QUEUE (A-Z CHALLENGE)

My favourite piece of the New Phonetic Alphabet: Queue for Everything.

Albert Noradunkian was a designer and creator of jewellery. He was Armenia before he was Canadian. His daughter was one of my class mates in high school. They lived one block over from my parents' home.

He was the one who designed and made our wedding rings. For a very reasonable price.

But he was also an observer of life. One of his more memorable comments was that our lives are controlled by the clock and the line.

Think of your own life. How is it controlled by the clock?

You have to get to work or school at a certain time. So you have to get up at a certain time. You have to get ready by a certain time, meaning having breakfast, and getting dressed. You have to leave home by a certain time, to get where you're going by a certain time. Lunch is determined by the clock. Meetings and appointments happen according to the clock. The trip home is scheduled by the clock. Evening activities and even bed time are usually scheduled by the clock.

Or think of the lines in your life.

Driving to work? Follow the lines on the road. Going by bus? What bus route takes you where you want to go? Morning coffee or afternoon coffee – get in the lineup at the coffee shop. Grocery shopping (or shopping elsewhere)? Get in the checkout line.

Think of your life. How many things are determined by the clock? How many by the line?

So, how much control do you really have over the day to day events in your life?

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In other news:

Trouble South of River City

Trouble with a T that rhymes with P that stands for pools

People south of River City are heading for higher ground. Roughly a thousand acres of crop land are being flooded.

The Watershed Authority says the spillways at the Gardiner Dam on Lake Diefenbaker have been opened, to reduce pressure on the Lake.

The River, already well above normal, will rise another few feet. But that will be enough to flood low-lying areas between the Dam and River City, which is about 75 miles north of the Lake.

The River is already flowing at the fastest rate in history. There is no indication the flow will increase.

The opening of the Dam has been spurred by heavy rains in Alberta.

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Also brought to you by the letter Q:
• quizzical
• quandary
• queen
• quality
• quit

And from the New Phonetic Alphabet: Queue for everything.
(Oh, I've already said that.)

YES, WE'VE ARRIVED

I'm writing to you from our new locale.

And it's a zoo! (As in crazy busy with bringing the last bits over from the house, unpacking here, and figuring our what goes where.)

But it's a zoo with a view!

I don't have the time to give you a full explanation of these pictures, except to say that the first two pictures are of the downtown riverbank area of our city, and the last picture is looking up the river valley (which runs north-east from downtown). BTW, what you can't see, to the right of the third picture, is our sprawling University Campus; another time.

By time we get fully settled in, I'm sure our sixth-floor suite will seem much less zoo-like.

THE TIDE IS HIGH

. . . and so is the river. NO; we're nowhere close to being flooded, as some places to the south-west of us have been. It's just that there's a lot of water around — and a lot of jokes about it. (If I could remember some, I'd tell you — but my brain is even less functional than usual today). I recall something about kids thinking their dad had put in a swimming pool; dad had to explain that's the field where he usually grows his crops. Well, um, anyhow. . . .

I very much hope you have a reasonable balance of wet and dry, wherever you are. I'm scheduled for minor surgery in a few weeks; the doctor's going to cut out the webbing that's grown between my toes during all this wet weather. But he has quack yet to determine quack what quack to do about quack these strange noises that quack I've been making. Not ducky at all.

DIY OF A DIFFERENT SORT

Despite the freezing weather last night, and the fact that there is still snow on the ground, one member of our community was very busy.

Yup, the resident Beaver was doing his thing,
leaving all the evidence behind.

The really interesting thing was that he decided to drop a tree right beside the walking path, . . .

meaning he (or she) had to climb up a fairly steep 25 foot embankment, drop the tree, and haul all the goods back down.

(This picture doesn't do justice to the steepness of the climb.)

But that wasn't the first time.

The night before, Beaver had been busy too.

J and K (our granddaughter) found this work

when they were walking home to our son's last evening.

This was, actually, just a bit of an afterthought.

 The real prize lay about 50 feet north.

Those six were about the diameter of your forearm. Not small stuff at all. Not only cut, but hauled down to the river.

So far, the lower trail (just a muddy footpath along the river's edge) hasn't been walkable. Now, I'm going to have to go down there and find out where the Beaver's lodge is.

I don't think Beaver will mind a visit from Bear,
though Sadie might be upsetting.

IT'S CRISP!

November in our part of the world was quite lovely: warm, sunny, dry.

December is, however, like Eric the Red -- a Norse of a different colour. Last night's temperature was down to -33°C (-27°F), the wind chill took it down to -37°C (-35°F). When Sadie and I tried to go for a very short walk, she would just stop and hold her paws up, one after the other. So we beat a hasty retreat home. I went out for a short walk by myself, mostly just to stretch out my back. But it was too cold for me to go very far. By then, the temperature was up to a balmy -31°C, when I checked it out.

Yesterday, the ice pans on the river were quite large. We could hear them scraping against each other. Sadie kept stopping and trying to figure out what this strange, new noise was.

Today, we're one step past that.


The ice pans have piled up, and river is frozen right over, except for a few open spots.


There is still mist coming off the open bits of water, and the sun lends an etherial quality to the scene.


But the geese haven't left!


Silly as a goose, or what?

This is pretty much what it will be like until spring. Makes for hardy stock -- human and animal. If you want to come for a visit, just make sure to bring your ice skates (we've got lot of skating rinks -- but no skating on the river -- too dangerous!). Or you could bring your cross-country skis.

Here's hoping you have a pleasant day, wherever you are. Sadie and I will likely sit on the sofa, beside the gas stove. I'll read; she'll sleep.

PHRIDAY PHOTOS

WINTER TRANSFORMATION

Temperatures hit -20°C last night (-4°F). Under such conditions, our world is transformed -- at least along the river. The cold air hitting the warmer water raises huge clouds of mist.



The sand bar on which the ducks and geese are accustomed to gathering turns into an island of snow and ice.


And the world around us is turned into something of a fairy castle -- suitable for Fairy Nuff, and others.


Ah, yes; it IS that time of year. Soon it will be too cold for taking Sadie out, except for the shortest of walks. Even the birds have gone into hiding.

WINTER IS A-COMMIN' IN . . .

Yup. It's getting colder these days. High temperature for the day estimated at around -10°C (or 14°F).

It's snowing lightly now. We've had snow for several days. Pretty soon I'm going to have to go out and shovel the walk. Grr$%@#*&%@rr. (That's Bear-speak for s0mething you can't say in "polite" company.)

The river-bank trail is getting covered.


The near side of the river is still fairly open -- though the ice pans are much larger and thicker.



But the sand bar where the geese hang out is totally covered with snow and ice, while the ice pans on the far side (where the current moves more slowly) are starting to pile up.



Still, the sun is shining -- or at least trying to!


But don't worry; it will get a lot colder before it gets warmer.

I think it's finally hibernation time!

"LET'S GO FOR A WALK"

Those are magical words in Sadie's ears.

For those of you not familiar with her story, Sadie came to our home to walk me.

(Now, mind you, that's not the whole story, but it's a good beginning.)

So, three times a day, we go for a walk (unless I'm in a lot of pain).

"But where do you go?" you might ask.

Well, I'm glad you asked, because I'm going to show you.

We're one house from the end of the block (where there is a "T" intersection). So we go to the end of the block and turn right (head west).


At the end of this block there is a park, which I've mentioned before. (We'll turn left and head south.)

(Holiday Park)

On the east side of the road is Abbeyfield House, a home for seniors. I have known the manager for a number of years; one of the staff I have known (through Scouting) since our earliest years in Saskatoon.

Across from Abbeyfield, the Park continues. (You've seen the reverse angle of this picture.)


At the end of the block, we get to the Bowerman House.



This was the "hunting lodge" of Allan Bowerman, head of one of our city's early prominent families. It was quite a bit outside the city when it was built (in 1907), at the edge of a ravine, not far from the river.

Then, things changed.


It's 1925, and a Tuberculosis Sanatorium is built next to the Bowerman property. It was far enough out of the city to be "safe" but close enough to be easily serviceable from the city. Bowerman, a land developer, had sold the "lodge" a few years earlier, when the city went from boom to bust. The home became the residence of the Sanitorium Director. (That land from the Bowerman house, up to and including Abbeyfield House, held residences for other doctors at "The San." )

(Site of the former main buildings at "The San.")

When the buildings were demolished in the mid 1980s, the arrangement at the time is that this would stay a park, and no new buildings would go up, except where that had already been buildings. One building has now been put in place.


This is on the west side of the property, where the Nurses' Residence was located. (In one of the congregations I served in the city, there was a woman who had been a nurse at The San during WW2.) This building has some of the outline features of the old residence. (The architect must have done his/her homework.)

This is a low-rent public housing project. Very nicely done. Not at all your typical "Council flats."


We turn our backs on the housing, and walk the trail to the south-east, until we come to the river.


There are still a few geese who have not left, yet. In fact, there will be geese on the river all winter. A mile (more or less) upstream from here there is an electricity generating plant, named in honour of HRM Elizabeth II. The "Queen E Power Plant" (as it is known locally) used coal to generate power through turbines. Those were converted more recently to natural gas. But the plant still needs water (primarily for cooling, I understand). So cold water is taken out of the river, and it is replaced by warm water. No pollution, I'm told; just water exchange. Hence, the geese have a relatively nice place.

You'll also notice ice pans beginning to form on the river. That starts at about -10°C. If we get warm weather, those little thin sheets disappear. But in the cold of winter, the river will freeze right over, except for openings where the current is strongest.

From here, we turn left, and head north for about half a kilometre.


The "Turret house" is interesting. It was built as a modified A-frame house. The original owner, so the story goes, had a piano, which was to move to the upper floor. But the stairs were not big enough. Hence the turret was added on, so the piano could be hauled upstairs.

To this point, we've travelled about a kilometre. If I want to cut the walk short, particularly if I'm having trouble walking, we can turn left here. Our property is located across the back lane from the Turret House, so we're within 100 yards of home at this point.

(To be continued.)

PHRIDAY PHOTO

To V or not to V? That is the question.

Canada Geese on a sandbar at the south edge of the city

The day before I took these pictures, there were about ten times as many geese on the sand bars. (Of course, I didn't have my camera with me!)

We have hundreds of geese that nest on the sand bars every year; hundreds more stop here on their migration south.

I'm still waiting to get a good picture of flock in flight, in their typical "V" formation. It's quite magnificent. These were "talking" about it; a couple did a bit of a "test flight," but the group wasn't quite ready to move on. Perhaps they were waiting for others to join them.

The snow which had fallen a few days earlier was mostly gone, but the temperatures were still around the freezing mark.
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