Elevator Friday - On a farm northeast of Edmonton

Thank you to Dale Redekopp.

53.13444, -114.47722

I managed to get out last Friday and do a bit of actual exploring thanks to Dale Redekopp. It felt good. I did not take enough photos for this post as I am out of practice. I was on crutches walking through this cemetery and was paying too much attention to my walking and not enough on material.

About one thousand Black American settlers from Oklahoma, from about 1908 to about 1912, came to Alberta. Amber Valley is the most well known settlement in Alberta. Some settled in Keystone, now Breton, Alberta. It did not last long. After WWI many moved to other places and other opportunities. This area would have been very isolated back then.

This cemetery is a short distance off the highway beside a township road. I have literally driven by this on the highway dozens of times without ever seeing it before. There are only three marked graves, two of them from the 1980's. The plaque lists the original settlers.

"In memory of Molly

Beloved wife of

W. M. Hayes

Born 1865

Died May 24, 1928"

She is listed on the plaque. This is the only settler marked grave with a headstone.

The grave below has no headstone. The small rectangular stone on top has the initials M H on one side. I suspect the stone might belong to the Mollie Hayes grave. There are no other names on the plaque that would have these initials. You can see the outline of several graves in this small cemetery. Their markers are lost to time.

Elevator Friday - Poe, Alberta

Thank you Dale Redekopp.

Random late night notes

Another few days of pain. Things are better today. Last Sunday whenever I stood, or did some walking on crutches, I felt knives of pain radiating up my legs from the bottom of my feet to my thighs. Monday and Tuesday the pain progressively got better. Today I was almost feeling normal. I have no idea what triggered this. I thank whoever invented painkillers.

A friend texted me a day ago asking if I am able to go on a motorcycle ride. Months ago I thought I would be able to hop on the bike in May of this year. Wishful thinking. I am convinced I will be back on the motorcycle, it will just take longer. 

Elevator Friday - Shonts, Alberta

Thank you to Dale Redekopp.

Apparently I made a sales guy happy

I put a deposit on a new 2025 Mazda CX-30 GX. I wanted red because I want to stand out on the road. My last vehicle was a 2013 KIA Soul that I got from my mother when she was no longer able to drive which was in near mint condition. That car was a dark gray. The excuse that the guy gave the RCMP when he hit me - and turned my car into scrap metal - was that he did not see me. A few weeks after the accident when I was in the hospital, and no longer had a mouth full of tubes, and I was able to make phone calls, I phoned mom and said “About your former car that you so dearly loved . . .”

I cannot get a red one for about two to two and one half weeks. Red is just not readily available. No matter, I am in no severe rush. My sales guy is somewhere around my age and I am pushing sixty. He is doing a career change and is new at car sales. I happened to be his first sale so I made someone happy. I have mixed feelings. My ancestors were Scots and I hate spending money. My wallet screams when I open it like any good Scot. With luck this one will last me for years without someone trying again to prematurely end my existence.

Testing it out

Today I took a car for a test drive. It has been a few days short of fifteen months since I last drove a car. My local Mazda dealer picked me up at my residence and let me try out a 2025 Mazda CX-30 GX. I like it. There are a number of features that I will likely never use and not bother learning them. I do not feel the need to instal an app on my phone to start my car. Unfortunately extra things are all standard these days.

I do not want to buy a car just yet. I might have to buy one. I still get around with crutches for walking and I wanted to have better mobility before getting a car. The problem is my mother fell on Saturday and fractured her hip. It was a minor fracture and she will be in the hospital for a few days. What makes this worse is that she is deteriorating. She needs more care than what she can get in her current place and they are starting the process to find another place for her. She no longer remembers things like how old she is or her birthday. To get to see her I have had to rely on other people, now I feel I have to speed things up and get a car so I can spend more time visiting her. I would have preferred more time before getting a car.

The salesman wanted to negotiate right after the test drive. That is understandable since they are in the business of selling cars. I never buy anything right away. I also dislike the process of buying a car and wading through the markups and garbage fees they try to tack on. For what the used market is like I might as well buy new. I told them all I am interested in is the base model but they still try to upsell you. That is how the game is played. If I buy it, it would only be the second new car I have ever owned. I always saved money before by buying used.

To hell with it. After all I have been through I am buying a new car. 

Bales in the Hills

A shot from this past fall in the Cypress Hills.

Bales...gotta love 'em!

Michael Truman

Past Presence Website

Elevator Friday - near Jarvie, Alberta

Thank you Dale Redekopp.

About the walking . . .

A relative was kind enough to pick me up last Tuesday and take me to Drayton Valley to visit mom. My mother is in a retirement home. Before the accident I used to visit once or twice a week. My sister has been great filling in with visits even though she lives much further away. The first thing when we got there is I had my driver stop at the local Dairy Queen so I could bring mom a hot fudge sundae. There are reasons why I am the favourite.

My driver is my father’s brother’s daughter’s daughter. Or my first cousin’s daughter. Whatever other term there is for this family relationship escapes me. I will refer to her as Kay. This is the third time she has done this for me since I got out of the hospital last September. I make a point to spring for lunch and overpay for gas for the day.

Mom is eighty three and looks healthy while also managing to look older than her years. Her memory is shot, she does not remember her birthday nor does she remember Kay. I am glad she is in a place that takes good care of her.

I spent the day on crutches. For longer excursions I had been using the walker but I use crutches exclusively these days. I have become a wee bit more flexible as I have noticed I can get in and out of a vehicle just a bit easier. You do not notice some of the everyday hazards for handicapped people until you become one. My accountant’s office had a weird step rise to get in the door. Sidewalks can have high height stepping from the road onto the sidewalk. You have to be so damn careful.

Walking with crutches I could navigate the height getting onto a sidewalk from a parking space. I could not do the reverse, I had to walk to where there was a ramp built into the sidewalk at the handicapped parking spot so I could get down. Starting yesterday I can finally step off a sidewalk without searching for a ramp. The problem was I previously did not have enough strength in my knees. This is welcome progress.

At home I have tried to do the flamingo thing. I can stand unassisted and have done that for months. I cannot stand unassisted on one leg. I feel I can get to that point. I have not fallen when I was in rehab or since I have been home. I have been scared of falling a few times. I no longer have that fear. I am confident that if I do fall I can manage to get back up. I did not have that feeling before. Onward.

I got asked how the medical system is working for me

In Canada healthcare is free. Of course nothing is truly ever free, we pay a lot in taxes to support it.

I really have no complaints. I live in Alberta so I do not know what it is like in other provinces. When the accident happened I received good care in a timely manner. I have had no problems booking follow up appointments with my surgeon. Anytime I had a follow up with the surgeon I had to check in, then go for x-rays, then back to wait for the surgeon to see me to discuss my progress. Every time I arrived early and they started the process right away. I never had to wait long.

Everyone I have dealt with as a patient seemed to be competent. Practically all were pleasant. I am sure there are true horror stories that people had with the system. I am grateful for what they did for me.

Recently I had to book an appointment with a doctor to get disability forms filled out. I do not have a family doctor and getting a family doctor these days is difficult, there is almost zero availability. In the past I rarely went to a doctor unless I was really sick or something happened that demanded medical attention. So I never had a family doctor in the first place. I never went for a checkup or physical. To get my forms filled out I booked an appointment at a walk-in clinic, talked to a doctor and suggested I leave the forms and pick them up in a few days. The office phoned me later that day to say they were done. When I picked them up it cost me $85.00 which I had no issue paying. That cost is minor considering everything else.

Truth be known I have had more issues with insurance companies during this ordeal than with the medical system.