Foul, Foul and Triple Foul

The Blog Herald states that the are probably Fifty Million Blogs in existence. Maybe that is why so many journalists are feeling threatened. Maybe that is why the people at Times On line wrote the article that they did. They do seem to have it out for bloggers.

The authors of this article, surmise that most bloggers are motivated by narcissism, and of self aggrandizing motives. We are all seekers of adulation. Not their words but definitely implied! They seem to be very hard on the mommy bloggers in particular by making them out to be ahem bad mommies who put their blogging before their children. That is what I came away with.

Perhaps it is the mainly the BIG blogs that have gained their disdain, you know, the blogs that are making money. They seem to have a lack of understanding that the people who are making the money have worked hard, have talent and are sometimes journalists themselves. They avoid the fact that the types of blogs out in blog land are as diverse as the people themselves are. They do not mention: political blogs, photographic blogs, cooking blogs, sports blogs, fitness blogs, humor blogs, religious blogs and blogs designed to help others through traumatic times. I could go on and on.

They make it sound as if you can not make a real friend through blogs. I know for a fact that this is not true. Many of us have got to hug the friends that we have made, not virtual hugs but real bona fide hugs, real people that have become real friends.

Worst of all,while I believe that everybody is entitled to their opinions, I do have a problem with the unethical manner that the authors have gone to in expressing them. They did not interview Don Mills Diva yet they make it sound as if they did. They did not ask her if they could use her material. I wonder how many of the other so called interviews have been lifted. This is very unprofessional and misleading.

I will not allow this type of article make me feel ashamed of my humble little blog. I will write on. Hopefully I will improve my writing skills. To all the other humble bloggers: "Write on! You can and you count." To the people at Times On Line, I say "Fifty Million people is a lot of people. Does that not tell you something? Maybe you should get a blog and learn blog ethics. Learn to use your link button. Ask permission for goodness sake!"

Follow the story from Lucy's blog to Don Mills Diva to the Times On Line article about the dangers of blogging.

Dumb And Really Stupid Ticket!

I am back home and am fine. We were away for a little bit, that is all. Sorry if I worried any of you. We had a nice trip and a great visit with the grand kids. It was a busy time due to the house selling and house buying that is going on in grand kid land but I did have some great help from my four year old grandson Ben in the home selling cleaning preparations. He vacuumed, dusted and picked up the stuff from the floor that I was having trouble reaching. I did something rotten to my back. I don't have a clue what I did but it is hard to bend at the waist and reach the floor. He was such a sweetheart. Every now and again he would ask me: "How is the cleaning going Grandma? Can I do anything?" What a perfect child. I do not remember my kids being so amicable but possibly I have simply forgotten how easy it is to trick a four year old into thinking housework is fun. I had such a fun afternoon with him. I had him all to myself. The grandpa and the mommy were out shopping to get the things they needed for some home repairs to make the place more presentable for selling. We went to the store later and picked something out as a reward.

We got home Sunday evening. Monday we were busy with appointments. The appointment at the renal clinic went well. John's kidneys are now functioning at 42 percent so that is 5 percent better than they preformed last summer. I did not know that they would still have the ability to improve.

On our way from the Renal clinic to go to the Cancer Center, we got stopped by one of the boys in blue. Here are a few adjectives to describe our reaction to the ticket he gave us: Flabbergasted, confused, incredulous and disgusted. Here is one choice adjective to describe the ticket: IDIOTIC! The infraction: Unlawful use of sunscreen on the front side windows. The penalty: $115.00 and removal of sunscreen and present the vehicle to the police to prove said removal by Feb. 5, 2009 or auto insurance will be canceled. We did not know that this was illegal. The car was sold to us this way. We will be phoning the Beemer dealer where we bought the car and tell them thank you ever so much for taking care of so well. When John brought it to the attention to the officer of all the other vehicles driving by us that had the same sunscreen (we figure about 40 percent of the cars out there have it) the officer told John "Ummm, we have not caught them yet sir." Hahahaha! THEY HAVE NOT CAUGHT THEM YET? I wonder, do they plan on it? Well, I guess that would be much, much easier and much safer than going after all the real criminals out there. I wanted to ask him if we could get a charitable donation receipt for the ticket but I bit my tongue. One thing that I know for sure, John sure does seem to attract dumb tickets. He got one last summer for parking off the dirt road onto the prairie grass when we were at Lake Diefenbaker. The signage for that was tiny and somewhat hidden in the bushes. I could go on some more and itemize other tickets the poor man has got that are nothing but thinly disguised money grabs but I think I will spare you plus my back is hurting and I need to sit in a different chair for awhile.

Trouble! Trouble! Boil and Bubble!

Some of my blogging friends may notice that a link that was listed as one of my favorite sites a popular health blog is now missing and some of you may notice that when you visit there I am no longer around. My rant was not appreciated and it was suggested that maybe I should leave. To say that I was told off is putting it mildly. I was not quite kicked out so I guess I could have stayed but I have disagreed at other times with some of the articles posted and some of the things that a few of the people have said. It all sort of hit a boiling point although I think I really wasn't quite boiling. I would call it more a slow simmer.. My mistake was in saying so. I decided to take up this persons suggestion and I hit the delete button. I didn't think that I had come across to hard. My rant is now gone from the site because when I deleted my account I totally disappeared from the site. All that remains is the punch that I got on the nose so to speak.

One thing that is bothering me so much lately has to do with the policies of the American health insurance system that is leaving so many people out in the cold. People have an impossible task of getting insured when they have any pre-existing conditions and if they can get somebody to cover them their premiums are out of reach. Many people are having to decide whether to buy medications or to buy food and they are the lucky ones. Anything that points the system into even further erosion and lack of compassion raises my dander.

One article I read, a while back, had to do with doctors maybe being able to fire their patients if they did not make the life style changes that they had suggested and that maybe insurance companies should not have to cover people for their self inflicted conditions. I just wonder who is going to make all these decisions for these people. I am not saying that the person who wrote it advocates this practice. The position of the writer was not very clear. Many people who responded thought that this is a good idea and would cause people to take better care of themselves. I think that Big Brother would be watching you even more than he already does. It also has the potential to leave most people without insurance or care unless you have truck loads of money. To me all the American system is concerned with is money. It all boils down to that. Again my opinion only. Please note that I am talking about the system and not the care givers.

Another thing that bugged me was a comment by one of the readers about how Americans should tough up and stash away an emergency fund. Apparently this person had done that and was covered for a coronary he had when uninsured. He figured people with cable shouldn't whine. He did say that maybe he was being a little Polyannish. WHAT! All we have to do is get rid of our cable? Who would have thunk it? If it were all that simple the cable companies would be doomed.

Some of the articles tend to over simplify things by stating that most of our ailments are totally curable by following some very rigid dietary and exercise regimes and that most health problems are caused by not doing so and that most people could be off their medications if they did so. I feel note this is my personal feeling and maybe others don't feel this way and that is O.K. that sometimes the site was being a little judgmental. Sometimes people can get somewhat extreme. This tends to cause some people to go over to the legalistic side of things. Legalism can be found just about anywhere. Legalists loose their ability to have real compassion for others.

More and more people who are joining are trying to sell something. They do not directly advertise but do try to lure you to their sites where they would be happy to sell you something. I know...it is a free world. I don't have a problem with people expressing their opinions or trying to sell something. I am upset that on an open forum I would get attacked if I expressed a mildly negative opinion. To say anything but THE SITE IS SIMPLY AMAZING pushes the wrong button and if you do that you get accused of being an uncaring person.

I have been reading some blogs and talking to some of the blogers in the States who are going through horrible times regarding their lack of health care funding. It makes me cry. It breaks my heart. For all the things that we have been going through we have not had to suffer this worry and stress to any large extent on top of everything else. I can't imagine having to go through that.

Maybe I am being over sensitive over some of these articles and comments. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. Maybe what I wrote was misunderstood. Maybe I should have been more careful in how I expressed my opinion. To my friends that enjoy the site, I am not trying to get you to leave. There is a lot of good there. Most of the people are wonderful. The lady who created the site is amazing. I do not wish her any harm and hope she prospers in the pursuit of her dreams. I probably need to learn to spit out the hay. Hay by it's very nature is hard to swallow. I should know that by now. I should simply spit it out and move on to the green grass. I am writing this so you know where I am coming from and I hope that my rant over there has not offended any of my friends.

I wish good health to you all and hope that you still visit me here.

Just a little note to Fluffy because from my comments on her site she has come to the conclusion that Canadians have fur and the raising of my dander will probably keep the myth going, I sure hope she does not now think that we eat grass too. Hahaha! She cracks me up. Hahaha!

The Good And The Bad

I love the new Ikea commercial. The husband comes home ranting. His wife is standing in her beautiful Ikea kitchen and imagines her husband speaking in an accent saying the most wonderful things. Becky and I have already discussed this. We think this commercial must have been written by women. However the Sihlouette yogurt commercial must have been wrote by men. It shows no understanding on how women really think. If I am hungry I do not have to be good and eat their stuff. I want to throw something at the T.V. every time that commercial comes on! John is a good guy and mutes it for me every time it comes on. The Dairy Farmers of Canada add for cheese irritates me. Truth be known...it drives me crazy! I can't stand it! Any adds that feature a whole family sitting around and singing about food bugs me. MUTE! What ads bug you? Strike that question! I should ask...what ads do you like? Writing what you hate will take too long and probably upset you.






I am working full time all this week and next week. We are having summer weather. I am missing most of it. I need a pity party. Sihlouette yogurt is not part of it. I think some ice cream with Hearshey chocolate sauce slathered on the top would work. It will be a party of one.

Spontanious Human Combustion

I think I have solved the mystery! I am just about sure that any persons who have combusted have most likely been recent customers of Future Shop and had to have dealings with their customer services department. Simply making a purchase there will not do it. They are very prompt and courteous taking your money. Once they have your money...well things rapidly change!

At customer pick-ups: John and Chris wait patiently. After a while they realize that all service personnel are ignoring them, even the young pup who manages to look busy simply standing there. Chris takes a couple of steps closer to the said young pup. He does not acknowledge her. He makes no eye contact with her. Chris is amazed because at this point she is only a foot and a half away from him. She has definitely invaded his body space. "Excuse me?" politely spoken. Still no repose is shown from the pup. A little more volume must be needed. Perhaps he is hearing impaired. "EXCUSE ME?" still polite even through she added volume. Ahh...he looks up. "Could you tell me where we should be waiting to pick up our computer?" He directs John and Chris to the customer service line and advises them that one of the girls there would be happy to get their computer for them. They go and stand in line there and wait for their turn. One of the customer service reps keeps punching at her keyboard. She does not seem to be representing any customer. Chris wonders if that girl is engrossed in a game or something. The customers would be clueless wouldn't they? The clerk does not acknowledge anybody. She doesn't lift her head and smile and say: "I will be with you in just a moment. Sorry to keep you waiting" Finally John and Chris are told: "I can take you down here" They go there and ask her if she can get their computer. The gal says "No" Chris stood there and blinked for a couple of seconds. "Umm...that young man over there told us to come over here to get our computer. He said that you would be happy to do this for us" I must explain...the door to the place where our computer had been loaded up and custom configured for a nominal fee of 100 dollars was maybe 15 steps away from her. We could see the technicians in there industriously working away, so near yet so far. "Where should we be?" Chris inquired. The clerk indicated that the couple should go and wait exactly where they had waited in the first place. Chris informed the service representative of this. The rep snapped: "I can't help you...you have a nice day." She promptly broke all eye contact in order to dismiss the poor couple and immediately became engrossed in perhaps a bug that had landed on her computer screen. Have a nice day? Are you kidding me? John and Chris returned to where they were at the start. The same young pup is still standing there. John and Chris waited there for awhile. He does not acknowledge them. The entire previous performance is repeated verbatim. That young pup instructed John and Chris: "Go over to that counter." He points the poor abused couple over to the counter where they had parted with their money the day before. Earlier there had been no customers lined up and there had been no staff in attendance either. That is where the personnel who work the floor bring customers to take the money. That is the only reason for any staff to be at that counter. Waiting there for service is futile as usually nobody is there. At this time there are about twenty people lined up. I point this out to the young pup. By now my voice is starting to be a little desperate. I say: "There are twenty people there now! You actually expect me to meekly go over there and wait in line simply because you said to? I want my computer now and I want you to go and get it!" He turned and walked about 7 steps to the door that accesses the technician room and called one of the technicians out to see us. That guy got us our computer. That was how simple it really was.

As I write this I have noticed that my fingers were starting to smoke and smolder. I have gone to the kitchen sink and extinguished them a couple of times. I feel that my internal temperature has been elevated by this experienced. I hope I do not combust. Perhaps I should go to the Coop and get an iced cappuccino. I think that Future Shop should have to have warnings posted outside their store. It should go like this:

Warning: Our customers are at a greater risk of spontaneous human combustion than the rest of the population! Have a nice day.

Moving Day

Stupid snow! What would be a moving day without snow? This should be such fun for all involved. The reno in the basement is not finished and it is a mess. John is going to go take care of Noah this afternoon because we figured that I would be needed more here. List of things to do this morning:

1. Shovel snow so it is not tracked in and repeat the process if it starts snowing more which it may as it says in the forecast. Have you ever noticed that the weatherman can always be relied on to be telling the truth when he forecasts bad weather but when he forecasts good weather it never seems to come to pass somehow?

2. Clean up construction materials and painting junk and vacuum basement. All this stuff is sitting out in the middle of the way. Finding a place to stash it temporarily so that it is handy for my handyman to resume the reno will be tricky.

3. Clean the bathroom. Due to the construction dust is clinging to everything. It seems kind of an exercise in futility but John promises the messy stuff is done.

4. Do the supper dishes. Yes my supper dishes are still hanging around. I worked yesterday so I didn't have a lot of extra energy. Excuses! Excuses! LOL

5. Go to the store and find something to feed all the movers and make lunch for everybody. I wish I had had the foresight to make a large pot of chile in advance. I think that they will have to do with soup and sandwiches and cookies.

6. Have a cup of coffee and think about the list. I am sure that I am missing some vital chore. Coffee helps me procrastinate. Did I write that? I meant to say think!

7. See the coffee helped. FEED THE CATS!

Garden Today...Snow tomorrow!

It got to a pleasant 17C. outside today. I did manage to go out and do some yard clean up. I worked on the shrub garden that I put in last year after we took out the spruce trees. I had to reseed a portion of the lawn and some of the seeds had got into where they did not belong so I dug all that up. You can hardly see my poor baby shrubs but I checked them and they did survive winter and are getting buds. The lawn is starting to green up.

I still have a lot of work to do. The hedge is full of garbage and the driveway needs sweeping.

Last year I had dismantled my rock garden because we were going to build a large porch. I dug up all the plants and moved them. We did not build a new porch. This spring we have to shingle the roof. There will be no funds for a new porch. I have started to rebuild the rock garden. I will stick a bunch of petunias there.

John is outside taking the Christmas lights down. Tomorrow I have to go in and work a shift. I would not be able to go out anyway and do anymore cleanup because it is going to snow so I don't mind that I have to go and work. I am getting quite spoiled by this life of retirement.

I had better go and enjoy the cabin house while I can. Becky dusted and cleaned it while she was here last week. I got all the chair covers and cushions out. I may have been a little premature. I copied the following report off the weather network! This is tragic!

Massive late winter storm likely to bury much of
southern and Central Saskatchewan this weekend
into early next week....

An intense low pressure system will develop over
the northern U.S during the next few days and slowly
track through the central prairies into early next week.
This system has the potential to
produce widespread blizzard conditions
with excessive amounts of wet
snow and poor visibilities to a large portion
of southwestern and central Saskatchewan from
Saturday right on into Tuesday. The various computer
models are all pointing to the same solution
with heavy wet snow and strong winds expected for
much of southern and central Saskatchewan so confidence
of a major winter storm for portions of the region
is quite high. The location of the heaviest
amounts of snow is still uncertain at this time but there is a
potential for 50 or more centimetres of heavy wet snow over western
and central areas of the province from Saturday until the snow
gradually tapers off during the day on Tuesday. As well strong
northerly winds will likely produce near zero visibilities in snow
and blowing snow over much of the area. Travel may become nearly
impossible Sunday and Monday. Southeastern areas of the province
will initially be on the relatively milder side of this system so any
precipitation should remain as rain for areas near Regina and
southeast but those areas should see the precipitation change over to
wet snow on Monday as well. We will continue to monitor the
development of this system over the next few days and watches and
warnings will be issued later in the week as the details of this
massive winter storm evolves.

END/MCDONALD/FULTON

Yikes! We took our winter tires off! Go figure!

Whining....Whiney...Whined

Burrr! It is so cold here today. Everything is stiff. The poor doors creek and groan, I am creeking and groaning. It is minus 36 C. with wind chill values of minus 49 C. Remember: -40 C = 4o F. I would like some real pity today from those of you who live in the warmer climates. I do feel sorry for my American friends who live in the northern states because this arctic air is coming your way. Feel free to pass along some empathy. I am going to hate my next energy bill. This is all I have to say for today!

Reasons I Hate Winter

1. It is hard to take out the garbage. It involves putting on boots, parka and mittens.
2. Wearing a toque flattens your hair so no matter where you go you cannot remove your toque without looking like a maroon. Leaving the toque on all the time can make you look like a maroon.
   
3. Static electricity. Clothing sticks to your body and hair sticks to your head. the other day at Wal-Mart I only tried on two sweatshirts and my hair became so full of static I was afraid to come out of the change room. Some day I am going to go and hang out there and see if anybody else has this problem.
4. I can't stand to look at icicles hanging off of mens mustaches and beards. This makes me want to gag.
5. Winter sports are not fun. I will elaborate on this subject later. That post shall be titled: Why I Hate Winter Sports.
6. I hate the smell of exhaust fumes in the garage. Sometimes I hold my breath until I get into the car.
7. I am always looking for my mittens. I am always asking everybody else if they have seen my mittens. Where are my mittens?
8. When it gets too cold my eye glasses hurt my nose.
9. There is a hole in my parka pocket and my keys fall through the hole and get lost. They are just about as hard to find as if I put them in my purse.
10. I have a coffee mug frozen on the bar-b-que outside and it will be there until spring. There will probably be more there before spring. I take a mug out with me in the morning when I let the dog out and I keep forgetting them there. If it was spring this would not matter.

Please feel free to add to this list. It will not make me feel bad. In this case misery loves company!

Random Questions and a Rant

Random Question: Why are the cows around my town mooing day and night? I have never noticed this phenomenon before. I kid you not. For the last three days, every time I went outside I could hear them... quite loudly... and I wonder when they sleep. Are they sick? Are they sad? Are they hungry? This has been driving me crazy...and then...this morning I could no longer hear them! Why the sudden quiet? Are they dead? Have they been put into the barn? I have been tempted to go and see if I could find them. Is this normal?

Random Question: Why am I eating Cheetos for breakfast? Why am I eating Cheetos while typing? This doesn't work well. I am getting cheese all over the keys!

Random Question: Why did I not scoop up the dogs logs before it snowed? No further comment.

Random Question: Is the printer out of ink or is it broken?

Random Rant: This rant is regarding Face Book and I will try to keep it short. Hang on for a second while I try to properly work myself into rant mode. It takes a moment to transfer myself from question mode into rant mode. I am one of those people who get on a roll and have trouble stopping. My problem is not with Face Book itself but with the fact that once people get on there they seem to stop blogging. When you visit their Face Book page they don't usually write much there. Yes...I know I can check their status but all I can tell from that is that they are alive or at least almost alive. Yes...I can look at the pictures that are posted and we can write funny stories about each other. We can see if we are alike or not. This is all well and fine but NOBODY IS WRITING anything anymore! I have been as bewitched as everybody else. That must therefore be the root of the problem. Face Book is bewitching! Beware! That said I have a game of Scrabulous waiting...

I'm grumpy! Do you want to know why?

City Hospital has a 300 person waiting list for parking. In order to park legal I have to park about four blocks away (not a big deal) We try not to use the visitor lot because it leaves no room for visitors if we do that. Yesterday when I was going home from work a man gave me a bunch of grief over parking in front of his house. He pointed to across the street to his neighbors house and told me I should park over there! Today as I was going home I drove by his house and he was outside hosing out his THREE car garage. Yes a THREE car garage! I'm still shaking my head. Also I'm catching Johns cold just in time for the May long weekend. Also I can't find the punctuation marks on the keyboard!!! Also I already typed this out once but lost it because I don't know how to post it. Also I did have something else funny and witty to blog about (Becky said: "Why don't you write about that Mom?") Niether of us can remember what it was so you will just have to put up with my grumpiness that is if anybody even looks here seeing how I am definately worse than Travis!