I lit a candle

There was some local news in Ottawa this week that was very sad. The husband of CTV News anchor Carol Anne Meehan was found dead after being missing for 2 weeks. He had been very sick. There are two young children.

I am feeling sad for someone I will probably never meet in person. I have been watching her on the local news for more than 20 years.

I recently found on Youtube some clips from CJOH’s past. One of them was some theme music. “We are here for you at CJOH.”

Now we are here for Carol Anne and her family and the CTV Ottawa family too.

There has been much sharing online and those who are in touch with her says that she values all of this even as she is deeply hurting and grieving.

So I lit a candle and prayed for her and the two kids.

RIP Greg. Love and prayers for you Carol Anne and the kids.

Being English: celebrating my heritage

I had thoughts recently about my family heritage - the ¾ English part.

I watched Chasing Churchill on my local PBS station. His granddaughter was going back to places in his life - it was quite interesting. She showed places that he had painted. Now his paintings sell for quite a lot of money. He had some talent in that department and he found it to be relaxing.

Then I watched part of a DVD series - Churchill: the Wilderness Years - 1929 to 1939. That was also interesting to learn more about the situation on Britain and Europe leading up to World War II.

I watched some Youtube videos from the Edinburgh Military Tattoo which is held every year in August. One of the tunes was “I vow to thee my country.“

I was reminded of this tune in another context as I thought about Princess Diana who died on August 31, 1997. This song was sung at her funeral. Then I went looking for “Candle in the wind” by Elton John which I also found on Youtube.

Diana’s two sons are quite grown up now and getting on with their lives. Is a wedding coming up for William?

TV programs and DVDs

I might have mentioned my subscription to Rogers Video. You set up a wish list and then the DVDs are sent in the mail.

I have started watching a couple of series that I have seen in the past but they are well worth seeing again. Providence and 7th Heaven are two of them. Providence has a doctor and a vet - taking care of people and of animals. 7th Heaven has a large family and the dad is a minister. It is more about the family stuff but it is well done - even though both series are dated now.

I recently saw two movies - Lars and the Real Girl and the Blackheath Poisonings. The first movie was recommended somewhere and it was excellent - about a young man and his finding love. The other had been on PBS - I think I had dismissed it as a period piece. It was excellent too - about murders and scandal in a large English family - just the type of movie I like.

Rogers this and Rogers that

My television service and digital box are Rogers. My cable television has been for a long time.

Some time ago when I was walking in my neighbourhood I happened to see a box - it said Skyline Cablevision. When I searched the name in Google I found a reference to a Facebook page for a group of former employees of the company. The old connected with the new.

There is a Rogers Centre in Toronto. It is very close to where the G20 Summit is being held next week.

Anyway my ramblings started because my Rogers digital box was not working. I could not see too far into the future to record programs. I reset my digital box and all is well for now.

I also received a bill in my email for my Rogers television and Internet service. Something was a little strange. I have to investigate further - online and maybe by telephone.

Rogers home phone - no thanks - I will stay with Bell.

If dogs run free

The very last episode of Inspector Frost has this title. It is quite gripping. I did read about the end of the episode - in fact there are three different endings. When I have finished watching my recorded version, I will check out the other two which are available on the TV Ontario web site.

In the middle of watching it, I heard a quite loud bark from outside. Under further investigation, three of my neighbour’s puppies had escaped to my back yard underneath the fence. The next move was out the gate and across the street. The neighbour and her cousin went looking for the escapees - one came back home by himself.

These dogs were running free too.

The television program is not so nice - it is about dog fighting but there is a nice romance in the works too.

Local television - getting personal

When did CJOH change to CTV Ottawa? I missed that specific transition.

I started to watch their noon newscast during the big ice storm.

I liked to watch the local evening news on CJOH. Carol Anne and Max have been through a lot together. Carol Anne has two children. Max is very much involved in community outreach. He has struggled through a difficult time with cancer. He is going to retire in 6 weeks time.

Now a fire has destroyed the news studio. As Max said the physical memories - tapes, etc. - have been lost but the memories have not been.

As I watched the newscast at 6 p.m. on Monday the personal touches were very evident. These are two professionals during their job. They looked at each other at the start as if to say - we have been hurt but we are still here.

Pictures at the station on Merivale Road showed lots of hugging going on between the staff members. People who worked there were needing support and comfort from each other. They are getting it from the community as well who value what they do as professionals.

During the evening news it was evident or said - please send the personal information - for the happiness file (birthdays or wedding anniversaries of a special number); wake up weather pictures by elementary school kids; requests for personal appearances at local events - these were all gone.

Star Trek

I do not often find anything too interesting in the news about TV shows. What I like to watch is not on the main networks. I prefer Vision TV and TV Ontario and PBS. However this morning what caught my attention was that the Space Channel was showing 6 Star trek movies. My PVR is working overtime and I will have some movies to watch for quite a while to come.

I did watch most of the television series. I liked Voyager best because of the female captain. My second favourite was the Next Generation.

I like to read about William Shatner who was born in Montreal as I was. He also is a horse person.

Television - the local view

I used to always watch the local CTV news but recently I have switched to the local CBC news. I often flip back and forth between the two channels.

Some years ago and now I read that it was in 1995 - there was a terrible situation at the local CTV station. When the sportscaster - Brian Smith - came out of the building he was shot and later died. Since his death a lot of money has been raised for worthy causes in his name.

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The powers that be at Rogers Cable decided that the PBS station from Watertown New York should be replaced by the one from Detroit. The message was sent out that this was a final decision.

They did not count on local residents and a city councillor and the WPBS station itself having a say in this decision. A Facebook group was set up. The station has always got a lot of support - financial and otherwise - from their Canadian viewers. So Rogers had to reverse their decision and WPBS will remain on the local channel lineup.

Technology changing again and again

I was talking with a friend recently about televisions and computers. She was saying - I missed that interesting program. I asked about a VCR or other recording device. She said it was a new one and she would have to read the manual to learn how to program it.

She was also concerned about an upcoming change of computer program at her workplace.

I can certainly understand her unease about the need to keep up with new technology. At work it happened to me all the time.

I was recently reminded of some work related computer programs. I had occasion to open a large Excel file. I had prepared and worked on such files towards the end of my career.

My need for complicated programs and files is much less than before. Recently I have been using Blogger and Google Docs and I seem to manage to do what I want to do. I am not so interested in more complicated applications.

New TV: finally

So I finally bought a new digital TV. My local electronics store installed it all for me.

It does look quite nice and big and bright. It is 32 inches instead of the old TV which was 20 inches.

I also bought the PVR (personal video recorder) and I had to buy a new stand.

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I have started to explore the new system and how to move back and forth between the TV and the digital box and the VHS/DVD player.

I now have 3 remote controls to keep track of.

I have lots more TV stations and some of them look to be quite fun - National Geographic and the Food Network for example.

I have set up my first program to be recorded.

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Now I am giving away my old TV to a new home. It still works very well.
So what about all those tapes that I had for taping programs? They were discards from when I was working in the library and are quite good quality.
I used them well over the years.

If no one wants them now I will have to find an electronics recycling facility.

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My new electronic toys should keep me entertained for some time to come - learning how to use them as well as enjoying the digital view and various new channels.

Television

Some programs that I remember watching on TV when I was growing up.

"The Howdy Doody Show" remains fixed in the mind today for Buffalo Bob's greeting - "Say, kids. What time is it?" - and the answer: "It's Howdy Doody Time" that sprang forth from the 40 or so kids squeezed in the studio's "peanut gallery."
http://www.tvparty.com/50howdy.html

"A high-powered, fast-moving half-hour, Razzle Dazzle is still fondly remembered as required after school viewing for children of the baby boom. Its title sequence was a rapid montage of images cut to a raucous version of "Tiger Rag," and the action took place in Razzle Dazzle Alley, which was populated each day by a gallery of children bussed in daily from Toronto area elementary schools."
http://www.film.queensu.ca/CBC/R.html

"The Friendly Giant was a popular Canadian children's television program on the CBC from September 1958 through to March 1985. It featured three main characters: a giant named Friendly who lived in a huge castle (played by Bob Homme), along with his puppet animal friends Rusty (a rooster who played a harp and lived in a sack hung by the castle window) and Jerome (a giraffe)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Friendly_Giant

"Lassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female rough collie named Lassie and her companions, human and animal. One of the longest running dramatic series on television, Lassie was first broadcast from September 12, 1954, to March 24, 1973. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_(1954_TV_series)

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What TV did my mom and dad watch in those days? It was probably not much before the days of cable. We would have had an antenna and not the rabbit ears because we were some distance outside of Montreal. I remember the TV being a big box and living down in the basement.

Celtic influences

I have recently started a 10 week course on Celtic Christian literature. So I began to think about what are the Celtic influences in my life.



First of all the Shetland ponies in their natural habitat. There have always been ponies at Wal Ken Farms and at Greenbelt.

The course itself includes poetry aand hagiography (the spiritual biography of saints.) St. Patrick will get a mention even though the course will be over before St. Patrick's Day on March 17.

I have all the episodes of Ballykissangel which is an Irish story.

I enjoy listening to Roma Downey's own CD - Healing Angel. Her Irish background did not come out too much in Touched by an Angel.

I went on a couple of Celtic themed retreats.

We had a delightful assistant priest at St. John's who was from Ireland - Désirée.

I know a number of folks who have gone to Iona but of course that is Scotland and not Ireland. They describe themselves as "a dispersed Christian ecumenical community working for peace and social justice, rebuilding of community and the renewal of worship." http://www.iona.org.uk/

I have several music CDs with Irish music - both secular and more spiritual. Some of them are very relaxing and meditative.

New TV : someone said

I will probably need a new one sometime soon. My sister in Vancouver has a digital TV with a separate VCR for recording and a DVD player. She has 3 or 4 remotes - sort of complicated.

Her neighbour has digital and HD. Complicated process even thinking about buying a new one.

As for channels I would like to get the Food Channel but it is not in my current package. Even looking at packages of available channels is quite a process.

I am starting to have more DVDs than tapes in my collection. I have a couple of nice progams that I wanted to lend to a friend but she finally admitted there is no VCR in their house.

Some of this process was prompted by my PBS station which is sending out information about the American switch to digital TV. I have cable TV but nothing else.

What to do??

From somewhere in my distant past I remember finally buying a colour television. What a difference from the black and white!!

So a project for the New Year?? Probably yes.

From one of the PBS documents - taking care of some Canadian viewers.
"WPBS-TV has every intention of assisting our viewers and members
located in Canada who still watch our over the air signal with a rooftop
antenna or rabbit ears."

When my PBS station has a fundraising there is always a Canadian flag beside the American one.

My mom in Quebec had 2 PBS stations - 1 in Vermont and 1 in New York State.