FOREST FIRE SMOKE

        There is much complaining about forest fire smoke coming from Canada to the US. Smoke is one thing that causes poor air quality. There  are many conditions humans have that are made worse with poor air quality. I sympathize with these people.

     However , this is a bit of a rant. It bothers me greatly when complaints are made that 

Canada isn't doing enough to control forest fires.  In particular , le plus grand orange's comments bother me.

     What is burning in Canada is the boreal forest The boreal forest stretches right across the whole country. There  are no breaks . Good luck in fighting fires in the boreal forest. However, we make a huge effort. Just think of the size of this forest. Why is the smoke worse now? Just think climate  change. When I was a child in the 40' s, we had far fewer fires. I rarely remember smoke.

     We have had smoke here but the  air quality has not been terrible. I do not look at air quality numbers

    There are forests in the US but they are fragmented. The growth is different and the plants do not burn as easily as in a boreal forest.

     The boreal forest burns very easily as  the needles are dry.

    When I  start a camp fire I use paper. Aboriginals use dead spruce branches with the red needles. They call it gas. It blazes up   very rapidly.

    

ILLUSION

       Better a dash of illusion and a hearty appetite for life , than a feast of reality and indigestion therewith.

                                                          Henry A Overstreet

             Henry  Overstreet was an American writer and lecturer. He was born in 1875 and died in 1970.

SUFFERING

      Often it's just a lack of imagination that keeps a man from suffering very much.

                                                                                              Marcel Proust

        Think about this one as it says so much .

ICE CREAM

       Tomorrow is International Ice Cream Day. I love ice cream. In fact , my family has liked ice cream for three or four generations.

       Last  week was a family reunion. Not a reunion like in the old days with many people. This reunion had 25  people. I could not make it as I don't drive very far anymore. My two children did not make it as one is in Chicago and one on the west coast.

    They did set up  messenger feed for me so I got to  see all the people and activities. I also had some good chats. 

    Oh ya! this post started out on ice cream. I got lost. So for the reunion somebody showed up with a three gallon tub of ice cream. Other people showed up with their favorite toppings. Sorry  I missed it.

   When I was a child in the late 40's , we did not have electricity and therefore no freezer where we could keep ice cream.  We did make our own ice cream and we could buy ice cream. Dad  would come home with a brick of ice cream and we would eat it right away before it melted. A brick of ice cream was similar in size  to a pound of butter.

    There were  also huge insulted containers which were used to ship ice cream. It would keep the ice cream frozen for a few days.

    Did I ever tell you I like ice cream?

    Happy International Ice Cream Day.

CHANGE

                   Things do not change; we change.

                                                                  Henry David Thoreau

BELIEF

            A belief which leaves no place  for doubt is not a belief, it is a superstition.

                                                                               Jose Bergamin

         There's some pretty deep thought from Bergamin on this quote. When I'd copied this quote I missed the author. I found out that all I needed to do was google it.

       So far some of these quotes have been humor and some advice and others comments on life.

ENEMIES

            If you  want to make enemies, try to change something.

                                                                    Woodrow Wilson

           Woodrow Wilson was an American president. Many progressive changes were made under his administration so I guess he experienced making some enemies. 

HUMBLE

                 The humblest individual exerts some influence either for good or evil upon others.

                                                                                                    Henry Ward Beecher

               Henry Ward Beecher was an American clergyman who was an abolitionist. As  a result he spoke often and left his mark on society.

WINE

      I always cook with wine. Sometimes I add it to the food.

                                                                W.C. Fields

   W.C fields was an actor, comedian, juggler and writer. He was born in 1880 and died in 1946.

DIFFICULTIES

       There  are two ways of meeting difficulties: You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet  them.

                                                                                             Phyllis Bottome

     Phyllis Bottome was an English novelist and short  story writer. She  was born in 1884 in Hampstead U.K. Since she was a writer and not a humorist, her quotes are more about how we live.

     From Sam Levinson we get the humor that we enjoy. However one could debate the topic about children driving parents nutty. It quite often could be the other way. e could find quotes about the joys   of having children.

HUMOR

            Insanity isn't inherited. You get it from your children.

                                                                                                              Sam Levinson          

         Sam Levinson was an American humorist born in 1911. His humor was famous for quotes.  Today his quotes are still funny but dated. We don't use the term insanity anymore but we still get the humor.

AGE

     When I went looking for my quotes I found two things that I had been looking for for a long time.

    I had looked for years for a poem I had started. Well, it was in with my quotes. Then I found a family tree from my mother's side of the family. I had forgotten that I had the family tree and don't remember where I got it from or who made it up.

      THE OLDER I GROW, THE MORE I LISTEN TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T TALK MUCH.

                                                                                     Germain Glein

BLOG CHANGE

        I have decided to make some changes to my blog. I have been struggling lately. Topics seem hard to come by. If I don't have something interesting to say it's hard to write something. So, like I chose my retirement, I couldn't teach the way I wanted to . I knew then it was time to quit.

     So I'm not exactly quitting. I'm going to do a quote of the day. Where did this idea come from? Well yes, I did this in school. Many kids read the quote of the day once they got into the classroom. For me it was  way to get their attention I was always impressed when some little guys checked into the classroom for  quote  of the day and they weren't in my class.

     So once in while there will be a post but most of the time a quote. I hope you like them.

    I will still be  round to read your posts.

    Blogging has been very interesting and rewarding for me.

FAMILY GATHERINGS

             My family background is German except for my mother. Mom had to tough it out at family gatherings because when the family was together, they spoke German. The family was good to her and tried to keep her in the discussion.

            My Grandfather was born in 1864. I was born in 1939. That means that he was 74 when I was born. He was very happy as I was his first grandson. 74 was  quite old to become a Grandpa.

          Here I am when my grandpa sees me for the first time

                Most of the family would get together two or three times a summer. We only lived 8 miles apart but because of transportation and roads we didn't get to Grandma and Grandpas very often.

        Now skip on a few years. At the family gathers the men visited in the living room. The women stayed in the kitchen. The girl grandchildren were nice the little girls. The boy grand children ran all over Grandpa's very neat farm yard. Grandpa was out on the yard with us trying to protect his neat yard from the grandsons who ran all over the place. Grandpa had  special way of piling his would. We would crawl over his neat wood pile and mess it up. He was probably watching us to see that we didn't harm ourselves.

      So I often think about what he thought about his first loving grandson and that grandson who later ran over his neat farm yard.

      Grandpa lived at our house for much if his last ten years.