Lucky-isms

 Our GSD Lucky whom we brought from Ukraine in the fall of 2022 gives our lives some meaning outside of ourselves. He answers to Lucky, Doofus, and Bud. Some days he is a sweetheart and somedays a total Richard Cranium. 

He does his best to love Tanya and I equally. I walk him. Tanya feeds him, opens the door for him at midnight and six am, gives him his meds when necessary and worrys about him constantly. He has a big dog bed and will use it in day time when we are up and about. At night, He sleeps on my carpet some of the time. My son in law put LED lights under my bed so I dont step on him when I get up in the dark. 

Most times he sleeps in Tanya's room (I am a night hawk) either on the carpet or in her bed. (She has a queen, I have a twin). But he will come in a few times in the night to chack on me. If I am awake I will give him pets and back/hip massage. Then he may collapse on my carpet or go back to Tanya's room. 

Tanya will often be on her phone, checking news from Ukraine or texting her sister/friends. When Lucky wants to sleep it needs to be dark so he pokes his nose under her phone and flips it up, signalling time to shut it down.

He gets a denta-stick every morning. The other morning Tanya forgot so he dug into his box and got one out on his own. He knows the routine. Otherwise he never goes near his treat box. He's not very food oriented. Except for my bacon at breakfast and meat from our plates any other time.

One day Tanya gtd him some sausage out of the fridge. He lay in front of the fridge staring longingly at it with his sad brown puppy eyes. No luck.

I discovered he likes Dad's oatmeal cookies. so do I. Tanya bought generic oatmeal cookies at the grocery store. Dryer and not as sweet. He ate a few and then if I gave him one, he would take it and give it to Tanya. 

When we are eating he will come and mooch, knowing we usually share. If he has no luck with one of us he will try the other person. To make him go away we offer him something he hates, like broccholi. He goes off in a huff and eats his dry food. 

He also eats his dry food if Tanya gets the vacuum out. I guess he worries she will clean out his dish. He has a dish used to slow down dogs who inhale their food. It gives him a challenge is all I can say. We are old and boring, not up to mentally challenging a GSD with the intelligence of a 3 year old. (He and my grandson are intellectual equals???) Well, my grandson did get written up in Play School for disobedience.

When we moved from Regina to Saskatoon two months ago, he was very unsure about the whole thing. We put out his dog bed; he lay on it for a minute and was good to go. If the bed is here then this is home. 

Like any middle aged male (6 years old is about 42 in human years) he has suddenlky developed prostate problems. The vet said that neutering him would cause the prostate to shrink and pretty much disapper. Tanya wondered if that would solve my prostate problems too and could she get a two for one deal at the clinic. 

Thoughts on turning 78 years old

 

There are two sayings regarding aging. "Every day above ground is a good one". That is an outright lie.

The other is "May you live as long as you want to and want to as long as you live". I like that one as it gives a person some agency. My Mom's youngest cousin on her mother's side battled cancer until she got tired of it and opted for MAID at 89. 

My maternal grandfather died at 83 of a heart attack; my mother at 81 of same. I have no cardiac problems at all (touch wood). 

My maternal grandfather died at 90 of old age. Went to sleep and didn't wake up. My maternal grandmother died at 95 but the last 5 to10 years were not kind to her as she had extreme dementia. I worry about that. The bag has a hole in it and my marbles are falling out. I have an appointment with a gerentologist to determine how many  I have left. 

In the scheme of things, I have lived a long time. Perhaps I will see 90, perhaps more but will settle for 90. I have seen a great deal as has anyone my age that didn't stay home. I cannot count how often I moved after I left home at 17. Friends of mine have seen far more countires than I have but I needed someone to pay my way. 

In Ukraine one of my favourite walks was through the cemetery a few blocks north of us. Most men died in their 60s. Only women, no men that I found, lived to their 90s. I used to think about what a Ukrainian woman born in 1903 saw in her 90 year lifetime and wondered how they lived through it. "You can be born in the Austro-Hungarian empire, educated in Poland, married under the Third Reich, work and retire in the USSR and draw your pension in Ukraine and never have left L'viv".

Now I look back at my life and am thankful for all I have seen and done. Who knows where the time goes? 

How I Sent My Summer Vacation

 When I walked the dog today, I wore long jeans, long sleeve sshirt and a bunny hug. I guess it is fall.

A quick catch up on our doings is in order. In April and May I had cataract surgery and in July got new glasses. Not totally happy with them and may get my eyes checked again. (I prefer plaid rather than checked but I digress). My new knee is working fine, doesnt hurt anymore and the surgery frightened the other knee so it doesn't hurt either. 

I walk with a cane now as I have neuropathy in both lower legs. That gives me poor balance. So I go tap tap tapping along like Blind Pew. When I walk Lucky I hold the loop of the leash in my right hand with the cane and take up the slack with my left hand. Lucky likes walking along streets as there is much to sniff and mark. We are close to Diefenbaker Park for a long long walk but it is all grass so boring. 

Tanya planted all her flowers in pots this spring for reasons I will explain. We moved from Regina to Saskatoon in mid-August. My two daughters in Saskatoon bought a lovely house for us and insisted we move. Regina had many advantages and I was reluctant to leave to say the least but the house was too small and the basement stairs too steep so it was time. 

Our home in Saskatoon is in a lovely area close to Exibition Park, bound by the freeway, Taylor and Ruth Streets. It is 30 minutes to Gabriel Dumont Park . Tanya and I often take Lucky down to the river. It is a 30 meter climb from water to street level but there is a gravel road with a gradual slope. I still have to rest at the top before I continue on home. 

Our back yard is grass, shrubs and trees with a big storage shed. Lucky loves it. A gate opens to a parking spot behind the garage, with garden space along the fence. Next spring I will build three 1 meter x 2 meter x 30 cm box gardens for Tanya to plant vegetables and flowers.  

I get my exercise every day walking lucky 2 or 3 km. I have dropped from a 3X to a 2X and it feels good. I am 25 kg lighter than my normal weight. 

Some things are within walking distance. Vet Clinic and Critters Pet Store both about 15 minutes, 20 if I take Lucky as he has to sniff of course. Critters does a great job of trimming Lucky's nails. 

The bus system here is pretty good once we get used to the routes and the best ways to get anywhere. Number 1 bus stops two blocks from us and goes south to a large mall area with WalMart, Home Depot and several other shops. We are a long way from South Costco  which is a disadvantage, but only 40 minutes from Market Mall with one bus chnge. Market Mall has become a medical centre of sorts. They have a walk in for people over 50 which is great. I miss my NP in Regina. 

My girls take us places when it is convenient for them and sometimes when it is not, I have to admit. Two days ago we did a $400 shopping trip to Superstore. They found us a small freezer that fits in our basement so we can buy more in bulk than before. We feed them supper when we can and share everything that Tanya cooks with them. Plov and Borsch being two favourites. 

Blogging will be hit and miss as usual so sign up fopr notice in your inbox or whatever works.

Done for the summer

 Too tired to blog. Mood up and down like Mary's pants a picnic following American and Ukrainian news.

See you in the fall.

The Case of the Poison Mushrooms

 

Sketch by Debra She Who Seeks

Bill, the beat cop, knocked on my door one fine spring morning. Since he was off duty, I poured two glasses of Scotch and prepared to listen. “What do you know about mushrooms”, he said.

“Some days, I think I am one. I am usually kept in the dark and fed horse manure”.

“We have a problem. A man died from eating poison mushrooms his wife made him, but we don’t know if it was accidental or not”.

“I had a case where a woman lost two husbands to poison mushrooms, and a third one by drowning. I asked how come he drowned, and she replied he wouldn’t eat his mushrooms. Can you imagine the first people to eat mushrooms? This one tastes like beef; this one killed Gary, and this one made me see angels for a week”.

“His wife is from Moscow. They go crazy in mushroom season and every year a dozen people get lost in the forest picking mushrooms. They pick and dry mushrooms by the kilogram”.

“Maybe an accident, maybe not. Did he have life insurance?”

“He took out a large policy a couple years ago naming his wife as beneficiary”.

“Not too bright. Mine is in my oldest’ name. She used to work with street gangs. Maybe I should worry too?”

“We seized her supply of dried mushrooms. Different kinds in different bags. She said her husband picked the bag that killed him. It was likely on top of the pile. Deliberately or coincidentally, we don’t know. She is pleading ignorance that they were poisonous.”

“Not bloody likely. Muscovites know their ‘shrooms. I only know meadow mushrooms in the wild and they are the same as the ones in the shops.”

“Me, too. As a kid on my grandmother’s farm, after a spring rain, I would only pick the meadow mushrooms. White tops, flesh coloured underneath”.

"You could never get this to stand up in court since she said he picked the bag of mushrooms and you have her word she did not know they were poisonous. You either have an unfortunate accident or the perfect murder."

Sex Crimes Against Children

 This is not the blog post I intended but ran into this link  https://www.whoismakingnews.com/

The Republicans and Evangelicals are constantly accusing LGBTQ of "grooming" children. Yet every day on @Threads, I see articles about cis-males sexually assaulting children or in possession of pictures of others assaulting them. Kristen Browde, a parent, lawyer, activist and out transgender woman, collected data on 10,885 cases between February 10, 2023 and May 23, 2014, discarded 4205 cases that did not provide details of the person involved and charted the remainder. All the information below can be found on her website.

The people in the gray circle "Other" is a list of any occupation you can name

Metric Time - the greatest April Fools Joke of all time

April 1st, 1975 - Radio announcers Wally Stambuck and Denny Carr of Saskatoon's CFQC 'Wal ‘n Den Show' pull off one of the best April Fool's jokes of all time when they make an 'official' news report that Canada will be switching to "Metric Time".

The April Fool's news report coincided with Canada's nation-wide changeover from Imperial to the Metric system on April 1st, 1975. That was the first day weather reports gave temperatures in degrees Celsius rather than Fahrenheit, road signs changed from miles to kilometres, gas went from gallons to litres and weights shifted from pounds to kilos. Many did not take kindly to the change and confusion reigned....

The timing was absolutely perfect and the 'Metric Time' changeover gag announcement (called ‘Larmencaller time’ by Stambuck and Carr) was added on as a 'breaking news, this just in' addendum to the official morning news report. The pair then proceeded to carry on the gag by discussing how to ‘convert’ clocks and making regular time announcements in both ‘standard’ and ‘Larmencaller’ throughout their morning broadcast.

The prank however went far, FAR beyond Stambuck and Carr's wildest imagination and quickly spread like wildfire.

As recounted by StarPhoenix columnist Paul Jackson - "The odd couple were so convincing, folks started turning in their watches and alarm clocks at jewellers around town to have them replaced." It was reported that Saskatoon City Hall got inundated with calls regarding people refusing to pay a tax increase to 'change the clock tower to Metric' as well as people phoning into bewildered Canada Revenue offices asking how 'Metric Time' would affect hourly wages.

The gag quickly spread to Ottawa as confused and irate people all over the broadcast area began calling elected officials and Members of Parliament to complain. As further recounted by Paul Jackson - "A Member of Parliament, hearing the show and receiving angry phone calls, fearing Pierre Elliott Trudeau really had gone too far this time, raised the issue in the House of Commons.”

The 'Wal ‘n Den 'Larmencaller Time' stunt was so completely well played and perfectly timed that it made the news across Canada as well as internationally and is regarded as among the most masterful April Fools jokes of all time.

Photo taken by CFQC photographer Jason Schoonover, Text by Thom Cholowski

  

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TRump is at the peak of the mountain and ten miles higher

That's How the Light Gets In

Somewwhere in Maine

Canonical Christians vs Evangelical Christians

Diferences of Opinion and Difference on Morality are two diferent things

I want to make this sign and put it in a few washrooms

Missing Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Prossper and Live Long

ChatGPT knows how Fascism Works