The Year in Review

I am thankful for the year we have had and look forward to 2009. Like everyone there have been many good times and some sad times but much to be thankful for in 2008.

In 2008 my health was better than 2007. Even though there are still some challenges my health condition has been stable.

Elaine and I have been married for 31 years and are still celebrating being alive!

I have completed 32 1/2 years at work and am thankful for my job. My job was changed to a Senior Advisor role that suits me perfectly and gives me a flexible work schedule. And I can work from home whenever I feel like it.

We were able to make several trips within the province to church camps, weddings, and a family reunion.

We had sadness this year with several friends and relatives passing away. We had a friend staying with us for a month while her husband was in hospital until he passed away. It was a real up and down time but we were glad to be able to be a support and comfort.

Of course there was much more in the last year but the words of the song Great is Thy Faithfulness seems to really sum it up. The chorus says:

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

And I like the words at the end of the last verse: "Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!"

Happy New Year everyone and all the best for 2009.

A Merry Christmas to All

We have always read the Christmas story before opening our gifts. It is something I remember when I was young and we continued it with our family. When we read the Christmas story yesterday before gift opening we talked about when Grandma told the Christmas story to the kids with the flannel board. This is a picture we have up on a shelf in our living room.

We celebrated our Christmas on the 24th because that is when Mike and Nicole could come. We had the traditional turkey dinner with Elaine and I and Janny and Mike and Nicole. Then during gift opening we had Mary and Chris connected by the web cam on Janny's laptop. That was fun.

With the festivities over yesterday we are having a quiet day today. I have been mostly learning about my new GPS. (Did I mention I like maps?) We are hoping the weather cooperates because we are planning to go to Saskatoon tomorrow to be with Elaine's family.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Card from the Past

This is an old Christmas card that says "With best Wishes for a happy Christmas from John and Eliza Hingston 1891" My grandfather would have been almost 7 years old when his mother received this Christmas card from his uncle and aunt. John Hingston was the younger brother of Samuel Hingston, my grandfather's father who died in 1888.

I remember my grandfather telling about his uncle John Hingston who lived near Dublin Ireland and was chief steward at Trinity College. And I found reference to John Hingston in several websites, both in reference to him at Trinity College and as an Irish musician.

In an archive of the Trinity College Academic Calendar for 1892, John Hingston is listed under officers of the college as chief steward. Other references say he was chief steward until his death in 1893.

Several websites refer to John Hingston as a well known Irish musician, quoting from the book Irish Minstrels and Musicians by Francis O'Neill in chapters XVII, XXI, and XXXII. These say that he played for the Prince of Wales who became King Edward VII, and refer to him as "the late Mr. John Hingston. T. C. D., at that time the leading authority on matters pertaining to the pipes." The instrument he played was called the union pipes or Uilleann pipes which seem to be similar to the bagpipes. Chapter XXI of the book referenced above says:
"Music was in the family -- for his brother was also a performer on the Union pipes. Born on a farm not far from Skibbereen, County Cork, Mr. Hingston was a splendid specimen of the Munster peasantry, considerably over six feet in height, and it is little wonder that his prowess as a life-saver in Phoenix Park attracted the attention of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, who, in recognition of his heroism, secured him the position of head steward in Trinity College Dublin. His experience on the St. Lawrence river, Canada, in early manhood, schooled him in the knowledge which in after years he turned to such good account."

I have had these references about John Hingston for a while now but thought this would be a good time to post the Christmas card from the past.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I was also amused to see a story about John and Samuel Hingston seeing a sea-serpent in Whitehall harbour.

Happy Anniversary

Al and Tanya celebrated their second anniversary today. This is a picture of the happy couple from their wedding. From all reports it sounds like Tanya has been doing her best to put Al to work and keep him out of trouble which is quite an accomplishment. Happy anniversary you two.

So How Cold is It?

The weather is always a main topic in Saskatchewan particularly during the current deep freeze. But since I am inherently quantitative and a thoroughly analytical fellow, I downloaded the weather data and plotted the temperatures and windchill for the last 10 days.
The graph is for December 12 when the weather started to turn cold up to yesterday December 21. The blue bars are temperature and the red bars the windchill. This shows 9 days in a row with windchill going below -35C and 6 of them going below -40C. But if you live here you don't need a graph to show you how cold it is. I have taken to hibernating until it warms up.

Birds Eye View Maps

The Windows Live Maps have recently been updated with more cities around the world having detailed Birds Eye View high resolution mapping. The Birds Eye View feature is in addition to standard mapping and aerial views. For example the cities in Saskatchewan with Birds Eye View include Regina , Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Yorkton, Estevan, and Weyburn.

This picture shows our house in Birds Eye View. The view can be rotated to look from all 4 directions. Birds Eye view is included for almost all cities in the US and many cities in Europe. You can pan and zoom and rotate the views around the cities. I have always liked maps but I find this feature amazing.

My Father in the Civilian Conservation Corps

Since December 20 was my Father's birthday I have been planning to post some history about him. In the later 1930's (after graduating from High School in 1935) my Father was in the Civilian Conservation Corps at camps in both the eastern and western US.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was part of the New Deal by US President Franklin D Roosevelt to help combat unemployment in the Great Depression. The CCC was established in 1933 and continued to 1942 (as it was phased out by the WWII war effort.) Since this is the 75th Anniversary of the CCC establishment there are a number of websites with CCC history.

The CCC planted trees, built parks, roads and bridges, etc. Many of the state parks in the US are as a result of the CCC. The pictures above are from Big Sur California, one of the places my Father worked. They built a stone retaining wall along a road up the side of a mountain. My Father loved this outdoor work in the beautiful scenery being a young man just off the farm. The problem was the young men from big cities did not like this work and caused trouble. The National Guard had to come in to break up a protest and fight among these men at the camp. As a result they were moved back to a camp in the eastern US. My Father was disappointed because he enjoyed working in California.

I do not know how long my Father stayed in the CCC. Afterward he worked at a wide variety of different jobs during the depression years before WWII. If one place laid off workers, early the next morning, as soon as the newspaper came out with job listings, he was on the bus immediately to go to apply for any type of work available. As a result he was never unemployed in these depression years.

I have started a blog label Family History and have some plans for further posts in this series.

Happy Birthday Christopher

Chris will be having a birthday on Sunday. I am posting this a little early because I know he has started celebrating his birthday all week already.

Another successful science experiment

For Chris what would science be without fires and explosions? Have a fun time on your birthday but please be careful.

Handel's Messiah

Last night I attended the annual performance of Handel's Messiah by the RSO symphony with the RPC chorus and soloists. Messiah is an oratorio ( music for orchestra, choir and soloists) composed by George Frideric Handel with libretto (the text for the music) by Charles Jennens and first performed in Dublin in 1742. All the words are from the King James Bible as selected by Charles Jennens and put to music by Handel.

I have attended the Messiah performance for several years now and really love it. It is performed in two parts with the first being the prophecies of the Messiah to the story of his birth, and then the second has his death and resurrection and his kingdom.

In the first part I specially enjoyed:

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed

For unto us a child is born and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God and the Prince of Peace

King of Kings and Lord of Lords
And He Shall Reign For Ever and Ever
Hallelujah!

The first part ends with the powerful Hallelujah chorus and everyone stands following the tradition that King George II stood for this chorus at the first performance.

In the second part I particularly enjoyed:

Since by man came death - Also by man came the resurrection

The trumpet shall sound - And the dead shall be raised incorruptible.

Blessing and Glory and Honour be unto Him
Amen

It ends with great volume with the symphony, the pipe organ and choir in the Amen chorus. The sound in the church is just incredible in these parts. I thoroughly enjoyed this year's performance.

Happy Birthday Mary

Today is Mary's birthday! Here is a picture from her first birthday, as cute as can be reaching out for her birthday cake.

Hope you are enjoying the cake Chris made for your birthday. Happy Birthday Mary.

Polio Christmas Dinner

Last night Elaine and I attended the Christmas dinner for the post polio organization we joined this year. There were over 75 people there which is relatively large considering the regular meetings would have less than 20 people. Quite a few members invited friends and family.

The dinner was in the church basement where the group treasurer and her husband attend, and the dinner was catered by the ladies from that church. One thing that impressed me was how the president prayed to blessed the meal and our fellowship.

It is a great group to visit with. In spite of many of them having dealt with physical difficulties, they are cheerful and positive-minded. After the dinner there was a music group that entertained. They sang and played guitars including Christmas songs, and country gospel. The whole event was quite enjoyable.

God on the Mountain is Still God in the Valley

Last night we heard Lynda Randle singing God on the Mountain on a Gaither TV program. This got me thinking about my cousin Lorne, who passed away three years ago, because he was the first one I heard sing that song. He could really sing it from his heart because it expressed the experiences of his life. I did not remember that yesterday would have been his 61st birthday until I saw the memories of Lorne posted by our cousin Al (The Blog Fodder).

God on the Mountain (words and music by Tracy Dart: sung by John Starnes)

Life Is Easy, When Your Up On The Mountain
And You've Got Peace Of Mind like You've Never Known
But Then Things Change And Your Down In The Valley
Don't Lose Hope For Your Never Alone

For The God On The Mountain Is Still God In The Valley
When Things Go Wrong He'll Make Them Right
And The God Of The Good Times,
Is Still God Of The Bad Times
And The God Of The Day Is Still God Of The Night

You Talk Of Faith When Your Up On The Mountain
Oh, But The Talk Comes So Easy when Life's At Its Best
But Its Down In The Valley Of Trials And Temptations
That's Where Faith Is Really Put To The Test

For The God On The Mountain Is Still God In The Valley
When Things Go Wrong He'll Make Them Right
And The God Of The Good Times, Is Still God Of The Bad Times
And The God Of The Day Is Still God Of The Night

For The God On The Mountain Is Still God In The Valley
When Things Go Wrong He'll Make Them Right
And The God Of The Good Times, Is Still God Of The Bad Times
And The God Of The Day Is Still God Of The Night
And The God Of The Day Is Still God Of The Night

Choir Performance

Last night I attended the RPC fall concert accompanied by the symphony. The program was titled "Joy to the World" and the concert started by the audience singing along in that Christmas carol. The acoustics are amazing in the large Knox-Met church building with the sounds of the choir, soloists, the symphony and pipe organ.

The program had two classical pieces both of with were "joyful" (not the requiems or funeral music.) They were Beethoven's Mass in C, and Bach Magnificat. Of course both were sung in Latin but I was following along in the translations.

The Mass in C had standard movements that I am getting to know from other classical pieces: Kyrie (Lord have mercy ...), Gloria (Glory be to God), Credo (I believe in one God ...), Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy), Benedictus ( Blessed is He ...), Agnus Dei (Lamb of God.) It was sung joyfully with some real life and power.

Bach Magnificat was quite appropriate for Christmas. It was based on the words of Mary in Luke 1:46 - 55 "My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. .... " The music director said it is one of his favourite pieces of classical choral music, and I can see why.

I really enjoyed this concert, and now a I am looking forward to the annual performance of Handel's Messiah on December 17.

Trach Change # 17

I just had a trach change for the 17th time (but who's keeping track?) since I was in the hospital early last year. At first I was having trach changes once a month, but now we have extended it to 6 weeks. I really like the Respiratory Therapist who does it now. The process to take one tube out and put the other one in only takes a few minutes. It doesn't usually hurt but does cause quite a bit of coughing.

I am still reusing the same 2 trach tubes. I clean the one that comes out, and have it ready for use next time. I just soak it in soapy water and then put it into boiling water to sanitize it. The trach tube is a Bivona Hyperflex Aire-cuf made of silicon with wire reinforcement to keep the tube from kinking when it bends. It is 11mm OD and 8mm ID and 95mm long.

These are two pictures of the trach tube that just came out. One with the cuff deflated like I have it during the day, and one with the cuff inflated like I have at night. During the day air can go around the outside of the tube through my vocal cords, and through my mouth and nose. With the cuff inflated at night the trachea is sealed off so the air from the ventilator goes directly to my lungs, and none escapes through my mouth and nose. Then I can only talk with a whisper. But I talk anyhow and make Elaine guess what I am saying.

All in all there are some inconveniences and irritation from having a trach tube, but there is no question it is helping me breathe better.

What was that in the sky?

I have been following the news reports about the meteor that was seen on Thursday evening November 20 in the skies across Saskatchewan and Alberta. Elaine's parents were driving near Canwood that evening and said the whole sky lit up brightly. The video below shows the meteor as seen near Edmonton. It is thought the meteor shattered into pieces and came down somewhere near the Alberta - Sask border.



CBC also had a video of the meteor as seen from Biggar SK.


Popular Science had an interesting article about the science of "shooting stars." Most people think the bright light is from the meteor glowing from the heat of friction in the atmosphere. But is is actually a process called adiabatic compression. The extreme compression of the air around the meteor causes the gasses to heat and glow brightly. The meteor would be travelling about 30,000 mile per hour heating the compressed air in front of it to 3000 F. (Sorry I didn't do the metric conversion from the US article. )

Now hoards of meteor seekers have descended on the area looking for pieces of the rock.

Update November 28: Scientists estimate that it was an asteroid weighing 10 tonnes and the size of a desk. It broke up into many pieces over a 20 square km area south of Lloydminster. It is a good thing something that large did not come down in one piece.

Gas Prices

I was looking at a web site that shows gas price comparisons in US and Canada.

After a high over 145 c/l we are back down to an average of 88.9 c/l where we were 2 years ago. It is interesting to see the trend in US gas prices in Cdn c/l. Darlene says their gas price is down to US$ 1.59/g after being over $4.00.

Ford Reintroduces the Model T

In response to current economic conditions and falling market share news site The Onion has reported that Ford is reintroducing the Model T that originally made its success a century ago.

Ford's market share has dropped to 16.7% and according to this report they hope that this move can get them back to the nearly 100% market share they originally had with the Model T a century ago.

Thinking About My Mother

I was thinking about my Mother today because November 10 was her birthday. I am posting a picture of her taken when she was 90 years old in 2006. She passed away about 2 months after her birthday on January 12, 2007.

The Breath of Life

Genesis 2:7 "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

Breathing is fundamental to life. If we do not take in sufficient oxygen or get rid of CO2 it affects every part of our body. For this reason I have been using a ventilator at night to keep a proper balance of oxygen and CO2 in my system.

There are types of ventilators that give Positive Airway Pressure support, called CPAP and BIPAP. I used a BIPAP machine for a while in January/ February 2007 but my condition continued to worsen and I need the extra support of a volume ventilator.

The ventilator I use is called a Respironics PLV 100. It is called a volume ventilator because it gives a measured volume of air on each breath. At night it is connected through a hose to my trach tube. It is set to give me 0.37 liters of air on each breath for a minimum of 10 breaths per minute. Room air is about 20% oxygen, but extra oxygen is added to the ventilator air to bring it up to 30%. The machine I have on a bedside table looks like this picture:

I found a video of what the ventilator looks like internally. I have always been fascinated by how things work. There is a microprocessor that controls a motor driven piston to give a measured volume of air on each breath. In the video you can hear the rhythmic breathing sound similar to what I have while I use it at night. After about 20 months of using it every night I have gotten quite used to the sound and feel of it. Elaine has also gotten used to it and can pretty well sleep through it. And I am thankful that each night it helps me get a sufficient level of the "breath of life."

TXT Around the World

I saw a report in IEEE Spectrum about the tremendous increase in text messaging around the world. In 2007 there was a total of 1.7 trillion text messages by 3.3 billion cell phone users. The data shows China in the lead with 456 billion text messages. However the Philippines is the text messaging capital of the world with 1707 text messages per person in 2007. The world-wide revenue for text messaging in 2007 was US$100 billion, more than revenue from movies, music or games. And a company in the Netherlands, Acision handles an amazing 2/3 of the world's text messages each year via systems and services provided to global communication companies. As a side note this company also handled the system for 60 million voters on American Idol.

On the local scene Sasktel, in justification for a texting rate increase, says that their network handles 8.5 million text messages sent and received in Saskatchewan per day. Somebody out there is doing a whole lot of texting!

Nasty Bugs

Today I was at the hospital for an examination and a trach change by the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist. Usually I have been having a trach change about every 6 weeks by a Respiratory Therapist. But I had an examination by the ENT specialist about 4 months ago, and he wanted to check how I am doing.

On my previous examination, the ENT specialist said I had some pseudomonas around the opening in my neck for the trach tube. This is a type of bacteria that naturally occurs in the soil, in water, and on plants, and is normal to have on your skin. But it is a very nasty bug if it gets into your lungs because it is very resistant to antibiotics. And the risk with a trach is the direct opening into the lungs where it could get in.

At my examination 4 months ago the ENT specialist prescribed that I use 3% acetic acid drops (vinegar is 5% acetic acid) on the neck area around my trach tube. This is supposed to get rid of the pseudomonas. This is not pleasant but preferable to the nasty bugs deciding to move down into my lungs.

Elaine has been using drops of oil in her ears. Janny told me not to get my vinegar mixed up with the oil or I will end up with salad dressing on my trach. I get no sympathy.

But the good news is that today the ENT specialist said that the area around the neck opening for the trach tube looks very good. No sign of nasty bugs. However I will still use the acetic acid drops once in a while to prevent any deciding to take up residence again.

A White Thanksgiving

It started to snow about 2 PM Sunday, and continued overnight. We got 17 cm (almost 7" for you USA folk) of snow here. But it should be gone in the next day or so. And we should still have some nice fall weather before the snow is here to stay.

Count Your Blessings

This is the Thanksgiving weekend (in Canada). We sometimes need to be reminded of all the things we have to be thankful for, even when things seem to be difficult.

One of my favourite verses is 1 Thessalonians 5:18 "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." It is hard all the time to be thankful, but God will bless us if we start to think about all the things we have to be thankful for everyday.

A song I like is "Count Your Blessings. " The words of the chorus are:

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

If we start counting our blessings instead of our problems we will be surprised what God has done for us. And what He will do for us.

Space Elevator

When I first heard reference a while back to a "space elevator" I was pretty skeptical. It sounded like science fiction. Then I found how many organizations are investing a lot of money in serious proposals to develop a space elevator. An organization in Japan has just announced their initiative to work together with a US group on a space elevator design. And there is a major international conference coming up in November in Japan to lay out a time table for development.



Some groups talk about an elevator to an incredible 100,000 km. The concept would be for an elevator car to climb a cable or ribbon of a material such as carbon fibre. Back in 2002 there was a group talking of an elevator by 2014. Now dates such a 2020 or 2030 are targeted.

One comment was that a downside would be the amount of "elevator music" you would have to listen to on a ride up a 100,000 km space elevator. But the possibility is too far away yet to push the "UP" button and wait to get on.

Canadian Communication Firsts

Wired and wireless communications were both Canadian firsts. The invention of the telephone by Canadian Alexander Graham Bell is well known. Less known is the Canadian inventor of radio, Reginald Aubrey Fessenden.

On August 10, 1876 Alexander Graham Bell transmitted human voice electrically 13 km by wire between Brantford and Paris, Ontario. He had previously on August 4 transmitted his voice from Brantford to family and friends at his home 6 km away. The famous earlier experiment where he said "Come here Mr. Watson" was just between offices. This proved that telephone voice communication could compete successfully with the telegraph.

Many people associate the invention of radio with Guglielmo Marconi. He is credited with the invention of the radio telegraph. He developed wireless transmission of telegraph code using a spark transmitter. However the inventor of the radio with wireless audio transmission by modulation of continuous waves was Reginald Aubrey Fessenden. This would be analogous to what we call AM (amplitude modulation) radio today.

On December 23 , 1900 Fessenden made what appeared to be the first wireless audio communication over a distance of 1.6 km. In 1906 he made the first transatlantic radio communication. Then on Christmas Eve December 24, 1906 he made the first radio broadcast of music and voice. He played O Holy Night on the violin and read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2. He broadcast from a transmitter at Brant Rock, Massachusetts to an unknown number of shipboard radio operators along the Atlantic coast.

Fessenden, like many others, went to the US to be able to get the backing to conduct his research. He got a job working in Thomas Edison's labs. He also worked for George Westinghouse for a time, and General Electric made the equipment to power his transmitter. He never really made any financial success from his inventions and most of his accomplishments have not been well known.

Canadians made these firsts in wired and wireless communications. And Canada has continued to be at the forefront in communications such as satellite and fibre optics.

Northern Saskatchewan Wedding

On the weekend we attended Matt and Christine's wedding in Hudson Bay. We were pleased to have been invited and glad we were able to go. It was great!

We also enjoyed the trip up there and back seeing some new areas. We had a good visit with Elaine's brother and family Friday evening and stayed overnight there. Then on the way home on Sunday were we able to visit a wonderful older couple in Sturgis. All in all a very enjoyable weekend.

I'm a Dreamer

I have been having a recurring dream that I have just started University and I can't find my schedule or which room my class is supposed to be in. One night I was in my first physics class and the instructor was telling how the marks would be based. He said that 97% would be based on handwriting. I thought "Oh no I've had it" Then he corrected that 97% would be graphs and 7% handwriting. In my dream I never questioned that this did not add to 100%.

Most of my dreams are just nonsensical. But one night a while ago I was seriously prophesying in my dream. I remembered afterward what I had prophesied and told Elaine about it. She said "The Bible says that '... your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions ...' (Joel 2:28). I guess that shows what category you are in!"

Then last night in my dream I was riding a bicycle. Somebody was taking my car to fill it with gas and I was going to follow them. I seemed to be having trouble getting my legs going to pedal fast enough. Then I woke myself up and was actually pedalling my feet under the covers. Fortunately I did not kick Elaine in the process. When I told Elaine about it in the morning she asked if it had been a trick bike. Unfortunately it was not but maybe in my next dream.

Jesus in the Boat

Mark 4:35 ¶ And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.
36 And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?
41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

My Musical Instruments

Passy-Muir speaking valve and AeroTrach Chamber


I use a Passy-Muir speaking valve with my trach. It has a diaphragm which acts as a one-way valve. (The clear plastic clip is to attach an oxygen hose.) I breathe in through the trach and then the diaphragm closes when I breathe out so the air goes past my vocal chords and out my mouth and nose. If I am not careful to clean the valve every day it can give a "honking" sound like a duck call. That has happened sometimes at church or at meetings at work. (Awkward!) Sometimes there is a faint "buzz" from the valve diaphragm when I speak. Janny says "Dad your voice has a kazoo quality." But in general it gives me a good clear voice.

I have an AeroTrach chamber that I use to inhale medication through my trach. If I breathe too quickly it makes a sound like a flute. The one I had before had symbol on it of a musical note with a circle around it and a diagonal stroke. The signal means you are breathing too quickly. When Janny hears the flute sound while I take my medicine she yells "Dad it is not a musical instrument!" It makes different notes depending how I breathe so I call it my "trach flute."

So at present the duck call, the kazoo, and the trach flute are the extent of my musical repertoire.

Half Way to 110

I am celebrating my birthday today. I went out to a restaurant for my birthday last night with Elaine, Janice, Mike and Nicole.

At supper Mike said "Happy birthday Dad. You are half way to 110."

I have made it this far. But I guess I have quite a way to go.

Inspirational Doctor's Office

A few years ago when I was having a lot of back pain I was referred to one of the top neurosurgeons in the city for a consultation. I was told the pressure on my spinal cord could increase to the point I would be paralyzed from the waist down, and anything they could do would only make it worse.

In this doctor's waiting room around the walls there were framed photographs he had taken. Each picture had an inspirational verse on it, mostly scriptures. One of them really stood out to me. "All things are possible to him that believeth" Mark 9:23

I was prayed for at church and I improved until I have been completely free from the back pain I was having.

All's Quiet On The Home Front

Mary and Chris left for home on Tuesday with the convoy of movers and travellers to the left coast. It has been great having them here this summer. Last summer Mary was here but Chris was not able to come.

It seems that a lot of the visiting while Mary and Chris were here involved special meals. They both seem to like cooking. They made sushi for us one meal which I had not had before. And they made a stir fry with tofu and other items left from making the sushi. Actually the tofu was better than I expected. And then they made us a special supper with roast duck which was excellent. When they were looking for something to make with the left over duck I suggested Duck Smoothies. I told them "If it ever becomes popular remember you heard it here first!"

We had a good time with Mary and Chris and other visiting as well as the trips we were able to make this summer. Now the next event to look forward to is attending Matt and Christine's wedding in September.

Historic Cook Book

We have been amused looking at an old cook book that my mother had. It is the Blue Ribbon Cook Book 19th Edition. It is copyright by the Blue Ribbon Manufacturing Company, Winnipeg in 1905. It does not show the year this 19th edition would have been printed. Some advertisements in the back have 3 colours of ink (red, yellow, blue) which was not used until the 1930s.

There are chapters on various types of cooking and baking. A chapter on Gruels has a recipe for Cracker Gruel: "Use 1/4 cup plain or Graham cracker crumbs. Cook a few minutes in a cup of boiling water; add 1 cup hot milk, and a little salt"

In the chapter on Poultry and Game there is a section titled Restoring Tainted Game. "If game becomes slightly tainted, it should at once be picked clean and put into milk for a full day (24 hours), keeping it entirely covered. This will sweeten it, and it should be cooked at once." This was before the days of refrigeration or concern about salmonella.

We have been amused by a chapter titled Invalid Cookery. Toast and barley water seemed to be primary treatments for illness. Barley water is made by boiling 1 cup barley in 6 cups water. There is a recipe for Toast Water: "Cut 2 slices of bread thin, toast. Break in pieces, pour over them 1 cup boiling water, cool and strain. It may be flavoured with a little lemon juice."

Then it has something called Koumiss which was made by putting milk, sugar, and yeast in a bottle and letting it sit for 3 to 5 days to ferment. It says "tie the corks down securely." With some of these recipes for invalids I am not sure if it would cure them or kill them.

I am not sure if we would try anything from this cook book but it is interesting to look at.

Pictures of My Father

This summer when Darlene was here we were going through old pictures of our mother and father. Mary scanned some of the pictures and linked to them on her blog. I stitched together three of the pictures of my father as shown here.

These pictures would have been taken when my father was in his twenties. He came to Canada at age 30 and had already lost his hair by that time. In the right hand picture he was starting to look more how I knew him. One of my father's sayings was "I used to have wavy hair but it waved goodbye"

Two Weddings and a Baby Dedication

We had a great time in Park Valley this weekend attending our second wedding in July. We first attended Derek and Ariann's wedding in Moose Jaw before we went up to camp. It was wonderful and Derek and Ariann are such a terrific couple. We knew so many people at the wedding since they are friends of Mary through IVCF (Intervarsity Christian Fellowship) and CCO (Catholic Christian Outreach) from university.

Then this past weekend we attended Angela and Errol's wedding at Park Valley. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding. We were glad to see so many family and friends that had not been together for a long time on such a happy occasion. And you never saw a couple with bigger smiles!

Then the weekend was topped off with a baby dedication at the church service Sunday morning. Greg and Laurel had little Rayna dedicated. Unfortunately we did not have our camera with us. She was smiling at the congregation and was too cute entirely. I was very excited. Baby dedications are such happy occasions.

Now after this my vacation is done and I am back to work tomorrow. But July has been a very wonderful time so far.

Happy Anniversary Mary and Chris

Today Mary and Chris celebrate their 3rd anniversary. It is good they can spend it together this time. Last year Mary was visiting in Saskatchewan and Chris had to stay in BC.

They are a great couple. I told Mary I don't know where she found someone silly enough for her. They really deserve each other (and I mean that in a good way).

The picture was taken in February 2006 when Elaine and I visited them. Now they have been married for 3 years. We wish them many more years of cooking together.

Home from Camp

We are home again after being away for a week at our annual summer church camp at North Battleford. Every year we say it was the best camp ever, and this year was no exception. We had a wonderful time both in the services and in visiting with so many people.

One message was about the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Jesus brings people into proximity in relationship with God. In this prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, he was establishing our relationship with God and each other.

Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

The minister expanded on how meaningful the words "Our Father which art in heaven" are.
"Our" settles the relationship among ourselves. We do not approach God exclusively but all equally.
"Father" settles the relationship between us and Our Father in heaven.
"Our Father" settles the relationship of mankind. The Fatherhood of God is the only basis for the brotherhood of mankind.

He expanded on the words "Hallowed be thy name." This is saying "Enable us to give to you the unique place that your nature and character demands, and be constantly aware of your presence in our lives." And of course there was much more in this message and the other services.

I was very thankful to have felt well at the camp. I was very tired when I arrived and the first day, but as I was in the meetings I became "energized" as the week went on. More specifically I would say I became "positively charged."

We had a great time but it is always good to be home again.

Canada Day

Today Canada is 141 years old. The first four provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia joined together in confederation in 1867 through the British North America Act. This is now called the Constitution Act since the Canada Act 0f 1982 that patriated the constitution. Other provinces joined in sequence until Newfoundland became the 10th in 1949.

A country of 141 years could be considered young compared to nations with much longer histories. But Canada has had a relatively long and stable history. There could be some debate of the effectiveness of the form of government established in Canada by confederation of provinces, but we have been blessed with a freedom and peace many parts of the world have never experienced.

Family Reunion

We were up to the Park Valley area for a family reunion on the weekend. Elaine's father comes from a family of 8 and with their children and grandchildren there were about 100 at the reunion. There were a lot of Elaine's cousins there who had not seen each other for many years. The weather was perfect for an outdoor event as you can see in the picture and the area there is beautiful. Elaine's uncle's farmyard is landscaped like a park.

This is the start of a busy summer. We have 3 weddings to attend. One wedding this Saturday (Derek and Ariann), before we go to NB Camp for a week, and another wedding (Angela and Errol) the weekend after Camp. The third wedding (Matt and Christine) is in September.

And we have visitors in transit. Mary and Chris will arrive in Regina later this afternoon. And Steve, Darlene, and Lisa are on their way to arrive by Tuesday night. So we will have plenty to do with people to see and places to go.

My First Computer

My first computer was a Radio Shack MC10 Micro Color Computer that I bought in 1984. I believe I got it on sale for about $100. It had 4k of memory and for about another $30 I got the 16k memory expansion (seen plugged in the back.) It connected to a TV as a monitor. Programs were loaded from standard audio cassettes.

It was certainly not what would be termed "user friendly." The MC10 was rated by PC World as one of the 10 worst computer keyboards of all time.

I had a Texas Instruments 300 baud acoustic coupled modem (as seen in the picture above) which was connected by placing the telephone handset over the two "earpieces." I wrote a program to allow me to use this to connect by phone to computers at work to check the progress of large programs running overnight. This was painfully slow by today's standards with each screen of text taking several minutes to load.

Then in 1986 I got a Radio Shack Color Computer 3 which had 128k of memory and also used a TV as a monitor. I got it out and hooked it to our TV to try it out again as seen in the picture above. In the late 1980s Elaine actually used this computer for some word processing including our Christmas letters. It took some patience to use the simple program, and printing took about 5 minutes per page.

Our family played several games on this computer loaded from cartridges or audio cassette. One of the favourites was a classic arcade game called Pooyan that our kids still mention.

These computers had minimal capabilities compared to today's machines. But they did give our family their first introduction to computers.

House Progress

Elaine and I have been driving up to where Mike and Nicole's house is being built. There has been a lot of progress this week with the walls going up and the roof started. It as amazing each time to see how many more houses are being built. And the same record construction is happening on every side of the city.

Another Trach Examination

Today I had another examination by the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist including having my trach tube changed. My last trach change was 6 weeks ago in early May. When the ENT specialist examined me at the end of March (which I referred to as having a Microscope up my Nose) I had been having a lot of pain in my neck area around the trach. I am thankful that pain is completely gone. The ENT specialist says that area looks quite good now. The surgery that was scheduled has been cancelled.

The ENT specialist was also going to schedule me for a Cat Scan to examine the source of the pain in my neck area. So I studied up on the Cat Scan technology as shown in the diagram below. Since the pain is now gone it is probably just as well that examination is now cancelled.

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day and I am remembering my Father who passed away in 2003 at the age of 85. I have many great memories of my Father. He was as unique as unique can be.

My Mom always liked the pictures of my Dad in uniforms. The pictures here show him in the US Army in about 1939 and as a milkman in the 1960s. My Dad was a milk delivery man when I was a child. He was the last one to use a horse and wagon for milk delivery until they switched to using trucks. The picture was taken in July 1963 on the last day that the horse was used for milk delivery.

My Father worked very hard long hours with the milk delivery getting up before 5 AM and not getting home until after 6 PM. When I was under 2 years old I was very sick with polio. My Mom told me how he would be up in the night holding me because I was so ill. My Mom was concerned because he had to go to work in the morning but he said "Who wants to sleep when you have a little boy?" All my life I had no question my Father loved me as this exemplified.

He took delight in trying to make people laugh to cheer them up. He had a very strong faith in God and a passion for sharing it with others. I was blessed to have him as my Father.

World's Fastest Supercomputer

IBM has produced the world's fastest supercomputer, doubling the previous computer speed record.



This computer does over 1 quadrillion (1000 trillion) calculations per second, which can calculate circles around any other computer on the planet. But do not expect to have a computer of this speed on your desktop any time soon. This super computer occupies 6000 square feet, weighs 250 tons, and is shipped in 21 tractor-trailer trucks. Its electrical usage is 3.9 Megawatts. It was built for the US Department of Energy and only they could afford it $133 million price tag.

Post-Polio Organization

This year Elaine and I joined a local organization of polio survivors called Polio Regina. At the end of May we attended a picnic at the home of a member and she sent us some of the pictures.

Poliomyelitis is a vaccine-preventable disease with a vaccine first introduced in 1955. I had polio in 1955 before the age of 2, just before the vaccine came out. There were many polio epidemics in Canada and world-wide. The man standing behind Elaine and I in the lower picture had polio during an epidemic in 1936. The last epidemic in Canada was in 1959, but there were isolated cases up to 1996 among sects who did not have their children vaccinated, and with contact from other countries.

There are major initiatives to eradicate polio world-wide. The World Health Organization had a target to eradicate polio by vaccinating children around the world by 2000. This target moved to 2005 and now to 2008. The Rotary Club International has raised $billions for this initiative with people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet donating $100s of millions. The difficulty has been reaching the children in some areas of south Asia and west-central Africa due to war and uncooperative governments. But there is optimism with coordinated effort that polio will be completely eradicated.

Convocation Pictures

Janny took pictures during and after convocation. Here are pictures of Mike with the family (sans Mary) and Mike with Nicole. There are more pictures on Janny's Flickr.

Mike's Convocation

Today is Mike's convocation from the University of Regina. He officially receives his degree Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Geography. He has come a long way since he first went off to school and his first graduation. (He always looked good in that red bow tie.)

For his honours program he majored in urban planning. I was very impressed with his thesis entitled "Past, Present and Future Influences of Railways in Regina: A Critical Analysis of Regina's Rail Relocation Program". It is well written and he obviously put a lot of work into it. It is over 60 pages long, based on research with over 100 references, and someone at the archives said there is enough there for a master's thesis. And he got an excellent mark for it.

Congratulations Mike. We are proud of your accomplishments!

Take Time to Be Holy

I remember my Grandma singing the song Take Time to be Holy. (click to play) It was written in 1882 by William D Longstaff and the words are just as true today.

Take Time to Be Holy

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.
Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,
Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide;
And run not before Him, whatever betide.
In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord,
And, looking to Jesus, still trust in His Word.

Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,
Each thought and each motive beneath His control.
Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love,
Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

Movie Making

This week a movie was being filmed downtown. Palm trees were added in front of the SP head office to make it into a Vegas condominium.

Little Sister's Birthday

Today is Little Sister's birthday. Here is one of my favourite pictures of her, out in the sun with fashionable sunglasses and hat.

I won't say how old she is but here are some facts about the year she was born:
- Soviet army puts down the Hungarian Revolution.
- IBM invents the hard disk drive.
- Japan joins the UN.
- General Electric introduces the Snooz Alarm.

She has always been my favourite sister and we have been the best of friends all our lives.

Happy birthday Little Sister!! I look forward to seeing you in about a month.

Supper's Cooking

When my mother got older she still had way too good of a memory about things I did when I was little boy. My kids would ask their Grandma, "Tell us stories about when our Dad did things bad when he was a little boy." One of the famous stories was about "Supper's Cooking."

When I was little our family had a gas stove in the kitchen. One time while my Mom had just stepped out the back door I must have gotten the idea that I could help by making supper.

I suddenly came out the back door and said loudly "Supper's cooking!"

My Mom could tell that something exciting was happening so she rushed into the kitchen. I had taken a little plastic frying pan, put in my Dad's cloth tape measure, put in on the stove and turned on the burner. Of course everything was up in flames. Mom quickly pushed the burning frying pan into a metal basin and took it outside to put out the fire.

Fortunately my Mom took into consideration that I came and told her right a way, so I didn't get in too much trouble. Needless to say it was quite a few years before I tried to "help" cook supper again.

Memorable Train Trip

When I was four years old our family travelled by train to New York state to visit my Dad's family. Even though I was that young I have vivid memories of that trip.

On the train I remember being in an upper sleeper bunk with my Dad. My sister, age 1, was with my Mom. While my Dad left me to go find more pillows I saw a button on the wall. Being a very inquisitive little boy, I pushed the button to see what would happen. And suddenly to my surprise a large black man in a porter's uniform appeared and asked what I wanted. My Dad was not far behind to see what was wrong. Fortunately I was not in too much trouble. I never have been able to resist trying things out to see how they work.

When we arrived I can still remember my Dad being so excited to see his family, since he had not seen them for about 10 years. He kept asking how soon they were bringing his Mother, and was so happy when she finally came.

The pictures shown here were taken by my Dad's brother Elias. My little Grandma is on the left. As a comparison my Mom (at the right holding my sister) was about 5'6" and looks tall compared to the others. My Grandma may have been small, but she had worked very hard, having 10 children, growing enough food to feed the family, as well as working in the field. She would have been about 78 in this picture, and lived to 88.

In the family picture I am sitting in front of my aunts and uncles, with some of my cousins beside me. My uncle took quite a few pictures of us including my "cowboy" pose. In the other pictures I look very serious and distinguished in my blazer and neck tie.

This was a very exciting and memorable trip, travelling across the continent by train, being able to meet my Grandma, and sensing my Dad's excitement at being there.

Scriptural Twittering

I have had a page element on my blog called Today's Verse for a while now. I have been manually editing a text box each time. However I wanted a way to keep track of which verses I have posted so far.

I am experimenting with Twitter now for posting my verses. The disadvantage is that each posting is limited to 140 characters, which may not be long enough for some verses.

My first verse in Twitter is Ecclesiastes 12:12 And further, by these, my son, [or daughter] be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. I thought of this in reference to the reading and studying Mary has accomplished. After all that studying no wonder she needs a rest for a while.

Little Elaine

Elaine's mother had this picture with Elaine when she was just over 1 year old. She is held by her Uncle Raymond. The others are her aunts and uncles, except for a neighbour, Ruben V second from right. Little Elaine is very cute!

Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day when we honour and show appreciation for Mothers. Of course we should always do that but this is a special day for recognition of Mothers.

Here is a picture of my Mother taken at our house on Mother's Day 2006 at the age of 89. She turned 90 that November before passing away in January 2007.

My Mom put everything she had into her care for her family with unending love and prayers. I was blessed of God to have her as my Mother.

I also wish a Happy Mother's Day to Elaine today!

Trach Change

I just had another trach change on Tuesday. I have two identical trach tubes. Every 4 to 5 weeks one is removed and the other one is put in. Then I clean and sterilize the one that was removed, ready for use next time.

I have been having the trach changes done each time by a Respiratory Therapist (RT). Except when there is a problem and the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Specialist does it when he examines me, as in my previous post on having a microscope up my nose.

Ky was coming over for supper on Tuesday. I offered that if she came over early she could do my trach change. But she didn't come in time so I went down to the hospital and had the RT do it. Actually one time last year the ENT specialist got Elaine to do the trach change. He wanted her to have the feel for it in case there was an emergency with my trach being blocked. I was proud of how cool and calm she was.

I was experimenting with the web cam and made a little video showing the trach tube. The part of the tube that goes down my trachea is 9.5 cm long. It has a "cuff" at the lower end of the tube, shown as the light blue balloon part. At night I inflate the cuff and the trachea is sealed around the tube to only allow air through the tube. During the day I deflate the cuff and air can go up past my vocal cords and through my nose and mouth. All this is becoming quite routine to me since I have been doing this for over a year now.

Symphony and Choir Performance

On Saturday evening I attended a performance of the RSO, and the RPC, joined by some other choirs. Attendance was "compulsory" since Elaine is in the choir, but I always enjoy their performances.

The symphony played some shorter pieces first, but the main program was a performance of Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. This was over an hour with the symphony, choir and soloists. It was mostly in Latin with some German which I of course do not understand. (Apparently it is better in some parts if you do not know the translation.) But I enjoyed it for the excellent musical performance. I always like the powerful parts with the symphony and large choir building up to full volume. And the soloists had amazing voices.

This particular musical work would not surpass the annual performance of Handel's Messiah as my favorite, but I did enjoy it. All in all it was well worth attending.

Our Anniversary

Today Elaine and I celebrate our 31st anniversary. I was thinking back to Elaine being in the hospital with our new baby on our 1st anniversary. The years have flown by since then.

Before I was married I was staying with an older couple in our church. I had just started my job so only planned to go to Camp for the weekends. I ended up getting sick and couldn't go the first weekend. I was feeling sorry that I had to stay home while everyone else was at Camp. I kneeled beside my bed and prayed that when I went to Camp the next weekend I would meet a new friend. When I got to Camp it became clear that Elaine wanted to be my "friend." And we became even more than friends. By that November we were engaged, and the next April we were married.

Last year while I was in hospital in critical condition, a nurse was asking Elaine how long we had been married. She said that we would be coming up to our 30th anniversary. The nurse asked what we planned to do to celebrate our anniversary. Elaine replied "We are going to celebrate being alive!" God answered prayer and I did revive. After a lengthy recovery, I was out of the hospital before our anniversary last year. And I was well enough that we were able to go out for supper for our 30th anniversary, and "celebrate being alive."

Now another year has gone by and Elaine and I can still "celebrate being alive!"

Happy Birthday Janny

Today is Janny's birthday. Our family has two April birthdays. Ten days ago Mike turned 25, and today Janny is 30. To put it in perspective, I was almost 25 when Janny was born, and almost 30 when Mike was born. Ok, you do the math.

Janny's birthday is the same day as her Grandma A's birthday, as well as the same day as her cousin Lisa's birthday (she's 13!!).

It is hard to believe it is 30 years ago that our first little baby was born. And she got to be our only child for over two and a half years before Mary showed up. Now she is back here as the only one with us for a time ( a lot taller but just as cute).

Happy Birthday Janny. We will see you in a week when you are back from your trip to the Left Coast.

Today's Verse

This week I have started a new part of my blog labelled Today's Verse. I just added a simple text box that I manually edit periodically when I feel inspired to do so.

Often I use a Bible program to find verses I am thinking about, searching by word or phrase. I have used a program called Online Bible for many years, that can be downloaded for free from www.OnlineBible.net. I also sometimes use a website www.BibleGateway.com to find verses I am looking for. Of course I still use a regular concordance, but these Bible programs are helpful.

Today's verses are by special request of Janny. She has often reminded me of these verses.

Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Col 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

Hooray for Mary

Maryanne has now successfully completed the Comps for her Phd program, with 3 written exams April 7th, 9th and 11th, followed by the oral exam today. Reading 200 books in preparation for these comprehensive exams required a lot of endurance and perseverance.

Congratulations Mary, you have made a major accomplishment. You have gone a long way since we first saw you head off to school. You will do great as you move on to the next phase.