Green Bin

Yesterday I heard a heck of a racket outside. Went to have a look and there was a string of cars  going by, all blowing their horn. I think it is the new reality of a birthday party. 
The other noise was my neighbors green bin being cleaned. They hook it up to the back of a truck, tip it and power wash it. Talked to the guy. He liked his job. I clean my own bin with my own power washer. Then I put a brown bag inside, so it doesn't really get too dirty. I also have a compose bin in the back yard which takes care of a lot of stuff. 

Slavery

Woke up yesterday  morning with all the intentions to work outside, finish off the things I had started. The temp. was only 12 C/ 53 F and windy. There are things that I started to do from my list that I haven't quite finished. The day before was garbage day for regular garbage. Allowed five garbage bags or cans. Two were filled and there was three more with cut up wood from the garden. There is still wood left to cut up for the next pickup, two weeks away. Next week is green bin.
I also started straightening out my compose bins. Not quite finished there.
Hearing a lot about slavery again. I wish they would stop blaming me, I had nothing to do with it. In fact, most of my ancestors were almost white slaves, if not to a person, at least to a company or the system. Working in the coal mine was not a posh job. Since then we've made progress and we didn't hold protest marches and we didn't loot stores. And I wonder what does it gain to burn out stores in your own neighborhood?

Watched the German series "8 Tage (Days). The street scenes with all the garbage strewn about reminds me of present day Paris.

"The Good Wife" is beginning to step into the garbage bucket.

Outside Again

      After getting the tree cut down and branches from the other trees lopped off, the backyard was full of potential firewood. That all had to be cut up, carted away, etc. But this was Oct. and starting to get cold, so it would have to wait until the spring. We shoved it all at the back of the yard and left it to stare at all winter. It did make big snow banks.
      I spent part of last week cutting it up and carting it away. There was also bundles of small branches for garbage pickup. Garbage day is usually Mon. but since Mon was a holiday, our day was Sat. We are only allowed to throw out five bundles at a time, so three of my neighbors got to enjoy four or five bundles each. So now it is gone, and that's that.
      I'm glad it was on Sat. because Sunday was heavy rain, and we would have had to carry it all out in that.

Olympics

Tuesday. Temp 17C/63 F. Supposed to rain. Believe it when I see it.

The garbage can was tipped over last night. Must be that racoon I've seen before.

"LONDON (Reuters) - In the shadow of London's gleaming Olympic venues, a quiet battle is under way over who gets to cash in on the Games.

Olympic organisers have enforced strict rules to protect official trademarks, deploying about 250 uniformed "brand police" on the streets of the capital to ensure businesses do not piggyback off the world's biggest sporting event.
The rules are simple: no one outside a small band of official sponsors such as McDonalds or adidas is allowed to make a profit by creating an association with the Games.
London is buzzing with curious stories of those who have found themselves on the wrong side of the brand police such as a stall owner who was told off for displaying the London 2012 logo and a butcher in a town hosting sailing events who had to remove a sign showing the Olympic rings made from sausages.
On a quiet side-street within walking distance of the Olympic stadium where the Games open officially on Friday, a cafe called Olympic has had to paint over the letter "O" to comply with the rules."

There you have it. You can only make money if you have big bucks.

Boxing Day.

I awoke up to the sound of a big truck outside. Oh, oh. Garbage man. Wine and turkey doesn't seem to help a flagging memory. My wife had also heard the truck, a little earlier on, and ran out in her pyjamis, and did the job. I patted her on the back and told her she was a good trooper, after which she answered, "Yeah, sure."

I will tell you that I haven't been entirly lazy in this garbage fiasco. When I looked out the door on Sat. morning, I noticed everyone on the street had their garbage out, and me, being the little sheep that I am, quickly put mine out. But as the day dragged on, I had second thoughts, so I checked the garbage pickup flyer. And there it was in blue and red, Monday is normal pickup day. So I dragged mine back in. I couldn't help but notice, everyone left theirs out, even on Christmas Day.

Last week there was all that ranting about us having a green christmas. Well that didn't happen, got almost a foot of snow on Friday. We ended up shoveling heavy slush and got the driveway cleared out. The snowplow driver decided to give us another swipe, sometimes after midnight. A line of slush across my driveway, which of course was frozen by the time I got up. I hate driving over that ice, I've had ruined tires before.

My wife solved the problem of my Christmas coffee cup. She brought me a new one. It has a house that lights up when the cup gets hot. I guess I will be able to tell when my coffee gets cold.

I didn't do any writing yesterday and now I have all these words in my head I have to get rid of or they will become memories and I'll think they actually happened.

My brother Tony worked all weekend, so is coming over for Christmas dinner today. For him its Christmas dinner, for me it's leftovers. To be truthful, I do love turkey leftovers.

Jack Sakalauskas
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Food Prices and Bonuses

Temp -3C/27F  Windchill -9C/16F  and it is nice and sunn otside.

So now they are warning us food prices are going up. They talk like prices haven't gone up all along. Of course they have gone up all year. So I will explain to you what they really mean. What they are telling you is that profits did not reach the projected earnings for the last three months.They made a profit, but not what they wanted. The prices didn't put the profit up to where they think they should be.

Now they don't want this to happen for the next quarter,so the next increase is to make up the shortfall from last quarter and the projected profit for next time. Why, you ask? Because if they don't make projected earnings, stock price will not increase and management gets a smaller bonus. I bet you feel sorry for them now. "Nobody is going to raise their prices a nickel unless they absolutely have to," says John Scott, the president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers.

That makes me feel so warm and fuzzy.

What's on the front page again? Garbage collection. And they have decided to leave things as they are, because everyone is getting upset and don't want to hear about it any more. What they mean is that they want a longer time to convince us how good it is for us. I think it has the makings of a career ender.

What about immigrants? It appears Nova Scotia is only allowed to bring in 500 a year, but in Manitoba they get 5000. The reason is because we forgot to ask the Federal Government to raise our limit. People are upset about this. I say, "Thank God." That's what we need, more educated people on the welfare line. Nova Scotia don't have work for the educated people they have.

If you have a resume, telling how well educated you are, you're toast. You would be better off to tell them you like hockey and drinking beer. That will get you a job. The one doing the hiring likes hockey and beer. Saw this letter in the paper this morning.
.
Always so funny when I hear another problem solver tell me that our problem here in NS is that we don't bring in more immigrants.My one son,with 4 university degrees,can't find employment in NS so he's left.My other son and daughter,both with 2 university degrees,also can't find employment in NS and they're both gone elsewhere.Yes, they did what all the "EXPERTS" and "PROFESSIONALS" told them to do....get a university education....and a hefty debt to start life with....and with this education you'll have the world knocking at your door.They weren't aware that the world didn't include NS.

The only immigrants we need here are pizza delivery professionals and burger flipping PHDs.
NS...get your damn house in order...cut civil service by 50%,get rid of 90$ of your consultants and administrators and stop dreaming of convention centres and 30,000 seat stadiums.
Cut the # of MLAs......why do we need an MLA for Kings north and another one for Kings south....there just isn't that much going on here.In HRM you have an MLA for every other street corner.And cut the ridiculous wages,benefits and pensions for all these bureaucrats........the people who love to make reports and have meetings with one another and accomplish absolutely nothing.
But first we'll have to hire some consultants to look into this.

Which brings me to Sidney Crosby. A perfect example of success without an education. Hockey school, give me a break.

I just found out he has a 14 yr. old sister. And where is his sister? In hockey school, of course. We know what family priorities are there. Yesterday, she got a concussion. Her brother so far, has had three concussions. I don't think it looks too good for them.

Memoirs Of A Star

Temp. -10C/14F  Feels like -17C/1F It is supposed to be getting warmer this week.

I read  that in British Columbia prison inmates want to form a union. So does that mean, if they go on strike, they won't feed themselves.Can you just picture them, in their cells with placards? Will you people out there get a grip on it?   Here's a photo of me in Al Capone's cell in Alcatraz.   http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1231449.html

The big stink here is about garbage. I must say, I am sick and tired of hearing about garbage collection. Now they want to limit it to four bags instead of six. This is supposed to cut down on garbage. Are you out of your mind? The amount of garbage is what it is. Instead of six bags, you're supposed to stuff it in four bags. Now that makes a lot of sense. Not everyone has six bags. I have one garbage can. If I have more than six bags, because of a cleanup, my neighbours get the rest.   http://thechronicleherald.ca/Editorials/1231398.html

Now Meredith Baxter has put out her memoirs. It seems that when they do this, there is always one part to tell how they were abused. They have all been abused, usually father and/or husband. It also says she is/was an alcholic. So maybe they got into arguements because she was drunk. But it's never the celebs fault, always someone else.   http://thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1231388.html

Charlie Sheen, Charlie Sheen. Will someone take him and stuff him in a hole somewhere. I think he just conning everyone for more money. Says he is going to write a book. Probably say he was abused. Maybe by his nanny.

A Walk Is More Than A Walk.

While I was doing my walk yesterday, I noticed a caterpillar rushing down the sidewalk. I knew he was rushing because he kept tripping over his feet. This is almost Oct. and this guy is still wandering around. That must have been some party. He still thinks he is a teenager and is missing the best part. Hurry along buddy, your pals are in Florida waiting at the pool.

For me, this was not an ordinary walk. Something else attracted my attention and it just blew me away. One house had a garage door open. The inside was shocking. There was a place for everything and everything was in its place. Hung on the walls or stacked. I can't remember when I saw a garage in such orderly condition. And the biggest suprise shall remain with me for a long time. That person could actually drive his car into the garage.

Most yards are neat and tidy but every once in awhile you run across one that appears like the garbage man dropped off a load rather than picked it up. The exterior of the house has seen better days and the front and back yards have seen too many days. You may wonder if the interior of the house is any reflection of the outside? From my experience, it is like a virus that spreads from room to room. Perhaps it starts in their head.

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Simple Rules For Simple People

Went for my two mile walk this morning. In and around sub-divisions, you make mental notes about what you see. We have a school at one end of the street and a pizza place at the other end. And the two do come together, mostly on peoples lawns. There is a very distinct indication when the school year is in. Litter on all the lawns. Fries, pizzas and large soft drink containers. What do I get from all that crap. A picture of diabetes on the move. And a large percentage of the students are well on the way.
Last Monday was garbage pick-up day. So according to Hoyle, there should be no refuse on the sidewalks. That works well when you think about it, but not too well in actual practice. If there is a way to screw this up, people will. There is the "I am important, special attention person." They put their stuff out after the truck has gone by. There it sits, waiting for the bylaw police to wander by and give them a ticket. A ticket that will be complained about and then paid.
Then there are the people who put stuff out any which way and loose. We have simple rules for apparently simple people. But even simple rules are sometime not simple enough.

Bears

Pouring down raining outside. As it was yesterday.

My wife had a yardsale on Sat. It was darn cold and it looked like it was going to rain. We packed it in at 01:00 P.M. and ten minutes later the sun was out. On top of that, she only made $14.00. The worse part about yardsales is packing it all up.

I am going to put up a couple of pictures of something you don't see very often. And some people never see them. Took them on my trip to Alberta. These are Bear proof garbage cans. It looks easy enough. When you put your hand inside the handle, you have to keep pushing so your hand can push the lever and open the door.

Never saw any bears. When I was climbing up and down those valley trails the thought did cross my mind. I would only want to see them from inside my car.