Tag Archives: keeping me awake

BARBECUES AND BIKINIS

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Barbecues are one of the better bargains of our time. If you assume the cost is about 1000.00 and they last about 10 years, it works our to about 2.00 per week. Not bad economics. I’ve had mine about 10 years now (and the cost per week is less than half the 2.00)  and it is ready to retire. I’ve been pondering my next barbecue purchase for a bit and have always wanted a Weber. The ratings are excellent and apparently the quality tops everyone’s list even if the price seems a bit steep. Over the past couple of months I have been checking and comparing models based on our needs and also hoping for a sale. My standard approach to making a purchase, research, comparisons, shopping and asking questions has been proceeding as usual until this week…

Now, I should admit that I have often suffered from U.S. envy. When I was a young lad, I thought that I wanted to move to California to attend college – I may have had that mixed up with Beach Boy songs about surf, sun and girls but nevertheless – California dreamin’ I did. As I got older I spent time researching the possibility of living in Hawaii and doing some more dreaming. I have many relatives who seem perfectly happy living in the States and I have traveled to many parts, east, west, north and south, for both business and pleasure. However, in my dotage, and as I ponder the recent events originating south of our border, I am frankly getting pissed off.

Yes, it’s a very small thing and will have absolutely no impact on any of Trump’s foreign and trade policy announcements, but I no longer want a “built in the USA” barbecue, any more than I want a built in China barbecue either. So, I have now narrowed my search to Canadian manufacturers and seem to be looking mostly at Broil King made in good old Kitchener. Regardless of ratings and everything else, I am supporting our own manufacturers as much as possible until this “dark night of the orange narcissist” passes.

BOOMER TUNE ALERT

 I don’t know if this happens to you but some songs bring on instant memories for me that are very vivid and detailed. I heard Dream Weaver by Gary Wright three times this past week and it meant that I had to share it today and also allowed me to relive my first few months living in Winnipeg. I moved to Winnipeg from British Columbia and was offered some help from a friend of a friend in locating some living accommodations. Unfortunately, I took his advice and moved into a penthouse in North Winnipeg, on Adsum Drive if you must know. I say unfortunately because I was single and fancy free and living in the heart of the suburbs is NOT where I should have been. I corrected that mistake later but in the meantime I had this brand new apartment complete with fireplace and white shag carpet, swimming pool and covered deck. One weekend afternoon, Dream Weaver, a top ten hit at the time, comes on the station I was listening to, and as I often do when alone, I cranked the volume up to ear-bleed. I stepped out on to the deck and left the doors open as I enjoyed the music. Now this is absolutely true; it was summer time and most people had their doors open and instead of complaints about the loud music coming from the top floor, I heard stereo after stereo being tuned to the same station and everyone else turning up their volume too. It was a great 3 minute party in the middle of the burbs. Oh, and to the girl in the chartreuse bikini by the pool with whom I shared a rhythmic moment or two, “Hi.”

I’m just as smooth as I ever was.

Tax season is coming to a close and I have booked a couple of weeks off starting next weekend. I was just looking at the “To Do” list and I have a feeling that I will be glad to return to work for a rest.

SPRING CLEANUP

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I had a landscaping service clean up our yard yesterday since spring seems to be putting a tentative toe in the water these days. Good timing I think because it has decided to rain today and I hear that there is wet snow in the forecast. If we ever get some sun and warm temps, the lawn should look great. Speaking of lawns and lawn mowing, I made the huge switch this year. For about 8 or 9 years I have been using a push mower. I got rid of the gas powered beast in order to lower the noise and air pollution in the area but the real reason was because I simply got tired of repeated pulling on the cord to get the damn thing started. The push mower started first time, every time.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I bought a cordless machine – battery powered – I’m such a tree hugger! I haven’t had a chance to use it but I have high hopes for it being powerful enough and pollution free enough to justify the cost. I could continue to use the push mower but frankly, I’m getting a bit tired of having to constantly pick up pine cones and finding that the cut is not all that even if the grass is wet. Such are the problems of those of us surviving in the first world.

BOOMER TUNE ALERT

39 years ago, this weekend, The Blues Brothers made their debut on Saturday Night Live. John Belushi was a recent convert to the blues at that time but Dan Akroyd had spent many years roaming the blues clubs in his hometown of Ottawa and had already jammed with some of the greats like Muddy Waters. We all know the success that the Blues Brothers reached with albums and movies and since Belushi’s death on March 5, 1982 others, including his brother Jim, have filled in the spot. One of my absolute favourites is their cover of a Sam and Dave hit, Soul Man

https://youtu.be/lDpJqJ62faY

Speaking of the first world, the border wall between Canada and the US seems to be getting harder to climb every day. On the south side, we have a leader who seems to want to make an enemy of everybody he comes into contact with. Nothing but conflict, imagined anger and threats. On the north side of the border, we have a leader who is constantly kissing ass with everyone he encounters regardless of their intentions or reputation. Approval ratings for both of these clowns are dropping every day with good reason. It’s too bad that people of talent and ability are no longer willing to subject themselves to the poisonous atmosphere of politics – only the narcissistic ego maniacs are willing to run. Perhaps we should be a bit more selective with our votes.

Simon Winchester is the person we all should have had as a history teacher. He takes one dimensional facts and information and turns them into living breathing books. I just finished reading Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World’s Superpowers. Clearly one of the best books I’ve read this year, it is the third one of his I have thoroughly enjoyed. He has a knack for finding the story behind the facts and creating human interest in geological or political information. If you have followed me for any length of time, you know that I firmly believe that there is a story behind everything and that’s what makes life interesting. Winchester makes history, events and circumstances come alive with incredible research to reveal the causes and effects behind some of the biggest stories of our planet.

Given the scary threats and posturing currently unfolding around the Pacific (which covers 1/3 of the planet’s surface) I found that reading Pacific by Winchester was timely and gave me an excellent background on what is in the headlines today.

NOTHING EXCEEDS LIKE EXCESS

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Pretty cool title, huh? Nothing exceeds like excess came to me about 5:30 this morning and has been rolling around in my head ever since. I’m not sure if I am going to fit the title to my blog subject today (saving the planet) or fit the blog subject to the title. Nevertheless, the inspiration for today’s subject occurred on the way home from work on Friday. There is something about people walking across grass that ticks me off, especially when there is a perfectly good paved alternative right beside it.

I’ve been watching people for almost 5 years take a “shortcut” across a lawn that saves them less than 4 seconds (yes, I’ve timed it – and yes, that may be weird) and in so doing, they have worn a series – not just one, but a series – of bare dirt paths across a perfectly good green space. When it rains, the “shortcut” gets muddy so they widen the path by walking over the grass beside it. The destroyed area is now about 4 feet wide and continues to get worse as people who are absolutely capable of walking for the extra 4 seconds, literally, cut into the landscape.

In many ways, this may seem a very trivial matter but here’s where it bothers me so much. Here in the enlightened West (the West as in North America and Western Europe) we expend an enormous amount of energy talking about the environment and blaming everyone we can think of – especially the oil business – for polluting our planet. We listen to Hollywood pretenders prattle on about how we should close down this company and that industry without thinking about the issue on a personal basis. It’s all nice and safe to carry protest signs, march on government and get interviewed on TV, but none of that makes a damn bit of difference to the health of the planet.

BOOMER TUNE ALERT

Speaking of excess, many of our rock superstars left us far too early due to the excesses in their lives. Specifically, drug excess in so many cases. I won’t pretend to understand the how’s and why’s of what befell so many of them and I certainly won’t try to explain why drug use might have fueled their creativity, if it did. Some fell into the drug trap and survived – Keith Richards – but so many left us wanting more. One of those that I think could have gone on to even greater heights was Jim Morrison from the Doors. In an attempt to get his life back together, he moved to Paris at the top of his fame and then died at age 27 – no autopsy was performed, but alcohol and drugs were a constant both on stage and off.

Like most things in life, change is created one step at a time, one person at a time and one thing at a time. It’s not what others should or shouldn’t do – it’s what we are doing in our own daily lives that will change the planet. Are we environmentally conscious in our everyday work and play? Do we recycle our bottles, cans, paper, and plastics, or are we still tossing cans out the window of the car along with food wrappers, and chewing gum, and even worse, cigarette butts? Environmentalism is a personal daily philosophy of life without the histrionics of Greenpeace, Jane Fonda and Leonardo DiCaprio. We can spend our time blaming others or we can pick up our own garbage everyday, in every way, and perhaps one more.

How does walking across a lawn every day affect the planet? Grass uses carbon dioxide and produces oxygen, a process called

“pho·to·syn·the·sis
ˌfōdōˈsinTHəsəs/
noun
the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct.”
That shortcut, regardless of how small, decreases the amount of oxygen in the air and contributes to soil erosion and just plain looks bad. Add the shortcut I witness everyday to the thousands of others across the earth and the result is huge. Let’s, each of us, take the extra 4 seconds in our life to make a difference in the world. We just might save the planet in spite of ourselves.