Earth Day

     I participated in that first Earth Day back in 1970.  Our small conservative university had a short  ceremony out in the lawn with some speakers from the Biology Department.  It was not well attended. Like I said, it was a conservative university, and concerns over our planetary home were not high on most of the student body’s agenda.   Of course, like in most groups, there was a small fringe of people who cared passionately about the Earth, and sought to stop the existential degradation that was threatening it.

    Those were days of hope and had restrictions only been put in place back then, our planet’s climate would not be in such a dire and threatening state today.

    For me, hope for the Earth is pretty much gone.  Big oil money controls the White House, and now all those corporations that used to give lip service to the environment, no longer have to “Green Wash” themselves, in fact, with Trump and the sycophant Republicans in power, it is dangerous for them do so.

    All I can do is urge everyone to do what you can to protect the natural environment we still have, and try to limit your use of fossil fuels as much as you can.

    

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Timex, One Crappy Clock Radio

     In December, I blogged about getting a new clock radio, something I really depend on, but was having trouble finding in a store.  I was overjoyed when at last I found a Timex clock radio in a store in Prince George, after striking out multiple times.  It didn’t take me long to discover that my happiness at getting the new clock radio was ill deserved, the Timex turned out to be a piece of junk.

    See all of the titles by the buttons on the top?  Well, it turned out most of them were just suggestions, not something that would actually happen, if you pressed them.

    There are two buttons for setting the alarm, so you can set two different times to wake up.   Supposedly, you can press the buttons and set the time you want to wake up.  After trying to set the first alarm time, I finally just gave up.  While trying to set the alarm time, at one point, just stopped moving the clock.  It stopped at 2:30 in the afternoon, something I didn’t want, but I couldn’t change.  I couldn’t even turn the alarm time off, so every day at 2:30 in the afternoon, the radio came on. 

    I then tried to set 7:00 AM, the time I wanted to wake up, on the other alarm.  I was able to successfully set it correctly, but I was unable to get the clock to unset the alarm for those days I didn’t want to wake up at 7:00, so the alarm went off whether I wanted it or not.  

    I always liked to  use the “Sleep” function on clock radios.  Often, if I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep, I turn on Sleep mode, then set how many minutes I want it to play, before it turns itself off.  Unfortunately, sometimes when I hit the Sleep button, instead of showing the time to stay on, it changes the radio station, giving me static.  That is not something I want to have to deal with in the darkness of the middle of the night.

    Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night and turn on the Sleep button, I hear a program I don’t really want to listen to, so I slide my finger over to the radio ON-Off button to turn it off, and for some reason, instead of turning off the radio, it increases the volume, something else I don’t want to hear in the middle of the night.  The electronic wiring for the function buttons seem to be all random, intertwined, and messed up.  The forty dollars I spent on the Timex clock radio, was money wasted.

    Yesterday, we did another shopping day in Prince George.  I remembered that the store where I got the Timex clock radio, also had Sony clock radios, and so I forked out $50, for one of them.  I sure hope I have better luck with that one, than I had with the Timex.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

The Bumble Bees Are Out

     While it seems that Spring is taking its time getting here (last week we had several mornings when we woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground), Spring’s tardiness has not stopped Nature from getting out.  I was surprised yesterday, to see some Bumble Bees checking the few small blooms that have sprouted in the yard.

    There are no big flowers in bloom yet, but there are a few very small flowering plants that are in bloom.  The bees don’t seem to mind how small the blooms are, as long as they provide them with some nectar, and I guess the flowers are accommodating, because the bees are spending a lot of time crawling around the flowers.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

An Aurora

     Settling in to go to sleep was a bit chaotic last night.  I was in my bed and almost to slumberland, when my wife told me that Kona wanted to go outside, so I went downstairs, slipped on my gum boots, and carried Kona out into the cold darkness.  Kona did what she had to do and so I carried her back inside the house, climbed the stairs, and tried to retrace the road to sleep.

    Again I was just about there when I heard crickets from my iPhone.  I had chosen the cricket sound as my alert that I was getting a text message.  I figured that since it was just after 11:00, it must have been a scam text, so I decided to just ignore it.  Then thinking about it, I realized that instead of the usual must one cricket alert, I got three in quick succession, which was unusual.  

    Still thinking about it, two thoughts came to me:   I had read there had been a prediction of auroras on Friday night, and it was Friday night.  The second thought was of Ingrid, who lives just up the road.  We had often talked about auroras, and she had seen a spectacular one that I had missed, so I wondered if she was texting me about watching one.  

    I reached over and looked at my phone.  Sure enough, Ingrid had sent me two photos of an aurora she was seeing at her house.  I grabbed my phone and went out into the dark, bracing, night air to see if I could see and aurora.  There was a slight greenish hue in the sky, but when I set my phone’s camera  to “Night Mode” I could see the bright green of the aurora quite clearly.  I walked around the property and took a slew of photos.  

    Here are three of them.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Our Poor Designer "Doodle Dog" Can't Even Sit Properly

     For years now, dog breeders have been raking in the cash, breeding “Doodle Dogs” (all kinds other breeds to poodles).   They breed Labradoodles (Labrador Retriever-Poodle mix), Goldendoodles (Golden  Retriever-Poodle), Bernedoodles (Bernese Mountain Dog-Poodle mix) etc, etc.  You get the idea.  Everyone wanted a mixed poodle bred dog.  Sadly, it seems more attention was paid to selling puppies, than to the genetics of these designer dogs, and as a result, many dogs have been created and sold with horrible genetic problems.

    Our dog Kona is one of them.  Kona is a Bordoodle, a mix of Border Collie and Poodle.  She is a rescue dog that we got for free from her previous owners.  They told us she had joint problems, but we accepted that she might develop complications in the future.  She was still a young dog when we got her, and she was very energetic and normal.  However, now as she ages, very serious problems are starting to show.

    After our last vet visit where an X-ray of Kona was done, we were told that basically, Kona has no hip sockets, and her legs are held in place by scar tissue.  Kona can no longer walk,  she is able to stagger upright, when she needs to pee or poop, and shuffle like a seal when she needs to move a bit.  I have to carry her outside when she needs to do her business and carry her from room to room, when necessary.  

    With all of her problems, Kona remains stoic and very affectionate.  We have been giving her several pain-killers daily.  

    In the photo above, you can see that she can’t even sit properly.  At first glance of the photo, things seem normal, but look at the position of her rear legs in the shadow.   Normally a sitting dog will have one leg of her rear legs on the right side and the other on her left side.  Whenever Kona sits, she has both of her rear legs on the same side.

    It is very sad to see Kona struggling to deal with such difficulties, but like I said, she is very stoic and still full of eagerness, and spark.

    It is depressing to know that so many dog breeders are still so eager for money, that they ignore the genetics of the dogs they breed.

    Buyer, beware.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

The Beauty of Open Water

     After months of being buried under ice and snow, my pond has now melted.  This morning it was showing off what it can do on a very still, calm day.  It was proudly reflecting the pristine white snow of the Cariboo Mountain Range on the other side of the Valley. 

    This mirror-like presentation doesn’t happen very often, usually there is a breeze that ripples the surface.  Seeing the Cariboos all snow-white and totally unobscured, is also rare.  Now, an hour or so after taking the photo, white puffy clouds are already starting to hide the very tops of the mountains.  

    I was glad that I had my iPhone in my pocket when I went out to feed the birds early this morning.  I am still very impressed with its zoom, that allows me to compose the view with just the features I am interested in.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Just Below The Snow Line

     It is common knowledge that the higher you go in elevation, the colder it gets.  Yesterday there was visual proof of that across the road on the mountain slope.  We were getting a wet snowfall, which melted when it hit the ground at our place, but just a bit higher on the slope, it was a bit colder and the snow was sticking to the trees.  

    This is not an uncommon sight.    The Robson Valley bottomland across the Fraser River from us, has an elevation of 2,330 ft (710m).   The elevation of our house is 2,408 ft (734m) and those trees with the snow on them is about 2,500 ft i(750m) in elevation.  Even that small difference in elevation can create differences in temperature.

    I just got back from driving into McBride, and again I could see snow on the trees growing on the mountain slope, while there was no snow on the lower trees on the slope and in the field at its base.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca