We're Outta Here

The foot is healing, albeit very slowly. I've done a little research and discovered to my horror that this swelling can last up to six months. It actually doesn't look too bad in the picture but at the end of the day it usually gets really red and a lot more swollen. I guess I have to spend more time with my foot up.


We are out of here for ten days or so or whenever we feel like coming back. We'll not really, we do have to come back sooner or later since we have a flight booked for Athens on September 1st.
It's just that my sweetie doesn't feel like working right now so we are heading to various friends cottages plus our own cabin for a few days. I only have dial up internet at our cabin and no Internet anywhere else. I'm looking forward to some swimming and fishing.... I'll catch up with everyone when we get back.

Toronto Garbage Strike - Day 38

Yes, it's still on. For just a little while yesterday it seems that the strike was over, a settlement reached and ratification vote to happen today. Now that's all on hold for some unknown reason.

We the citizens of this fair city are being kept in the dark about how much of the farm our mayor has given away. My councilors response to that question came via email and just says "I can assure you, however, that the agreement was within the parameters set by the Employee and Labour Relations Committee. "

A couple of things bother me about what I'm hearing. First, they did get a wage increase even though the non union city workers did not and they did get to keep the most obscene part of the whole deal. Something called "bankable sick days". Now this is something I had never heard of prior to this strike an doesn't that just show you how open and transparent our government is.

So very simply, if you work for the city you get 18 sick days a year. If you use 10 for example, you put 8 in a "bank". Same for all the following years of your career. When it's time to retire you can cash out 6 months of banked days at the then current wages. So days banked 25 years ago for example get paid out at current wage rate. Now some city workers have way more than 6 months of sick days left in the bank so it's no uncommon for them to be "sick" a lot during the last year prior to retirement. Nice little retirement handshake dontcha think...

Now as for the strike being/not being over today, I offer a simple explanation. There is a major cleanup needed and we have a long weekend starting on Saturday. The union wants their members to do the cleanup instead of private contractors. If they can drag this out into the weekend and start the cleanup then they get to work at double time and triple time for working on Monday. Nice little paycheck to make up some of the lost wages.

As soon as a tentative deal was announced on Monday, the pickets should have come down and the city should have made arrangements to start the cleanup. The mayor and his council did not instead called for a council meeting for Friday to vote on this agreement. Were they hoping to sneak something through on Friday night when most of us aren't paying attention? After all there is a long weekend coming and most people aren't paying attention.

I just hope they pay attention in November 2010 when these people are up for re election...

Good News And Bad News

The good news is that the cast is off and the pins are out. I won't bore you with a photo of my foot, it looks pretty bad. The toes look like little stuffed sausages and the tips of my toes are bandaged to stop the bleeding, but below is a photo of the pins. The longest is over two inches long and the shortest is an inch. I was told it wouldn't hurt but they lied, I almost passed out by the third pin.

The bad news is I won't be driving for at least another two weeks maybe longer. So I still have to depend on my sweetie to get me out of the house occasionally. There is a slight healing issue of the wound and that's because the cast was a little loose and rubbed every time I walked.

I have been assured it will get better though and I'll be able to get on a plane in September for the annual trip to Greece. The doc warned me though that there would be no mountain climbing or even castle exploring for a minimum of three months, sigh... I guess I'd better take lots of yarn to Greece, I have a feeling I'll need it.

Toronto Garbage Strike - Meet Our Mayor

The cover of this weeks Maclean's magazine couldn't be more appropriate. Day 30 of the strike and the city really does stink.

Who would have thought that this strike would last so long. Certainly not me...actually I thought the Premier of Ontario would have legislated them back to work long ago. In spite of the fact that my freezer has more garbage than food in it right now I am kind of pleased that he hasn't done so. Whenever there is an arbitrated settlement the union guys seem to always get what they want.

In this instance what they want is inconsistent with the times we are living in. It would have been easier to convince them of this I suspect, if our entire city council and mayor hadn't given themselves a nice raise not long ago. That is the crux of the matter.

What would I do? Well since the strike is legal you can't fire them but I certainly would have brought in replacement workers to clean up this city instead of the volunteers that are now doing it. Speaking of volunteers, it is amazing to see who is at the head of the class so to speak. A provincial politician on his summer break is cleaning streets. A little electioneering prior to the November 2010 election? George Smitherman used to be the Minister of Health and I have absolutely no love for that man and would be hard pressed to vote for him. It is rumoured that he is looking for the job. I suppose if push comes to shove and no one else steps forward for the next municipal election I may have to . Anybody but the current group gets my vote and that would include my current councilor. Anybody who takes union money as campaign donations is suspect. It always makes me wonder whose side they are really on, the taxpayer or the unions.

Once this strike is over the city must consider privatizing trash pickup and fire the lot that has ruined the summer for most residents of this fair city. Come November 2010 the residents of Toronto have to fire just about the entire crop of councilors and the mayor and start fresh with people who put the residents needs before their own. I think they have forgotten that they are supposed to perform public service and work for us.

Meanwhile, the rats are feasting and procreating, yummy...

The Ultimate Car Salesman

That would be the Premier of the Province of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty. He has a new plan to get us to buy cars made by GM, the company bailed out by our/my tax money. Nice...

So let me get this right. Not only do the residents of Ontario own part of the automobile industry with the huge bailouts, our genius provincial government of the day run by Premier Dalton McGuinty is bribing us with up to $10,000 rebates if we buy an electric car from said auto makers. Good one... where does he get the money to give us rebates? Well from our tax money of course. How many times do we have to pay to keep these car companies in business?

There's a couple of things wrong with this plan of his in my mind. First and foremost, the charge on these vehicles doesn't get you very far and there are no charging stations anywhere yet and no real concrete plans to where they will be. So you'd really only be able to use this car in and around the city. Forget using it to get up to our cabin in the woods which is about 225 km away.

The second problem is the little issue of the cost of electricity which is quite expensive now that we have smart meters with time of day pricing here in Ontario. Heck I'm already doing my laundry and dishes in the middle of the night. Come winter I'll have to turn my furnace off in the daytime and heat only at night and McGuinty wants us to buy electric cars. I'm already dreading this months hydro bill even though I've been so careful.

This man is looking for ways to part us with our money. Hydro is a public utility and the more we use the more money in the kitty. He's also recently suspended plans for a new nuclear power plant in Ontario and the current ones are pretty old and only produce about fifty percent of our power needs. Where does the rest come from? Burning coal maybe?

This is the same man who said he wouldn't raise taxes as part of his election promise and within one month slapped us with the biggest tax ever disguised as a health care premium. He is also combining the provincial sales tax and GST next summer which means everything will be taxed. Right now there are many things where there is no PST payable such as real estate fees, lawyers fees, and home renovations just to name a few.

If you want to buy an electric car go for it. I don't have a single objection. What I do object to and very strongly is that it is my tax dollars that will subsidize it and that is patently unfair.

Here are the old summer electricity rates that residential users without activated smart meters pay:

5.7 ¢/kWh for the first 600 kWh in a month
6.6 ¢/kWh for each additional kWh

Of course, this is only the cost for the electricity, excluded are transmission charges, distribution charges,

Here are the new "Smart-Meter" summer electricity rates for Toronto (and the rest of Ontario):

Week-ends and holidays: 4.2 ¢/kWh

Weekdays	¢/kWh
7 am to 11 am	7.6¢/kWh
11 am to 5 pm	9.1¢/kWh
5 pm to 10 pm	7.6¢/kWh
10 pm to 7 am	4.2¢/kWh

Conclusions on Smart Meters and Ontario Electricity Pricing

To be honest, based on my gut instinct, I'm calling this a (temporary) stealth price increase.

So what's the next thing he'll come up with ... maybe flying cars. Just 72 hours to go until this miserable cast comes off my foot...

Single Sock Syndrome

I have never had a single sock, ever... I always finish what I start, eventually. But not this time, I must admit that this little pair anklets that I started way back when did not get finished and will never get finished. I found the pattern tedious and badly written.

I've now found a use for that single sock.

Socks in July! Yes, absolutely... it is unnaturally cold here with temperatures under 20 Celsius most days.

There are ten days left before this beauty comes off and I have a feeling it's going to be a very hard ten days. The cast has started to loosen and with every step I take it moves rubbing the wound underneath and hitting the wires that are still there. There were many stitches in the foot and just a thin gauze was wrapped around my foot before the cast went on. There is a strip of foam going around my ankle but it has stretched as well. I've tried sewing it up a bit on the sides to tighten it but heck, it's foam and we all know what happens to foam.

I am getting a bit depressed altogether and missed a couple of important occasions. I forgot to call my two grandsons on their birthdays last week and my offspring was getting a bit concerned. Being stuck in the house is the pits and with the weather not cooperating, sitting out in the yard is not even an option.

We are entering week four of the garbage/civic worker strike here in T-dot and thus far a resolutions doesn't appear to be imminent. The big Caribana week is coming up and some of the events are up in the air. That would really be too bad as it's Toronto's premier summer festival.

Priceless!

Gotta love Andy Donato...

My Toronto - The Dirty

This is what has become of our beautiful, clean city. Not a pretty sight. We are now in week three with no end in sight. The unions have dug in their heels and so has the mayor. It will be a long, hot, stinky summer.




During the last garbage strike in 2002, our then councilor rented a truck and picked up garbage from the elderly and disabled in this neighbourhood at his own expense and time. Our current councilor doesn't reply to email information on the strike. Telling...

Does Anybody Fall For This Stuff?

An email I received today. Just think, I could be rich...

Hello Dear,

I am Deborah Williams 23 years of age the only daughter of late Mr Boni Williams whom was killed by the rebels that attacked our country cote d'Ivoire west Africa and took over our town (BOUAKE). I ran to Abidjan the economical capital of cote d'ivoire from were I am contacting you.Before the death of my father he told me that he has a sum of US$2,100,000(Two million one hundred united states dollars) kept in a bank in cote d'ivoire in my name as the next of kin.

Please, in the capacity of the next of kin, I am contacting you with due sence of humanity and responsibility and with few awareness that you will give it a sympathetic and mutual consideration. I am honourably seeking your assistance in the following ways.

(1)To provide a bank account where this money would be transferred to.

(2)To serve as the guardian of this fund and to visit the bank to take delivery of the consignment.

(3)To make arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my education and to secure a residential permit for me in your country.

(4)To provide good investment plans for the fund and to manage the fund for 5 years, during the investment period,only our profit will be shared annually 70% for me the investor while 30% will be for you the fund manager annually. Moreover, I am willing to offer you 20 % of the total sum as compensation for your effort /input after the successful transfer of this fund to your nominated account overseas before the investments
starts.and I have maped 5% for any expenses that might be incured during the course of this transaction.

furthermore, you can indicate your option towards assisting me as I believe that this transaction would be concluded within a stipulated period of time you signify your interest to assist me.

Thanks and God bless you.

Best regards,

Deborah Williams

.

Well not me, not today anyway... not until dear Deborah learns how to spell.

Garbage Strike In Toronto - Day 16

This strike has started to impact this household in ways I hadn't considered initially. In terms of household garbage it's not bothering us all since I have devised my own method of dealing with it. I compost all vegetable stuff, freeze leftover food matter, recycle like mad and what's left just stays double bagged until the strike is over. There is no smell, no raccoons and no maggots and I don't have to use neighbourhood parks, which I think sucks anyway.

No, the bigger impact is on my husbands business. He has now turned down three jobs that require him to remove demolition material and take it to the local dump. This was always included in his service since there are very few homeowners who would want to take their own debris away.

There has been one fence job and two kitchen jobs which he has now turned away. We certainly can't store old cabinets and old fencing in our driveway. Steve's also not prepared to wait hours at the local transfer station while the strikers hold up all comers. I suspect we are not the only small business in this predicament.

Toronto is starting to look pretty ugly these days and by allowing parks to be used for garbage it's pitting neighbour against neighbour. Our city council had lots of time to settle these issues before it came to this. At the moment the Mayor and most councilors are missing in action as in not working and getting paid for it. All our local municipal offices are closed. No one can get a building permit. I think this is in support of the unions. Anybody considering a visit to our fair (stinky) city this summer should certainly reconsider. It's not a pretty place right now.

There has been talk of compensating homeowners for lost services but no one can compensate us for the lost income this strike is causing us.

Back From The Wild

It was a peaceful five days just hanging out listening to the birds, watching the chipmunks play and waiting for the hummingbirds to visit. They didn't, it was too cold and rainy. Out of five days I think it rained of and on for three of them. It was also cold, in fact the coldest July 1st long weekend in recent memory. The temperatures rarely went above 15 Celsius and this morning we woke up to a chilly 4 c, brrr...

Nevertheless, I did get some knitting done. These will be socks someday soon, as soon as I can decide on a pattern. I started and ripped back three times and still haven't made up my mind. It's pretty yarn though. There was some more knitting but I'll put that on my knitting blog tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the boys (Steve invited a friend and his son) were out fishing just about every day, all day and brought home dinner every night. They even cooked it and I did pretty much nothing except sit with my foot propped up. I sure knew how to milk it...

The star of the weekend, Michael caught the biggest fish. Not bad for a 6 year old...

And my foot...seventeen more days and counting. I can hardly wait.

The Sock's Gone Away

And I've gone along for the ride. Even though it's pouring rain and the temperature is around 12c
(low 50's) we are braving a few days at our cabin in the bush. Bass season has opened and since my sweetie has been so busy taking care of me, he deserves a few days of fun. At the time of writing, he has already brought back 4 bass and 5 perch. Good dinner happening tonight.

There is only dial up available here and it took almost ten minutes to upload one photo, I probably won't post again until we return home some time next week. Only twenty days left to go for the wire removal, I'm counting.

Happy 4th of July to all my American friends.