I am trying to live by the song made popular by The Who, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, but I have to wonder if I did just that.
It seems that not all makes or models of cars, trucks, vans, SUVs or any other road worthy vehicle (legal or not) come standard with lights. I bought my car six years ago and I never had the option of buying lights, they just came standard (along with the turn signal, but that is a whole different issue). Did GM fool me into paying for lights when they apparently aren’t needed? Have the car companies become so cheap as to offer lights as an added package?
I say lights are not needed because there are too many people that don’t know when to use them. Driving to the train station this morning in the dull rainy weather, I passed several vehicles without their lights on and of course they were all dull gray in colour and blended into the surroundings. The daytime situation is bad enough but the drivers that really irritate me are those that drive in “stealth mode”, as I like to call it, in the middle of the night. Black does not contrast very well on black does it? I'll give you a hint, gray doesn't contrast on itself very well either.
If it is the cost of the lights you’re concerned about, just think of the thousands of dollars it will cost you in car repairs (or a new car which is more likely the case), increased insurance and even the cost of life if you are involved in an accident. (I have yet to replace a single light in the past six years). I think the $5 lights are a lot cheaper in the long run. But then again the world is getting overpopulated.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Hooked on Kung Fu
I was off work for a couple of weeks to help get the house in order and to help my wife take care of the little one. Since she would be awake early every morning (night to most people) to comfort our child and try, unsuccessfully, to get him to sleep, I tried to get up earlier than usual to let her get some sleep, after all that was why I was home. That didn’t work some days but on the days that I did get up I couldn’t really do much but watch TV while holding little Alan. So I flipped through the channels endlessly trying to find something even halfway decent to watch. Finally, one morning I stumbled on Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and was instantly hooked on it.
For those who don’t know the show is about a son and his dad, a Shaolin priest, fighting crime and instilling moral virtues in viewers. A little gunplay and some martial arts always make for good viewing, even if it is Canadian made.
Anyhow, back to the story. That first morning I didn’t note down the time the show was on so every day after that I searched tirelessly trying to find it. A day or two later I finally found the show again, weekday mornings at 8 am on Showcase and again at 3:00 in the afternoon. I am back at work now and will not be able to watch the show anymore but lucky for me the first three seasons are on DVD. Coincidently my birthday is approaching and that other gift giving holiday is not too far away either (I dare not name it in the middle of summer). Some may think Kung Fu: the Legend Continues is a lame show but for some unexplained reason I just can’t get enough of it.
Friday, July 14, 2006
The Joys of Moving
My move is becoming a redundant theme on my blog but I just have to share this story with everyone. With moving comes a lot of headaches, address changes with everyone from the Federal Government (CRA), the Provincial Government (MTO), credit card companies and banks. Then there is moving services such as telephone and cable. Lucky for everyone it takes Rogers a long time to discconnect the old cable service. but unlucky for everyone is the move of phone services.
Like most people in Canada I use Bell for my phone services (at least for now) and they pretty much had a monopoly on the telephone market. Now they have some competition (VOIP services & even Rogers now has Home Phone services) but they still have the monopoly mentality to go along with their incompetence.
My wife requested a move of our phone service with Bell (unfortunately we also use their internet access) on July 3. Bell said no problem it will be up and running on the 5th, which it was for about 30 minutes. She called Bell that night and we had service for about 2 hours and then nothing. July 6 we were almost hung up on and by the 7th we were patched through to "Escalations" and spoke with a manager. He manage to get the phone line operational but he was still sending someone to take a look at our line in the morning of the 8th because we were getting static on the line. It wasn't until dinner time on the 12th that someone from Bell finally showed up to check our phone.
Depending on how things shape up in the next few weeks (meaning let's see if I get billed for the week the phone wasn't working) I may be finding another provider for both telephone and internet.
Like most people in Canada I use Bell for my phone services (at least for now) and they pretty much had a monopoly on the telephone market. Now they have some competition (VOIP services & even Rogers now has Home Phone services) but they still have the monopoly mentality to go along with their incompetence.
My wife requested a move of our phone service with Bell (unfortunately we also use their internet access) on July 3. Bell said no problem it will be up and running on the 5th, which it was for about 30 minutes. She called Bell that night and we had service for about 2 hours and then nothing. July 6 we were almost hung up on and by the 7th we were patched through to "Escalations" and spoke with a manager. He manage to get the phone line operational but he was still sending someone to take a look at our line in the morning of the 8th because we were getting static on the line. It wasn't until dinner time on the 12th that someone from Bell finally showed up to check our phone.
Depending on how things shape up in the next few weeks (meaning let's see if I get billed for the week the phone wasn't working) I may be finding another provider for both telephone and internet.
The Move
This is more of a specific post to those people who helped out with the move. I would like to thank the following people who helped me with the move, AS, MK, TK, KS, Dan, BH, DH, SS & MS.
A special thanks goes out to my mom who spent the day in the hospital helping my wife adjust to having the baby in her room and to PS & JC who stayed after everyone else left and restored some order to the place (they were the ones that made sure I had a working TV) and have returned since the moving day to help with some more unpacking.
It was a crazy time for me and I thank everyone for their help.
A special thanks goes out to my mom who spent the day in the hospital helping my wife adjust to having the baby in her room and to PS & JC who stayed after everyone else left and restored some order to the place (they were the ones that made sure I had a working TV) and have returned since the moving day to help with some more unpacking.
It was a crazy time for me and I thank everyone for their help.
Chaos A.D.
As many of you already know my son was born three weeks early. And to make things a little more hectic, as if the uncertainty of my situation was not stressful enough, we were scheduled to move into our new house two days later.
Here is the condensed version of events. My wife was induced on the 21st of June because an ultrasound showed a possible concern with the baby; my son was born in the wee hours of the 22nd. I drove 30 minutes to the lawyers office later on the 22nd to sign the papers for the house, still unsure how my son was doing, wondering if he will be sent to Sick Kid’s in Toronto. The closing of the house was on the 23rd and I had to make two trips to the lawyer’s office, once to return the signed power of attorney and the second to get the keys, not what I wanted to be doing at that point. The next day, the 24th, I had to move us into our new house. Luckily, I had a ton of help from family and friends so the move was not so bad, except the house was a chaotic mess. I at least had a place to sleep and the TV was working. Finally on the 25th both my wife and my son were released from the hospital.
That leads into the following week that was devoted entirely to unpacking and getting any leftovers from our old place. Finally, three weeks later, we are almost totally unpacked, including several boxes of my childhood junk from my parent’s house, and I can focus all of my attention to my son.
Here is the condensed version of events. My wife was induced on the 21st of June because an ultrasound showed a possible concern with the baby; my son was born in the wee hours of the 22nd. I drove 30 minutes to the lawyers office later on the 22nd to sign the papers for the house, still unsure how my son was doing, wondering if he will be sent to Sick Kid’s in Toronto. The closing of the house was on the 23rd and I had to make two trips to the lawyer’s office, once to return the signed power of attorney and the second to get the keys, not what I wanted to be doing at that point. The next day, the 24th, I had to move us into our new house. Luckily, I had a ton of help from family and friends so the move was not so bad, except the house was a chaotic mess. I at least had a place to sleep and the TV was working. Finally on the 25th both my wife and my son were released from the hospital.
That leads into the following week that was devoted entirely to unpacking and getting any leftovers from our old place. Finally, three weeks later, we are almost totally unpacked, including several boxes of my childhood junk from my parent’s house, and I can focus all of my attention to my son.
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