live small, with a neighbour

I like living in a house, with trees in the front yard.

["Having a workshop is a very good idea"]

And I currently live in one that will very likely be my last earthly address, in Wortley Village, London, Ontario. The house is small, close to the corner of Coffee and Hardware, has a great workshop in the backyard and is surrounded my wonderful neighbours and hundreds of healthy trees.

["My situation may change": April 18, London Free Press]

Recent news has me thinking. Will I one day have to rent out the basement in order to stay where I am? Will one of my philosophies of life, i.e., 'live small and prosper', have to change to 'live small and prosper and with a neighbour or friend renting out the basement in order to cover expenses'?

["Easy money and household debt court disaster"] 

The new normal appears to involve higher unemployment, rising household debt, vast wealth in the hands of the few, a resistance to taxes and paying our collective way, fewer safety nets to help those with decent jobs, rising threats to pensions and bad news around every corner.

Some will ask, "All this from a recent news article?"

Not word for word, but it got me thinking of the following:

Low interest rates have fuelled rising household debt

New home buyers are lured by cheap money

When interest rates go up so will the struggles related to paying mortgages

Sustaining an economy with low interest courts disaster

Low interest doesn't sustain pension funds, it robs them of growth

Pensioners will struggle as well to keep their homes

I should tidy up my basement. I'll need a broom and a lot of cardboard boxes.

Do events related to the housing market seem troubling to you?

Photos by GH

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Please click here for local unemployment figures

It Strikes Me Funny Pt 1: KFC’s Double Down sandwich

“No way,” I said.

My wife said nothing.

I was channel surfing the other night and came across a report about a new chicken sandwich from KFC in the USA and couldn’t believe my eyes.

“No way. This is...” I said, then stopped and pointed, as if the chicken sandwich, the size of a breadbox, couldn’t be seen from where my wife was sitting, which was at the other end of the same sofa I was sitting on.

“This is what’s wrong with the world,” I finished.

While listening to the mini-documentary/heart-attack-waiting-to-happen-update, I learned KFC’s latest menu item wasn’t in fact a chicken sandwich.

It is two pieces of bacon and two slices of cheese smothered with the Colonel's Sauce with two fried chicken patties as buns.


["Why is it called Double Down? Do you double over?": link to photo w comments]

No regular bun. The chicken is the bun.

“You and I couldn’t finish one of those off together,” I said. “How can people eat that stuff?”

During the TV report, I saw various people, i.e., moms, dads, young children, reacting to the Double Down.

I noticed a lot of positive and surprised reactions.

“Oh, it’s big.”

“Oh, where’s the bun?

“Oh, this is so good?”

“Yeah, I like this.”

“Hey, how come there’s no bun?”

I also noticed no one reacted the way I would have reacted. Nobody asked for a fork so they could poke at it to see if it was real.

And nobody asked, “Do I really need this much meat for this one meal, or for today, or this week?”

Would you eat a KFC Double Down?

Please click here to read Pt 2.

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What? Sarah Palin was asked to fundraise for a Canadian hospital?

It strikes me very funny that the Juravinski Cancer Centre and St. Peter’s Hospital in Hamilton invited Sarah Palin to be a celebrity fundraiser for them.

First, Palin is about 30 years and 30 significant contributions to mankind away from being a celebrity in my book. (So, get back to me in 30 years!)

Second, is this the same Sarah Palin who said (just a few weeks ago) that “Canada needs to dismantle its public health-care system and allow private enterprise to get involved and turn a profit?”


["Oh boy. If I could jist get my hands on a hospital"]

Isn’t that like saying, what good is cancer if we can’t make money off it?

Folks, it was the same Sarah Palin, but enough people called the Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation with a dissenting view that her assignment was shifted.

Palin will now help fundraise for a children’s charity, likely because she hasn’t figured out a way yet to turn a profit on young kids.

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My Point of View: Cliff’s lack of oversight cost us $451,000

$451,000 (and a pat on the head). That’s how much Diane Beattie received for doing her job very poorly before being shown the door.

$451,000. That’s a pile of money. Our money.

Cliff Nordal, president and ceo London Health Sciences Centre, failed to do his job as her boss before handing her a pink slip and final pay packet. And what a pay packet!

When I retired after 32 years of brilliant service with the London and now Thames Valley District School Bd., I received three things:

an old Stromberg-Carlson radio


a gratuity based on a portion of the worth of my unused sick days

a reminder from Paul E. (Gr. 7 teacher): Don’t let the door hit you on the way out

Diane Beattie deserves none of the above, let alone thousands upon thousands of dollars.


["My retirement gift was approved": photos GAH]

It’s a travesty far worse than the Highland Country Club tax deal and Cliff Nordal should pay us back.

***

Phil McLeod tells a more detailed story and provides analysis you should all read at www.philipmcleod.ca

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Deforest City Blues: 100 ordinary citizens deserve Highland Country Club tax deal

If the way to stroke wealthy golfers is to give them a $2.4 million break on their taxes, then I think it’s only fair City Hall give 100 families a $2,400 break for 10 years to make par.

A $1,200 break for 200 families for 10 years would also fly, like a well struck Titleist over a deep bunker.


[Don’t worry about me, City Hall. Though I can’t afford Highland’s $12,000 upfront membership fee and $5,000 annual year, I can handle my own property taxes for now. I know many other Londoners, however, feel like they’re knee deep in a sand trap at tax time.]

Another way to look at it:

Since Highland has received a $2.4 million break from the citizens of Deforest City, it owes those same people an equal amount of service.

What can Highland Country Club do for its community in lieu of money?

Free golf? Free use of their dining room, bar, grounds? Let’s think about it.

At present, Highland Country Club’s board has thought about it and has “told its members it doesn’t plan to consider changes to the arrangement.”

Really? I get teed off when I hear stuff like that.

[Link to article in today’s London Free Press]

***

Why does an exclusive golf club get such a great deal?

What was City Hall thinking when the tax deal was inked, 45 years ago?

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Nature’s wealth is going through a recession too

Natural sockeye salmon numbers are down so low in the Fraser River that one day soon the majority of Canadians may be reduced to eating a factory farm replacement.


["The number returning from the sea - down substantially": photo link]

The lower quality replacement will sit on our plates alongside our factory farm pork, beef, chicken and lamb. (I’d include wieners but I think they’re still made from real chicken lips).

My suggestion: Reduce your intake of fish and meat, reduce our reliance on factory food, and give nature and natural herds a chance to rebound.

Ten to twenty years ought to do it and our average weight per person might return to near normal levels.

***

Want to lose five pounds before Christmas?

Reduce meat in your meals by 50 per cent and skip the second helpings at Thanksgiving.

Am I onto something?

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Live Small and Prosper: Prepare now for less meat in the future

Too bad it’s BBQ season, but cut back by about 10 per cent for starters, I say.

From A Small History of Progress:

“Population growth is slowing, but by 2050 there will be 3 billion more on earth.”

“We may be able to feed that many in the short run, but we’ll have to raise less meat (which takes ten pounds of food to make one pound of food), and we’ll have to spread that food around.”

“What we can’t do is keep consuming as we are.”

[For those who think 2050 is a long, long way off, think about the age of the youngest member of your family. By 2050 my grandson Ollie will be 43, just a young pup. Twins due in September will be 41.]


["Ollie and friend will be young pups in 2050": photo GAH]

Cutting back meat consumption by even 10 per cent - to prepare for a frugal future - will be a big challenge for my fellow Canadians. We get 32 per cent of our fat from meat (and alternatives) and we love our meat - our growing waistlines say as much.

Why a big challenge?

Ingrained habits - we eat what we want when we want. Big portions too. We’ve lived in a world without limits for 60 years.

Marketing and media - “eat eat eat” is a constant message. Put all the capital letters together from M and M Meats and you get MMM.

Big business - the meat industry is a giant enterprise and will see the growing population as business opportunity, not a reason to conserve.

Governments - can politicians find a way to effectively educate and encourage consumers/voters to conserve resources and trim the fat off their lifestyle because a growing population threatens resources? How can they sell the message we live in a country with a market economy that is unsustainable?

HMMM.

***

Are we trapped? Is it impossible to reduce consumption without a future crisis?

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Same old same old and the next ‘new’ recession

Globally, car sales are increasing ever so slightly.

During the first 3 months of 2009, 43 million units were sold, and we’re not talking units produced in any sort of sustainable manner.

During the next 3 months, 48 millions units were sold world-wide, with China and Germany leading the way.

Thus the headline ‘Revival Forecast On the Way’ in our local paper.

Is this the shot in the arm our Market-First economies need? Will we soon be living the high life again, not caring a hoot about future generations?


The smart money says no.

"Most immediately, we face the end of the cheap fossil fuel era. It is no exaggeration to state that reliable supplies of cheap oil and natural gas underlie everything we identify as a benefit of modern life." [The Long Emergency by James H. Kunstler]

Any revival depending on the production of cars for the individual driver will be short-lived, end in a blind alley and another ‘new’ (as in, we never saw this coming) recession.

Reduce your spending, save your money, take mass transit or walk.

You’ll be better off in the long term.

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