Bisphenol A - Back In The News

I've written about this before, first the water bottles and now canned food. Seems my favourite can of tomato sauce has a high rating of BPA.

It is time for all manufacturers to use BPA free cans, it can be done.

I'm Gobsmacked!

For the first time in a long time I have nothing to say. Rather than just write drivel, for the sake of writing I'm not going to write anything. Not that there' s nothing going on that bugs me, just that it's probably been written about somewhere out there.

I'm tired of living in a "nanny state" with no where else to go, I'm tired of crime and innocent people being shot or stabbed to death, and I'm tired of politicians who ponder the wisdom of a carbon tax, which we all know isn't really going to be revenue neutral. That's what they said about the GST too and it sure didn't end up that way.

So until I feel like ranting again, I'll just stay silent. I will be visiting all my favourite blogs though, couldn't do without my fix. You guys are just too much fun to skip. I'm also busy getting ready for a garage sale and clearing out my Mom's room.

I'll still post on the knitting blog from time to time...ciao

The Sock War Is Over - I'm Toast

But I did get a lovely pair of socks out of the deal. My Assassin did a lovely job and I think the one target that I eliminated is also happy. This was a one time experience only, not to be repeated and details and picture of the socks are on my knitting blog.

Meanwhile we spent the past weekend opening our little cabin in the woods for the summer and battled the rain, cold and black flies most of the weekend. I don't ever remember a Victoria Day long weekend so cold. Good thing we have a good supply of firewood. It was too cold to open the pottery studio, way too cold for clay.

I'm not sure we can go every weekend as in days of old since now the cost of gas makes it almost prohibitive. The town of Haliburton will become a casualty of high gas prices, the town was almost devoid of people this weekend unlike anything I have seen in 20 years.

High Gas Prices - One Way To Reduce Global Warming

As we head into the first real (family day in February doesn't count) long weekend of the year I shudder at the cost of gas. Hovering at around $1.27 a litre depending on where you are in this city, it is becoming prohibitive to most people to drive far from home. I suspect the regular Friday night exodus to cottage country will slow down. I know myself as I filled up my tank for $80 that doing this every weekend as we have in years past may not be possible. Of course that will reduce the amount of emissions and that's a good thing, but what about all the businesses in cottage country, small towns with small populations, that depend on cottagers for their income? What will happen to them, will they close up and do what? Go on welfare or move to cities for employment?

And where will they work. Figures out show that people are spending less money, everyone is so worried about the fallout from the American mortgage fiasco that they are tightening their belts so the speak. I'm not an economist, in fact my mathematical abilities suck but even I know that purchasing and travelling stimulate the economy and keep things humming.

So higher gas prices = less money for other things = less production or import = less use of electricity = less coal fired plants to produce electricity = ...you get the point. Where are we headed here. Am I looking at this too simplistically, will this all work out in the end?


Today it cost me 80 bucks to fill up the gas tank on my ridiculously inefficient vehicle, oh yes I already said that. Then there's this little gem, a carbon tax, that the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition wishes to impose on us if elected in the next federal election; just what we need. It has been estimated that a carbon tax could add up to 50 cents to a litre of gas. Just what the economy needs.

Stephane Dion...read my lips, we don't need a carbon tax, meanwhile we're heading out to play with the blackflies...shudder.

THE DION TAX
Would Dion's Carbon Tax Save The Planet ?

Yes, we Canadians can save the world (300)	13%
No, he's crazy as a bed bug (1916)	82%
I don't know, tough call (117)	5%

Total Votes: 2333

Mount Indefatigable

This is my goal, to climb this mountain, this summer. Cool name right? Definition is as follows;

Incapable or seemingly incapable of being fatigued; tireless

Mount Indefatigable, here I come. Now I know that as far as mountains go it's not a particularly big one but for someone like me, who is out of shape, has one artificial hip with the other one so so, pretty bad knees it will be a feat. It was on the Bucket List of things I still want to do, that I wrote about when I turned 60 back in March.

Of course I am not doing it alone...my offspring has been conscripted to assist and two for sure, maybe all three of my grandsons will also come along. I have started training, no no..not with knitting, but real exercise with weights, albeit little ones so far and now that my two week period of recovery from my heart ablation surgery is over I will get myself some hiking boots and start walking.

Big name, big definition to live up to but what the heck, without big goals we are coasting and that I refuse to do...

The Socks Are In The Mail

Rowan Falar, I'm putting you on notice... by Thursday I hope to hear of your demise, he he he... Now I just have to hope that my Assassin is a slow knitter and I can knock your Assassin off too.

Doesn't look good for me though really, my target and I have been exchanging friendly emails and my Assassin has been dead silent. That can only mean two things; either she's dropped out of the game or she's keeping real quiet about how fast she can knit and her bomb is on the way.

Either way, it was an interesting experience and kept my mind thoroughly occupied during this past very difficult weekend and for that I'm grateful.

While I was busy knitting the world is crying for dead and injured people. America has had tornadoes, Myamar (Burma) that horrible typhoon and now China with a devastating earthquake. Thousands of people have died and are still dying in Burma while their government led by the army refuses to let the world in to help. It is definitely to cry for...

Remembering My Mother

January 14, 1923 - May 12, 2007



This was one of my mothers' happiest days...she had just moved in with us into a room that my husband built for her. It was in September of 2004 and we were looking forward to many happy years for her. It was not to be and one year ago today my beloved Mom passed away.

This has been the most difficult year of my life and this weekend in particular was very sad. Even the sock war did nothing to take my mind away from my Mom. Today the socks are on the back burner as I make my trip to the cemetery to plant flowers.

Gone For A Few Days

I'm still around but will probably not blog for a few days. I'm getting up at 7 AM tomorrow morning, having my coffee and getting my knitting needles and wool all ready for Sock Wars III.

At exactly 8 AM, I will be given the sock pattern and the name of the person I must assassinate by knitting and sending them their socks. I have never done anything like this before but hey, for 500 bucks worth of yarn at stake I will give it my best shot.

Reuters describes it as;

the "bloodiest death-by-knitting tournament," enlists players from around the world to take part in a game that shows knitting is no longer just a grandmothers' hobby.

Wish me luck...

A Little Of This - A Little Of That

These were my recycling bins until this spring. They worked just fine and any excess recyclable material went into a clear plastic bag. Why fix what's not broke? Seems the City of Toronto just loves spending money, so...

They gave us these... They come in four different sizes and this one is one down from the largest one. Looks pretty nice right, there's only one problem. Whenever I need to take it down the driveway on recycling day, I have to move the cars to the street. It is so bulky it won't fit and I wonder how I will manage that in winter when there is nowhere on the street to put the cars. Snow removal as I might have mentioned before doesn't usually happen here, they just plow down the middle of the road creating huge snowbanks. After a winter like the one past our road was turned into a one way street with no parking. Lest you think I'm whining, let me assure you I'm not. These bins have created dissent all over town. A large majority of homes in the inner city don't have driveways, just a small walkway and the bins don't fit down those either. So they get parked on the front lawns for a really cool look, so much for curb appeal.

These bins cost the city about $80 per household and in my view were an unnecessary expense. Do you suppose the fact that the garbage collectors (whose union heavily supported the current Mayor) and no longer have to lift them might have something to do with it? The new bins are picked up automatically with a lever system.

And that's not all. Today I got my notice about the new garbage cans, again at a cost. But this time the cost is being passed on to homeowners. Guess apartment dwellers get a freebie on this.
These little bins comes in four sizes with the smallest being free. It holds one green garbage bag and gets picked up bi weekly. If you need a larger one say one and a half green garbage bag then it will cost you $39 per year and the largest one that holds four and a half green garbage bags will cost you $190 a year.

Now considering that our property taxes have been raised again to just under four percent I guess the city fathers might be feeling a little guilty and are giving us free, no charge, five free bag tags a year and if you need more you can buy them for $3.10 each.


I am incredibly vigilant about recycling and compost like mad so I'm getting the smallest bin. But what gets me in this deal is that our property tax money is being spent in ways not intended.

For example, homelessness and begging has become an industry in this city sucking almost 14 million dollars out of city coffers. Why not just make pan handling illegal? Nope, too easy, lets just hire a bunch more social workers to do what exactly? Sue-Ann Levy writes about this issue and explains it all. And then there are all the other city handouts that should not come from the tax base.

One of the more conservative councillors Doug Holyday commented...

"Holyday reckoned that if city officials are targeting just the 408 panhandlers they found last summer with an investment of up to $14 million, that works out to almost $35,000 a head."

Meanwhile, the dandelions take over the city, the garbage doesn't get picked up on time and potholes are just multiplying as I type... All chemicals have been banned in the Province of Ontario which doesn't bother me overmuch, but where are all the city workers digging them out. As soon as they go to seed my head clogs up and I sneeze continuously. Our city looks like crap. Pools in schools are being closed because the city says it can't afford to fund them. I wonder if some of the panhandlers might like digging up dandelions? There is something wrong here in T-Dot. Does anybody still want to visit or live here?

An I thought I had nothing to write about...I think I'm going to update my knitting blog, it's less stressful...

Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 17th wedding anniversary. Seems like yesterday when we made it legal after living together for 7 years. That's 24 years total.

We will be celebrating, not just today but the whole weekend and boy do we have something to celebrate. Steve's colonoscopy went really well and not one polyp was found. Now he doesn't need another one for two years. And I'm feeling good although just a little sore in my leg but that too shall pass. Pretty soon I will climb that mountain...