Hello Jenny

I can't imagine that too many people would be able to make the connection between the photo, which I took at Wheelers Maple Pancake House and Sugar Camp and my title, "Hello Jenny." You'd have had to be watching television back in the fifties in order to know, and even then you very well might not make the connection.

I am referring to a program called Lassie. Aside from the gorgeous and extremely intelligent collie, the show featured a boy named Jeff who lived on a farm with his mother and grandfather. Their link to the rest of their community was Jenny, who was the operator on the other end of the phone.  

Note: when Jeff got too old, they re-invented the show with another cast, including a boy called Timmy. To me, however, it was never the real "Lassie" show.

Actually, I forgot that the operator's name was Jenny and was thinking, Millie, but since everything about everything is on this interwebby thingie, a search yielded the correct name within seconds. It actually came up in the first two hits without me even having to open the sites although, of course, I did click.

The search also led me to an ancient Lassie episode on YouTube called Party Line, in which the telephone and the operator figure prominently. In fact the program ends with a birthday party for Jenny, who had been feeling neglected and unappreciated until then.

Note: the whole Party Line episode can be viewed in the three YouTube clips embedded below.

Jenny was played by Florence Lake. Her telephone operator role in Lassie was her biggest, but she also appeared on one episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show as Lou Grant's date (more on Wikipedia). You can also find more about the Lassie TV show on Wikipedia.

All that minutiae aside, how do you like the photo? :)

Of Talents and Paths

This morning, both Cuppa and I were each in a wee bit of a dither but for different reasons.

My iPod earbuds were hopelessly caught and tangled in the slots of my chair-side table, and I was rather flummoxed over the situation.

Meanwhile, after doing some banking, Cuppa wanted to clear the cache on her computer but couldn't figure out how to do it, even after I demonstrated the steps on my machine.

So, we switched tasks. She took care of the earbud mess, and I took care of flushing the cache. Both of us accomplished our switched tasks in no time flat. In a minute or so, we were both done rather than each of us dithering on our own for an interminable and frustrating duration.

It turns out that it's pretty well true that we little people are good at what we're good at and not so good at what we're not so good at. I have said it more bluntly: we're all smart how we're smart, and we're all stupid how we're stupid. I suppose the trick is to to recognize this little truism and to be comfortable in our strengths without getting overly disconcerted by our weaknesses.

This is yet another reason why I am happy to live in the times in which I live. I didn't have to follow in my father's footsteps or the the path prescribed to me by the caste into which I was born, but I was able to find a life path that suited me.

I am particularly glad that I didn't have to follow in my grandfather's vocation, for he was a bricklayer who worked on skyscrapers, including The Empire State Building. Me? I get queasy and wobbly just a few rungs up a ladder.

Mind Tricks

I bought Cuppa a carton of wine yesterday. Yes, a carton as opposed to a bottle. I'm cheap, so sue me. I was on my way to the kids house at the time, so I put it in their fridge. And left it there. Apparently.

The thing is that I have, or I should say had, a pretty doggone clear memory of taking it out of their fridge to bring home to my beloved. I even thought that I had put it in the car. But when we couldn't find it today, sure enough, we eventually tracked it down to where I had left it -- back in the fridge.

I have recently had other pretty vivid memories that have turned out to be bogus. Like the time just a few months past when I vowed not to get caught on bank charges one more time by forgetting to transfer money to my chequing account before writing cheques. I vowed so hard that I was absolutely sure that I had done just that ... until the day that the bank docked me another whopping amount for NSF

Last autumn I wrote an email to a friend. I have a pretty clear memory of doing so. Except he never got it. I couldn't find it on my computer either. At the time I blamed cyberspace for swallowing it up. Now that I have been given proof of my rather pathetic proclivity to remember things that have never occurred, I am pretty sure that I never did write that email. I likely thought about it, even to the point where I probably composed it in my head, but I now sincerely doubt that I every really sat down and typed it out,

In the past I have done the same with another friend -- twice -- and this led, at least in part, to a fractured relationship. Now I realize that I probably didn't write those either. I hang my head.

There must be a lesson about memory here, aside from my dunderheadedness that is. I wonder how often  people hold grudges based on a memory of an incident which didn't really happen in the way that their minds tell them. We little people tend to be pretty blinkin positive that somebody said or did something bad to us and therefore wronged us, but in point of fact it may be our memories that are just plain inaccurate.

I also wonder how many innocent people have been convicted to prison terms or even worse based on the memories of well-meaning witnesses that were false or at least inaccurate? Of course, no one knows the answer to that, but the notion does give one pause for thought.

Of course, maybe I am the only person to whom such a false memory has ever occurred. There is that possibility. But I really don't think I am that unusual and weird. My family might, but I don't.

Not One to Duck

Despite what the picture indicates my son-in-law is certainly not one to duck what needs to be done.

A friend who is not well, needs to move herself and her stuff back to Alberta, but she is too unwell to do so herself. So, Eric has volunteered to take three days off work and in order to spend three days to drive her across Canada. This is a mere, trifling distance of 3378km/2100miles, which Google indicates should take 44 hours of driving.

Unless something unforeseen occurs, he and his lead foot will make in fewer hours than that, but it is still a monumental trip. I know this because Cuppa and I drove this drive once upon a time. We took our sweet time driving out, but we did make it home in three long days.

Kudos to Eric for doing this for a friend and to Sha for actually suggesting that he do it in the first place. They are amazing people willing to do for others.

He should be on his way as you read this. Be safe Eric.

The Transit of Venus

Two weekends past Cuppa and I met a very interesting guy, Frank, in the park of a nearby town. Somewhat puzzling to us was that he had his big telescope out on a sunny day. He would sit in the shade and read a book but gladly get up to show his telescope to anyone who showed an interest.

It turned out that he was showing the sun, but in that huge disc, which filled the telescope, we could see several sunspots. They looked very little but he pointed out that they were actually larger than the earth.

One thing he talked about is the impending transit of Venus about to take place on June 05 and 06. What that means is that earthlings will be able to see our nearest planetary neighbour cross the surface of the sun. Actually, although we can see it, we mustn't look without proper eye protection -- the same as what we use to view solar eclipses. If the weather permits, Frank will set up his telescope so that people can drop by and see a bit of the transit safely. We won't be there because he won't be set up in our town, but it will be a great opportunity for those who can make it.

If you are wondering what the big deal is, it's because it's such an unusual event. Although we had a transit recently in 2004, the next won't will not occur until 2117. In other words, no one or almost no one who is alive today will get another opportunity to witness the event.

The historical significance is that in 1796, astronomers from all over the world, including the famous Captain Cook (not Hook) who was dispatched to Tahiti to record the event. Using triangulation from these sightings, humans were first able to calculate pretty closely the distance from the earth to the sun. They came up with a figure of 153 000 000 km +- 1 000 000 km, which is pretty close to the distance at our farthest point of orbit as we calculate it more than two centuries later.

The event will begin at 18:09/6:09PM EDT on June 05. But remember don't look unless you have proper viewing equipment.

This video of almost 4 minutes explains the transit quite well.

Catbird

We have a low lying birdbath in the front garden, which robins often visit as we sit in our little front porch. So it was that on Saturday morning I set my camera on a tripod and sat by it reading and waiting until the birdies came around to splash. Would you believe that not one single bird came by in o so many hours that day? Well, I lie, the exotic and rare catbird did stop by. He was just hopping and not flying that day.

Something Unique and Pretty

On Mothers Day, the kids' neighbour called us over to show us her remarkable tulip. It had two flower heads on a single stem. None of us had never seen anything like this before, and all of us had existed on this planet for six decades or more. Strangely enough, she had two such oddities in the same flower bed. I wonder if they will come up the same way next year?