Happy St Valentines Day

 This is for some, a very serious day, I hope to lighten up the mood. So, here are a few jokes about Valentine's Day:

Why was the math book sad on Valentine's Day? 

    Because it had too many problems and no solutions.

Why did the tomato turn red on Valentine's Day? 

    Because it saw the salad dressing!

What did the valentine's card say to the stamp? 

    "Stick with me and we'll go places."

Why did Cupid draw back his bow? 

    Because he didn't have any arrows!

What did one oar say to the other on Valentine's Day? 

    "You're the oar of my heart."

I hope these jokes bring a smile to your face! Let me know if you have any jokes you can add.

Happy Valentine Day

Young souls, play hard to get.

Mature souls, play hard.

But old souls, just play… 

La, la, la -

So, on this Valentine's day 

Be an old soul

Listen to the song of the American Oriole

Play tag with a friend

And run up Around the Bend

Remember when you were young and at school

When looking forward to a card was cool

Reach out, ask someone to be your valentine

and to really shine

send the Sunshine Of Your Love

Consider a different type of Valentine gift this year

Please support your local Foodbank, they still need your help. Valentine's day is a time of giving to your loved one while helping your neighbours is a very good way of showing love.

The following is from their report 2019

Despite a bleak situation, there is some good news

Foodbank use has stabilized, with the number of visits in 2019 approximately the same as they were in 2018. This year, total food bank visits reported across the food bank network in Canada in March 2019 was 1,084,386. While still a shockingly high number of food bank visits for one month, it is 1 percent lower than it was last year.

This corresponds to strong economic indicators such as low unemployment rates. When unemployment rates are low, the working-age population is generally able to access more employment income, which makes needing a food bank less likely.

Foodbank visits for March 2019 are now approximately the same level as they were in 2010. In the aftermath of the recession, unemployment rates were at their peak throughout 2009 and early 2010.

For many individuals, accessing food banks were the last resort after severance, E.I. and savings had run out. Foodbank visits saw the full effect of this in March of 2011 when there were over 1.2 million visits that month, a 14 percent jump over the prior year. Visits remained high and then saw a gradual decrease from 2015 onward, with numbers stabilizing over the last year. This decline has corresponded to a decline in unemployment rates over the same period,

The percentage of children accessing food banks has been slowly declining, and now represents 34.1 percent of all food bank clients, whereas in 2010 they were 37.2%. An improving economy, combined with federal and provincial tax benefits for families with children, has been helping to slowly increase incomes of these households and maybe having an impact on these results.

During this period, Food Banks Canada, along with others, had advocated for an improved child benefit system at the federal level. The creation of the Canada Child Benefit in 2016 was the outcome of this work and helped to further the progress in refining and improving our system of child benefits in Canada.

Those who are less likely to be able to work due to disability or retirement age – those who receive provincial disability support or pension as their main source of income has increased from 21 percent in 2010 to over 26 percent in 2019. Both groups are struggling with rapidly rising costs of living, along with the increased costs that accompany greater health care needs.

Seniors 65 and over have been the fastest rising age group accessing food banks. Those receiving disability support as their main source of income are contending with incomes that haven’t grown with inflation and often don’t cover basic household expenses.

The increasing cost of housing nationwide and the lack of rent geared to income units have been other factors that have been driving the demand for food banks. Those living in market rent housing have increased as a proportion of visits versus those in social (rent- geared to income) housing. 70 percent of clients live in market rental housing, up from 60 percent in 2010. Those living in social housing have decreased from 25.6% to 14.4%.

The effects of skyrocketing rental markets have been spilling over from outside urban areas and into smaller towns and recent investments in affordable housing units have not yet been able to address the massive demand.

The Wooden Bowl

A different kind of love story for Valentine's day. A fable of love

A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and a four-year old grandson. The old man's hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together nightly at the dinner table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and failing sight made eating rather difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass often milk spilled on the tablecloth. The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. "We must do something about grandfather," said the son. I've had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor. So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner at the dinner table. Since grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. Sometimes when the family glanced in grandfather's direction, he had a tear in his eye as he ate alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food. The four-year-old watched it all in silence.

One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, "What are you making?" Just as sweetly, the boy responded, "Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and mama to eat your food from when I grow up." The four-year-old smiled and went back to work. The words so struck the parents that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done. That evening the husband took grandfather's hand and gently led him back to the family table.

For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled. Children are remarkably perceptive. Their eyes ever observe, their ears ever listen, and their minds ever process the messages they absorb. If they see us patiently provide a happy home atmosphere for family members, they will imitate that attitude for the rest of their lives. The wise parent realizes that every day that building blocks are being laid for the child's future.

Let us all be wise builders and role models. Take care of yourself, ... and those you love, ... today, and everyday!

The fable can be interpreted in a number of ways and will be said to mean different things by different people, Its current Internet-driven popularity is perhaps due to the identification of many with its" plight of the elderly" element. With more of us fated to Live longer, a stronger incentive to think ahead and picture those days exists now than ever did before, The dependent grandfather banished from the family table becomes a symbol for where we ourselves might end up.

Yet others will perceive this fable in an "a little child shall lead them “Light, seeing it as an example of how wisdom falls from the mouths of babes. The adults in the story fail to recognize the heartlessness of their actions until a child unwittingly points it unspoiled often have a dearer view of the world than the grown ups around out, proving them, that the young and unspoiled have a better view of life than many adults

Others pick up on the "do unto others" admonition, a reminder that depends little upon the age or infirmity of the one wronged in the tale; it merely requires that someone be mistreated in a manner that could later befall the one doing the wronging. The injustice is thus perceived as such only when another very innocently offers to do it to the oppressor once the tables are turned.

Still more will see it as a "Little pitchers have big ears" warning, taking it as an example of how easily small children will Learn what they see and will grow up to repeat parental acts in their own lives, Bad behavior, thus discouraged in parents who might otherwise feel free to Let loose and "be themselves,"

Others will take it as a "people versus material goods" tale, a reminder that those we love are infinitely more valuable than any possessions, no matter how prized. Does a dropped bowl or a dirtied floor matter so very much when measured against the worth of a cherished member of the family? 

Origins: Versions of this e-mailed heart-wrenched have been on the Internet at least since 1999, but the story itself is centuries older. Leo Tolstoy'; (1828-1910) ''The Old Grandfather and the Grandson" describe the degree to which an elderly grandfather has become all outcast in his own family although a rendition of this tale first appeared in the Brother Grimm's Book  of Tales which were variously published between 1812 and 1822. 

These fairy tales were folktale painstakingly collected by the Brother Grimm, stories, which had been part of the oral tradition of the day. These were a compendium of tales from fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it seems this tale has been in circulation from around 1535. 

Valentine’s Day

Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age. - Anais Nin

The history of Valentine's Day--and the story of its patron saint--is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.

The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl--possibly his jailor's daughter--who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in use today.

Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and--most importantly--romantic figure

Valentine's Day: A Pagan Festival in February

Some claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "Christianize" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. 

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat's hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman.

Valentine's Day: A Day of Romance

Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”--at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine's Day should be a day for romance.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine's did not begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt

Today more than 141 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine's Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.) (Source: Hallmark research)

We continue to look for love, but the older males may have a better chance than the younger men:

There are 119 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) who are in their 20s for every 100 single women of the same ages. Corresponding numbers for the following race and ethnic groups are:

• Hispanics: 153 men per 100 women
• Asians (single race): 132 men per 100 women (This ratio is not significantly different from that for Hispanics or non-Hispanic whites.)
• Non-Hispanic whites (single race): 120 men per 100 women
• Blacks (single race): 92 men per 100 women (The numbers of black men and women in this age group are not significantly different from one another.

There are 34 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) age 65 or older for every 100 single women of the same ages. Corresponding numbers for the following race and ethnic groups are:

• Hispanics: 38 men per 100 women
• Non-Hispanic whites (single race): 33 men per 100 women
• Blacks (single race): 33 men per 100 women
• Asians (single race): 28 men per 100 women

(Note: None of the ratios for the individual groups differs significantly from one another nor from the ratio for all people age 65 or older.)

904: The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2002

2.2 million marriages take place in the United States annually. That breaks down to more than 6,000 a day. 35th.

The estimated U.S. median ages at first marriage for women and men are 25.9 and 27.6 respectively, in 2008. The age for women rose 4.2 years in the last three decades. The age for men at first marriage is up 3.6 years.

70%: The percentage of men and women ages 30 to 34 in 2008 who had been married at some point in their lives - either currently or formerly.

Candy is Dandy

The per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2005 was 25.7 pounds. Candy consumption has actually declined over the last few years; in 1997, each American gobbled or savored more than 27 pounds of candy a year. Valentine’s day is one of those days that adds to the the use of Candy as a gift.