Life and Random Thinking

Travel Back in Time With Me

Posted on October 27, 2020 by dfolstad58

Dear Reader, thanks for visiting “Life and Random Thoughts” today.

Travel back in time with me to just a few weeks ago, before this cold snap – it’s Zero degrees today, then it was warmer. It’s mitts and toque time now ♥

Thinking of you I took some pictures a few weeks ago on a walk on the KVR (Kettle Valley Railway) pathway. Click Here to find out more about the pathway. This pathway is on the north end of Penticton overlooking the Okanagan lake.

The area where I intended to walk was closed off for half the day due to a movie being filmed.

More on movies in case you are interested; A feature film “Change of Pace” staring the Will and Grace actor Eric McCormack has been filming all over Penticton lately. Eric who?? – click here
I am looking forward to seeing this movie as so many local spots will stand out and be recognizable, the high school, the SS Sicamous etc.
Actually lots of movies were being filmed up the valley this year, including a Christmas movie filmed during the summer in the town just north which is named Summerland. It was interesting because the Summerland downtown core has a Victorian theme and it was all decked out in Christmas decorations for night filming mainly. It was a “Hallmark” movie – I love those easy to watch movies, my confession to you.

I lost my thought track for a second; away from movies and head back to the walk pictures with me okay. I distracted myself, LOL.

Moving away from the original walking spot on the KVR I just went a few kilometres north to walk and I took some pictures for you. That area is vineyards, and looks down on the Okanagan lake.

In the background you might see Giant’s Head mountain which I climbed 37 times this summer. It’s across the lake and directly above my head in the photo below. We walked to the very top and looked around and down the valley each time. Each time was an accomplishment for me, believe me. Those walks, the hummingbirds, the view was amazing.

Click here to see the view.

Then later that day near sunset I went to the south end of Penticton and Skaha Lake. The film crews surprised me as now they were set up to film there next. I took some more pictures for you.

The film crew had decorated along the lake walk so it looked like the finish line for a Can-Am marathon. We do have a lot of running events but none of them are named Can-Am (short for Canadian-American I am confident). Notice the banners which were there for a week and then returned to the usual Skaha lake banners, in another post I will share walkway light banners with you. ♥

If you would like to know more about Penticton – Click here.

Thanks for going back in time with me a few weeks.

I hope you enjoyed going on a walk with me. If you come to Penticton you can drive to these locations in minutes and see them for yourself.

I love how the Skaha lake was calm that day and it’s close to home and often the location we choose for a walk. Today it is whitecaps and windy!

Thank you for your interest in my blog. Please share with my your thoughts and suggestions- David

Posted in Just being creative, okanagan related, Thinking Out loud, travel | Tagged Giant's Head mountain, hike, movie, Okanagan, Skaha, skaha lake | 10 Comments

WDYB – Membership Matters

Posted on October 24, 2020 by dfolstad58

Today I want to ask you to think about Membership ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I felt a little bit crazy this morning when I got up at 4:42 A.M.; sunrise wasn’t until 7:34, the house was dark, the floor was cold. Just in time I remembered to turn off my 4:45 alarm in order to not awake my dear wife who might confirm my first thoughts of the day.

I splashed cold water on my face, filled my water bottle, and picked up two oranges to nibble on over the next two plus hours – I was heading for a meeting in the Tamil region of southern India and what would reveal itself to me as a meeting of minds and hearts.

On LinkedIn the other day I fortuitously was introduced to the Coimbatore Toastmasters Club, I connected with them not even knowing why, or would be my next step. Impulsively I committed to myself that I would attend their next virtual club meeting before I calculated the time difference. (here is a link to their website)

That 12.5 hour time difference resulted in my early wake up so I could arrive early at their 6 PM meeting at which Toastmaster Mayur promptly welcomed me and asked where I was from.

I stayed more than two hours, and enjoyed the meeting immensely because of the members, their well organized meeting, their warmth and their energy.

In person or virtually – This is an amazing club – Coimbatore Toastmasters

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One thing I realized quickly when I visited and interacted with Tarum, Muthumakar, Rajesh, Praveena, Akaash, Bubha and others was how much we had in common. That common language and understanding made us less than strangers despite the fact we had never met before.

Toastmasters all share common values (Integrity, Respect, Service and Excellence) and we speak the same Toastmasters language even if our native languages are different. This is very possible since Toastmasters is truly international as members are in 145 countries. Kind of mind boggling isn’t it?

Late happy birthday also to Toastmasters also. The founder unofficially began his work in 1905 at the Bloomington, Illinois YMCA educating men in public speaking and how to conduct meetings. Ralph Smedley was helping them develop self-confidence, along with many other skills. (click here for History of Toastmasters)

The first official Toastmasters meeting was October 22, 1924 (Happy 96th birthday!) and I am confident Ralph had no idea where that first meeting would lead to.

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WDYD (Where Do You Belong) – Membership Matters

I was thinking later on this morning that I have been a Toastmasters since 2006. I enjoy it, I learn from it, and have fun while benefiting. Perhaps being a member says something about me.

I hope it says I value communication, and helping others. I know Toastmasters has helped me practice speaking and I am grateful. If not for Toastmasters I know I would not have spoken up when in my heart I wanted to.

Toastmasters involvement helped me in my career also but the important times in my life are really the personal events, the weddings, the celebrations of life, those are the moments I value the most. Those are the moments I was grateful I had a voice and could use it.

Describing me, people don’t say David is a Facebook member, or has had a gmail account for decades.

After my hobbies like blogging, cycling, I hope they say David is a Toastmaster, David supports his local library supporter by volunteering as a member of the board.

Membership Matters –

Where are you a Member?

“Don’t be deceived by the spirit of complacency and think you have achieved enough. Try to become better than you’ve been.”
― Israelmore Ayivor
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Tens of thousands of Toastmasters Clubs are meeting every week, and you can join a virtual meeting from your own computer; if you are a guest – you will be welcomed just like I was today.

Thanks for visiting today. I am grateful you visited. See you again soon I hope. – David

Click here to learn more

Mohammed Qahtani is a champion speaker now, but he overcame stuttering. Enjoy his fun speech

Posted in Just being creative, Toastmasters, travel | Tagged confidence, education, growth, India, membership, Self Improvement, Toastmasters | 23 Comments

Autumn and Inspiration from Thomas Iland

Posted on October 21, 2020 by dfolstad58

My autumn day-trip, sharing some Okanagan valley sunshine along the drive to Keremeos.

The sun was shining yesterday as my wife and I enjoyed a drive in the autumn light. We drove about 30 minutes east so we could visit Keremeos, and a favorite fruit stand. The people there are friendly, we bought our 30 pound sack of onions, ate some samosas and came back.

The day was definitely autumn, but the inspiration came later in the day.

It was a lovely trip, cruising along through some valleys, past pastures, and we spotted a spectacular bald eagle at Yellow Lake but my cell phone would not have done that eagle justice.

The weather temperatures are dropping down for certain, in a few weeks I will be turning off the outside water taps so they don’t freeze.

The seasons of autumn and winter are still wonderful to me, how else would I enjoy as much the optimism of spring as the days grow longer, and endure the heat of the summer if I didn’t know that snow shovels were awaiting me in December. ♥

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Silver linings are wonder to discover, and virtual meetings for Toastmasters has been a silver lining for me. My club, Penticton Toasties 2196677, usually meet in person as do all clubs but during this covid challenge we have reverted to meeting virtually via Zoom.

What that has meant is that now we can be guests at clubs, virtually, at clubs all over the world and the world has literally been at our doorstep in Penticton also. We have been enjoying visitors from all over the United State, Canada, Japan and who knows where from next?

I had a wonderful virtual visit to the Beausejour Toastmasters Club in Manitoba last night and wanted to share about the guest speaker I heard last night.

Allow me to introduce you to Thomas Iland, he is a young man living, and virtually speaking from Santa Clarita, California.

He shared about his life, his challenges, and how he is not letting them stop him. He wants to help others overcome their challenges also.

Tom Iland is the world’s first Accredited Speaker with Autism

Lots of accreditations to share, and accomplishments for Thomas.

Thomasiland.com

Diagnosed with autism, he has shown his grit to pick himself up and apply himself to achieve, over and over. He wants to do it for himself, but also to show others that they can do it also. He seeks to inspire people with autism, but not only people with autism.

Thomas achieved his CPA designation, not on his first try, but by determination and trying again. I loved how he could not succeed on his first or second attempt but kept going for his goals.

He has achieved many goals already, and has more ahead for himself. He is already a CPA, an Accredited Speaker in Toastmasters (only 88 in the world!) and he has spoken twice at the United Nations. He has written a book “Come to Life. ” Positive and well-spoken – I enjoyed his warm speech.

“Life doesn’t come to you; it’s up to you to come to life”
Thomas Iland

I will link below a few links so you can hear him speak also, this young man is “Batman” – achieving amazing without super powers !

Either of the following are worthwhile to hear all or a few minutes of – ♥

TED Talk -How to Come to Life

Thomas’s Accredited Speaker Speech – super hard to achieve the AS accreditation, here is the Youtube of his speech.

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Thanks for visiting today, Autumn and Inspiration in the Okanagan.

Life and Random Thoughts today – love to hear your comments. – David

Posted in okanagan related, Thinking Out loud, Toastmasters | Tagged Accredited Speaker, achieve, autism, fruit stand, inspire, Keremeos, Thomas Iland, Toastmasters | 16 Comments

Thanksgiving October 2020

Posted on October 11, 2020 by dfolstad58

Welcome to Life and Random Thinking, I appreciate your interest in my blog. – David

Canadian Thanksgiving is always the beginning of October, and it’s a colourful time of year in Canada. Tomorrow October 12 is the official Thanksgiving day.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend to you !

In the Okanagan valley of British Columbia, where I live, we don’t have the really bold colours like our fellow Canadians in Ontario but the colours are still tremendous.

Of course, along with the beautiful leaves usually means less daylight, cooler weather, and inevitably snow.

The seasons are part of life in Canada, as they are part of life for people.

Neither the seasons of our lives or the seasons of Canada can be avoided so we by necessity, embrace them as inevitable.

Denial is not a river in Egypt.

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Today despite a cool wind I went for a longish bike ride, I should have dressed more warmly but the ride ended up to be 18 kilometres and had a fabulous time with my son. At the end heading back home against the wind, I tied my handkerchief over my face to stay warm – I must have looked like an old-timer train robber.

Today I would like to share some good news, and some bad news and wind up with a few photographs from the last week.

The bad news is that I was careless today and lost my wallet, my ID, credit cards and cash. I normally zip my wallet into my pocket but today I didn’t, it must have spilled out when I tried a u-turn on loose gravel and fell nearly entirely over.

The good news is shortly after I arrived at home, and before I discovered my wallet was missing, there was a knock on the door. My wife answered it and a young couple had driven over to return my wallet. My wife thanked them, gave them a bag of fresh picked apples and gave me my wallet.

Isn’t that a wonderful refreshing story, and it’s all true. ♥

October, and the lake and sky so blue along Okanagan lake

Posted in Just being creative, okanagan related, Thinking Out loud | Tagged autumn, Cycling, Good News, lost and found, Penticton, Thanksgiving | 22 Comments

Brand New Season

Posted on October 7, 2020 by dfolstad58

I lay awake this morning

and realized that today I embark on a new season of my lifelong production, my 62nd season. I am glad I was renewed for another year. There have been changes of course, the theme song needs to be played louder, and I like closed captioning, but hey, the show is still on the air.

There have been times when I was unsure if there would new episodes, but that changed April 24, 2019 with my kidney transplant.

Most of the episodes last year in my 61st season were filmed on location here in Penticton, but some in early 2020 were done in Maui, the entire cast had a wonderful time there.

All the episodes filmed locally are sublime year-round, regardless of snow, wind or sunshine. It’s a lovely location, the Okanagan, with lakes, blue skies, and all the regulars and guest stars love it here.

Over the seasons, it has become a theme of my show to celebrate the ordinary, and really my ordinary seems pretty extraordinary to me.

I love homemade, I enjoy fresh air, and walks and fresh air here strike me as dazzling no matter how easily obtained.

The doctors, friends, neighbours, family and city are all appreciated sincerely by myself.

Florida, Europe, the Cook Islands are all wonderful but I am not waiting until I am far away at a distant location to celebrate the simple.

The local wind, bird sounds, quail, deer and the lapping of lake waves and small city living are all pretty glorious to me.

Another bonfire tonight – toasting my toes and marshmallows too !

One day, you’ll look
To see I’ve gone
For tomorrow may rain, so
I’ll follow the sun – click to hear and see the song

The next season of David Folstad, will likely be more of the same, which is better than “fine” to me. I hope you will “stay tuned“.

Big thanks to everyone – the steady cast, the guest stars, and to everyone that helps the show to continue. Tonight the cast party will include homemade carrot birthday cake from my lovely wife Susan.

Celebrating 62 today, and thanks everyone for your kind wishes as I kick off next year. – Thanks for your interest in my blog.

Posted in family, Just being creative, okanagan related | Tagged birthday, carrot cake, cast of thousands, new episodes, new season | 29 Comments

Sun and Smoke

Posted on October 1, 2020 by dfolstad58

The Okanagan valley

has a little bit of high smoke blowing from the south today, but during the last few days, we have enjoyed some lovely blue days; blue skies and blue water.

When out cycling along one of our two lakes on those days, the peace and calm of the scenery are nature’s gifts unwrapped for anyone to enjoy.

I thought today I would share some photos, and add captions to them. A simple post, not to take too much of your time and I hope you enjoy looking and reading the captions.

I am behind on reading so many blogs right now, please forgive me. – David ♥

Looking north to my city about 16 kilometres south on last Saturday. This is a nice spot, I was hoping to spot some bats coming out at dusk, but no luck.

Tonight at my Toastmaster’s club my speech project is to tell a story – 5 to 7 minutes long. I try to be original in my speeches and the inspiration for my speech entitled “Skunked” came from playing “crib” with my son.

If you don’t know what Crib is; Crib is a card game, and you keep score on a board. I created for tonight’s speech at Penticton Toasties a short story about a young man named Claudio, who plays crib with his Papa after a family meal. After just avoiding being skunked (losing by 30 points) Claudio shares two life lessons he has learned from playing cards with his Papa. Of course, the story made me exercise my cheek muscles and I look forward to hearing my audience response and feedback (gifts).

Thanks for visiting and look forward to hearing your thoughts, I appreciate your visit. – Take care, David