TubaOrNotTuba

Among the things they forgot to tell me in weather school is the tidbit that a bit of freezing rain stops the wind. Not literally. However, all day long my anemometer has been showing no reading because the little cups are stuck. We’ve done the obvious stuff I sent someone out with a stick to pretend it was a piñata to no avail I was considering waiting for warmer weather now I hear that we’re going to have rain. Please note the date. The wind will continue so things may stay frozen, but I’ll know better tomorrow. Not that it matters because nobody needs my wind reading to do their forecast. I live too far away from places where that matters. However, I did learn that the road beside our house is blocked by a falling tree. Yes, I did go to see and yes there is a tree down. Not a large tree and the lane is not used at this time of year because it goes to the fields below. As well, the man next door is away for the winter. What I do for see is that we will be hit by several heavy snowstorms and the tree will become just a large mound of snow and impossible passage. Not my lane and not my tree. This is the first time in the decade we’ve been here that something like this has happened and now I’m curious to see how long it will take before someone reacts. If it had fallen near electric lines someone would take care of it. And if there was any traffic to the fields below someone would take care of it. But right now, it’s just a tree that fell in the forest and no one heard it fall. Symbolic really. My guess is that the tree will probably serve as a place for small animals to shelter in place for the winter.

As this season takes on closer importance, I am struck by one thing that does not happen around here. Call it karaoke at your doorstep. I cannot speak to how it was in olden times but apparently people used to go from door to door singing festive music. Simple seasonal songs. Why, even I became involved at one point a long time ago. Everything comes down to culture and in my culture, we will go to church on Christmas Eve and sing those songs, but I had friends who believed it was their duty to bring joy to all their friends and neighbours. By standing in their driveway yelling out music in a major key. I will not go so far as to refer to it as musical, but we were young and what did we know. I can speak out now because some of those involved in my wander are now gone. No chance of being arrested for breaking the peace. We all learn those seasonal pieces of music. Songs that can be given to people with little musical background knowing that the major key will save them. I have actually found someone on YouTube who has reworked those same songs in minor keys, and I find the effort fascinating. Well, I sit around and sing those songs this year? That would surprise me and anyone else in the house. Will they play them in the background as a soundtrack to my life? Probably because there’s not much else available that everyone knows common songs for the common person. No need to go and learn voice techniques to sing Jingle Bells which I insist is not a seasonal song at all. And did you know that almost any child who has been in band club class class will be able to play these songs after several months of training? Wonderful. You may notice sarcasm in my voice. Remember keep it simple. No harmony involved. Altogether in unison let us sing in unison.

Have you ever heard the word dollop? Some use it as an inexact measurement, as in a dollop of salad dressing. I prefer to apply it to things that are more important. As an example a dollop of history. That is where you take a concept in particular in local history settings and try to figure out how to make it interesting for the edge average population. This afternoon, I learned more than I ever thought I wanted to know about a particular canal system in Ohio. Not something I map to visit but it’s good to know how they got her done and they did. Back in a time when you used pick and shovel and plow horse. I admit, I had never thought much about it but if your canal runs out of water it’s just a dry ditch. So for people that built canals they went to great lengths to find a source of water that would continue to flow through the year. A way of allowing your boat to move on. In this case we’re talking about transport boats. The equivalent of the modern truck. In the case of Ohio they moved everything they could. Food, stone, livestock, and on. Getting things from point A to point B in both an uphill and downhill direction. Because that was the other issue. No sense in digging canal when it road would do it. But when you have changes in elevation a canal with water can be an ideal tool. Who knows? Maybe we’ll make this into a tourism trip. Later on. I suspected Ohio, like here, has winter and a frozen canal is of little interest. For the record, there are no canals here where I live. We had the ocean em both could always get water. In fact, what we have now are lots of old wharves that need maintenance because if they’re not being used they decay. Something about all that water. Anyhow that’s my tiny lesson for today. A dollop of history if you will. And the next time I hear a reference to that particular canal I will have a much better mental image of what they’re talking about. Not just align on a map

To keep today’s special we went to town. I had to go get my pressures taken. To find out if I had a flat neither I. I did not. In fact the doctors, plural, said the things were going very well with one difference. Some years ago I received a corneal transplant. Akin to getting a spare tire for your car from a dealer. You cannot buy them new. They’re all used and after a decade or so blinking mine has finally worn out. The doctor knows how old I am and there is no offer for replacement this time around I just have to deal with when I being cloudy or than the other. I had such hopes for it when I got it. I mean the doctor told me that life would be fine afterwards unless I rejected it. And since i didn’t I believe that life was good. I can hardly tell unless I close the other eye and try to look out. But who does that we’re all taught to use our eyes as they are to not cover one up just for the fun of it. The eye doctor always has different plans though. He likes to give me that big spoon that could not be used for soup because it’s full of holes and then asks me if I can see what’s going on. And I fib, there’s always a letter E there somewhere. I will now go into the winter knowing that I’m back to being one eyed. The other will just be a placeholder to keep my glasses to break this apart. Indeed, I still have glasses for those times when I try to read. Not books because that’s a lost cause but I’m doing wonderfully with the screen. Remember how your parents told you not to watch TV all the time? They also might.

The TV is playing in the background. I am blissfully unaware of what is going on. I can tell from the language and the lack of laughter that’s something from France. Again no social commentary here. And then a question came from the other end of the couch. Did I know anything about people putting barbed wire around their arms or legs. Like a tattoo? No, the real thing like you would find at the back of a farm. And I remembered the reference. Like so many others I had read those Dan Brown books and I knew about strange rituals among the hyper religious. Something about recalling the suffering of Christ. Not my gig obviously. It just shows that certain things cross the barriers of language. I wonder? Did Mr. Brown pick up the idea of a wreath around your arm from something he had seen or something he had read or something he had also seen on French TV. I will probably never know. We don’t talk much. It just reminds me that on TV you may see almost anything. Elsewhere, today, I learned that one political party in the United States is suddenly very frightened of a cultural icon. Since Tailor has won Person of the Year; an award which is, so far, eluded their man on the street. And they are now frightened that she has a plot to steal the next election. I guess it’s best to find someone to blame before the fact. You know, the legion of singers who are going to vote against their man. Or one singer and all those fans. Real life is often better than theatre.

I love to learn the back story of a movie is actually better than the movie itself. This afternoon I watched a documentary on the making of Family Vacation. The one with Chevy Chase in the gang. The one that spawned a franchise. Turns out the movie may have run for let’s say two hours but the making ran for more than a summer, and came with a whole set of problems. I think that making a movie might be more challenging than most of us believe. We see the finished product after all the edits and we have our own bucket of popcorn. For those on the other side of the camera they deal with the reality. Finding new ways to find the illusion. Dealing with high temperatures in the case of this movie and cast members who had to learn their own ways getting along as in the case of this movie and the simple exercise of dealing with audiences. Imagine the shock when you finish the movie and show it to a test audience and they forget to laugh. And then you try to find out how to remake the end of the movie so that the audience gets on board. I tried to imagine having to hand paint an amusement park scene so that the people in the seats never realize what you’ve done. At least until 1/2 century later. Take it from me I have no intention of making a movie. I may not even go to watch one. But finding out how the magic happens is an easy way to spend an afternoon. Again, given that somebody else has already provided the behind the scenes of that magic. I may have to re watch this movie now that I know so much more about it. A second look as seen through the lens of a lifetime. If I do I will let you know how it goes.

So many things have changed since the time of my grandparents. But go back one step further. The time of my great grandparents when things really were not the same as now. I tried to imagine what it would be like for them to arrive here. To see a big truck going by on the road outside. To hear an airplane going overhead. Or an ocean liner sailing where the sailboats used to go. I tried to imagine how they would react to the idea of music on demand. Not demanding that someone sing a song for you. Rather, turning on the radio and hearing a song from someone you had never seen. Even better turning to your phonograph and hearing the same song two times or three times in a row. A very different scenario. This afternoon I fell into that little rabbit hole where I listened to a group from 50 years ago. In this case the singer Annie Haslam. I did hear her the first time around but I have to say she still sounds good. Sort of thing my great grandparents never experienced. Sure there might have been someone in the church choir that could hold a note but the idea of music on demand from world class artists just was not a possibility. What would they find as familiar? The birds in the trees perhaps. Or the sharp bark of a fox or a dog. Yes I live in wonderful times. I think I’ll go back to listen to more music just because I can.

It is probably not the fault of Amazon. Sometimes product descriptions are just odd. This morning we’re looking at a fondue pot used to melt cheese. Very ordinary and the only difference from the old style was this one used electrical heat rather than gelled fondue fuel. Safety. Here is where things get odd. The part comes with an attached electrical court that is less than 1 meter in length. I can hear you. Just get an extension cord. Except that the product description specifically warns the user not to use an extension cord. I’m left trying to imagine how this part is used in real life. Doesr the cook huddle in a corner near the electrical outlet and when everything is done does the cook fill the plates leaving the pot where it is. Not sure. After all, almost everything else can be used with an extension cord as the saying goes. And understand the problems of the cord being too long or the chances of tripping over the cord or whatever. But seriously. Imagine yourself gallon floor beside a nearby electrical outlet trying to cook your food. This is not designed for camping nor is it designed for those who live in normal sized homes. Maybe if you are housed like a Hobbit. Anyhow we have not completed our search and hopefully there will be an answer on another site explains how this odd appliance can be used in the context of an ordinary home. I am waiting to learn the answer. And I did mention that there was a time when you could simply heat apart using a small fuel burner. But now we are modern and we have electricity and somehow all logic seems to blind out the window. There you have it. My odd moment for today probably. The day is not over yet and I’m always ready for surprises.