I have heard this saying for long time and didn't put much weight to it. I have always known half my councillors on a first name basis and the mayors for the last 20 years on a first name basis. Listening to mayors and councillors I always had the view that city council was positive and helpful. I have served on city boards and knew my way around city government.
Well, things changed recently. I had the opportunity to fight City hall and I lost.
A few weeks ago I attempted to pull into the bank parking lot which is at the back of the bank. There was one spot left and it was a tight one. Well, it was raining so I wanted a convenient parking place. In attempting to squeeze into the parking stall I heard that dreaded scrape noise. I knew I had scratched the side of my car or more.
What I had scraped my car on was a huge garbage dumpster...in some places known as a garbage bin. Well after a major cussing session, I sadly went home.
After thinking things over I thought, you know the dumpster is in the wrong place. Aha! I'll ding the city on this one and get them to pay for my damages.
You don't really know where to start your fight. We checked the Waste management dept. They would send out an inspector who promptly got everything wrong. Up the ladder a bit and the guy claimed that even if the the dumpster was in the wrong place it was my responsibility to not drive into it. This sounded nuts to me. I also noticed how each official covered the other guy's back. They did contradict each other from time to time. They were plain dumb at times. At times I thought they were not telling the truth.
So I harassed some more people trying to see how far wrong the dumpster was out of place. I kept getting the line that it was my responsibility to not run into the dumpster even if it was in the wrong place. I thought the idea of hitting something in the wrong place was ridiculous. It didn't sound like common sense.
I checked further and phoned the police. They confirmed that indeed a driver should not hit a stationary object even if it was in the wrong place.
So Monday I'm going to have to concede to City Hall that indeed, they are right.
How about you? Have you had the opportunity to fight city hall.
Now I read the first ten pages of The Tipping Point. I enjoyed it. So after 10 pages , I'm an expert on the little things in life that make a difference. Particularly something that puts things over the top.
A tipping point occurred in the family recently.
The Micro Manager puts a tremendous amount of research into grocery shopping. Most of the research is from the weekly fliers from the grocery stores. As a result the grocery list contains sale items and rarely anything at the regular price. Now items on sale price are sometimes purchased because it's a good price and might not go on sale again.
As a result our storage room has gradually been getting fuller and fuller. We are buying more than we eat. We have two deep freezes. I'm not sure how long our supply would last.
I quite often tease the Micro Manager that she's some kind of survivalist who stacks up a year's worth of food.
Now in the last couple of weeks I've been looking at best before dates. I found pickles that were best before...well there was no best before date on them so it's hard to tell how long they've been on the shelf. The micro manager got curious and checked some dates. She found products that had best before dates in 2015.
Now I know that products are just fine after their best before dates. But when you look at a product that's past it's best before date and you have lots of the product it suddenly becomes a problem.
So the Micro Manager made the realization that she has too much food in the store room!
There was a tipping point. I hope it's worth something. Somehow, I think that she will continue the same shopping routine. We shopped today and some things were weekly items like milk, but there were still a few sale items.
I think the point needs to tip some more!
As you know I lead a bird watching group every Saturday morning. This Saturday we were able to visit a private piece of property. The property has been in the family since about 1900. The family left lots of native habitat and there is about a 50 acre lake. Usually we tour public areas in and around the city.
The last family inhabitant was a great granddaughter who retired on the farm. She was an excellent birder and had set up all kinds of devices to attract birds. So there were super feeders, bird baths, lots of nest boxes and of course, the native habitat was left.
So the property is a birders paradise. We found 23 species in an hour and a half. I had 13 birders show up and they were suitably impressed by what they saw.
I took my camera and managed only one bird picture and it was poor...too much light and a very wiggly elderly photographer. However, the birders gave me some opportunities for photos.
Lots of birds on the water
Anybody see the swan. I just about took the guy's head off too.
We begin and what do we find. There's a Yellow-bellied sapsucker in there someplace.
Sometimes birders get tired.
I wonder what this thing has to do with birds?
And what does this do for birds?
Oh another machine that might be for birds?
Some funny bird skulls here.
Time for home.
The home on the property was situated so they had a great view of the lake.
For those of you who follow me , you will know that from time to time I find a special day that is odd , weird or highly commercial. For some reason the day has been sanctioned as suitable for celebration.
So a few days ago I saw a post on face book about National Susan Day. This really caught my attention so off I went to see what Mr google would say. Mr Google said nothing. I changed my search words. Nothing! I went back the the Face book post.
Then I thought well, is there a Keith Day. No such luck but you find all the "Keith Days" in the world.
This puzzled me.
I looked at the Face book post again. It looked like a chain letter. If your name was Susan ,you were supposed to pass this on to someone named Susan.
Well, I suppose it was a neat idea for all the people named Susan to celebrate their name and have some fun..
Now when I see my friend Susan, I'll have to ask her what's going on.
Medical tests seem to be constantly changing. The tests themselves can change. The type of measurement changes. The stats for normal and so on change. The times the tests are needed changes.
Al is scheduled for an annual check up. Tests are done before the check up. Al noticed that there was not a cholesterol test on the requisition form. He decided to check with his physician to see if he forgot to order cholesterol testing. Al was informed that for seniors the cholesterol test is done once every three years. They have found that senior's cholesterol levels change very little unless they gain lots of weight or develop diabetes.
Cholesterol scales have changed over the years. The list of foods containing high cholesterol has been changing. At one time eggs were a no no. Acceptable cholesterol levels have been changing.
Now what's going to happen to all the people who have been taking anti cholesterol medication? Why were they taking it?
I think research has been discovering that cholesterol and foods high in cholesterol are not as crucial as once thought.
One test that I didn't like was the stool test for occult blood. The test has changed to be much simpler and easier. Again they do the less occult blood tests unless the patient has certain conditions.
As a senior, I take very few concoctions. I wish they would further cut medications for seniors.
I attended a Teachers' College in 1957-58. It was organized as a glorified elementary school. We were organized in classes and the whole class moved throughout the day. We were together for everything for the whole year. We even had coed phys. ed!
75% of us were rural kids from farms or small rural towns. About 50% of us were right out of highschool and the others had done other things before attending the teachers' college. So most of us started the year and didn't know any other students. Since we were in the same class all year, we made some great friendships.
At the end of the year all of us went our separate ways. About half of these students never taught. They decided they wanted to do something else. Many of the girls got married.
I soon moved far and wide. I saw very few of these people after I finished teachers' college.
So every once in awhile I will google a name. You find some people that you know of.
The other night I googled the names of three guys that were my former colleagues. I found obituaries for all three of these guys. I had not seen them from the day we left teachers' college. What a shock! We had been together for a year as 18-19 year olds. 59 years later they were gone. Two of these fellows made a career of teaching. One did not teach and went into business.
I spent a year with 400 students and often wonder what happened to them.
So I made three strikes and missed on each one.
How about you? Have you kept in contact with students from a long time ago?
I lead a group of birders every Saturday morning for a couple of hours. There are enough interesting areas in town to keep up our interests. We are fortunate to have many natural areas that were left by past residents who had a great vision. Very little is being left today as it is being developed.
So when we go out we generally find the usual suspects and once in while we see something very different and interesting.
Last week we spent our time on a trail between the river and a golf course. We saw: Cormorant, Crow, Canada geese, Mallard, Song sparrow, Red-winged blackbird, Common goldeneye, Raven, Robin, Black-capped chickadee, Red-breasted nuthatch, Bald eagle, Downy woodpecker, Magpie, Boreal chickadee, Greater yellowlegs.
Now the greater yellowlegs was an interesting find. The bird was on the trail and dead. Some predator had captured the bird and was probably sitting in a tree above the trail when it was disturbed and dropped its prey. Now no gory photos. The head had been pulled off the bird as some predators like to eat the head first.
The other find was Bald eagles nesting. I knew the nest had been there for a few years but this was the first time I had been out when the birds were nesting. The nest was across the river but Jurgen got a great photo. You can just see the female's head above the nest.
