Made in Canada: Not just bird seed is made down the road

The following comment from callmemit caught my interest recently:

“There is a website called www.buycanadianfirst.ca - co-founded by Isabelle Remy of Montreal. I have no commercial interest in her business but I do support her when I can.”

I thought, I should take a visit to the buycanadianfirst website. I did.


I read the following:

“Why buy Canadian first?”

“It used to be that as consumers we didn’t think twice about the long term effects of our shopping habits on the communities we live in. We became addicted to low-cost products made abroad and got hooked on accumulating quantity over quality. Products that used to be built to last are now built to be disposed of, making them seem “cheaper” at first glance. This is known as planned obsolescence (you can learn about it on The Story of Stuff).”

If you haven’t heard the story of stuff, go now. I’ll wait.

Now, back to buycanadianfirst. I also read the following:

“Then, something worrisome started to happen: Canadian manufacturing jobs were disappearing at an alarming rate. Between 2003 and the Spring of 2008 for example, Canada lost 350,000 manufacturing jobs. And sadly, things have not improved since then. But the silver lining is that in the couple of years, our country has seen the emergence of a grassroots movement towards buying more locally-made products. It seems the pendulum has gone as far as it can in the outsourcing direction, and companies are striving for more balance and better quality control all over again.”

The site listed a lot of other info as well, and it made for an interesting read.


["I'm happy to report we make bird seed down the road": photo GH]

For example, you could read about the top 6 reasons why we should be buying Canadian:

E.g., 1. The economy

“When we buy Canadian, we directly impact our economy in positive ways...”

Please click here to read more.

***

Read more Made in Canada here.

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London’s Weather: Big dump brings Level 4 snow conditions

Rob Kuhn, meteorologist with Environment Canada, described London Ontario’s present weather conditions in a very colourful (?) manner when he said, “This is the biggest dump in London since 2006.” (today’s London Free Press)

Hmmm... is ‘dump’ the best word to use here?

I’m not sure, but the notion of the “biggest dump” inspired me to use a large dump truck as one way to keep track of the amount of snow falling on our fair city this winter. A hollow stump filled with twisty branches will also help.


["My current weather station": photos GH]

(That’s right. When it comes to tracking London’s weather, I spare no expense).


The yellow Caterpillar is 7.5 inches or 19 cm high and was half buried by 2:30 p.m. yesterday and completely buried by 9 p.m.


Today, approximately 20 inches or 50 cm of snow has accumulated.

As one can clearly see, we’re experiencing Level 4 conditions here.

By way of explanation: You’ll need to wear at least 4 protective clothing items outside, such as a winter coat, winter boots, woollen mitts and a colourful toque or toboggan. If winds pick up I may change the forecast to Level 5 conditions, i.e., you’ll need a scarf.


["It's still snowing. We may move to Level 5"]

I’ll provide a more precise snow measurement after I’ve finished my tea and cookies.

However, if the snow covers the top of the twisty branches I’m staying indoors. Maybe you should too.

***

Please click here to see London’s first trace of snow cover.

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Bird Watching: Female cardinal braves the storm

London Ontario will be covered in two feet of snow by suppertime today, if not by mid-afternoon, the way things are going.


["A pile of snow fell last night": photos GH

Snow is falling in XL buckets.


["The bird feeder sported a tall snow cap this morning"]

In spite of the conditions, a pair of cardinals visited my feeder this morning.


The female didn’t mind me snapping her picture through a backdoor window but the male was a bit more cautious, flew away when he spotted me and continues to hide in our snow-covered blue spruce.


Perhaps he’ll make an appearance later in the day.

What birds are visiting your feeder?

***

Please click here for more Bird Watching.

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Made in Canada: We know how to make birdseed... Cheep

I don’t know how much Hawaiians pay for bird seed during winter months, but here in Canada one can pay at least $31 for two hefty bags, total weight 26 kg or 57 pounds, which is enough to keep a flash of juncos happy for the entire winter season.


For those who didn’t know: The collective noun for doves is bevy.

E.g., a bevy of doves just carried off my neighbour’s cat.

For barracudas it’s battery, and for juncos it’s flash.


["Both bags carry this stamp. Well done, Canada": photos GH]

Now that you’re thoroughly educated about a few more important facts and details, allow me to happily say that here in Canada we still know how to mix a variety of seeds together suitable for birds to eat.

Also, thanks to two readers, I’ve learned that dish soap is still also Made in Canada.

(Admittedly, my wife and I use Dawn, made in the US, but that’s not my fault. Later today, or when the Dawn is nearing the sunset of its life, I’ll tell my wife to look for a Canadian made product and hope she happily agrees to look for it. I should add, if I say something to her today, after she gets back from a hectic round of Christmas shopping, this could easily be my last post - ever! Sorry, I digress.)

Dish soap made in Canada - I like it.

***

Please click here to read informative comments (by callmemit) re items Made in Canada.

Also, read about a brand of Canadian dish soap here - see comment by Liz.

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The Workshop: A bit of colour in my life!

Earlier in the year I was given a pile of lumber that came from an old cedar deck.

At first I thought, wonderful. Rescued lumber. Up my alley.


["The latest batch of sturdy birdhouses": photo GH]

I’ve since learned it makes very sturdy but (a bit) dull looking birdhouses when compared with birdhouses from fresh white cedar or that have been painted.

So... though I don’t like to get out the paint brush too often, I’ve added painted trim to the last batch.


A little snappier, maybe?

***

An earlier post from The Workshop here.

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Catch-44, the progress trap, and the greedy monkey PT 4

By now, especially after reading the previous 3 parts of this brilliant series, you probably use Catch-44 in your daily conversations to mean a bad trap, twice as bad as a Catch-22.

How could you not? (See PT 1 here).

You may also use the term ‘progress trap’ in the manner described in the book A Short History of Progress (author - Ronald Wright), i.e., to mean that we get so good at living a certain way it spells the end of us. (E.g., the first progress trap - the perfection of hunting, which ended the Stone Age).

But you may wonder where “the greedy monkey” fits in when encountering the title to my posts.

Well may you ask, as per the conclusion to PT 3, “Are we nothing but greedy monkeys?”

No, I say. We're worse.

And from an anthropomorphic point of view, I even think any self-respecting monkey would agree with me.

Though monkeys are greedy, they will never be as greedy as humankind. Though easily trapped because of their greed, their weakness is a mere nothing in comparison to our own.

For example, all one requires to catch a monkey in some regions of the world are the following materials:

A wooden stake,

a length of rope,

a hollowed out coconut shell with a 1-inch hole,

a few sweet candies.

Then follow the following instructions:


Drive the stake into the ground,

attach the stake securely to one end of the rope and the coconut to the other,

toss the candies into the coconut,

and wait for a greedy monkey.

What will happen once a monkey smells the sweets?

It will reach inside the hole and grab them. And when approached by the trap-setter, it will make a tight fist around the candies and attempt to flee.

However, can you see the monkey’s problem?

Its fist, full of candy, will now be larger than the 1-inch hole, and it can only escape from being caught by releasing its treasure.

Any greedy monkey will soon find itself inside a cage or soup pot. Many do. They are too greedy to release the prize and are held in place by their own hand.

Greed may cost the monkey its life, but the level of greed demonstrated is a mere nothing to that shown by humankind in many instances, because our collective greed can lead not just to the loss of one life but many, and to the extinction of many plant and animal species at the same time.

We know that modern man can barely restrain himself in the use of earth’s resources. Sustainable use of water, land, trees, minerals, fuels and multiple food sources is not practiced.

Though through the centuries humankind has moved from hunting and hunting-gathering to (predominantly) farming because of progress traps (we hunted so well many types of game were hunted to extinction), we’re inflicting other progress traps upon ourselves as we extensively farm around the world.

I wrote in an earlier post, “Now we’re burning rain forests to plant soy for beef cattle.”

About life on the largest scale, A Short History of Progress presents the following:

“Richard Alley points out what should be obvious: humans have built a civilization adapted to the climate we have. Increasingly, humanity is using everything (e.g., renewable and non-renewable resources) this climate provides... (and) the climate of the last few thousand years is about as good as it gets.” (pg. 52)

Ronald Wright continues:

“(Climate) change is not in our interest. Our only rational policy is not to risk provoking it. Yet we face abundant evidence that civilization itself, through fossil-fuel emissions and other disturbances, is upsetting the long calm in which we grew. Ice sheets at both poles are breaking up. Glaciers in the Andes and Himalayas are thawing (we now know that Canada’s north and Greenland are loosing their ice layers quickly); some have disappeared in only twenty-five years. Droughts and unusually hot weather (Canada has experienced its hottest year on record) have already caused world grain output to fall or stagnate for eight years in a row. During the same eight years, the number of mouths to feed went up by 600 million.”

“Steady warming will be bad enough, but the worst outcome would be a sudden overturning of earth’s climatic balance - back to its old regime of sweats and chills. If that happens, crops will fail everywhere and the great experiment of civilization will come to a catastrophic end.”

“In the matter of our food, we have grown as specialized, and therefore as vulnerable, as a sabre-toothed cat.”

Talk about your Catch-44, your progress trap, your greedy monkey.

Will humankind suffer through vast changes associated with climate change with its greedy fist caught in a trap of its own making?

Stay tuned.

***

For context, please read Catch-44, the progress trap, and the greedy monkey PT 1 and PT 2 and PT 3.

Part 1 here.

Part 2 here.

Part 3 here.

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Made in Canada: Dawn dish soap is not a local product

Earlier today, while washing dishes, I grew curious about where our dish soap originated.

Yes, it came from a plastic bottle and from a supermarket located in Deforest City.

But like many other curious dishwashers, I wanted to know more.


["Definitely not Made in Canada": photo GH]

Is my dish soap made in Canada? Will it make my hands smell pretty?

To answer the first question I visited www.dawn-dish.ca

I read a few FAQs.

E.g., “Which company owns Dawn?”


Answer:

“Dawn was created by Procter & Gamble® (P&G) in 1973. P&G is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and provides products and services of superior quality and value to consumers in over 80 countries worldwide.”

In other words, I’m washing dishes with liquid soap that has come from a long way away.

The US is closer than China but I’m still disappointed.

Does Canada make a dish soap?

I’d like to know.

BTW.

For those who wonder about such things, here is another FAQ.

“Will Dawn Dish Soap Lighten my Dyed Black Hair?”

Answer:

“yeah it will work. DON'T leave it on. just use it like shampoo.”

So now you know.

***

Link to the earlier post re Dawn.

The list of ingredients sure contains a lot of strange chemicals.

What do the chemicals do to the fresh water in the Great Lakes after helping remove dried egg from a plate?

For something lighter, please read I Ask You here.

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Made in Canada: Can we still make dish soap?

I’m sure most people in Canada squirt some type of dish soap into a pan when washing dishes.

My wife and I use Dawn. I don’t know why. Likely because of the price.

(You want me to ask? Okay, I will.)

We usually buy Palmolive. But we’re trying Dawn because it’s a good price, it can get stains out of clothing, my daughter-in-law said so, it feels good on the hands, yada-yada-yada.


["It dawned on me to ask, where is it made?": photos GH]

“Because it’s made locally or in Canada,” is not part of the reason.

That may be because we don’t think about where anything is made anymore. When we start to run low on something we add it to a grocery list and get more. Whether a product is “Made in Canada” or not is is likely never on many minds.

Under the list of ingredients for Dawn detergent I read:


["Surely we can still find Yellow 5 in Canada"]

“Imported for Proctor and Gamble Inc., Toronto, Ont.”

What’s that mean?

Is it shipped to Toronto from somewhere outside of Canada and then to Deforest City?

Has the list of ingredients been lost?

Has Canada run out of dimethylamine oxide or methylisithiazolinone or red 33?

Can we not get more chemicals?

Are we exporting soap-producing jobs for any good reason?

Is our carbon footprint larger than necessary?

I’ll contact www.dawn-dish.ca to find out.

It will be a sad day in London - once home to a soap manufacturer - if our soap and detergents are coming from a long way off.

***

I bought a great looking used belt and pair of blue jeans in London recently.

Both items were Made in Canada.

Is anything else Made in Canada?

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My Morning Smile: Beer cans and clothesline poles are working... but

I think a local MP knows he’s up against it.

Master Planner, aka MP, and leader of the furry rodents that live in nearby trees and attics, is still stumped!


["Smack. One pole is down. No squirrel": photos GH]

He had his Etch-A-Sketch out early this morning, trying to figure out ways to get to my bird feeders, but with no success - for the last 2 or 3 days anyway.

Admittedly, in my opinion and likely in MP’s mind as well, it’s early days for my “beer can and clothesline pole” plan.

Right now I’ve got the poles supporting the lines with very little tension. When MP steps onto a clothesline one of the poles falls down.


["Smack. Another pole is down. MP ain't scared"]

Smack. He runs away, scared witless I suppose, and without any bird seed.


["MP isn't scared but the feeder is safe"]

If I hear the smack, I run to the back of the house and scare him away myself, if needed.

If I’m away when the pole falls and he isn’t scared, he has apparently been unable to get past the beer cans on the clothesline.


["MP won't look at me, but he's not done yet. I know it."]

But... and this is a big but... I know MP is thinking about that bird seed every waking minute.

Time for more beer cans?

***

Another Morning Smile here.

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The Maple Leafs: 3 words - goals, goalies, gumption

Fire the coach?

I hear the question, also 3 words, but won’t bite.

Too early yet, in my opinion. Hey, I’ve been waiting since 1967. The number of teams is now huge - too huge.

The odds for any team to win big started their downward trend 3 seconds after expansion began. Now, I can’t even pronounce all the names on one team, let alone get to know all the players in the NHL.


["We'll need goals, goalies and gumption to get past 5 teams!": photo GH]

Times have changed, but 3 things are still needed.

Goals - the Leafs are only scoring 2 per game. Not enough. Practice your slap shot and aim, boys.

Goalies - they need more exercise and practice. Toughen up, guys.

Gumption - a tough commodity to buy. I recommend the Leafs come to London next Wednesday and watch my team play. We got it.

And with only two teams in our league my guys are already in the playoffs.

***

Wanna fire the coach? Ease up. Play recreational hockey instead and add some fun to your hockey life.

More cringing about The Maple Leafs here.

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Catch-44, the progress trap, and the greedy monkey PT 3

I use the term Catch-44 to mean a bad trap, twice as bad as a Catch-22.

(See Part 1)

A ‘progress trap’ is a term I encountered in the book entitled A Short History of Progress.

In Chapter 2 the author, Ronald Wright, reveals “what we can deduce from the first progress trap - the perfection of hunting, which ended the Stone Age...”

(See Part 2)

Now, about that first progress trap he writes the following:

“Modern hunter-gatherers - Amazonians, Australian Aboriginals, Inuit, Kalahari bushmen - are wise stewards of their ecologies, limiting their own numbers, treading lightly on the land.”

I know, you’re already ahead of me. You’ve deduced that early man did not tread lightly, were not good stewards. You may also have jumper farther ahead to modern day, our wastefulness, the corner we have painted ourselves into quite nicely.

Hey, not so fast.


["Are we nothing more than a greedy monkey?": photo by GH]

Wright continues:

“It is often assumed that ancient hunters would have been equally wise. But archaeological evidence does not support this view. Palaeolithic hunting was the mainstream livelihood, done in the richest environments on a seemingly boundless earth.”

Stop it. Already you’re thinking about how unwisely modern corporations have decimated the seemingly boundless forests and salmon stocks in the NW region of the US, aka ‘the Pacific North-west.' Let Wright finish.

“(Palaeolithic hunting was) done, we have to infer from the profligate remains, with the stock-trader’s optimism that there would always be another big killing just over the next hill. In the last and best-documented mass extinctions - the loss of flightless birds and other animals from New Zealand and Madagascar - there is no room for doubt that people were to blame. The Australian biologist Tim Flannery has called human beings the “future-eaters.” Each extinction is a death of possibility.”

Okay, it’s my turn to openly reflect on a related matter.

This from an essay I read last night from a book entitled Moral Ground (K.D. Moore, M.P. Nelson):

“We are indeed experiencing the greatest wave of extinctions since the disappearance of the dinosaurs,” said Ahmed Djoghlaf, head of the UN convention on biological diversity. “Extinction rates are rising by a factor of up to 1,000 above natural rates. Every hour, three species disappear. Every day, up to 150 species are lost. Every year, between 18,000 and 55,000 species become extinct,” he said. “The cause: human activities.”

Sorry, I digress.

Wright says:

“So among the things we need to know about ourselves is that the Upper Paleaolithic period, which may well have begun in genocide, ended with an all-you-can-kill wildlife barbecue. The perfection of hunting spelled the end of hunting as a way of life. Easy meat meant more babies. More babies meant more hunters. More hunters, sooner or later, meant less game. Most of the great human migrations across the world at this time must have been driven by want, as we bankrupted the land with our moveable feasts... the hunters at the end of the Stone Age were certainly not clumsy, but they were bad because they broke rule one for any prudent parasite: Don’t kill off your host.”

“As they drove species after species to extinction, they walked into the first progress trap.”

“Some of their descendants - the hunter-gatherer societies that have survived into recent times - would learn in the school of hard knocks to restrain themselves.”

Question: Does modern man restrain himself?

Wright concludes:

“But the rest of us found a way to raise the stakes: that great change known to hindsight as the Farming or Neolithic “Revolution.”

And how is that going for us?

We’re inflicting other progress traps upon ourselves.

Now we’re burning rain forests to plant soy for beef cattle.

Now we’re stripping ancient forests in the Pacific NW - at the same time destroying salmon stocks - to send raw wood and jobs to Asia.

Your turn.

Do you know of other examples of Catch-44s, other progress traps?

Are we nothing but greedy monkeys?

Stayed tuned.

***

For context, please read Catch-44, the progress trap, and the greedy monkey PT 1 and PT 2.

Part 1 here.

Part 2 here.

On a lighter note - It Strikes me Funny - please click here

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This Old Economist: Go for a walk, then have tea

Did you hear that Canadian growth in the third quarter (i.e., July - Sept. for those not in the loop) “expanded at its slowest rate in a year?” (Dec. 1, London Free Press)

Good for you. There are millions of better things to do than listen to economic gabble.

Economists had been expecting GDP to rise by 1.4% in the quarter - where do they get this stuff? - but didn’t take into account Canada’s weak exports and a cool housing market. Poor dears.


["Put on warm boots and a toque": photo GH]

Economists may also forgotten that many Canadians are now trying to be frugal, live under their means, reduce spending, pay down debt and save money for tough times ahead.

Many people also see benefits to a smaller economy still. Sustainability is such a good thing, isn’t it?

So, to everyone, including economists, I say go for a walk today, take a picture or two of any fresh snowfall, then enjoy a cup of tea when you get back home.

***

Economic gabble is almost like a religion to some folks, isn’t it?

Please read more from This Old Economist here.

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It Strikes Me Funny: The perfect job for me?

I visited City Hall after lunch today with a form verifying the loss of my passport.

I had to see the Commissioner of Oaths, get the form stamped with the official ‘Commissioner of Oaths’ Stamp’ and pay $33 before applying for a new passport.

I was in and out in two minutes.

“Do you verify that what you have written on the form is true?” I was asked.

“I so solemnly swear,” I said.

Stampity-stamp.

“That’ll be 33 smackers, please,” said the Commissioner, one arm held high with official C of O stamp pointing toward the photograph of a young, shiny-faced Queen of England hanging on an adjacent wall, the other pointing toward my back pocket and wallet.

I paid. Job done.

While walking back to my car I thought, I could do that job.

“Do you swear? Louder,” I’d say. “Say it like you mean it. Good girl. (Stampity-stamp.) Pay up. Next!”


["Come on. Say it like your life depended on it": photo GH]

I could even give more value for the money as Commissioner of Oats.

“Here’s an oatmeal recipe. Eat if every day. Be healthy, you’ll live longer. Next!”

I could give even more value by being Commissioners of Oafs at the same time. Provide more bang for the buck.

“Did you have oatmeal today? Good man. Watch your step, the floors are slippery, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

“Next!!”

***

For something more serious, please read Catch-44, the progress trap, and the greedy monkey PT 1 and PT 2.

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My Morning Smile: Local squirrels - back to square one

Yesterday, after huddling around an Etch-A-Sketch and chattering away like only a vicious group of furry rodents can do, MP Squirrel (Master Planner) and his gang devised a way to get onto my bird feeder and sample a small portion of seed mix before I chased them away with a sturdy broom.

Oh, I felt so ashamed.

How cocky I had been just hours earlier.

MP had determined my garbage can storage box (GCSB) was close enough to the feeder to serve as a launch pad.


[“MP jumped from the far corner of GCSB. Stink!”: photos GH]

Footprints on the lid - on the corner closest to the feeder - and one matching set on the feeder’s roof supplied all the proof I needed. (Oh yeah, I’m clever too, maybe even as clever as a big hairy rat!)


Thirty seconds of pushing and pulling later, I had moved the GCSB farther from the seed mix.

Today, while eating Chinese food left over from Ollie’s fourth birthday, I heard two smacks on the back deck.

Smack. 10 second delay. Smack. (Really, just like that).


Rats, I thought.

Sure enough, MP was back.

But unsuccessful he was.

Without a launch pad he was back to square one (“Get out yer Etch-A-Sketch, Fuzzball!) and left to root around in the snow in search of seed he had spilled yesterday.


[“MP won’t even look me in the eye. HA!]

All hail!

***

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

It Strikes me Funny - please click here

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Catch-44, the progress trap, and the greedy monkey PT 2

The popular term Catch-44 not only conjures up memories of Catch-22 (a gripping book and film with a M*A*S*H connection) but infers there are trouble that are twice as bad.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I experience Catch-44-ish feelings almost every day, e.g., when I read about rising hydro costs and our growing demand for more juice.

I elaborated a bit on my use of the term in a later post re rising infrastructure costs, i.e., related to tarmac roads, and our inability to pay our way when I said, “In other words, we’re in a Catch-44, a bad trap, twice as bad as a Catch-22.”

In my mind, I relate Catch-44 back to another term - a progress trap - and illustrative examples of the same found in the book A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright (see Read This, right margin).

In it he writes:

“Since the early 1900s, the world’s population has multiplied by four and its economy - a rough measure of the human load on nature - by more than forty. We have reached a stage where we must bring the experiment under rational control, and guard against present and potential dangers,” (pg. 31) i.e., lest we fall into a progress trap.

“We have already caused so many extinctions that our dominion over the earth will appear in the fossil record like the impact of an asteroid... a bad smell of extinction follows Homo sapiens around the world.”


["Asteroids - like the blunt fist of mankind"; photo link here]

In Chapter 2 he reveals “what we can deduce from the first progress trap - the perfection of hunting, which ended the Stone Age - and how our escape from that trap by the invention of farming led to our greatest experiment: worldwide civilization. We then have to ask ourselves this urgent question: Could civilization itself be another and much greater trap?”

What a great question.

The book is a real page turner.

I highly recommend it, but don’t expect a happy ending a la Walt Disney, e.g., Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The tone of the book is reflected in Wright’s thoughts about some of the roots of modern civilization.

“From ancient times until today, civilized people have believed they behave better, and are better, than so-called savages. But he moral values attached to civilization are specious: too often used to justify attacking and dominating other, less powerful, societies. In their imperial heyday, the French had their “civilizing mission” and the British their “white man’s burden” - the bearing of which was eased by automatic weapons. As Hilaire Belloc wrote in 1898: “Whatever happens, we have got / The Maxim gun, and they have not.” Nowadays, Washington claims to lead and safeguard “the civilized world,” a tradition in American rhetoric that began with the uprooting and exterminating of that country’s first inhabitants.” (pg. 33)

So, about that first progress trap mentioned earlier...

Stay tuned.

***

Please click here to read Catch-44, the progress trap, and the greedy monkey PT 1

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It Strikes Me Funny: Men are from Mars

(I’ve heard that women are from farther away than that).

A lunchroom habit, practiced for many years at Aberdeen P.S., has come home to roost with the intended humorous affect.

In a crowded staffroom/lunchroom, I’d usually get someone to bite whenever I used the microwave.


["22 seconds is perfect for a breakfast treat. Coming up": photos GH]

“Let’s see. I’ve got leftover Irish stew today. 47 seconds is perfect,” I’d say.

I’d enter 47 seconds onto the microwave timer and press ON.

“What’s with 47, Harrison?” someone would ask.

“Irish stew. Only 47 seconds will do. Never heard that?” I’d say.

Eventually, everyone was in on the running (lame) joke, so I’d have to transfer out or come up with new material.

Now, as a retired guy, I do the same at home.

This morning - my wife was nearby - I leaned over the microwave with breakfast in my hand.

“Let’s see. Day-old muffin with cold butter. 22 seconds is perfect.”

“How do you know?” she asked.


["And sometimes I even get it right!"]

“Day-old muffin, maybe two. 22 seconds will always do,” I recited with a practiced tone.

“Never heard of that?” I asked.

Silence. Her eyes rolled.

Ahh, lovely. Still crazy after all these years.

***

It’s winter.

Call the fashion police.

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My Morning Smile: Oh, I’m feeling a bit cocky is all

Two or three times per day I hear a slam on the back deck, and after a week of hearing such a noise, I now know what it is - and grin widely.

My clothesline poles have fallen. A squirrel has tried to snag birdseed from my feeders. They’ve failed.


["The beer cans are a lovely piece of work": photos GH]

The combination of poles, held lightly in place, and beer cans on the lines has stymied the squirrels - for now.


["Two bags of seed mix - for birds only! Or, so I say now"]

I say ‘for now’ because squirrels are brilliant and will likely inherit the earth after humankind has used up all the resources.

While I speak, two squirrels are sitting in a nearby tree with an Etch-A-Sketch - twisting the knobs this way and that - and they’ll come up with a way to thwart my devious plan.

I’d say more but I need some face time with my own drawing board.

***

Should I feed the squirrels in another location or keep trying to thwart their evil plot to take over the world?

Another Morning Smile here.

More Bird Watching here.

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Catch-44, the progress trap, and the greedy monkey PT 1

I’ve recently discovered that the term Catch-44 is pretty popular.

By ‘recently’ I mean within the last few hours and after coming inside from my shop.

Not only have I used the term twice today - thinking it was a product of my own imagination - but a Google search reveals Catch .44 is an indie crime drama filmed in Shreveport, LA., starring Bruce Willis and Forest Whitaker, among others.l

Stink. I wanted the term all to myself, just like the litre of ice-cream loaded with Smarties I found in the downstairs freezer a few days ago. (Somehow my wife knew about it!)

I like the term Catch-44 because it conjures up memories of Catch-22 (a gripping book and film with later connections to the movie and TV show M*A*S*H) and... it’s twice as bad.

Feelings that I would describe as Catch-44-ish come up almost every day. Sometimes early in the morning before I’m even out of bed.

(The feelings are unrelated to having to get out of bed. I like getting out of bed - eventually. Coffee awaits. Sorry, I digress).

I used the term first while describing our predicament with rising costs - and not just related to hydro, which much on the minds of many Ontarians.

I said:

“Because no government is effectively encouraging the move toward smaller cars, homes and lifestyles, our roads will continue to support more cars per capita (and the related expense), our homes will continue to grow and demand more energy and production of household goods, and the associated costs of our lifestyle will increase."

It’s a Catch-44, which is twice as shocking and frustrating as a Catch-22 and any hydro bill.

I elaborated a bit on my use of the term in a later post when I said, “In other words, we’re in a Catch-44, a bad trap, twice as bad as a Catch-22.

We’re building and paving roads today that we’ll never repair or replace in the future as far as present home owners are concerned, because they’ll be dead.”

Now, where did I get the idea that we’re in a bad trap?

Stay tuned.

***

I’d say more now but Corrie St. starts in a few minutes and I have many miles to ride for the sake of ‘fun and fitness.’

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The Workshop: The phone didn’t ring once but...

When my wife visited me in the workshop this afternoon she informed me that she had left me a phone message.

A red light flashed inside my little round head.

“Oh, yeah. I said I’d bring the phone out here this afternoon, didn’t I,” I said sheepishly.

No wonder I worked for three hours or more and finished several birdhouses - one, two, three, four - without a single interruption.


["Yesterday's progress": photos GH]




["Today - all finished. $10?"]

We talked about ‘what might have been’ - had I only received her phone call.

“I was going to buy you lunch,” she said.


Though I paid a heavy price, it was nice to get three colourful birdhouses all lined up and another batch of eight (tri- and four-plexes) almost finished.


["One more will fill the old bench"]

If I remember the phone next time, maybe I'll get another offer for a free lunch.

***

How much should I charge for the painted ones?

$10? $15? $20?

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Deforest City Blues: Our road system - it’s a Catch 44

I’ve read we have 3,500 kms of road lanes in London.

I’m not sure if that’s higher per capita than other major cities in Canada but it certainly sounds like a lot.

Actually, the amount of tarmac appears to be more than enough - even more than we can handle - when we look at how much we spend on roads and how well we keep up on the repairs.

Apparently, we spend $20 million annually on work related to our streets and “one half of them are in the ‘now-need' category,” i.e., now need repairs or replacement. (Nov. 24, London Free Press)

You might think that $20 million is a huge amount of money (and it is; I’ve got 12 bucks in my pocket and I feel over the moon!) but when you consider the costs of road work it’s a drop in the tar pits.

According to Deforest City staff, “you would find the budget is so small it would take 110 years to deal with all the road conditions on those minor streets.”


["Cathcart St. is lookin' good and I'm not dead": photo GH]

See, that’s not counting the major roads which take priority.

In other words, we’re in a Catch-44, a bad trap, twice as bad as a Catch-22.

We’re building and paving roads today that we’ll never repair or replace in the future as far as present home owners are concerned, because they’ll be dead.

Will we build more roads? Count on it. It’s happening right now in a far-off suburb named after some wildlife that no longer lives in the area.

Will we increase the road budget substantially? I seriously doubt it. We live in a tax-free zone and household, provincial and national debt is growing like a weed.

Is this a good time to discuss other infrastructure Catch-44s we’ll face in the future, e.g., hydro, gasoline, housing costs?

Maybe later.

***

Catch-44 was mentioned here, as well.

Such a cheery thought, eh.

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