We're In Big Doo Doo !

We have a gasoline shortage in T-Dot and it ain't pretty. Prices for gas are over a buck a litre (that's almost 4 bucks a galon), if you can get it. Today while I was out three out of four stations were closed in our neighbourhood and the one that was open had lineups. I know how it feels to run out of gas and get stuck somewhere.

During the big power outage in August 2003 which hit almost all of southern Ontario, all of cottage country and a good part of New York state and beyond, I was stuck up at our cabin 3 hours north of Toronto with my Mom. I had less than a quarter tank of gas and I never occurred to me that I would have a problem. Now as luck would have it the small area around the town of Haliburton didn't loose power, in fact thanks to satellite TV I was able to watch some of the problems big cities had coping. The town has their own generation which is not tied in to the main grid, and so we were golden. Unfortunately, since T-Dot was blacked out fuel tankers could not be refilled and sent to out of town areas fast enough and the result was that the local stations (all two of them) ran dry as residents rushed out to fill up. I missed that window of opportunity not realizing how dire things would become.

That night my Mom had her first of many falls and I wasn't able to get her to the local hospital. I iced her back, fed her Tylenol and waited it out. It was not a pretty time. I called the local gas station every few hours and once drove 20 kilometres only to get there and find the tanks empty. I needed to get Mom to hospital and calculated my gas to see if I could make it to town and back. I got lucky, we had enough gas, my vehicle tells me how far I can drive on what's left in the tank. Mom was lucky, nothing was broken and the doctor just prescribed the same stuff I had been doing, ice and Tylenol. Finally after three days I was able to get gas and get back to Toronto. Mom did recover from that fall and from that time forward whenever my tank hits the halfway mark I fill it up again. At least then I know I won't get stuck anywhere ever again.

The Chinese stock market stumbled today wiping out almost 400 points off the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Dow hit was almost as big. Was this done intentionally in China, were they flexing their economic muscle.? They showed some superiority last month when they shot down one of their satellites to prove they could. Is this conspiracy theory on my part?

And then there is Kodak, sigh... I have been duly informed by the company that did my warranty repair in December, too bad, so sad, you loose, warranty is gone. Well guess what, I won't accept that, the camera is all of 14 months old, and tomorrow the battle continues as I write another letter to the Prez. Sooner or later someone will listen to me.

Meanwhile, this will be my new camera. It will be my birthday present in a couple of weeks and I went to look a it today. I liked what I saw so if anybody out there has a negative experience with this camera, let me know in the next little while. My pocket book would appreciate it, I hate buying stuff that breaks down. I know, I know...I'm not buying stuff this year, but hey, it is my birthday and someone else is paying, so technically I'm not buying, right?

Planned Obsolescence

I have a huge problem with planned obsolescence. This has been happening in my life for some time now but because this year I am on a "no buying" kick it bothers me even more.

I started noticing it a few years ago when just after the warranty for our microwave expired, cracks started appearing. Of course calling the company produced absolutely zero results other than offer to send a repair person at my expense. A year later my Maytag washer started behaving kind of weird, you know, jumping all over the basement floor on the spin cycle. It didn't do that when it was new, so much for the Maytag commercials.

Last year, just before Christmas my Kodak camera bit the dust, luckily just two weeks before the warranty was due to expire. I'm absolutely positive it was meant to work another couple of weeks before dying thereby putting me out of warranty. Fortunately for me, I use it a lot and it died before it's time.

My iPod is also on it's last leg and the warranty will expire next month (lucky me). Although, even though there is a warranty still in place I have to pay 50 bucks to have Apple send me packaging to return it to them for warranty service. This is nuts, I have my original packaging, why can't I just use that? Nope, it's a money grab.

In yesterday's Toronto Star, the cover story talks about planned obsolescence and particularly Apple as being the worst offender;

"Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple wants you to change your iPod every year, so they are built to last about 13 months with heavy use and the fail after that...the batteries fail".

So, I have a reminder to send my iPod away two weeks before the warranty expires, pay my 50 bucks and get another 13 months use out of it. Am I the only person that is bothered by this stuff, I mean the iPod cost 300 bucks, that's not chump change is it? Why do we allow this to happen to us, have we become such suckers that we take whatever crap companies dish out?

According to this story (which I can't find online to link) cellphone and computer companies and other in the IT industry are guiltiest of deliberately making products that become obsolete quickly.

Time to fight back....

This Blogger Is Worth Reading - A Different Perspective

This is a blog that I check out frequently but for whatever reasons is not updated often. Is it fear, is it lack of opportunity, I'm not sure.

She is a young girl in Iraq, Bagdad Burning she calls herself. Since my opinions on Bush and the war in Iraq are very mixed most of the time, I like to get a different take on it. That's why I read a lot of middle eastern bloggers, just to see what their thinking. This is her first post since Saddam's execution.

Mommies - You Gotta Read This!

If you have a babe in diapers, you gotta read this story. I have to wonder what else will be blamed on climate change. I didn't find this on my own, it comes compliments of this blogger. Read her blog for an interesting take on this story.

Which brings me to another pet peeve and that is, celebrities who are on this climate change bandwagon yet continue to live lifestyles that are in direct conflict. Here is a bit of what I read in a newspaper earlier this week, and with which I totally concur;

Let'em live like common people...accept that as a multi-millionaire who has profited enormously from our consumer-driven culture I have become a poster boy/girl for excessive and conspicuous consumption, and that I am therefore disproportionately responsible for man-made global warming.

So here's what they should promise to do; sell all their cars and own just one small hybrid without air conditioning, take public transit whenever possible, sell all their mansions and have just one house of 2000 square feet or less for their personal use, never fly again for pleasure anywhere in the world (sell private jet) and if flying is absolutely necessary for work then fly on a regular commercial aircraft or take the train or bus. And my biggie, stop flying half way around the world just to go on shopping expeditions, buying unnecessary possessions that require the burning of fossil fuels to create and transport said goods. I guess that means eating and drinking locally produced food and water and alcohol (forget the champagne).

Think they can walk the talk? I somehow doubt it...I can't see Al Gore or David Suzuki on the local bus somehow!

Watch What You Blog - Only In The Middle East?

This is breaking news I understand, an Egyptian blogger has been sentenced to four years in prison for insulting Islam and the president of Egypt in his blog. Scary stuff!

Abdel Kareem Soliman's trial and conviction will scare a lot of middle eastern bloggers, I think. Egypt has a bad habit of arresting bloggers that criticise the government and Islam. I think the Sandmonkey will write on this subject later today on his blog. I hope he stays safe, he can be critical at times as well.

Alberta Clipper Go Home!

This what an Alberta Clipper is, and this is what it looks like. I'd like it to go back home please, we really don't need it here in southern Ontario. The snowflakes were the size of a quarter, huge but by the time I'm writing this post they had actually stopped. Good thing I had my camera handy. I hope Al Gore's plane gets snowed in, the rock star, oh sorry, ex vice-president, oh yes I forgot, the "best President the Americans didn't have", according to him, made an appearance last eve to discuss global warming. Scalpers were asking $1,500 bucks for a pair of tickets that were worth 40 bucks? Are people nuts! He arrived in a gasoline powered limousine and I wonder how much he has contributed to emissions by criss crossing the planet. I am also wondering what his response would be if he went to China? I also wonder how much he gets paid? No opinion offered on that subject at present, I have to dig my car out...

I had all sorts of plans this morning but they have been temporarily put on hold. The good thing with this weather event is that it really doesn't last very long but does cause road chaos. I have snow tires so I don't worry for me, I worry about other drivers hitting me.

Where Is Herouxville?

Herouxville is a small town in the Province of Quebec and has been in the news quite a bit recently. The reason for being in the news aren't particularly good ones. The town enacted a set of standards for newcomers. Now Herouxville doesn't currently have any migrants but I doubt that anyone would want to go live there.

"The provocative statement issued by Herouxville says that a “woman can drive a car, vote, sign cheques, dance, decide for herself, speak her piece, dress as she sees fit ... walk alone in public places, study, have a job ... However, we consider that killing women in public beatings or burning them alive are not part of our standards of life.”

The statement explains that townsfolk listen to music, drink alcohol and decorate Christmas trees. Boys and girls play games together, men and women ski on the same hill, and “if you came to my place we would send the kids to swim together in the pool”.

“Don’t be surprised, this is normal for us,” the declaration says. It seems that Herouxville, a town with no migrants but in need of immigration, has been watching events unfold in Europe. Mayor Claude Dupont told one newspaper that the standards are “saying out loud what some people are thinking quietly but don’t have the balls to say”.

Herouxville has become famous, they are writing about it in the Australian news, where the above quote comes from. You can read it in it's entirety here.

Also recently there was a real issue with the local YMCA had to frost their windows so that the Hasidic Jews walking by outside wouldn't seen lycra clad women doing pilates. I wrote about that in a previous post. There have been numerous small things I guess that scratch away at Canadians, who then begin to wonder about whether or not multiculturalism was really such a good idea.

I have been wondering that for a long time and I am an immigrant child. The problem is that you cannot please everyone all the time without changing what Canada really is or was. I recall back in the 70's when the Toronto School Board decided in their wisdom to offer after school language classes to their immigrant children. Problem was the languages being taught where Greek, Portuguese, Chinese (3 different dialects) not English.

That left out a lot of other immigrants, Polish, Ukraine, German, Swedish just to name a few. Was this discrimination? I remember being incredibly annoyed at the time, I would have loved to have my offspring in German classes at no charge. Alas, it was not to be, if he was going to learn it I would either have to teach him or send him to private school at my expense. Something was wrong with that picture.

Now even though I wear a cowboy hat in my photo, I am not a redneck, sorry Alberta, in fact there was a time in the 70's when I was NDP leaning (far left). Slowly as I got older I went more to Liberal (mushy middle) and now tend to lean more to the right but with a social conscience.

My problem with multiculturalism is that it is exclusive with each culture demanding their ways be accepted here, such as sharia and modes of dress. They live in their own neighbourhoods which then become ghettos, in my view and do very little to blend in.

Which begs the question, why in the world did they want to come here in the first place? I know why my parents did, they adapted to their new homeland and didn't expect it to conform to their old one....what has happened to our society to produce the attitudes as in Herouxville? Are more people thinking the same thing but not verbalizing it.... back to my knitting.

At The Risk Of Getting Hate Mail

I'll just take my chances here... I found this on another blogger's site and couldn't resist, it's just too funny.

I think these days a little humor is in order on this subject so I have the link here for what the well dressed Prophet Mohammed wears.

You can dress him up yourself, it's fun...he he he...back to my knitting.

More Controversial Cartoons???

I happened to find these cartoons on Spiegel Online . There is no direct link to the cartoons but if you look under Carnival in Germany and then click on "Photo Gallery, Politically Charged Carnival", you will be able to view some interesting cartoons. They are in German with English translations underneath.

Are the Germans are pushing the envelope, should Islam be taboo? If Islam is taboo what about Christianity and Judaism? Appears that they consider Islam no longer Taboo. according to this story. Very interesting and thought provoking....back to my knitting.

Sharia Law - Is It Dead In Ontario Or Not?

After much debate by many people, the Ontario Government passed legislation banning Sharia Law. I thought that had ended this issue once and for all. Guess what? For whatever reason, it has not been passed into law as yet.

Christina Blizzard, Columnist for the Toronto Sun pointed that out in paper. I guess the provincial government of Dalton McGuinty moves at it's own speed, slow....

For a little history on Sharia Law you can read it here at Wiki. As Ms. Blizzard points out in her piece today Muslims come here to get away from this repressive law and don't want it forced on them.

Since I'm such a cynic I think McGuinty's waiting until closer to election time to see where his support lies. He may or may not pass this legislation depending on whom he needs to appease....back to my knitting.

Where Are You From?

A while ago I added the Neocounter to my blog pages, part vanity and partly to see where everyone comes from.

It's kind of a lesson in geography and has been most interesting. On this blog it shows only the countries and that's cool, but on the knitting blog I have it set up to show the cities. Now that is really cool. I then Google the city and find out exactly where these people are.

Like this visitor from Tidioute, P.A. I have absolutely no idea who this person is or why they stopped by, maybe just accidentally but it's kind of fun. Some people come just once and others come back time and time again like Tifton, Georgia. I'm kind of liking this, I just wish more people would comment, oh well...back to the knitting.

Okay, I admit to being a fool. I bit on this one... I guess I'm not a romantic, oh well...sigh!

Your Candy Heart Says "Get Real"

You're a bit of a cynic when it comes to love. You don't lose your head, and hardly anyone penetrates your heart. Your ideal Valentine's Day date: is all about the person you're seeing (with no mentions of v-day!) Your flirting style: honest and even slightly sarcastic What turns you off: romantic expectations and "greeting card" holidays Why you're hot: you don't just play hard to get - you are hard to get

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

We're Having A Snow Day!

We have been waiting for this all winter here but now that it's here, well it's not so cool. Our California visitors are loving it, but the trip to the airport today might change their minds.

First we have to find the car.


Where are those garbage cans?



It's -15 Celsius with the windchill of -27 C. That's cold especially for the California guys, their really feeling it.


Oh well, spring is just around the corner, isn't it?

Nothing To Post -No Views This Week

Actually, that's not true. I do have a bunch of stuff that has me annoyed this week starting with Garth Turner, ex Conservative MP (he got kicked out of the party) then sat as in Independent and has now joined the Liberal Party. The are welcome to him.

Toronto city councillors were meant to have their photo taken yesterday, you know, like class photos' in school...except these bozos couldn't agree on seating so the photo shoot was cancelled.

And this story about a man who was found guilty of abusing his elderly mother and causing her death. He mentally and physically abused his 78 year old Mom who was bedridden and unable to care for herself. It was alleged that he also starved her. It was said that he treated his elderly dog better than his mother. I hope he goes to jail for a long, long time.

Oh, one more thing, we're sending a skunk back to California, yep you read that right, all the way from T-Dot to Cali goes Dorothy the skunk. Seems "Dorothy" was a stowaway on a truck and can't possibly be released here in the wild, after all she's an illegal alien and she might die!

Old ladies fly under the radar screen of all social service agencies and neighbours, but skunks can't be allowed to die!

I guess I did have some views after all....back to my knitting.

Nazanin Will Not Die

I have previously posted the story of Nazanin the young Iranian girl sentenced to die for defending herself and her niece against rape. She stabbed the potential rapist to death.

Here is the follow up of how that all came about and the other Nazanin who was responsible for saving her life. This former Miss World Canada started a campaign to free Nazanin and when the price of that freedom was $43,000 USD started a campaign for donations. The goal has been achieved and all is well for now, until the next time this happens to another young woman. What if next time there is no Nazanin around the help her?

Sharia Law sucks big time...and we can't do a darn thing about it other than to make sure it never comes to North American....back to my knitting.

Should Canada Honor Kyoto?

Not in my humble opinion, but of course I'm not a scientist. I am not disputing that there is something going on with the environment, but as long as countries such as India and China are not forced to live up to the agreements, we are pretty much doomed.

Read this story, it tells of how China is poisoning the planet. How do we get them to stop doing that? I have no idea, but as long as they continue producing stuff that we buy they will continue to do it.

Here's another story on the same subject, coal fired plants. This story includes India and United States in the mix.

We need to clean up the environment but I absolutely do not trust politicians, any of them to do it. The only thing Kyoto would do for Canada is ruin our economy, send our money to countries like Russia, China and India to buy credits from them, and continue our merry way. Is this a solution?...I think not.

My Most Spectacular Sunset

Recently my offspring was in Hawaii and searching for the most awesome sunset. I think I have him beat with this one, he just forgot. He was on this canoe trip with me, that's him out there on the lake paddling his canoe as I was taking the picture. The camera was nothing special, just a cheap 35 mm and I scanned this to the computer from a photo.

This picture was taken on a quiet lake in the North West Territories, in fact it was so quiet we didn't meet a single human being in three days.

It was an awesome experience for me, that canoe trip, one I wouldn't have missed for the world. Life is full of good memories and that's one of them.