“II’M ON MY WAY!” (he’s n his way, on his way….on his way!) “Alan skeoch is coming home!”

EPSODE 1032: “II’M ON MY WAY!” (he’s n his way, on his way….on his way!) “Alan skeoch is coming home!” — where has he been?
alan skeoch April 24, 2024
I fell. First time was no big del. Then followed a bnch of falls a week later Serious falls. I could not get back on my feet. Needed rescue from emergency Measures burly people…then fell in shower wedged …like a side canned beef. Andrew did that rescue.
Thought my skin would burst as i ;ay there . The stitched held. Then he picked me up… his father… and whisked me to the Trilium hospital….
What follows is a sequence of events between December 12, 2024 and April 24, 2024….described as best I can.
Readers may wonder where I have been.
several episodes.
alan
What stitches?

9

9

EPISODE 1932 DEAD CAT

episode  1032     THE Dead CAT

alan skeoch
MARCH 29/,2032

THIS IS NOT A PRETTY PICTURE.  




Some readers thought our cat killed by the coyotes,  Not so.  She is
outside (a risk leashed to a blacksmith showing tool.

Above is the gruesome picture of the coyote kill.   Not sure all readers will approve of
such reality journalism.

Do not blame all coyotes.  Cars kill more  wit animals…one rabbit killed by a car car as I pushed my
walker by Mary ‘Fix Park five minutes ago for example.

Would the cat killing coyotes attack me as I pushed my walker into the wilderness
park where they live,   Defenceless elderly man pushing a walker.  I cannot run…barely
able tp push the walker.   

And once down on the ground I couldn’t get up.  A coyote meal? Many meals!

alan

Fwd: Episode 1030 Andrew will you help find our cat” “you are standing on its tail!”



Begin forwarded message:


From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
Subject: Episode 1030 Andrew will you help find our cat” “you are standing on its’ tail!”
Date: March 24, 2024 at 10:36:43 PM EDT
To: john Wardle <jwardle@rogers.com>, Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com>


Episode  1030 

Andrew will you help find our cat” “You are standing on its’ tail!”

Alan Skeoch
MarcH 24, 2024

We keep Chelsea Bun, our cat, on a long  leash to avoid  a  NASTY SHORTENED LIFE!


Amazing that wild creatures survive and thrive among the hundred of thousands
human beings in th GTA.    But they do  as some of us find out the hard way,
A better heading for this episode might be “Nature red in tooth and claw” as a neighbour of Andrew discovered.

“Andrew will you help me find our cat?”
“You are standing on its’ tail.”
“Beg your pardon?”
“”You are standing on your cats inedible tail tail…coyotes got your cat  last night. Sorry]to say that.”

A pair of coyotes had been out hunting.  Perhaps needed food
for milk for pups just born… food for momma coyote.  Or for 
themselves. Andrew had spotted the coyotes and made sure Norman their 
fat shortl legged pug nosed dog .  Andrew was also woried
that a bald eagle, recent ly arrived ub the ske=y above Port Credit, might tear a strip off of Norman. Nice fat little dog,

The cat was not so lucky.  How did Andrew know the killers were coyotes? Night
time howling.,,
Barely visible movements of ‘greyness in the semi darkness of dawn and dusk.
Best evdence was the cat tail and paws snipped of with finesse and some long
length of the cat’s fur.  Dead cats keep tails attached if death is natural or a car accident

There was a time when I was young that the night time prowlers were Tom cats and raccoons both of which are now in short supply due to coyote oredation.

alan


Dawn in Port Credit about where  coyotes roam and cats must be carfeful


story










three related stories

story Ome:  Collapse
Story Two    Rescue
Story Three  Resurrection

episode 1025   story one COLLAPSE

Our greenhouse semi collapsed in 2023 …. heavy wet snow -a large ump of ice was held by these steel tubes…. too dangerous
..no rescue possible until th ice meltrd,

TASK; IT TOOK 30 YEARS TO PURCHASE THESE THINGS.  SUGGEST 5 ITEMS
THAT MIGHT BE USED IN A MOVIE SET.  

NEXT EPISODE WE WILL TRY TO SEPERATE GOOD FROM GARBAGE.  YOU WILL HAVE HAVE A HEAD START



LIFE IS NOT EASY  

JOHN CALDER SAW MILL AND THRESHING MACH INE AT WORK…MASSEYHARRIS BEAMS

EPISODE   1,020  JOHN AND ELEANOR CALDER — BUILT A SAWMILL FROM PARTS 


alan skeoch
dec 8, 2023


Note: This story is about the Calder family aw mill.   Your task is to separate threshing 
from sawing….the Calders did both. 

John and Eleanor Calder were a remarkable couple, Hard to know where to start their story
because they could do things thst would intimidate people like me and possibly you,

‘What  is all that scrap iron beside the barn John?”
“I am going to build a sawmill, Alan…got all the pieces here.”

John and Eleanor were a perfect match…fitted hand and glove.
They decided to build their own house after a fire converted nearly all their
possessions into ash.  I remember John’s burnt hands after he reached through a burning 
window to rescue some silverware and pottery.

AFTER THE FIRE ‘MAKNG DO’ WITH WHAT REMAINED

“We will just have to make do with what remains’”
“What remains?”
“Lots.”
“Like the dairy herd was untouched and the barn and the sheep…and our family…no
deaths in the fire.
so we began to build our dream house.
 I rescued this sawmill from scrap iron dealers.   We have trees
…lots of them….and we have stones,,,lots of them.  Enough to build a two storey field stone house,  I have a plan,”
P{lan””
“The stones are free but lumber costs money.   I need my own saw mill to cut costs”
JOHN AND ELEANOR CALDER WITH HELP OF CHILDREN  JAMES, DOUGLAS AND 


ANNE BUILT A STONE HOUSE THAT BECAME A FEATURE STORY IN NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES  i,e  HARROWSMITH



The brand new stone house about to receive lumber from
 the saw Mill


ENTER  OUR FMILY


      when we  discovered   the Calder saw mill.  We had been collecting white pine beams from                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        the demolition of the Massey Harris factory in west Toronto.  The pictures below show how the beams became nice lumber.

Today the saw mill has been abandoned for two decades 

OUR LUMBER AWAITS A NEED

CIBC

alan

P.S>   Eleanor was born to Frank Townsend and Elizabeth Skeoch, dad’s sister




EPISODE 1,019 HOW TO BECOME A COVER GIRL

EPISODE  1,019    HOW TO BECOME A COVER GIRL


alan skeoch
feb 23, 2024

PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM  1982

PARKDALE  COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE  



“Mr  Skeoch would like some students to stick around the
school tomorrow afternoon around 3.30.  A book 
publisher has hired a photographer to take a picture 
of our students on the cover of a book he has written.  Here is 
your chance to be famous.”

The reaction was amusing.
 

 Parkdale students milled around the photographer who seemed to know
what he wanted.  Namely students not teachers.  Took about 40 minute then he was gone 
I never saw the results until the publication was done.

What a surprise!   A cover that wrapped around the whole book.   Most interesting
was the cover girl…the dominant feature.   students were dressed casually….blue jeans and sweaters,   One girl came to school in her best dress, an eye catcher with polka dots on a white base…new shoes, black leotards,  She was stunning.

And it was no surprise her image dominated the book cover.  I do not remember
her name unfortunately  Perhaps an ex student if PCI will recognize her.

Instructions
1) Do not look at the camera
2) Would the young lady in polka dots dots seem to be reading the book.
3) Would the rest of you be in conversation 
(It was no accident that the final cover was representative of the Canadian 
population)

Every time I see this cover I am reminded of those halcyon days when 
I taught high school,  There is no job like it.  To see adolescents become adults.

Citizen X (as I call her) seemed to be just like all the other students
until she saw her chance to be something else…a cover girl.

EPISODE 118 NONE OF MY BUSINESS — “THE SHOPPING CART AND HOMELESS MAN.”

EPISODE 118     NONE OF MY BUSINESS — “THE SHOPPING CART AND

HOMELESS MAN.”

alan skeoch
Feb. 19, 2024


Most people walked by the man and his loaded ‘borrowed’ 
shopping  Cart loaded with who knows what.  EVERY person that
passed by in 20 minuted ignored him. You too?I only saw him load
one item…a soda or beer can which he crushed flat and pitch in 
the black milk crate.   Beer can ?  Worth 10 cents. What can ten cents buy?
Soda can, worth nothing.  

IMAGINE THIS MAN IS YOU…your cart.
Answer the questions.

Be specific  if you can

What ’is in the cart?
where do you sleep tonight? (temp -7 and sinking)
What do you eat?   Where?
Do you have friends?
Where do you wash?
Where do you relieve yourself?
How did you become homeless”?
Is there any danger in Being homeless?
What do you do about  a tooth ache?

NONE OF MY BUSINESS~ RIGHT?

Fwd: EPISODE 1,017 RESCUING OUR HOUSE…A RAILING IS BETTER THAN A MOVE




Note:  Such a trivial thing,,,a hand rail,,,,maybe trivial to  you but to us
it could be a saviour.


EPISODE 1,017    RESCUING OUR HOUSE…A RAILING BETTER THAN A MOVE


alan skeoch
feb. 15, 2024
pictures by marjorie

SUDDENLY our whole way of
life was in jeopardy…all due to a knee operation 
thst was supposed to be successful.

We love our house that now sits among megahouses but once, not long ago say 200 years ago, was hidden away in a white pine forest where the indigenous
Misissauga people lived.   

When we came here in1968 there were dozens of trees and shrubs thriving as the land gently sloped down to a babbling brook (Mary Fix Creek) where wild things thrived….. Today a  coyote family has mated and await the rival of pups.  Maybe they are already here.  So wild is our 55’ x 400’  lot  thst we have fenced off a fragment to protect Woody, our dog, snd Chelsea Bun, our kitten (she is howling in her ‘heat’ this moment  so has become a cat I surmise.
  Survival of pets is doubtful without the fence.

SHANGRI-LA IS SHAKEN BY KNEE SURGERY

Lucky us!  We feel lucky to have this fragment of wilderness.  At least we did
until December 12 when I had knee surgery.  Suddenly alll we held dear was torn away.

“Alan, you must do the exercises if you expect walk again.”
“But something has gone wrong.  My knee will not straighten as it should.  I need
a walker just to move from kitchen to bathroom.  My balance is gone. I am a totem pole about to collapse.  Should I dare to do a walkabout.  A prisoner. 
Maybe time to think about moving ..downsizing as they say.

Which gets me  to our story for today.  Marjorie called in an Occupational Therapist
who made a tub  full of changes that once acted upon would make our house livable once more.  Hand rails for the shower, rubber mats for bathroom floor, Handles to hold …………..



“You will need a handrail along the stairs.  Urgently needed.  How do you get from the 
first to the second floor?”
“I crawl like a lobster grasping anything that looks rooted. “
“Have you ever fallen?”
“Yes! When I let go of the walker and reached for the stairs.  Toppled like a whirling dervish.
Sliced my hands on a tinware fox and cut my skull on a fireplace duck.  Lots of blood.”
“How did you get help??]”
“Marjorie was asleep so I had to drag myself upstairs.  Left a bloody trail for her to cleanup.  How do people living alone manage?”
“They have great difficulty,”
(What would I do if Marjorie were not there?)
 
“You need  the wall railing immediately.”
“We have lived here for over 60 years and never thought of that.”

THE CREATION OF OUR WALL RAILING
Andrew came to the rescue.   







Imagine yourself with one leg that will not share the weight with the
other leg.  People feel sorry for you…that is hard to handle…nice
but I want to walk like other people.  What an arrogant person I have
become.   Wishing I was perfect physically when there are so many
people with worse afflictions. 

alan skeoch


EPISODE 1’015 : ribbon of ice skating in Port Credit = OUR OWN YELLOW BRICK ROAD

EPISODE 1’015  :  ribbon of ice skating in Port Credit 


alan skeoch
feb. 11, 2023


Brand new ice skating track in Memorial park, Port Credit courtesy of Councillor 
Stephen Dasko and City of Mississauga. ..and many others.  Open to all. Just in time

Remember the Yellow Brick Road and Judy Garland?  Well this is  an Ice Blue Track built for you
on artificial  ice on the west bank of the Credit River.  Free.  No Tin man, Straw Man or
Friendly Lion…or Judy Garland.  Imagine that.

alan