Vandals and other bastards

Actually I wanted to write something positive and uplifting today, but my intention was smashed into smithereens when I looked out of the window this morning. No, it wasn't the weather. Early this morning it was quite nice. Some bastard or bastards smashed our two driveway post-lights. At first I thought we might have had a strong wind overnight, but when I checked it out, I saw both lanterns about 30 ft away from the post, broken into little pieces, the glass in tiny shards. That could only have been done with a crowbar or a baseball bat. The bulbs were also broken. In addition they broke off one of the reflectors I have at the entrance to my driveway and bent the pipe it was in.

I called the RCMP and reported it. I don't know if they'll do anything about it.  One of the officers called me back but I wasn't home. He left a message.

When we drove away I saw another house had been victimized as well, with one broken lantern on the driveway. On the next street the same punks busted the For Sale sign on one of the houses.

It seems there are a bunch of young criminals (I assume they are young) roaming the area and destroying property. I spoke with the owner of the other house and she told me it happened shortly before Midnight last night, because their dog woke them up barking, but when she looked outside she saw nothing. Apparently, her lights were still working at 11 pm. She also told me that the RCMP informed her about a rash of calls from irate citizens whose property has been vandalized. Our neighborhood has always been pretty quiet and without crime. It seems a crime family or more than one has moved into the neighborhood. And when they catch the bastards they don't get the punishment they deserve. They should be made doing community work and pay off the damage they caused, or if it was juveniles the parents should be responsible and pay for it. We are much too lenient with criminals. They should be dealt with harshly, but if we catch them and beat them up the tables turn and we are the criminals.

We went shopping this afternoon. When I told one of the sales ladies in one of the stores about the incident, she said, "Well, the kids are out of School this week and they are bored. Kids will be Kids." I told her these were not 'Kids', these were punks who need to be taught a lesson. I was young ones too and I didn't do stuff like that. Neither did my children.

Replacing the broken lanterns is a problem. It is hard to find ones that fit onto the posts. The manufacturers always change the designs and sizes and discontinue older models. I am not a happy clam today. Right now it is raining mixed with snow outside. That doesn't help my mood. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. It can't get any worse.

Here the sad remnants of a once beautiful and functional post-light, victim of a bunch of hoodlums who have no regard for people's property, privacy, and right to have beautiful things:

Dogs and Cats and other pets

The only pet we have is a bird...a Canary. He still sings even though he will be 11 years old on May 20th. That's old for a Canary in captivity. We know he's 11 because we had him bred by a lady who bred and raised Canaries. His mother lived with us for one year. We thought she was a 'he' until she laid an egg. We didn't want to return her to the shop where we bought her because we thought they might kill her. Female Canaries are not in demand. People want males because they sing. We loved her because she was very tame. She sat on our shoulders, pulled on our hair, drank orange juice from a glass when we offered it, nibbled on my boiled egg and my bread...in short she was a wonderful pet, but we wanted a singing Canary. We gave her to this lady because we knew she was into breeding Canaries.

To make a long story short, we love our little 'Robby' but he is not human. He is an animal. We don't buy him presents for Christmas and Easter, we don't celebrate his birthday with balloons and cake. And we don't put silly hats on his feathery little head.

I have an aquarium filled with fish. They are my pets. I feed them, clean their tank and look after them, but I am not emotionally attached to them. If one dies I am sorry to lose it but I don't bury it in a little grave with a marker on it.

People do that. There is a small cross on a neighboring street with flowers and a name on the cross. I assume the people's dog or cat got hit by a car. Sad, but come on, peoples...a cross? Flowers?
Dogs and cats are not people. They are animals. Possibly quite smart, but that doesn't make them human. I cringe when I see dogs or cats dressed up like people.

I never had a dog, but I can understand that you get attached to it. Dogs are affectionate and great companions. They can be trained to do many things. They are great as hunting dogs, seeing-eye dogs, guard-dogs, drug-sniffers, and who knows what else, but in the end they are still only animals, that sometimes turn on their owners. They can bite, even kill. And they crap on other people's lawns!
I love animals...as animals, and I don't hate dogs and cats. It's the owners I have a problem with. We live outside the city and the properties are somewhat larger than city-lots. It seems some people when they move out here, they think now they can have a bunch of dogs and let them roam around.

And that is the problem...the roaming around. I almost stepped onto a huge mountain of dog-crap on my front lawn. That upsets me. Dog owners, like smokers, are not always responsible people. They think everyone loves their lovable pooch. I do...as long as it doesn't crap onto my lawn and stays in its own yard or is on a leash when away from home.

Some goes for cat-owners. We feeds the wild birds, and they feel pretty safe on our lot, but sometimes one of our neighbors' cat decides to lie in wait under our bushes in the hopes of catching one of the birds. When I see the cat I chase it away, but it does come back for another try. I could shoot the cat, but that is something I can't do. I only shoot what I eat, and since I don't eat cat my hands are tied by my own principles. Perhaps an eagle will come by and get the cat. That would solve the problem. One can only hope.

There...I feel better now. I vented and now I can enjoy the beautiful day...or what's left of it. We just came in from a walk. It is sunny today, but only 4 plus C with a slight north-wind. The problem is you don't really want to wear a parka, not March 28th. That would make you feel as if winter is still with us. After all, this is Spring, even though yesterday it snowed here most of the day. For a while I worried the snow may stay, but it melted away again. The grass is beginning to show a green sheen and the tulips are poking their heads out of the ground. 

Today I seeded some peppers into flats. One month earlier than last year. Hopefully, when planting time arrives, sometimes at the end of May or beginning of June, they'll be tall and strong enough to be transplanted into the garden. Last year my peppers were not tall enough and had fruit very late. Maybe this year will be better. We'll see.

Karma

Well, Colton is gone from Survivors. He wasn't voted out, he got an attack of appendicitis and was taken out on a stretcher. Not the way I wanted to see him go, but funny how fair the Universe is. When you treat people badly it somehow bites you in the butt, sometimes sooner than expected, but it will always happen. That is called Karma. People who watch the show know what went down and are probably anxious to see what happens to Colton's confidant Alicia. I hope she goes next. She is not a nice person.

I went fishing today to Lockport, but they opened the gates and the water was really turbulent. I lost 4 jigs before I gave up. I guess that is the end for this fishing season until it opens up again in May.

The tulips are pushing their tips through the soil and buds can be seen on the lilacs and chokecherry trees. It is supposed to go to minus ten tomorrow night and that is not good for the buds.

The first Robin

We had another beautiful warm day. A nice Spring day. We are now two days into Spring. Unfortunately, this warm weather we're having won't last. The are already predicting below temperatures for next week.
I saw my first Robin today, sitting on top of one of our Tamarack trees. I rushed to get the camera, managed to zoom in on it, waited for the camera to focus, and then...as I touched the release button the Robin took off. I got nothing but an empty branch on my camera, which means I have no way to prove I say a Robin.
There was also a small flock of Juncos on our lawn and in the bird feeders. Juncos are a sub species of Sparrows. The have slate colored feathers, dark at the top and a light belly. They usually come in early Spring to our place, hang around for about 3 weeks and move on, to come back in the fall on their way South.

Everything seems early this year. I checked last year's entry into my blog Herbert's Place and found that I saw my first Robin and the first Juncos April 9. This year they are almost 3 weeks early.
The ice on the Red River is all gone. I'm thinking of going fishing in Lockport by the dam this Saturday and maybe catch a few Walleye. This is very unusual for this time of year to have open water already. Lockport is about 5 km north of where I live. I had great fishing success there last year in the fall. The fish come up out of the lake for spawning but are stopped by the dam. They congregate in that area. Lockport is a favorite spot for sports fishermen (and fisher-women, of course. I refuse to write 'fisher persons'. That sounds so stupid.)

Well, time to go and watch one of my favorite shows 'Survivors'. I recorded it last night but didn't get a chance to watch it. I'm anxious to find out who was voted out. I hope the players smarten up and vote out that gay guy. He is so full of himself and a racist to boot.

Nice weather, guppies and platies

Hard to believe this weather we're having. When I stepped outside today I thought I was in Mexico as the hot humid air hit me. I don't know how hot it got, but the weather people predicted yesterday it would get 27 C today. Probably had that. I cut a bunch of branches from our pussy-willows like I do every year, but this year it is much earlier. The pussies are nice and of good size. If you wait too long with cutting them they grow long and turn gray, which makes them not attractive to put in a vase. They last all year. Too bad the branches don't keep their nice brown color. But next year we'll get new ones. The trees are growing taller though and I have to use a ladder and a 10 foot tree trimmer to cut them down.

A week ago our property was still under a blanket of snow, and now all the snow is gone, melted away. We don't even have any water standing on our property, which is nice. It will be Spring in a couple of days. You can tell, because there are plenty of flocks of geese flying over our house. Great to hear them honking.

Unfortunately, I don't believe that we can relax. I can almost predict that more snow is on its way. It's happened in previous years and there is no reason it won't happen again this year. We'll see.

I have a hundred gallon tank in my office. It is full of guppies and 9 catfish. On Thursday I bought 6 platies. I asked the salesman to make sure I have males and females. He assured me there were 2 males and 4 females in the bag. I should have checked it myself. When I put them into my tank, I saw only females. Now I hope they are pregnant and drop a few young. I started with one pair of guppies and now I have over a hundred in my tank. I'm just guessing, because I've never counted them. It is practically impossible.

Fancy guppies sell for around $6.00 each, which means I have a small fortune in guppies. I'm hoping to have a small fortune in platies soon. Not that I'm planning to sell any. Actually, the salesman told me he would buy my surplus guppies. I'll have to think about that. Maybe just enough to pay for the food and maybe some other supplies...Mmh. I need a couple of heaters for my other tanks.

I tried to take a few pictures of the tank and the platies, but the fish are fast and my camera slow. I tried different ways, using a tripod, setting it for 'pets and kids' and snapping the pictures with 2 second time-delay, but the fish are blurry. The guppies are barely visible. Here are three pictures:

To sue or not to sue

There is a class-action suit going on today in Montreal, Quebec. A bunch of smokers are suing the tobacco companies for making them addicted to cigarettes and for the damage smoking did to their bodies.

Helloo...Anybody with a bit of a brain should know that when you inhale smoke into your lungs that can't be good. People actually die from smoke inhalation. When will people start taking responsibility for their actions? I can't believe some of the things people sue for. Like that woman a few years back who sued MacDonalds when she spilled hot coffee onto her legs. Isn't coffee usually hot? If she is that clumsy she should not drink coffee or anything hot. It always baffles me that the courts don't dismiss these idiotic ideas. They should fine the lawyers for public mischief and throw them out of court with their moronic clients for even wasting the court's time. Obviously, the lawyers make a ton of money on these cases and maybe the judges get a bit of a kickback? (just speculating. I'm not suggesting it. Don't feel like being sued over this remark. One has to be careful!) Perhaps obese people should sue the fast-food places and junk-food producers, the stores who sell these foods, and maybe even the government for not creating laws forbidding the sale of junk-food. Why not sue the farmers who raise chickens and sell the eggs to the stores for making people get cholesterol or breeding pigs, killing them and making greasy bacon? Or perhaps we should sue parents who feed their children food that makes them fat? That makes much more sense to me.

People need to take responsibility for what they do, what they eat and drink. We can't have laws for everything. We cannot ask governments to take us by the hand and show us what is good or not good for us. We have plenty of laws already to control our daily lives. We should know that eating fatty foods and stuffing ourselves, drinking an excess of alcohol, taking drugs, being inactive by watching too much television or sitting in front of the computer for hours (I'm guilty of that I admit) is not healthy. Animals know what and how much they can eat, animals exercise their bodies to stay in shape and use up those calories they consumed. I'm talking about wild animals, not the ones fed the wrong food by their human masters. Animals would not voluntarily inhale smoke. Are we stupider than animals? Sometimes I think that is the case. How to explain somebody getting into an accident while driving too fast for road conditions, using a cell phone while driving, or reading the paper, drinking coffee, checking out a map while behind the wheel, or putting their RV on 'Automatic', and getting up to make a sandwich (That happened! That guy also sued the automotive company. He thought 'automatic' meant 'autopilot'). Yes, they are still among us...maybe not all of them, some fell victim to their own stupidity, or perhaps I should say carelessness or not using their brains, but there is no shortage of them.
I'm not trying to offend anyone by writing this. What I'm trying to say is that we should be responsible for our actions and not blame others for the results our actions bring us or try to get rich from the mistakes we've made. We should be man or woman (I refuse to say 'person') enough to take the blame when things go wrong.

If you want to read more about the law suit, check it out here: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/03/12/big-tobacco-firms-head-to-montreal-court-in-canadas-biggest-ever-civilian-lawsuit/

Spring is on its way

Winter may be finally on its way out. I heard the geese honking today. What a wonderful sound. I checked my blog on Herbert's Place from last year and found an entry about the geese having arrived at the Oak Hammock Marsh on March 12th in 2011. This is kind of eery. Almost to the day this year. It would have been on the same day if it hadn't be for the leap-year, which adds an extra day in February. How do the geese know Springtime is near?
It was warm today. I think we had around plus 10 C. Normal temperature for this day in March is below zero. The snow is really melting away. A bit too fast, actually. I still saw quite a few people ice fishing by the Lockport dam, which is near our place. With this warm weather the ice will also deteriorate and turn to mush. This can be dangerous. I saw last night on TV about the 27 people fishing on a lake in Ontario. They had been warned not to go on the ice, but people just don't listen. The ice melted around them so fast, they couldn't get back to land and had to be rescued by helicopter and boats. A great expense to the taxpayer. They were lucky, nobody drowned. It could have turned into a disaster. Within one hour the ice floats drifted from one km to 6 km away from shore. Let's hope they learned their lesson.

Survivors - One world

I watched last night's Survivors and I am totally baffled. It is men versus girls. I just don't know which are the girls right now. The guys won the immunity idol and then they gave it to the girls because they wanted to vote out one of their tribe-members. The one who was not following their self-appointed leader Colton.
What Colton said at tribal council was shocking and I hope the other guys think about it and see him for what he is...a conceited, full-of-himself, bigot, racist, gay spoiled brat, and a crybaby who will probably call for his mommy when facing a real challenge in life. He told Bill to get a real job, since being a comedian is not a real job in his eyes. The fact that Bill is black didn't apparently have nothing to do with his dislike of him. He has a maid working for him who is black and she is part of the family. But she does get paid. (Isn't she lucky?)
He also said that he does not associate with 'Trailer Trash'. What a guy.
The rest of the guys in the tribe are a bunch of spineless weasels who have no clue what is going on. They want to keep their integrity. What a laugh! Survivors is not about keeping one's integrity. It is about scheming, backstabbing, lying, and trying to win a million dollars.
I'm going to vote for the girls.

They are living among us

Yes, they are living among us...the morons, the ignorant, and the ones who don't give a crap. We went shopping today to Costco. In the parking lot they have huge arrows on the asphalt to indicate the direction to drive when trying to park your car. If the ground is covered with snow it is still easy to see that these are one-way lanes by the angle the cars are parked. There isn't much room in the lane between the parked cars. Of course, there are always those who decide to drive in against the arrow. One woman today did that. She has to back into the parking spot. When she leaves, she either drives out still against the arrow or she has to maneuver back and forth to turn her car around. The last time we shopped one guy came driving toward me from the wrong direction. When I made motions with my hand to indicate he should back up, he gave me the same signal. What an idiot! Where do these people come from? They are probable the same people who drive in the passing lane forever on the highway, slower than the speed limit, when there are signs posted: Slow traffic keep right. I can only shake my head.

The lion roared

March came in like a lion, which means it will leave like a lamb. That is the common belief and it is usually true. Yesterday we had a snowstorm. I don't know how much snow came down, but there was plenty on our driveway to cause me to get stuck when we came home. We would have never left the house, because conditions were already bad in the morning, but we had to babysit our grandchildren. Coming home at around 4:00 o'clock when the traffic gets heavy with the people coming home from work wasn't too bad. The roads were snow-covered and slippery, especially the highway, but if you take it easy and drive slow it should not present too many problems. Unfortunately, there are always those who are either too stupid or too ignorant to adjust to the driving conditions. Those are the ones who end up in the ditch or, worse, cause accidents in which other drivers are involved...sometimes fatally. There were quite a few semi-trailers jackknifed on the perimeter around Winnipeg and on other highways, and also quite a number of cars in the ditch. Some people never learn. Sometimes, of course, anyone can get into a situation where they have no control. The road may look good, but there is black ice under the snow and if you hit that you're in trouble. Driving slow does help to prevent many of these mishaps.
I just came in from blowing the snow off the driveway and I am exhausted. The snow was heavy and thick, but now the driveway is clean again, waiting for the next snowfall, which I'm sure will come again. The winter isn't over yet, even though Spring is only 2 weeks and three days away. Not here in Manitoba. I remember huge snowstorms in April. We've had years where the snow was all gone, people had removed their snow tires from their cars and then WHAM! we got hit with a massive snow fall.
I watched the news last night and counted my blessings. This snowstorm was nothing compared to what the American Midwest suffered. Tornadoes destroyed whole towns, many people died, and the loss of property cannot even be estimated. I'm sure glad I live up here in snow-covered Canada. We may get a few tornadoes in the summer, but they are never as destructive and massive as the ones in the US.
A question pops up in my mind. The Americans are always there when a disaster happens anywhere in the world with donations of money, food, clothing, medical assistance and whatever else is needed. Who helps the Americans? Anybody out there in the rest of the world? Just wondering.