Posted on November 8, 2021 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Peter sand boarding on the Imperial Sand Dunes

(Pete MacDonald photo)

 

“Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink,

Water, water everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.”

The Rime of The Ancient Mariner – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I am not a mariner… but I am ancient.

So many things in life we take for granted. Compared to many in the world, we are a pretty spoiled lot. We expect clean air. We expect employment and suitable housing. We expect things to run on time. We expect food to be delivered to our grocery stores without interruption. We expect a large bag of potato chips to be half filled with air.

In case you haven’t noticed, the most precious commodity is water. Clean water. Affordable water. Predictable water. Most of us rarely give it a thought when we turn on our taps. But I can tell you, that in many parts of the world water is revered.

Five years ago, at this time, I was living in India. (Oops. Another 5 years just went speeding past me). In many of the rural villages I visited, water was always something important for households and farms. One of the NGO that I worked with, provided the skills and equipment for communities to build water infrastructure. Many of you know, that during my time in Kanyakumari, at the very southern tip of India, I lived adjacent to a small community of people afflicted with leprosy. Water was a constant source of concern, conflict and aggravation for people already dealing with isolation and a host of other problems. There were ten water taps scattered throughout the community and people had to line up every day of their lives to get water for bathing, cooking and drinking. Through the generosity of people back in Canada, most notably the Wishing Well Society of St.Andrew’s (Antigonish County), Nova Scotia, we were able to provide new taps for every household bringing water to their doorsteps. The impact was immediate.

Several years ago, I travelled through the United States with my son, Peter. We were both mightily impressed with the state of California. It is massive and has every landscape that one might imagine. I can still see Pete snowboarding down the Imperial Sand Dunes. The dunes are located in the southeastern corner of the state. The dune system extends for more than 40 miles in a band averaging 5 miles wide. The dunes often reach a height of 300 feet above the desert. One other thing that became obvious as we wended our way northward was the concern about water management. Farmers were screaming for more water in the middle of a drought. Off and on, the state of California has experienced drought conditions for the past 20 years.

Canada is blessed with an abundance of water. Some estimates say that we have upwards of 20% of the world’s surface freshwater. With the issues in California and many other states, it is not inconceivable that there will be battles over water between the two countries in the years ahead.

So, you’re wondering where I am going with this story. This is a very long lead in but today, as is the case many days, I have so little to say and so much space to fill.

All of the homes and businesses in our village receive their water by tanker truck. Because of the permafrost and rocky landscape, water cannot be delivered by underground pipes. The folks who drive the trucks are hard working and reliable. Everyone in the village is conscious of their water consumption. In the winter after a storm, we are all warned to conserve water because every home has to be plowed out for the trucks to get access to water outlets. The same goes for sewage trucks, and oil trucks.

Last weekend, my water supply was getting very low. I am one of the lucky ones. From the comfort of my home, I can go into the furnace room where the water tanks are located and see exactly the status of my water. Most homes in the village have a separate room containing the furnace, water and sewage tanks accessible only from the outside. The only way to know if you are running out of water is when you see a red light in your house that goes on when you have no water.

I hadn’t received water for several days and I could see that my water supply was very low, and it was the weekend. Maybe the guys driving the water truck have seen me walking through the village wearing  blue jeans all the time and wondered if I ever did laundry or bathed for that matter! Knowing this, I was conserving water at every turn. I didn’t shower for a few days, and I only flushed the toilet when absolutely necessary. You cottage owners understand that equation!

Come Saturday, I had a conundrum on my hands. Should I shower? Do a load of laundry? Do the dishes? Or flush the toilet?  For sage advice (and for a bit of fun) I reached out to my colleagues on Messenger. You can well imagine the array of comments that I received. In summary, my friends felt that all matters could be resolved if I just stepped outside. With Wakeham Bay a few steps away, I could bath, pee, do my dishes and even wash my clothes. Don’t tell me that you haven’t peed in the ocean!

“The fair breeze flew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free;

We were the first, that ever burst,

Into that silent sea.”

It’s -10 today.

There will be no bursting into that silent sea!

Have a great week.

P.S. I always have drinking water compliments of a lovely water cooler in my house. I go to the water plant to refill the water jugs.

Cooler heads prevail

 

Posted on November 4, 2021 under Thursday Tidbits with 2 comments

Len’s Auto Sales

 

“Baby you can drive my car,

Yes, I’m gonna be a star.”

Drive My Car – The Beatles

I’m thinking of starting a car dealership.

The only statement that would be more ridiculous is if I told you that I was going to go back and try and get into med school so that I could become a famous brain surgeon, like Derek Shepherd on Grey’s Anatomy. And why, pray tell would I have the foggiest idea who Derek Shepherd is? Like millions of others, I got sucked into the vortex of steamy romances, along with lots of blood and guts. When you’re in the north and you don’t have cable, Netflix and Prime are your friends.

“So why this sudden interest in the automobile industry, Len?” It certainly has nothing to do with my knowledge of cars and trucks. Au contraire. I know how to start a car. I know how to drive a car /truck/tricycle. I know how to put gas in the tank. I can even put air in the tires. “Wow, Len, that’s pretty impressive stuff.” Disclaimer. Once, many years ago, arriving at the Tampa airport, I picked up a car rental. It was a Toyota Prius. Yep. I can see a few of you nodding your heads already. It was one of the first hybrids on the market. The only hybrids I was aware of at the time were those that were offsprings of parents that differed genetically. I think we studied this in Mr. Chew’s Grade X Biology class. I had no idea how to start it and had to sheepishly walk back to the Hurts (Hertz) counter for instructions. I received some very weird looks. Even when I started the car, I wasn’t sure it was actually working, it was so quiet!

I still remember my first car. A first car is like your first love. Or your first kiss. Sort of. Shitty comparison, Len. All are thrilling except a car has a much longer life expectancy. I bought a used VW Beetle in Victoria back in 1973. I think I paid about $500. A brand new one was around $2,000 which was well out of my price range. To gas up a big truck in 2021 might cost just about the same as my purchase. A tank of gas cost $5.00 and I could drive forever. It was a standard shift. “Yes, I’m gonna be a star.” Sadly, it was a poor excuse for a muscle car and rarely attracted my female friends unless they needed a ride home on a rainy night. It met its untimely demise when I was back east on some sort of business. I had it parked at my brother’s place on a side street and someone side swiped it and it had to be written off.

Truthfully, I was never a car guy, and I basically viewed a vehicle as something necessary to get me from point A to point B.

The other day, I was chatting with a classmate who owns a car dealership. We went to school all through the years. I asked him about the state of the car industry. Covid has changed everything, and it now appears that the supply chains, so vital to his and other’s businesses, have encountered a kink. Cars and trucks are not arriving quickly enough to meet demand and the price of used vehicles has risen quite dramatically.

I am happy to report that the supply chain is working just fine in the north. The last cargo ship of the season was here last week and among other things, it delivered several brand-new cars and trucks. A sample of them is pictured above. I have decided to buy all of them and ship them back to the east coast to fill the void. As long as no one is in a hurry, they should arrive next May when cargo ships start plying our waters again.

I guess if I’m going to open a car dealership, I should probably buy a car, but I haven’t owned one in years. I don’t need a car where I live back home. I can get everywhere on foot quite easily. With my penchant for walking maybe I should open a footwear store. My motto could be “walk a mile in my shoes”. (With thanks to Elvis for the one liner).

Honk if you think I’m on to something.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. Speaking of the weekend, don’t forget to turn your clocks back. You too, Bell. Will the time change make me an hour younger or older?

P.P.S. How do you know when you’ve eaten enough Halloween candy? Will accept any suggestions.

P.P.P.S. I knew I couldn’t fool you eagle eyed people. If you zoom in on the picture, you will see a boat at the top of the airport hill. I could sell you a boat too!

 

 

 

Posted on November 1, 2021 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Stone faced

 

The week that was… or wasn’t.

Every week I pray for normalcy. Every week my prayers go unanswered. I guess I’m a sorry excuse as a prayerful person.

Just for fun, I decided that I would look up the meaning of normal. “Conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.” Is it just me or has the term normal become extinct? When people start taking ivermectin to treat Covid-19, all bets are off. In case pandemic fatigue has gotten the best of you and you stopped reading about cures several month ago, some people are ingesting a medication intended for livestock to treat or prevent Covid. The FDA in the U.S. and several other health agencies suggest that people who do this are barking up the wrong tree. In some Latin American countries (according to a BBC radio documentary), physicians (!) are giving people intravenous injections of bleach to ward off the virus. I will come clean. I believe in vaccines.

I can honestly say that there hasn’t been a single week during my time in the north that I could consider a normal week. Of course, my timing wasn’t the best. I arrived here a few months before Covid became a household word.

Last week began with the school closed on Monday because of 2 Covid cases in the village the previous week. The next three days were scheduled Professional Development days. The school board decided to open the school back up on Friday. Children and staff arrived at school, donned in Halloween costumes. By 11:30, everyone was sent home… again. Someone in the village had tested positive for Covid. When school will reopen is anyone’s guess. Cases of Covid in this region of Quebec (Nunavik) are rising at an alarming rate.

Those of you who have been following my posts lately know that I have been on a mission. At first, I thought it was “Mission Impossible” but slowly but surely, I have been reorganizing several rooms in the school that needed a major tidy up. I’m being charitable with my choice of words. I have compared “Len’s Labours” to those of Hercules.

This week, I tackled the former computer lab. When I first stepped inside this room, it more resembled a computer labyrinth, “a complicated irregular network of passages or paths in which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze.” This room is very close to the entrance to the school on the elementary side. I asked the ever-patient maintenance guys to completely empty the contents of the room out into the hallway near the entrance to the school. Yes. There were indeed many old computers and computer parts but there was a lot more. The most interesting item was a rather large, and quite magnificent, Inuit sculpture. Two summers ago, construction workers moved the sculpture into the computer lab while they were installing a new floor in the lobby. It never got moved back.

Our high school math teacher is a pretty amazing guy. He is a top- notch educator. He has been at the school for 12 years. He cares about the students and the school. He is also our tech guy. When something goes wrong in the school, Ben is usually the problem solver. Now those of you who know me well understand that technology is not my friend. Oh yes, when it works well, it is my best friend but at the slightest hint of a problem, it becomes my mortal enemy. I wrote about my love/hate affair with computers a few years ago: https://www.week45.com/ctrl-alt-del/ Ben agreed to help me with this truly Herculean task of trying to determine which computers worked and which did not. We set up a workstation in the hallway and began the onerous task of assembling computers and monitors. It took us two full days. Len’s Labours #5 is done!

Some people go all out for Halloween. I am talking specifically here about adults. God bless them. Many of our younger teachers arrived last Friday wearing amazing costumes. They had obviously given a great deal of thought about their costumes. I am not a Halloween grinch, but I was too tired from my most recent labours to put any thought into a costume. Thankfully I wasn’t the only person who arrived at school sans costume.

I told teachers and students that I dressed up as I normally do… as an old man!

Have a great week and welcome to November.

 

Work in progress                                                                                                                                                         The finished product