Righteous Wrath and Ignorant Anger

It seems to me that there are a lot of angry people in the world.  I was just roaming through Facebook and some of my friends were sharing various items and one of them struck me.  It was a picture of Republicans beating up on a gay marine (staged photo, I hope).  Which got me thinking about how violent our society is.  For example, just look at the type of shows on television that endorse bad behaviours. 

       Violence isn’t just the notion of beating someone over the head with a baseball bat.  There’s the subtle type of violence that includes passive aggressive behaviour.  The thing to consider is that everyone’s skin had a different thickness.  Some people can take a lot of abuse seemingly, while others are extremely sensitive to the slightest comment (that would be me).  But even those with thick skins have a breaking point when it comes to harsh words.

       In the last 2 weeks there have been numerous incidents in Calgary but at least two with fatal consequences.  A couple of weeks ago an 18 year old boy was knifed to death by a “friend” because of a “dispute”.  This weekend a man was killed by a sucker punch outside of a bar, apparently over  a disagreement about a picture.  Really?  Someone was killed because a person couldn’t control his feelings about a stupid picture? 

       Once again, I can harp on the way drivers behave on the road.  Twice a day I see the most outrageous type of driving and you can disagree with me until the cows come home but I will NOT back down.  Speed is a huge factor in aggressive driving and I absolutely believe that Deerfoot should be reduced to 80 km an hour.  The nutbars that come zooming up the Deerfoot to connect at the junction to Okotoks is beyond anything.  All they care about is getting to that intersection ahead of everyone else, faster than anyone else.  I’ve seen them going at speeds of over 140 km an hour . . . so what about the poor folks who have just lost speed on the Macleod side and are going 107 while trying to merge to go further south?  They DON’T CARE since it’s ALL ABOUT THEM.

       Was society always this selfish, self-absorbed, aggressive, mannerless and just darned nasty?  I don’t think so.  I believe that we are creating ever increasing morons rather than human beings.

High School Reunions

The other day we were watching “Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion” and I couldn’t help laughing.  The writers capture some of the angst of high school and the residual effects of being put in pecking order.

       What I find interesting about reunions is not the comparisons on how successful persons were or how much people have changed.  Instead what I truly enjoy and find interesting is how people connect with each other.  There is the reconnection of friends who have lost touch over the years but there is also new connections of people that you knew only “in school” and who you discover are kindred spirits now.  It’s really nice to discover new friendships.  I think it is a terrible pity for those who don’t find the time to attend reunions because they really are missing something.

       I must say that I think we have been very fortunate in our classmates as I haven’t found anyone being mean or petty after all these years.  I don’t know how things were for others in school but I sure hope that no one had the experiences that we see in various movies.  I just don’t get it when people are mean and I know it can happen at any age.  I prefer to find a solution although sometimes it can be difficult when the other party avoids coming to a “meeting of the minds”.  In such a case, I simply throw up my hands and say “c’est la vie”.  We can’t win them all.

What's Wrong with this Picture

There are a number of things that I question but I wonder if anyone else is asking the same thing.

       For instance, how is it possible to call the services of nurses, teachers, postal workers, paramedics, and even air line workers “essential services” but at the same time we have privatization of services like heating and electricity?  In other words, as private services the name of the game is profits first, care of public well being is not even on the agenda.  Is this what we want in our society?

       How is it possible that the powers that be can roll back the pension plans, dip into the pension funds of private corporations and basically reduce certain sectors from the retirement expectations they have worked and paid into for decades; but at the same time the same powers that be can grant themselves obscenely high retirement packages, severance packages and whatever other packages tickle their fancies?  Just how much money can the pigs at the trough gobble up – is that a question in Trivial Pursuit?  Oh that’s right, it’s an upward moving target.

       In your ideal world, what do you think would be the right amount of disparity between the privileged and the not-so-privileged?  Between the educated, under-educated and over-educated?  Between the hogs and the horses?

       Just wondering how your world is ticking along.

 

Last Weekend of Summer

Here are some of the things I remember about the end of summer. 

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane was playing in the drive-in; reruns of “Last of the Mohicans” starring John Hart; late raspberries; peanut butter and cinnamon spread sandwiches; not being allowed to go swimming in the public pool the last 2 weeks of summer because Mom thought the water would be too dirty; Mom sewing our new school clothes; new perms and haircuts; new running shoes; reading Nancy Drew mysteries under the willow tree; reading “Emma” by the pool in Kitchener; reading “The Godfather” on the bus going to my first job; cattle roundup in the dog days of summer; going for a boat ride down the creek with my brothers and nephews; making apple pie with my own apples; inspecting my potatoes to check for ripeness (never ready) and always, always, dreading the first frost!

The end of summer is a very nostalgic time but not always in a good way because the memories are usually bittersweet.  It’s the goodbye to summer part that is so hard to bear even though there are pleasant days ahead in the autumn.  Even the sound of the word “autumn” is nice and brings up pleasant thoughts. But that in between time, the last 2 weeks of August is really hard, like squeezing the last bit of juice out of an already squished orange.  It can be done but it’s tough.

Meanwhile, I’ve been soaking up the sun.

Unsung Heroes

Yesterday they were having memorials across the country for Jack Layton, calling him a hero to the people.  While I don’t wish to take anything away from Jack my thought was “what about all the people who voted For the People”?  Which led me to thinking about all the unsung heroes we have in our midst.  This isn’t about politics, it’s about people.

       There are millions of people who go to work every day, uncomplaining and who uphold the laws, standards and integrity of this country.  No one gives them a memorial, an honour, or even an acknowledgement of a job well done.  Not a new thought, indeed my mother noted many years ago how the good children never seemed to get any kind of reward while the bad ones got to go to horse camps and the like.  We are the humble people of the earth who just make the world go round but whose looking?

       As coincidence would have it this article was being written because of all the attention Jack Layton was getting, and again, I don’t wish to take away from him but at the same time let’s remember there were a lot of other people who helped contribute significantly to the huge win of the NDP last year.  But yesterday at work we also happened to have a town hall meeting to say farewell to our outgoing president.  I don’t usually write about work but today I cannot help myself.  Was I the only person who noticed that he never once said a thank you to his assistant for taking care of him over the last 3 years?  I am aware of the long hours she puts in and how she goes over and above the line of duty and a public acknowledgement would have been nice.  But hey, “she’s only a secretary”. 

That’s like saying “she’s only a mother”. 

       Just Saying.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

I went to bed last night thinking up a very good blog for this morning but wouldn’t you know it?  Gone.  Many a great novel has been lost by sleep.

Weirdness or Laziness

The other day I got a call that I thought “Now this is the limit”.  What was it?  Well, you know how you get these irritating, soliciting phone calls?  Over the last few years there is a pause after I pick up the phone and then someone will get on only not fast enough before I hang up.  But now, a tape came on and asked me to, hold your breath, HOLD.  Are you kidding me?  You ring up my house after 8 p.m. to solicit only heaven knows what, irritation enough, and you then ask me to hold so I can be further agitated?  Unfortunately I hung up (as who wouldn’t?) but I should have held on just to find out what idiotic, rude, obnoxious, moronic company thought this was a good way to get customers!

       I’ve often wondered who first thought up telephone soliciting because I don’t believe I have ever purchased anything that way.  They call to sell magazines, carpet cleaning, furnace cleaning, and who knows what else.  They want us to donate to every conceivable charity possible and some not possible.  I find the charity grab the worst of the lot on so many levels.  Number one, I don’t believe even half the money goes to whatever the charity is.  Number two, when it comes to the research for diseases, who will profit in the end?  The pharmaceutical companies.  Do you really believe that once the cure is found it will be free, or even at a reasonable cost?  Think of how many billions have been donated by the private individual and yet a pharmaceutical company will make billions on the medication while private individuals will have to struggle to find the funds to pay for the new found cure.  You don’t think that is going to happen?  Are you in fantasy land?

       It’s barely 4 a.m.  My alarm rang me up at 3:30, I’ve had my coffee and I am raring to go.  Don’t mess with me today because I AM ON IT.

This, That and the Other

Yesterday that trailblazer comedienne Phyllis Diller passed away at the ripe old age of 95.  As coincidence would have it I was watching Joan Rivers yesterday and the wonder is that she is alive considering the plastic that is being used to blow up her face!  My goodness but she looks awful.  I’ve always found Ms. Rivers too crude for my taste but she did crack me up yesterday when she discussed obituaries, one of the many things she hates.  She goes “yadda, yadda, yadda, Erma Bernstein, 108, suddenly passed away . . . ‘suddenly’” she asks.  It is so true, how many times have you read an obit where they use the word “suddenly” beside some really old age?  I’m sure we’ve all read it.

       What is transgender anyway?  I was reading an article while riding the train this morning and did a double take.  There was a story of a transgender man who “identifies as a man” but apparently has the equipment to breastfeed, and there was a picture of “him” breastfeeding.  I really don’t get this story because I have yet to see a man breastfeeding.  The story was more about whether this person could become a leader of a breastfeeding group (on parenting I think) given his gender.  Honestly, sometimes the squabbles that we get in to are not worth it.  Seriously who cares who is teaching about breastfeeding.  I am more interested in the rights of gays to marry and get the partnership benefits that a straight couple can obtain.  I’m sure I will get pounced on for this one but seriously?

       Right beside this article was one about the nimrod that talked about “legitimate rape”, an article I decided to pass over as my thought is “who really listens to a Republican anyway?”  Yes, I know, it’s scary to think what the Americans may vote in at the next election but as we don’t control that . . . why waste my virtual breathe?

       Flipping the page I see that Prime Minister Harper is giving a rah, rah speech Up North “. . . and you ain’t seen nothing yet.”  Wow, don’t you like it when our leaders talk down to us, just in case we missed anything?  That’s like the hokey plaid shirts the Reform party wore while campaigning back in ’93.  So convincing to see a millionaire Baptist in a plaid shirt and tightening his belt.

       Something interesting a few pages over . . . pictures of the proverbial ‘no two snowflakes are alike’ were very cool.  One looked like a starfish and the other looked like a concrete building block.  Awesome.

       Now that’s this and that for today.  How was your day?

What's New in the Zoo

My critters have become so accustomed to my mother that they come wandering in and out of the house at all hours of the day.  I have to admit, she has a way with animals be they horses, dogs, cats, birds, you name it.  I can only imagine what she could have accomplished alongside Jane Goodall in deepest darkest Africa.  If I believed in another life I would suspect her of being a snake charmer.

       It’s strange to consider her affinity for animals when we were never allowed to have pets while we were young.  She always said she would have to be the ones to care for them and she didn’t want to.  And the minute we finally did get a pet (when we were in our 20’s) she stole them!

       I have to say that I simply love animals and when I see the way a dog or a chimp looks up at a person, so much intelligence and trust in their eyes, my heart simply melts.  I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone could be cruel to an animal.  I feel so upset when I watch the commercial on the abused animals even though I realize we are being manipulated for money.

       These days both of us are doing a lot of bird watching even though we still have a lot of trouble identifying what it is we are seeing.  Fortunately, with my new glasses I am less likely to mistake a shovel handle for a bird!

Enjoying People

I’ve been a people watchers pretty much all of my life and even at a very young age I had a great sense of humour about them.  When my father introduced me to John Steinbeck I completely related to the way he could write about marginal people, bringing them to life and making them interesting rather than pathetic.  To be sure one could take Danny and his cronies in Tortilla Flat as being pathetic but I found their exploits imaginative and hilarious.

       For many years I have ridden on a bus and I daily observe my fellow passengers.  In my younger days I often thought about the older people who got on the bus, wondering what sort of youth they had and what they had actually expected of their lives.  Today I often find myself being judgmental of my fellow passengers due to my advanced age and zero tolerance for bad behaviours.  That aside, I will still choose a person to dwell on and wonder about their condition in life.  The other day I observed a young woman who brought her 8 or 10 month old puppy on board.  There is something truly engaging about watching a young dog look first adoringly at his mistress and then trustingly at the people coming on board.  Their eyes show a trusting eagerness that melts the heart.  I looked around at the other passengers, some were grinning in appreciation but there were also one or two disapproving frowns.  How could anyone not like a dog, I wondered?

       People are interesting and I still like to people watch.

Simply Living

I’ve been thinking about how quickly life passes by.  To think that more than 40 years has gone by since I became an adult astonishes me.  I consider the quality of those 40 years and find myself shaking my head in disappointment.  Oh to be a shining star with a fiery flame of accomplishment at my tail giving the illusion of a comet.  But then I consider a bit more and realize that this is the stuff of life, working for a living.  What do I mean?

       There is a quiet sort of dignity in working for a living and the vast majority of individuals are The People.  We are the ones who make the buses go, who keep the electricity and heat flowing, who grow the food and raises the cattle and keep civilization on track.  We obey the laws, pay our bills, pay the taxes due and thus support the proper working of the machinery we call Life.  We working people have a fortitude that allows us to get up at impossible times of the day, make a commute under sometimes nearly outrageous conditions, punch the figurative clock and then do our work.  Then we take the long trek home again, be it by sitting in the car in rush hour traffic or being jammed into a bus oftentimes “standing room only”.  Once home we have our household duties to complete, including caring for our offspring.  In these few hours we can bring the quality up a notch, or not.

       So I have been thinking about the way we approach our lives and wonder “are we enjoying every minute of every day, despite the work?”  The likelihood that the pattern of our lives will change is very slim so the key message here is to be certain that you are truly enjoying your life, on a daily basis, despite the hardships. 

Because This Is It.

Retirement 301

Working through financial strategies, which is the most important part of any retirement plan, is a little like putting an intricate puzzle together only to discover that key pieces are missing.  At least that seems to be the experience that I am having these days as I sort through the various bits of information that I have right now.  Or, in other words, the comfort number in the bank is a moving target.

       Aside from figuring out the financial woes what can make a person feel ready to say “this is it, time to throw in the towel”?  I believe that if you really love what you are doing you are not going to be ready to leave it alone unless you have other irons in the fire.  Man or woman, there is nothing fun about sitting at home twiddling your thumbs or watching mindless television.  Some people do lead a rather solitary or sedentary life but I believe those are the ones who end up dying prematurely.  But at the moment I am noticing that I am slowing down in my activities once I reach my driveway and it is a little disconcerting.

       That’s an understatement.  The more I consider my situation the more alarmed I am becoming.  I feel rather like I am in a chapter of “Still Alice” and am looking at a black hole – the black hole that turns out to be her carpet.  Sometimes planning and thinking and reaching only makes a person go around in circles.  It’s time to stop worrying and get back on the road called life and simply LIVE.

Dog Days of Summer (again)

Yes, it’s August and I feel the anxiety starting to build, that miserable nervousness in the stomach that betokens summer is coming to an end.  Last weekend Mom and I noticed some popular trees along the highway already had yellow leaves on them and I felt like screaming like in that commercial where the woman sees a brown leaf.  The lawn is beginning to get that patchy brown, crunchy look to it.  All my perennials have finished blooming and in the stores they have brought out the mums, which is a signal for fall and Thanksgiving.  And yes, I see harvest and Halloween items in the Hallmark store.

       I lured Mom out on the deck today to enjoy our morning coffee and squeeze every last drop of the goodness of summer out of the weekend.  The cats were languishing under the deck, truly dog days when the cats are panting for breath.  Then we went for a walk, yes, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine (even though it was cloudy).  Then we decided to do fall chores, like painting window trim and hacking down rose bushes and deflowered lilies.

       But stop.

       It’s not even the middle of August, and we have had a truly wonderful warm summer thus far.  Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and begin thinking fall.  Let’s call over some family and enjoy a good dinner, let’s sit on the deck and perhaps even play another game of croquet.  Let’s lap up every drop of sunshine and get that heat into our bodies.

       It’s summer time and let’s find the ukulele and strum us summer tunes!  Be careful not to twang a sour note!

Arch Rivals

You’ve heard of a one man dog but generally when a person talks about a cat they will say that they are aloof, snooty or disdainful.  My family has always thought that all my cats (and I’ve had plenty of them) have been odd in the extreme because they never see them!  I have always assured them that my cats are extremely affectionate and loyal to me.  Indeed, they will come when I call them (as long as no one else is around) and they recognize my car motor from miles away and come running home when they hear me arriving. 

       My guests have occasionally caught a glimpse of a tail as it rushed down in the basement in order to avoid being caught by a Stranger.  My brother lived with me for 18 months and only managed to pet the least shy one a few times.

In fact, I have been rather proud of my cats’ standoffishness as I felt it was a sign of loyalty towards me.

       Silly me.  My mother has both of them, yes, both of them, wrapped around her ankles!  They come in the house when she calls.  They come for snuggles and pets.  They are verging on the impossible, they are prepared to sleep with her, should she ever open up her door at night!  When I am on the sofa watching a show, Mom is on the loveseat.  I find myself suspiciously (dare I admit it, jealously) observing the cats stop first at her feet before they wander over to me.  Excuse me, did I cough?  Was that what lured my faithful companions over to me?  Have I sunk so low?

What Cost Cutbacks?

Yesterday as I was driving home from work I heard a news blurb that I knew would get my mother’s dander up.  Since the deregulation of transportation the Greyhound service has been cutting their bus routes and the latest cuts have now affected most of the small towns in our vicinity, including ours.  For years my mother has been complaining about the lack of services in small towns but this has now been the last straw.  What are people to do who have no driver’s license if they want to go to another town or city?  Hitch a ride?  Beg a neighbour for a ride?  Some ten years or so ago they took all the rail lines out of the ground that used to connect the grain elevators with the railroad.  More than half of the grain elevators have disappeared, or at least they have been shut down.  Last week the deregulation of the Wheat Board ended their monopoly.  Our province has been threatening to close down most of the small town hospitals which would mean that everyone south of Calgary would have to be taken by ambulance to Calgary for any life saving treatment.  The distance between Calgary and Lethbridge is some 216 km north and south; then there is the expanse east to west.  How many people would succumb before they reached a hospital?

       So the question is, when are cutbacks appropriate and when should cost be overridden by the need of the population.  The fact is that the rural communities pay their fair share of taxes and yet they scarcely reap the benefits of their tax dollars in relation to their city cousins.  I have heard city people speak resentfully of those commuting from outside the city who use the city transit system.  In particular, should they park their cars on the transit parking lots, woe to them who go there.  And yet if they bothered to read the placards on the trains, they were sponsored by Federal, Provincial and Municipal tax dollars.  That’s correct, we country folk helped pay for those trains so we have a right to ride on them also.  These same city slickers have no problem venturing out to “our” country parks for their camp outs, nor do they have any problem shooting “our” birds and deer in hunting season.  That’s my wheat those deer or chomping on all summer, sweetheart.  Not to mention my trees.

       The main question though is can anyone tell me when deregulation has actually worked out to cost less for the average Joe?

Who's on What

Last night I woke up to a peculiar sound but as the grogginess dissipated I realized that the fireworks were in full swing.  I crept out to watch them and nearly dropped dead when Mom said from her lookout at the living room window “I can see them here”.  I hadn’t realized she had also gotten up so I couldn’t hear the popping of the fireworks because of the pounding of my heart in my ears!  Then we enjoyed the spectacular colours and shapes of them for the next 10 minutes and then crawled back to bed.

       My small town doubles in size during the August long weekend as it is our Roundup Days.  This is the weekend where I stay close to home, I don’t even dare go in to town to fill up with gas because there are so many vehicles and people around.  So after lunch today I asked Mom to come with me to the gas station as I was a bit low and need to get to work tomorrow.  As we rounded the bend in the road we discovered a whole pack of people lined up along the bridge, starring hard into the creek below.  What on earth, we wondered.  Turns out this is where they have a duck race for the campers.  I believe they are big yellow rubber ducks floating down the creek as I haven’t seen any training grounds for the live ones around.

       On the drive home Mom wondered out loud why people get out of town, why they have rubber ducks, and so forth.  I looked at her and said “Mom, it’s not all about you.  There are people around who are under 100.”  It’s hard to accept that we are growing into old fuddy duddies who can’t understand the fun that kids enjoy.  Then we chatted about how unfortunate it is that it is expensive for people even to go to their community pool or ice rink and also that they aren’t open to the public except at designated times.  Otherwise these facilities are closed for private lessons, games or practices which doesn’t seem fair as they are funded by taxpayers.  It seems to me that the poorer people never seem to catch many breaks in life. 

       And meantime, Mom is having a siesta and I am enjoying the cool of the house as it is one heck of a scorcher today.  Welcome summertime.

Who's at Fault

Two days apart and two teenagers are dead in separate car accidents where texting is allegedly a factor in the accidents.  Same stretch of highway, the first accident was well publicized and yet the second accident happened.  RCMP suspect both were texting while driving.

       Here’s my question.  How is it possible that parents continue to buy cell phones for their children at extremely young ages when the parents must have heard all the controversy regarding the misuse of cell phones.   I don’t think I need to go into details regarding the misuse, be it while driving or in the classroom; whether it be texting for obsessive and inconsequential things or more seriously for harassing classmates.  I cannot comprehend why it is essential for these children to have cell phones.  Think of the millions of children who went to school and was separated from their parents for all of 6 hours, quite happy to be out of contact with said parents.  What is the matter with parents that they feel they know what their children are doing because they have a cell phone.  Do you really believe that when they text you that they are at Sally’s they aren’t really at the mall or in Johnny’s bedroom?  Is it really impossible for them to telephone from the school office to tell you they are sick?  Will you get to them any faster?

       Now here’s my take.  Parents want their kids to have what the other kids have.  They want their kids to be cool.  They don’t want to listen to their nagging query “can I have, can I have . . .” so they shut them up by buying the toy.  A lethal toy.  Once again I bring up my own parents’ mantra.  “No.”  End of story.   “No.”  Once, firm, that was it.  I am pretty sure that my parents were neither gods, genies, wizards nor demons from hell.  But they had the power.  One tiny, two-letter word and it was over.  No nagging, no possibility of a do-over, re-think or harassment process.  No meant no.

       For the millionth time, I do not understand why the next generation of parents, going forward, have had such a hard time uttering this word.  I don’t know how many times I have felt irritated in a store listening to some ineffectual mother try to stop her kid from misbehaving by saying something futile like “when we get home” or “when your father hears about this”.   Who do you think you are kidding?  Certainly not the child and anyone listening knows that by the time you are half way out of the store the whole incident is forgotten.  When I was 17 I took my baby sister to Woolco warning her as we went “No bubble gum, and if you nag me I am taking you home.”  Sure enough, the little brat begged at the bubble gum machine and took a hysterical fit when I said no.  My other sister and I took her by her arms and dragged her the 4 blocks home sobbing all the way, opened up the front door, threw her into the hall and yelled to Mom “Charlotte’s home.” And then returned to the store.  From that day forward my sister was good as gold, I could take her anywhere and she was a perfect angel.  She knew I meant what I said regardless of what the inconvenient consequence was to me.  I was only 17 years old but I knew how to get control of a kid.

       It wasn’t magic.  It was knowing how to say no.

Entitlement or Corruption?

More scandals exploding in the provinces this week.  Here in Alberta we have the CFO of the Health Board resigning amid news that his expenses over a couple of years exceed $345,000.  In B.C. the Premier’s current annual expenses exceed a half million dollars.  I would really like to know who approves these types of expenses, and is there really a reason for expenses of this magnitude?  In my line of work we have extremely strict procedures and processes which are aligned to be compliant with SOX (the Sarbanes Oxley Act which monitors companies registered on the stock exchange) and it is therefore extremely difficult to put funds through without someone having to take responsibility at a higher level.  In other words, someone is watching the bank.

          Why isn’t this happening with taxpayers money?  Why does it appear that politicians, and their cronies appointed in plum positions, are essentially using the tax treasury as their own personal piggy bank?  Why, I ask you, are they not made accountable.

          Why are they re-elected?  Why are citizens not outraged beyond simply shaking their heads or shrugging their shoulders.  (or blogging you might ask?)

          A few years ago we had a Governor General who was completely out of control, a few months ago one of our MPs finally resigned after the scandal of her upgrading expenses.  Talk about Animal Farm – truly a lot of pigs in the trough these days – and they hardly seem embarrassed or ashamed at their behaviour. 

          Greed, one of the seven deadly sins. 

It's a Small World

I was in the coffee room this morning and chatted with a colleague.  For some reason I mentioned that I would be hosting my high school reunion next year.  She asked ‘what school’ and of course I said WPC. 

       “Get out, my ex went to that school.  I lived on Haddon Rd.” (she went to Radisson)

       Turns out we lived a mile from each other some 40 years ago, and low and behold, now we work in the same office.  How weird is that?

       It just goes to show that if you ask the right questions, the odds get smaller every year that you have some kind of connection with the person you are talking to.  The trouble is that I am not very much in to that kind of chat as I was raised in a very conservative home where you didn’t ask questions of “strangers”.  I really need to get over that as it was a lot of fun to make the discovery this morning.

       So what have you learned today?