BUMBLING , FUMBLING GAMBLER

         Now I don't gamble! 

         But I do eat at a casino where the food is excellent and cheap. 

        However, some time ago the casino persuaded me to get a loyalty card. It saved me 2 bucks on the buffet. I thought nothing more about it. 

       So a year after I get a promo saying they hadn't seen any action in my account and here's 20 bucks in points to play with. A couple of weeks ago they gave me another 20000 points. You can only gamble with your points and any money comes from what you win. 

     So I got one of the staff to help me spend my points. It's complicated . You have an account...news to me. You put your pin number in and it tells you how much you have to play with. I'm not sure of all the steps and I couldn't do it myself. However, you choose how big your bets should be and then start hitting play until  3 figures come up in a row. Then they decide how much money you get? How they figure that out I don't know.

     However, one hit came up and I won $43.00. I immediately cashed it out and kept playing. They couldn't take my $43.00 away as I wouldn't play with it. I continued playing until all my points were used up. The machine shows you how much you have to play with and when it's all used up. 

    The Micro Manager played and she won $12.50. We cashed in and went home. 

    Does this make a gamble of me? Never! Am I tempted? Never. You feel silly and angry that you put money in the machines. 

    So the bumbling gambler, with a lot of help from the staff,  played his points and went home still not knowing how to run the machines. 

WHITE STUFF

       Well, no surprise. We're getting a major dump of snow. We had 2 - 3 inches by about 4.30 PM. It's been coming down steadily since then. I will shovel again this evening. 

      The first phots were taken in the day time . The others were taken this evening. 

A BRIGHT, SUNNY, WARM DAY

      84 years ago today was a very pleasant warm day on the Saskatchewan prairie when a baby boy was born in a small wooden shack to a young couple. Yes, That was me!

     Since I was the oldest the birth must have impressed them and Dad told this story many times to anyone who would listen. He never told me the story. I just remember listening to it many times.

    The country doctor attended and sat and smoked and read the Reader's Digest. Mom's two friends Linda Kabernik and Margaret Mehaffey attended to the serious business of the event. The doctor probably tied my cord and left. For all that work, or lack of work, the Doctor got $10.00. 

    Meanwhile on that warm day Dad stayed busy on the yard. His help was to stay out of the way. 

    I always think that I've been fortunate to have the story of my birth. I don't remember my siblings having much of a story about their births. 

MIDDLE EAST

       I thought today would be a good day to write about the terrible issues between Hamas and Israel.

      Then I thought, wait a minute. What do I know about the situation? I would be parroting opinions of others and I would succeed in upsetting people. 

      So I'll write about a related issue that I have some knowledge about.

     Western Canada was opened in the late 1800's for settlers to come to the area. Most people like my ancestors were interested in farming. However, there had to be some businesses established to serve the people. Many Europeans came to Saskatchewan, which is my home province

     One group who came were Jews. They set up small general stores . To supply settlers. The Jews came to the small villages and towns and lived a very lonely life. They did not participate in community activities and were shunned. However, they worked hard and made a meagre living. Our town had a clothing store which was owned by a Jew. There was not another clothing store for many miles. With the transportation at that time a local clothing store was very convenient. 

     As time went on the poorer Jewish business men went on to work for others. Some Jews became involved with larger businesses like machinery dealerships or car dealerships.

    They were also active in artistic and academic fields.

     One interesting book I read was "Don't You Know it's 40 below" by Jack Kates It details the life of a Jewish family in a small village. It's well worth a read. 

     Fredelle Bruser Maynard is another writer who gives a description of Jewish life on the prairies.

    One man had a store in a very small community. He had music talent and formed a community band. The band won many competitions. Abe Katz was well liked and respected in the community. When He left they had a celebration for him and gave him some money. Very few Jews received this treatment.

   Sadly the Jewish people were not treated well here but managed to succeed. They are still here but have moved to larger centers where they  can practice their religion and conduct social events. 

BEAUTIFUL FALL DAY

      Today we had one of those bright warm sunny fall days. We had a high of 20 C. I was lucky enough to be out for two hours this afternoon. I went to this area last fall but a little earlier before the leaves dropped. I was surprised at how much was left to photograph and that there were still awesome colors. 

      So here goes.

MORE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

       Our school board was very progressive in promoting professional development.  They backed up their ideas with money. They started a clause 14 which was a fund calculated so that every teacher got to attend an in service every 2 1/2 years. 

       Well, guess what? Not every teacher wanted to participate in professional development. So there was money left. Well, you know who applied for money that was left. Sometimes I got to go to 2 PD sessions in one year. 

      Now we are between Edmonton and Calgary and Banff and Jasper are just as handy. Both Calgary and Edmonton have Universities so there were many capable people to put on workshops. Who wouldn't want to go to Banff or Jasper for an PD session? 

     Now the board also hired well known scholars to do major professional development. .

     They hired Madeline Hunter to get us all on the same page as far as lesson planning and presentation was concerned. 

     It was also an excellent tool for teacher evaluation.  

    So there you have it. I beat the system and I have no egrets. 

A TEAR IN MY EYE

       Today was a holiday so CBC  radio played some old reruns.

       The one that caught my ear was Stuart Mclean reading one of his stories.

       Stuart Mclean was a well loved Canadian author and story teller. He had a long running radio show on CBC . One of the features of the show was Stuart reading one of his stories.

     The stories were based on a family Dave, Morley, Sam (son) and Stephany (daughter). Each of the family had some huge inadequate parts of character and ability. Each one of them also had some tremendous strong abilities and character. Stuart's stories wound around the abilities and weaknesses of this family. There were also people in the neighborhood that the family interacted with. There was Mary Turlington, who was a know it all. Carl Lowbeer, who was a retired engineer and was a little lonely. Kenny Wong, who made and sold meat pies and was a friend of Daves. Their was Arthur the dog. There was a whole neighborhood for this family to interact with. 

     Today's story was suitable for the season. Morley, an inept gardener all her life, was cleaning up her garden. When Sam was 8 or 9 Morley had tried to interest him in gardening. She bought him a special little Tonka back hoe trying to interest him in gardening. It didn't work. Today she was cleaning up under the peony and hit something with her trowel. She pulled and it was The little digger she had given to Sam for his gardening. 

     Mclean wrote hundreds of these stories and they are on You Tube. 

     So today  when I heard Stuart reading this story there was a nostalgic moment or two.

    Very sadly Stuart died a few years ago . I miss his readings and stories. I do have two of his books.

    Check on You Tube and listen to some of his stories.