ALL THINGS RED

     
        I couldn't miss this photo opportunity!

        Our city is hosting the Canada winter games in January. We've been preparing for this event for 3 years.

       We've got two new arenas, an outdoor artificial speed skating oval , new cross country ski trails... When a city agrees to host an event like Canada winter games various governments come up with grants to build new modern facilities. An old elementary school has been turned into a sports administration center. 

       There are various things set up around the city to promote the city. One thing that's neat is the large red and white letters that say Red Deer. These are placed all over the city. I guess the city hopes that visitors will do as I did and take some photos.

      The letters are close to 2 m (6 ft) high. 

      The Micro Manager posing.

I couldn't resist this for someone who goes by the name of Red.

I'm a big cheering section for our city!

THE WASHING MACHINE

     I came home from birding about 3:30 Sat. afternoon.  As I entered  the house I sensed that the Micro Manger was in the basement.  I was unloading my back pack and putting birdy things back like my field glasses.

    I thought I heard something different like a screech. It happened again. The third time I realized that the micro manager was calling me. Instantly, I was on high alert and went downstairs two steps at a time. This sounded serious.

    I found the Micro Manager behind the washer with towels trying to stem the flow of suds. At first, I thought she was mopping up water.

    She was finally able to tell me that soap suds were coming out at the back of the washer. As her panic lessened she told me that she was running the washer on a special cycle that would clean the washer. It was cleaning the washer alright. Massive amounts of soap suds were forming. This special cycle would clean out soap residues. It was doing a great job. Soap suds were coming out of the washer drum from somewhere.

    As calmness was returning, she told me that she had never run this cycle before. She had always been cautious with the amount of soap she used for the washes. She always used less than the recommended amount of soap.

   So the micro Manager was very surprised at the amount of suds and therefor the amount of soap left as residue in the washer. She ran the cycle over again and also had a huge build up of suds. She has had this washer for close to ten years and never run this cycle.

   I guess after this she will run the cleaning cycle more often. As you can see it's one of the washers with all kinds of gadgets and options.

FROM THE WAY BACK MACHINE

      My Dad was a fanatic about fishing. He discovered fishing in the early fifties when a friend took him out fishing. 

     There was only one lake near us that had any fish and it was a good lake. There were other lakes but they were quite saline and didn't have fish. 

    Some neighbors built Dad a little wooden boat and he thought it was the best boat in the world. When fishing season opened he would take his boat down to the lake and leave it for the summer ...unlocked. In the late fall before ice formed he would make a trip to the lake and bring his boat home for the winter.

    Now one year he decided to send my brother and I to pick up the boat. I was 14 and my brother was 13. We didn't have driver's licenses. As kids in a rural area we began driving when we were very young. I started when I was 11. We didn't go to town. We just drove on the farm. By age 14 we drove all aver the place. 

    You may say why didn't the police catch you? There weren't any police...at least not nearby. What about traffic? There was next to no traffic. We were in a very sparsely populated area so our chances of running over somebody were very slim.

    Well , we got to the lake and loaded the boat. Dad had taken the sides off the truck box for some reason. We had to be careful. 

   By the time we got home it was dark. When we got out of the truck, there was no boat on the back of the truck

My brother and I at ages 3 and 4

.     The old farm house. I tried to find a photo that would show nothing but open space.

   Okay, we got back in the truck and put the pedal to the metal to find the boat. The boat was 2 miles down the road and had fallen off as we turned a corner. 

    The boat had not been damaged so Dad was ready for the next fishing season.

   Many times we did adult jobs on that old farm that were very necessary and we were proud of the jobs we did,

PERSPECTIVES

    Since a very nasty and divisive political campaign came to an end yesterday, it might be time to look at the situation since it's the morning after.

      I  look back in time to see strong dynamic leaders who led good governments.  Today I dislike the  governments we have. I look forward to getting a better more perfect government in the future. 

     I look back at presidents who I admire: Carter, Kennedy, Obama, Truman. I look back at Canadian prime ministers such as: St Laurent, King, Diefenbaker, Trudeau Sr. I even got to like Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien. I think I would like  Eisenhower or Roosevelt.

     So when we look back things don't seem so bad. 

    However, today we have a different political climate. The characters we have today don't seem to have any concept that there is a country and that they serve that people. Policies should be crafted that bring about benefits for all and to make a strong country. Leaders today play fast and loose with the truth. Voters don't seem to be able to make these devils pay for not telling the truth or leading  country to strength and goodness.

    For tomorrow I'm optimistic. I hope there will be honorable great leaders step in to lead government. I hope that our governments will see the light that certain things have to be done to have a good country. They could start by seeing that something large and very concrete has to be done about climate change like yesterday.

    For me, I'm influenced by perspective. I wear a number of different colored glasses. 

    Do you have leaders from the past who you think were successful in moving the country forward. Who were these leaders? What were they like?

   Do you have hope that in the future we will have honorable people step in to lead a country for the good of all or should I say most?
   

TIME CHANGE

      I have gone through daylight savings time changes as long as I can remember. And that's a long time. I'm not sure if I've experienced day light saving time all my life. However, I don't remember day light savings time in the Arctic. I don't remember day light savings time in Quebec. 

    I have always maintained that the time change doesn't bother me. But I guess if you think that we don't need to use daylight savings time then it is a bother.

    Have you ever counted all the clocks you have in your house? I have 8 clocks and two watches. We don't set the watches. Now to set all those clocks is a pain. If we didn't have day light saving time I wouldn't have to change my time pieces. Now I have to do this twice a year. 

    If I stop and think about it there's not one advantage for me to  go on day light saving time. 

    It's interesting to read about the odd rebel who refuses to change the time. It would be much easier for them to change time rather than to keep track of things so that they meet their obligations.

    Now I will admit that for the days or few days of change I feel some stress. Today just seemed off. I stayed in bed until my get up time but I didn't sleep. All day things seemed off. I just felt that there were things I should be doing like eat lunch but it wasn't time to eat lunch. It seemed like there was a phantom day out there. 

   So the change in times does bother me. 

   I don't see the need to change and I think we are questioning more an more why we should use day light saving time.

  I could gladly fore go daylight saving time or should I say I would like to stay on daylight saving time all year.

   How do you feel about the time change?

ANOTHER PROJECT

    For a long time my bicycle helmet has been descending into ruins. The outer shell is in two parts and the tape binding them together dried out. It was replaced with duct tape. Somehow the inner styro foam kept getting dirtier and dirtier. The inside pads were either lost , on the wrong place or rolled up. The chin straps were stiff from all the absorbed perspiration. 

    For years I had left the helmet out in the shed over winter. This meant that I didn't bring it in and wash it. 

   I'm not sure you want to go any further with this post. You know now that the helmet was in terrible condition. When I would stop and talk to somebody and take my helmet off I would keep the inside hidden.

    Well it got worse. During one of our recent snows, a mouse got in the shed and found that my helmet was a great toilet!

    Well, what to do now? So after some careful consideration I decided to rehabilitate my bike helmet. I fixed up a pail so that I could soak the helmet in soapy water. I used a brush and then rinse. I let the helmet dry out. Surprise surprise the helmet looked quite clean. 

    The micro manager had kept the original helmet box and guess what...there were spare pads in the box. So I replaced all the gross pads with new pads. I had to use scissors to modify some pads but it worked.

   So now I have a very nicely rehabilitated bike helmet! I'm not finished riding for this year but I'm certainly ready for next year.

I'm sure this is the most duct taped bike helmet around. It also looks like the old guy wearing the helmet could use some duct tape in a few places.

MY EDUCATION III

    For most people high school is one of the highlights of their life. For me, high school just about didn't happen.

    World events almost prevented me from a high school education.

    The depression and WW II caused some very tough economic times. I lived in a very rural area. Transportation in general was very poor. Up until 1952 we went to town with horses in the winter. We went at least once a week but sometimes less. We used horses because we didn't have a modern car and clearing roads of snow had not been developed to where it was efficient. A small high school was 5 1/2 miles away but it was impossible to attend. 

   So going through grade school I had no objective to attend high school. It wasn't possible. However, by my gr. 9 year things had started to change. The farmers were clearing snow off roads about once a week. If you were lucky you wouldn't get snow for two weeks or more.

    So all of a sudden at the end of gr. 9 I saw myself attending high school. I carpooled with the neighbor boys. I had an arrangement with a family in town to stay at their place if we couldn't get home. Many times I didn't get to school as the roads were blocked. 

The gr 10 kid!

   However, economic conditions and transportation improved. We had a bus for GR. eleven and twelve. 

    Gr. 10 was a huge challenge. I was used to small school not that this school was large. There was one teacher for gr 10, 11 and 12. There were 26 students from gr ten to twelve.Taking gr nine by correspondence did not give me a good basics for high school. The teacher was good but he intimidated me. However, with some good help I completed gr. 10. 

    For gr eleven I had overcome my concerns about a different school. I had got to know all the other students and it was fun. The teacher had started a six man
 touch football league and I was hooked. It was something that I could succeed at. 

     And surprise , surprise I completed gr 11 and entered gr. 12. We had a different teacher and he gave me lots of confidence. I liked him and he was easy to work with. 

    My Dad tried to encourage me to think about what I should do after high school. I wasn't giving Dad any answers. He suggested nursing? That would have been a big mistake. I would not make a decision. I didn't have much confidence in myself so waited until I got my marks and found out that I had completed high school and then I announced what I wanted to do. I had decided early in the spring to attend Teacher's college but I hadn't told anybody.

    So high school was completed and I enjoyed the experience. High school was something that I had not thought possible and had only thought about being a farmer. 

Eight of us were in the gr 12 class