The Joy of Pets

Many people in this country have either a cat or a dog as pets, or both.  These pets bring a lot of joy to many households.   In our household, we are guardians to six cats and two dogs.  They all want our attention and all need to be cared for.  Pets need more than making sure they are fed and their areas in which they live are maintained.  They need to be reminded often how much you care about them.  These pets need to be petted, held if small enough to be held, and nurtured.  Cats as well as dogs love it when you talk sweet to them.  Watch a cat and how that cat responds to being talked to nicely.   They will roll around and be really cute.  We say hi to our cats and say their names when they enter a room and they say hi back to us.  It is really cute.

A multitude of pet guardians find meaning in their lives by volunteering to help those who need them including animals without homes.   Pets have been known to provide a whole host of benefits for their guardians.  For example, owning and caring for pets have helped people who are struggling with high blood pressure in lots of ways from getting more exercise by walking their dogs to playing with their animals.  Spending time with animals can help people feel less depressed and it opens them up to be more involved with other people.  In our community we have a dog park.  People meet other people at this dog park because of a common interest, their dogs. 

Pets have been used to help those who have a medical condition or who have been in an accident.  Doctors refer to this as animal assisted therapy.  Dogs have been known to detect illnesses in people before they knew they had an illness.  Cats have been known to lie next to a person who was terminally ill to bring that person joy before walking to the other side. These cats act as if they are serving a purpose of providing comfort. It has been discovered that children who grow up in homes with cats and dogs have fewer allergies and skin conditions such as eczema.  Having a dog or a cat helps children stay healthier, with fewer colds and stomach problems.

Children who have pets in the home also learn responsibility.  Chores such as feeding, walking and cleaning up after a pet help children understand what taking care of someone besides themselves is like.  It is also responsible to care for ourselves as much as we care for our pets and we can do so by:

1.        Wash your hands after each time you feed or pet your animals.

2.       As cold winter weather approaches, remember to keep you and your pets warm.

3.       Make sure you pets see a veterinarian regularly.

4.       Research the type of plants you have and make sure they are safe for your pets.

5.       Approach a pet you don’t know carefully.

We love our pets and they give us love in return.  Rescue an animal from your local animal shelter and give this cat or dog a good home, you will not regret this decision.  We haven’t.  When I was volunteering at our local animal shelter, another volunteer said they know you are here when I walked into a room with a lot of cats in cages.  My response was “trust me, they do more for me than I can ever do for them.” He smiled and said he knew what I meant.  At the very least, go and walk dogs at your local animal shelter or talk and pet a cat.  They would love to get attention from you. 

Genealogy 101

On November 7, 2012 I attended a session provided by the Lake Superior Elders at Lake Superior State University.  Steve Gordon gave the presentation.

He said these were mistakes to avoid:

1.        Don’t put off talking to relatives.

2.       Don’t forget to document what you learn from relatives and others about your own history.

3.       Don’t assume that everything you find is true.

4.       Don’t accept family legends without question.  However, keep these stories.

5.       Don’t limit yourself to current spelling of surnames.

6.       Beware of generic family history

7.       Don’t misspell the word genealogy.

Where to start you genealogy search:

1.       Start with yourself and go down the line from your parents to your grandparents, etc.

2.       Go to these sites:

http://www.mymcpl.org/genealogy/family-history-forms

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/FREEFORMS

http://www.chippewacountymi.gov/clerk/html

3.       Check out your local libraries.

The Bayliss library in Sault Ste. Marie (the Bayliss library pays for the Heritage Quest for member to use)

4.       Search Census Information

5.       Michigan State Archives

6.       Register of Deeds

7.       University Libraries

8.       Transcription Project – www.stevemorse.org

9.       http://www.1940census.net (the 1940 census is now available to the public)

10.   The Ontario Genealogical Society at http://www.orgs.org

11.   Use forms such as the Pedigree Chart and Family Group Sheet located from the site mentioned above.

12.   When you are doing your search ask for vital records such as birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage licenses.

13.   The Social Security Death Index is another place to do your search.

14.   Be aware of name changes, when your relatives went through Ellis Island, names were changed.

This was a very informative presentation and I think I will explore the 1940 census data information. Have you completed a family tree yet?

 

 

Stereotypes

I attended a presentation put on by Northern Michigan University entitled Community Partnering: Collaborative Strategies for Family-Centered Services to Children.  I was interested in this topic and I need to earn continuing education units to maintain my social work license.  Patti Beekman, the presenter, came with a great background from having books published on similar topics to managing child welfare services in Ohio for many years.  I found the presenter to be very informative and I enjoyed her approach to providing the attendees with a wide array of information. 

We addressed the strengths and challenges of child protection services in the Upper Peninsula for the first part of the day, then we covered strategies to strengthen the services continuum, very interesting. Ms. Beekman provided information about why collaborations succeed which included: shared values and missions; procedures for collaboration are clearly delineated; shared trust and respect; commitment; and cross training.  I am going to seek grants from federal and state resources and I found a lot of the information presented during the workshops to be very useful for my future endeavors.

 After a wonderful lunch was provided by the university, the workshops were resumed and we were provided information about Strengths Based, Family Centered Services to Protect Families and Preserve Families.  The presenter did a good job at establishing interaction between all the attendees to keep things interesting. During this presentation we were asked to meet in small groups and discuss stereotypes.  We were given a list of characters and small groups were requested to put down the first thing that came to mind. The first one was homeless people and our group came up with lazy, scary, mental health issues, and dirty. Another one was a single mother with lots of kids and the first thing that was said was slut (we were all women at our table), indecisive, and greedy were other terms we came up with. When a single father was discussed these words came to mind: wuss, doormat, and then widower.  Gay people were on this list and we used these words because we didn’t seem to have an issue with them: good dressers and good shoppers.

And then we discussed absent fathers, and fathers who don’t pay child support: selfish was the main theme for these topics and some of the people at our table did not have anything nice to say about foster parents.  I found that discouraging and disheartening.  I feel that they are a god send; but others thought they were just in it for the money.  The last topic was white women which threw everybody for a loop.  White women have stereotypes. In fact when we came to that topic we asked the participants at another table what they were saying about that area.  They were stumped also.  Then the adjectives started flowing: controlling; shoppers; gold diggers; snobs; etc.  Why do you think the presenter put white women as the last topic? I found that very interesting and thought provoking.  This was a great exercise and proved a lot about the stereotypes that we have all been exposed to. 

One of the women at our table stated that she finds it amazing that she turned out as good as she did.  She was raised by a mother who was a drug addict.  Her and her siblings had free rein.  They had to cook for themselves and look out for each other.  She said her mother slept with all her father's friends and she learned from her mother how to steal from her grandmother and shoplift.  This woman is currently a protective services worker.  I have to hand it to her that she did  turn out quite well considering.

The presenter covered information about the impact of trauma on children of various ages.  Ms. Beekman stated that she would send me the slides to this presentation.  She had to go over this quickly because there was a lot to cover.  It was very interesting and is definitely associated with my research.

One of the last activities we were involved in consisted of us picking a side that was invoked when we read a scenario.  We either had to dislike or disagree with the topic.  One of the questions was: Abuse and Neglect are less emotionally traumatizing to a child than separation from his or her family and placement in foster care.  What side would you take?

I am very glad that I chose to take these workshops.  It was well worth my time, money, and driving in very snowy conditions.  I look forward to driving to Marquette, MI next Thursday to attend the presentations on Pain Management and Ethics given by Northern Michigan University.  I also look forward to eating at Red Lobster and doing more shopping.  I think the weather is going to be better.  Keep your fingers crossed for me. 

The Rituals of Our Lives

Robert Fulfhum summed it up so well in his book entitled “From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives” when he described some of the dilemmas we encounter. Some of the dilemmas may include facing various barriers concerning our own productivity. I have faced a road block with the writing of my second book.  He stated in this book that is you are facing a barrier with accomplishing specific goals to stop what you are doing and organize a drawer. I was having difficulty locating resources amongst the extensive amount of materials I managed to collect throughout the years.  I believe that people with similar interests would drool if they viewed my entire collection.  Sometimes I wish I could be cloned into five of me so I could read all my books, write, participate in all the other things I enjoy doing, and get what I need to get accomplished, done.  You get the point.  I think a lot of women feel the way I do, especially the women who are creative, intelligent and ambitious. 

So as a result of the road block I was facing, I took on the very tedious task of moving all of the resources I used to complete my first book to a set of book shelves in another part of our home.  These resources were being stored primarily on a large set of book shelves and a hutch in a haphazard manner in the dining room area of our home.  I wanted to move the resources to my office in the basement.  I felt that I needed to organize these resources in a specific order depending on the topic such as all resources pertaining to historical information associated with Native Americans, self help books and books relating to religious and spiritual information.  What a daunting task to say the least. 

While conducting research for my second book, I came across a book that was associated with simplifying your life.  So to make this intimidating task even more difficult I also went through all my books, papers from college, etc. to get rid of what I considered unnecessary clutter. I have at least 12 sets of book shelves loaded with resources and books.  I am a self-proclaimed bibliophile, a very committed one.  I absolutely love the written word.  I love writing and reading it.  So I begin my journey with this difficult but hopefully satisfying venture.  I told my husband that if he didn’t see me in a couple of days to come looking for me. 

While I was going through all my resources in my office and dining room area, I discovered a whole host of treasures; but at the same time I managed to get rid of two stacks of books that were at least a couple feet tall each.  I also achieved getting rid of a stack of paperwork at least four feet high.  I was so happy with myself and feel as if I can get past my road block.  I am over half way done with the second book, with the writing of it that is.  I still have a couple of other daunting tasks to complete.  Don’t tell my husband; but he is going to be involved in these endeavors also; but I am on my way to feeling more content with how things are organized. I feel as if I can finish writing my second book and tackle so much more.  Clutter and disorganization can deter anyone from completing their goals. 

Keeping Submarines Quiet

I had the good fortune of attending a Lake Superior Elders presentation given by Dr. David Baumann covering naval warfare.  He’s a professor at Lake Superior State University.  This topic was extremely interesting and the presentation was informative.  I was given a lot food for thought.  Dr. Baumann started the presentation with discussing the 50 anniversary of the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia.  The following questions were answered:

1.        What is sound?  Sound is referred to as a series of compressions and rare factions which are air particles moving through the air at approximately 345 meters per second, several football fields. Sounds are either in high pressure or low pressure areas and it is amazing according to Dr. Baumann that pressure is very small. 

2.       What is noise cancellation? This is adding “Anti-Noise” which can actually make sounds worse in other areas.  If there is no vibration, there is no sound.  The goal is to get rid of the vibration.  There was a picture shown of two amplifiers one emanating one sound and the other emanating an opposite sound. That concept was a little confusing to me.  What is an example of an opposite sound?

3.       What is sound in water?  Sound travels faster in water at 1500 meters per second.  The greater the pressure the deeper you are in the ocean.  When we were singing songs on the beach while camping, people who we could barely see in a fishing boat told us that we sounded good.  Does sound travel over water faster also?

4.       How do submarines make noise?  There is machinery noise from pumps, reduction gears, and power plants.  There is a flow noise, higher speeds cause more noise.  Cavitation noise is referred to as the sound caused by air bubbles made by the propellers.  Having an uneven number of propellers creates less sound, 3, 5 and 7 are the common number of propeller blades that are used.  They don’t use 4, 6, or 8 blades.  Every submarine has a “signature.”  By listening to the engine moving and timing the seconds a submarine creates a noise the navy can determine what submarine it is.  The formula is if the engine is moving: 5x’s/ seconds at 5 perks.  I think I got that right when I was taking notes.  The process involves locating submarines and learning what their vulnerabilities are.

5.       How are submarines detected? According to Dr. Baumann, sound is referred to as SONAR by the navy or Sound Navigation Ranging which involves just listening with hydrophones. Sound is bouncing sound signals off the ocean floor to scan the ocean floor and then they can find what direction another submarine is in.  A description was shown of sound waves being sent directly to the ocean floor in a diagonal pattern and then bouncing off the ocean floor and deflecting against another submarine under the surface of the ocean. 

6.       How do we keep submarines quiet? This is top secret.  All submarines contain nuclear weapons. Congress is speculating why it is so important to keep so much secret from Russia, there isn’t a Soviet Union anymore.  There are better ways in which to spend $2 Billion.  The U.S. has more countries after us than Russia does.  There was a discussion about the SOFAR channel which also involved a waveguide. A channel in which Russia had to travel to get to the U.S. had a tracking system set up in various locations to detect where Russian submarines were.  Russia figured where these locations were.  SOSUS, which was referred to as Sound Surveillance System, was used to detect submarines.  This program was started in the early 1960s and was put into place to monitor Soviet attack submarines.  Now this system is used for research and is used to monitor whales. The scientists discovered using this system the mating calls of whales.  The system was declassified so the knowledge of this system is open to the public. 

The presentation was ended by discussing a recent incident involving a Soviet Submarine and how the crew parished on the submarine because they couldn’t be rescued.  The location of the submarine could not be given away. 

 

The Unrest in Syria

Anybody who knows me, knows I like to get to the bottom of things and that’s just what I did when I met with Mr. X.  During a meeting with Mr. X and my husband, Don, this past week, I learned about what is going on in Syria from marriage customs to political unrest. Mr. X works in this country; however his home is in Syria.  His mother died a few years ago.  His father is still living and he calls his father every day when he is working in the U.S.  Family is very important to him.  Other topics also carry a lot of significance for him.

Mr. X brought up those living in poverty.  His mother was a nurse and his father was a physician.  They did not have to be concerned about money growing up and he didn’t have to work until he was in his late 20s. According to Mr. X, college courses are free in Syria.  Unlike what we have to be concerned about in this country, college costs are through the roof.  You either have to be poor and rely on Pell grants or you have to sell your soul to the student loan companies.  Most families cannot afford to pay for their children’s college expenses without making serious sacrifices.  Why does it cost so much to get an education?  Someone is benefitting and it is not the general population.

Let’s get back to Syria.  Mr. X’s family employs a housekeeper and she is only paid $4.00 a day for her services.  Mr. X was wondering why she is not being paid at least $30. a day, an amount she needs in order to cover all her expenses and not live like a pig.  He referred to people living in abject poverty as living like pigs.  He has complained to his father; but he also made mention that he also likes that his family lives comfortably. Don mentioned that there has always been poor people and those with great wealth.  Mr. X responded by saying, “why can’t it be more equitable.”  

According to a source entitled “Factsheet: Political Unrest in Syria, 2011,” the country faces economic anguish and drought induced food shortages and poverty.  There have been five consecutive famines which have caused 800,000 Syrians into deep poverty.  32% of Syrians are living on approximately $2.00 a day. This is driving a multitude into the cities.  The draughts have caused food prices to soar. 

Some of Mr. X’s nephews are sneaking around and giving donations to the poor families.  His nephews meet with these families and ask what the family needs.  The families provide shopping lists and the nephews purchase the supplies listed on these lists for the families. They have to do these good deeds in private otherwise there can be harsh punishments. These families don’t make enough to survive and it is against the law to help them.

According to Wikipedia, the country has an autocratic form of governance and Bashar Hafez al-Assad is the current president of Syria.  He succeeded his father’s reign in office after his father’s death.  Bashar is unlike his siblings, he dislikes politics.  His older brother died in a car crash so Bashar was next in line for the presidency according to the selection process.  The selection process sounds a little suspect to me. 

I wonder sometimes what is worse, being in a country that makes reference to being a democracy when 1% of the country decides what we watch on television concerning the news, etc. and have the majority of the resources.  Only the rich can afford to run for office and on top of things the candidates are given a huge amount of support in the name of campaign contributions.  You can’t tell me that there aren’t strings attached to this financial support.  I read an article a couple of years ago that referred to the Democratic and Republican parties as the Microsoft Word and AT&T parties. 

Our country is supporting Egypt’s reign of terror as a way of buying an ally.  This was another topic of conversation.  I will have to explore this further. However, it is food for thought.

The political unrest that started January 2011 was related to civil rights.  According to the factsheet, there have been approximately 60 Syrian security agents killed during the protests, but most protestors were unarmed.  Initially the protestors wanted political reform; however, they also wanted to end the 47 year state of emergency and to address anti-corruption issues.  After the government’s concentrated effort in late April of 2011, some of the protestors were asking for Bashar’s resignation and to put some of the regime’s figure heads on trial for corruption.  On the positive note, on February 27, 2012 Syria claimed a referendum on a revision to the nation’s constitution that received 90% support.  The referendum included a 14 year cumulative term limit for the president of Syria.  However, July 2012 can be memorable as a the time in which the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Cresent had officially declared Syria to be in a state of civil war as the nationwide death toll for all sides was reported to have almost reached 20,000. 

Things seem pretty grim concerning the state of unrest in Syria.  The country has been at this state of unrest since the 1960s and has been considered in a state of emergency since then.  Many of this country’s inhabitants are residing in poverty which in and of itself can create a war zone.  On top of the instability of the economic structure, there is a form of government that seems to leave little to be desired.  However, I do believe that for the most part we are awarded more safety and financial security in this country; but at the same time there are some similarities to what we are subjected to if we look close enough. 

Soo Eagles Hockey Team

On October 10, 2012, I attended a Lake Superior Elders’ presentation given by three members of the Soo Eagles Hockey Team.  They introduced themselves and stated that they were from Howell, MI; Toledo, OH; and Chicago, IL.  They ended up in Sault Ste. Marie for the sole purpose of playing for a Junior League Hockey team.  They have aspirations of playing hockey for universities and possibly move onto professional hockey leagues.  Two of the players are also college bound with plans on pursuing careers in physical therapy and television and/or radio broadcasting.  They said taking the two years off from attending college from the time they were 18 until they turned 20 helped prepare them for college.  They know what they want to do and they didn’t waste two years of college partying. The youngest of the three wants to play hockey at this point and works nights at Taco Bell to pay for staying at his host home in the Sault Ste. Marie which costs $350. per month.

His parents stated that when he turned 18, he was responsible for his expenses. His parents did make major sacrifices the previous year and spent approximately $22,000. to cover travel and other hockey expenses so that he could play for the junior hockey league.

They explained that they are superstitious and dress the same way when they prepare for practicing and playing games.  The youngest reported that they rely on luck so they prepare for each game and practice by practicing specific rituals and this was demonstrated. He put on his gear in the order in which he does every time.  First of all he donned hischin guards after the chin guards he put on his pants, then he put on his shoulder, chest and back pads, and then his elbow pads.  His shirt, gloves and helmet were next.  He puts on his left chin pad, left glove and left elbow pad first.  He has always dressed that way.  I found it interesting that they are superstitious and rely on luck and not their skill.  They must be very skilled at playing hockey since all three played hockey since they were young boys attending elementary school.

One of elders asked if they got hurt and one replied that he had to have a metal plate put in his cheek and another reported that he broke his wrist a couple of times. 

The team has sponsors who pay for their jerseys, pucks, ice time, sticks, etc.  The parents usually pay for their skates which can cost approximately $900.  Since they come from all over the United States to play hockey, their parents can watch them play on-line for $8.  The website is sooeagles.net.  You can also listen to the games on the channel 1400 radio station. 

Another interesting point they told us about is that it is not recommended that they play high school hockey because this level is not enough of a challenge for them.  So in high school they move away from home to play junior hockey.  They said it makes them grow up faster because they are away from their parents and living with other families.  There are five high school students playing for the Soo Eagles.

The three young men demonstrated that they are very proud of what they do, playing hockey for the Soo Eagles and they love playing hockey, absolutely love it.  They appeared to be nice and enjoyed providing the elders with this presentation.  They welcomed all questions and addressed the group with genuine sincerity.  I look forward to watching them play on Friday night.