Greed must not predominate in this world

I am not a believer in handing everything to people; they should work hard as it is good for them. I do believe though that greed must disappear from our world for us to reach that higher plain of peace where all survive and people are happy. In the early 1990s life suddenly changed and we welcomed it; many many millions in the world. The Iron Curtain was gone and people could be free once again after fourty five years of being held in bondage. A buffer zone claimed by the country that had maintained that Iron Curtain but buffered against what; no aggression against them appeared during those 45 years or since. The only aggressor was that very country which held the peoples in bondage. When does it end? When does the bombing of innocents in Ukraine stop? Right now it is just hateful revenge because Russia the aggressor can not win the war as they bomb Ukraine day after day. It must stop for peace to come to our world. 

The world is now divided into countries - some large and some smaller and both sizes can live together easily (the European Union is an example of that). That was why we created the United Nations in 1945 and all those freed countries in the 1990s came into the United Nations and now we are settled. The steps to peace are fraught with danger because of greed - greed for land and greed for opinion. We must find that middle plain where all are happy. 

God had a brilliant idea way back in time and we are the result of that brilliance but we must use all of that brain power given to us to create the "Garden of Eden" that once existed at that beginning of this world. Where peace predominates and war disappears. We have no idea how much time has passed on this earth really; just thoughts uncovered by archaeological digs. We do need though to continue being ready to defend ourselves as we have no idea what is out there in the universe; being ready is very important. 

Yesterday a busy cleaning day and it took most of the day as it turned out as windows were washed as well. A thorough cleaning as we enter into summer. The trees are in full leaf now and the canopy above us blocks the stars which is always sad actually but also tells us that summer is coming. 

Today another cleaning day and it is the main floor and likely the windows once again so a long cleaning day but once done we are ready for the long hazy days of summer soon to arrive. 

Thank you God for another beautiful day as my years stretch towards 81. Amazing really; I continue to be surprised to be here to see the 2020s. When I was a child a lot of discussion on the 1920s was still ongoing with older relatives and following that the Great Depression and then the Second World War. I wonder if they thought about the 1920s because it was the last happy moment in their lives until the Second World War was won. I was born just after the Second World War was won and the news reels at the movie theatres showed me the horror of that war but people still thrived and did what they had to do to survive you could see that in the news reels. But what saddened me was the faces on the Jewish children aboard the boats that were turned away. We must never do that to children again. They are not checkers on a board to be moved about to satisfy the horrors like we have been made to watch in Gaza and that was the responsibility of those parents - they could have sent them to safety. How does a baby freeze to death when there are parents there to hold them close and keep them warm (I can never understand that); children are the future and we must protect them for the future.  

Solitaire puzzles are next. The morning moves quickly.  

God in our lives

 Yesterday the winds of God were blowing strongly last night as we walked on the beach. It was wondrous how the clouds turned and the winds flowed forth from the universe pushing us along our path around the beach. We started the path with bright sun on our faces and finished it with the wind at our backs. With such power one imagines that all the world will find their path to follow the words of God - love they neighbour as theyself. We must move forward onto that higher plain of living where love predominates and cruelty disappears from our world. 

Woke in the night and just felt like it was time to write about the experience walking on the beach. It was wondrous after a long heavy day working away cleaning in the kitchen and then gardening outside which all seemed like the kind of things that God would want us to do. We must follow God's teachings to have a better life for all the world. 

If there is only love and not hate then this world could flourish and find paths away from destroying the world to healing the world so that the grandchildren of tomorrow will play on the beaches and run in the grassy fields breathing the fresh air of our youths. 

The Premier of Manitoba, Wab Kinew, brings so much knowledge and good ideas to any discussion. I am happy to see that he and the Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, are talking together on how to resolve differences when really it is just a desire on both of their parts to make both their provinces as effective within Confederation as possible. The discussion by the Western half of Canada on so many issues was wonderful to listen to and absorb. Thank you especially to Wab Kinew who always brings very insightful comments to any discussion.  

Back to bed. I am sleepy once again.  

My daughter (and caretaker) has a bit of surgery this week that will mean a quiet week to follow. She is busy with four research projects but has a student who does some of the work and the student is excellent in her work and completed the ongoing task very well. Training is very very important and one sees it most prominently in the university setting and in the health care setting. Absolutely necessary in these two areas but also in all work really (it would save time if one didn't have to be teaching all the time but the knowledge base needs to be solidified, added to and passed on). One must always be training the new co-workers so that their transition into a job is easier. One should avoid seeing them as competition but rather as a co-manager of the system that is being worked on. Those in the job for a while have good hints to offer and those who are new have newer knowledge from their more recent education to share. AI adds enormously to this task because of the memory banks and recall that AI is able to perform with perfection but does require that managerial hand to keep it on track and doing the work requested without varying from the protocol. When decisions have to be made because of ambiguity then AI must learn to immediately come back for assistance so that garbage in the output is avoided. AI can not judge well between what is pertinent and necessary and correct and what is simply a blimp to be ignored and not collected as part of the output

Haven't looked at the news for a few days other than noting what the Premier of Manitoba and the Premier of Alberta had discussed. I think the meeting of the Western Canadian premiers was an excellent idea. They share the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans and trade routes are opening up making the north so much more feasible for shipping to both Asia and Europe (why does it take so long to get shovels in the ground; pipelines built and sales booming). The Eastern part of Canada from Ontario to the Atlantic and including Nunavut (which has access to the Arctic and the Atlantic). In general the Eastern part of Canada  does not have the reach to the Pacific other than by the Arctic Ocean (no ports on the Pacific). Ontario is particular, although not land-locked by any means as the St Lawrence Seaway runs along the southern border and includes the Great Lakes - Ontario, Erie, Huron and Superior as well as the St Lawrence River and to the west the Ottawa River on the Eastern boundary with Quebec and in the North James Bay and Hudson Bay. The road in Ontario (417 namely (i.e. the Trans Canada Highway)) needs widening from just before Renfrew (unless they have actually moved that along - it took ten years to go from Arnprior nearly to Renfrew! not enough money provided to employ the size of workforce needed to be faster) and mostly to the Manitoba border although there are sections that have been widened. In particular the military widened the road from Pembroke to Petawawa and did a great job and speedy. I rather wonder if the money should be given to the military to do the widening of the Highway all the way to the Manitoba border personally. One could certainly ascribe military activities being enhanced by this road and they have lots of engineers and workers to build the road. I feel as if we wait forever to get that road widened to four lanes because it doesn't go to the Greater Toronto Area. The all  for the Greater Toronto Area mindset must disappear from the minds of the government of Ontario in order for Ontario to flourish. All areas are important and all areas pay taxes. 

Today is cleaning day and it is the top floor and I shall soon do the bathroom and then the vacuuming. The days move quickly especially in the summer months as there is so much to do both inside and out. 

Solitaire games to play.  

 

Sunday and cloudy

 The slight breeze in the trees always makes me think of God all around us watching and waiting for us to do the right thing. To love our neighbour as ourself. Seventeen degrees celsius today and cloudy is the promise of the day thus far. 

Lots to do. Kitchen is slowly getting all washed up from one end to the other. The last of the cupboards are now washed and just have to wash all the dishes that were in those cupboards. They are old style cupboards. Came with the house nearly fifty years ago now. My husband and daughter repainted them a few years ago (like maybe twenty actually or more years ago. They are slowly showing signs of wear here and there. I should paint and perhaps I will. Time will tell. At nearly 81 I find that my time spent on such activities is less and less. I just keep it clean. I will be glad to move as it is too big for me. 

Yesterday I mostly worked at cleaning so not much work done on the genealogical tables. I also need to do some outside work and will try for that today maybe. The FitBit continues to be interesting and Google has pretty much taken over that name as it is their property but I have been using the AI on it a certain amount. I know more about my health and ability than the AI but it has interesting comments that I am thinking about on occasion. I like the FitBit as it tells me how many steps a day that I do which I consider important. We always have to move about; we are meant to do that for our health and welfare. 

Sunday and Church is very soon. The last day of May and it is Trinity Sunday. That begins the Ordinary time that follows until Christ the King Sunday and Advent to follow the next Sunday. It is cyclical the Church Year and as a child it pretty much was how I thought of the year as it passed through each special time.  

The sermon today was timely and captured my thoughts partially. The many names of God on this earth. When the first explorers arrived in what is now Canada they learned that God to the First Nations (Huron Nation) was Gitchi Manitou (Great Spirit in several Algonquian languages). For the First Nations it referred to the Supreme Creator, the Giver of Life  and the Great Mystery which formed the world we live in and all that is in it. As a child I found it extremely exciting to learn about Gitchi Manitou and still do find learning about the First Nations to be a fascinating set of knowledge. Our cultures (mine descendant of many of the ancient peoples of the British Isles (both England, Scotland and Ireland as my DNA shows) went all the way back to the Western Hunter Gatherers who first populated these Isles (8,000 and perhaps as much as 12,000 years earlier than the Common Era we now live in as the ice slowly withdrew from the lands and the First Nations dating back even further in time on this Continent of the Western Hemisphere dating back 13,000 or more years. I felt akin as I learned more and more about the First Nations as my brother's yDNA clearly led us back to those Western Hunter Gatherers. My grandfather Blake always said they had lived in the Andover area for ever because it was so very very long ago. But DNA does tells us we arose in the African Continent (all Homo sapiens) and so we spread out around the world from there. My 3% Denisovan and 2% Neanderthal tell me that in the far past my blood line led back to these earlier Homo species. But the written record only extends so far back and Blake was in Andover in the 1300s but the people of England did not have surnames and so they had to adapt to surnames after the Norman Conquest. The reason for choosing Blake tantalizes me very often; why would one chose a name that so many people carried in Europe and in the British Isles. The reason never to be known by me probably but the logic points to taking the surname of a wife way back in the 1300s and the benefit of doing so huge if I am correct that it was the le Blak family of Rouen, Normandy which came to England in 1274 with permission to set up a market in England (Patent Roll). Such a family exists and are first seen along the coast of Hampshire and later the same name appears on the Pipe Rolls of the Bishopric of Winchester 1301. I must explore the earlier Pipe Rolls which begin in 1208. 

Still cloudy and Church has finished. I was restless but I am like that sometimes. I have a lot of thoughts in my mind these days. 

As a country I remain convinced that we are on the right path. We want to be independent and in charge of our own natural resources. I think it was very cruel at the time when it was suggested that we could be taken over just by ruining our economy. We must not let that happen as we slip into a technical recession (apparently Federal government spending has decreased which is a factor in the lower GDP so not really a recession but rather it is a correction as the Trudeau era saw far too much federal money spent overall). We are diversifying our trade around the world but it will take time.  We must create new industry in Canada. PEI said they need workers because their industries are increasing. Quebec has different customers for their aluminium from around the world. New deals with Quebec in a number of industries. British Columbia is humming with new deals. Manitoba is busy with the upgrading of Port Churchill and other items. Saskatchewan has contracts for so many items. The same with New Brunswick and inklings of ideas for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. In Alberta why not twin the Trans Mountain pipeline as that is a thoroughfare already created and goes directly to tidewater and owned by the people of Canada. But we do need private money to do that. The Territories are actively pursuing new ideas. Ontario needs to do more to create industry but again that is happening here and there but still there is too much time spent on useless items like an airport on Toronto Island. I see no value in that for 90% of people in Ontario. Time for a change but no party/individual is providing us with their concrete ideas to improve the economy in Ontario. Stellantis is developing a number of new models as we await more information on that. 

Time is in our favour and plenty of youth to take up any jobs that are forthcoming. 

Time for lunch; the morning was interesting and always lovely to go to Church.  

Saturday and Sun

 A beautiful day out there and will likely observe mostly from the inside as lots of work to do. Yesterday we cleaned the entire set of kitchen cupboards and re-arranged them. Eliminated a whole lot of plastic dishes that were for the grandchildren but they eat off of regular dishes these days. Slowly down sizing and getting rid of items that I never use anymore. 

Completed the matches and glanced at 23 and Me and My Heritage for new matches that would be interesting for my great grandparent phasing file. Will do Ancestry, Gedmatch, FT DNA  today. 

Tonight is a full moon so can plant next week. The lettuce roots that we planted have new lettuces forming which is always very interesting, the ability of the roots of a lettuce plant being able to recreate the lettuce plant itself is quite fascinating. The bunnies will enjoy the lettuces likely if they let them grow. Weeding to do out there and must put aside some time for that. 

Emptied the pantry and will wash the shelves with bleach and soap to get them ready for another year. I expect to be in this house for just another three years although earlier would be interesting but not practical. Moving twice in three years is too much trouble. 

It will be a time for hard work and re-calibration for Canada as we continue forward into the life that the Fathers of Confederation planned for Canada walking hand in hand with our First Nations. They know the land so much better than we do and we need to listen to their thoughts. Greed must disappear from this land if we all want to be successful in this life (greed destroys; it does not build). The Prime Minister has good plans for Canada and we must help support his ideas as we move forward slowly but surely. Nothing will be fast; it never is. The Conservatives need to concentrate on working with the youth and get them situated into jobs that are needed or they could become entrepreneurs and make me a vacuum cleaner that doesn't sound like a jet engine! After all it is the youth that will still be here voting in the  next election and the ones that follow on into this remarkable century marred by violence which is just greed once again - greed for land and greed for opinion. Every person gets to live unobstructed in this world whether you agree with the opinions that they hold. When opinions do not match God's laws - love they neighbour as thyself - then those people are wrong. God will probably not destroy them as in the Bible times but they rot from within eventually; it does seem to take a long time though. You must live for the good of the many not for the good of the few; the few can not maintain Homo sapiens - look back at what has preceded us and you can see that. No Neanderthals walk the face of this earth, no Denisovans walk the face of this earth and the many that preceded these early peoples known to us by their DNA left behind. 

Moving forward though is the aim as we are now one quarter of the way through this century. I did not expect to even see this century so every day/month/year is a gift of God Almighty and I thank Him for that everyday. At twenty eight years of age, quite ill, I could feel the winds of God pushing me forward and I continue to feel those winds of God swirling around this world as He watches and waits for us to live the life He commanded. 

Antisemitism must disappear from Canada in all its ugly forms. If you cannot live within the laws of this country then go back to where you came from and take your ugly antisemitism with you.  Our Jewish neighbours have every right to live at peace in this country. 

Must get some work done the day moves quickly and just twelve hours to bed time once again! 

Another cloudy day

Yesterday turned out to be a quiet day and not a lot of work done but a pleasant day none the less. Sometimes my days are just full of thinking and that was yesterday. Plus we went to the market and got fresh vegetables and to the grocery store for the remainder. These days I am spending slightly more than $200 per week on all the groceries. We do eat fairly basically preparing all of our meals from basic ingredients. We aim for lots of good protein in every meal - for me because I am old and for my caregiver because she is very active doing lots of good cardio. 

The first workout of the day on my part already completed and was 1 hour and 5 minutes  with a cardio load of 32. Always an interesting workout with light at 43%, moderate at 29%, vigorous at 20% and peak at 8%. A good way for me to start the day and with the AI on FitBit chiming in I have even more interesting insights into how well a workout is going from a cardiovascular point of view. An interesting experience having an AI reviewing my workout actually.  I will see how I like this interesting addition to FitBit. 

I wonder if we will see what happened to Quebec when separatists arrived on the scene half a century ago now and completely destroyed Montreal's place as the economic powerhouse of Canada moving it to Toronto. Quebec has had a hard battle keeping industrial giants in Quebec and the Alberta separatists may well destroy the economy of Alberta if they are not tamed quickly and put to rest. Separatism is a disease in democratic countries where there isn't an obvious prior existence dating back centuries and should not be permitted the sort of headlining that they get. Plus there are still no charges against the individual who posted the voter's list of Alberta quite illegally on the internet. Lots of law suits against his illegal release of names and pertinent information to tame that nuisance and a term in jail would be a good news story for sure. There are no gains in separatism only losses and mostly for the people who get sucked in by their lies. 

Ontario though needs to get moving on creating industry. A Conservative voter myself but we need youth in office with the vigour needed to start new industry in Ontario  instead of spending all the time on a tiny little airport on Toronto Island.

Back to research and writing my books. The days pass so very quickly. Time to do the Solitaire puzzles.