TubaOrNotTuba

Elections are important for some of us. Others take the whole thing a bit more loosely. The province of Ontario had an election yesterday. The men running for premier refused to release any sort of campaign. He simply told them that this was for five more years. And as any sheep would do when told to do so the electorate allowed the government to continue without a break. Nothing lost except the cost of the election itself. I really hope that the company who sold them this bill of goods will still be as popular five years from now. I would not count on it. Now back to regular programming. We’re coming into a new month that many use to predict the end of winter. Something about lamb and lion. And based on the weather reports this year is coming in like a lamb which means that we can expect another four weeks of poor skating. Poor everything. Do not hide your boots or your parka just yet. Forget laying on the beach on a towel. Not my fault I warned you winter is endless in this part of the world until it isn’t. We now have to get ready for mud season. Again not me. I have learned that wandering around in the mud is a silly thing to do. We did hear from the kids yesterday. All are well. That whole predicted trip back just at the beginning of January is still on hold. Thankfully. I would prefer to have a new bed of grass outside and a sump pump that does not need to be verified every day. Difficult to do when you are off on a road trip. Someone suggested putting a camera with Wi-Fi pointed at the hole. I had to reply that this would not keep the water out. It would just let us know a few hours earlier that we had an emergency on our hands with too far to drive and insufficient time to make things right. The wisdom that comes with old age.

An exciting start to the day. Not for me but for my son and this family. A fire broke out in their building in the other section but the family had to be evacuated and sent to shelter elsewhere. That included the cat who had to travel reluctantly in a sports bag. I’m getting all of this second hand but there was no serious damage to the building and they expect to be reintegrated into their apartment later today. After the authorities turn back on the electricity and the water. I have been lucky in my life. All of the fires have taken place after I have moved out. In some cases decades later. That means that the house where I was born is gone and the first apartment where I lived is gone and the home of my grandparents and their family is now gone fire is a real hazard and if you have not checked your emergency exits end your smoke alarms and all of the other things that make us safer please do so now. Moving on. I was watching a video they talked about travel by train. The reality is that I have never had the opportunity to travel away from this province and on to the rest of Canada. Train travel by the time I reached university had already changed over to transit buses in this part of the world. That bothers me but not enough to make a big scene. My travel by train back in the 70s was often for a day or more at a time. Economy travel with the knapsack and the lunch and a lot of patients. Add warm clothes because back then trains were heated by steam and that often stopped working at the most inopportune moments. Like in the middle of the night or on that last few hours of travel between major cities. You simply pulled your coat tight around you and sat back and waited for relief. For all of you that have traveled your lifetime on planes, you do not know what you missed. Planes may come down suddenly but trains tend to stop in the middle of nowheres for hours at a time. And we have long winters.

The line in the song mentioned the feet up on the sand. This was not about the experience of going to the shore in the summer. Rather about someone being a refugee in a new land. My own origin story is somewhat similar. One of the branches of my family tree came here by boat. A normal thing given that I live on an island but there’s more. This was a whole family on their way to a new place and their ship just did not quite make it all the way. Wrecked I’m not sure with sand. Given that the ship was too damaged to continue the family moved in land and found a place to set up a small farm. A few acres at first and they probably had to clear the trees themselves. At that point in time there was no service you could phone to come in with a small bulldozer and set you up. You cleared the woods you dug up the ground and you made a firm. The farm is still there with new owners. When the family arrived they too had their feet up on the sand. It was just before the summer so the water would have been fairly warm. Nobody died from it. And here I am more than 200 years later within walking distance of that same beach and that same farm. I really wonder what it was like at the start. Where do you get your tools? Do you find someone from down the road to come in and give you a helping hand? I probably will never have all the answers to my questions. There is no one from that time. Still alive. Written records are rare. I can only assume that the family was simply happy to be alive. And from the stem to stay here going forward means that they found this to be a comfortable land. Much like me.

I guess that you can always pay more. For almost anything. Today I came across an old episode of that auction show where people bring in their treasures to be evaluated. This particular episode kept me interested because they were going over how old musical instruments can rise in value. Among the showcased pieces were guitars that were older than I. As well some of the instruments were epic in that they had been played by famous musicians. That is not a sign that something is better but it does drive the price up at auction. Most of my shopping for instruments has been done at retail. The local music store. Although I did get that cool recorder in a pawn shop between trains but I digress. My own collection is sparse. In fact the oldest piece is a violin that was purchased when I was just a boy. And that I have played. And it was not a rare treasure. The only anecdote was a surprise on my music teacher’s face when he saw that a name had been written inside. My father. He had pushed a ballpoint pen in through one of the sound holds and place his name. Too difficult for anyone else to erase should the instrument be picked up by accident. I would love to see some of these older instruments. To see if the sound really does improve with time as I have heard. I would really love to come across some of the brass instruments that I handled in high school. A long time ago. And given the way that budgets in schools run those instruments are probably still out there. Perhaps on a future trip to the place where I went to school. Even if the building has changed. I have no experience with larger instruments. A grand piano is forever if only because it is so difficult to move. But a guitar? You can pick that up and take it with you. And if the previous owner has shown any care the instrument should still be playable. Hence the high price at auction I suppose.

I no longer keep an AM radio running in the background. I also do not own a record player anymore. Or a cassette player for that matter. Some of the younger people in the audience are now going to have to ask others. What is he talking about what is this AM record thing. And the reality is that is how we used to get our music. Because we all had our music. It was so popular that they published lists every week which were printed on paper and hand it out in the local record store. Once again what is this record thing? The reality is that music has always been evolving and starting sometime about a century ago it became mainstream. Everyone had access to some sort of record player or radio that would allow them to listen to the music they wanted. If you were to go to my sisters’ home you would probably find these odd little black plastic discs that had the name of a song on each side and squiggly lines engraved in that plastic. You can Google it. To most of us that is how music was distributed. I can remember stopping by the local record store downtown every chance I got. You went to see what was new and what was going to be popular tomorrow. Things changed that quickly. I do not have any intention today to provide you with a history of music distribution. Just accept that it was and remains a very important part of our culture. Today I watched a short history of Spotify and realized that I had so much more to learn. I do not have an account on that platform thank you. A correction is necessary apparently we do have an account although I have no idea how to access it or what is there. But getting back to music. I no longer buy little plastic discs with a song in each side. I disposed of all my cassette tapes decades ago. Filled a dumpster with a lifetime of sound. And now I simply browse because there are so many other places to find music. Evolution for the nation.

I know that we should not compare apples and oranges. Here in Canada we have 10 provinces. Each one distinct and different. Including based on the number of people living there. Large populations involve large budgets. I live at the other end of that scale and our province has a budget that is smaller than many cities. For that reason when I hear someone talking about the policies of a government I need to dig a little deeper. Today I listened to a comparison of the budget and election platforms in Ontario. They have a major election scheduled for this coming week. Will their government change? That’s a question for people who bet. I am just a bystander. What I do take interest in is the elements that compose a platform for any given party in an election. I tried to see if their policy’s would affect me if I lived in that jurisdiction. And for the record I do not live in Ontario. Although I have. The commentator pointed out that of the four major parties, one of them appears to have no platform. The residents of the province are being told to just go read the budget. Hardly a rational answer to irrational question. As for the other parties each platform contains elements that I would find useful to my life if they were applied to me. This election is seen by many to be unnecessary. Being held outside of the normal schedule of elections. Being offered by a party that already has a majority. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the eyes of the voters. Will they repudiate the party in power and move in a different direction? Not likely but possible. I will not be staying up late to listen to election returns. Remember this does not affect me directly. But on a purely interest point I will check the numbers the next day to see whether or not doing something untoward can enter into the calculus of an election for the public. Not likely but in the world of elections anything is possible. Have you ever noticed that the pencils in the election booth seem to have no erasers. Once you have marked your mark you are done.

I no longer keep an AM radio running in the background. I also do not own a record player anymore.. Or a cassette player for that matter Some of the younger people in the audience are now going to have to ask others. What is he talking about what is this AM record thing. And the reality is that is how we used to get our music. Because we all had our music. It was so popular that they published lists every week which were printed on paper and hand it out in the local record store. Once again what is this record thing? The reality is that music has always been evolving and starting sometime about a century ago it became mainstream. Everyone had access to some sort of record player or radio that would allow them to listen to the music they wanted. If you were to go to my sisters home you would probably find these odd little black plastic discs that had the name of a song on each side and squiggly lines engraved in that plastic. You can Google it. To most of us that is how music was distributed. I can remember stopping by the local record store downtown every chance I got. You went to see what was new and what was going to be popular tomorrow. Things changed that quickly. I do not have any intention today to provide you with a history of music distribution. Just accept that it was and remains a very important part of our culture. Today I watched a short history of Spotify and realized that I had so much more to learn. I do not have an account on that platform thank you. A correction is necessary apparently we do have an account although I have no idea how to access it or what is there. But getting back to music. I no longer buy little plastic discs with a song in each side. I disposed of all my cassette tapes decades ago. Filled a dumpster with a lifetime of sound. And now I simply browse because there are so many other places to find music. Evolution for the nation.

Here is a story with short legs. Yesterday there was a hockey game. Happens a lot I think. But in this case the president of the US took the time to make a big deal about how his team was going to win. Called the team before the game. Told the press that this was just a precursor to Canada becoming the 51st state. A total victory for his team. Which it wasn’t. In reality these were all players from the NHL. Not a team. Just a scrimmage. And those wearing the sweaters from the US last. Within hours the story had disappeared from all public view. As if the boast had never been made. As it should be. This was a nonsense moment in American history. But with a president who can do no wrong I’m sure that some people did go to their local betting shop and put money on the odds that his team was going to win. Money is so fleeting. And, hockey will go on. No countries changed hands. No borders redrawn. Just a post by someone who does nothing but boast. A sad reflection of how things are going. Meanwhile our premier has resigned. Almost without notice. And the story will not last long because we have a very tiny population. But it just does serve as a juxtaposition of how those who boast do not always express reality and those who are in place as politicians do not stay around forever and ever. You can mark the date on your calendar as just another date. Given that we will be getting a new premiere as of tomorrow we should also expect to have a few other ministers change portfolios. That might be the only news we will have on the local station. Certainly nothing about a hockey game that was last.

We had someone stopped by yesterday to watch the birds. Our version of a TV show. You see we made a choice almost a decade ago to not cut down the trees in front of our property. The birds figured it out. They can sit there in relative comfort and wait for us to feed them. A good strategy. Now what intrigued me about the conversation with our visitor had nothing to do with birds. I learned that coyotes were being cited out on the ice. The coyotes are rare sighting like the ice. Probably a short term project. Now I can remember when there were no coyotes in this part of the world. In fact they were virtually unknown to the east of Winnipeg. But things change. We have heard these animals and we have seen these animals from our kitchen window. They also realize that we offer shelter from the storm. Or the hunters. I imagine that somewheres in their DNA, coyotes have figured out that someday the seals will return. If one comes ashore these beasts will be ready. An interesting way to look at history. I did check in one of my locals books can coyotes are new to the area. I do not know how they found their way here or who passed the word that we have a preferred hunting ground. I will leave that to the biologists and the ecologists. I am just someone with trees in my front yard that gives shelter to all sorts of wildlife. A local privilege. And since we no longer have a dog my guess is that the coyotes are going to become braver and braver. That is their game.

Right about now people are celebrating the 50th anniversary of SNL. Blockbuster programming for a Saturday night. I have not seen any episodes recently but there was a time in my life when it was a staple. The best of comedy in a two-hour format. Many of the cast members have gone on to other large roles in cinema and stage. It seems only fitting that the network would try to celebrate the achievement. We do have access to a lot of the better skits. Thank you, YouTube. Where would the rest of us be without you? I cannot think of any other comedy program that has presented as many great moments for us. So many characters and so many scenes that make us giggle. Better than Hollywood at much less cost. I probably should try to find out if the program is still available in my local area. But I won’t. Much easier to put aside the calendar and simply take the humor as I find it. For sure some of the skits are based upon the current news cycle but even years later we can still take pleasure from the antics of the trained cast members. I heard numbers about how many people have appeared over the years and for the life of me I cannot remember that number. The reality is that it is not important about «the who» or «the win» or «the why». Just take your moments as they come and if this kind of humor triggers you double down. Watch some more. No need to name anyone at this point. You should do your own research. Some of the greats have already died which is normal given the length of time the program has been around. There was a time when half a century was no more than the span of a lifetime.