaded onto the computer.


    Now I did notice that for many of my photos there were three of each photo? Yes, that's what you get for downloading three times when you think something isn't working. It works alright.


    So it's not the dang computer. It's the operator.


   As I mentioned before the learning curve has been steep! It's just what's needed to keep a 78 year old brain from turning into mush!

SEVEN DAYS CONTRAST

      I spend a lot of time outdoors wandering through parks and natural areas. It gets me outdoors. It gives me some exercise and it certainly does wonders to overall good well being. I lead a bird watching group once a week and sometimes you have to work pretty hard to pursue the little birdie to make an identification.


    Now most days you are going to meet someone to visit with. You meet all kinds of different people. Since I carry binoculars , most people can guess what I'm doing.


    From time to time you find things. These days the woods are filled with junk from homeless people. Sometimes I report the junk and the city picks it up and if it's small I clean it up myself.


    Sometimes you find other things...wallets. Usually there's nothing left. Twice I found wallets and the only thing missing was cash. Then I turn them in to the police.


    Yesterday I found something different. I saw a bit of black cord sticking out of the snow. I thought it might be keys so I kicked the snow away. Surprisingly it turned out to be a flashlight. I wanted to see if it worked and if not it would go in the garbage. One of the birders told me how to turn it on and yes it worked.


    Now the flash light likely belonged to a homeless person as they use the flashlights to navigate through the bush and also as a bicycle light. They also use them for lights in their tent.


     Now when I got home I googled to see what I had. I found out that it was a $50.00 flashlight. I've never found anything of value that I could keep. The light is LED and the beam shines up to 751 feet!




    Sometimes you get lucky!

PLEASANT FALL SCENES

       On Sept . 29 the bird watching group went to a 270 acre natural area called Nova Nature Trails. Yes, the Nova, that is a world petrochemical company.


       The natural area has a wide variety of habitat so we can see a variety of bird species. There at wetlands, grasslands, brush and a few trees


      So I took the opportunity to get  few fall photos and give you a general idea of what the area is like.

 

 

 

 

 

         This is one small part of the plant.


         So six km of trails kept us busy for the morning.

TIME FOR FALL PHOTOS

     I used my  ipad for 6 or 7 posts. I did not find out how to post photos on posts I did with the ipad. When I tried photos the ipad seized up.


    So now I can post some fall photos. However, tonight is not fall . It's winter. We've had snow for three days and have about 10 cm ( 4 in).  I have shovelled the driveway and sidewalks three times.


   

 

    So posting fall photos takes me back to better times.


    Last Saturday Oct. 28 was a beautiful day. Jackets and coats came off as it was about 17 C (65 F). In my last post I shared one photo that I liked so I found out that there was very good light that day for the colors that were involved. So here are more photos from Heritage Ranch.

 

 

 

 

 

 
      This is my Saturday afternoon birding group. They know how to have fun!

 

 

WHY DO I LIKE THIS PHOTO

       On the weekend we were out bird watching in a 300 acre area of old growth forest, recovering quarries and open fields. It was a warm fall afternoon. It turned nasty the next day.


      It was an afternoon where I took quite a few photos. I was surprised when I looked at one photo and immediately liked it. I'm not a horse person so it's not because of the horses. It's one of those photos where you take a quick look and click. So I didn't think about anything.


      So I'm still asking myself what it is about my photo that makes me really like it.


      Do you have any ideas?