From what I am told,  the first major demonstration against guns was the 1895 Burning of Arms in Georgia (part of Russia at that time). So many took their guns and piled them on that rocky plain at the Perscheeree to note their objection to wars and the effect that any type of gun has upon the death and destruction of all humanity.

This action was misinterpreted as a possible uprising by the local authorities and a troop of Cossacks was dispatched to investigate. They found a group of people singing psalms around this large fire. The irritation to the attending Government Official was that none of the men removed their headwear in respect to this representative of the Czar.

And so about a 100 people were incarcerated in Irkurst for an initial time of 15 years which was reduced later to 10. My Great Grandfather and Great Uncle Morozoffs were part of these prisoners.

The American Youth are sending a resounding message to the Lawmakers to “take the guns away as we do not want to be the sacrificial lambs anymore!”

I wonder if the actual gun is the problem or is it the way we mange our social media. Since time began, the weakest chick gets “pecked” by the others until it dies. The runt in the pig’s litter gets eaten. There are other examples of the manner in which nature seems to deal with this. How many of you have been taunted or teased by others because you were different or that you disagreed with the majority?

So it seems that the common denominator  of the person who perpetrate against others is usually someone who felt they needed to “get even”. Once, the media sends out their news reels and reporters interview people, the event becomes national news and gets attention. The name of the shooter is broadcast and goes into infamy. Could this be the action, that also attracts the method to a person’s madness?

All news of terrible happenings seems to attract and so that is why the media rushes to those events because we “hunger” for this type of news. Someone providing food and medicines for the hungry just does not match up with stories of murder, rape and pillage.

So perhaps we need to work on our social morals and how we can live peacefully amongst our neighbors?

122 years have passed since our Doukhobor ancestors dared to send a message to the world. How many of the descendants even know that it took place? Did it really have any effect on the world? There is more steel used in guns than plowshares today so the message was lost in the delivery.

Will the Lawmakers listen to their children in the USA. Perhaps the entire process is a better class for the students than any taught within a classroom….”go out there and tell everyone that you are not accepting non-action! That you intend to send your message through the ballot box.”

Are they listening?

Posted 1100 hours, Saturday, March 24, 2018 by Elmer Verigin

“Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. Walter Disney also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland….”

Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was too stupid to learn anything….”

“Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace, flunked out of college. He was described as “both unstable and unwilling to learn”….”

“Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded….”

“Babe Ruth, considered by sports historians to be the greatest athlete of all time and famous for setting the home run record, also holds the record for strikeouts….”

“Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He did not become Prime Minister of England until he was 62, and then only after a lifetime of defeats and setbacks. His greatest contributions came when he was a “senior citizen”…”

I looked over my dossier again and decided that I have done quite well considering.

I also read something else that was really thought provoking……….

This teacher had her class make a list of all the actions her students could complete the sentence that started with:

“…I can’t….

After a set period of time she collected all the papers into a shoe box and the  entire class then went out to the further part of the school yard.

The each contributed to digging a three (3) foot deep hole and then the carefully lowered the shoe box into the hole.

They then recited various rites as if a funeral was taking place and then they all contributed to the burial.

They returned to the class and consumed cookies and pop as if exercising a “wake”.

The Teacher then drew an outline of a tombstone and in heavy font wrote:

I CAN’T

R I P

From that time forward, every time that a student said that he or she can’t, she referred to the tombstone and said “I can’t is buried and does no exist but he next of kin “I can” has received all the assets.

Interesting…………………….!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Marilyn for leaving this book on the vanity in my bathroom. I am making use of my “down time”.

Posted Sunday, March 18, 2018 by EWV.

I was thinking today about diaries of famous people…………were they really their personal diary? Who would permit a personal diary to be published?

I read the personal diary of Lev Tolystoi. I was very impressed! After I read his personal challenges while he was serving in Crimea and the missing entries, then he would enter again and recount how he went gambling and drinking which resulted in using prostitutes, contracting venereal disease, the long recovery and his resolution to never do that again.

Later in his diary he admits to being disappointed with what he was doing as an Officer in the Russian Army and the fallacy of war. The result…….he did it all over again!

I have been down on the dumps over the last few weeks. The description is more of being listless. I just cannot find the personal courage to rise above being almost depressed and useless. I just cannot get to doing anything worthwhile except eating, resting and meditating on journeys that go nowhere.

It is like a Spring Fever, whatever that it is………. but it is still Winter?

This is a time in my life when I should be pleased with all:

• No, I am not wealthy. I had chances to be financially wealthy but I chose not to advance on that path. Yes, it was a personal choice.
• Marilyn and I are conditionally healthy so no real complaints there
• My children are in satisfying careers and comfortable
• They live within a 30 minutes of our house. Nice!
• All my ten (10) grandchildren have either educated themselves into successful careers or are attending institutions and obtaining impressive grades on their paths to success
• I completed my first book, Veregin Story 2017, and as first such attempt at writing books, it is passable and most significant: it was written and published in one year. It is now a fund-raiser for the National Doukhobor Heritage Village with sales commissions to the New Horizons in Veregin and the Doukhobor Discovery Center in Castlegar
• I relinquished my resistance to Marilyn’s coaxing and I have written “My Journey Through a Life of Opportunity” which perhaps covers about 50% of my life and its challenges. It is there for my family who are surprised at who I was and what I was thinking about at that time.
• I finally rummaged through my personal “suitcase” (the one I left home with) where I stored all my personal correspondence. I was able to sift through all and saved Marilyn’s letters and those of my mother as well as those from my Sister Mary and Brother-in-law John where they encouraged me to continue with university and would send small financial contributions to keep me from starving. This is now assembled into a binder and again, it is for my family.
• I admit that my work ethic has conditioned me for a full day with little idle moments and so that may be a likely reason for my current feelings so I purchased Cadpro which is an excellent computer drafting program. I am learning how to use it by doing drawings for renovations of Nona and Tamara’s house as well as providing constructive suggestions for daughter Lori and Rick’s new house construction next year. The ultimate objective is to offer drafting to the public for small projects. Maybe that will absorb some of my frustration? It certainly will be an avenue to vent my 55 years in construction.
• Whatshan Lake Retreat still has its stressful moments but I am comfortable that I have prepared the younger generation to take over. We are waiting for a Bulk Water Permit from Water Rights that can complete our zoning amendment from the Regional District. This achievement will render the Society independent of a constant need for donations and any government grants that occasionally come our way. It should allow funding for many needs in social and health enterprises. That was the original objective of the Founders. Whatshan Lake Retreat is a very successful project that will grow with the needs of the community.
• Marilyn and I are just now out of debt for the first time in our lives. We have made a joint commitment to divest ourselves of what we are doing and not get involved in any new projects. No matter how well those projects were planned, we always seem to end up “holding the bag” so to speak. The last episode of seniors housing “Grandview” caused us to lose $200,000. What is ironic is that I had promised myself not to get involved again in any development after we left the Coast in 1993. A family decision with friends drew us in. The project is a great success as a 60 acre subdivision that boasts:
  • 47 seniors friendly bungalows and duplexes (all occupied)
  • 56 developed private residential lots (80 % constructed)
  • A Phase 11 – 43 lot residential lot subdivision (now under construction)
  • 13 acres has been set aside for a zoned 204 unit Seniors complex (shovel ready for construction (this is what forced the seniors cooperative to cease development)
  • All the critics predicted that there was not enough demand but here it is, well used.

So what then is my problem?

I am working on it………………….!

Posted 1500 hours, Sunday, March 04, 2018.

The title is very true when my boss finally put me on a “Project Team” where I was to experience the challenges of teamwork in a successful project administration.

The project was $7 million in 1964 dollars which is about 3 times that now. It had multiple components and involved a Power House, Bleach Plant and constructing a 16″ steam that had to connect the Bleach Plant and Powerhouse with a 100′ difference in elevation. This was my training session for a future in construction that would include responsibility for a new pulp mill. This all took place at Watson Island, 11 miles South of Prince Rupert, B.C.

My team was a Project Cost Accountant and a Senior Design Engineer. The drawings were by H.A. Simons Engineering, a well established Pulp Mill Consultant. Tendering for Contractors was by Head office in Vancouver. Our mission was to ensure construction took place as per design and all tie-ins to the existing operation were ready. Then there was the Pulp Mill Operating Union to coordinate with the Construction Unions.

I realized quickly that there was no love lost between the two unions and so that was Problem number 1.

Organizing office space within a crowded Engineering Office was problem #2.

Building a construction camp within an operating pulp mill with a guard house was definitely problem #3.

To my surprise, I never anticipated problem #4 which was how to work with my “Team”

1. My Cost Accountant, Bryan Debruyn was a British Veteran who had intercepted a German Pillbox during the Second World War and had his stomach ripped apart by 40 bullets. He hated Germans and advised me immediately that he would not talk to the Design Engineer
2. My Design Engineer, Adolph Steigleder, had served in the World War as a Senior Design Engineer whose function was to design manufacturing plants for planes, tanks, etc. The objective was to conduct all designs in secret, then manufacture the equipment in three blocks at three different locations. The equipment would then be loaded on rail cars and shipped to a secret site for erection, in modules, by a crew who knew nothing about what they were building and were taken away before manufacturing started. No one in the three sites knew what they were manufacturing nor where it would be assembled to a production Plant. No one knew where the location of that Plant would be. But there was a tight schedule. He was a subdued man and understood the feelings of Bryan.
3. So I had to site between the two and what one said have to be transmitted through me.

So that was the scene.

What I can say is that my boss could not have delegated two better men for the project as I learned quickly from their extended expertise that went back into the War.

I must say the project was very exciting for me as was in charge and had to make report to my boss that went on to senior management. It was completed successfully but there were stories that would entertain this reader many times over but that will take place next time.

Elmer Verigin, March 01, 2018 1715 hours

The title seem unusual in my blog…………!

Rob Zwick, and Engineering friend just reminded me that he had worked in Prince Rupert at one time at Columbia Cellulose Co Ltd, Pulp Mill. He says that he met this Draftsman who talked about a “Russian Engineer” that once worked at the interesting operation back in 1963 – 65.

My memory lane opened up and found thoughts came forth of this quite man that methodically worked at his drafting board as the rest of us favored the coffee urn just behind him and swapped stories that were mostly true.

After introducing myself and hearing his name, I asked whether that was a Russian origin as the Engineering office at that time was a “United Nations” of recent immigrants from Holland, Germany, England, Scotland, Estonia, Sweden and other European countries. The Human Resources acquisition of four (4) freshly-graduate Engineers from the four (4) Western Provinces was almost a cultural shock as we were constantly talking and excited about applying our education to a struggling and badly maintained pulp mill. All the “veterans” were more reserved and curious about these “new guys”!

So Petrov, where is that from, I urged Metodi to converse as I was very interested.

“Bulgarian!” was the short answer and stopped there.

I was trained as a Chemical Engineer and graduated as a Civil and I was told that they also liked my long family construction background as the company was into an upgrading mode as well as a possible new pulp mill and I was to be groomed for this possibility.

My boss called me in and gave me a Mechanical Project Engineering assignment. “I am not sure I will be able to do this justice.” I observed after hearing the brief description of the problem and the desired resolution.

“I will designate Metodi as your Draftsman. Just follow his direction and the result will be very practical and functional. You will do well!” as he shooed me out of the door as he had a desk full of files.

I reviewed the information that I had on the subject and then I went into the Plant and had a look at the current operation to acquaint myself before I went to see Metodi.

“It looks like you and I are to get this project to a successful conclusion. I am concerned that I have no clue what the next step should be in this process,” I was very concerned about my contribution to this partnership.

Metodi’s face lit up and he smiled like I had not witnessed in the three (3) months since I arrived at the Mill. That is when he took the time to confide in me as follows:

I am a graduate Mechanical Engineer with a Master’s degree in Bulgaria. When the Germans invaded Bulgaria, I was “conscripted” and taken to Germany to work on their projects. Deadlines were almost impossible to meet and there was always the threat of penalty that he seemed nervous even now to explain but I could see his lips tremble at the thought. The stress was so severe that my ability to make decisions and have confidence in my work deteriorated rapidly until  I was unable to make decisions on my work as it was always altered by my German Superiors.

“I was able to finally escape and now I am still have difficulty making Engineering decisions even though I know what should be done. You sign my drawing and I will be just fine. I will explain everything to you and you will be able to take the project ti fruition.”

So started a friendly professional association that blossomed into a friendship when I was invited to his home and met his German spouse.

Dated March 01, 2018 at 1040 hours TBC Elmer Verigin

Pause for a needed interruption

So the project went well and the combination was well respected by our boss who placed us together on many other projects when I was in the office.

Metodi had many friends at PR and building house was a challenge with the shallow overburden on bed rock. The solution was concrete piers to anchors in bedrock and a reinforced concrete beam over the piers that made a good foundation. Metodi would do the drawings and I designed the reinforced concrete foundations. It was a great “moonlighting” activity that provided us good “beer money”.

I understand that Motodi did qualify for Professional Engineering status and retired in the Okanagan but I was unable to see him after our great time at PR.

Thank you Metodi!

Elmer 1200 noon Match 01, 2018