Chester

It was cool and windy this morning on our walk along the Red River.  It felt nice.  The only problem was that with the wind, there were no critters around at all.  I guess wild critters all around the world are the same with the wind – they stay in hiding.  The critters seldom appear in front of the cams on Africam on a windy day or night and they are not in sight on my river walk either.  The sun is shining though and it should be a nice day.

I decided to take a couple of pictures of Chester, so I have something to post here today 

Chester

Chester

Chester is doing good still – no further signs of seizures since the one he had on July 21st and I am hoping he will never have another one.  The morning he had that one, we started our walk off at the garage where I left my car for service and I wonder if there was any possibility that he picked something up on his feet that he may have absorbed and that might have caused it.  I don’t know enough about it to say for sure.  The garage floor where we went seemed clean enough, but it could either be something that they used to clean it or something on the concrete outside.  I’m still keeping an eye on him of course.

I found out yesterday that I was off to a great start on my application for the 1 year term position at another branch, when I received a phone call from the branch manger telling me that he was unable to open the resume.  So, I have now printed it out and will fax it to him today when I go to work.

On Africam today, we have seen Waterbuck, Zebra, Elephant (including an adorable baby),  Nyala, Woolly-necked Stork, Wildebeest and more.  Click here to see today’s pictures.

Registration Day

Today was the first day for registration for next fall’s classes at the Y in Winnipeg – - -  and I survived!!!!!  Everyone who came in at 6 am to register got the spots they were looking for.  By early afternoon, some time slots were filled and people had to take 2nd choice.  By tonight it will be getting difficult to get what you want and in a few more days, there will just be waiting list spots to claim.

We had 3 staff to take the morning rush and people were gathering outside the door before any of us arrived.  Phone calls started before we opened the doors also – but even if we had answered the phone, we could not have done registration, since the course codes did not become active until 6am.

The sound of the phones is still ringing in my ears though.  There are several lines and they were all ringing at once and we also had the line up that circled the entire front lobby and came back to the doors.  We each looked after one person at a time whether it was on the phone or in person.  By the time I left, there was no one in line, although the phone was still ringing.

Tomorrow, I start work at my usual time instead of 5:45 am (that’s not morning – its still night).

I haven’t seen anything on the walks along the Red River with Chester the last couple of days, other than the 2 male Mallards I’ve seen together a few times.  I didn’t get any good pictures of them – so I took a new picture of the Iris growing in my yard 

Iris June 6

Nkorho on Africam had a lot of excitement and sadness last night and this morning.  Two male lions (unknown at this time who they are), were following a large buffalo herd when an unfortunate hyaena got in their way and was killed.  Karin at Nkorho got some amazing shots that you can see on Nkorho’s facebook page.  Then this morning an unknown lioness was found in very bad shape.  I was watching her struggle before leaving for work and by the time I got home from work she had passed away.   You can find pictures from the last 2 days at Africam here.

Lions at Tembe

Yesterday morning (which was mid afternoon in Africa), there were 3 lions at Tembe just as I was leaving for work..  I only saw 2, but knew there was a third behind a clump of something, because I could see the tail move every once in awhile.  The two lionesses that I could see both had collars.

Jump forward to the evening (early morning today in Africa) when I was about ready to head for bed, there were 3 lions – 2 lionesses with collars and a beautiful big male.  I am assuming that the twitching tail from the morning belonged to this male or to a 3rd lioness and that these were the same lions and that they must have spent the night there.

In between the lion sightings I was at work on a very busy day at the Y.  I hadn’t known that there was no school in the area today, so was not expecting all the families dropping by looking for something to do.  Many of them were there thinking that they could go swimming at any time, but our regular programs were on and recreational swim time is limited during the day when the demand for swim time does not normally exist.  The gymnasium also had regular programming on and was not available for drop-ins during much of the day.  This was actually just a preview of upcoming spring break – since again, we will have people dropping in to use something that is not available.  At that time we will not have all the regular programming on, but we will have 100 kids in day camp  taking up the gym, the youth activity center and the pool at times.  There is a program schedule and it is online or people can phone to find open times (and many do), but many more will just take a chance and either come by or worse yet, drop the kids off at the door and drive away.

Well, back to Africam, Tembe and the lions because when I logged in this  morning, the lazy cats were still lounging around for us there. 

You can see today’s pictures here and yesterday’s pictures here but here are a few of the lion pictures.

Lion at TE

The male lion looking at us from behind some bushes.

Lion at TE

One of the lionesses in plain view – but when zoomie backed up a bit, you could hardly see her.

Lion at TE

Two of the lionesses (actually, there is a 3rd one here this morning as well, and she is in the picture, but its hard enough to see the 2).

It is -23C for our walk along the Red River this morning – but it doesn’t look like there is a wind, so it should be too bad.  Chester has his own fur coat and I will bundle up as usual.

Strong Kids

The YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg has started the Strong Kids Campaign for the year.  It started off yesterday with a cycle day.  Right from 6am until closing, we had at least 2 people riding stationary bikes in our front lobby after giving a donation or collecting sponsors (or both).

Click here to see the video from City TV about the campaign.  Luckily, I managed to avoid the cameras 

The South Y was a very busy place yesterday with people coming and going all day – some of them to exercise on their own, some of them to take classes for themselves or to take their children to classes and some of them to cheer on the bike riders or to ride themselves.  The campaign will continue with other fund raising activities so drop by any of the branches to help the Y help the kids – both here and in Mexico.  If you hear some of the stories from our Mexican Y, you will understand the need there.

The weather yesterday wasn’t bad – temperature hovered in the low minus teens up to about -8C, but this morning it is -20C with a nasty wind giving a wind chill of -35C.  It is March 1st and I woke up to fresh snow on the ground.  My policy is to never shovel after the end of February until next winter begins – so this snow is just going to have to sit there until it melts.  It is only if we have a storm that I will bring out the shovel again.   I believe this wind qualifies as March coming in like a lion – so hopefully it will begin to improve significantly so it can go out like a lamb. 

Chester and I had a short walk due to the cold wind today and didn’t make it to the river (where the wind can almost knock us off our feet).  By walking down the lanes and sidewalks, we were protected somewhat from the breezes.

Things are busy on the cameras at Africam these days.  As I was watching this morning, a small herd of breeding elephants passed by at Elephant Plains followed by some zebras.  You can see all of today’s pictures here.

Elephant at EP

Zebras at EP

A Million Dollars – Tax Free

A Million Dollars – Tax Free!  What a thought 

That is the question of the day from Word Press – What would you do with a million dollars, tax free?

In Canada winnings are tax free – its the interest earned on the money that I would have to pay taxes on.

This is something that I have often thought about actually.  I wish I knew how much I would have to leave in the bank in order to collect a reasonable income to live on.  I have no idea on that – but I do have plans to some of it.

I would get myself out of debt – pay off the mortgage on the house, do more upgrades on it (insulation for one and maybe a garage), get myself a brand new car, and travel.  You already know where I would travel first. 

I would give some to my daughter.  It would be wonderful to get her out of debt and leave her with some spending money.

I would give some to my nieces and nephews.  I would love to be able to get them all out of debt.    I may not be able to do that – but they would at least get something to ease the debts.

I have several friends who would love to go to Africa – so I would finance a trip for us all to go.   We’d have a blast!

There are a lot of charities to choose from – but at the top of my list would be The Children”s Wish Foundation, The Winnipeg Humane Society and of course the YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg.  Since I would be quitting my job, I would have to leave them something to remember me.

All of the above would probably take about $400,000.00 which leaves me $600,000.00 to live on.    Depending on what kind of income that generates for me, I may be able to satisfy my travel bug – or I may just be able to have more time to watch the cams at Africam.     Since Africam does take up a lot of my time, I would send some money there for upgrades or new equipment too.

Chester and I had our walk along the Red River under a sunny sky with a temperature of -24C and a windchill of -31C.  Fresh air!!!  Right now it is -15C with no windchill mentioned – but from experience I know that they just may not have indicated it and we would find out when we go outside.   Actually, when I went out a little while ago to bring him in from the back yard because he was barking, it didn’t feel too bad out there.

Since the topic managed to get around to Africam – I really don’t know how that always happens – I do have a picture of an elephant taken tonight at Nkorho for the picture of the day.

Elephant at NK

Age

Age is kind of a funny thing.  Now that I am getting close to being an official senior citizen, people seem to think that I am smarter than when I wasn’t close to being a senior citizen.  I get asked questions and I know the answer – the thing is that I knew the answer 20 years ago too – but often they would ask someone else – just to make sure.  Now they say ok – it must be so because Mavis said so.

I obviously didn’t know the answers to the questions at the Y 20 years ago because I didn’t work there then.  I hadn’t even been to the Y since I took swimming lessons at the downtown branch of the YWCA when I was a child.  The YWCA doesn’t even exist any longer in Winnipeg (both the building and the fact that it is now both YMCA-YWCA at the location where the old YMCA used to be).  I know how to fix mistakes made on the computer at the Y because I have made pretty much every mistake possible – I have also learned to avoid making these mistakes, which is something that some of the younger ones haven’t figured out yet.  Everyone there is younger than me, but I am just referring to some of the younger ones of course.  There are a lot of great younger ones who will make wonderful senior citizens one day. 

The temperature was 0C when I woke up this morning and although it isn’t getting any warmer today, it also means that it didn’t freeze last night and the snow will have continued melting    Tomorrow is supposed to be similar and then it will get cooler again, but the minus teens are not bad and that’s what they are saying.

Chester and I walked along the Red River in the dark again this morning.  One day I will start taking pictures again, but even in the sun, it is not to exciting these day.  The snow is melting and it is looking pretty dirty everywhere.

Picture of the day is (surprise, surprise) from Africam. I’m not sure who this zebra was talking to – but she seemed to have a lot to say.

Zebras and Impalas at EP

January 15th

Chilly morning here – guess I should have plugged the car in last night.  It was -25C at 7:30 am with a wind that makes it feel like -37C   brrrrr  By the time I got home from exercising and eating breakfast, the temperature had dropped to -28C with no wind.  Lucky me then got to shovel the snow that fell yesterday from the steps and sidewalks – one of my favourite jobs.

Today, I thought I would tell you one of the happenings at the Y.  I’m not ranting about all the new year’s resolutions people this time 

We have volunteers that come in to look after many different areas but the area that has to do with me is, of course, the front desk.  Some of the volunteers are special needs and one of these is Richard.  Richard is amazing.  He has such a positive outlook on life and has so much fun when he comes in to scan membership cards.  He is a sports fanatic and because of Richard, I have found out that there are people who have memberships here who are members of some of the sports teams.  One such person is Shawn Gallant of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers – our football team in the CFL.

I don’t watch sports (too busy watching Africam – LOL), but Richard knew him the first day he volunteered at the desk and Shawn walked in the door.  Most of us had no idea why Richard was so excited – but we soon found out.  Shawn stopped and talked to Richard for several minutes and we thought that they had known each other before – but it was the first time they had met.  Although Shawn comes in at different times and days, he always seems to come in at the same time on the day that Richard is behind the desk with us.  Richard is only here for about an hour.

I don’t know everything that has gone on between Shawn and Richard – but I do know that Shawn invited Richard and some of Richard’s friends to something (possibly training camp) with the Bombers, and that he has pushed Richard around in his wheelchair and also taken him for a drive in his car.  I know that he always stops and talks to him when he comes in and that Richard is always thrilled about it.

There are several other people that  Richard recognizes from various teams and they always say hi as they go past – but none of them stop to talk to him other than maybe a quick sentence or two about the team.  I don’t know who any of them are.

On Africam today, we have a great closeup picture of a Rock Monitor at Tembe and a Hippo at Elephant Plains.

Rock Monitor Lizard

Hippo

 

Hope your weekend is going well. 

 

February 6th

Wow – another week has gone by already! Believe it or not, we are having another warm spell here. Its -4C this afternoon with puddles on the streets.

Yesterday was my day off work and do you know what I did??? I built a stable on farmville (with the help of my friends and neighbours). Then today – I went to an exercise class at the Y, where Connie got to try out all sorts of new torture on us poor unsuspecting victims.

Of course, the class was followed by breakfast at the Red Top Restaurant where I filled my belly as usual.

Then it was walk time for the dogs and I. Its great walking in the warmth – but we still can’t walk too far because Dakota gets quite tired. She gets so excited about the walks, that she is tired before we even leave the yard, but we are managing a 20 minute walk for now. Being on the Rimadyl, she is not stiff and sore, but she definitely has weakness in her legs. Her back legs will collapse a couple of times during the walk and although she always gets up quickly, I do worry that one day she will not be able to get up. At 80 lbs, she is too heavy for me to carry. I will be making a vet appointment so I can get an opinion about her back legs and if this is likely to get worse soon. I have the stairs blocked off during the day so she does not try to go upstairs, but she still insists on taking the trip up there at night so she can sleep on the bed. I follow right behind to assist her as most of her weight is on her back legs going up and she often has problems about 1/2 way there. She doesn’t have a problem going down in the morning so that is lucky.

Tomorrow morning at the Y is a pancake breakfast to end the leaders 24 hour famine and to raise money for Haiti. The leaders will have spent the night there and I am hoping the place is decent and ready to open at 7am as usual. Since I am working there anyway, I plan on having some pancakes. The leaders all raised some money just to be able to participate in the sleepover and we are hoping for a successful breakfast to cap it off.

During one of my walks along the river this week, I saw someone with a huge kite and had to take a couple of pictures (of course). I always take my camera with me and never know when there will be something to shoot.

Kite Flying on the Red River

Kite Flying on the Red River

I was quite a distance away from him, so this is zoomed in to max.

August 26th

I’m impressed – it looks like 2 beautiful days in a row, here in Winnipeg!    Of course, we are supposed to get a thunderstorm tonight to give the nice days a strong finish!  Hopefully, the thunderstorm is after I get home from work.

The dogs and I had a nice walk along the Red River this morning, but absolutely nothing to see other than the very calm river and the trees and partly cloudy sky.  It was very pretty – but no birds or animals at all, although I could hear some birds in the distance.

This is the last week of day camp at the Y and that is followed by two weeks of program break.  It should be nice and quiet there with the possibility of getting some of the back logged paperwork done.  This will mean that quite a few people begin to think about getting their children into swimming lessons.  It is a little too late for that though as there are very few spaces left right now and if they have more than 1 child, the chances of getting them into the same time slots will be almost impossible.

I have the day off work tomorrow and this will be my last long weekend for the summer.  It will be hard going back to working a full 5 days every week.  Right now, I am trying to decide what I should do with my last day off, that doesn’t cost much – since there is very little money in the bank account right now.  I don’t want to waste the day away.  I have thought about replacing the back outside steps, but that might take me more than 3 days to do and I don’t want to leave it undone for another week for my next weekend – although that does happen to be an official long weekend.  Chester would have no problem getting up and down from the deck without steps, but I would  have to figure out a ramp for Dakota to get down and up though.  I replaced the front steps 2 years ago and knew that the back ones would have to be soon.

I guess I’ve just talked myself into a job for the weekend.

As usual, while I was wasting my time sleeping, a parade of animals passed by the cameras at Africam. To see the Zebras, Elephants, Wildebeests, Giraffes, Impalas, Kudus, Warthogs and more from today you can click here.  If you follow the first link, directly to Africam’s home page, you will see links to the most recent videos taken as well.

Hope you have a nice day today!

Aug 5th

Not a bad day here so far today.  They are predicting showers for this morning and afternoon, but we all know how good the forecasters are at actually predicting the weather.  Right now it is 15C, which is up from 12C when the dogs and I took our walk along the river.  Unless it is raining when I actually leave the house to head for work this morning, I’ll be biking again.

Yesterday was a very busy day at work.  It is the first day of program registration for the fall and we had lots of people signing up for memberships at the Y and getting registered in their classes.  Today will be similar, but probably a little less as some of the classes start to get filled up.  After today, I have 3 days off work again as I have managed to use my vacation days for long weekends all summer long.  

I am still having squirrel problems and still unable to catch any more squirrels in my trap.  I am sure they will enjoy their new accommodations in the lovely park I take them.  Whenever it rains, I can hear at least one moving around in the walls of my house.  I have asked my neighbour to keep an eye out to see if he can see where the little critters are getting in my house, since I can not find an entrance hole.