Art, not brown paper, covers windows of empty store

When businesses go under, brown paper often goes up on all the exterior windows. It looks as if this company has found a more attractive answer: art. The empty store offers a leasing opportunity and I, or one, like the positive approach.

Memories of Hyde Park are fading

Some time ago, the village of Hyde Park sat at the corner of Hyde Park Road and Gainsborough Rd. Not today. The village was annexed by London and very few of the original structures remain.

One building that dodged the demolition bullet, a white, wood frame farm home with a large, front port, has found that its luck has run out. It sits empty, its windows boarded up, patiently awaiting the arrival of the demolition crew.

Voting still out on value of pulse oximeters

In early October, The New York Times carried an article headlined "Do I Still Need a Pulse Oximeter?" It went on to report that a study done in South Africa showed home monitoring of oxygen levels can be a true lifesaver.

My youngest granddaughter has not been vaccinated. Up until a few days ago children her age were not even offered the opportunity of getting vaccinated against COVID-19. This left me feeling uneasy whenever my 84-year-old sister and my granddaughter both paid me visits at the same time. How to feel comfortable having a non-vaccinated person in the same house as my double-vaccinated oh-so-senior sister?

The truth is there is no truly safe way this can be done. None. But a pulse oximeter can provide a little assurance that the child is unlikely to be an asymptomatic person quietly fighting the COVID-19 virus. 

 

It is not a perfect COVID-19 screening device but it does work in a statistically important number of cases. A perfectly healthy child often has a reading as high as 98 or 99. My granddaughter always hits 99. If she hit lesser number, I'd ask why.

Is this art?

About to download today's image, I looked at the camera back and noticed a button had been touched and a multitude of older images were being displayed. A friend using an older model smart phone took a picture of the camera monitor.

I have to say that with a more up-to-date smart phone delivering pictures with a greater tonal range and a bigger file, this could be art. What do you think?

Longevity like real estate can hinge on location

How long one lives is influenced by a number of factors. Genes, of course, play a big and commanding role but where one was born also carries a lot of weight. Folks living in Hong Kong often live to 85. If you were born in Switzerland, knock a year off the average age at departure to put Switzerland in 4th place in the global rating.

Run a finger down the column listing countries and their position in the longevity sweepstakes, move past Italy, Spain, Iceland, Sweden and France and assorted other countries and when you reach the 16th place you have reached the entry for Canada. A Canadian at birth can hope to see almost 83 years-of-age.

Run your eye down the column all the way to the 46th entry and you find the United States. The low rating for the States is correct but many would argue it does not reflect the reality facing many seniors living in the U.S. Childbirth death rates are high in the States and too many people die early thanks to gun violence. Healthcare and longevity are actually better in the States than the numbers indicate.

Still, for many people, health care in the senior years is more available in many places when compared to the United States. Take a simple thing like prescription drugs. In Ontario, Canada, a senior pays for the first hundred dollars of prescription drugs annually. After that, the cost is only $4.11 for each prescription.

I've known folk living in the States, admittedly not all that well off, who had to pick and choose between prescriptions when it came to having their prescriptions filled.

For seniors anywhere in the world, it can be tough when it comes to maintaining good health. But I look at the ratings and it is pretty clear that many other places around the world are quite possibly doing things better than we are in North America. Hey, 16th position doesn't come with a lot of bragging rights. And what can one say about 46th?

Shorts? Really?

It is mid November. The temperature is barely above freezing. And yet one sees Canadian teens coming home from school wearing shorts. Why? Do these kids have anti-freeze for blood? 

When I was a teen, the girls complained that they had to wear a dress or a skirt to school and were not allowed to wear slacks. They were cold and resented the stupid dress code rules. 

Who would have thought that once the codes were history, teens, both boys and girls, would choose shorts over jeans. Not me!

Stream of Dreams: a nationwide program

 

Why are there painted schools of fish on many school fences? This is a question on the lips of many living in not only Ontario but also in BC and Alberta. Most folk in these provinces have not heard of the "Stream of Dreams" program nor noticed the painted fish, for that matter.

It was 2001 when hundreds of painted fish began appearing on school fences thanks to the Stream Of Dreams non-profit. The fish symbolize the importance of the world's water in supporting life. 

 

School kids paint fish for display and do research to understand how water gets polluted. They learn even washing the family car at home can send dirty, oil-laden water down storm drains. And water running off lawns may be contaminated with fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides.

 

The fish are painted blue on the side facing the fence. It is odd to say but the blue fish silhouettes are easier to read as fish when seen from any distance.