TubaOrNotTuba

I went to a high school that had a reasonably decent music program. Teachers that cared and an inventory of equipment that even today makes me feel that we had hit a jack pot of sorts. Go ahead. Check on the price of a student trumpet or a student tuba. Still a great deal of money. Anyhow the musical instruments were a shared resource. You did not have your tuba you had access to a tuba. Or a flute or clarinet or what have you. Because these were a shared resource we took care of them. We treated them as if we had paid the price without ever knowing the price. Tricky economics for a 15 year old. At one point on a broadcast on television, a famous trumpet player had appeared with his instrument that had the bell pointed upwards. By Monday morning one of our students had figured out that this would turn him into a great performer. Take it from me the trumpet did not fit back into the carrying case. On another weekend a student decided that his tuba looked a little dirty. And so he did what any 15 year old boy would do. He filled the tub with hot soapy water and took the tuba in for a quick rinse. In those days instruments recovered in a lacquer that made them look better than they sounded. The hot water was not kind to that lacquer. There is no way to hide what you have done when you return to school and your tuba looks like it has developed a camouflage pattern. I really wish I had a photograph because it was timeless. So much so that the music department did not try to have any repair done. The tuba stayed there for years as a reminder to anyone else that some things are best not done. And that includes washing your brass instrument in hot soapy water.

I can remember distinctly the first time I looked into a bird nest. We had a small garage beside the house. Not used for a car but it did have a small ladder going up to the attic if you will. And in this summer after Grade 1 or the spring I guess, I went up that ladder to look at what I knew was a bird nest. An occupied bird nest. I know that this was a nest built by robbins. I expected that the tiny birds inside would be at least as colourful as their parents or their eggs. Total fail. From my perspective few creatures are uglier than a newly hatched bird. All those stories about how birds have descended from dinosaurs are obviously true. There is nothing about a baby bird that inspires hope for the future. Hard to look at and hard to hear. Always hungry and the only good point is that this is just a stage. Within weeks baby birds get their feathers and fall from the nest and take on a new place in the universe. But for a six year old boy this was a revelation. To realize that things come in stages. And that even though puppies and babies are wonderful, fledglings are not. In fact I do not think that I have ever gone again to see inside of a bird nest. Once was enough. That garage building is now gone although I can describe the location precisely. The road beside it has overgrown and the railway tracks are just a memory. Nothing left but the memory. Meanwhile the birds are elsewhere. Generations removed from the moment. I wonder if I have any photographs? No need my memory is vivid and I will allow anyone else who wants to discover that wonder of nature to do it without my assistance. Children and grandchildren have to discover the world on their own terms.

We have more gas. Specifically some propane which will be kept in a cylinder under the floor of the RV. It required a trip to town like so many other things and once we got there the actual fill only took a matter of minutes but then things went a little left. The attendant was unable to charge any of the clients that were already there for their gas. We were told to go home put it down to a modern miracle of technology and come back another day when we needed more. Thus begins the season. In other stories the world has a new Pope. I did not see the smoke but I did hear the speech. This is not the first time that we have had a new Pope. I have actually lost count of how many times a little like most people I can name who was supposed to been the first one and now I can name the latest. I won’t bother because these are jobs that are yours until you die and in some cases that can happen very quickly. What I do note is that the people in charge of things seem to have figured out how to put on a show for thousands and thousands of spectators. No riots. Just cheering and then overpowering sense of well I’m glad that’s done. Imagine if the world was to end without a pope in place. Gotcha. That has never happened. I am left with a question. Since the smoke that is used to signal that a new Pope has been chosen is made from burning the ballots, can you ever do a recount. I guess that is not considered to be an option. If you need, you just do it all over again. After all the facility is available to those who have the rights and I do not think that anyone has to pay for rental or custodial salaries.

I have heard people find it comical when a famous person or a politician has no idea about the price of common things. The disconnect is actually very simple. My wallet has no money in it. I no longer stop by the store to purchase anything. If you ask me what does it cost to buy a jug of milk or a bag of bread I now can say that I have no idea. Certainly I could ask someone else but those values are no longer relevant to my daily situation. In fact if you were to see me drive up to the local store get out and going to buy something you would then have to call in the authorities because an obvious miracle has taken place. And when there are things that you do not need to know anymore your brain will do a very good job of clearing that space out for something else. Yes I believe that memory is quantified. Meanwhile as to the price of things there are people who have to worry about such things but I am no longer among them. It really leaves a great deal of pressure from person. Knowing that you can go into a store and shop and not have to worry about whether or not you have enough money because you probably do not. Right now the economy is in a strange place. Nobody knows how to predict where prices will be even tomorrow. Go ahead, blame it on the government but realistically this is just the supply and demand process. When people no longer have enough money to buy a product I imagine that the prices will be adjusted downwards. And As for a condition where there is no product to put on the store shelves that also will be resolved. Keep your head up everyone because although times seem unstable and uncertain your needs will continue to be met. Somehow.

Like many others I listened to the radio today. A chance to hear part of the dialogue between our country and the neighbor. During an official visit to their house. And one word stood out. Respectfully. The word was punching way above its weight as they like to say. At several moments our Prime Minister had to bring a pause to the ongoing monologue and point out that some of what was being said was a little light on facts. I am sure that it goes with protocol. Not calling out the lies at the moment. I am also sure that the late night pundits will be having a field day with the dialogue from today so many statements that did not measure up to truth. I have no idea what the intention might be behind such effort. Anyhow no war was declared and none of our territory was handed over. That counts as a moral victory. What I learned from listening to the conversation is that you can say anything if you believe in yourself. No lie is too big to tell. I also took notice that we are not all created equally when it comes to being diplomatic. What was said today will come back over and over again during the current news cycle. However there will be very little opportunity to rewrite that dialogue. What was said was said. I am now waiting to hear what was served at lunch. Probably more important then the meeting. Incidentally ships are not sailing from the Far East to the United States right now. The economy is slowing down clearly. Will we have empty shelves? Will things cost more? Sometimes success comes with a price tag. Closer to home the barbecue is back on the deck with a freshly filled tank of fuel. And the RV is ready to take on water. Winter is over.

There are many gadgets out there. There are many devices that will save you time. Today I will look back on my first contact with a microwave oven. Passively. I had seen the 1st commercials if you will on network game shows. The oven was a prize that many wanted. But there were none in my area. Too expensive and too rare. So, in the summer of 1974, when I went to work in a local factory. I noticed an oven in the lunch room. With a brand name that I had seen on television. And I could hardly wait for my chance to line up and use it. I skipped making a sandwich at home and found a can of still in the cupboard. I even remembered to pick up a bowl on my way out of the house. And at lunchtime I was one of the first in the line. I poured my can of stew into the bowl and I set it inside the oven. I then took the advice of a bystander and pushed run. And stood back to watch the show in the window of the oven. Nothing spectacular. I saw my stew go from heavily congealed fat to liquefied fat and when the bell rang I took my lunch off to a nearby table to get things done in my allowed twenty minutes before heading back to the factory floor. In passing I was making trailer axles in those days. This too was good. Things were warm most of the way through and the amazing thing was that there was no need to wash any pots or pans in the preparation of my meal. Just my bowl. This was one of those devices that I would place in my home at the first opportunity. It required saving a lot of money mind you because a microwave oven in those days had the same value as a real oven. From what I remember. I had never actually seen a price tag other than the one on the TV game shows. But it was clear that I would have to save a lot more of my salary before I would come home with my own personal oven. In fact that did not happen for almost a decade. Life goes by quickly when you are poor.

Many things depend on process. For example, the creation of a daily post in this blog is exactly that. I have had decades of practice going back to the time when I used pen and paper to record the day. The pages were already bound into booklets so there was no easy way to edit. Therefore, I did not. Overtime I adapted the process. I learned to use a computer and my skill at typing. Still no need to edit. And with a decline in eyesight I finally had to give up typing the text. Too much time required to actually figure out where one sentence simply combined with another. Not a question of punctuation. Rather that one hand would move on the keyboard and I would be left with code. And so several years ago I agree to put aside typing and simply talk. Which is what I do right now. It still does not make the daily production of a blog into something simple. I have to find a subject before I begin. Like today. I had no clear subject matter so simply decided to talk to you about process. Myself imposed limitations are simple to meet. I want to use coherent sentences and I want my text to meet numerical limitations. For the curious, that is a word count that gets past 250 words. What we used to call a typewritten page. And I have become adept and making sentences that fit those parameters. Do I have a lot of content? Certainly. Roughly 3000 words in any week. Do the mathematics. Yes I received my million word trophy a long time ago and it was imaginary but those are the best ones. Will tomorrow be easier? No way of knowing. Much depends on circumstance. Did anything interesting happen on a given day? I invite you to check back tomorrow to see if the world is still going along in the same roadway or find out if I went in the ditch and now need to be towed out. I realize that process does not equal production. Remember that this whole thing is essentially for my own satisfaction. My way of keeping the days separate.

Here is more proof that I am not exactly a team player. After the recent federal elections the leader of one party failed to get a seat in the legislature. His whole party failed to get the best seats in the house and much of the blame was laid at his feet. However in one of those astonishing moves, another recently elected member of parliament has decided to let his seat go back into the general pool. To be available for someone else in the byelection. In any case you’re wondering someone else has already claimed that seat. Has it not only did he lose the general elections for his party, failed to get his own seat but he now expects someone else to forgo all their opportunity to get a place in government, the requisite salary and pension benefit. After all, the current former leader believes that he is much better than anyone else in his game. I would much prefer to have a system where when you quit your seat or failed to get your seat it just gets erased. None of this fake handed off to the better good of the party is fair, because in reality the party is an artificial construct of all of our members of parlement as individuals. I really hope that the people in that particular riding are magnanimous. It would be so funny to see another electoral effort fail. And I enjoy a good giggle as much as the next. I will be watching and hoping that karma is real. But what do I know. I am not in politics for this reason. I do not have that attitude that only the party knows what is right. And nobody wants to mention the cost of running yet another election. An unnecessary election. There should be more talk about this.

Sometimes we have to admit that education is not an obvious process. The teacher may know more than the student but only the student can learn. By that same principle all of us undergo years of self education. Things are presented to us and with enough time we will learn what is involved. Right now the world is facing something known as AI. There are very few clear answers about what this actually entails. I am at the beginning pages of learning about this technology and I have to find examples that clarify the situation for me. Earlier today I heard that you could take a letter. Think business letter. You could show it to the computer literally. The software would allow the computer to make a decision about the subject matter of that letter. And then offer possible meanings about that subject matter. Nothing very mysterious there people do it every day. But what if your computer could take a letter offer you an identification and as such suggestion about how to use that information. Without further consultation or any need to bring someone else into the process. The whole point of AI is that we will begin to use our computer data more efficiently. Or another example. What if you could use the camera in your cell phone to scan the contents of a drawer filled with other objects. Through the magic of AI because we still see it as magic the articles in that drawer could be identified and classified. And then you could use your computer to find objects that you had filed incorrectly. I’m still stretching here because I do not understand the process fully but it does offer some interesting possibilities going forward. I have for many years use the idea that any object I was missing was probably in one of three locations. It goes back to a system where I stored everything in a drawer. Finally we may have a way to make the process more obvious. No need for me to be standing by when you could scan the drawer with your cell phone and have a I find what you were looking for I want to know where this is going to go because I sense that something important is about to begin.

Much of my news feed consists of things that interest me. As it should. However another section deals with things that I need to know more about. For example I now receive a lot more information about devices that are marketed for use by those with visual impairment. Some of them are obvious. I own more magnifying glasses then at any other point in my life. I also have a cane which allows me to find my way up and down flights of stairs in the absence of a handrail. I had no need when I was younger but now I do. I have a watch that can tell me the time with a voice. I watched these videos to learn about things that I had not otherwise imagined as useful. If I did more work in the kitchen having a scale that could tell me the weight might be cool. I have learned that you can now buy an oven for your kitchen that will cook the food according to pre recorded recipes and that uses technology that will prevent you receiving a burn either due to working around the oven or putting your food inside. This one I want to know more about. Through the house we have put small visual clues and queues to help me find my limits. The stairs to the basement have strips of bright reflective material that make it easier for me to see the edge of the steps. On certain appliances in the kitchen there are touch dots. Tactile clues to help me through the day. I have learned to do things in a different way. I surprised myself some days. Another sign that the brain is trying to adapt. There is more to do. However if I record another blog post a year from now I hope that I will be able to add to a growing list of ways that I have adapted my behavior in my environment to make things easier.