THANKSGIVING

     Tomorrow is  Canadian Thanksgiving. Traditionally it was a time to consider the harvest of fruit and vegetables and animals. People produced their own food and they had to produce enough to last a whole year. No sneaking over to the store when you run short of things. 

     As time went on Thanksgiving became a time of general thankfulness for what we were given in that year. 

     So this year I am thankful more than ever for my life. Next week sometime I will be 84. As my Irish twin says. "The numbers are getting big."

    I am fortunate now to have very good health. Yes, I have aches and pains. I can live with them. I have no big health issues. I do not have any of the usual problems the elderly have. I don't have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or any of the usual senior issues. I am very thankful for my good health. After I finish this post I'll go out for my nightly 3 km walk. 

       I do all my own yard work because I can and I like it. I dig my vegetable garden by hand.

    I don't think I'm sliding into any of the age related conditions such as dementia. 

   A friend and I discussed yesterday our short term memory challenges . We admit it but decided that we can live with it.

   So I'm thankful for the good things I have at this age and look forward to more good things. 

    So Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian pals. 

A LITTLE CONFESSION

      I have been writing about some of the adventuresome things I've done in my life. I've had comments like "You lived and interesting life." In my last post I'm crawling, walking up Windy Point Ridge . At least that's what we called it.

     Young men usually have a short period in their life when they think they are invincible and do some crazy things. I had that invincible period in my life but it lasted longer than most.  Once I passed through the invincible stage of my life I still had some fun like backpacking and crawling around the Rocky Mountains. 

    However, I was involved in may other activities even though they were much calmer. 

   I was very active in many aspects of teaching. I went to every professional development activity I could. So I attended many conferences and  workshops. I was also on the executive of the English Language Arts conference. This meant some travelling during the year. I was involved with Alberta Teachers Association. 

    Now all these activities may have been very interesting to me but I can't make interesting blog posts from them. 

   In my 40's life could have been become much more adventurous as one on the ATA presidents did not like flying into the north. I was asked to consider taking her place for the northern activities she would be involved in. I turned it down. It meant being away from home and an extra workload preparing for substitute teachers. I've often regretted not taking that position.

    So as hard as I may try, I don't think I could make a conference interesting. 

   The biggest conference I attended was the  conference in Washington D.C. in 1992. It was in the hotel where Reagan was shot. The venue was huge so this little prairie boy's eyes were wide open. I was also given a couple of extra days to be a tourist. When I got home I had to give a report to all my  colleagues and share all the goodies I had picked up.

    So that's all you're going to get on my professional development activities. 

GRIZZLY BEAR TRAGEDY.

      Some of you may have heard of the Grizzly bear attack that killed two people in Alberta. Other people have asked about it. People know that my city is Red Deer. The site of the attack was described as the Red Deer River Valley. 

     The attack site was west of Sundre , AB which is about 50 km from me. To be more precise the attack took place in the area of the Ya Ha Tinda ranch which is used to keep the horses for Banff National park. Ya Ha Tinda is 2 hr and 20 min from where I live. 

     The head waters of the Red Deer river begin in that area where several small streams join. . The river continues east across Alberta for 724 km before joining the South Saskatchewan River .

    When you hike in the Rocky mountains grizzly bear evidence is very obvious. The bears dig up great chunks of soil looking roots to feed on. Sometimes you find several acres that have been rooted up. When we would get to these areas we would make as much noise as possible as the idea is that the bear doesn't  want to see you and will run away. I have never seen a grizzly bear in the wild even though we've gone by some very recent diggings.

    I have never hiked in this area as there are many other areas that have easier access. These photos are from the Abraham Lake area. 

You can se the road along the lake so you get an idea of altitude. 

   The two people who  were killed were very experienced hikers. They were well prepared for bears. It's very sad that they likely did all the right things but were still killed. 

     

RICKY

      Over the years I taught about 3000  students in this area. I have lost touch with about 99% of them. Two former students live across the street from me. One of my former students is a city councellor. Many of them are teachers so I keep in touch with them. One former student came back to the same school and taught with me.

     One student I was reminded about today is Ricky.

    Ricky was a tiny little guy with a face full of freckles and lots of wild unruly red hair. His lips were flapping all the time. Ricky liked controversy. He was right in it immediately  when any disagreements occurred. Ricky had a few problems when it came to debate. Quite often he was missing information on either side of the issue. At other times he misinterpreted things and at other times he was just plain wrong.

    Today I accidentally found myself on a local history face book page. Ricky was on the page. Our school had too major fires and one smaller fire. As usual Ricky did not know about one of the fires. That didn't stop him from talking about the fires. 

    So on Ricky's face book page it shows a bald man so he's lost his unruly red hair. It shows a short rather chunky man. 

    So there you have a little twerp almost 50 years from his time in gr 7. Some things change and others never change. 

   It was good to see Ricky again even if it was only on face book. 

MY GREAT NEIGHBOR

       My great next door neighbor showed why he's so good today.

       Our back entry just had a cement step with three steps. There were no surrounding rails at the side or back. Kids did fall off the back step but they bounce up with no harm done.

      So today, Tyson made a railing that fits against the wall so that we can come up the back steps with something to hang on to. The Micro Manager needs the railing to safely come up or go down the steps. There's also a hook at the top of the railing for her to hang her purse while she unlocks the door. 

So Tyson, this rail is much appreciated. 

    Tyson is also a para medic so if we do fall down the steps there's somebody to take care of us. Tyson also shovels snow if I don't get out right away. 

   Thanks Tyson. 

WHO SAID THE SECOND DAY OF FALL ISN'T NICE?

      So out on a beautiful fall evening, you can catch some great color. 

MORE THAN A HELICOPTER RIDE

     The helicopter ride was fun but the dinner had it's laugh and cry moments. 

     The Captain was on the deck to welcome us to the ship. He was dressed in a formal dress uniform , shirt etc. Since I was classified as a local administrator, for some strange reason I was to be of equal rank. He was an excellent host. 

    Now my  paternal family were Ukrainian, Polish, Russian peasants. They had a small plot of land...40 acres. There wasn't any lumber so they had a small clay house. These houses were made with a mixture of straw and clay. There was a dirt floor and straw roof. They were warm but small. They had only  very basic cooking utensils. They did not have a stove but a fireplace. 

    When they came to Canada they had very few cooking utensil and built the same kind of clay house. Things were limited. 

    On my maternal side they were also very poor and did itinerant farm labor. 

   As a result  formal manners around eating were limited. In fact, they were unknown. 

   When my Dad set up house he bought cooking equipment on auction sales. We did not have a set of cutlery or dishes. Your spoon, knife and fork may have come from 3 different sets. 

    Well, you can predict what's coming next. The dinner on the ship was very, very formal. I had never heard or seen salad forks or the proper place for soup spoons.  Or soup spoons for that matter.  Some of the dishes I had never seen before. Or for that matter more than knife , fork and spoon on a place setting.  I was not used to being told where to sit. I sat down before the Captain told us where to sit. As a result there were quite a few boo boos as far as etiquette was concerned. 

    The Captain was a gracious host. We had good conversation. We had soup, salad, main course and desert. For us the best part was salad as we hadn't had any fresh produce for a year. We still talk about the salad. 

    So the trip back had a heavier load. 

     I had also learned a few things about eating that evening.