letter published in the Globe this morning.
Yes, but how do you feel?
Re Antidepressants Little Better than Placebos (Life, Feb 27): I've been awaiting this study for years. When my father, upon confinement to a wheelchair, had angry outbursts, the medical answer was to give him Prozac. I substituted icing sugar in Dad's capsules and, out of curiosity took the Prozac myself. This seemed to give my father a bit more energy in his final years, but left wondering what personality changes I might experience. I'm still normal, I think.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Wondering Where The Lions Are
Those Bruce Colburn lyrics ran through my head as I entered the barnyard yesterday morning. Emma had been barking but I assumed at the new neigbours going to work. Suddenly I saw 2 animals running up and down the fence. Coyotes trying to get in? I ran back for the shot gun and after an effort to stick a shell in the barrel, I fired a shot over the invaders. Then I realized it was a pair of cougar cubs, one outside trying to get in and one inside trying to get out. How cute they were at about 20 pounds with dark brown spots, until I saw the damage. A ewe dead by the fence with tracks in the snow revealing a cat had been dragging her along the fence trying to get the carcass over he fence. I ran back to call Fish and Wildlife. This time they would believe me with a cougar cub trapped inside my fence. "We'll be right over," said Keith Linderman, the officer who set up a camera here last May to get a photo of my alleged cougar returning. By the time he and another officer arrived, the one cub had managed to climb the fence and escape with his sibling. Finally I realized the kitties' mother had to have been close by.. The officers cut into the ewe, took photos and showed me how a cougar kills. They bite into neck and sometimes crush a skull. They eat into the heart and lungs first, unlike coyotes who eats the leg of lamb first (as do I). We found another dead ewe in the barn. "Lucky," a ewe with one floppy ear post dogs attack a year ago, did not make it. The officers said they could track and kill the cougar if I wished but trapping her with such young cubs would not work. Or I could keep my animals LOCKED in the barn at night. I thought of the cute cubs, thought of my grandkids and elected for the latter choice. The guys drug my dead animals down into the field and returned with a chorus of coyotes in the air. We made out a claim form and it was over.
So glad l did not purchase 8 new eyes with lambs last week! With 6 ewes and Big Daddy the ram left we are assured of a few little lambs running around this summer (IF I keep them shut in every night. At first I could not get one llama, Rowdy, inside the barn and left him outside. One night he sounded the alarm shortly after dark. I stumbled out of bed and fired a shot in the dark. In the morning I found cat tracks showing the came back and would have had llama had Rowdy not made a racket. Now everyone must be in at night, no exceptions. We are under siege and somehow we don't mind it.
So glad l did not purchase 8 new eyes with lambs last week! With 6 ewes and Big Daddy the ram left we are assured of a few little lambs running around this summer (IF I keep them shut in every night. At first I could not get one llama, Rowdy, inside the barn and left him outside. One night he sounded the alarm shortly after dark. I stumbled out of bed and fired a shot in the dark. In the morning I found cat tracks showing the came back and would have had llama had Rowdy not made a racket. Now everyone must be in at night, no exceptions. We are under siege and somehow we don't mind it.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
FATE OF MY MOTHER
Our Mother, Mary Cecilia was born in Cayley Alberta on Jan 5, 1912. She was the 2nd of 4 live children (three still born Kinney children lie in the old Catholic cemetery north of Nanton). Her father Wm Kinney came here from Illinois to homestead in 1905. Anna had followed him by train to Montana and ox cart to Cayley. She told her youngest son, Frank, of looking up at a sky full of geese to decide this must be a nice place. (Her sister, Margaret while visiting later, was repulsed all by the Montanans carrying guns). Wm Kinney suffered from depression and according to oldest son, Bernard committed suicide after three attempts. He was buried in the old Catholic cemetery and later moved by Bernard to the Catholic section of the current Nanton graveyard. (Why were the 3 children not moved?) Cecilia (11) and Bernard were sent to Lacombe Home which hurt her feelings since it was for orphans.. The Ketchums, a childless couple, offered to adopt Cecilia but she refused. (Cecelia sounded proud when relating this to us).. When she was a teen, her mother took her to visit a convent in Illinois. Anna and Aunt Margaret wanted Cecilia to stay and become a nun. Apparently Mother Superior looked out the window and saw Cecilia climbing a tree. She declared, "I see her as the mother of many boys." Thus was Cecealed (sic) the fate of our mother and the 7 sons and 3 daughters she bore here in Alberta.
Song (I can't get out of my head!) Mother Dear oh pray for me
Whilst far from heaven and thee
Till in Heaven eternally, they love and bliss I share
Postscript: When I was 13, Cecilia sent me to a Jesuit boarding college. They attempted to make me a priest. Years later when I confronted Mom on this, she admitted her intent, adding, "But I found you had a mind of your own! " Was her acceptance of my escape tempered by her own experience?
Song (I can't get out of my head!) Mother Dear oh pray for me
Whilst far from heaven and thee
Till in Heaven eternally, they love and bliss I share
Postscript: When I was 13, Cecilia sent me to a Jesuit boarding college. They attempted to make me a priest. Years later when I confronted Mom on this, she admitted her intent, adding, "But I found you had a mind of your own! " Was her acceptance of my escape tempered by her own experience?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
liars deniers and clothesline dryers
Dear Editor
I cannot decide which environmental story this week is most insane. 1. A Swedish university has received $590,000 to measure the greenhouse gases released when cows belch(95 percent of the methane comes out this end of the cow). 2. Ontario wants to end clothesline ban by summer(dryers use about 900 kilowatt hours of electricity a year on average). 3. Farmers do not wish to grow biofuel (food comes from farmers not from Safeway). 4.Global warming denier (liar?) Tim Ball is coming to Stavely (to prove 99 per cent of the world's scientists are all wet). When the earth has been subdued by our collective stupidity, perhaps a cow will belch our epitaph, I told you so.
I cannot decide which environmental story this week is most insane. 1. A Swedish university has received $590,000 to measure the greenhouse gases released when cows belch(95 percent of the methane comes out this end of the cow). 2. Ontario wants to end clothesline ban by summer(dryers use about 900 kilowatt hours of electricity a year on average). 3. Farmers do not wish to grow biofuel (food comes from farmers not from Safeway). 4.Global warming denier (liar?) Tim Ball is coming to Stavely (to prove 99 per cent of the world's scientists are all wet). When the earth has been subdued by our collective stupidity, perhaps a cow will belch our epitaph, I told you so.
Monday, January 7, 2008
SICK IN AMERICA
JAN 2008
We spent Christmas past with Linda's family in NE USA. At Chicago airport people lined up to buy flu shots that we got free at home. Linda's parents met us in New Hampshire and drove us to their retirement complex. Sticking out of 3 foot snow banks were election signs and I wondered if Dennis Kucinich was running as strongly here as indicated in the daily emails his campaign sent me. That night after I ate some bad clam chowder, I felt hot and turned beet red from head down to my belly (never looked below that. Reminder of bee sting reactions when we had hives in our trees. Linda and her dad took me to the hospital emergency where, after an hour of some young women trying to get my billing information (not my credit card as Sicko led me to expect) I saw a doctor. He decided it was something ON my seafood. Next day we 4 drove to SW Massachusetts where Linda's brother, Kenny and partner Peter have a country home. (They work and live in NYC) This place dates back to Dutch Indian trading times and the underground railway. They feel poor because they can't afford to put in a swimming pool. We celebrated Linda's Dad's 80th birthday and presented him with a book of his life, nicely compiled by Linda's sister Pat. Over Christmas we ate turkey, ham and roast beef (no sea food) plus Linda's mother's great cheesecake. We donated to Oxfam as presents and received some books and things as presents. We played lots of games led my Linda's nephew Jamie (8), a very talented singer piano player and a demanding drama teacher who did not like me in his class. Then we drove in convoy to New Hampshire behind Pat and her partner, Diane. Back in Concord I planned to visit Kucinich's office but did not find it. (Where art thou Dennis?) Pat and Diane gave us a ride to Boston airport where they caught a flight to California. Linda and I spent 2 days in Boston checking Impressionist art (is there any other?) at Boston and Harvard museums. We also saw a film "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" about a family killing off each other. (Made me miss MY family). I recommend it for the Philip Seymor Hoffman (Capote) performance. We missed a sold out jazz concert and stayed in nights which was good for my emerging cold. (I only get sick when I travel). Linda's folks came to Boston and joined us for our last 2 days at an airport hotel overlooking Boston's harbor. (The $5 bottle on water in our room made the tap water seem tasty). We all subwayed into Boston on a Charlie pass (Kingston Trio had a song about this) to see the Isabel Stewart Gardener Museum. We tried to find ice sculptures but it was raining! We played euchre at the hotel and awaited the fireworks on Boston's First night. Quite a show. Next morning we flew late to snowy Toronto missing our Calgary flight and almost our alternative one. (Why do we travel at Xmas?) We were met in dry Calgary by Byron with our car. His wife, Ann, fed us supper before letting us drive back to Nanton and our animals not fed that day.
While settling into laundry and credit card bills we watch the US presidential debates as well as crisis in Pakistan and Kenya. (nobody asks an opinion of latter from Obama, the son of a Kenyan) I have not yet received a bill from the hospital but did get an email from Kucinich saying he was excluded from the N Hampshire debates. Shame Americans won't hear a distinctly different voice from the one person who voted against going to Iraq and who favours universal health care. (He'd be elected in Canada) I have started reading "The End of America" by Naomi Wolfe, the book Kenny gave me (wish I'd bought him Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" when I saw it in the Harvard Bookstore.
We spent Christmas past with Linda's family in NE USA. At Chicago airport people lined up to buy flu shots that we got free at home. Linda's parents met us in New Hampshire and drove us to their retirement complex. Sticking out of 3 foot snow banks were election signs and I wondered if Dennis Kucinich was running as strongly here as indicated in the daily emails his campaign sent me. That night after I ate some bad clam chowder, I felt hot and turned beet red from head down to my belly (never looked below that. Reminder of bee sting reactions when we had hives in our trees. Linda and her dad took me to the hospital emergency where, after an hour of some young women trying to get my billing information (not my credit card as Sicko led me to expect) I saw a doctor. He decided it was something ON my seafood. Next day we 4 drove to SW Massachusetts where Linda's brother, Kenny and partner Peter have a country home. (They work and live in NYC) This place dates back to Dutch Indian trading times and the underground railway. They feel poor because they can't afford to put in a swimming pool. We celebrated Linda's Dad's 80th birthday and presented him with a book of his life, nicely compiled by Linda's sister Pat. Over Christmas we ate turkey, ham and roast beef (no sea food) plus Linda's mother's great cheesecake. We donated to Oxfam as presents and received some books and things as presents. We played lots of games led my Linda's nephew Jamie (8), a very talented singer piano player and a demanding drama teacher who did not like me in his class. Then we drove in convoy to New Hampshire behind Pat and her partner, Diane. Back in Concord I planned to visit Kucinich's office but did not find it. (Where art thou Dennis?) Pat and Diane gave us a ride to Boston airport where they caught a flight to California. Linda and I spent 2 days in Boston checking Impressionist art (is there any other?) at Boston and Harvard museums. We also saw a film "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" about a family killing off each other. (Made me miss MY family). I recommend it for the Philip Seymor Hoffman (Capote) performance. We missed a sold out jazz concert and stayed in nights which was good for my emerging cold. (I only get sick when I travel). Linda's folks came to Boston and joined us for our last 2 days at an airport hotel overlooking Boston's harbor. (The $5 bottle on water in our room made the tap water seem tasty). We all subwayed into Boston on a Charlie pass (Kingston Trio had a song about this) to see the Isabel Stewart Gardener Museum. We tried to find ice sculptures but it was raining! We played euchre at the hotel and awaited the fireworks on Boston's First night. Quite a show. Next morning we flew late to snowy Toronto missing our Calgary flight and almost our alternative one. (Why do we travel at Xmas?) We were met in dry Calgary by Byron with our car. His wife, Ann, fed us supper before letting us drive back to Nanton and our animals not fed that day.
While settling into laundry and credit card bills we watch the US presidential debates as well as crisis in Pakistan and Kenya. (nobody asks an opinion of latter from Obama, the son of a Kenyan) I have not yet received a bill from the hospital but did get an email from Kucinich saying he was excluded from the N Hampshire debates. Shame Americans won't hear a distinctly different voice from the one person who voted against going to Iraq and who favours universal health care. (He'd be elected in Canada) I have started reading "The End of America" by Naomi Wolfe, the book Kenny gave me (wish I'd bought him Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" when I saw it in the Harvard Bookstore.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Granddaughter: when we went to Uganda
Subject: Danis first trip to Uganda
Dear Olivia
in 1965 when Dani was only 1 year old I took a teaching job in Kampala Uganda. It was very scary as there were no books about that country except by a man and woman who were nearly eaten by lions while sleeping in their tent. The news here was about white people being massacred in the Congo. But we decided to go.
Baby Dani and Grandma Geraldine waited in Montreal while I went to school to learn about living in the tropics. Then we flew with ten other teachers and families to Paris. We taxied around Paris for a day then got on a plane. In the Rome airport Dani had had enough of this travelling and screamed. One teacher, Bill Carter (later to become Rods god father) gave Dani a drink of wine. Dani was plastered and fun for everyone except his mother. When we got on the plane for Entebbe, Dani was asleep.
Next morning we landed on the blue shore of Lake Victoria with red soil surrounded by lush green forest. Black men wearing white overalls pushed a stairway out to our plane and we were on African soil.
We lived in the Kampala Hotel 2 weeks before getting a house I think I showed you some movies of Dani and your Mom playing in the backyard. We loved to take weekend trips like the one you will take this weekend with Dani and Rod to Murchison Falls Park. Dani used to laugh when I drove off the road to chase bush pigs. (bad!) I think this is why a few years ago he and my dog chased the sheep through a fence. Have fun at Murchison this weekend. Hope they sill have elephants and other animals feeding under th lights at night. Hold onto Danis hand so he doesnt chase the pigs. Love Grampa larry
White people being massacred... no one tells the Christmas Classics like Grampa Larry...Rod
Dear Olivia
in 1965 when Dani was only 1 year old I took a teaching job in Kampala Uganda. It was very scary as there were no books about that country except by a man and woman who were nearly eaten by lions while sleeping in their tent. The news here was about white people being massacred in the Congo. But we decided to go.
Baby Dani and Grandma Geraldine waited in Montreal while I went to school to learn about living in the tropics. Then we flew with ten other teachers and families to Paris. We taxied around Paris for a day then got on a plane. In the Rome airport Dani had had enough of this travelling and screamed. One teacher, Bill Carter (later to become Rods god father) gave Dani a drink of wine. Dani was plastered and fun for everyone except his mother. When we got on the plane for Entebbe, Dani was asleep.
Next morning we landed on the blue shore of Lake Victoria with red soil surrounded by lush green forest. Black men wearing white overalls pushed a stairway out to our plane and we were on African soil.
We lived in the Kampala Hotel 2 weeks before getting a house I think I showed you some movies of Dani and your Mom playing in the backyard. We loved to take weekend trips like the one you will take this weekend with Dani and Rod to Murchison Falls Park. Dani used to laugh when I drove off the road to chase bush pigs. (bad!) I think this is why a few years ago he and my dog chased the sheep through a fence. Have fun at Murchison this weekend. Hope they sill have elephants and other animals feeding under th lights at night. Hold onto Danis hand so he doesnt chase the pigs. Love Grampa larry
White people being massacred... no one tells the Christmas Classics like Grampa Larry...Rod
Friday, December 14, 2007
Karma threatened by Dogma
Dear NDs
I believe we must find a sensible position on the nuclear power issue. While I try to use less energy (I walk my dog rather than drive a car for sheep roundup) and am subscribed to produce more wind power, the reality seems more energy demands coming from all sources including nuclear. As a layman I have tried to get information on this issue from 2 experts whom I know personally as honourable people, a nuclear medicine specialist and a geologist from this ND caucus. Both sources scoff when I pose a question on information from the other's assertions re nuclear plants. Last week the Doc dismissed the Geologist's letter as poor writing and then sent me a map showing no the active fault lines in Alberta, except along the Rockies. I sent the reference for the map to geologist. His reaction, "stick to ranching, something I know something about." (In fact my dog knows more about that than me). Like my honourable friends I am a grandfather concerned about the world I leave to my off spring. If I am left confused with dogmatic response to either believe me or get lost, what about the population our party hopes to convince?
We in the NDP need to debate this issue of nuclear power before making credible policy . So far I am putting my trust in the Pembina Institute for information. I request our next convention debate the issue, not, as in past, inviting only people who agree with the party. As the old Buddhist says our carma (sic) may be run over by our dogma
best in 08
larry
I believe we must find a sensible position on the nuclear power issue. While I try to use less energy (I walk my dog rather than drive a car for sheep roundup) and am subscribed to produce more wind power, the reality seems more energy demands coming from all sources including nuclear. As a layman I have tried to get information on this issue from 2 experts whom I know personally as honourable people, a nuclear medicine specialist and a geologist from this ND caucus. Both sources scoff when I pose a question on information from the other's assertions re nuclear plants. Last week the Doc dismissed the Geologist's letter as poor writing and then sent me a map showing no the active fault lines in Alberta, except along the Rockies. I sent the reference for the map to geologist. His reaction, "stick to ranching, something I know something about." (In fact my dog knows more about that than me). Like my honourable friends I am a grandfather concerned about the world I leave to my off spring. If I am left confused with dogmatic response to either believe me or get lost, what about the population our party hopes to convince?
We in the NDP need to debate this issue of nuclear power before making credible policy . So far I am putting my trust in the Pembina Institute for information. I request our next convention debate the issue, not, as in past, inviting only people who agree with the party. As the old Buddhist says our carma (sic) may be run over by our dogma
best in 08
larry
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