State of the blog address

Since starting this blog I used to do a blog anniversary post. I did one every year except last year. I was a mess after spending seven months in the hospital and getting home in September 2024. I was in daily pain, horribly depressed, using a wheelchair, and wondering what kind of life I was going to have.

This year is better. It has taken months, many months, to gain strength and flexibility. Pain has incrementally decreased over time. Fifteen months after the accident I replaced my car and started driving again in June. I did not want to but I had to get a car as there were issues with mom I had to deal with. It was painful getting in and out of a car however that has got easier with time. I tried to visit mom as much as I could before she passed in September. It has been an interesting year.

I have been taking tentative unsupported steps in my condo. From my bedroom past the kitchen to the bathroom is about thirty feet and I have been able to walk it without crutches a few times. I am only a step away from any support such as a wall, kitchen table, desk, deep freeze to place a hand to steady myself. It is painful and by now I am well acquainted with pain. I can feel the pain in my thighs, my knees, and my ankles. It will take time for my legs to get used to the full weight. One starts small and keeps building. Winter is here so I will have time. I figure if I do a good job and make significant progress I may reward myself with a motorcycle next May. My Suzuki Burgman is not in great shape so time to replace it. Currently I have three motorcycles, one can never have too many.

A year ago life was agony. Today things are better.

Elevator Friday - on a farm near Turin, Alberta

From Dale Redekopp.

Tired

Still standing at Youngstown, Alberta.

Elevator Friday - Battleford, Saskatchewan

From Dale Redekopp.

Club Sedan

This is the car you'd take to the Drive-In for an all-nighter.  Pretty nice!  Don't forget to detach the speaker from the window before you head for home. 

Remember "Wake Up Little Susie" by the Everly Brothers?

Spotted near Wayne, Alberta.

Michael Truman

Past Presence Website

Revisiting the lone tree post

The desire to get out for some mindless drives and take photos is starting to return. I always have my camera with me. Last Friday I had to travel a few hours south to meet my sister at a law office to get signatures notarized and send in forms related to the estate. On the way back I had to stop for a tree which I might have stopped at before in the past. I am not sure if I am happy with the result but I enjoyed playing with the image, something I have not done in a while.

Elevator Friday - west of Morinville, Alberta

Contributed by Dale Redekopp.

Passing Pasqua

I saw this barn near Pasqua, Saskatchewan and had to take a moment to photograph it. So full of character! (and probably junk).

Steve Boyko

Traingeekblog

Lest we forget

At rest in Beaver Lake Cemetery near Tofield, Alberta.

The Bruce Hotel

A friend of mine had been wanting to go to the Bruce Hotel in Bruce, Alberta. A few weeks back I decided one can talk about doing something or you can do it. So I made a reservation and we were there yesterday. You definitely need a reservation. I had to book a few weeks in advance.

Bruce, Alberta is probably less than seventy people. The hotel was built in 1911. The hotel is only open Friday and Saturday nights. There is no menu, you go there to eat steak.

I did not know how this dinner operated. We got there a little before my booked reservation at five. The place opens at five. You are shown to your table. The waitress explained that everything is like a buffet. You are told when you can go up and get your salad. They ask how you want your steak and will deliver it later. We got up to get our salads and there are paper plates with metal cutlery. There were about seven different salads.

Your steak arrives on a styrofoam plate at your table and you go back to get your sides. There were baked potatoes with dill sauce on the side, fried mushrooms, shrimp, sausage, garlic bread, and baked beans. The steak was just how I like it - medium rare - and all the food was homemade and damn good. The owner comes around to all the tables and is serious that your steak is done the way you like it and that your are happy with it. The hotel was absolutely packed. I would bet they have a few hundred people a night.

Damn right I will be back.

Elevator Friday - Gorlitz, Saskatchewan

Contributed by Dale Redekopp.

It is always worse the next day

I am having problems booking physiotherapy appointments as they are short-staffed at the moment. Yesterday at 5:00pm was the latest that I ever had a session and it went well. It seems that the legs and knees are getting a bit stronger. On the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill I did twenty minutes at forty-five percent body weight with a slight incline and did forty percent of a mile. Considering last year at this time I could do barely do five minutes at a snail’s pace and I needed help stepping on the treadmill. I still have to use crutches.

The next day I have some stiffness and a little pain. The good thing is the discomfort the next day is ever so slowly getting less and less as the months pass. There were days after in the past I would be in very bad pain the day following a physiotherapy session. Progress is being made.

Random abandoned barn photo

53.4757035, -112.4296671

My friend Glen Bowe came with me on this trip and I was glad to have him. From the range road you have to go through two separate gates on a path bordering a farmers field.  According to a marker at the cemetery the Presbyterian Church applied for, and was granted, forty acres by Queen Victoria in 1895. The four acre cemetery was established in 1916. No mention of an church. About half the area is covered in trees and dense brush. There is not much here in the surrounding area. Someone likely had big plans for this area.

The burials are split in two distinct groups. The first group is all graves with the last name McCallum. Past this group closer to the far east boundary is everyone else. Everyone here has a Scottish or English last name.

Angus McCallum

March 18, 1846 - November 26, 1903

Jane Seeley McCallum

May 6, 1850 - February 11, 1914

The family must have had a bit of money to erect this. They are the only two in this enclosure.

Robert John Stewart

June 20, 1904 - August 27, 1905

There are more. I just visited a few. I am still hobbling about on crutches and it is not easy trying to traverse soft cemetery ground.

Don Wilson

I heard by chance that Don Wilson died. He ran this YouTube channel. 

https://www.youtube.com/@hometownsaskatchewan

His obituary:

https://www.myalternatives.ca/obituaries/donald-don-malcolm-wilson?fbclid=IwY2xjawNzF4lleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETF1QzBBWlBvTjJqV0lhWmZBAR5gFJyI6nUXxeYAY2dy1zeHeIIg-rwvCFfFGhRVuRKF7mYAfUy2mcxfUe2yFg_aem_dfp8Z7m_d7DMLfe6dmuE7Q

I mention him because I doubt anyone will match him in documenting places that long since disappeared in Saskatchewan. He also posted some of his other interests. I watched his videos from time to time and found that I had been to a number of the same places.