THE COVID VIRUS MAKES LIFE COMPLICATED

     I found out the other day how complicated things have become because of covid 19. I organized my bird watching group and found out that there were many hoops to jump through.

     Ordinarily I make up a schedule and publicize it and away we go.   Bird watching is an activity  organized under the Red Deer River Naturalists (RDRN) . This is a registered society and we must have insurance. Check the website to see where we're going. I also have a contact list and they receive an email with all the information. It's also posted on our facebook page.

     So I'm on automatic pilot with this activity.

     So the other day I sent out the schedule. Very soon after someone asked , "Well  what are the regulations regarding covid 19 for an outside group?" I had intended to look. Before I had a chance to look one of my fellow birders had all the info for stage II and the virus.

     I was surprised to find out that there were 10 questions that had to be asked of each birder. Much of this had to be recorded in order to trace contacts in case someone had the virus. We decided that we had to have some way of asking for the information and recording it. Since I described the type of organization RDRN is we had to follow the rules.

    Now when you look around it doesn't look like many people are following rules. Very few people wear masks here. I went to restaurant and all staff were wearing masks. I visited the same restaurant a week later and none of them were wearing masks.

    So I have to wonder how serious we are in our stage II of opening up after covid?

    At my age I will not be birding with a group because of the virus . They will do fine without me. 

HEARING AID DAY

      Yesterday I had my annual hearing and hearing aid annual check up.

       The market is very competitive for hearing aids these days. There are many gimmicks and you better watch yourself. What you're actually looking for is a good quality hearing aid but it's hard to sort things out with all the sales gimmicks.

      I chose a phonak which is highly rated. I get free batteries for a lifetime as well as annual  hearing aid checks. You can go in for service at any time. Now the price? Before I get there we have these things that contribute to the price. My pension plan  contributes $900.00. Our government has an aids to daily living program which contributes $900.00 AMA (Alberta Motor Association )contributes $2500.00 AMA also supply the batteries. So that's $4300.00 and then I get to pay close to $2000.00. 

     So yesterday they did another hearing test and that was fine...not much change from last year. The hearing aids wear cleaned and balanced. Then they downloaded any new updates. There was also some feedback which they said they fixed but today I still have feedback. So the hearing aids were louder and so was the noise. 

    So hearing aids are not perfect but they are much better than the alternative. The Micro Manager thinks I still can't hear. Most people I can hear very well but the odd person is difficult to hear and she's one of them . She is sure that I purposely ignore her. She gets frustrated with me. So the hearing aids are no problem , but some people have trouble believing I can hear.

I HATE TO RAIN ON YOUR PARTY

     Well I'm not one to rain on anybody's party. I like parties and celebrations . I like to see success rewarded.

     I'm the eternal optimist. The Micro Manager says that I would call an empty glass full.

    So it's with a rather heavy heart that I conclude very little will happen to bring about changes in racism. I know that people are very hopeful that something will. happen.

    I think very little will happen. Once all the demonstrations are history, the world will quietly slip back into racism as usual.

    Yes, there will be some improvement but not much.  Some people will become more aware of what racism is. Some people will work for changes , but little will happen.

     The politicians will go back to the same old game. Forget about racism and get some votes so that we can stay inpower. Systemic racism is safe. None of the system is going to change.

    Do you think the jokes will change?

    I think very few people are willing to give up power.

    Living in segregated areas will stay as people like it.

    The everyday slurs will continue. Worse physical abuse will continue. Things are commonly thrown at people every day.

    So you see I'm not at all hopeful things will change. I know a large part of the population is hoping for a change. I hate to rain on your party.

    I'm a Canadian. Racism is alive and well here. We are smug about it and it's quiet. The system is set up for one group and other groups get the pleasure of suffering. Racism is so common in society that it's not noticed. Ask most Canadians and they think racism is not a problem and they are quick to say, "I'm not a racist. "

    I would like to be wrong on this one. If I'm wrong I will gladly apologize.

BLUNDERING GOVERNMENTS

    Our government (Alberta Canada) is not the swiftest . It's quite right wing and some of them think Trump is a great guy. Nuff said. They're idiots.

    So they try to come up with great ideas to make themselves look good instead of helping people.

    Somehow the cheapies must have got their hands on a few million covid 19 masks . The idea was to give them to people to help with the pandemic. 

   Now comes the loony stuff. They decided that you could get your free mask by getting MacDonald's , A & W and Tim Hortons to give them out through the drive ins. Sound good? 

    Well it doesn't take long to see that this plan is somewhat inadequate. What happens in a little rural town that doesn't have any of these outlets?  What happens to people who don't have cars.? 

    The idea was that each person was to get one package of masks that had four masks to a package. What's to stop people from asking for more? What's to stop people from going to ten different outlets? What happens to the poor beggar who doesn't get there in time? I wonder how the elderly will get to the drive ins? 

    So yesterday the plan began and  masks were handed out.. Some outlets gave out as many masks as you asked for. Some employees didn't like the extra work so handed out masks on a wholesale business.

   One funny incident. To make a point one guy took a paper box apart and put fake cardboard wheels on it . He colored this up nicely and then walked through a drive in with this gizmo . 

   Well, this has kept the old people wagging their tongues . It's just another goofy government project.

FUN WITH AN OLD TECHNOLOGY

      A few days ago my neighbor D brought home a very old and dilapatated wood burning cook stove. Some parts were missing and it was a way after best before date. She wants it to cook with out in the yard. Here husband is a welder so there's no problem to get it back to where it is reasonably usable. She wants to cook pies and promised she would make me a pie if I was very, very good.

      Seeing this old stove brought back many memories. On the farm in the 40' and 50's all we had was a wood cook stove to do all the cooking. We didn't get an electric stove until 1953 and then my mother kept her old wood stove. So my Mom had her electric stove and wood stove in the same kitchen. It took her a long time to get used to the electric stove.We would use the wood stove to keep the kitchen warm.

    Women using wood cook stoves really knew what to do to keep a proper temperature when baking. They knew about wood. They could work with dry wood, green wood and wood from any species of tree.

    I will never forget the wonderful smells of food cooking and things being baked in the small kitchen. Mom made large meals every day and was an excellent baker. we were spoiled with cakes and always had cookies in the house.

     I will never forget the comfortable warmth when sitting around the wood cook stove. If it was cold in the house, we sat around the cook stove. If we'd been playing outside and got cold the old cook stove would warm you up quickly. One chore for little boys was to keep the wood box filled with wood.

    For the weekly Saturday night bath the water was heated on the stove, the bathtub was in front of the stove and we sat around the stove to get drier. If we were really good we got hot chocolate.

   Toast? I've never forgotten the toast. You would take off one stove lid and make your toast over the open fire!

   So D has brought back many memories . I'd almost forgotten about wood cook stoves.

   I looked on line for  good photo but couldn't find anything that suited me.

TWO BUMMERS IN ONE DAY

      Some things that happen around home are definitely calamities. We had two of them yesterday and it wasn't funny.

     I think most people have had the experience of putting a kleenex through the wash. It isn't funny. It's enough to make a grown man cry. It happened to us yeterday and was the first time in 54 years. Nevertheless it's traumatic. It's a rude surprise when you open the washer and see the mess. You look at all the little bits of paper on your clothes and in the washer. You wonder how it will ever be cleaned up. After some initial crying you get to work and clean it up. It's Mr Nobody or Mrs Nobody who say it's not their fault that the kleenex went through the wash! 

     Along with that the one toilet quit working properly and the signal was if it was used it had a good chance of blocking. This same problem had happened before. We had tried many things to get it working properly. Last time it suddenly started working but I'm not sure which I did   made it work. Yesterday the same thing happened. I don't know exactly what I did that made it work. 

    Some plumber! eh? 

    Maybe I chould check Youtube next time.

    And I didn't make any of this up!

A SURPRISE BIRD IN MY BIRD COUNT

   Most of you know that I am a birder. I do Christmas and spring bird counts. I've done the Christmas count over 40 times and all in the same area.

    Yesterday was a very good count day for me. I saw more than 18 species. Well, how do you know that? At this time of year there are many warblers here. They are hard to spot among all the fresh green foliage. I can recognize one warbler species by sound. There were several warbler calls that I could not recognize nor find them. There were also some sparrows that fly up quickly from a patch of brush and just as quickly settle in another patch of brush. So there were probably 5 or 6 more species that I couldn't identify. So I consider that I had a very good count.

    The count started off well before I ever left my yard, I heard a flock of Canada geese. They were quite high up and flying directly north. So that was easy. 

    On my way home in the afternoon I stopped on my favorite walking bridge to rest and also watch for birds.

     Here I am on the bridge watching for birds , but the photo is at least 20 years ago.

    A woman came along with a very attractive spaniel. We got talking about dogs birds and other things. We had been talking about 15 minutes when in one part of the conversation she said she was brought up in one of the nearby houses. Since I've lived in the same area for 50 years I would probably know her family so I asked who her family was. Yes, I knew them well. So she told me she was J. Now , I said you know me. Do you know who I am? Of course, she didn't have a clue since she hadn't seen me for about 40 years. So I introduced myself. 

    I had taught J and her brother and sisters.

   So now the conversation really got started. It was great to meet J and recall old times.

   Did I also tell you that I like meeting old students.?