Penny Lane

 

Sunset

 

"Hidden" figures

I am reading yet another article about how we hide away embarrassing or "different" people.  The author is, predictably, bemoaning how we remove these people from society.  I am taken back fifty years.

When I was in university, I managed to get into a training program as a hospital nursing orderly, in a hospital.  The hospital was a federal institution, part of the Department of Veterans Affairs.  That was how they came to have a program for nursing orderlies, since they primarily dealt with veterans, who were primarily male, and also veterans from the existing service, and from the RCMP.  The hospital, as one would expect when dealing with veterans, had an elderly population, and many wards were dedicated to geriatric care.

Orderlies, in those institutions that had them, we're often simply porters.  In this hospital we were trained as practical nurses.  Practical nurses were not yet licensed, and we performed identical functions.  Anything the practical nurses were trained to do, we were expected to do.  So, these days, I tend to tell people, and I think reasonably accurately so, that I worked my way through university working as a practical nurse.  That was the training we were given, and that was the function we performed.

As noted, there was a very large geriatric population in the hospital.  Some were considered to be extended care: this was defined by not being able to get oneself out of bed.  If you needed assistance getting out of bed, and getting dressed, you were extended care.  Intermediate care meant that you could get yourself up, and dressed.  The reasons that these people were in the hospital varied, but were, when I started work at that hospital, basically decided by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

There were acute care beds in the hospital, and eventually, I worked on some of them.  But, initially, practical nurses, and nursing orderlies, were needed for the geriatric wards.  That was where I got my training, that was where I got my start.

Those of us working on the geriatric wards were quite well aware that we were taking care of old folks.  We knew a fair amount about their situation.  We knew who had family, and who didn't.  We knew who had family come to visit, and who didn't.  We knew that these people were here to stay.  We got to know them, their personalities, their quirks, their wants, their oddities, and we were their friends.  Sometimes we were their family.  There was one resident who always called me by his son's name.  I don't know if I looked like his son.  I never met his son.  I always answered cheerily, and he never pursued the issue.  I don't know whether he thought that I was his son, or simply derived some comfort and familiarity by calling someone his son's name.

All of us who worked at the hospital realized that we were a poor substitute for family.  All of us, myself included, knew that it must be terrible to be stuck here, in our hospital, with us, and not be able to be at home with family.  We didn't necessarily know why they couldn't be at home with family, but all the staff felt that it must be much better that way than the way it was.

After I had worked there for a little more than a year, I took a couple of months off, and went traveling in England, Scotland, and Wales.  My family came from the British Isles, and my parents had spent some time, when I was a baby, doing an exchange year teaching.  So, there was family, and there were family friends.  I visited some of them as I was traveling around.

I stayed with one family for a couple of days.  This particular family was in our extended family tree.  On the third day, as we were finishing breakfast, and I was getting ready to leave, I was asking if I wanted to see Dad.

Not being particularly close to these family relations, I didn't know Dad was still alive.  I certainly didn't know that Dad lived in the house.  I certainly haven't seen any evidence of Dad in the previous two days.  But, certainly, I said, I'd love to see Dad. 

We went up to the top of the house.  The third story.  I hadn't known there *was* a third story.  I had thought that perhaps this was attic space.  Well, it was a little bit larger than attic space, and certainly had a higher ceiling.  It even had a window.  Dad was lying in a bed.  There wasn't even a chair in the room.  So, obviously Dad spent his days in that bed.  The window was high in the roof line.  Dad couldn't have seen anything out of that window other than sky, clouds, possibly the sun at certain seasons and times of day, and possibly a very nearby bird, albeit very briefly.

In that instant I knew that I had been wrong all the previous year.  Being at home was not necessarily a blessing.  I'm sure the family loved Dad.  I'm sure that they did their best for Dad.  But obviously there was very little contact with Dad, other than to bring him meals, and to deal with toilet issues.  We certainly did that in the hospital, but we did an awful lot more, and had an awful lot more contact, with each patient, each day, than Dad got.

When I came back to work, every conversation, from then on, turning on what a shame it was that our patients couldn't live at home with their families, I replied that there were worse places to live than in our hospital.  That there were worst cases of isolation then in our hospital where the only people who interacted with you were paid to do so.  I'm not sure whether that was when I started my retort, to those who were embarrassed that I had to change them, and the entire bed, when they had had a loose bowel movement in the bed, "Don't worry about it: I'm paid to do this. If this didn't happen I wouldn't have a job."  I presented it as a joke, and a lot of the old guys got a good giggle out of it.

Some families have the time, money, patience, and skills necessary to care for the elderly.  Most do not.  Our society does not talk about death, it does not talk about grief, and it does not talk about aging, at least not the extreme aging, where faculties start to become impaired.  Therefore, very, very few understand the requirements of the aging, or the disabled, and their wants, and their needs.  Even fewer can handle the constant demands, small scale though they may be, with sometimes distasteful bodily processes.  To have that combination of time, resources, skills, and character, is vanishingly rare.  So, it's not reasonable to expect, as most of our governments, and particularly conservative oriented government, tend to expect, that families can take care of their elderly right up to the point of death.  It's very rare, and it leads to very possibly unpleasant situations.  I know that poorly managed care facilities lead to unpleasant situations as well.  I don't want to battle about which is the lesser, or greater, of two evils, or unpleasantnesses.  But to think that all families are able to care for their elderly as they age into extreme age is to live in a dream world.

At one corner of the property where my house is, a seniors facility is being built.  The girls have joked that when I get too old to live on my own, they'll just ship me to that corner of the property.  They think they're joking.  I am absolutely fine with that, and I'm not joking.  Yes, there are situations where staff who should never be working in this field are given charge of the poor and vulnerable.  We need to watch out for those situations, and we need to check that they occur as seldom as possible.  But I know that the people who work in these facilities are primarily good, decent people, who try their best.  They may be hampered by budgets or by uncaring management, but they are trying their best.  They are the friends of those whose friends have all died, and they are the surrogate family, for those whose family can no longer, for whatever reason, care for them.  I'm quite fine to end my days in their company.

Sunset

 

Public Art in Port Alberni, introduction and overview

There is, according to local legend, a mural project in Port Alberni.  (Here is one "origin" story.)  There are, indeed, various pieces of public art around the town.  However, it's hard to find a plan or directions to the art.  Nor are all of the murals, murals.  There are a number of murals, but there also are a number of pieces of art that are considered part of the project, that are not murals.  And a number of the murals are not particularly mural-like.  So, it might be more accurate to say that there is a good deal of public art in Port Alberni.  So, this is an attempt to document this art, and direct you to it.

I've documented much of it in three parts already, part one (which you might, actually, want to look at last), part two, and part three.  This posting might be considered part zero, as it doesn't have a lot of content, but is a lead off, and directions/links to the other parts.

I've got some maps to help you.

The other parts, linked above, have more local maps.  But Google maps has a limit on how many points you can link together in a set of directions, so this map may not give you a lot of help.  I'm working on a more specific map, but I'm having to learn how to do it, while I'm doing it, so it's not finished yet.

Anyway, we might as well start off at the Visitor's Information Centre (and Chamber of Commerce).  This is the first thing you will see as you come into town on Highway 4, where Highway 4 splits into Highway 4/Alberni highway/Johnston Road (veering right) (heading for Tofino) (yeah, I know: you were heading for Tofino anyway), and Highway 4a/Port Alberni Highway (just to ensure that highway naming conventions are as confusing as possible) (veering left) (heading for Bamfield).

You'll have to pull into the parking lot for the Visitor's Centre.  The first thing you'll see is the bears

(which you may also find useful as a bench).  But take a look at the doors, as well, which are worth it.

You may have to look a bit for the totem pole, as it is a bit out of the way.

It might take some looking, but there is an orca buried in the trees

Heading down Johnston Road (Highway 4, you will remember), you may have to watch closely for Bentwood Square and Mecca Tea.  Actually, the first thing you might see is the Stump Monster

but make sure you look around for the small murals in the parking lot.

Not exactly sure what this place is, but it's got some interesting pieces

Continuing down Johnston Road, keep an eye out to the right after you have passed the big box stores, and note the trompe l'oeil mural at Johnston and Bishop.

Keep watching as you proceed down Johnston, this time to the left, and you'll probably have to turn left on Tebo to find the mural on the side of Urgel's Auto Collision.

Continuing down Johnston, at Ian, you'll notice the first of the garbage cans.

(We'll come to more of them later.)

I don't know whether this guy is supposed to be a dinosaur or an alligator, so I just call him the dinogator.

Somebody's snail address plate.

If you are taking the Great Spiral Route, next you probably want Victoria Quay.

Gnomaste

 

Welcome to BuddhaPugst

 

Sunset

 

Phillipians 1:24

My desire is

to depart and be with Christ,

for that is better.

Sunset

 

Facebook is evil

Where I live now, in Port Alberni, nobody knows that the Internet actually exists.  They all use the Internet: they use Facebook.  But nobody here understands that there are other tools that exist on the Internet, and that the Internet is a huge space, with lots of tools in it, and lots of information in it, and that Facebook is only one.  And, not a particularly useful one at that.

As a security maven, this is personally embarrassing.  After all, all of us in the information security area know that Facebook is bad.  Facebook is insecure.  Facebook is *inherently* insecure.  Facebook is based on the idea of taking your data, and wants, and thoughts, and any other personal information that they can obtain about you, and selling it to other people.  So, Facebook does not care about confidentiality at all.  At least, not *your* confidentiality.  They very jealously guard their own confidentiality, in terms of how the internally operate, and their algorithms, and the ways in which they manipulate you to try and get you to spend more and more time on Facebook.  But they don't care about your privacy at all.

Of course, we have known some of this from the beginning.  In the beginning, Facebook was insecure.  And people complained about that.  And so Facebook, instead of revisiting how they actually worked, threw some security patches on top of an insecure system.  As any information security specialist can tell you, this is the wrong way to do security.  The right way to do security is to build it in from the beginning.  But Facebook didn't do that.  As more and more people found more and more security problems with Facebook, Facebook threw more and more patches on top of the insecure system.  Eventually, there were so many security settings, in so many different areas, in so many different functions, in so many different settings environments, that it was pretty much impossible to tell whether you had, in fact, secured information on Facebook, which you thought you had secured to a select group of people.  One of my friends (in both the real world and the Facebook sense) tried, at one point, to use Facebook as a platform to post security essays and information.  In doing so, he, of course, tried to make these postings world readable.  This is supposed to be possible on Facebook, and, generally speaking, it is.  But with the plethora of security settings on Facebook, he was not able to, successfully, always ensure that these postings were, in fact, world readable.  If it's impossible for a security specialist to ensure that something is world readable, how is the average Facebook user to figure out how to keep certain postings private, and confidential to a specific group?

But Facebook's evil has now entered new realms.  Facebook has been, essentially, stealing information, and reselling it, for years.  They are taking your information and selling it to various companies.  In order to get you to spend more time on Facebook, they are taking content that is available in other places, and reposting it on Facebook.  And one of the sources of information that they have been using to increase your engagement, and increase the time that you spend on Facebook, is news, from legitimate news services.  Facebook is, of course, not the only Website, or Web tool, or Internet tool, to do this.  And, of course, this has affected the news services, who spend a lot of money paying reporters, building infrastructure, and building delivery systems of their own.  So, the news services are not only annoyed, but in financial difficulties.  And some countries are trying to do something about this.  Australia has, for example.  Australia passed a law saying that if large Internet entities, such as Facebook, want to make news, from Australian news services, available, then they have to recompense the news services in some way.  So, Facebook does that now.  Canada has passed a law, essentially doing the same thing.  For some reason, Facebook has decided to dig in its heels, and not make any provision for recompensing Canadian news services.  In order to fight this battle, Facebook has now decided that any news postings, from Canadian news services, cannot be posted to Facebook.

Now, this is perhaps a political, or business, fight.  Ordinarily, it might not matter all that much.  But, right now, there is a bit of a crisis going on in North America, and particularly in Canada.  There are a lot of wildfires.  Pretty much the whole Hawaiian island of Maui has been burned off.  They've lost a historic town, as well as a number of lives, and a lot more besides.  There are wildfires burning in lots of places.  But, right now, there are a number of wildfires burning in the Northwest Territories, and a number of them are heading towards the city of Yellowknife.  Municipal, territorial, and federal governments are trying to evacuate 20,000 people from Yellowknife.  It's a non-trivial task.  It takes a lot of coordination, and it requires that a lot of people know what the government is planning, and how to participate in that.

Facebook is not helping.  Facebook is, in fact, hindering.  The coverage of press conferences, giving information about the evacuation plans, is being banned by Facebook.  This isn't just an issue of fighting against a law you don't agree with, to increase your bottom line by marginal amount.  This is people's lives we are talking about.

Facebook is evil.

Facebook's ban on items from Canadian news sources was easy to implement.  It would be easy to turn off, even if only temporarily, given the emergency.  But Facebook hasn't done that.

Given my experience here in Port Alberni, I very strongly suspect that a similar situation holds in Yellowknife.  The populations are going to be quite similar.  The towns are very similar in size.  The industrial and business base is going to be very similar.  So, I suspect that most people in Yellowknife do their Internet access through Facebook, and don't even realize that they are using the Internet.  And Facebook is not giving them the information that they need.  The population of Yellowknife needs the best, and newest, and most up-to-date information about the evacuation plans and procedures.  And Facebook is blocking a lot of that.

Facebook is evil.

In response to my first posting that "Facebook is Evil," some have responded that they do not blame Facebook for ignorance or the lack of knowledge on the part of Canadians, or the general population, of the Internet, and the tools of the Internet.

I do.

To a certain extent.  And I know that may sound strange.  The Internet is a mystery, even to a large number of those who use it, among the general population, so why should Facebook be blamed for this general ignorance?

I have had a Facebook account since accounts were available to the general public, following the time during which Facebook was only available to those in certain universities and colleges.  Almost as soon as I started using Facebook, I hated it.  I felt (and, at this distance in time, I cannot give you detailed specifics as to why) that it was going to divide the Internet.  The intervening fifteen or more years has proved me correct.  Studies have actually been done demonstrating that those who use Facebook are primarily unaware that they are using the Internet as the underlying technology, or, indeed, that the Internet is usable aside from Facebook.  I recently had a conversation with someone who very proudly boasted of not having a Facebook account, and then recounted his experiences with an entity which I know to be a Facebook specific group.

Anyway, why should Facebook be blamed for ignorance of the Internet on the part of the general public?  Well, Facebook certainly makes no attempt to educate its users on the underlying technology.  Okay, they are a business, their business is based on getting users to spend more time with Facebook than other Internet tools (and, indeed, the real world) and why should they?  But the thing is that Facebook has also made very specific attempts to promote itself, even at the expense of use of the Internet.  For example, in many developing countries, Facebook made specific arrangements with cell and mobile phone service vendors, to provide data services for free on phone plans.  But, only if the user was actually using Facebook.  And, of course, to make it easier, the Facebook app was installed on all of these phones, whether the user wanted to use Facebook or not.

Facebook did, at one time, make minor efforts to provide Internet access in remote areas.  (Had those efforts come to anything, presumably Facebook would have had some means of ensuring that access was provided only to Facebook.)

Facebook doesn't really *deny* that the Internet exists.  It just doesn't make any efforts; at all; in user education.

Sunset

 

PA in PA, part 3 RAD (Rotary Arts District)

For the other possible walks, see the Echo Centre area and the Victoria Quay area.

The Harbour Quay and Rotary Arts District section is a fairly straightforward walk.  But you might want to make a couple of jogs, in places.

Particularly if we are continuing on from the Victoria Quay section, you might be interested to jump up to Fourth Avenue at Bute, and check out Sitka Silvaculture.

As well as the artistry applied to things like garbage cans and utility boxes, they, at some time in the past, enclosed their parking lot in images from the Museum and Archives.

The medium is a bit tattered, by now, but still impressive.

The tiny houses have some terrific fencing.

(Depending upon your interest and energy, you might want to jog a couple more blocks up Bute to another semi-mural.)

The mural that is first on the Valley Vibes list is an interesting one.  I think it might be a kind of alt-right reaction to the generally First Nations, and nature, themes that are emphasized in most of the other artworks.  It’s interesting to see that a good deal of the content of this particular mural actually has absolutely nothing to do with Port Alberni.  The open pit mine might be a reference to the open pit mine on Texada Island, but that’s not really too near to Port Alberni itself.  There is farming in the Alberni Valley, but not on the industrial scale shown in this mural.

  (The Mars Bomber does get another "mention" in the mural  :-)

(The oil drilling platform may be a bit much, but, given the socio-political bent of this mural, it may be an attempt at wish-fulfillment.)  Whatever you feel about the political statement of this mural, the artistry is truly amazing.  It is an interesting mural, with some three-dimensional aspects to it, although you can't really see them until you get very close to the mural.

(Not too far away is another of the garbage cans.)

Just off Third Avenue, up Burde, just slightly past Fourth, is Needsum Murals.  Their mural is possibly for advertising, but it's a mural, nonetheless.

Heading south down Fourth Avenue we soon pass the Friendship Centre with some interesting First Nations art.

The old Fraternal Order of Eagles hall has a new owner, and is being renovated, but there are some remnants

L B Woodchoppers has not only their signature woodchoper

(although, to me, he looks more like a fisherman than a lumberjack), but another

(looking more like a modern lumberjack), and  also a mural (and, yet again, another visual mention of the Mars Bombers).

The signage on the north and south ends of the retail building have some artistic merit as well, and one wonders why they haven't taken advantage of the large canvas presented by their warehouse building.  (But then, there are lots of blank walls in Port Alberni that cry out for additions to the mural project.)  However, their warehouse is also surmounted by yet another figure

Crossing Third Avenue, look south and notice a bunch (school?) of fish on the median.

(Of course, if we *don't* walk south up Third Avenue, we miss this mural.)

Heading down Dunbar Street and Harbour Road, rather than Kingsway, to Harbour Quay, one comes across a few more interesting examples of public art.  There are a number of pieces, not all of which are noted, documented, or possibly noticed.  There are, for example, a couple of anchors at the entrance to the Fisheries office parking lot.

There is also a small bouy that has been placed in a parking lot near the train station, and some propeller blades

which are difficult to distinguish, as is the explanatory plaque

The signage does provide a kind of bittersweet reminder of the high and low points of Port Alberni's industrial and economic history, as does the fact that the parking lot *used* to be for Fishermans (sic) Harbour

and is now mostly for Tyee Landing

and, if necessary (which it usually isn't) for Harbour Quay.

But the next piece of public art that is counted as part of the mural project is the mural across from the old train station (VV 14).

Unfortunately, while this is quite accessible, and easy to view, it may be unregarded because it is on the street that is little used by residents or tourists, and mostly used by trucks who are servicing facilities at the port, or other industrial sites.

At the entrance to Harbuor Quay there is a larger boy, with signage to The Maritime Discovery Center.

But once in Harbour Quay itself, there is quite a wealth of public art.  Once again, there are a number of the garbage cans that have been painted and decorated, some of which have been defaced in the intervening years.

There is a mural, considered part of the mural project, beside the Banfield lifeboat, which is, itself, a interesting attraction and almost a piece of art as well (VV 2).

One other mural is rather hard to find: it is on the All Mexed Up restaurant, but on the *back* side of the restaurant, and so only accessible via a rather unsalubrious alleyway, where relatively few people will find it VV 7).

There are also a number of sculptures on the inlet side of the Starboard Grill,

and, of course, the non-watered fountain in the turnaround of the harbor key parking area, as well as the clock tower, which no longer has a clock, but does have some First Nations art now mounted on it.

The wind tends to whistle up the inlet pretty strongly, and you can feel it around Harbour Quay.  The windbreak is pretty artistic, itself.

From Harbour Quay one can then head east up Argyle Street for more pieces of public art.  As well as the garbage cans, other pieces of public infrastructure, such as this utility box, have also been decorated.

Around Second Avenue there is an interesting piece, tucked in above a parking area, showing a forest scene, but, intriguingly, incorporating chimneys and other pieces of the building infrastructure into the mural itself (VV 12).

But you might want to take a side trip down Second Avenue, for Timber Tiles

some gargoyles

the CMHA steps

and the second most impressive doorframe I've ever seen!

Up the way at 2nd and Angus we have a Port Alberni Community Living contribution:

As one continues up to Third Avenue, there is the metal sculpture, Pipe Dream, at the intersection of 3rd and Argyle.

Around Third and Argyle, as befits a location in the Rotary Arts District, one has some other pieces of public art as well.  From the intersection, going south, uphill, on Third, there is an alcove and entranceway adjacent to Sage Haven, the old hospice society office, which is (appropriately) illustrated by a field of sunflowers,

and just about across Third Avenue from it is a metal sculpture, consisting primarily of a large gear (appropriately, since it's in front of Steampunk Cafe).

A little farther up the street is a piece which has been locked up for a while, but is now more accessible, mid-week ...

More garbage cans, in the Rotary Arts District, some in a different style.

You can loiter here on a truly breathtaking bench.

Nearby, though rather hidden, is another gem.

However, if one instead heads uphill, east, on Argyle from the intersection, one of the storefronts encloses a mural with an underwater scene, and a few scuba divers. 

This is somewhat adjacent to some artwork (VV 16) on the Schill insurance office,

and across the street at the McPhee building.

Just past, on the east side of the Capitol theater, there is another mural, showing the Capitol building in its prior days (VV 8).

(These sepia toned reproductions of old photos are from our, by now, old friend, Shayne Lloyd.)  From this position you can also see a mural, which, for some reason, is not considered a mural, on the Little Bavaria restaurant.

There is also a metal sculpture on the front lawn of city Hall.

Heading uphill, south from this area, up to Second and Mar Street, there is the old Woodward's building, which is now home to a range of display windows for a number of the charitable groups around town.

And then on to the Blue Fish art gallery, with a Shayne Lloyd mural painted on their fence (VV 3).

From this point, if you have the stamina, one can walk down Third Avenue to canal beach, where there are two additional murals, adjacent to the middle parking lot (VV 11).

If we finish up by heading towards Echo Centre, we might swing a little bit further east than Tenth, and check out Maquinna.

If we continue north on Tenth, we'll also pass the Industrial Heritage Centre.

A little further east, at the United Church, is another semi-public piece by Geena Haiyupis (to which I actually contributed, painting the upper half of the very left side  :-)

A little further east, there is an old time seeder

and a birdhouse, with an inquisitive friend.

If you are taking the Great Spiral Route, next you probably want Echo Centre.

Public Art in Port Alberni, introduction and overview

https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2023/08/public-art-in-port-alberni-introduction.html