PensionersRants

Monday, January 31, 2011

Coyotes Abound

I've mentioned coyotes before and they are in the newspaper again today. A few streets away from here, a coyote was hit by a car, and the police had to be called to put him down. This is not like the countryside. This is in the city and the other street is even closer to the downtown area. Scarey to go for a walk. I also read about a woman, in Point Pleasant Park, which is in Halifax, had a coyote run in front of he.

Of course there is my own experience, while driving to work at the airport one morning, I smucked one. He put a small hole in my bumper. On the way home in the evening, someone was throwing him into the back of a truck. Trapper, perhaps.

Just went outside to stack up on firewood. Temp. is -10C/14F and with windchill is -17C/1F. There is a snowstorm coming, either Tue. or Wed. or both. There seems to be two heading this way. Have to go and gas up the snow blower. We had a couple of inches of snow last night, which I wasn't expecting.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Chaos

Sunday morning and chaos in Egypt. I suppose this has no where to go but downhill. Countries have to be careful which side they line up with. A wrong choice could be a disaster for their foreign policy. And what happens afterwards. Perhaps a government of hard line Islamics, which spells nothing but trouble foe us, I suppose I mean us Christians.
Today it's 30C/32F. The word on the street is that we will have a snow storm on Wed. Supposed to be 20cm/8ins. That's not really bad, unless the wind gets rough. It's a long time between now and Wed. It could be rain, as it has been for almost every storm this year.
I'm writing a horror short story this time around. Midnight shift at the hospital. But I can't seem to be able to get enough blood flying. Not enough experience with hospitals I guess. Somehow I need a chainsaw in there.
I just noticed I have one follower. Thank you Regge from Cal. I've been there, and you don't worry about snow. I must say, I'm interested in the Blogs you follow.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Time Travel

Does everyone know what a continental breakfast is? It's a dinner roll, butter and jam. Learned that on my first trip tp England. "Continental breakfast provided." You do get a lot more than one dinner roll.

Freezing cold the last two days and right now it's not so warm. -9C/16F. Tomorrow is supposed to be a scorcher 3C/38F. Boston is supposed to be getting snow, which means rain for us tomorrow. I think the rest of N.S. is getting snow.

The Canada games start in three weeks, in Halifax. Every day, in the newspaper, there is an article about the skating oval. After the games are over, they want to keep it, which is a good idea. It's not like the city has ponds to go skating on. Lots of companies are coming forward wanting to lay ads under the ice and around the barriers. Good chance for the mayor to score points.

Joined a writing group at Echelon Press to provide stories for children/youth. Just finished the paperwork this morning, now to send it off. We have to provide six stories for six months. Mine is about time travel.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Brass Monkey Weather

The temperature here this morning is -11C/12F. The windchill makes it feel like -19C/3F. Not any weather, I will be walking around in. I'm glad I went to mass yesterday evening.

Every morning, my habit is to read the newspaper. There are usually not many articles I don't already know about. Newspapers are usually a few days behind my computer. So I need the paper to keep me informed of local matters. Thursday was the exception, where I found a large number of articles, to fill the empty grey spots between ones ears.

On the front page, the first item really shocked me. "Web surfers have eye on shoplifters." What it turns out to be is, convenience stores in the area have webcams to keep an eye on shoplifters, but the web surfers are in England. It seems a company in England charges subscribers $15. a month to join. They can have four feeds open on their screen, for different stores in Halifax. If they see a thief stealing, they press a button, the store owner gets a phone call and voila. The store owner pays $190. a month for this service and they figure it's worth it. The surfers get cash prizes.

Scarey eh? I know England is camera crazy and this is taking it to a new level. Shades of 1984. So watch where you pee next time, someone may be watching. When I worked at the airport, my job was watching the cameras. For practice, I would watch a car leave the highway and I could track the passangers all the way through the process till they boarded the aircraft.

Another article involved a woman and her new husband stuck in his country because he can't get a visa. Seen this played out many times. Dumb blond is usually at least twenty years older. I don't think I have to explain farther.

As far as I am concerned, people who go to Mexico are naive. That's a dangerous place. In the last two days, there have been two  instances of a Canadian getting raped and another shot. After something happens, you go crying to the government. The government didn't tell you to go to Mexico.

Monday, January 17, 2011

♫ Happy Trails To You ♫

Lets talk trails, walking paths, you find throughout the city. I'm all for walking paths, I use part of one on my daily stroll. When I read this mornings paper and saw they provided $800,00. for upgrades, I thought it could be a bit much. Do these paths, trails have to be paved? Apparently so. I think this would classify it as a road, which allows everything but autos. To me, a trail conjures up visions of roughing it in the bush, at least walking on dirt.

You have to be careful walking on these trails, as you can get run over by just about anything, including bikes, roller blades, skateboards and anything else with wheels.

Another article involved the Cole Hbr. Museum, a place where I pat the goats on the head, after finishing my walk on the trail. They were given $14,400. for upgrades. What did they do with the money? Well you may ask, they gave the money to a consultant, who would tell them what they could use the money for. Isn't it strange the price tag is $14,400.

I wondered if naive and dumb could mean the same thing? I guess not, but they are first cousins. This word came up because of the "Dire Straits" and "faggot" noise. When I was young, a fag was a cigarette. "Gimme a fag". The bottom line is, all dumb and naive chip on the shoulder people, made a lot of money for "Dire Straits." If you read this, you are already smarter, you know another name for a cigarette.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Sunday Morning

♫ Sunday morning coming down ♫ and that's exactly what it is doing. A few inches of snow last night and a few more today.

I saw this cartoon in the paper yesterday and had to add it to my blog. This is the way most of the world picture Americans. Americans probably wouldn't like it, but it does appear to have an element of truth. A popular saying in the U.S. is, three strikes - you're out. When I think of that saying, I think of the U.S. as a whole. First strike - gun crazy, second strike - drug crazy and the third strike - may be the crazy political rhetoric. Those three together seem to be a lethal mix. Put on top of it, the reality show arrived at from a shooting, which stays as the top story for at least a week, going at it from every angle. They come up with a host of solutions which do not address the problem, and then life goes on till the next shooting.

Today's newspaper, maybe in honor of Sunday, but probably because it's a slow news week, is filled with items pertaining to religion. Two articles are about the sale of churches, which appear to be on the rise. Selling churches for a dollar or tearing them down, seems to be the road to go, with the supermarket, to be the new church on Sunday.

Another article showed three Anglican Bishops becoming Catholic priests. I don't know about pay, but it is quite a drop in prestige. In the end, your conscience has to dictate the way and it all comes out in the wash.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

What I Saw Today

Most people think everyday has basically the same routine. We think this way because we don’t pay attention to what goes on around us. We concentrate on the things we always do, and the rest slips right on by.

At the supermarket yesterday, I saw a man and a woman. They didn’t strike me as a couple, more like a pair, as brother and sister. He appeared about fifty years of age, and she, slightly older. A man with good stature, a graying beard, and a face showing resignation to his fate, more years of sadness.

The woman, prone to obesity, with the appearance of limited finances, wore an angry face, which seemed a permanent feature.

The man pushed the grocery cart, while the woman barked commands.

“Over here. Don’t go there. Don’t touch that.”

And the most revealing.

“You’re lucky you’re with me.”

He said nothing, slowing pushing the cart from aisle to aisle, perhaps listening with unhearing ears. I wonder, when he awakes in the morning, does he roll over and think, “Yes, it’s still me. It’s not all a dream.