Patience

Sometimes patience is a good thing. As my good friend and work wife pointed out...maybe you shouldn't post stuff right after a night shift. Ramble on?

Ok whatever, if you can't keep up with the program, we'll all jump on the short bus.

Oh did I mention that this is not a pc friendly/alternative lifestyle blog?

Must have missed that, however that said, we are all welcome here.

You just have to learn to take your shots when they come no matter who/what/ you are.

love you long time.

Creeper.

Shopping Bags

Ok this is something I've been meaning to say for a while. The grocers in Toronto and surrounding area decided (again "Them"- see previous post) that shopping bags were bad for the environment. Well duh, I guess they didn't see enough pictures of wildlife with bags stuck around their necks or choked to death on them, etc. for the past what 25-35 years to finally get the picture. Anyways they decided to cut down on the amount of plastic bags in the landfills and from then on it would cost the consumer something like 5 cents a bag to buy them in the hopes that people are;

1. cheap enough that we won't shell out an extra 5 cents a bag now that we have to start paying for them, and 2. stupid enough to do the above.

And guess what? For the most part it seems to work. We have all bought these reusable bags. Which from what I have heard from my brother, this is what they do in Europe and have been doing for years- bring their own bags I mean.

Seems to be the North American wasteful society thing to develop something to throw away...much like our divorce rates.

I have heard that the lifespan of a plastic garbage bag takes 200 years to decompose. First of all, plastic wasn't around 200 years ago so how would Brangelina know it takes that long? And I don't think Brad and Angie ( I hope you don't mind me calling you that), are even close to that age.

So 200 years is a long time and I'm not sure Brangelina can count that high, and the bag people started making the bags thinner and not good for shite...literally cat shite I'm talking about. Would take me two bags- an inner bag that usually had a hole in it, and an outer bag that has no holes. So yes, I'm the guy that's been filling the landfills lately. Well that is before the environmental bags came in.

I digress (obviously), so what this whole post was about was the local grocery stores have for the past 6 or 8 months made you supply the shopping bag. Which I don't mind as it will hopefully one day reflect this in the landfills, what I do mind though is one day the cashier will fill my bag with my goods and the next because of this new law/rule/whatever it is, will just ring through my goods, take my money and stand there looking at me like I know something about packing a bag. Or even worse start working on the next client while I'm trying to figure out what goes where. And yes, this is the local Metro (formerly known as A & P or Prince, not sure which yet).

The only store that this does not bother me at is No Frills, since they have always been what they say..."at these prices pack your own damn bags!".

Although the Metro in Newmarket south of Mulock employees ask you if they can pack your bag for you...customer service, aint' it amazing! I should write to the manager of that store to give them an attaboy.

January Full Moon/Wolf Moon Crashing Into Earth

The first full moon of the year and they say it will be the closest approach to earth as well. They, whoever "They" are, say the moon because of it's elliptical dance around the earth will actually be a mere 356,593 kilometres away. As shown in the photo to the right it actually does appear that it's a scanty 356,583 kilometres away thanks to the high powered lenses in my Fujifilm Finepix digital powerhouse camera. They (I am suspecting Brad and Angelina are the "They" in this story) also tell us that the little dot to the left of the amazing shot of the moon is not a speck on your monitor screen but Mars. I think it's time they bought another child and left the real science up to us macadamians. This picture that is worthy of a Pulitzer prize was taken on Friday January 29th at 930 pm. I would also like to point out that this moon was seen at this precise moment by all those on this side of the earth who chose to look up (providing they didn't have cloud cover) Which would be billions, literally billions! of people. It's truly mind boggling. And one last thing...how do Brad and Angelina know that it is 356,593 kms away? Did they use one of those golf distance finders? I mean, they're actors! When did they have time to get all edumacated and stuff. In any event, that's one awesome tape measure!

Things You Don't See Everyday Part One

Hello?

Yes that is what you think it is. All I want to know, after I searched around for an elderly person with their pants around their ankles and who perhaps had fallen and couldn't get up. Where the hell does this stuff come from? I mean come on people, you don't just decide then and there that the bathroom isn't good enough for you anymore and you want to have a dump in the street while watching traffic go by at an intersection. Although...that gives me an idea for more time off work.

UFO's

I saw these two lights just hovering in the distance. Was really weird, but I wasn't scared. Just curious. Have a couple more pictures of them as well. And I didn't get the urge to make a mountain of mashed potatoes, but most likely because it was very early in the morning. That's when they come you know. When everyone is asleep. We are not alone.

I was going to post something

And then changed my mind.

Dad

Today would have been my fathers 85th birthday excepting for that little bout of stomach cancer that did him in. We were lucky, he wasn't in much pain until the very last day, he also didn't want to fight it. Didn't believe in chemo or radiation therapy. Too tired he used to tell me.

Plus I know he missed my mom too much. She predeceased him by 5 years.

They weren't rich...by any stretch of the imagination. Dad survived his last years on what the government gave him, no savings at all. They tried to save, but too little, too late and when my mom got sick on a trip out west, his motel stay for a month in Alberta ate up what they saved.

We never went hungry, never were cold, homeless, or no clothes.

Sometimes I wondered if we were going to end up on the street as he had started his own company and his one big client was Eaton's catalogue shopping. When they closed the doors on that, that was a death sentence to him. He hadn't even started the company but did have equipment on order and a lease in place. We lost our house in Scarborough. Moved to North York where I finished the rest of my childhood. And then a shiny object caught my attention and it didn't last long enough to really worry about.

He served in the 2nd world war onboard a cruiser in the south pacific. His mother signed him up for the navy as he was too young at the time (17). He saw a lot of the world in a short period of time and made some friends for life that came back into his life as he and mom got older.

There were a lot of "almosts" in his life. He had a 5 acre farm at on Finch Ave, and I'm not sure if the corner was Pharmacy, Midland or something else. If he had held onto it- would have had millions from the selling of the land. I could go on and on however unfortunately it's 9:33 and I have to get up at 0345 for work. A line from Joni Mitchell's song Big Yellow Taxi strikes me..."that you don't know what you got till it's gone."

I miss him. Sometimes terribly. Once in a while I get this urge to call him.

Rats, can't call him where he is now. Rest in peace Poppy, you and Mom earned it.

Your son.