Hello I’m David Harper

To reach me, send me an e-mail at harperdw@telus.net

Coming Home from Yellowknife, NWT

Wow.  This week was great.  I got on a WestJet plane Monday to Yelowknife and got a great intro to the city.   Gold Mines, Diamonds, floating houses.   And the home of Buffalo Air.  Next onto the plane with Buffalo Joe !   The lake in the background is Great Slave Lake.   It is Big !!!

A great tour of Hay River, where the rail line ends for the fuel that keeps the Diamond mines running.    Check out these tanks that get filled by Truck up in Yellow Knife.   And then the fuel hauled over ice roads to the north.

Dogs interests

For the past 6 weeks I have been walking this dog named Tess.   She really likes to chase rabbits, magpies and the guys van that delivers the globe and mail.    How does she know it is his van?  Today she barked at a grey truck.   Does she really know.   Also today I tried to run with her to catch a bunny rabbit, I guess more of a Jack Rabbit.    I don’t suggest running with a dog on a lease that is chasing a jack rabbit !!!    Looked like something out a Mr Bean movie I suspect.   Cheaper than a treadmill though !!!

My quesitons is where do these types of instincts come from, and why have they been trained out of some dogs.    Do some people wake up every morning with the thougth of chasing rabbits? or other things like profit?   Do these instincts get trained in and trained out?

Let’s make the circle bigger

Have you ever walked into an event with a bunch of strangers and wanted to connect.   The most incredible thing happened this weekend.   I walked towards an empty chair in a group of people on the patio at a corporate event and asked if the chair was taken and the person said, yes, but there are lots of chairs, let’s make the circle bigger.   Wonderful.  Almost right out of Margaret Wheately’s teachings in “Finding our way”.

What a great feeling to be included and connected, even if just in a small way.   The only thing in common was working for the same Canadian Corporation, and an employee golf tournament.  Again I say Wow.

Now not every entrance is this easy.   There are closed groups.   But why are they closed?   Is there fear?   What brings people together?  Seems simple when there is a challenge or common purpose.    Golf is funny that way.   You can throw 4 people together with the goal of moving the white ball down the green course and voila, synergy.  Maybe not precision or accuracy or strong results or longest drive or longest putt but a sense of common purpoase.

Very cool.

Thank you to the Parkland Golf Tournament coordinator Steve and to the people who said, let’s make the circle bigger.

Neat song, grow up you, grow up me, Free to be

I logged into thestreamingcafe and watched Ira Neufeld, he did this song from Bruce Coburn.   Very touching and eye opening to these times.  To times of living life that is in one’s face.  Seems that is all there is.

 

Free to be

Got no social graces
Never know my place
One thing I am sure of
You can’t judge a man by his race
Birth don’t come easy
Freedom doesn’t come cheap
Rules and worlds get swept away
While you waste your time in sleep

Grow up you
Grow up me
Grown together
Free to be

There’s music in the forest
Children laugh in the school yard
On the skid row of the spirit
Hear the ranting of the Western Guard
Why don’t you cool out
Can it be so hard

to love yourself without thinking
someone else holds a lower card

Grow up you
Grow up me
Grown together
Free to be

Wired to the switchboard
Always on the move
Things we love to cling to
But there’s nothing we can prove
You can only deal with
What’s before your face
And the life you’re given’s no use at all
If you burn it up ïn hate

Grow up you
Grow up me
Grown together
Free to be

Hugs

Wow, Hugs are important.

What is your best memory of a Hug?

The power of humans holding humans.   It is great.

First Aid Kit

A story about a First Aid Kit.  Have you ever taken a first aid course?   They have all this great equipment and tools ready in the class.   Simple thing like some guaze or a sling.   Or a protective mask for giving breaths or doing CPR.   So it was suggested I get a first aid kit for the SUV I’m using to drive all over Edmonton, Edson, Drayton Valley and Whitecourt.   So I found one.   At a Dragon Boat Team fundraiser and Silent Auction.   It is very cool with everthing you need, and comes with a knife.

So now I’m ready, I have 2 Days of First Aid Training, a card that shows I have the training and a First Aid Kit.   Perfect.   Funny comment at the Dragon Boat Fundraiser.   I was excited to bid on the first aid kit.   So I was nicely asking people not to bid on it, and the people I talked to were all accident prone and suggested they would be better suited to having a first aid kit.   They did not bid which was nice.

What is your story about the use of a first aid kit, right place at the right time, or being accident prone?

Also what are your thoughts and what is the definition of “First Aid”?

Watch your watts

This week I got up for a 6:15 am spin bike class at Terwillegar Centre.    For those who have done spin biking on bikes with a dashboard, they show the rpm and you change gears.  Higher the rpm, higher the gear, higher the WATTS.

The leader of the class, at the point where I was fatiqued suggested we focus and watch our WATTS.

So I needed to get the definition or an example down in my blog:

A person having a mass of 100 kilograms who climbs a 3 meter high ladder in 5 seconds is doing work at a rate of about 600 watts. Mass times acceleration due to gravity times height divided by the time it takes to lift the object to the given height gives the rate of doing work or power. A laborer over the course of an 8-hour day can sustain an average output of about 75 watts; higher power levels can be achieved for short intervals and by athletes.^[1]

There’s a Ferrari in the bathroom !

Now that is a great blog post title…   might even be goood for the Globe and Mail.

It is so good a title, I dont’ think I can even explain it.   But truthfully, I walked into the bathroom and there was a Barbie Ferrari on the sink.

I thought it was funny….

And there was a Rolls Royce in the tub…

Toys, they bring back so many memories.

How we remember…. Harper Creek?

It interests me what we remember from a drive, a city, a person, a conversation…  our memory is selective.   On my recent drives from Edmonton, AB to Grande Prairie I noticed a Creek with my surname, Harper.   So this trip I took a picture…  to help me remember and share with others.

For me this is now a memory of the drive back from GP.   There was lots to see, it is a 5 hour drive.   Lots of trucks and trees and houses.  

What is it that creates a memory for us?  What do you remember from the last time you saw a person?   Do you remember something about the last time, or do you remember a collage of things from your time with that person?   Does a song bring back a memory?   How about a smell?

The mind is amazing at forgetting also.  And then there is perspective.   Did you hear words differently than they were intended, a variation on interpretation.  Were too many words used to explain a topic.   Do we put in our own words?

Seems like people have selective memories.   What is great about a picture is it is worth a thousand words.

Mitch Harper, an Air Cadet

Way to go Mitch Harper.  Hard work and training.   Congrats on the Air Cadet Annual in Kelowna, BC.