TubaOrNotTuba

I have seen a lot of odd transportation technology over the decades. That horse and buggy at my grandfathers. Curves with round fenders. My first airplane which was probably a DC3. Ships and trains. But the artist and most memorable was the car that became a boat. I can narrow it down to within a year or two and I remember exactly where it happened. Something about a festival where someone came all the way up from Halifax with their amphibious car. I watched it roll down the bank into the river and then travel slowly across the channel and then come out the other side intact. This was truly novel. I wonder why the idea never caught on. Probably because people were too set in their ways they had been told that cars were cars and boats were boats and that was all was meant to be but I know more now I wonder if the owner took his vessel out fishing. I wonder did he does off road the way people do now with their jeeps. I wonder if he spent a lot of time washing and waxing the sheet metal. I have never been someone who needed to wash his car all the time, although, I had neighbours who had that inflection. But this little car they could cross the river and keep on going that was special. It was not a home-brew. This had been manufactured I believe in Europe. And I do not know if the vessel came from Europe to North America under its own power. Seems implausible. Locally we have a lot of boats and nobody else ever drives their boat down the road although I have seen many boats on trailers at the opening and closing of the fishing season. Maybe the fishermen need to embrace the idea of an amphibious craft.

If you happen by my house right now you can see my personal nod to the Yeti call it Barefoot in the snow. There is enough snow on the front step so I just had to reach out with one foot and leave my mark. Ephemeral. The step will be shovelled off but for a short moment you can see that I have been outside without my boot. I imagine it’s a Canadian moment. If I was to winter in the far South such opportunities would be rare. And I only had used one foot proof of concept. The fresh snow is also cold snow. When I was much younger, I went so far as to do some snow swimming. That’s where you dress in inappropriate clothing and jump into a drift. Leaves you tingling from tip to toe. Another one of those things that you only need to do once in your life. When I hear about folks that go for that famous New Years swim I pat myself on the shoulder and say I could have done that. I did not because I knew how uncomfortable it might be. Somehow that idea of cutting a hole in the ice and jumping in will be less and less possible. Less and less ice. It’s not only the polar bear that is faced with the results of global warming. My take on things is that we’re more than halfway through the winter and we probably will not have many opportunities to go swimming or even walking through the drifts. Maybe I should book a film crew for the next time to immortalize my efforts. Just a thought. I am much more comfortable inside thinking silly thoughts but what I could or could not do if I lost my mind. Meanwhile this was a snow day locally. For the schools.

In the bottom of a drawer I have a bag of pennies. Not worth very much. However, in effigy I can see faces of people who are named and numbered. Rather fitting because the idea of a family name does not mean very much when you talk about the royal family of Britain. Turns out, they have been reinventing themselves for centuries. When the press would turn against you you simply would choose a new family name. Not exactly that simple but close enough. And when this numbered name would pass away another would take its place. I used the pronoun “its”, only because of Liz, she may be the only queen that I will ever no in the sense of name recognition. YouTube for some reason has decided that my lack of knowledge of history is the best reason to present me with a series of documentaries. From time to time, the film makers do a reasonable job providing entertainment. No laughter but entertainment just the same. Now the last century produced some very devastating wars some very devastating financial tragedies and a few changes in who got the big chair at supper. I do like to know where they all were before they got their numbers. Also, how long did they hang around after getting their numbers. For the record I do not have any digits after my name. Nor do my children nor any dogs that have lived with. But we are not royal. And I feel quite certain that no one who is royal whatever arrive at my door to amaze me. If I live long enough I might get a very faked telegram. Today I learned about 5. The father of six. Now when I look at coins I have a better idea of which came first. Useful knowledge probably especially if the dates on the coins have faded with age. I am not going to provide a history lesson to anyone but I will let you know that the stories are not always dull. When you have too much money and too many houses your life takes on a new tint. And as an added bonus you can actually listen to a recording of five. Turns out he was the first one to do radio and that is important.

Around here we watch the weather. Actually we watch it more than anything else. Not because we need to because we believe that if we keep our eye off the goal we will get hit. We’re in midwinter outside the lawn is partially covered and the sump pump has been running for several days. A soft winter. But someone mentioned that there was a snowfall going on in Boston and we know that Boston is not really that far away. We could drive there in a day you know. And if Boston gets snow, we might too. Yes I did check the forecast. As of last evening there was nothing on the horizon but right now there is a small percentage but we could get hit. It could be a real winter storm or not. It no longer matters because I don’t have to go anywhere’s but I’ve had a lifetime of watching the weather in case school would be closed. Long after that was rational. And so, right now, I’m hoping that our milk supply will hold out and that the power will stay on and all the other things that go with living in winter. Even if we’re not really. You could walk across the lawn and leave footprints right now but that’s about it. None of that up to my waist stuff that we used to talk about. If I get around to it, I will watch the local weather forecast on TV. Trickier than you think because they wedge the little bits of weather in between little bits of bad film music. Not exactly a foregone conclusion that we will learn what the weather will be. And so I will continue to watch and wonder. Is this the moment? Will Boston send snow to us? Check back in a day or two. We should know by then. And if we get nothing then we will just wait until the next time. That’s how we have a fun winter. Waiting and wondering.

I love learning trivia. Most of it is exactly that. Things that will never change my life. However, this week I had a deep question answered. Why did my first electronic calculator purchased back around 1980 have red digits? Really red digits. Why not some other colour? It was some years later that I saw my first green digits and all I could think was that science was evolving. I mean with red and green you could rule the world. Little did I know that, the absence of other colours, was because the technology had not yet been invented. Until someone, in Japan, managed to produce the first blue LED. Stay with me on this one. Finally having red green and blue meant you could move to the next step. Production of other colours. I do not fully understand the technology involved but apparently red green and blue allow white. And probably other colours of the rainbow. By this point the common calculator had already evolved into large multi segment digits. Colour was not quite as important. But hold on because there was more to come. Those first decent computer monitors that could do full colour could never have happened without this simple advance in technology. I know that when we purchased our first flat screen monitors for use in our office, getting rid of those big heavy screens that were essentially a television made all the difference. No more hernia for technician and a lot more desktop space for the secretary. And the reduction in the electricity bill. Try to imagine that a laptop required a television monitor to get the job done. It never would have happened. I got rid of my calculator several decades ago. A dead battery that would no longer take a charge. I also had reduced my need for simple mathematical mastery. Most of the math I needed could be done using my fingertips just like in the good old days. And as I look around the house I am fully aware that we have evolved on all over technology. No more single colour bits of light. Even my camera has a full colour display. And our TV? That’s a big screen although somewhere in the interior, the technology of the LED lives on. For what it is worth I have never owned Nixie tube calculator although have used one. That was really old school. And throughout the house we now have low current LED lights. Reduces my monthly payments to the utility company. Makes the idea of solar possible although we’re not quite there yet. But think about that. If not for a diligent scientist working in a lab somewheres in Japan, we would still be happily living in incandescent world. And paying the bill.

In the back of a drawer I found a telephone. Not my socks drawer where valuables go to hide. This was just another drawer for things that need to be kept but not found useful regularly are put away. And I thought flashed back to the day I purchased the telephone. It was a long time ago. More than a decade when I thought that such a thing might be useful. After all, I was on public transit for hours each day. During the three years that I had a valid contract I never used my allotted minutes. I did burn through the data cap often because when you were on a city bus Google is your friend seeking answers to all those questions that come up from traveling through the city. And when the contract ended I was happy. It had taken me less than a year to realize that I did not need to call people all the time or receive calls. In fact I rarely did. The phone was something else to upgrade on a regular basis because that’s the way electronics are now. Constant updates. After that one had become nothing more than a novelty I did receive another used phone kept around in case I ever needed to purchase a SIM enjoying society. For those of you who are attached to your phones buying umbilical cord I am sure that you find this hard to understand. Even in the house I have decided that a landline is still appropriate. Adequate to receive spam calls and some emergency services. In fact, we should play this another way. Why do people feel this need to be on all the time. It is new before I had children such technology was unknown. I made it through years of higher education where the only telephones were either in the interior of an office or hanging on a wall waiting to eat coins. If someone needed to contact me snail mail still worked. I should check with my own children to see if their lives have followed a similar course. As for those around me there is one phone that serves all purposes. That is, if we should go to the city, the pone will serve as our GPS and clock and price check. Every time the idea of a newer phone comes into conversation I keep my mouth shut not my circus and not my monkeys. I suppose that the need to call emergency services remains but to be fair I have never called the fire department and my only call to a local police corps force happened decades ago when I phoned in an airplane crash.

One of the staples in my diet is cold milk. I have been drinking milk forever. As a very young baby my father bought a cow. At least I assume he bought it. It could have been a loner from a neighbour but we had a small barn and a daily routine that brought milk to the kitchen. Unpasteurized with cream. It was so good I think. Anyhow as I grew older the delivery mechanism changed. There were the glass bottles that came in by train. Not everyone had that luxury. At one point after a visit from a traveling salesman we began a regime of powdered milk. Not the best product, believe me. But I survived. As we changed locations, from province to province, the delivery mutated. We had home delivery in bottles followed by huge plastic jugs. Four quarts in a red handle. And then I went off to university where milk was on constant tap in the cafeteria big boxes. I know this because when the machines would go dry I would go out back to the kitchen and look for a refill. Not going to let this supply run short because they were too busy. And so it continued. For a number of years milk came in plastic bags. If you were careless you could make the floor very wet. Something you only did once or twice. During a winter on a small island, milk came in tiny cardboard cartons. This was milk with a very long shelf life and it tasted that way. Once I escaped I never looked back. And now, here I am. Decades later milk comes in, in cartons or jugs, two liters at a time. I have never faced sour milk but on an unforgettable moment I did not read the label and discovered the buttermilk is best used for making biscuits. Anyhow, there you have it. I do not suffer from lactose intolerance obviously. Because the milk comes without cream I have not tried to make butter but I have kept a culture of yogurt very much alive for a number of seasons I probably should start that up again. Healthy option, although I would miss the fresh fruit that comes in today’s product from the store. Have I found other things to do with milk? No. I was never a great fan of powdered chocolate milk also; although finding the toy at the bottom of the box was a highlight. A small submarine.

Today I made a cup of coffee. Not for the first time but it was different. We have changed machines. Just a little. New grind noise. New draw time. Buttons in exactly the same places. An accessory added. Things that I could do before with my eyes closed will now have to be re-learned. Adjusted. I do have the same coffee cup and my variety of coffee is identical so I will adjust. When I think about it we go through things like this throughout our lives. Similar, but not the same. It redefines routine it makes identical into one of those modifier’s that we cannot always use. So, what provoked this. Well, our other, trusted coffee machine has become stubborn. Recalcitrant. Buttons produced noise instead of coffee. We still bought the same model which we happen to like for a whole list of reasons. Going to another manufacturer would increase the learning curve time and leave us wondering whether or not going forward we had made the right decision. This way, we have earned another number of years where our are most used appliance is simply there. I will learn what needs to be done with a modified strategy. And the coffee? It remains the same. One of those constants that brings us joy. Are we too old for change? I think not. However we have learned to choose the battles we want to fight and our coffee is one that we have already mastered. Why make life difficult. As well, we get a new warranty which is worth more than you think. I have other ways to prepare my coffee but this is the best for me. Simply put things in place push the button and count. That’s how I do time. Second by second. With that I should probably go and get a second cup of coffee. To take me through to supper time.

All around the province there are remnants. If you go for a walk along the shore, and I warn you, it is a long walk, you can see many lighthouses. Each one unique to its location. Each one required for navigation by the ships. I believe that all of the remaining light houses are automated which means that a whole section of the economy has been retired. Nowadays, ships are not dependant on these beacons. I am trying to imagine if there are other means of transportation that are no longer as important. Obviously, the automobile has remained in place but I can remember when the bus to town was a part of our lives. There was even a designated bedroom at my grandmother’s house kept in place for the bus driver to spend the night, at the end of a run. Instead, we have traded it all in on a large bridge that does not even belong to the country. Sure, the country built the bridge but then gave it away. Right now they’re trying to find a buyer for the construction yard where the sections of that bridge were fabricated. Decades have gone by with no closure to this. My own take on this, is that we do not do a very good job of keeping our transportation systems running for a very long time. In particular, the loss of the railroad leaves me with a lot of unanswered questions. This was a vibrant system with hundreds, nay thousands of people working. Now just something between the pages of a good book.

Around our house, in the corners of certain rooms, we have some pretty interesting technology. Most of the time we forget there there. Until there is a power fire alarm or power failure when we hear them. Alarms. Now the smoke detectors get a lot of attention because they’re very loud. But there are others almost as important that we notice only when they break. In this case small battery boxes that’s served to keep gadgets running when the power is out. It does not happen very often so they fall off our radar. Until they get to the end of their useful life. There has been one, downstairs, behind the door. Farthest from the life centre of the house that when the alarm finally goes off it can be missed for days at a time. In fact, it was only because I went to the basement that I found one of them. What is that strange sound? Is there a mosquito trapped somewhere in the house? Now although gadgets can be fixed, apparently, it is much simpler to bring up Amazon and purchase a replacement. When a UPS becomes U/S, you bring it to the local recycling centre. I have no idea what happens after that. There was a time when I would have been tasked to purchase new batteries and do the fixes. Not worth my time anymore. Turns out that their replacement battery costs about the same as a whole replacement unit. An economic model that leaves me puzzled. What would happen if we simply did not bother with the units? A computer that needs be restarted? That happens anyways because when you unplug the computer from a UPS you have to restart. It also does not help that each company uses their own alarm system. Does it beep? Is it a single tone? Are there flashing lights? This most recent one should be replaced by next week. And then I will go back to normal mode. Waiting for the next one to give up. I imagine that my parents had no idea about such things when they were my age. Even my children are oblivious to the devices. But for a while I worked around a lot of important computers and every alarm sound was treated as the most obvious and necessary moment of the working day. I am glad that my other computers don’t have this problem. At least, as far as I know. And As for all the other appliances around the house I’m going to go with experience. I have never heard the stove give off such an alarm.