Monday, February 1, 2016

Mr. Smarty Pants Gets Caught

     Now I make it well known that I am fairly active for my age...not super active but active. I think I am on the edge of bragging about it or outright bragging. I skate, ski and cycle. I do all my own maintenance.

     Well yesterday things came to a screeching halt. I fell and broke my collar bone! Yes me!

      I thought I go out and ski for half an hour yesterday afternoon. At the end of my driveway there was ice under a little new snow . I didn't see it so down I went.

     My ski boots are made of a hard plastic type material. I know they're slippery on ice so I'm always careful but I guess not careful enough.
     
     I got up quickly hoping that I wasn't seen...a little vanity. For  split second I thought I'd continue on my way skiing. Things really didn't hurt much. I went in the house to check and nothing seemed out of place but I decided not to ski.

     Between 5 and 6 the pain really set in. I could hardly change clothes to go to emergency. 

     I got to emergency at six PM and home by midnight. Then I still had to do dishes!

    I've been given a sling to wear for a month and exercises to do.

   I'm looking forward to this month! Well, not really! That's it for skating and skiing for me this year!

   So guys who show off get caught once in awhile!


Friday, January 29, 2016

A Second Shot

      In my last post I covered my son's adoption. That event was not enough to derail the plan for two children. So off we go on another adoption event.

      We discussed adoption in great detail before we took any action. We decided we wanted two children. The micro manager brought up the topic of sexes of the children. I'd never given sexes a thought. I just was ready to take whatever came along. My wife asked what I wanted. My choice was to have both children of the same sex. I didn't care if it was two boys or two girls. My wife wanted a boy and a girl. So you see whose influence carried the weight.

     We also wanted a two year space between the kids. However, that was out of our hands. We made an application that we thought might give a two year space. A home visitation was not necessary and most of the information was exactly the same. So all the paperwork is done. Now you just sit and wait.

      Oh yes, we had a very bright little two year old to consider in this application. We tried to prepare him for the arrival of a baby sister. He listened, nodded his head, but the eyes told me he didn't grasp the reality. And what two year old would understand this situation.

     Well, you'd never guess this. The Dept. phoned Dec.  22 again! Come and pick up a baby tomorrow. This time we were ready. So pack up the car with a two year old and all the stuff for a newborn and off we go the next day.

     The routine in the office was the same. We were given all the information about the new baby. A big box of toys just happened to be in the office so a two year old was completely in his own world. 

     Again they brought the baby in and left us. We wanted our son to look at the new baby which he did for about two and a half seconds.

     Immediately we had some serious questions about this little girl. Her head was twisted to one side. When the worker came back we brought this up. Was there a health problem? Was this a permanent condition. The physician who did a medical on her two days before was phoned. He said she did not have anything wrong and thought that it was as a result of her moving in and out of houses, cars and offices. 

    We were reassured and decided to take the baby.

    Off the 100 miles to home with our two kids. 

    The twisted sore neck disappeared in a couple of days. 

    With two little kids we decided to stay home for Christmas. 

    The kids birthdays were four days apart so we got as close to a two year space a we could possibly get. 

    I was happy to have a boy and a girl.

    I've always told my kids that they are the two best kids I could ever have.

    Would I do it again? Yes, I'd do it over in a heartbeat!






Tuesday, January 26, 2016

A Good Surprise Relived

       I have been working very slowly to digitalize some of my photos. Along the way I am discarding poor photos and renewing memories of events many years ago.

    Yesterday I did photos of the first two years of my son's life.

       My son was adopted in 1969 and it was definitely a memorable experience. The whole experience was brought back by working with the photos.

      The adoption procedure at that time was handled by the government. We filled out a long detailed form. We had an interview and home inspection. We got references. Then we had to wait and see if our application was accepted. The Micro manager wanted to buy baby clothes, furniture etc. I persuaded her not to buy anything just in case our application was refused.The procedure was finished by early November. The micro manager asked precisely how long things would take. We were told that we would receive notification of our acceptance in about two months. After our acceptance it could be months or a year before there would be a placement. Fine.

     On Dec. 21 at 2:00 Pm my wife received a phone call telling us we had been accepted. Naturally she was excited. Fifteen minutes later at 2:15 PM she received a phone call asking us to travel 100 miles the next day to pick up a baby!!! By the time I got home the Micro manager was really hyper! Remember now that she had no baby materials whatsoever. Remember who was the cause of making no purchases for a new baby. My wife was able to persuade them to give her two extra days. She resigned her temporary nursing position and then shopped non stop for the next two days. All the necessities were purchased.

      Now this is a very exciting event. A major change was about to happen in our lives. Normally people have nine months to get their head around a new person in the family.

     At the agency we received about an hour's information. We were asked if we wanted to see this baby. The baby was brought in and we were left alone to make a decision if we wanted this child. After 15 min. they came back and asked us if we were sure that we wanted this child.

     One look at him and he was ours. So on Dec. 23 we were out of there with a brand new son. It was very exciting day. I think it was a scary day for him as he'd been taken from the foster home in the morning and was probably kept in some back office until we saw him in the afternoon.

    Now we had decided to stay home for Christmas as my wife had booked shifts over the Christmas holidays. We decided in a hurry to go to my parents for Christmas. We also decided not to tell them we were coming. We arrived late Christmas Eve. It was  a big surprise for them to find us   on their doorstep late Christmas Eve.. It was a bigger surprise for them when they found out they had a new grandson.

 Since were totally unprepared for this event we did not have a name picked out. We didn't know if we were getting a boy or a girl. We wanted to name him before we got to Dad's place where Dad would put in his suggestions and we didn't want to be in a position to where we might offend Dad by not taking his suggestion.. The naming took place on the 500 mile trip.

    So there were a series of eventful surprises in a few short days. Checking out the photos brought back the memories of a most important event in my life.

     I will never forget this and it will be the best surprise I ever had in my life.




Sunday, January 24, 2016

Ya Gotta Obey the Damn Law

       It has always bothered me when people or a group have issues of disagreement with the government and they twist , bend or outright falsify what they think the rules are which they can use to push their cause.

      Two different groups have recently reminded me of disgruntled people who attempt to take the law or part of it into their own hands.

     In my province, Alberta, Canada, we elected a very different government in May. We'd had the same party in Govt. for over forty years. They had become incompetent and tone deaf except for their own interest and that of their friends. Naturally there are some sore losers. Democracy has spoken and we have to live with it until the next election. We have all the usual ways to persuade the government to change it's policies. 

     A group here has decided to organize a coup d'etat which they spell "kudatah". Their plan is to get a petition and take it to the legislature and see the lieutenant governor . this petition would cause the governor to dismiss the current party which has 55 members and install the guy's small party with 23 members in government. It's loony but it's scary. They have a completely warped sense of how the world operates.

     The other incident is the group in Oregon which has taken over a wildlife refuge facility. They have some disagreements with their government which has gone on for some time. Two of the group are going to jail for a long time as they have broken laws. These two justify what they did as being the proper thing to do on land they lease from the government. 

     Now I look on marches, petitions, sit ins, letters, speeches as fair ways to urge a government to change policy. Then there are procedures that are set up that can be used in a more formal way. Hearings can be held in a number of ways that give the public a way to protest. Currently we are having hearings on building major oil pipelines. People who have issues about the environment, aboriginal or land can present evidence.

     When you take over a facility and prevent the government from using it that's going too far. When your main purpose is to overthrow a government rather than change specific policy differences, that goes too far.

    I once had a resolution that I put forward at our teachers' provincial annual general meeting. I knew I had very little support for my resolution but I wanted a chance to speak to the motion and get support for it. I used up every step in the process. For a last gasp I  challenged the chair. The house voted and supported the chairman and I was finished. Was I angry ? No. I was disappointed but I'd done all I could.

    Sometimes we have to accept loss in a democratic system. Sometimes we may even have to admit that we are wrong. Democracy can be very messy and slow but it gets the job done.

A scrappy little pine siskin

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Thirty Days Out from Winter Solstice

      January 21 signals that the winter solstice was 30 days ago. The winter solstice meant that it was dark and dreary with short days. We could satisfy ourselves by saying that from Dec 21 on the days will lengthen and we can look forward to spring.

     So I have a little comparison of Dec. 21 and Jan 21.


    Date            sunrise         sunset       hours of daylight

      Dec. 21              8:43                    4:23                       7:39

     Jan 21                  8:32                    4:59                       8:27

      
     So the sun rises 11 minutes earlier...not much is it?

    The sunsets 36 minutes later...nice gain.

    We get 47 minutes more sun than 30 days ago. 

     Not bad eh?  From now on the days start to lengthen at a faster rate and we start to notice the difference.

     How has your winter been going when it comes to hours of sunlight?

   

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Never Let Old Guys on Computers

    When you read my sad story, you will understand why I say, "Never let old guys on computers."

     For some time I have been thinking about scanning photos.I want my children to have all my photos. After all, many of the photos are about the kids.

    First I had to sort out a few issues about equipment. Once I had that under control it was time to discover how everything would work.

   My plan was to scan the photos and send them. So first, I planned to use windows photo gallery. I wanted explanations on each photo. I worked and got info on the photo. Then I decided I better test this and emailed a photo to myself. Well, the info didn't go with the photo.

    Well, plan B, why not use Picasa? I hadn't used Picasa for 5 or 6 years. I couldn't find the Top line that gives you all the options. I thought I must be missing something so messed around for a few hours before deciding that part of the picasa program had gone missing.

     Okay. Download Picasa again. The download went smoothly. After that things went off the rails. I signed out of Picasa. When I went back I couldn't find Picasa 3. Worse than that the old Picasa came up. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't find Picasa 3. Then I made a blunder and uninstalled Picasa 3. By that time I'd had enough and went to bed.

    Thinking things over in the night, I thought I would go to my trusty son for advice

    When I opened my computer in the morning, I saw the Picasa 3 short cut on the desk top. 

    Ooh! That's where it was. Why didn't I see that? 

    So plan AA by now, download Picasa again. Fine. Okay, maybe I should test this out. I'll email a sample to myself. I wanted to use Hot mail. I was asked some questions I'd never heard of before. They wanted to know information about my email server. I was stumped so it was a good time to stop for lunch. During lunch the light bulb came on. Picasa wants you to use Gmail. So check this out after lunch and it works like magic. 

    So after days of stress and much swearing I finally have a system that works. I mailed my baby photo to my daughter. She thought I was really cute and then she said, "I still think you're cute!"

    Now any of you who have read this post to this point, have probably been saying,  "Why didn't he do this or that?" I hope that you include these asides in your comments. I might not be able to use your suggestions , but I will learn from them. It might also be that and old man stays on his computer!

     It's funny how when we do new things on the computer we learn much more than were looking for.

My graduation class 1957. I'm in the back row on the right... the really handsome one!

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Nature and Technology

     Nature and Technology is a very well written blog that a friend of mine writes. Naturally nature and technology are his main interests. So with a solid base in technology he uses excellent photos to illustrate his posts.


     Since he works full time his posts are infrequent.

     He's writing a series of posts now that anyone interested in the outdoors, backpacking or photos should read. This summer he went backpacking and crossed the Rockies 

     So go over and take a look at Nature and Technology.