American And Canadian Taliban

Friday morning after a night of big rain. And today we are supposed to have showers. I was hoping to have this project all finished before my wife got home. Have to pick her up on Sunday. Maybe it's God's way of telling me that I need a project manager when I slice across the lawn. She is more likely to lay the sods back nice and perfect. I measured the distance yesterday with the light rain as my accompanist. 74" from the shed. I'll get 80". I'll need wire and underground ducting. Hard to dig where the grass is high, so I'll have to mow the area where I'm going to digg.

There are some things that really choke me. They were talking on CNN last night about Americans that choose to go and fight for the Taliban. We have the same type of idiots here in Canada. Off they go to Pakistan to help the Taliban. Since we are at war with them, it is my firm belief that these people should be treated as traitors. Canada is not good enough for them unless they get caught. Then its Oh Canada, please help me. Take me back home again. So home they come, get their crybaby lawyers and moan and complain about how bad they were treated. If you've broken the law in Pakistan, they should keep you and then you can think long and hard about what you are fighting for. I read about one the other day. Got caught and spent four years in a Pakistan. They got him out and now he's not being prosecuted because his rights were stepped on. His father was a friend of bin Laden and a money raiser for him. He got smucked over there. His younger brother is in Gitmo for throwing a grenade that killed an American. They can keep him.

In Malartic, Quebec, there is a guy sitting on top of a gold mine. A mining company wants to start work on a multibillion-dollar operation but this guy is holding up the boat. He won't sell his house. So they went to court  and the verdict was, OK bud, you're outta here. They may drag him out by his toenails as early as Monday. So is this government pushing the little guy around or something else. I'm going to put this in perspective, at least my perspective.

It starts of that there were 204 houses there. It's part of a town. Everyone else sold out and they had their house moved to another part of town or it was destroyed. They say his house is run down and he doesn't actually live there all the time. The value of the house is $14,000. and he has been offered $350,000. Any crap that this is to protect personal property rights goes down the drain when you find out that he actually wants 1 million dollars.

I can't see the people in the area being very buddy-buddy with him any longer. He is holding up something that is going to provide a lot of jobs. This has been going on for three years and now they will receive compensation determined by a provincal tribunal in exchange for the home. Any bet that it will be less than $350,000.?

Colour Outside The Lines

Yesterday it rained and rained and then rained somemore. Right now it is foggy, wet and cloudy. I won't be rushing outside to start my cable trench.

You can read a newspaper from twenty years ago, one from today and one from twenty years from now and you will always read "Canada can do more to eliminate poverty." This article is about poverty in Canada not the rest of the world. Lets be truthful, that is not going to happen.  In my opinion, a lot of it comes down to lifestyle. It's not the amount of money you make but how you spend it. If you can't afford milk, then why are you smoking? Another reason for poverty can be intelligence. Not enough on the ball to make right decisions. A prime example of that is people without even a down payment buying a half million dollar house. When I read this article I looked to see who wrote it. It was written by an MP, member of the opposition party. So this is nothing but grandstanding, digging for votes. He knows nothing can be done but its an easy way to blame the government for something. All the parties do it.

In Halifax we have twenty three councillors and the mayor. That makes a total of twenty-four. In cities of the same size in the rest of Canada there are usually sixteen to twenty. Halifax and Dartmouth amalgamated a few years back hence the twenty-four. There has been some stink raised over this, so finally council put it to a vote. The outcome of the vote is that greed overcame common sense. As soon as they heard the word "less" they voted against it.  "Council sticks with status quo" is what the headline read. Actually it was a tie vote 12 - 12. It was defeated because it was a tie. For the life of me I can't see the advantage for the councillors. It's not like they would be fired. If a seat was vacated, they just wouldn't have an election for it. These guys can't be that bright. If they saved all that money, they could have given themselves a raise.

I heard this statement yesterday "Some people choose to colour outside the line." I think it is supposed to be taken as a compliment, like thinking outside the box. I don't think they realize that most people who colour outside the lines are usually four year olds or so.

My Facebook entry for today is: If you go into the woods and are wondering if there are any bears, just look around and see if there is any toilet paper.

You know where that came from. Watching the Charmin ads.

The Fall Of The American Empire

Yesterday I started on the wire the shed project. Did all the inside work and then hooked up an entension cable to the fusebox. Lo and behold, it all worked. That was at 5 P.M. Then the plan was to measure for the underground cable. But it started to rain, so that was the end to that plan. Too bad I couldn't get the distance. I could buy the materials today. When I start something, I like to take it to the finish. One of my neighbours is building a patio. I think he started a month ago. A couple of days ago, he and a friend were pounding nails. Yesterday, nothing. I'm wondering if he'll finish by winter. Why I'm thinking that is because he's the guy who has a landscaper come in to mow his lawn. Anyway, that's him and for me it will rain all day. No trench digging for me.

I suppose you've heard about the problem checking veiled women at the airport. Common sense just does not prevail in this case. I'm assuming that that they had a photo taken without a veil. So what's the problem now? They crap on us because they can. The one they like to crap on the most is the Americans. They are doing that in fine style in New York right now with the cultural center near the 9-11 site. To me, this is totally wrong. I have no problem with them building a Mosque, but why add insult to injury. They can build it somewhere else but it doesn't give them the publicity they get now. The Islamic world can look at this and say,"Look what they are dong to our religion in America!  Off with their heads." I'm all for democracy but even in this you have to draw a line. You can't let everyone run amuk and do what they want. I believe in the U.S. their brand of democracy is doing them in. Their enemies use it against them every which way but loose.

The laws in England evolved starting in 1215 with The Magna Carta. Over the years it changed to where it is now. It didn't happen that way in the U.S. For them it started in 1776 when they threw out everything and started over. The trouble with that is that its the thoughts and ideas of the people of that period. They didn't have a long period thinking about it or gauging its outcome. I always hear the sentence,"I wonder what the founding fathers had in mind when they said this?" The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear this is the gun law. In 1776 that would have been a good idea. The people then didn't know if their country would be there the next day. But today, not such a good idea. They didn't evolve and they now have a gun problem that keeps getting worse. Two mass shootings yesterday.

I just thought that this is much better than a typewriter. How could you go back and correct all the spelling mistakes? In school my best subject was history. I love historical films. It also helps if they have a bit of truth.  Take for example, "Braveheart." Great movie but mostly crap. There was a William Wallace in Scotland, who did battle the English. But that's pretty well it. In the movie they led us to believe that he made out with the princess. In actual fact she was four years old at that time. I never read anywhere that they did a mooning. Do you think that Mel Gibson would use artistic license?

It appears to me that I am watching a remake of the fall of the roman empire. Not just the U.S. but western civilization in general. Rome sent troops to other countries, ditto. Tried to control the resources of these countries, ditto. At home was greed and decadence, ditto. Everyone tries to go to Rome to get a piece of the action, ditto. Subjects of losing countries start raising shit, ditto. Rome is changed into a bunch of Italians with Fiats. Awaiting sequel.

Are We Naive Or just Dumb?

Tuesday morning and as far as weather is concerned, it will leave everythng as is. So the first thing I do get my coffee and grab the paper. I almost choked on my coffee when I read the headlines, "Spy agency to probe itself." That has to be the joke for the day. The newspaper must figure it has a lot of gullable readers. Then again, there are a lot of naive people running around. To be fair, all of us are a bit naive. Some are downright dumb. I knew a woman once that if I told her that headline, she would say,"Oh, that's good."

A friend was over yesterday looking for a wheel for his lawn mower. The ones I had were too small but then I remembered the mower I was throwing out. Sure enough, right size wheels. He took one of them and after he left I took off the other three. I remembered that he broke one last summer and now I have his next summer replacement. Then I mowed my neighbour's lawn.

From my list of summer projects, I only have two left. Electricity for the shed and work on the snow blower. I went to the hardware store and bought the parts I needed for the shed and found out the information about the underground wiring. Then I started on the shed part and I will finish it all today. I'll have to measure the cable length after that.

When "The Black eyed Peas" were in town, the promoter had asked the city for $400,000. He didn't get it and I'm glad of that. The promoter never said that he lost any money so I'm assuming that he made a profit. 30,000 people attended the show. Since he is a businessman, he should be treated as such. All the stores don't get a kickback when they open their door. All businessmen take a risk, charge for their wares and watch their expenses. I'm sure he knows how much to charge to make a profit. If you go to the show, you pay the piper. If I don't go to he show, I shouldn't have to pay.

Talking about dumb headlines. "When you're sick it pays to be rich." It goes on to say,"Study suggests wealthy cancer patients live linger; researchers wonder why differences exist." Duh! You needed a study. You know that someone got big money to that study. Later on it read that thry wanted to do another study to see if it was the same in other provinces. I can see where this is going. Looks like a career job.

Facebook entry for today: If you don't want to be noticed in the backwoods, squint a lot and and leave out half your words.

"Inception" Is My Exception

Monday morning. Natal Day in Halifax. You can see a Parade. The only parade I'll see is me behind  lawn mower. My wife and daughter are away for a week, but I'm sure we won't starve. But the day is starting off really, really bad. They say that the average Canadian retires at 62 1/2. And that's what I did. Being typically Canadian, I didn't want to rock the boat. But yesterday evening I found out that I was not average. Whether I'm above or below doesn't matter. This all came about because of a movie. Everyone is raving about the movie "Inception." Some people call it awesome. I'm of the mind that if you call a movie awesome, that means you paid to see it. If you get the movie for free, then your feelings might be different. I never hear anyone say," I went to that movie last night and it was the pitts." Maybe awesome means that they went out last night with friends, had a great time and I think there was a movie on too. I remember that if you took your girlfriend to the Drive-in, they were all awesome, even if it was "The Red Blob From Mars."

Ellen Page was in "Inception." A home town girl, you have to be faithful to her, right? I've watched all her ads for "Cisco." Not Cisco Kid you dummy, Cisco Systems. Anyway, I watched the first 15 min. and it was terrible. Changed to a different movie. Later on it was, "I'm sorry Ellen, maybe I was rash, I'l give it another try. A half hour later, nope, I hate it. Maybe its one of those movies that when it comes out of the theatre, you never hear about it again. That would put me back on the normal list. I have to get back. Don't want to wander around abnormal.

I seem to be getting myself in a rut. Not only about "Inception", but also about "Haven", a show made in Lunenburg. Again I'm being faithful to a Nova Scotia product. Did you ever watch that show? I've watched four shows so far and I sweat that everyone in that burg needs anger management. Every show seems to be the same. Things fly around and go bump in the night, all because someone is having a temper tantrum. That's on my short list for shows to get rid of.

On facebook for today: If you go to Tim Hortons with a problem relative to share a donut, one gets the donut and the other gets the hole.

Vacation Day Deserved

Sunday morning with forecast for same weather as yesterday. This afternoon, my wife and daughter go away for a week. They go to our friends house in Eastern Passage. The house is right on the ocean. Lots of family so there is always a bunch of people around. We call it our daughter's vacation. So she is all excited. It's the week for the parade and fireworks. They drag my daughter in the wheelchair all over the place. A difficult thing to do. If God let you pick your own relatives, life would be pretty good.

A friend of mine made a comment on one of my rants.
If you haven't read a book called "The Peter Principle", see if you can locate a copy...... it has an explanation for some of the promotions you refer to......   "
I'm sure everyone knows what that means but if not here is the short version.
The Peter Principle is the principle that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence".
This brings up the question that if you first join an organization and are found out to be incompentant, where do you go? You go into the sideways shift. Well known in the military. They keep sending you from job to job, until they find you a job where you can cause the least damage.

What brought this to mind was an article I read the other day. It concerns a WW2 german prison guard. They said he was responsible for 422,000 deaths. So I had to look at that. He must be something else to be responsible for so many. I learn that he marched people, locked doors etc. They said he did all the guard duty type jobs in the camp. So you can guess my thoughts on that. They shifted him from job to job because he couldn't do anything right. After two years, he lost that posting. Went back home to his village and stayed there till now at 88 years of age.

He was nabbed by the Simon Wiesenthal Org. which is in some respects is like an organization funded by donations. You have to keep the money rolling in. The number of war criminals is starting to thin out, so then what. All such organizations face the same dilemma. People to be paid. The org. is in place, all you need is a new disease. I'll give you an example. The War Amps. Started for WW2  amputees and when that started to dry up, they switched to children. Of course I agree that was I good idea. Sadly to say, that won't dry up. What if they find a cure for cancer. Many and massive organizations. Doesn't a cancer cure seem to be taking a long time?

"Black Eyed Peas," "Black Eyed Peas." I'm sick of reading about them. They did a show on Gay Pride Day and there has been an article about them in the newspaper every day. I think the articles should have been put in the week before, not after. It's like they never heard of them and they are trying to make up. Anyway, I don't like black eyed peas and I don't like green beans either.

Facebook entry for today is: "Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Prince Charles Will Save The World

Saturday morning on what promises to be a beautiful day. About to do my usual Sat. routine, take my wife & daughter Yardsaleing. I think she found an empty spot in the house, so we have to find something to fill it. Better bring some money in case I find something for me. There's a difference between her and I. I actually look for legitimate stuff. Something like electrical boxes for wiring my shed. I think they should have yard sales for men only. Just sell manely stuff. Like car parts, beer hats and the all time favourite barbacue aprons. It's hard to have a yard sale for men. We don't have any junk. Everything we have, we need. And there is a reason for that. Every time the wife figures it's getting too crowded and she has to throw out stuff, she turfts out the husbands stuff.

Yesterday I mentioned the auction of Winston Churchill's dentures. I have to admit that I was slightly incorrect on that. It was only the upper plate, so I guess you can say it was only half a mouthful. They expected $8,000. but actually got almost $ 23,000. I guess it was because they changed the name of the item. They no longer called them Winston's Churchill's dentures. No sir. They called them, "The Teeth That Saved The World." Wouldn't you bid on something like that? There was probably a bidding frenzy after that. Imagine coming home to your wife and she asks,"What did you get at the auction dear?" OH, I got "The Teeth That Saved The World."  I don't know where they are now. Hope not in someone's mouth.

The Canadian Navy are getting new helicopters. Yes, and they are due three years ago. So we will be getting them at a later date. If some of the requirements are dropped we can get them at a earlier later date rather than a later date. Stuff like a system that allows info to be exchanged between ship and helicopter. Even so I think that we have to have something. We can still use flags, can't we? Too slow? So the solution to that would be to have Twitter accounts. Everyone would be issued an ipod. Another uneccessary item is an endurance test for flying in warm weather. By then we won't be in Afghanistan so why worry about warm weather. Another is a test that requires that one engine keeps going if the other engine fails at higher temperatures. I am kind of leery about that one. I understand that one engine won't fail because we are not in Afghanistan, but thinking about a car, if the engine overheats, you shut it down or it will do it by itself. Maybe they think that after the engine blows, the helicopter falling to earth will cool off the second engine and it will start. Or maybe they couldn't find a pilot stupid enough to do that test.

The bottom line is that Canadian factories get more jobs for the next twenty years, which is probably what they wanted. The end result is we are getting helicopters early later, have flags as communications with engines that may fail if they fly over southern Ontario in August.

By the way, you can make comments on these articles. If they are nasty, they won't see the light of day and you have been talking to yourself.

My add to Facebook today is: Prince Charles: 'My duty is to save the world'... We're in good hands now.

International Protestors Union?

The day is starting off wrong. The Canadian Tire flyer had driveway sealer at $12.99. Aaagh!. I bought mine in June for $30.00. Can't do anything about that. It's not like you can buy and save them. The other day, I switched those lawn mowers around. Now I have exactly what I want. Two mowers, both 6.75 hp, one with a bag on the back and the other with large rear wheels. I guess that's the end of that hobby. Rained all day yesterday and last night. Today it's cloudy, no wind and supposed to be hot this afternoon.

Right now I have a deal you might be interested in. Part of a set of dentures used by Winston Churchill to disguise a lisp is going on sale. Expecting around $8,000. How about this piece of history for your coffee table? Imagine the hot words that passed over these teeth. Or maybe not. There are actually two sets and the first one is in the museum. So the second one may have only spouted hot air. And I'm sure you've had your fill of that.

When you watched the Soccer World Cup and you saw how bad the North Korean team did, you probably figured the coach would be in big kaka. Well, he is no longer a coach, he is a construction worker. I thought he would end up in jail at the least. So maybe he was favoured. And the coach from Brazil? He also got turfed. Reminds me of the ball game the Mayans used to play. The losing team were toast. No free agents there.
I bet they were always looking for new players.

Here's a title that turns your head when you first glance at it."Separatists Start Five-Day Strike In India kashmir." When I saw that all I could say was, "Good Lord, now the protestors are going on strike?" It appears they are. Starting today, for five days, the store owners are going to close all their stores. But not wanting to cause their customers any grief, they will go off strike for Sunday, then back on strike on Monday. And you wonder why these countries still live the way they did 2000 years ago. Wonder if they belong to the International Protestors Union?

My Facebook entry today is: "I must be losing it. Saw this headline "Snooki Knocks Obama's Tanning Tax." And I actually knew who Snooki was. Help! I'm sinking into the celebrity abyss."

Where Has My Promotion Gone?

Storm on the way. That's what they say. In that case, I'll just do inside stuff.

I was watching a tv show the other day called, "Crash $ Burn." It's about an insurance company. So there is a promotion coming up and one guy asks if he is going to get it? His boss says to him,"What! You're the best Adjuster we have. You save us millions of dollars a year. I woud be crazy to promote you and lose all that." And there in lies the truth. I suppose that you believe in the old adage, study, work hard and you will get ahead. That sounds good but that's not the way it works in the real world. The more useless you are, the more likely you'll get promoted. I bet you see that around your workplace. The hard working, smartest and best employees are the foundation that hold up the company. Can't promote them. Who would do the work. If you are getting a little older, maybe you are starting to clue into that now.

Does the military operate that way? You bet your combat boots they do. We had a saying in the military. Card players promote card players and drunks promote drunks. Of course, hard workers promote hard workers, but they are few and far between. This reminds me of something else. In the military they are always sending people on courses to keep up with the new stuff. So you can assume that they would send the best people, so they can keep up with the new stuff. No,no, no! Are you crazy. If they did that, who would do all the work? You have to send the person who is the most useless. Now what happens after that? Promotion time. "Look at this guy. Really gung-ho. Always going on courses. Up to date on everything. This is the guy we have to promote. Besides that, he's the Generals nephew.

Saw something the other day that flu vaccines are free this year. Also protects against H1N1. It is always free for a certain segment of the population. That would be me. When they were in panic mode last year, it was free to everyone. So maybe they are saying it's free for those who don't need it. So what are my thoughts on this?  First of all, they have too much vaccine left over. If they give it out, the doctors can charge the health insurance $20. a shot. During the panic last year, I didn't get any shots. Once I found out that the upper crust wasn't getting the same as the rest of us, I was wary. I also took into consideration the financial crisis, where thet were trying to get money into circulation by any means. Everyone associated with getting the vaccine to people had to be paid. Another way of getting money into the economy. Didn't hurt the drug companies either.

Time to bash the Water Commision now. My wife's friend told me yesterday that she had a call from them asking if they should come out and change the meter? They said that the water bill was down and they wondered if they had changed the consumption or if the meter was broken. She told them that her husband was in the hospital for the last two months and he used to water the lawn like crazy. So they were happy with that.  I guess this begs the question that if the bill had doubled, would she still get a phone call about the condition of the meter?

My facebook note today is. "Aaah! I'm the victim of rapid ageing. I'm sure I was 19 yesterday."

1900 Electric Car Photo

Today it's supposed to be 28C/82F. Of course the humidity will be higher. We are waiting for the Power Co. to arrive. They are going to pick up my old humidifier and gve me $10.00. Considering that I bought an almost new one at a yard sale for the same price, its a win win situation. Then its off for a haircut. Also thinking that today I may switch motors on two lawn mowers. But that's to be seen since my wife hasn't given me my marching orders yet. On second thought, she did tell me something last night. I have to fix something on my daughters wheelchair. Better do that right now.

O.K. That's done. And the haircut too. As I was having a bagel this morning, I remembered the first one I had. I was visiting a cousin in N.Y.C. and Sunday morning after mass, we went to a bagel store. They had six cash registers and a lineup like McDonald's. Behind this was trays of different flavour cream cheese. That was my first experience with bagels and I was impressed. This reminds me of my first experience with large pretzels. Driving into Philadelphia, there were people at the stop lights selling large pretzels covered with course salt. My wife, being from Germany, had to have one. Soft pretzels, yum,yum.We went to Philly over thirty times and Pretzels were on the menu.

The big buzz on tv last night was the new Chev. electric car. As you can see from the photo, the electric car is not new. We had them over a hundred years ago and progress went nowhere. They were slapped down by the oil companies. As Sarah Palin would say,"Well, how did that work out for ya? Maybe not that well, considering oil supplies, pollution etc. Where would the electric car be now if had a hundred years to improve? Would the planet be a better place to live? That's something we will never know. Greed dictates how things go and the track record is not too good on that.

They have small videos on tv about Canadian history. One of them was about Jacques Cartier who is credited with claiming Canada for France in the early 1500's. In the video he is aboard ship and one of the crew tells him that they have trouble steering the ship because of the amount of cod. When he goes for a look, he says something like,"My God, we have enough fish to feed the world till the end of time." Well, how did that work out for ya?  The reason I mention this is that you can't fish for cod anymore. We all know that. But in Newfoundland, for the next two weeks, you can fish for cod. Not with a net, a fishing line. So it will be cod for dinner and fishcakes for the freezer. I guess forever came sooner than we thought.

School Days. School Days. Good Old Golden Rule Days

Tue. morning. Should be a nice day. Sunny with a little wind. Sounds like a grass cutting day. Can't start yet, though. Don't want to wake up the neighbours.

The top story in our newspaper today is about kids in school. It appears that the math test marks are too low. But our educators have a solution for that. Our great and wise have decided that the marks are too low because the bar is set too high. How do like that for a solution? Wait a minute now. We had that test three years ago and guess what? They decided that the bar was too high. I don't know if lowering the bar each time is a good plan. Would we then be graduating idiots? Perhaps we are already at that stage. Ever go to a store and have someone count change back to you, without the use of a cash register. That's pretty scarey.It appears that the educators never paid attention when they went to school. "These teachers don't know what they are talking about. I know better than them. And when I grow up and become a teacher, I'm going to show them." And they certainly have.

Read the other day that they are sending down to he Gulf area a local prof. who is an economist and whatever else. He is going down with The Economic Development Council. And he was asked because Nova Scotia has physical, economic and cultural similarities to Louisiana. The only similarity I see is that some of their ancestors came from Nova Scotia.

They are going down for three days to assess the economic recovery needs. First of all I think they have enough Americans that can do that. The people living there know better than anyone what is required. Who is paying for all this? Did someone have their hand in my wallet? Looks like a bunch of guys, doing the same job, getting together at someone else's expense. Getting photos and getting fodder for a university lecture, a newspaper article and whatever else.

There was this picture in the some paper the other day about a vegetarian protesting eating meat. She was dressed as a lettuce. The article said she wanted to turn over a new leaf. What they mean is that she wants us to turn over a new leaf.

Cash For Clunkers

Monday morning and back to the warm temps. again. They say for most of the week. Woke up at 7:00 this morning to the sound of sirens. And it sounded like a lot of them. When you are involved with a siren, it's usually bad news. No plans yet on what to do today. What do seniors do? Weave baskets? This reminds me of old peoples homes. My son and his friend went to visit his father. Told me that he never expected to spend Sat. afternoon doing that and it was really scarey. The guy's father told them that his tv didn't work. Couldn't change channels. He had been clicking it and now was up around 100. The channels were changing .1 each time. Said that his tv hadn't worked for months. My son restored everything and wrote down directions on a piece of paper. His son didn't know about this because he always took him home for the afternoon and his father never mentioned it. Not being able to use something like a tv clicker sure decreased his quality of life.

Now that the Gay Parade is over, the next attraction for the masses is the Psychic Fair this weekend. They don't have the same crowds, so they don't get a parade. I saw pictures of some floats and they could use them in a parade. They could start with a large crystal ball and a Genie hanging out of the top.

You probably saw this item on the news about a guy who traded up from a cellphone to a BMW. He did it in seventeen trades. My take on this is that this guy must live in an area where it is easy to find seventeen really stupid people. Who trades down to something of a lesser value? My son thinks it was a con. Maybe he was able to tell each one of them that if they would do a deal, they would get on the news and all be famous. Well, two of them got on the news. Him and his buddy that gave him the cell phone. The others were in the land of how can you be so stupid? I think the clincher for me was the motor bikes. There were a number of them. Who in their right mind would trade a bike for a lesser model and walk away?

In the U.S. they had this "Cash For Clunkers" deal. I think they gave you $2000. Up here, we have a recycle program for old cars. They take cars 1995 and before. And what do you get in return? Why, you get a bicycle or a bus pass for a month. Wouldn't that just get you all excited? Do you think that if I gave them a bicycle, they would they give me an old Volkswagen Bug?

The Souped Up Drink Cooler

Saw something on New People's Almanac this morning. It said that 80% of millionairs drive a second hand car. So I was fairly impressed with this. Thinking that some millionairs don't waste their money. Told my wife about it and she said, "Well Jay Leno has used cars." Then I was not so impressed. After that I told my son the same thing. He said "Sure , but they can also have a new car. Now getting less impressed. Then I think, yeah, a guy can have a 2009 Maserati. No longer impressed.

Now here's a story about the souped up drink cooler. This guy was stopped, riding on the sidewalk and got a ticket for $222.00. Now when you look at this thing, it's not much different than something from the scooter shop.  It's not as pretty and it's home made but it's about the same size. I don't know why he got the ticket but I have a few ideas about it. He says that he drives it at 5 to 10 mph. but says it goes 50 mph. Anything going that speed has to have a licence and probably drive on the road. You wouldn't be able to drive your car on the sidewalk even if you went 5 to 10 mph. There is something else thought I don't know if it has anything to do with it. The guy is about 42  years old and I don't think he has any handicap. Anyway, he is going to fight it in court. Right now he is grounded.

Since the dock workers in Montreal have gone on strike, it has given more business to Halifax. Does an increase in port traffic also mean an increase in drug traffic? Seem like the two would go hand in hand.

I have four brothers of which I am the oldest. One day someone said to me that I would die first. Inquiring how he got to that deduction, he said because I was the oldest. My thought was,"Hold on Tonto, this is not the Supermarket, where if you are at the front of the line, you get to go thru the checkout first."

Careful With the Dildow

Someone mentioned that I must have seen some strange goings on when I worked at the airport. And that's an understatement. I'll mention a few. I know that the airport couldn't do this but it sure would help middle age women if they were allowed to put up a sign which read. "Before proceeding through baggage inspection, please insure that the batteries have been removed from your vibrator." Laugh as you will, its not an infrequent mishap. I get an alarm and I get the cameras rolling. Security searches through the bag, finds the item and holds it up in the air to show that it is not a threat. And there he is, "King Kong" for all the world to see. And for the lady, not the celebrity she wanted to be.

Some monitors always have the same picture on them. A spot such as a gate are always watched. One morning I was sitting there and I saw one of the employees climbing up the gate. He didn't bother going through the main door or security doors. Honed in on him, got all the photos, did the alarms and there he was nabbed. I get a pat on the back and he gets a $500. fine. Could have been worse for him. On the other hand, if I hadn't caught him, it would have been worse for me. It could have been a test.

That's enough of the serious stuff. One morning I was near the bottom of the escalator where the people come down from Arrivals and go through the door to meet their loved ones. Coming down the escalator was a good looking girl around 20. She was wearing blue jean shorts and a tank top. She also had crutches because she had two broken legs. Both legs had full casts. She gets to the bottom and asks if I would help her. Told me that she had a cramp in her stomach and would I massage it fo her. That would have looked really great on camera. Photos for everyone. Anyway, up went the red flare and I suggested that I could hold her crutches, she could put one hand on my shoulder to steady herself and massage her own stomach. true story. I couldn
t make up one like that.

Britney Spears On The Run

At least that's what she called herself as she made a dash through security the other day at Halifax Int. Airport. She ran past the guys that check carry-on luggage, up the stairs, hoping to get to the secure area where the planes are loaded. Well, she really has high hopes there. That just ain't going to happen. Having had the responsibility of trapping those people, I can tell you how that works.

Airport security is controlled from Security Operations Center. It is a secure area away from everything. The Fort Knox of the airport. All camera operation, monitors, computers, radio ops, lock controls, passwords and anything pertaining to security is controlled from there. The person running this is called a SOC Operator. I had that job for five years. All are ex military. When I was there, sometimes there was only one person on. Now there is always two.

Running through security? We practice that all the time. At the top of the stairs to the secure area there are four doors which seperates it from the baggage inspection. If someone runs, security pushes an alarm. The SOC Op. locks the doors and only he can open them. At the same time he has a camera on the person and is able to switch from camera to camera to track the person. At the same time again, he has a foot switch for the radio and is broadcasting all that is going on. He has alerted one R.C.M.P. and four Security Police. These police are ex R.C.M.P., ex City Police and ex Military Police. So Britany got to the top of the stairs and had no place to go. By now all police have her under tow. Off to the looney bin.

Hobby Without a Horse

This article is about me, or at least the hobbies I've had over the last ten years. Now I don't have a hobby like stamp collecting etc. that can be a lifelong passion. Mine are more like part time jobs, that after awhile, they reach some conclusion and I move on. Some people are obsessed with following celebrities. That could be a hobby. Most people finish with that hobby after their teens, but some people try to stay young forever. You just have to remember that celebrities are people and have the same faults as your nexr door neighbour or your relatives.

I think the first hobby was selling on ebay. For myself and other people. I had a friend who had a lot of unusual items to sell. One was a Union Army belt buckle from the Civil War. Another, I can't remember what it was, came from a U.S. submarine. This sub was now a museum and the item was in the sub when it was active. The curator sent me a photo of the inside of the sub with the item. He was very happy to get it. And it was more like a donation.

After awhile I said enough of this packing, I need something simpler. I came up with the idea of old magazine ads. All I needed was an envelope and cardboard backing. That I did for a number of years. With the recession, business slowed down but Post office expenses didn't. I closed my ebay store. The ads I still display on two other sites. http://oldmagazineads.blogspot.com/  and  http://www.originalmagazineads.com/wordpress/  The first site gets about 1000 visitors a day. It seem that I have become somewhat of a library. People want them for school products, university magazines and movies. For one movie I had to send a photo of a big tooth. Got my name in the credits. Once I sent an ad to CA 90210.

These ads plus others provide me with money from adsense, ebay and Amazon ads. They run automatic and I have to check them ever so often to make sure of that. While this was going on, I was restoring antique radios. You know, the old tube type. Did that for a couple of years. Then decided that this was too much like my military job. And the cruncher was when they got rid of all AM radion stations. Now I can't listen to them.

Three years ago I bought a 25 year old snow blower. No plastic on it. All steel, 32" cut, 7 gears forward, 3 reverse. So I figured with that, I better learn how to fix the motor. Same as a lawn mower, just bigger. I always used an electric mower because I could fix them. So I had better learn to fix a gas one. That was last years project or hobby, which I finished this year.

Prior to all this, I learned to use a computer, then I learned to fix a computer, then I learned how to build a computer from scratch. I think now I am hobbyless. Maybe I should write a book. I have two brothers that do that. Both are published, but not on a grand scale. Or maybe I could just sit on the patio and drink beer.

Catholic Jokes and Bingo

Big rain and thunder today. Supposed to be 20C/68F. The grass needs the rain. Someone gave my neighbour a lawnmower, non working that is. Had that going in about 5 min. Have two of hers now, which I will combine to make one that will be better than mine. That's my plan. God may change that. I was supposed to take my daughter to Halifax to pick up glasses. May have to put that on hold. In and out of the van and wheelchair in the rain not a good idea.

Been some noise lately about children playing Bingo. One interview complained that this would lead to problem gamblers. My own thoughts on that are with pre-teens and teens learning poker, we are long past that. And the idea that this is a sport is beyond me. I always thought that sports require some exertion. Not sitting behind a table perhaps having a beer. Imagine in Olympic Boxing, "Hold that punch Bud, I need a swig of beer." Back to Bingo.  Kids have been playing Bingo as long as I can remember. Sometimes its a family outing. I can't imagine a slew of kids running out to play Bingo. Actually I can't imagine kids running.

I remember when I was young, there was always Catholic jokes. I'm catholic and I told the same jokes. Funny is funny. Masons have told me that when they made a speech, it should include a good Catholic joke.
At the top of the joke list would be Catholics and Bingo. Lately I watch tv and see the ads, "Masonic Bingo, seven nights a week." Now that's funny. Other jokes would be about eating fish on Friday. And what happens now? Everyone after fish oil capsuls. Need that Omega 3. It appears that some must have known something. And this must show that the churches are coming closer together. Everyone plays Bingo and want to eat fish and not just on Friday. God works in mysterous ways.

The paper this morning show almost a full page ad for a beer sale. Since you can only buy beer from a Government store, there is no competation. And people that are going to buy beer, go and buy it. A sale doesn't make much difference. Then again, maybe some stock up. From the sellers point of view, if they have it, they will drink it. The sale doesn't make much difference to me. Of course, this is from someone who drinks a beer a year and the last drink of liquor was at a family funeral three years ago.

The $400,000. Cookie

The temp. today is 28C/82F with humidity 38C/96F. That is fairly warm and I gather that under some people's collars it could be hotter. I cut my neighbours lawn this morning while it was in the shade and before it got too hot. The power just came back on. It was off for a short time. Back in time for dinner.

Did you hear that the Government is getting into the bakery business? It would appear so. They wanted to make made-in-Canada astronaut food. To the tune of $400,000. They quietly got into it and just as quietly got out of it. Didn't pan out so to speak. The first problem seemed to be the ego problem. It has to have Canadian content.  They needed recipes with Canadian sounding names. Fiddleheads, bison meatloaf, maple cookies and other intriguing items were on the menu. The only one that passed the test were cream filled oatmeal cookies. So Canadians, you spent $400,000 for an oatmeal cookie recipe. I could have given you one.

I don't know why they went thru all that trouble. The solution is so simple. All they had to do was put a picture of William Shatner on each package. Can you imagine it? Canadian content. William Shatner "Capt. Kirk". In the Space Station. On top of all that, this bakery was in Montreal, the home of William Shatner.
Win, win all the way. Can't see the forest for the trees.

Learned a new word the other day. Pink. No, not the colour. The person. Didn't know there was a singer that name. But I also found out that some of her ancestors are Lithuanian. Guess what? Today I learned another new word. Stunting! If you drive 50klm/30mph over the posted speed limit, it's called stunting. First fine is over $2400. This guy they fined yesterday was travelling 190klm/115mph. And his fine? Well , he gets to pay a nice $10,000. On the other hand, if you drive a car that can move that fast, I guess you can afford it.

No More Water Pipes For Women

Saw this article the other day and it said that Hamas won't allow women to use water pipes any more. The first thing that came to my mind was, "Those Arabs, they won't even allow the women to use taps anymore. They will have to get water from the well." I would not find this so far fetched as you imagine, because just awhile ago they outlawed women riding on motorbikes. Not just driving them, but riding on the back seat behind their husbands. I don't know if they can still ride on donkeys. A lot of the older women agree with thes laws. Yep, I'm sure Allah sat down and said, "This with women riding on bikes has got to stop.From now on they walk, I have spoken.""Boom, clap of thunder." Anyway, they wern't taking about those pipes, they were talking about smoking pipes. I copied this so we are all on the same page.

"In street cafeterias one can order a coffee or tea and a sheesha. Usual choice for a water pipe (nargilla) order would be a very light tobacco mixed with aromatic fruits - apple, cherry, etc. You can see people spending hours over nargillah and a drink of tea or coffee. Very pleasant, relaxing experience helps socializing and making new contacts.  The smoke itself is very light and pleasant, even for those who don't normally smoke! Specially constructed water pipe additionally filters the smoke through water, and cools it down in long brass tubes, offering rather a tasty "dessert" than a smoking experience."

What got me was the "spending hours." Those lazy louts. They just don't want to work. They could be out rioting or throwing rocks.  Some men don't get off that easy either. Standing next to a woman in public. Bad News Bears for you. Wearing shorts?  I wouldn't want to imagine the punishment for that. And Adultry?  Oh! Sorry.That's O.K. It was the woman's fault. Maybe one ear was showing.

Squatters To Be Shot

Awhile back I wrote about Canada Geese. The next day there was a half page article on the subject. It seems that when they fly south and stop for bed and board, some decide that they like the area, close to schools, shopping malls and especially parks, they decide to stay. They have five chicks a year for twenty years. So the squatter slums start getting larger. Not unlike humans, would you say? We don't know what to do with the humans but the Geese can be shot. In Canada the hunting season is 5 days, which they have just extended to 11 days. But just like the army, there are rules of engagement. The hunting season is prior to the peak travel season. We don't want to shoot vacationers going south. You can shoot them in a farmers field, but you have to get permission. Never said anything about dressing up as a Scarecrow. If you are one for a Christmas Goose, you need to have a freezer.

Speaking of "Rules of Engagement." I guess it's not shoot first, ask questions later. Looks like you have to call Headquarters first and get permission. The Capt. didn't do that and look what crapola he got in.