TubaOrNotTuba

When you were young you turn first to your parents for instructions. They are your caregivers and your instructors on life skills. I cannot easily separate who taught me what with one exception. As trivial as it may sound I learned how to peel an orange from my father. This was not a frequent piece of food stuff. They have to be imported from far away. But you could usually find some of them in the supermarket. I do remember the supermarket. And so when first given an orange and figuring out quickly that you could not eat it in the same way you would eat an apple I had to turn to my father for more instruction. Which he gave me. I learned that you take the orange and you roll it back and forth on the tabletop with some force. You need to separate the inner peeling from the outer peeling. And with that done you then figure out how to get a single hole in the side of the orange only one layer deep. Just enough to get a small finger in. After that you work at it. Diligently. Without undue force. And if the orange is ready to be eaten the peeling will separate. Revealing all those sections inside. No that did not begin with those chocolate oranges that we later received for the holiday. It’s one of the things that just is. My parents were never big into cutting an orange into quarters. Unlike the football team. Instead you would learn to peel the orange and then you would learn to separate the sections and then you would eat it one more so at a time. Spitting out the seeds was optional. There you have it one of my earliest memories of learning how to eat.

The assignment for today will be simple. We’re going to compare and contrast two short stories. The only real change is that we’re going to use immediate presentation. From a lifetime ago. Back when TV was something that used to keep the audience in there chair from start to finish. I have gone back into the archives and found two episodes of programs that would have been very popular back when I was in high school. Specifically Dragnet and Highway Patrol. One in colour and the other in black and white. At this point things merge into a single theme. We will use cars and communications. The actors will be required to remain in contact with a central authority. Their chatter will be terse. In large part making sure that they are properly identified on both ends. Very difficult to lose track when one character is called 2950 and the other is called 2110. That was the summary of Highway Patrol. As I said there is some contrast. When the TV changed to Dragnet everything required a timestamp. The actors spent a large amount of time detailing what time something happened. Down to the minute. Not much else would be learned in watching an episode. We all knew who the actors were and we all knew that they were located in a similar geographic area. A lot of time would be spent going from place to place. Or waiting for something to happen. Yes they did shoot at each other but not as much as one might expect. I think bullets were also expensive. But the cars. The best that the American industry could provide. In fact we learned that a lot of the cars were provided by government agencies in return for cheap advertising. I suspected little has changed in the last half century. It takes time to drive from there to here. And if there had been some sort of crossover the actors could have driven from one community to another without hesitation.

Outside there is more new fresh snow. You really can have too much of a good thing. And seeing outside I had a memory off back in the day when fresh snow meant fresh sliding. The kind that children do on the sides of hills. I received my first sled when I was in Grade 1. That I lived in a place with no hills mattered little. It had a rope and I could drag it around behind me and pretend that I was doing something fun. Later when we move to another province I learned that there were places that had steep hills. The kind that could be dangerous in the wrong hands. One of my friends had a large sled. What we called a double runner because it had two runners in two pieces. Probably designed back in the days when people had to move materials around in the winter. And we would take it to a nearby hill. Located on the property of an important lawyer which meant that there were no obstructions. We could go from the top to the bottom in one move. Happily there was a rather large hedge that would catch us before we went out onto the highway. What we call the highway but it was only a street. And on the right days after someone had taken the time to make the track a little clearer you could get up enough speed to frighten young boys. That is not easy. I can remember all the good points about that sled. In particular that it had been built by an adult. Someone who worked in the nearby factories I did manage to find enough steel to add an edge to the runners. It was the closest thing that we had to a rocket. Yes it took two people to move it and three people to drag it but we accepted that we were small and we were light and we did not make the sled bog down in the snow. We flew over the top. Many years later I discovered the wonders of the toboggan but in retrospect that double runner sled was the best of the bunch. Even better than the crazy carpet that followed.

Although I like to think that I am the master of my own destiny that is not completely true. Some of the things on my schedule are dependent on others. In particular the man who takes care of my eyes. We visit the garage as I call it on an irregular basis. Appointments are set and then we do our best to be there at the right time. Today for example he kept it very easy on me some drops in one eye and the chance to count fingers. The answers are not infinite. He can only hold up so many fingers at one time. The other variation is to move them back and forth or up and down and my goal is to try and get the answer right. Today went well. Once we had cleared that obstacle and set an appointment for six months hence we’re off to do other things. Visit the local Costco light which is a place that brings in selected menu items that we can then buy as we wish. Not going to bore you with details. And with that out of the way returned tail and headed home. Now although the snow is blowing about there was no real accumulation until we got within a few kilometers of home. At that point things were a bit dodgy. Yes there are snow plows on the road but I think they forget to come as far east as we might like. And I realized that within a few months this will not be an issue because the snow will stop and the grass will grow. Very analyzed the story of my life. The other action is going on South of here. I refer to it as political theatre. I think that someone wants maximum views for minimum effort. I am just a bystander. I will have to accept whatever decision is made but it is amusing to watch the posturing. Someone who wants the world to believe that he is much tougher than even he believes. When the history books are written, or re written, you will be able to find out for yourself just how things went. Like anything else someone is going to pay more for less. Capitalism at it’s best.

You have to pay attention to the important things. Today is Groundhog Day. Many years ago I would actually take the time to go into a classroom and right then announcement on the available blackboard because I knew that others were unaware. I would tell people that we needed this to be a new national holiday. If you check your calendar you will see that I had little success. Right now we have other things. Fish to fry if you’re a fisherman. A sudden pressing need for a duty free shop just about everywhere in the country. Why? Well I don’t know exactly but I heard a rumor that we’re going to be asked to pay more for things that we consider to be basic needs. In my case sacks of fresh grapes and salad. We do not produce enough of them here at home so we import them that there will be tariffs placed on things. I doubt that the ink is even dry on the list. Is ink free from tariffs? So many things I do not have an answer to. It is as if someone asked me to write a paper on the history of the doorknob. I do not have an answer to that question. Or why can a dog drink from a puddle when I cannot. Someone knows the answer but that is not me. I’m going to sit back and wait for all the news that is fit to be printed. Back to that ink question. Actually I will go to town tomorrow and I might notice but something is different. Or I will ask pointed questions. Do I have to pay extra money for that? That extra money is another mystery. Where are all the checks that I heard the government was going to sell me or send me for being a good citizen? There’s not much coming in the mail. No sudden electronic transfers of large S from the various levels of government. They also have things to worry about i guess. My main worry right now is to make sure that if I go outside I can find my way back home. And to be fair I never wander far from the front step. A bit like I used to train the puppy to do.

In the world of political policies I can only be someone that reacts. I do not have a seat at the big table and no one asks for my opinion on anything. Knowing that today is T day where the American economy is supposed to change I am left with a bit of a So what happened reaction. Or in other terms keep in mind that tomorrow is Groundhog Day. What happened last year or next year might be slightly different but on the whole we will not really notice or remember. Someone asked what would the Americans need to do to replace all of the aluminum that they are now saying they do not want. The response was unexpected. They would need to build a half dozen huge power dams. Not going to happen short term. Rather those who are buying aluminum will continue to do so recognizing that the cost will rise. And they will pass the tiny change in cost onto their consumers realizing that there is no way to replace that supply short term. The same thing holds true for almost anything else that will be affected by suddenly imposed tariffs. With that in mind I will sleep better tonight. What I do realize is that this situation is not completely new. The reason why we have those huge documents called trade agreements is because this same problem occurs again and again. We all want a good deal for ourselves and we’re willing to endure short term pain in order to guarantee that we will become richer and more comfortable. The whole point of economy I guess. I do like that the news stations are listening also and trying to guess what will happen next. A bit like forecasting the weather. We know it will be cold short term but warmer later. It’s a cyclical thing much like the afore mentioned Groundhog Day meme. I like Groundhog Day because it reminds me that we are not able to accurately forecast anything except for daylight and darkness. Keep watching the news. Try not to panic. Remember that history repeats itself over and over again.

I looked out the front window. My paranoia was justified. I was being watched. Almost as intently as one might watch a movie in a theatre. A red fox sitting on a pile of snow waiting for his show to begin. And the more I think about it. That is the reality. Our main window is where he goes or she to be entertained. Those funny creatures that walk on hind legs are there to entertain. Is there any fear? Not exactly. We are not threatening towards our guests. Rather we realize that we have a special place in the community of animals. Anyone of them can stop by and see what is going on at our house. I would love to know what their impressions are. When we stop and take a photo of them are they considering this to be their moment in the sun? I will have to keep watching because we are on stage. For them. Have they given us names like we do for them? Do they wonder why our hair colour remains as constant as theirs? After all they are foxes. They are smarter than some of the other beasts that hang around outside. Pointing at you squirrel. I truly live in the country and from day-to-day the only constant is that we have those that come to watch us. Is there a distribution list that tells them where to go for the best shows in town? I really do want to know. At some point it might be fun to invite them inside. To see if that old song about what does the fox say has a basis in reality. For what it is worth in my various language lessons pet sounds has been used as a model. And it never varies.

In my day as older people like to say I received what was known as a classical education. That was not true strictly but I did have in my timetable three different courses involving languages. Very canadian. We had English and French and Latin. Only those who were heading to university got to learn Latin. Like me. I spent five years with a dictionary on my desk. Not that I used it. And that was the point of this. My teacher for the final three years had to have the patience of the Saint because she was faced with classrooms full of young people who really did not care. Myself included. I rarely did my homework at least to a level suitable to my plans for life and I learned that you could get away with approximation. A wonderful word there. I was known according to my teacher as someone who could always provide a free translation of a sentence. That is close but inexact. I would have have absorbed just enough to allow me to make a connection to what was asked and what I thought it should be. I was great at confusing the good with the mediocre. No verb tense or noun or idiom was safe. I cannot put it to a percentage but I believe that the teacher learned to avoid asking me because they would at that point bring the flow of her lesson to a halt while she tried to dig out the mud from under the wheels. I did see her later in life and when I told her that I had graduated from university and gone on to things more academic she was shocked. That was not the plan she had made for me. In school we tend to be grouped with our friends in the sense that if your friends are weak academically you probably are too. Not going to brag about my marks. Take it from me that I was a mediocre student. Given that I have spent most of my life trying to master other languages this prompt the question. How often do I get things right. Am I known in my circle as someone who will be close enough but not on the money. I must ask my friends about that one. Or my family.

The article was technically just click bait. But when I saw a title mentioning that someone was trying to run the best AI machine on a Raspberry Pi, I had to go and see what was going on. It turns out that we’re not there yet. Perhaps next week. As the cost of processing drops you do not need a mainframe to run such things as deep seek. I admit it. I have no idea what they were talking about. Just the fact they were is a sign that times are changing. We have had lol energy models for a while. Yes, the LOL is intentional. What the world is worried about is that someone else is going to release a new way of doing things before they do. It is all just a big race without a referee. Am I worried that someone will put a new AI machine on a pi not at all. I will do like the rest of the world and wait to see what they actually do with it. Imagine someone can write this blog without any input from me. Just joking. Instead I invite you to do your own research. Trying to figure out what everyone is so worried about. See how it will actually affect you in the short or the long term. You may be surprised. In the interim keep reading. Even the fastest machines cannot read everything quickly yet. And when the models finally master the next version of Dick and Jane you will be there too I just noticed that the name of my grade one reader has been made into asterisks. That should tell you something. At home we’re trying to figure out a strategy to keep the water out of the sump pit. I suggested simply pulling the plug. You cannot beat nature. All you can do is find a way to cut your losses.

I no longer recall if this was something that I heard or that I read. Little matter. His remark was that you are what you eat. And now I have to wonder if that applies to things that we considered to be snacks. I’ve been watching someone who received a box of goodies from other countries. A lot of chocolate. But the real surprise was a small package of vegemite. Unless you have come across this product, I am sure that you cannot imagine how controversial it can be. My memory goes back to when I was in university and a friend received a small jar from who knows where. I mean it had to be Australia but who knows. And across the years there is only one way to react to the product. Something that makes people from down under giggle because the rest of the world is not prepared for what they’re going to ingest. When you read the ingredients things seem simple. Yeast. And to be fair although we use yeast in a lot of our foods we rarely try to simply ingest the raw product. There is a texture and an odour that is specific. I know that there is another brand called Marmite and I do not know what the difference is but since they come from the same part of the world the differences are probably minor. Just enough to set off a conversation among those who are habitual abusers. In this video his reaction was clear it was as if he had received food from the devil. In the world of YouTube you can have your video demonetized if you use foul language. That did not hold the speaker back. He was clear that he did not recommend this particular snack to anyone else. In the comments he learned that there are better ways to eat it but I do not believe he is going to bother. He was already bothered.