GROUND HOG DAY

      So another groundhog day has come and gone. Predictions have been made and we had fun. 

     Growing up on the wild western prairie of Canada I had some problems getting my head around ground hog day. We don't have groundhogs. How could a groundhog in Philadelphia predict when spring would occur if he was that far away? Well, I put up with it and debated with my buddies about the predictions. As little fellows we had trouble remembering what was predicted by seeing the shadow or not seeing the shadow. Usually the temperature was far below 0 F at that time of year. Spring was the least thing on our minds. We had no idea how spring could arrive.

    Well, since my childhood days, the groundhog day participants have increased. Ontario has Wireton Willy. They have real ground hogs there. It was found that groundhog day made a good attraction. Groundhog day was used to promote a town.

   Hey, even Alberta has it's groundhog, Balzac Billy. Balzac Billy looks pretty lively for just coming out of hibernation. You will see what a meant about being fun.

LONGER DAYS

      Well guess who's looking forward to longer warmer days. Who's counting down the minutes. January, the toughest winter month is behind us. We've had an excellent mild winter except for about ten days in January. I can't complain.

      We are in the middle of an incredibly mild spell. 

      So things are moving towards spring.

Dec.21 Sun rose at 8:42   

            Sunset 4:24

           Day length 7:41:45

          Change  Minus 0.05

Jan.31  Sun rose at 8:42 

            Sunset 5:19

            Day length 9:01:54 

            Change plus 3:23

Day length is starting to increase rapidly. 

SOME PEOPLE SURPRISE YOU

     I taught with a woman for around 20 years. We'll call her Sharon. Sharon was a physed. teacher and a good one. Sharon coached all girls teams at the school .

    For all those 20 years she never taught anything else. Sharon  didn't teach any options. The only time I know that she spent time in another field is when she came with us on an outdoor education   field trip. We were probably short a female supervisor so Sharon  was conscripted. 

    Sharon's been retired for about 15 years and I've only seen her once. I met her in the library when we were both getting books. 

    Lately one of my friends was asking if I knew Sharon. She told me that Sharon sings in a ladies singing group and is a great singer. Not in my wildest dreams did I think Sharon was a singer. 

    My friend went on to tell me that Sharon paints...watercolors. Sharon put on a show of her own in a local art gallery. Again, I had no idea that Sharon had talents in art. 

    So there I was thinking that Sharon was a one trick pony and could only teach physed. It would have been interesting to have seen Sharon in a music class or art class. 

    Some people really surprise you. 

HEARING AIDS

      Well, here I go, down the rabbit hole of hearing aids.

       I was surprised in the last post how quickly the topic turned to the performance of hearing aids. So in this post I will comment on the function of my hearing aids and I, and some of my readers may get some good tips.

      I've had problems wearing masks during covid. The hearing aids have popped out when I'm taking the mask off and on.

      Hearing aids are good for some things but they aren't a complete solution. Hearing aids make all sound louder including what you're trying to hear. In noisy places like restaurants hearing is very difficult. 

     Partners quite often have difficulty with the hearing aids. They are disappointed with the performance. The MM thinks I'm ignoring her and asks me to turn up the hearing aids. There are some frequencies where we don't hear well. Sometimes much of the partner's voice is at the frequency that you don't hear well .

    I use batteries. The batteries die in about 4 to 6 days. So you go with one aid working for a while before you get a chance to change them. 

   Changing some of the wax protection devices can be a challenge.

    So I would like to hear some advice to get more out of hearing aids. I hope readers will pick up tips as well as give tips.

I THINK SPENCER IS BACK

         I wrote a series of posts in the last two months about a jack rabbit. It started out when I thought that the  color had not all changed to winter white. He/She then kept coming back. This was a surprise as I didn't think they stayed in the one shelter for very long. 

       So Jan. 10 was the last time I had a visit from Spencer.

      Today I look out and there's Spencer back in the same place.

      I think it would be the same animal as it's back to the exact place as before. I don't think another animal would take over another rabbit's shelter. 

     And this animal still has a noticeable amount of it's coat that hasn't turned white.

A DIFFERENT DAY

     What a difference a day makes!

     The first photo is the sunrise of Jan. 22 and the second is of the Jan 23 sunrise. On the 22nd there were cloud formations catching the sun's rays from below which gives the color. Yesterday,  it was perfectly clear.

               

MORE ECONOMY

      One thing that got me going on my last post was hearing aids.

      I was wondering if I had any time left on my warranty. I looked at all the paper work I had with the hearing aids. The first hurdle was to find the actual purchase date. You get to test them for a week and dates and info are confusing. Well it's the same with the warranty. Some things are 3 years and some are 5 years. I wanted to cover my bases and know for sure what was what. We finally phoned the local office. The person had to take several runs at it and finally sorted it out for us.

    Then I got thinking about buying the hearing aids. To my way of thinking quite a few people were paid for the hearing aids. The total price was $6500.00. Govt aid to seniors paid roughly $1800. My pension plan paid some. For some reason the AMA(( Alberta Automobile association ) paid $2000.00. I paid the remainder of $1800.00. All this was meant to make me feel good about buying hearing aids as if I got a good deal. 

   To me it looks like games are being played. Somehow the price appears to be raised unnecessarily. Rumor has it that the physical aids cost less than $100.00 to make. 

    I wonder how many people would not be able to afford hearing aids if they had to pay for them on their own?