Its Canada Day here. This great nation is 147 years old.
Celebrations all across the country. The biggest is in our nation's capital, Ottawa. I've never been, though I thought I might like to one day. I'm not one for the gigantic crowd celebrations, so that kind of decides that. I find crowds like that have too much energy floating about and it fiddles with my head. I do like a good parade though.
We had plans to go one of our favourite parks for coffee and sit on the shore of Grenadier Pond for our celebration. Quiet coffee with the critters. I say "had" because right now its raining sideways outside my living room window. Sideways. Ya, not really doing that now. As I type this we have a thunder storm warning, it already feels like 35°C with humidity of 79%. Its 10:00am.
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| Grenadier Pond |
In the light of celebrating things Canadian from the comfort of my air conditioned living room, I give you a very short list of some of the wonders of invention we have brought the world:
- Insulin, Treatment for Diabetes [1921, Frederick Banting, Charles Best]
- Telephone [1876, Alexander Graham Bell]
- Light Bulb [1874, Henry Woodward, Mathew Evans]
- Pacemaker [1950, John Hopps, Wilfred Bigelow, John Callaghan]
- Standard time [1878, Sir Sandford Fleming]
- Cobalt-60 "Bomb" Cancer Treatment [1951, Harold Johns]
- Electron Microscope [1939, James Hillier, Albert Prebus]
- Instant Replay [1955, CBC's Hockey Night in Canada]
- Basketball [1892, James Naismith]
- Goalie Mask [1959, Jacques Plante]
- Lacrosse [First Peoples]
The lists on the web are enlightening and entertaining on this ridiculously hot day. Frankly I didn't know the Wonderbra, peanut butter, egg cartons, green garbage bags, fog horns, electric wheelchairs, and walkie talkies were among these inventions. Did you know the ink that makes US currency green is on the list too? Me neither. Thank you interweb for my Canada Day lessons.
Happy Canada Day! I'm going to get myself some peanut butter :)
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