November 11, 2011 (11/11/11)

Today is Remembrance Day.

We enjoy an amazing life today because of  the sacrifices of so many people over the years who fought for us and our country.  On this day we take time out of our lives to remember and to thank them and to thank all those who currently are still fighting to keep us free.

This mass remembrance is typically done at the 11th hour of the 11thday day of the 11th month and with this year being 2011, we have another 11th.  Lest we forget.

When I was young (yes, a long time ago), this day was not a holiday. In school, we would all meet in the gym for a short service - stopping at 11am for a moment of silence. If the day fell on a weekend, we would also stop for a moment of silence wherever we were - whether it was in a store shopping or in a swimming pool swimming. The stores would announce the time over the speaker system and everyone would stop where they were for a minute. I remember being in the pool at the old YWCA in downtown Winnipeg one Remembrance Day and hearing the whistle blow at 1 minute to 11, which gave us time to get out of the water and sit on the edge for our minute of silence. Now the day is a holiday here, with no businesses opening until 1:00 pm.

Pictures courtesy of Web Creations with Jumpy.

Zip Lining Adventure

Wow – what a rush!  I knew I was going to love zip-lining and I really did.

Yesterday, my daughter Angela and I went to Hi-Wire Zipline Adventures and had a wonderful time.  We were warned about the long hike up the hill after the first zip, and it was hard, especially because it was 29C and humid – but we survived the walk and the zips.    The scenery up there was beautiful and worth the trip even without the zips – but the zips were fantastic.  I could do that again anytime.  If it is this hot the next trip, I just might pay the extra $5. for a ride up that first long hike though.  It was 800 meters and a very steep climb

I realized afterwards that I didn’t get a picture of the 3 dogs that did the whole course on foot, plus several extra miles racing around while we were up in the hills.  They must all be fairly young dogs to keep that up 4 times every day and I couldn’t help but think about how much Dakota would have loved doing that in her younger days.  Chester also would love that and would probably even love it now, but with the vet saying to limit his walking distance, I wouldn’t want to take the chance with him.  I cam home with 1 wood tick on me, so I can imagine how many the dogs would bring home.

The only problem I have with Hi-Wire is that their web page says “This is a 2 hour adventure to last a lifetime.“, but is is 1 hour.  There were only 7 people in our group, which would have sped it up a bit – but only by a few minutes as the actual zips are less than 1 minute each.  The group before us were also back in 1 hour, so I’m not sure why they say its a 2 hour adventure.  It was great and I loved it and will certainly do it again, but you go there thinking that you will be on the course for 2 hours and it is only 1/2 that time, you leave feeling that you missed something.  Next time I’ll know that it is for one hour.

Angela

View from Above

View from Above

I have 3 short videos of the zip lining and have been trying to find a movie maker that will combine them into one.  Windows Movie Maker that I used to use, does not do MPEG files and that is what this camera makes.  I have downloaded and tried several trial versions of programs and not one of them works.    One of them said it would do up to 5 minutes, but is partially combined 2 of these into a big 16 seconds – so that was pretty useless.  All 3 of them are only a few seconds each and its such a nuisance to have to open 3 of them, but that is what you’re going to have to do if you want to see them unfortunately.

River Walk and a Little Drive May 20th

I’m a little late today, but right after Chester and I had our walk this morning, I drove south of the border to Grand Forks for the day.  I didn’t take my camera with me, so the only pictures are of a Wood Duck (1 of 4 that I saw today – 3 males and 1 female).  He is the only one that I managed to get in focus – LOL

Wood Duck May 20

Wood Duck May 20

Since today was my day off, my Mom and I decided to drive to Grand Forks for lunch and some shopping.  Since we were leaving in the morning, we didn’t expect a line up at the border – but we were wrong.  I guess a lot of people took the day off before the long weekend and also headed south.   There were at least 100 cars ahead of us when we arrived at the U.S. border.  

I have to say that this was the most I have ever seen going south like this – but the roads have only been opened for a few days after being closed because of the flooding.  The American border officials were great!  They had one officer meeting all the cars and sending us each to a lineup.  They had all 5 lines open and although I wasn’t watching the time, I would estimate that we were in the lineup for only about 20 minutes.  Once past the check point, we saw several officers on the other side though – one with a dog that was sniffing around some of the cars (not ours though – we must have looked innocent), and others just watching.

In comparison, one year we were coming back from the U.S. and had a similar sized lineup to get into Canada and we were in that lineup for approximately 3 hours.  The Canadian’s only had 2 lines open and they made almost everyone stop and go inside to fill out papers.  I have never seen more than 2 lines open on the Canadian crossing.

Coming back today was wonderful though.  There were 2 lines open and only 1 other car when we arrived – so we had a quick conversation with the officer and we were on our way again!

We can’t forget about Africam!  Click here for today’s pictures. 

Jewel

Its a rainy day today and only 8C in the early afternoon.   But, I guess we need the rain, so the grass will grow and the trees will leaf out.  Of course this means I won’t get any of my outdoor chores done today – guess I should have done them yesterday – LOL.

So – today’s post is about Jewel, my Congo  African Grey Parrot.  She will be 15 years old on July 31st this year and she came to live with me 14 1/2 years ago.

Jewel

Here is Jewel today, perched on the door to her cage.  This is her favourite place to perch when the cage door is open (as it always is when I am home).

I have no idea how many words are in her vocabulary.  She sometimes makes her own words up and they seem to fit.  I may have mentioned her ‘okabye’ which she made up to use instead of ok good-bye and that my daughter and I now use too.  Her newest phrase that I heard for the first time yesterday was ‘shake a popcorn’.  Popcorn is her favourite treat and she often asks for it if she knows I am in the kitchen.  She does say shake a paw often and will offer her foot if I say shake a paw, so she knows what that means.  I have no idea if she substituted the popcorn for the paw just to get the word popcorn in more often in the hopes that I will pop it more often, or if she used that phrase because she has seen make shake the popcorn bag after getting it out of the microwave.  Maybe one day she will tell me.

It is amazing how rainy weather can make a person feel tired.  Or maybe I’m just tired because I’ve stayed up too late the last couple of nights while watching the cams at Africam, but I am officially tired right now.

Have a good day!  

The Best Road Trip

Most if the trips I have taken have been road trips – but I guess the best one was the longest one.  The question from word press today was:

Describe the best road trip you’ve ever taken.

Bonus: If you’re feeling all glass half empty, the worst road trip. Or describe a road trip you’d like to take and why you want to take it.

So – digging way back into the memory bank, I’m going back to when I was 18 or 19, I believe – so about 41 years ago.  After high school, I started working at Canadian Indemnity.  After the first year, I had saved $1,000.00 and bought my first car – a 1966 Volkswagen beetle.  After the 2nd year, I had saved another $1,000.00 and quit the job to tour the country.  I packed up a suitcase and loaded up the VW and away I went.

I headed west (well, a little north west).  The first stop was in Saskatoon, where I spent the night with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin.  Then I headed to Calgary, where I spent a couple of nights before going to Banff where I would meet up with some friends.  For some reason, I then headed back to Calgary to have the car serviced before heading further into the mountains – I have no idea why I didn’t do that before heading to Banff – but I do remember driving back to Calgary and then back to Banff for one more night.

The next stop I remember is  Vancouver, where I met up with one of my friend’s aunts.  This was actually the way my parent’s kept track of the first couple of weeks of my trip – by having me visit friends and relatives.    They reported back that I was alive and well.  I was also sending postcards every once in awhile.  I went over to Vancouver Island for a couple of days and from there headed south across the border.  From then on there were no more relatives or friends to check in with and I was on my own.

Other than a trip or 2 to Fargo, North Dakota and to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and the Kenora area in Ontario, I had never been outside the Province of Manitoba in my entire life – so I had already covered way more distance than ever in the first two weeks of this trip – but there was more to come.  There was no GPS or computers to help with navigation – just some maps from CAA to guide me.   I remember getting off the highways and following the back roads to get some wonderful scenery along the way.

I drove through Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado.  I remember that I loved Wyoming.  Yellowstone Park is there and I spent a whole day exploring it.  I remember seeing Old Faithful send the geyser of water way up into the air and I remember someone having a pet skunk on a leash there.  It snowed the night before I entered the park, which I didn’t expect in September – and I don’t think I had a snow brush with me – but I survived. 

I can not remember where it was, but I think it was in the western part of the U.S. somewhere – that I met a couple of men.  I remember driving up to my motel room at the same time as these men and they each had a room on either side of my room.  We talked a couple of minutes as I went into my room and they went into theirs.  They were both hunters and they had dogs with them and I admired their dogs.  Shortly after, they knocked on my door and asked if I would go out to dinner with them.  They both had daughters about my age and they seemed very nice (after all they had dogs), so I went with them.   They treated me to a wonderful dinner and I enjoyed their company.  I was eating at mostly fast food restaurants on my own, so it was actually a real treat to have a good meal.

After Colorado, I headed into New Mexico and I remember having car problems there.  The car wouldn’t start after I stopped to get gas after arriving in Albuquerque – no, I think it was the shocks that needed replacing there – it was Memphis, Tennessee where the starter started giving me problems at a gas station.  Anyway, I got new shocks on the car in Albuquerque – I can’t remember why, but I must have stopped there to get the oil changed or something and when they were looking underneath, they saw how bad the shocks were.

I think Texas was next and the main thing I remember there was Galveston.  The beaches were amazing and I tried my hand at surfing.  I don’t think I did great at it, but I had fun. 

From there I started to head north east and I remember going through Mississippi, so I must have driven through Louisiana to get there.   In Mississippi I remember the cotton fields lining both sides of the road and old shacks in the middle of the fields.  People were living in these shacks – or at least sitting on the porches as I drove by.

Then it was Memphis where I could not start the car after getting gas.  It was a service station so they got it going for me and said they fixed it.  But the next day when I stopped for lunch, it would not start again.  I was in a small town, and luckily there was a VW dealership – but unfortunately it was the weekend and the service department was closed until Monday.  So I had CAA (AAA in the US)  tow my car there and I checked into a motel for the weekend.  I had to have a new starter put in there and did not have any further problem with that.

Again, there are parts of the trip that I don’t remember much, but Bowling Green Ohio is a place where I stayed and I remember crossing the border back into Canada at Detroit.  It was early October by then.  I remember going to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side and spent a night or two there.  I was in that area, but can’t remember where when the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday came along.  It was at that point that I began to feel a little homesick, thinking of the wonderful dinner that I would have had at home.

So – I began the drive west towards home.  I stopped in Thunder Bay to visit one of my co-workers who had moved there to open up a branch of Canadian Indemnity.  She invited me to spend the night and cooked a wonderful dinner for us.  Then I headed home.   The whole trip had taken 6 or 7 weeks and I saw more of my own country and the United  States than I ever though possible.

The travel urge has never left me  – but finances prevent me from doing the traveling that I so love to do.

Just to finish the rest of the questions off – the worst road trip would have been the last time I went camping with my parents.  It rained the whole time and after a couple of days, we packed everything up wet and returned home early.  After that they began renting cabins and then bought a cabin.

And the road trip I would love to take would involve flying to Africa (of course) and driving there for several weeks or months.  I don’t have to explain that one much more    since I might have mentioned it once or twice before.

My picture of the day has nothing to do with any trip, but I saw this skier out in the middle of the Red River when Chester and I took our walk today.

Skier Feb 20

Most of the morning here it was -25C with a windchill of -35C, but by noon when we walked it was -21C with a windchill of -31C.  Now, at 3pm, it is -19C, but the windchill is still -31C.

November 19th

We’ve got SNOW!!!  Of course we knew it was coming and of course, its late in coming – but it is here now and most of us are complaining.  When I shoveled my sidewalk, it appears to be about 4 inches of the white stuff, but I have no idea what the official word is on it.  People forget how to drive in it and although I didn’t see any accidents, I saw a lot of cars swerving and sliding.  It seems to be a known fact that if the roads are slippery, its ok to slide through stop signs and red lights instead of just slowing down as your approach them so that you are able to stop.

Anyway – that was my mini rant, but I have a full rant to give today too.  First a little bit of background.

Other than a couple of fairly major health issues in the past, I’ve been a very healthy individual and seldom have to see the doctor.  My own doctor said that every 2nd year was fine for a checkup and I normally put that off for another 1/2 year or so each time.  So – after 2 1/2 year from my last appointment, it was time to make my next one – only to find out that my doctor had retired.  There is a message on an answering machine at her old office that simply says “The doctor has retired and the office is closed.  Good-bye”.  So, I complained for a few months about not having a doctor and not wanting to look for another one.

Finally, I contacted the doctor referral service – which is pretty much the only way to get a doctor here – and found out that there were none accepting new patients in my area.  I had a choice of 1 downtown or another one in another area of the city.  The one downtown is closer, so I took that one and made an appointment.  The appointment was for last Friday – so I walked downtown (about 40 minutes, compared to the 10 minutes it used to take me to get to my old doctor) and arrived about 15 minutes before my appointment time.  At that time I found out that I was not in their computer and didn’t have an appointment.  I was told that would be ok and if I filled out their form, I would still be able to get in.  So, I filled out the form and gave it back to them and sat down to wait.  There were several other people waiting, but after an hour they had all be called in and some people who arrived after me had also been called in.  I’m not sure why I accepted an afternoon appointment as I had learned with my last doctor that I would always have to wait unless I had an early morning appointment – but it did not surprise me that I was kept waiting.

Finally though I decided to go up and ask how much longer I would be waiting there.  She looked me up and said 5 – silly me is thinking that means 5 minutes, but then she goes on to say 5 more patients are ahead of me.  At about a 1/2 hour per patient, that works out to 2 1/2 more hours to wait.  I told her I would like another appointment, but in the morning next time and she made one for me and I walked back home again.

So – I don’t even know if I will like this doctor or not, but I am willing to give her a chance.  Because of the location and the problems with the receptionists, I’m going to have to like her a lot to go back there again though.  After this appointment, I won’t have to see a doctor for another couple of years and maybe by then the doctor referral service will have a doctor in my area who is accepting patients.  Further report will follow on this next week.

Now, my sad story of the day.  My daughter and her cats have moved back home again (thats not the sad part) and last weekend I came home to find Sable, the oldest one looking and acting very ill.  She had been throwing up and was just lying on the steps to the basement with drool coming out of her mouth.  I stepped over her a couple of times going down with laundry and after I came back up, she started to follow me, but only came up 2 steps before lying down again.  I talked to her and she came up the rest of the way and I then wiped her mouth off.  She then followed me into the living room, but as I sat down at my computer, she staggered and almost fell over as she came up to me and she had a very pitiful meow.  By then more drool was coming out of her mouth to and I immediately phoned my daughter at work to let her know that I was taking this cat to the vet now.  I phoned the vet and they agreed to let me bring her in as long as I could get her then in 10 minutes, since the veterinarian would be going home in 45 minutes.  Well, the veterinarian didn’t go home in 45 minutes.  As I expected, she indicated that this was a very sick cat.  Her temperature was so low that the ear thermometer could not register anything and her meows continued to be pitiful and she also threw up more for the vet – but Sable also purred.    The vet wanted to do either blood tests or an x-ray and I decided on the x-ray because she said she felt something that could be a tumor.  It turns out that it wasn’t a tumor, but one of her kidneys was way out of proportion and with it shutting down, all the symptoms could be explained.   I phoned Angela at work again and explained the situation and we agreed that Sable needed to be put to sleep at this time.  She was obviously in pain with no chance of getting better.  So, for the second time in 6 weeks, I held a loved pet while she was put to sleep.

Sable

Sable was the only one of Angela’s cats who did not fear anything.  The dogs never bothered her because she wasn’t afraid of them.

Rest in peace Sable.

I haven’t taken a lot of pictures lately, but have a few to show you.

Mist on Red River November 17th

November 19 Snow on Red River Banks

November 19 Snow on Red River Banks

November 19th Snow

We have a birding day coming up on November 27th on Africam. We are going to spend the day identifying and counting the species of birds that we can find on both the Elephant Plains and Nkorho cameras. This is a part of the much larger birding day for all of South Africa and I hope we have a lot of people helping us spot and identify each bird. If you have time, I hope you will join us. Participants will be able to post on either the Africam facebook page or the Boma, which is the forum right on Africam. At the end of the day, will will post the results.

Of course, we will be watching for other critters as well and would certainly welcome a visit by a pride of lions

August 15th

Here we are in the midst of yet another rainy weekend in the summer.   It is quite cool outside also with 13C being the temperature at 1pm – so we know it isn’t going to get much (if any) warmer for the day.

The last few days have been pretty busy.  Thursday was a vacation day and since my sister and her entire family were in the area, with 3 cottages rented about an hour north of the city, I went up to visit with them for the day.  My daughter and her boyfriend also spent the day there and my Mom was staying there as well.  We had some fun, ate lots of food and (of course) took some pictures.

the kids playing lawn darts

This is all my nieces’ kids playing lawn darts beside their grandparent’s cottage.   I took way too many pictures to put up here, so please feel free to check out the rest of them on my facebook page.

Then, on Friday (which was supposed to be my weekend), I had to go to a training session with all the other full time sales & services staff from all the branches at the Y here.  We had the session at Camp Y, which is a new camp about an hour outside of the city.  It is actually an old camp and the Y is working hard to get it up to standard for year round use.  Right now, it is being used by the day camps for the outings and there is lots to do.  We were supposed to get an opportunity to use the swimming pool, high-ropes course, climbing wall and zip line – but the rain ruined that, so we just had our training.  It was fun and we got to meet some of the other staff from the other branches, who we often talk to on the phone.  It will be nice to be able to put a face to the name now.    I did get a day off work to replace my Friday – which is why I am at home now.  I didn’t have my early Sunday shift to work this week.

Dakota is still plugging along.  I don’t think the Cartrophen Vet injections did anything to help her out with her arthritis.  It may be that she is a bit less in pain – it is hard to tell.  She still gets her same walks at her speed and the walks are the same speed as they were before the injections.  She still wants to go further – but does not object when I go out with Chester now.  I have learned that if I let her go further, she will have quite a bit of problems in the evening with her legs collapsing on her.  It does take her a few minutes at any time after she has been sleeping, to get those legs moving correctly under her.

Chester, on the other hand has no end to his energy.  His motto is “Lets GO” so he and I have quite a long walk along the Red River on most days.  There has been absolutely nothing to take pictures of though.

I am so excited!  My tool shed is fixed.  I have had problems over the years of the tool shed being broken into – just because it was so easy to break into it.  The doors to the shed opened up onto the parking spot in the back lane and the doors were only locked by a chain and padlock.  Many times I wondered if it was possible to lift the shed up and move it around so that the doors are on the inside of the yard, but thought that would be a huge and very expensive job, so I did not follow through with it.  It is a big wooden shed and this year, it suddenly occurred to me that a solution would be to just block the old doors off and build a new door inside the yard.  I found someone to do it and I now have a real door, instead of the flimsy doors from before and it is inside my yard with a deadbolt lock on it.  I will have to pick up some paint to paint the whole shed and make it look as new as the door and I will have to get some sidewalk blocks down in front of the new door.  I plan on doing both if it ever stops raining on a day when I don’t have to work.

Africam continues to take a lot of my time as the critters continue to visit the waterholes. One night we even had a leopard climb a tree – right in front of us. The Baboons and the Hadeda Ibis were sure unhappy about that! You can see the video that Morris made for us at Leopards. The zoomie did a great job of following him up and down the tree.

Today on Africam, we have seen Cape Buffalo, Zebras, Hadeda Ibis, Cape Turtle Doves, Reedbuck, Grey Go Away Bird, Water Monitor, Impalas, Waterbuck, Nyalas, Elephants, Wildebeests and more. Take a look at today’s pictures here.

Vacation 2010

On June 20th my friend Connie and I left for our vacation to Calgary, Banff, Jasper and Edmonton.

We drove the trans canada highway and were hoping the the flooding from the day before had receded and the highway would be open at the Alberta/Saskatchewan border.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen as our 14 hour drive to Calgary ended up taking 17 hours.  Of course we did have a couple (or 3 or 4) stops at Tim Hortens along the way.  Connie drinks coffee all day long, but one of the stops also included lunch.

We spent the first 2 nights at a fine establishment in Calgary – my sister Sharon and her husband John look after many family and friend travelers who pass by and they extended their usual hospitality to Connie and I.

The weather was great for most of the days, so we were out and about as much as possible, while still leaving time for facebook and Africam.

Sharon and her daughter Cheryl at computer

John and grandson Colby

John & Sharon's daughter Heather with her dog

Sydney

Colby and Sydney are both Heather’s children.

We left Calgary on Monday morning and headed for Banff, where we had a room reservation at the Y Hotel.   Apparently this building used to be the old hospital there.

Between the breathtaking scenery of the mountains and the wildlife we saw, I have way too many pictures to post here.  I will put a few though and then give you the link to the rest of the pictures on my facebook page.

Baby Bighorn Sheep

Bighorn Sheep

Grzzley Bear

Deer

Elk

Double Rainbow in Jasper

Jasper and Me

Bald Eagle

Lake Louise

These pictures have all been downsized, so you can look at the full-sized pictures plus a whole lot more on my facebook page.

The following link will let you see the pictures, whether you have a facebook account or not.

You won’t be able to make comments on the photos unless you are listed as a friend of mine on facebook, but you can always come back here to let me know what you think.

My Facebook Pictures.

Mountains

Banff from Mountain

March 20th

Well, the weather took a turn for the worse since my last post – but we did manage to avoid the snow that was forecast.  What we got was (and still is) cold temperatures and wind.  The temperature is back above 0C now at +4C, but it has been dipping below 0C at night and during the day times.   I haven’t checked the forecast, but I am hoping that we get back to our early spring time temperatures again real soon.

I had another of those birthday days yesterday.  The date happened to fall on my weekend, so I didn’t have to book it off to avoid working on my birthday.   It was a nice day, even with the cold temperatures.  I had supper at the Red Lobster with two of my favourite people (my mom, Hazel and my daughter, Angela).  That was followed by a birthday party for another of my favourite people (Judy) at a bowling alley, where I tried Bingo Bowling for the first time.  I had a blast!

The Red River is beginning to rise as the snow and ice melts.  I took pictures yesterday and today while walking the dogs,  to add to my files.

Red River looking North March 19

Red River looking south March 19

Red River shore March 19

It was sunny on both March 19 and March 20, which really helps us put up with the cold weather sometimes.

Red River looking North March 20

Red River looking south March 20

Red River looking south March 20 (opposite shore)

Red River shore March 20

Red River shore March 20

I am still waiting for work to begin on the house next door.  So far it is still standing and there is no signs of demolition starting soon.  I know they had planned on at least the demolition being done by now, so hopefully they have not run into a bunch of red tape that is delaying it.

We had a little bit of excitement at work this week when Jon Montgomery, who won the gold medal for Canada for the skeleton, came to visit.  During his visit he autographed a gold t-shirt and cap for us to auction off to the highest bidder to raise funds for our strong kids campaign.  When I last checked, both items had $100.00 bids on them.

February 20th

Well – here it is – one day before my sister Sharon has another of those birthday days.  It has been a decent day here (for mid February) and is a balmy -6C as I prepare this.  It was a sunny day, which is always nice.  We do get a lot of sunny days here.

The Red River is still solidly frozen at this time, as you can tell from all the paths going across and along the river in these pictures – taken a couple of days ago on another similar sunny day.

Tracks on the Red River Feb 18th

more tracks on the Red River Feb 18th

A lot of people walk along and across the river in the winter.  Quite a few people walk their dogs along the river – some on leash, but most off-leash.   I walk my dogs on the path above the river, which is where I took these pictures.  Another month and the ice may be weakening which will make walking on it very unsafe.

Tomorrow – in celebration of my sister’s birthday, Connie and I are going to Celebrations Dinner Theatre.  We are hooked on these presentations and are looking forward to seeing the latest one.  We used to look forward to the meal more than we do now though because they no longer serve prime rib, which we both ordered and enjoyed each time.  The steak that they offer instead of the prime rib just is not as satisfying.  On every comment card, I mention how much I miss the prime rib.

Another work week starts early tomorrow morning at 6:30 am