"hear my old hound dog barking"

Fogerty

I've always been a Creedence Clearwater Revival fan, and I particularly like CCR's John Fogerty, but this blog post isn't about him or them, or Fogerty's Born on the Bayou song...

It's about me, and our dog Lindy, who is old alright, but isn't a hound dog.
My husband doesn't like to wake up during the night, because he can't get back to sleep, but I can. I've had trouble getting to sleep at bedtime, but, once asleep, I can drift off again easily.
For instance, if Lindy barks to go out at midnight, I can get out of bed, let her out the living room door, then lie down on the couch and go back to sleep.
When she scratches at the door to come in, I get up, let her in, wipe her paws (even if they don't need it because that's part of her ritual, and you know how dogs love ritual) then I go back to bed and go to sleep.
Recently, I began hearing Lindy bark once, because that's her signal for "I want out" but, when I get up to let her out, she's sound asleep.
I, obviously, am not.
When this happens, I don't go back to sleep right away because I'm puzzled. I was sure I heard her, and leapt out of bed with more alacrity than usual.

Runyon

After this mystery had occurred several (or 'more than several' times, to quote Damon Runyon whom I loved long before I'd even heard of John Fogerty) ...but I digress... after I'd hallucinated Lindy barking more than several times, I talked it over with my husband who, wisely (because he's the wise guy around here) asked me if my medications had changed. (He never remembers.)
I said "Not really but, if you remember, the doctor did tell me to take melatonin at bedtime because I have trouble getting to sleep when I first go to bed. But it's not really a medication, just a sleep aid."
Well, we decided that had nothing to do with anything else because, if the doctor said melatonin is not a drug per se, then it wasn't a drug at all.
Being able to fall asleep soon after retiring is wonderful, as far as I'm concerned. Also, I've retained my ability to get up, let the dog out, sleep on the couch until she scratches at the door, wake up, let her in, etc. and go back to bed and go back to sleep.
So, we left the discussion at that, and time went on.

My husband

But, time didn't go on very long before I would once again awaken abruptly, certain I heard a summons from Lindy. And, also once again, I'd find her sound asleep.
I told myself it was an auditory hallucination, and I didn't worry because I didn't think such things existed.
Then I checked up on auditory hallucinations...
Turns out they do exist.
Scary.
Turns out, too, that hallucinations can be caused by melatonin.
Who knew?
Very scary.
Is it a good idea, then, just to be able to fall asleep more readily? Well, in this one insomniac's opinion, yes.
So far.

Lindy

If I start sleep-walking and find myself wading through the snow barefoot, I just might change my mind.
Meanwhile, I still love John Fogerty, Damon Runyon, and my husband. Not necessarily in that order.
And I leave you with this mystery, followed by a gratuitous photo of Lindy sleeping.
I'm sorry if this post frightened anyone. It was meant to be fun but I can see how it could be scary.
I'll be sharing a different post with Lady Fi's wonderful meme, Our World Tuesday. Do check it out. Other Tuesdayers aren't nearly as verbose as I am, and their photos are more scenic, except for the one of my husband, above, which was taken in Bora Bora.

I get political, with help

Noam Chomsky

I am linking
this post to
Our World Tuesday

The following are excerpts from C.J. Polychroniou’s interview with noted American philosopher Noam Chomsky, linguist, philosopher, and cognitive scientist, born in Oak Lane, Pennsylvania, in 1928.

Note: I have inserted occasional parenthetic phrases myself, usually for clarity, or perhaps emphasis. It is not my intention to play fast and loose with the contents of this interview. —KLD

http://www.ecowatch.com/noam-chomsky-trump-2093271018.html

Polychroniou

C. J. Polychroniou is a Research Associate and Policy Fellow at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College (USA) and an interviewer and columnist for the nationally distributed Greek newspaper The Sunday Eleftherotypia. He is the author or editor of five books and scores of academic and popular articles. 

Polychroniou: "Some years ago, public intellectual Noam Chomsky warned that the political climate in the U.S. was ripe for the rise of an authoritarian figure. Now, he shares his thoughts on the aftermath of this election, the moribund state of the U.S. political system, and why Trump is a real threat to the world and the planet in general."

Q: Following the U.S. election on November 8, Polychroniu asked Chomsky these questions: 

“What exactly does Trump's victory mean and what can one expect from this megalomaniac when he takes over the reins of power on Jan. 20, 2017? What is Trump's political ideology, if any and is "Trumpism" a movement? Will U.S. foreign policy be any different under a Trump administration?

Q: With all the talk (in the US) of near-full employment today, labor force participation remains below the earlier norm. And for working people, there is a great difference between a steady job in manufacturing with union wages and benefits, as in earlier years and a temporary job with little security in some service profession. Apart from wages, benefits and security, there is a loss of dignity, of hope for the future, (and loss) of a sense that this is a world in which I (as an individual) belong and play a worthwhile role.

The "change" that Trump is likely to bring will be harmful or worse, but it is understandable that the consequences are not clear to isolated people in an atomized society lacking the kinds of associations (like unions) that can educate and organize.

(On the question of science:)

One of the difficulties in raising public concern over the very severe threats of global warming is that 40 percent of the U.S. population does not see why it is a problem, since “Christ is returning in a few decades.” About the same percentage believe that the world was created a few thousand years ago. If science conflicts with the Bible, so much the worse for science.

Q.  Noam, the unthinkable has happened: In contrast to all forecasts, Donald Trump scored a decisive victory over Hillary Clinton, and the man that Michael Moore described as a "wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full-time sociopath" will be the next president of the U.S. In your view, what were the deciding factors that led American voters to produce the biggest upset in the history of U.S. politics?

A. Noam Chomsky:

Before turning to this question, I think it is important to spend a few moments pondering just what happened on Nov. 8, a date that might turn out to be one of the most important in human history, depending on how we react.

On Nov. 8, the most powerful country in world history, which will set its stamp on what comes next, had an election. The outcome placed total control of the government—executive, Congress, the Supreme Court—in the hands of the Republican Party, which has become the most dangerous organization in world history. The party is dedicated to racing as rapidly as possible to destruction of organized human life. There is no historical precedent for such a stand.

"No exaggeration," said Chomsky.

The most important news of Nov. 8 was barely noted, a fact of some significance in itself.

(Because, on Nov. 8) the World Meteorological Organization —WMO— delivered a report at the international conference on climate change in Morocco (COP22) which was called in order to carry forward the Paris agreement of COP21. The WMO reported that the past five years were the hottest on record. It reported rising sea levels, soon to increase as a result of the unexpectedly rapid melting of polar ice, most ominously the huge Antarctic glaciers. Already, Arctic sea ice over the past five years is 28 percent below the average of the previous 29 years, not only raising sea levels, but also reducing the cooling effect of polar ice reflection of solar rays, thereby accelerating the grim effects of global warming. The WMO reported further that temperatures are approaching dangerously close to the goal established by COP21, along with other dire reports and forecasts.

During the Republican primaries, every candidate denied that what is happening is happening—with the exception of the sensible moderates, like Jeb Bush, who said “It's all uncertain, but we don't have to do anything because we're producing more natural gas, thanks to fracking.” Or John Kasich, who agreed that global warming is taking place, but added that "we are going to burn [coal] in Ohio and we are not going to apologize for it."

(KLD—Fracking? My mind boggles. These are elected representatives whose decisions will affect the whole world, most likely the US first and Canada next.)

The president-elect calls for rapid increase in use of fossil fuels, including coal; dismantling of regulations; rejection of help to developing countries that are seeking to move to sustainable energy; and in general, racing to the cliff as fast as possible.

Trump has already taken steps to dismantle the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by placing in charge of the EPA transition a notorious (and proud) climate change denier, Myron Ebell. Trump's top adviser on energy, billionaire oil executive Harold Hamm, announced his expectations, which were predictable: dismantling regulations, tax cuts for the industry (and the wealthy and corporate sector generally), more fossil fuel production, lifting (President) Obama's temporary block on the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Effects (of global warming) may soon become even more vividly apparent than they already are.

In Bangladesh alone, tens of millions are expected to have to flee from low-lying plains in coming years because of sea level rise and more severe weather, creating a migrant crisis that will make today's pale in significance.

With considerable justice, Bangladesh's leading climate scientist said that "These migrants should have the right to move to the countries from which all these greenhouse gases are coming. Millions should be able to go to the United States." (And go to all the) other rich countries, that have grown wealthy while bringing about a new geological era, the Anthropocene, marked by radical human transformation of the environment.

These catastrophic consequences can only increase, not just in Bangladesh, but in all of South Asia,Effects may soon become even more vividly apparent than they already are. In Bangladesh alone, tens of millions are expected to have to flee from low-lying plains in coming years because of sea level rise and more severe weather, creating a migrant crisis that will make today's pale in significance.

These catastrophic consequences can only increase, not just in Bangladesh, but in all of South Asia as temperatures, already intolerable for the poor, inexorably rise and the Himalayan glaciers melt, threatening the entire water supply.

Already in India, some 300 million people are reported to lack adequate drinking water. And the effects will reach far beyond. as temperatures, already intolerable for the poor, inexorably rise and the Himalayan glaciers melt, threatening the entire water supply. Already in India, some 300 million people are reported to lack adequate drinking water. And the effects will reach far beyond.

Resolutionarily speaking

Linking with Our World Tuesday
http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.ca/

 Photo by Daniel J. Cook for Parks Canada

But first, the answers to my little quiz about endangered animals in Jasper National Park.
Yamini got them all right. How is that possible, Yam? I know you have lived in Scotland, Australia, and India...but you know western North American wildlife? Really? You amaze me, my dear friend.
Yes, the first photo was of a mama Grizzly and her cub. No one wants to get in between those two bears. (Or any two bears, actually.)
Then came the wolverine, pictured above— pound for pound one of the fiercest fighters on the planet.

Photo: Donald M. Jones for Parks Canada

Then came a pretty white-tailed deer followed by, yes, the woodland caribou seen here.

And my dear but not Canadian friend Yam got all the answers.
I'm going to have to give up the quiz biz.

So it's back to the recently-dawned year, and I've given some consideration to the making of resolutions in this new year. I'm only a few days late in the doing of it, and have succeeded in confusing my foolish, elderly self about which of my character defects require resolution in 2017.

I do know that, here at home, where I live with Lindy and Lindy's daddy, I do resolve to be more cheerful.

Some people may find it hard to believe, but I remember when I was still living in BC, someone accused me of being "too damn cheerful." I thought it was hilarious.

I was no longer young at that time, and nor was I healthy, but I still loved living, and was grateful to be able to do it.

Now, fast forward 15 or 20 years, and some of the thrill has gone out of fighting chronic illnesses.
I'm still grateful, and sometimes still surprised, that I was able, after years of struggling, to thwart osteoporosis and ulcerative colitis: two worthy, nasty foes. I'm glad to be without them. When I walk out in winter (I'm living in Alberta now) I'm still not a fan of falling, but I no longer have to worry about my bones shattering if I slip on icy ground.
Nor do I now need to have my blood monitored because I'd been losing so much of it for so many years.
Today, in 2017, I'm still thrilled that those two plagues: osteoporosis and ulcerative colitis, are gone, and I hope never to experience either of them again, but there still remains that third enemy...which many medical practitioners, and pretty much all government pension departments, refused to recognize when it first hit me in the 1980s: Fibromyalgia.
The word fibromyalgia means musculoskeletal pain everywhere in the body... all the parts, sometimes one or two at a time, and often all of them together...yes, sometimes seriously a pain in the butt.
I laud all other women and men who fought to get fibromyalgia recognized as a very real, very debilitating, often disabling illness. I applaud them, and I thank them, as well.
In the 1980s, backed by the late, great International Typographical Union, I managed to plead the existence of my fibromyalgia before a judge. I'm glad I was able, also with the union's help, to fight the loss of my job to this awful illness. Recognition of fibromyalgia was immediately extended to other members of the union as well. Gotta love that ITU. Some union members, fighting disabilities and knowing what I'd achieved, phoned to thank me.
Thus I was, in turn, able to be a small part of the great fight to have fibromyalgia recognized by Canada's federal government disability pension department.

Having, some time earlier, been forced to sell my house in order to live on the proceeds, I finally had—on the basis of three disabilities—a federal pension income on which to live. To that end, pardon the pun, I had had to prove ulcerative colitis and osteoporosis, as well as fibromyalgia, on my list of disabilities before the feds would agree I was actually ill.
Total: three illnesses, each devastating in one way or another.

At the time, my federal Member of Parliament in White Rock/South Surrey, BC, was one of my former college profs: Benno Friesen. We had mutual friends, and took the opportunity to visit whenever we met. Benno, too, was instrumental in my fight for a federal disability pension, offering me whatever facilities his local office could provide.

For my pension, and more, I am forever grateful to the men and women of the the old ITU. I am still receiving a small a pension from the union, too, because continuation of the pension was considered non-negotiable when that grand old union dissolved due to technological change. Remaining ITU printers are now members of the Communications Workers of America.

I do digress. I started off with quiz results, continued with resolutions for the new year, and wound up being grateful for my pensions.
However, I now have my list of things for which I will try to be thankful in 2017. Bring it on, world. I'm ready (I think) to do battle again.

Anybody know these guys?

This game is rather like Name That Tune, only different because there's no music.

I have to wonder what effect the twinning of an oil pipeline crossing the Rocky Mountains via Jasper National Park will have on the critters below. These are species at risk in Jasper National Park, which is on the route of the Kinder Morgan pipeline about which I raved earlier.
So...who's next to enter that unsavoury category? Several species have already become extinct in the park, with roads and vehicles being the most likely suspects in their extinction.
These below are not yet extinct but are considered "at risk" by Parks Canada.

But back to the quiz:
1. Can you name the critters in the first photo? Besides just "bears" — or do they not have a further name with which biologists classify them?
2. What about the masked fellow with the stand-up hair in the second photo?
3. Or the slim and spritely ungulate in the third?
4. And, last but not least, what about the ones (male and female have the same headgear) in the final photo? They are the most endangered. Some few years ago the last five of them farther south in Banff National Park were killed in an avalanche.

Photos thanks to Parks Canada

and particularly to photographers

Donald M. Jones and Daniel J. Cox.

Happy New Year from here

Well, it is the first day of a new year, and I almost stayed awake to welcome 2017. It is a big year here because Canada will be 150 years old on July 1.

I'm not quite that old.

Our national broadcasting network, the CBC (both television and radio) provided us with plenty of memorabilia in addition to the news last night.

However, it breaks my heart that one of the headline news stories told of yet another attempt at mass murder, this time in the Philippine province of North Cotabato, known as one of the food baskets of the area, with its vast plains and rolling terrain supporting the province's agriculture-based industry.
http://cotabatoprov.gov.ph/

Meanwhile Syria, long shattered by a most horrific war, has now lost most of its population.

Think about that...what if most of the population of your country was snuffed out? Snuffed out by terrorists, and in many cases  by its own military which, in the process of  fighting the terror, accidentally killed many of its own citizens.

Look out your window. Are you home today celebrating the new year? What if the view outside your window suddenly included tanks, multiple military vehicles, and columns of soldiers...your own as well as an enemy's?

It is difficult, in peaceful countries, to imagine those horrors. Dead babies...and toddlers who died because they couldn't move fast enough to outrun the tanks.

To use a phrase common to my generation, the mind boggles.

Not to be outdone, much of the northern part of North America is fighting a war of a different kind...a peaceful war for a peaceful reason...to keep intact our mountains, forests, and plains.

It grieves me that some of my favourite Canadians will be affected negatively, at first, if the pipelines across Alberta and British Columbia are put to rest. There will be a new wave of unemployment, and some people will suffer.

I believe there is a solution. If, instead of giving Kinder Morgan the go-ahead to twin its pipeline across Alberta, across the Rocky Mountains, and across British Columbia to the coast, the federal government (this means you, Justin Trudeau) were to re-train, with pay, the displaced workers from the oil patch. New skills will mean new results.

Now, however, disaster looms. Any coastal waters, anywhere, contain fragile ecosystems which would be devastated by an oil spill, and with all the tanker ships containing Alberta oil through the coast of BC, there is an increased...not somewhat increased, but greatly increased...potential for an oil spill that will devastate all of those ecosystems.

A break in a pipeline could speak doom to Alberta's fertile prairie, also The potential for destruction is not confined to the oceans alone. Food production...so vital to our population, could be affected, and of course rivers on both sides of the Rockies could be polluted. The Rockies themselves could be devastated.

Meanwhile, down at a beach on the BC coast...from the humble clam to the magnificent Orca, and any of the hundreds of species in between, all are in danger from increased oil tanker traffic.

There could be a solution, if the federal government would look at it from a different perspective...if it tried looking forward with a solution, not a problem.

A Christmas resolution

It has long been my intention to take better care of myself, but I never do it. Today is a good example...I had a wakeful night, and felt awful when I got up. So what did I do? I turned the carcass of last night's Christmas turkey into seven containers of turkey broth, ready for the freezer, with, I admit, some help from my husband.
Did my aching back feel better after that? It did not. Am I now lying down to rest? I am not.
No, when I don't feel well, I tackle a household task that only makes me feel worse. I do it all the time. Click on the link below to find out what I should be doing.
I should take the advice of Nat King Cole, to straighten up...

So...Happy day after Christmas to all

and to all a wonderful 2017

Now I will have a nap, and then make
a concerted effort to straighten up and
fly right, for my own sake!

Just think who might be hurt

Searching online, I found this beautiful map detailing all the First Nations on the BC coast who have so much to lose in the event of an oil spill in coastal waters. These lands are their heritage, the lands of their forefathers. This breaks my heart, because I have had and do have many First Nations friends whose lives cannot help but be affected by such a spill.




First, apologies to those of my friends in Alberta who are concerned about the twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline and the effect it will have on the rivers and lands of Alberta, as well as its citizens — I have been unable to find a map showing the number of Alberta First Nations people who can be affected by pipeline expansion.
I did find this link, however. I don't know if it's really applicable or not.
https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/canadas_tar_sands_heavy_oil_heavy

The map below, of BC Ferries routes, shows the wonderful Gulf Islands of the BC coast, between the mainland and Vancouver Island. These islands, as well as Vancouver Island itself, and the San Juan islands in US waters on the other side of that dotted line, stand to lose much of their pristine beauty. Present and future leaders of the USA might complain, perhaps vociferously.

Now, while I am attempting in my own small way to show the effects of an oil spill on the First Nations on the BC coast, I certainly can't help but think of all my other friends and relatives who live on or near the waters which stand to be spoiled by a spill, in Washington as well as BC. Who would be liable for such damages? Or will there be a war, perhaps?

In no way do I consider myself very knowledgeable about this looming problem, but I feel I must speak out strongly in hopes of helping to save the lands and rivers crossing Alberta, where I now live, as well as BC, where my roots are. Who gets hurt? It might be me or thee.

One thing I now know: because the Rocky Mountains form an insurmountable barrier between the two provinces, the waters from Alberta's rivers wend their way east and north, eventually ending up in Hudson's Bay—

Imagine my surprise when I first moved to Alberta, and found myself looking at the South Saskatchewan River as it flowed through Medicine Hat, and suddenly realized that the water was flowing "the wrong way"! It was going from west to east! As a third-generation British Columbian, I was flabbergasted by this discovery.

Now, however, I wonder if a break in a pipeline somewhere in Alberta might actually end up in one of our east-moving rivers, perhaps carrying oil pollution to Saskatchewan or farther east.

Magnanimity and other insanity

I don't know when last I cooked a full Christmas dinner. I don't think it was anything like a year ago, or even two or three, but... as I am often heard to say, these days "my rememberer is broke"...

I must have forgotten the amount of work entailed in such a cooking spree, because yesterday, in a fit of feeling good to the point of magnanimity, I invited our teenaged grandson and granddaughter,  along with their parents, to have Christmas dinner here.
Here.
At our house.
Dinner for six.
To be cooked in my kitchen.

I can't believe I said that. But there I was, flush from the triumph of getting the house semi-clean and somewhat tidy, then having our granddaughter stay with us overnight, so I offered to turn one of these:













into one of these:


less than a week from now, aided only by my husband, which is often like having no help at all.
Sigh.
Note: The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of magnanimity is not, as I thought, complete insanity, but is instead "loftiness of spirit enabling one to bear trouble calmly, to disdain meanness and pettiness, and to display a noble generosity"!

Good grief! Lofty me just "disdained meanness and pettiness" and displayed the noble generosity entailed in cooking Christmas dinner.

Who, me?

Who knew?

Now, less than 24 hours later, I have finished writing two lists: a to-buy list and an equally long to-do list, and I am overwhelmed. I don't even have my husband here to help underwhelm me, because he is off playing tennis. No, not in the snow. Even he and his intrepid tennis partner aren't that hardy. In the winter they play on an indoor court somewhere. But I digress.

Fortunately for me, I have an appointment to see our family doctor this afternoon. Perhaps he will explain to my husband and the kids that I am constitutionally incapable of such a crazy feat.

But probably not. It's more likely he'll say, "Kay, you look so much better than you did the last time I saw you. Merry Christmas!" and I will be overwhelmed with the folly of (a) looking good and (b) offering to make a huge dinner.

You wouldn't believe what else I thought of doing...I thought of using the silverplated flatware that I haven't used since since the 1990s. It is clean and shiny now, but who knows? It might need to be polished after exposure to contaminants like orange juice, cranberries, and who-knows-what-all.

But I digress again, and would love to digress myself right out of the whole turkey dinner idea, but I can't. I must get on with my list-making...first on the list: get rid of everything I own which is of no use whatsoever, then clean and tidy whatever is left.

The moral of this story is: be careful what you offer to do, because you just might find yourself doing it.

Linking with Our World Tuesday

Pardon me if I rant a lot

Before I moved to Alberta because of my husband’s work, I was a happy third-generation British Columbian. I have lived in more than one of BC’s ecosystems, by its ocean, its rivers, its lakes. Now I live in southern Alberta and am concerned about this province as well. I am determined to do my one small part in saving both provinces from a crude oil disaster of massive proportions.

As others have said...

“Industrial economy is killing the planet.”

“Any option is a better option than a dead planet.”
“The good news is: there are other options.”

North and South Saskatchewan Rivers, flow through Alberta and Saskatchewan before joining together in Manitoba, then emptying into Hudson's Bay.

Jasper National Park, a Canadian wilderness of exquisite beauty.

The black line shows the present pipeline, the blue one its "twin"...I can see from this map that the pipeline and its proposed twin pass through some of my favourite places.

The prime minister of Canada recently approved the twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which starts in northeastern Alberta and, in southern Alberta, crosses the Rocky Mountains, right through the middle of Jasper National Park.

The proposed twin pipeline will cross the Saskatchewan River, cross many of Alberta’s and BC’s mountain ranges, rivers and provincial parks, then end on the shore of southwestern British Columbia, to load crude oil to be exported across the Pacific Ocean, where an oil spill could cause a monumental ecological disaster.

A "city" of oil tanks overlooking Burrard Inlet
 with North Vancouver's industrial area and
a cargo ship in the distance.

The satellite map at https://www.transmountain.com/map has the proposed pipeline route superimposed on it. That route goes through places where I used to live, places where my friends still live.

Lower Fraser River, British Columbia

The river closest to my heart is BC’s Fraser River. I was born in a hospital overlooking the Fraser, and as soon as I was old enough to understand that fact, I was filled with pride, for the river was beautiful then and pretty much unsullied by ‘progress’!

I learned early that rivers are not stand-alone entities. For every major river there is a vast river system...tributaries, lakes, ponds, shores and habitats... for animals and birds as well as for fish.

Fraser River, coming down the mountain near the old town of Spuzzum.

The Kinder Morgan pipeline will no doubt have to be built alongside the Fraser at some point, on one shore or the other, either for a short distance or a long one. And it will have to go under or over the Fraser, to reach Burrard Inlet.

Pipelines are not the only danger awaiting our two provinces, but to me they are one of the scariest.

In addition: once the pipeline has carried its crude oil across Alberta successfully, it must then cross British Columbia, made up of valleys, lakes and rivers...yes, and mountain ranges one right after another, with lakes and rivers in between. BC's mountain valleys, with their readily-available fresh water, have long been a boon to ranchers, farmers and orchardists. But what crop can grow after an oil spill?

Alberta has 129 rivers. I don’t know what the Kinder Morgan people have decided about getting crude oil over or under rivers in Alberta, but they have a bigger job awaiting them in British Columbia which has more than 1000 rivers.

After crossing both Alberta and BC, we come to the Pacific Ocean.

For instance, take the Columbia River, which is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The Columbia rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. It flows northwest and then south into the US state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between the states of Washington and Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia river is 1,243 miles (2,000 km) long, and has 14 tributaries.

The Columbia’s drainage basin is roughly the size of France and extends into seven US states as well as the Canadian province of British Columbia. According to the International Energy Agency in 2014, the Columbia provides more than 40% of total US hydroelectric power.

 Now of course, the Kinder Morgan pipeline route isn’t going to cross over or under all, or even the majority, of these 1129 rivers.

However no pipeline across Canada’s two western provinces can avoid every body of water,  each of which is a potential victim of an oil spill.

Kinder Morgan’s expansion will be enough to bring its export up to one oil tanker a day, perhaps two, and one of those days a possible spill can destroy much of southern BC’s beauty.

After crossing both Alberta and BC, we come to the Pacific Ocean.

Most, but not all oil tankers make it across the ocean successfully. Are Canadians willing to risk that “not all” possibility? 

Every day a loaded oil tanker will have to navigate through Burrard Inlet, under two bridges, through BC’s beautiful Gulf Islands, then make its way past Vancouver Island and out into the wide open Pacific Ocean. This map shows BC’s Gulf Islands, and the Canada-US border. An offshore oil spill could easily move into American waters.

Yes, to get to the open ocean, tanker captains can face the possibility of a spill in southwestern Canada and the northwestern US — despoiling the coastline of each country, each with its islands, fjords, bays, inlets, coves, and rivers.

Most, but not all oil tankers make it across the ocean successfully. Are Canadians willing to risk that “not all” possibility? 

An ocean is an ecosystem that makes even British Columbia’s lakes, rivers and vast wilderness look paltry. The Pacific Ocean’s ecosystem is huge, beyond my ability to describe.

I worked in Vancouver for many years. It is not just an ordinary city. Think of Stanley Park, that beautifully wooded jewel: almost as old as New York’s Central Park, and quite a bit bigger...1000 acres vs 843 acres in New York.

If you want to argue about downtown dangers: a murder in Stanley Park is not the everyday ho-hum event it is in Central Park, New York.

Yes, there are some shady parts of Vancouver, with drunks and druggies and ladies-in-waiting, but most of the city is clean, bright, and beautiful—some parts with sparkling water and beautiful beaches, some with a view of the mountains, and others with comfortable, happy neighbourhoods.

One oil spill—just one—could ruin it all.

Note: while the prime minister also vetoed the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline, he went ahead and approved, also, the Enbridge 3 pipeline in the province of Manitoba, a line that also crosses the US border.

One out of three possibly disastrous pipelines is insufficient, Prime Minister Trudeau! 

https://blogger.com/unfittie.blogspot.com
Hoping to link this post to Lady Fi's wonderful meme
Our World Tuesday

from 

https://blogger.com/unfittie.blogspot.com

Montenegro—my new favourite place

We often travel by cruise ship because it's a great way to see many different places in a fairly short period of time. Of course, we only see a small part of each country or city, but it is enough to give us a taste of what each place offers.
Last month's cruise stopped in Montenegro, and the Norwegian Spirit offered a shore excursion for people like me, people who can't walk very far very fast. I was immediately smitten with the city of Kotor in Montenegro.
I've mentioned this port before, but with only a few photos. Now you get to see my favourite port.

Above is my favourite photo because,

if you look closely,

you can see the lamp post

reflected in the puddle on the street.

I looked at Kotor's peaceful harbour, at its palm trees, ivy, and flowers, and I thought I could live here. Of course I can't, because of the dampness, but I can dream.

Foreign exchange foreign to me

An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel blogger Kay Davies (that would be me) recently home from a trip to Scotland, England and Europe (that would be me, too) was surfing online and discovered a Huffington Post article on foreign exchange rates by Stephanie Caudle, Managing Editor, She's My Superwoman.

The article intrigued me enough to set me to quoting it without direct permission. My thanks, however, to Ms Caudle and to the Huffington Post, as well as apologies if those are deemed necessary.

I admit I was nervous when I chose to buy Sterling and Euros before I left Canada all by my somewhat dithery self. (Okay, more than somewhat, as Damon Runyon used to say.)

I based my which-bank decision on location, not on any particular bank's foreign exchange rate. More fool I, perhaps, but that's how I looked at it in October. (Get there quickly and easily and get right back home.) Don't tell anyone that 'quickly' meant I left my wallet in my car, thus approaching the bank teller without it, and having to rush (i.e. waddle quickly) back to the car. Returning to the same teller, I was quite pleased with myself for finding both British Pounds and Scottish pounds, the latter of which I never knew existed, but which I loved immediately. (See what I mean about me?)

Sigh.
I wish I had learned of Ms Caudle's wisdom earlier:

"When it comes to local currency exchange, it’s important to recognize there are two sets of exchange rates. There is the Bank of Canada published rates that we can find online and in the newspaper, then there are the exchange rates your bank actually uses when you buy U.S. cash with Canadian currency.
"The lower published rates reflect what banks use when they exchange enormous sums of money amongst themselves, (but) the rates they charge us are typically as much as 3% higher.
"Exchange rates fluctuate from one financial institution to the next and are typically set by the individual banks themselves."
(Note: I had heard of the Canadian Snowbirds Association but didn't realize it offers "better-than-bank rates through online transfers.")
The article went on to say “The banks...don’t compete on price...we are keeping them honest and helping Canadians save,” according to Rahim Madhavji, president of Toronto’s Knightsbridge Foreign Exchange Inc., a firm he co-founded after quitting his job at the Royal Bank of Canada in 2009.
"The Snowbirds and Knightsbridge are putting the power of bulk buying into the hands of the individual, and in doing so, are giving Canadians the opportunity to beat the banks at their own game."

Linking with Lady Fi's Our World Tuesday meme

Birthday, yes...but seriously...

I got about 40 "Happy 70th Birthday" wishes via Facebook on Thursday, and I'm "tickled pink" — to use a phrase from my youth.
I've been on the planet a long time, and I've survived it all, even the worst bits. I am very grateful for that.
However, this is not the world into which I was born in British Columbia in 1946. Never mind the obvious differences from the 1940s to the 21st century...like dress styles and cars, radio and the first television...
Today we live on the brink of a global disaster. Polar ice cap melting, oceans polluted, along with rivers, lakes and streams. (Not to mention war, famine, disease, and shocking political debacles.)
What can we do? I don't know now. I believe we're past the tipping point, as others have also said.
I think of my late father,  and his books about the Living Rivers of British Columbia. He lived long enough to see the beginning of our global melt-down, but I'm actually glad he's not alive today to see how much worse things have become. His living rivers might soon die.

I miss Dad dearly, but I wouldn't have wanted him to see his beloved rivers killed by garbage and other detritus, and in grave danger of a worse disaster—fossil fuels, specifically potentially leaky oil pipelines.
Now, don't get me wrong, I really do understand about people who work in the "oil patch" here in Alberta and elsewhere: of course I know they need jobs in order to feed their families, but I believe the dangers of transporting oil across our land and our oceans will far outweigh the benefits.
Therefore, I believe federal and provincial governments should look at paying displaced oil patch personnel while they train for other jobs...yes, the people who depend upon fossil fuel revenues to feed their families are important. They are very important, I understand that, but not any more so than other Canadians who depend upon oceans, forests, lakes and rivers for their livelihood, indeed for their very lives.
By paying people as they re-train for jobs such as building solar panels, wind turbines, and other new and exciting technology, we could save our environment: oceans, rivers, forests, lakes and streams, as well as the oil-patch workers.
I do not understand why any country, including Canada, would endanger the environment in exchange for money.
If our country is dead, money will mean nothing.
Our prime minister who, before he was elected, seemed to be opposed to reliance on fossil fuels, has instead approved new two pipelines to be built through my beloved country. I thought it was his beloved country, too, as it was his father's before him, but now I wonder.

There was Justin, on TV a few days ago, talking about money, from the other side of the world, in exchange for Canadian oil, about oil revenues being so great for the country's economy.
But what kind of country will his children and grandchildren inherit when its oceans, forests, lakes and rivers — even the land itself— are polluted and die after one or more oil disasters?
I voted for Prime Minister Trudeau, thinking "Pierre's kid" had an education that taught him to face, head on, the dangers to Canada.
Look, Justin...and look, fellow Canadians, it can be done, look at what other countries have accomplished:

5 Countries Leading the Way Toward 100% Renewable Energy (2015)

Race to renewable: five developing countries ditching fossil fuels (2015)

6 countries leading the charge towards renewable energy (2016)

Follow the Leader: How 11 Countries Are Shifting to Renewable Energy (2016)

It's not that Canada doesn't know about these things: on the Government of Canada website we see a discussion about various types of energy, including wind, solar, and ocean energy (who knew?) along with fossil fuels because it is a government website, after all, and can't ignore the energy now being touted by its leader. 

However, I am one of those British Columbia-born leftwing pinko radicals who, if I were young and healthy again, would be in Burnaby, BC, protesting the twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. And, although I'm very glad, even grateful, that Prime Minister Trudeau did not approve the particularly scary Northern Gateway pipeline shown here, still he and his cohort, Federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, did approve enlarging the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline which threatens the province of Manitoba. That one could become Canada's equivalent of Standing Rock to the south.
I wouldn't want to be suffering the cruel winter weather which has hit the Standing Rock protestors, but I do wish I could be one of them.
The young me, with a job that allowed me to take unpaid time off pretty much as often as I wanted it, would be spending time with all three groups of protestors.
Plus, that job paid very well and, if I had it now, I could afford to send money to all three protest groups.
However, technology pretty much erased that job...it went the way of all good things. I was a printer and, when I lived in Vancouver, I set type for the city's two daily newspapers, along with 300 other journeyman compositors, most of whom are dead now, just as our International Typographical Union is dead: killed by technological change.
But don't get me started on the much-mourned ITU.
Sigh.
It isn't the world into which I was born in 1946.

Same face? I don't know

Me, 2006

Me, 2016

Mom, 2003

           
I remember visiting with Mom and Dad at their place in Mexico...San Felipe, Baja Norte, on the Sea of Cortez, around the turn of the century.

Mom and I were in town, shopping or just strolling, I forget...but a truck stopped to let us cross at an intersection and the driver called to us..."Look, same face!"
It was Mom and Dad's good friend Julio, who had known them well for a number of years. He and Dad always had a grand time fishing together.

Maybe Julio had never seen the two of us side by side in those years, despite my visiting them occasionally and his visiting them often, or maybe it just didn't occur to him, but I've wondered ever since.
I never really thought I looked like my mother, but perhaps I was wrong...I posted this to my Facebook page and everyone says yes...same face!

Linking to Lady Fi's popular meme,
Our World Tuesday