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The first time I was told to consider writing blogs in the A-Z Challenge, I told my friend that I didn’t have time, didn’t know what I would write about, and to leave it to others who were better writers. Another friend reminded me that I always have lots to say (invited or not), so what would be so hard about writing a blog. When I finally did get started, it got my ‘old brain’ in gear, and I started to enjoy the exercise of deciding on a topic for each letter, and getting my thoughts organized on paper. I’m here to announce, unless someone decides to “shut me down”, that I’m going to try to do the challenge all over again. See what happens when I receive such nice messages from friends, telling me how much they enjoy my blogs, especially the “Armchair Travels” that I have shared. It goes to my head!!! No promises on how long it will take, or if I will even finish it, but my head is filled with stories that that have come from the deep recesses of my memory, and I’d would like to have a reason to write them down. I never kept a consistent diary (or now called a journal), but the thousands of photos the I have accumulated over many years… some black and white, some colored that have now faded, many slides that I have scanned during the last few years, and now, with the digital cameras and computers, there is no limit to many “memory-making” photos that I have stored on my computer. And… all of them have been safely saved on DVDs for the family, and on my external drives. So… brace yourself! Decisions can be made. I have decided to write some more blogs, you can decide whether to read them or not! Ha ha! This is going to be fun!
Tags: A-Z Challenge Stories Writing Fun
Even though we still have a month to go before the first day of winter, we are experiencing below zero days this month. We are never quite prepared for such days, even though we understand that it is almost inevitable in our area. For those who wonder how we can tolerate such cold weather, we ask the same question to those who live in tropical areas. In the north, we dash from one warm or heated location to another, as quickly as possible, just as in hot weather, the rush is from one cool or air conditioned location to another. We also make sure that we have clothes that will keep us warm. Having a zipper on a quilted jacket is great to keep the cold wind from penetrating while waiting for the bus or rapid transit to take us to work. For those who work outdoors in below-zero weather, dressing with ‘layers’ of clothes is smart. If the weather changes, another layer is easy to add when it get colder, or peel off a layer when a Chinook wind shows up as a pleasant surprise. Growing up on the farm, my dad had no choice but work outdoors with the cattle, no matter what the temperature. He wore sheepskin chaps and a leather long-coat to protect himself from the cold, and the body heat of his horse also helped to keep him comfortable. I remember that he relied on the late-night news broadcasts on his Zenith mantle radio to determine if he would take me the seven miles to school the next morning on the back of his horse, or wrapped in blankets on a sled that was called a ‘stoneboat’. If the weather was severe and no students showed up at school, it was a day off for the teacher. No big deal!
For those who have never heard about ‘below zero’ before, here is an “official” definition: In the USA (home of the blues), the Farenheit scale is used. The freezing point of water is at 32 degrees. So any time you actually go into negative numbers on the F scale, it is really really cold. (If you are more familiar with Celsius, -9F would be about -23C).
Tags: Winter Weather Father
In 2008, our travel buddies contacted us with a suggested destination that we had heard about but had never visited. It didn’t take long for the four of us to be packed and ready to hit the road. We didn’t do a lot of planning, because we didn’t know what would catch our interest along the road. We were retired so there was nothing that dictated when we had to be back home. We stopped to visit friends in Montana, visited the Precious Moments Museum in Carthage, MO, and arrived in Branson, MO, filled with anticipation because of all the things we were told that we would enjoy there. Our daughter made arrangements for us to stay for ten days in a “Time Share” condo, and from there we were on our own to decide what we would like to. There were so many shows that looked interesting and we took our time to decide which ones the four of us could agree on. We took a river cruise on a paddle-wheel steamer at White River Landing, enjoyed outdoor music at Silver Dollar City, and a phenomenal concert by violinist Shoji Tabuchi in his own personal theater. We loved his music but the most unforgettable experience of that evening was my visit to that Ladies’ Room. Have you ever seen anything like this?
Then we saw a billboard that advertised the Russian comedian, Yakov Smirnoff. We had heard him on TV some years before, and we knew his show was a MUST! We certainly weren’t disappointed. If you haven’t heard his name before, go to Google. There is so much that he has shared online.
My ‘keepsake’ is the photo below… We met him in the lobby after his show, and he was open and friendly, and happy to pose with anyone who would like to take a picture of him. 
The painting behind us is the mural that he painted and donated to New York City, and was erected at Ground Zero.
When you hear ‘The X-Factor’ what comes to mind? I wondered if there was a meaning before the now well-known TV Talent Show was aired, so I went to Google. I learned that it is hard to define, but the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary suggests that the meaning refers to “a quality that you cannot describe that makes someone very special”. I don’t think I had ever heard or read that before. For me, The X-Factor is a “must-see” weekly reality talent TV show. It is a show of talent seekers who compete with one another to become the nation's next singing sensation. I love music, and am amazed of the raw talent that is showcased. The first program aired was from the U.K., created by Simon Cowell, often referred to as a ‘cranky judge’. In my opinion, he has an uncanny ear for the nuances of presentation, and gives useful and unflinching advice to competitors who have a goal of not only winning the competition, but striving to be a professional performer in their personal genre. It is not the only music talent show that I watch on TV, and my husband tolerates the music stuff for me. I appreciate it too, and not to be in competition of his kindness, but I tolerate all the sports stuff that he loves to watch.
Tags: Music Compete Talent Reality Show
When do the wonderful men in our area have the most fun? When they are working on a project together. Some are ranchers, working together to drive cattle from one feeding area to another, or loading the animals to transport them to market. They also work together at branding time, and the women join in by supplying meals for them. What about the guys in the neighborhood who are not ranchers? When we first moved from the city to our rural location, we were all 'displaced' city slickers and had to learn to do rural stuff… building fences, plowing snow, mowing weeds on the sides of our roads. They rode dirt bikes together along the river and up and down the hills, stopping occasionally to e catch a trout in the 'Blue-ribbon Bow River. In the winter, the snowmobiles were well-used. Dads and kids had a lot of fun together, but the kids are all grown up now, and busy with their own families. Few of those kids live in the neighborhood, a few are in the city, and many live in a different city, a different province, and even a different country. But there are still wonderful memories! We have a wacky workplace in our yard. Ed built his shop originally to store his telephone collection, and then it became the shop where he refurbished a couple of vintage tractors. There was a parade of guys, from the neighborhood and from the city who would arrive on the weekends to see how the work was progressing. Sometimes giving unsolicited suggestions and even offering some "elbow grease" that was much appreciated by my husband. The 'wacky workplace' has been a center of activity this summer, and is still a busy place. A number of friends had fewer work days due to health issues, early retirement, and other circumstances, and they came to Ed's shop to chat, drink coffee and non-alcoholic beer, tell stories and stay for lunch if they were invited. The work projects in the shop included learning to refurbishing vintage telephones, repair our boarder's vehicle, and talk politics. I often heard laughter coming from the shop, and later my husband would tell me about "SOME" of the conversations. They were having a lot of fun, even when they were working. The gang of these 'wacky guys' include a train engineer who is on medical leave, a friend in the community who works for the power company, mostly on the night shift, a Jewish friend who reminds me that since I met him, I now know two Jewish carpenters, and a doctor from South America who is not able to practice his profession in Canada. I am so happy to have them at our table for lunch, spiced with laughter, some serious talk, and hugs of thanks for the cook.
They keep life interesting!
Tags: Friends Work Fun Neighbors
My husband is hard on clothes when he is working in his shop, especially when he was working on his vintage John Deere tractor. Cleaning out old grease, sand blasting old paint, welding, and whatever else he could think of doing would wreck his clothes, so he would go to Value Village for more pants and shirts, and a jacket to wear when it was cold. While he was doing his shopping, I would stay in the van and read. I had no interest in “browsing” through rows of used stuff. On one occasion, he suggested that I come in the store with him because I am always looking for vintage glassware. I would often find lovely vintage glass pieces at garage sales and flea markets, which I loved to give as gifts to friends. When we have guests, we often receive a bottle of wine, which we appreciate very much, but if we needed to select a wine, we really don’t know a good wine from a not-so-good wine. I now take a lovely vintage glass dish, with some chocolates, or bath soaps, or wrapped cheeses for the hostess, and to date, not one hostess has refused the gift!!! I agreed to do some looking while he was getting some work clothes. I had two very surprising experiences that day. As I walked in the direction of the kitchen and gift section, I spotted a ladies’ jacket hanging at the end of a rack of clothes. It was the exact jacket (but a different color) that I purchased two years previously, to wear at a very special social event. I paid over $100.00 for it, much more than I usually would consider, but rationalized that it for a very special reunion of my nursing classmates. I took a closer look at the jacket on display; it still had the store tags on it, but the asking price at Value Village was $12.00. If that jacket were my size, I would have bought it just because it was so cheap that I couldn’t afford not to buy it. I proceeded to the kitchen department, and as I was looking the the large selection, I spotted a small crystal bonbon dish that was in the pattern of my mother’s collection. There was no price tag on it, but because I have purchased other pieces on Ebay to replace broken or chipped pieces in my mother’s collection, I had a good idea of what a reasonable price would be. I told my husband that if the dish was less than $10.00, I would purchase it. When I went to the check-out, I asked the cashier to get a price for the dish, and off she went to speak with her supervisor. After a brief discussion, she returned to tell me that the price was ….. 37 cents! All I could think about was, “There must be some mistake! Perhaps she misunderstood!” The cashier asked if I was still interested, and I accepted the price she quoted, and thanked her for helping me.
I now return to Value Village whenever I have the opportunity or the time to do a bit of “treasure hunting”. My wardrobe has improved, and I have found “bargains” that I share with friends. I’m having a lot of fun, with hardly a nip in my budget plans. I also have a convenient location to donate items that are still saleable but not needed at our home. That is called 'down-sizing' AGAIN.
Tags: Bargains Shopping Donations
How many times have we heard people express their desire to walk on the moon, or imagine aloud what it would be like to visit another planet? It seems that in our lifetime we are getting closer to walking on planets that are further and further away. We may even be beginning to take the experience for granted. During the summer of 2008, we had such an experience, even though we had our feet firmly planted on our own terra firma. We were on a road trip from Western Canada to Branson, Missouri because we had been told that if we enjoyed music, and lots of it, we should spend some time in the Branson area. It was good advice and we enjoyed a wide variety of music genres, and even a show by my favorite comedian, Yakov Schmirnoff. When we began our return back to Canada, we stopped to visit friends in Colorado who took us on a day trip through the Colorado National Monument. We had never seen terrain like that; beautiful but almost surreal. Our friends told us that if we REALLY wanted to see some spectacular scenes, we needed to travel through Utah before heading north to Canada. We were not prepared for what we discovered in Utah. You be the judge as I take you on another episode of Armchair Travels, called… Utterly Unbelievable Scenes in Utah I hope you enjoy it.
Tags: Travel Nature Rocks
I'm finally back in "my groove", after a wonderful autumn road trip. Being that my next A to Z Challenge letter is 'T', I decided to share a bit of our TRAVEL experience on Vancouver Island. We first visitied the area on our honeymoon, only 53 years ago, and had returned once until this trip. Our granddaughter is attending U of Vic, so we were able to spend a couple of days with her. The gardens were in full autumn splendor, and with all the walking I did with our granddaughter, I can say that my newly healed foot survived quite well. CLICK on this link... and enjoy! P.S. It may take a bit of time to appear, but a bit of patience will help!
Tags: Nature Gardens Travel Autumn
As much as I am enjoying the autumn colors as we are travelling, through the mountains, and near the ocean, I can't help but be reminded that winter will soon be here. Our decorations will change from pumpkins, colored leaves, and harvest grains to red cranberries, evergreen trees, and a jolly guy who goes by the name of Santa, when he works at the Mall. The month of December is probably the busiest month of the year, if you have family and business commitments. School concerts, office parties, travel, and shopping are all wonderful activities, but if we stop to think about it, what does any of that have anything to do with Christmas? Are we thinking that anyone who doesn't have family or a job can't celebrate Christmas? Or course not! They are the ones who have the most time to contemplate the many stories heard as a child in Sunday School. Stories of the celebration of the birth of our Saviour Jesus; angels singing songs, stars sparkling in the sky, shepherds tending sheep... that was what made Christmas special! Now, we allow stacks of gifts and piles of food to dominate our thinking. We shop for stuff... some silly items for fun, some expensive ones to impress, and some items we buy just because we are expected to give SOMETHING. And then there is the food! Piles of it! More than we need! Scales deliver the sad news weeks later that we have outgrown our favorite set of clothes, suggesting the need for a strict diet. It seems to me that we've forgotten the true meaning of "The Story"!
Tags: A-Z Blogs Christmas Gifts Food
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