Historic Train Trip

A week ago my family took me on a train trip for my birthday.  We went from Ogema SK to Horizon SK and return, a distance of 26 km (16 miles) each way, on the Southern Prairie Railway.   When I was 4 years old my family went on a memorable train trip to the eastern US to visit my father's family.   Now this train trip was a memorable way to celebrate my birthday with the family. 

 It was raining when we got to Ogema to board the train. As seen in the picture above there is an engine and one passenger car.   The engine is a 1945 GE diesel electric switcher engine.  The passenger car is a 1922 Pullman passenger car which was fully restored. 

The passenger car was completely refinished inside and out.. There is a blog that documented the extensive work by Ogema and area in restoring the train and station. 

 
We traveled the 16 miles to Horizon SK with still some light rain and mist so didn't get a lot of clear pictures of the view on that part of the trip.  The rain didn't dampen the excitement of riding on the train though.  The rain had stopped by the time we got to Horizon and we got off the train to tour a grain elevator. In the picture above the passenger car is waiting while the engine goes around to hook on the other end (left end in this picture) for the return trip.  The seats actually flip over so we are still facing forward for the return trip. 

In the distance to the right in the picture above is a former Pool elevator  which is still used as an elevator for farmer and community owned railroads.  This section of track is part of the rail facilities operated by the Red Coat Road and Rail.  And this in turn is part of over 700 km of former CPR track across southern Saskatchewan  operated by Great Western Railroad.  

 We toured the former Federal grain elevator which was later operated by the Wheat Pool until the 1970s.  Then we returned to the train for the trip back to Ogema.  We stopped for about 1/2 hour and the train only traveled about  20 - 25 mph so the whole tour was about 2 hours. 

I took some video clips with my iPhone that I combined into a short video from the return trip.

 
The video starts with the outside of the train while reboarding for the return trip, some inside the train, and the view out the window passing the former community of Glasnevin.   (This Glasnevin link  I found is part of a series of Youtube videos with some history of prairie communities, and is videoed from the train we were on.)   If you look for Southern Prairie Railroad on Youtube you can also find other videos about this train.

When we got back to Ogema we had a quick tour of the Deep South Pioneer Museum.   We had no idea how extensive this is and only had 45 minutes before heading home in time for supper with the family.  It is a pioneer village with 30 buildings over 10 acres as well as outdoor displays such as rows of old tractors. A person could spend all day there but we just had a short time. 
 
All in all a very exciting and memorable way to celebrate my birthday with the family.        


  

Spring time?

According to the calendar today is the first day of Spring.  The path of the sun crosses the equator and starts heading north.  But signs of Spring seem to be far away here.  The driveways and streets are mostly cleared after the last snow storm on the weekend.  The total snowfall is now 196 cm (over 6 feet) breaking the previous record from 1955/56.  We normally get about 100 cm (over 3 feet) but this year we already had that amount by Christmas time.  There has been some melting in warm spells and settling of the snow but still an incredible amount on the ground .  The scary part is where is the water all going to go if it melts too quickly.    

View from the front window

Snow in the back yard half way up the shed and fence

Using this patio is a long way away. 

Six Years Later

Six years ago today is when I got my tracheostomy tube.  February 24, 2007 I was back in hospital for the 3rd time with worsening respiratory condition from high CO2 buildup.  I was intubated in emergency and then on February 28th I had surgery to put in my trach tube.  I have blogged about this before around the anniversary.   Now six years later I am quite used to the trach and continue to use a ventilator at night.  At first I got the trach tube changed every 4 weeks, and now every 6 weeks and have had this done over 50 times now so it is getting quite routine.

In the picture above, cuddling new granddaughter Li'l E, you can see the connection to my trach tube with a heat and moisture exchanger (HME)  and oxygen tubing.  The HME is also known as a "Swedish nose"  apparently since the inventor was Swedish and it has the same function as your nose with filtering the air and retaining humidity.  When I go out I wear a speaking valve with a scarf over it but at home it is more comfortable with the "Swedish nose."
         
Last week I had an appointment with the ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist who examined around and below my trach tube with his bronchoscope.     This was a follow up appointment after being in hospital in November.  He was very happy with how well healed everything looks in my trachea and the stoma opening for the trach tube. 

As I think back to how I was 6 years ago, I thank God for His goodness and for the health He has given me each day.

A Very White Christmas

We had the family here on Christmas Eve for turkey dinner and gift opening.  We had a quiet time on Christmas morning and I was watching and listening to The Three Tenors Christmas Concert on YouTube on my Apple TV I got for Christmas.   The first song was "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" which was written by Irving Berlin in 1940 and one of the most popular songs of all time.   There are different accounts of whether he was in California or Arizona when he wrote it but somewhere that he was dreaming of a white Christmas.  I remember very few times in Saskatchewan  that there was no snow for Christmas, and this year we are having a very white Christmas.    

View from our front window

View of the snow in the back yard

We set a monthly record for snowfall in November of 70 cm (over 2 feet).  The November normal is 13 cm and previous record 54 cm. So far we have 100 cm (over 3 feet)  which is what we normally get in a whole winter.  Of course we do not have snow 3 feet deep on the ground since it settles and some has melted on mild days.  But there is enough accumulation that neighbours are scouting for more places to put the snow cleared from their driveways or get some hauled away.  We are thankful for a neighbour who has a Quad ATV (small 4 wheel all terrain vehicle) with a blade on the front who clears our side by side driveway together with his as well as sidewalks all the way down the street. 

We have had a wonderful Christmas and this is certainly a very white one.  

     

Grandpa and Little Elizabeth

First time holding her

Talking to Aunt Helen

Visiting Aunt Helen in 2004

On Thursday I phoned my Aunt Helen and had a good talk with her.  She is my only living Aunt (widow of my Dad's youngest brother) and coming up to 91 on November 15.  I was thinking of calling on her birthday but called Thursday to see how she fared with Hurricane Sandy.  She lives in Delaware which was right on the path of the storm.  They did fairly well where she is with about 3" of rain and some tree branches down but not major damage.  Her son already had that cleaned up.  She did not have a power outage, but her daughter had a flooded basement from the power out for the sump pump.   Areas with a lot of  wind and flood damage were not far away from them.  

Aunt Helen is still doing quite well.  She said she did decide to quit driving, and her son drives her to appointments or for groceries.  She said she can't get up into his truck so kept her car so he can drive her places in it.  She is very thankful for her relatively good health. She said her main concern is her eye sight, but treatment for macular degeneration is helping keep fairly good sight in one eye.   

We had a very enjoyable talk for about half an hour.  I should try to remember to call Aunt Helen more often.     

More prayers for Kaia

This picture was taken in July 2010 talking to Kaia at our summer church camp.  I have posted before about praying for Kaia in 2010 and 2011 .   She is scheduled for heart surgery on Monday and we are all praying for her.  We pray she will grow up to be a strong young woman to bless many with her loving heart.

UPDATE November 3:  After initially being rescheduled, Kaia finally had her surgery this past Monday.  She had a rough time the first night but is doing much better day by day.  We praise God for that.   

Thanksgiving with the Family

Yesterday afternoon and evening we had the family here for Thanksgiving.  We started off with a wonderful meal with turkey, dressing and mashed potatoes, etc.....   Janice roasted the turkey and made the gravy, Elaine did the mashed potatoes and sweet potato and dressing,  Mike brought salad and Maryanne brought cranberry sauce, and made pumpkin pie. Everything turned out perfectly.  So we were very well fed with a wonderful meal.  Chris and Maryanne were having their second turkey dinner after having a Thanksgiving dinner with his family the day before.   And we have quite a bit left from a large turkey so we will be having it in various ways for a while.   

During and after cleanup we watched the football game, moving to our new TV downstairs for the second half.   It was a good game with another Rider win played in Toronto.  The Riders outplayed Toronto on the field, and the fans in Rider green dominated the stands.  The cheering sounded like a Rider home game.  By that time our dinner was settled enough we were ready for the pumpkin pie.

In the evening Mike showed us his pictures of a recent trip to Chicago.  Then we played a board game called Power Grid that the family gave me for  my birthday but had not had a chance to play yet.  This is an economic strategy board game that I had not heard of before but is highly rated by board game experts. On the website Board Game Geek it is ranked number 6 in a data base of over 60,000 board games.  The game is played in 5 phases for each round of the game. 1. Determine player order (changes for each round); 2. Auction power plants (decide if to pass or bid more than opponent); 3.  Buy fuel for your power plants (fuel prices go up as lower priced fuel sold out); 4. Build houses and pay building and interconnection costs in the network; and 5. Receive payment for number of house supplied with power.   The first time though it took us quite a while referring back to the rules to get the procedures and learn how to balance costs and revenue.  The board is shown below using the US  map (1 of 4 alternate maps including Quebec, Germany, Europe.)    

After about 2.5 to 3 hours in the evening we had to quit for the night  since some had to go to work the next day (not like us retired folks who stay up late.)  The picture is how the board looked by the time we ended for the night. We recorded where we were to continue again another day.  It should go easier when we continue since we are starting to know the game rule better.

All in all it a was perfect day with the family.                     

Watching the sunset

This evening we were up on Douglas Park hill overlooking Wascana Lake at sunset.  From where we were standing at the top of the hill the sun was setting directly in line with the legislature across the lake.  I took several pictures with my iPhone as the sun was setting.  The pictures below are over a 10 minute period from 7:50 to 8:00 PM.   If you click on the first picture it should enlarge and you can do a slide show of the sunset pictures in sequence.  

Enjoying Summer Days

Last evening Elaine and I were out enjoying the nice summer weather.  It was up to 30C during the day but early evening was 25C with little wind.  We followed our usual route and I drove Elaine to the start of the bike path and then met her at parks along the way.

 I was taking pictures with the camera and Elaine took pictures with her iphone.  Here she was taking a picture from the bridge at the start of the bike path. 

   I drove down and met Elaine where the bike path goes near A.E. Wilson park. 

 This is the view of the creek and islands from the bike path where I met Elaine. 

After meeting a couple other places along the way we stopped for a while at the waterfall park.  This is one of the many beautiful areas adjacent to the bike path.  This is where we had our family pictures taken last year (as well as in 2001.)

   
I drove to the legislature and met Elaine at the Queen Elizabeth II gardens.

   The Queen Elizabeth II gardens were renovated and just recently reopened.  This view is looking at the gardens north of  the statue with the Queen on her horse.

I set the camera on timer to take a picture of Elaine and I at the QE II gardens.  After a little more time in Wascana park it was time to head home after a beautiful evening.   

Summer News and Views

I haven't blogged for a while and we also have not been taking a lot of pictures, so have not been too inspired to post anything.  But it is time for an update.  We started July with a week at the North Battleford  church camp as we usually do.  We very much enjoyed the meetings and visiting.  During that time Darlene and Steve celebrated their 25th anniversary and we had a supper for them at a restaurant.

          Darlene and Steve (with daughter Lisa between them) at their 25th anniversary supper

Then after camp we went up to visit Elaine's parents for 3 days. They are needing more help now and the family has been going to see them more often.  We were also there in early June. 

After we were home Darlene and Lisa came to our house for a visit (Steve had already gone home for teaching a music camp.)   They were here for 9 days and we had a nice visit.   They just left last Saturday the same time that we left to go to North Battleford for the weekend to attend a wedding. 

So for the first 3 weeks of July we were either away or had visitors here.  Now this week we are back to just Elaine and I at home.  We are getting some things done but also taking some breaks to enjoy the summer weather.  On Monday evening I drove Elaine to the bike path.  She rode her bike and I drove to meet her at some parks along the way, finally ending up at Wascana park. 

       I was enjoying the view from the upper level at Pine Island

Then yesterday evening Elaine and I went to the Willow restaurant at the Wascana marina.  It is a wonderful restaurant with great view of the lake.  Our family gave us a gift certificate to go there for our 35th anniversary at the end of April and we had not used it yet.  So we thought this week would be a good time to go.  We had a great meal and very enjoyable time.   

This is a self-photograph of Elaine and I on the patio overlooking the lake in front of the restaurant after our meal.   

But the excitement is just beginning here as Chris and Maryanne are on the road arriving Friday.  So the quiet times this week may be just the calm before the storm ...

 

  

Picking Up Speed

This week we got our high speed internet upgraded.  For many years we have had the high speed basic at 1.5Mb/sec, and we got it upgraded to 10Mb/sec.  The speed test showed we have 10.3 Mb/sec download and 850 kb/sec upload (advertised as 800 kb/sec.)     These data rate units are kilobits per second and megabits per second.  A byte is 8 bits, but to get the effective download speed for a given file size it is easier to estimate by dividing by ten.   For example on the upgraded internet a 60 MB file downloads in about a minute.    

One of the noticeable differences has been with my iPad.  I have National Geographic and Popular Science subscriptions which are huge downloads.  June issue of NG was 259 MB and PS was 517 MB.  With our basic internet the National Geographic download would come to a standstill and timeout on an error.  After the upgrade it down loaded in about 6 minutes.    

We are also looking forward to trying out the faster internet with Skype.  We were getting a faster internet service and better connection on Skype on my iPad using Elaine's iPhone as a hotspot on 3G at Waskesiu, than on our basic internet at home.  

We have come a long way since our first dial up modem at 300 baud (comparable to bits per second.)   It took  about 5 minutes to fill one screen of text.  We then moved up to 2400 bits/sec and then to 56k bits/sec before finally going to the basic high speed.  We must have had more patience in those days. 

High Tech Breathing

I have been using a respiratory ventilator at night for over 5 years since I was in hospital in 2007.   I had respiratory failure from high CO2 buildup in my blood.  I have had several blog posts about this, and have been using the same model of ventilator at home each night since I was in the hospital.  

For the last 5 years I have used a Phillips Respironics PLV-100  ventilator set for respiratory volume assist/control.   This ventilator model is out of date and no longer supported by the manufacturer.  It is a simple and reliable machine, sometimes with a few clunks, honks and rattles, but it just keeps puffing along.   The family says I sound like a steam engine.  It is a pretty rugged machine and I told the respiratory therapist it looks like it was designed to mount in the back of an army truck.

Then earlier this year we got the news that the provincial health department  had approved the purchase of new ventilators.  Mine came yesterday and the respiratory therapist was here to get me going using it.

 The new machine is a Covidien Puritan Bennett 560  ventilator which is the latest technology.   I used it for the first time last night.  I woke up after sleeping one hour and then had some trouble getting used to the new machine before sleeping and waking several more times.  After being used to the feel and sound of the old machine it takes some getting used to sleeping with the new one. 

The old ventilator we called a "steam engine" with the sound of a large piston  cycling back and forth with each breath.  The new machine has  a variable speed micro turbine that has a varying higher pitched whirring  sound with each breath.  The feel of the breathing cycle is different as well.  Hopefully tonight will be better as I get used to it.

One big advantage of the new ventilator  is that it is much lighter to take with us when we travel.  It just has a zippered soft  case with a shoulder strap for carrying.  The old one had a large heavy steel framed shipping case.  Not having to take the old heavy ventilator in and out when we travel will make Elaine very happy.  We will get to try out the new ventilator when we go away for the upcoming long weekend.
 

  

Anniversary Travelling

Elaine and I are away on a holiday for a few days at Waskesiu  for our anniversary.  We arrived last evening and today is our 35th anniversary.  It was raining when we arrived on Sunday evening and still light rain this morning, but this afternoon the sun came out through the clouds and we had a wonderful time touring around in the area.

One of the most beautiful places we were at this afternoon was the Waskesiu River where it comes out of Waskesiu Lake.  Here we are on the bridge on the walking trail.  Elaine went around the nature trail while I stayed and enjoyed the scenery and watched the waterfowl in this area.

This picture is looking up the Waskesiu River from the walking bridge.  The still water nearer the bridge was reflecting the trees and sky, with the rapids farther up river roaring in the distance.

 
After we got back from an afternoon of touring around we had dinner at a nice restaurant for our anniversary.   After dinner the sun was setting over the lake.  This picture is the view from the front of our suite. 

Beautiful Day in the Park

We had a beautiful sunny day today with a temperature high of 20C.   This is the nicest day we have had yet this spring.  This afternoon we went up to the start of the bike path in the northwest of the city and Elaine had her first bike ride of the season. I drove down to meet her at some places along the path.  Then she loaded the bike in the van and we drove to Wascana Park and went to Pine Island. 

There were a lot of people out in the park enjoying the nice day.   The picture is from the upper level on Pine Island.  The place I usually take pictures across the lake is from the walkway below.   

Elaine was happy to be out at the park on such a nice day. 

"This is the face I made when my picture was taken."  Actually I think I was just saying something when the picture was taken.   Aside from my expression I was also very much enjoying being out in the park.

Victoria Trip

We are home after our trip to Victoria last week.  This week we are slowly resting up and recuperating from colds we had while there.  We didn't do as much touring around  and picture taking as other trips there in 2006 and 2010, partly due to our colds and also because the weather was quite cool and rainy.   We took Elaine's parents, who had never been on the island before, and had rented a van that Chris drove to take them with us on some sight seeing around the area.   The main pleasure of the trip was seeing how much they enjoyed it.  They never would have ventured on a trip like this on their own at their age.

  Viewing the sights from Mount Tolmie

"The Twins"  - 3 generation picture at Chris and Maryanne's apartment

On Friday we went for lunch at the Oak Bay Marina.  This combined picture shows us at the table with the view from the window on the right. 

Touring at Fisherman's Wharf.  Friday was the nicest day for touring with some blue sky showing through. 

We had good flights home on Saturday and arrive safely but quite tired from our colds.    Elaine's parents left from here yesterday to go back to the farm by bus.   We enjoyed the trip but it was still good to get home again.

 

Basement Flooring

We had our basement flooring installed today over 2 weeks ahead of the original schedule they gave us.   So we are quite excited to have it done before we go away on our trip (March 10-17.)   The 3 installers arrived  about 8 AM this morning and were all done by about 3 PM.   We ordered Tarkett Fiberfloor in a Cherry Spice wood grain pattern.  It is similar to a thicker vinyl flooring but instead of a felt backing it has an inner layer of fiberglass and a water proof and mould resistant foam backing.   After final measurements 2 installers went back to the shop to cut the flooring pieces while one installer was finishing up filling cracks and small holes in the concrete floor.  We had investigated laminate flooring originally but it would have need much more extensive leveling of the concrete floor. And our stairs would have been a major problem to put laminate on the way they were built.

We got the same flooring all the way from the bedroom at one end through the family room and the hall and closet and storage room to the bathroom at the other end.  We had chosen the paint colours to coordinate with the flooring colour.  We are very happy about how it turned out.

The same flooring was installed on the stairs along with nickel-plated metal nosings.  The picture shows the before and after for the stairs.   How well it would go on our type of stairs that were in rough shape was one of the reasons we chose this flooring. 

Now that the flooring is in we can get the toilet and vanity/sink installed in the bathroom.  The plumber said he can come next week.   And the electrician will be back maybe tomorrow to install more light fixtures.   The work is now into the home stretch ....

Basement Renovations in Full Colour

The painting is now completed for our basement renovations.  The painting was done by the same person who did the drywall finishing.

The bedroom is "Winter's Eve" blue.  The closet is white, as are all the ceilings, and we will have white baseboards and trim.   

The family room colour is called "Kangaroo."  The door to the right is the bedroom and to the left is a storage room.  

 The bathroom is "Caliente" red which contrasts with the white bath fixtures.  There is also a white alcove that the vanity and sink will be built into, as well as white baseboards and trim.      

Painting the stairwell was the biggest job.   This picture is looking up toward the ceiling at the top.  It is about 10 feet up from the top of the stairs or about 18 feet up from the bottom of the stairs.  The painter used two ladders with planks between them to paint up there. And he did it again today for a second coat.   It is amazing to have that done!

We are very excited to have the painting completed and very pleased how good a job the painter did.  It makes the completion of our renovation project seem so much closer.  The flooring is on order and scheduled for installation after mid-March.   The electrician is scheduled to come tomorrow to replace our breaker panel with a new larger one for the extra circuits that were added.   And the work continues .....