Welcome Visitors

Welcome to my personal blog. I have another blog, Herbert's Place, but that one limits me to what I sometimes want to publish, because it is mainly used to promote my books. As it says in the header, I want to use this blog to write about things that have nothing to do with my books. There is no real theme here. I'll be writing about anything that causes me to either be happy or somethings that concerns me. It could be political, travel, a hobby, or anything else. So come and visit me sometimes.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

The old man carrying wood



 Some people love garage sales. It’s not for everybody and it can be a terrible time-waster. It can also become a way of spending money for stuff you don’t really need. However, there are plenty of people out there who have found little gems, some even made a fortune discovering an obscure painting or sculpture worth literally millions. Sometimes you can find useful things, like tools and household items, for little money. You know what they say: one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. (For those of you who are politically correct replace ‘man’ with ‘woman’. I’m not going to use the word ‘person’. I hate it.) Garage sales are also a nice way of getting rid of unwanted stuff and making a bit of money. Money you can spend at the next garage sale you visit.

We are not ‘Garage-sale-people’, but once-in-a-blue-moon we get the urge to go. Which means not often. Most of the time we come home with nothing, or perhaps an old knife I picked up for 25 cents. We went to a garage sale Saturday. It was in one of the churches in the neighborhood. I must say it was a good day. I bought quite a few fishing lures, a nice fishing rod with a reel (which doesn’t work well, but that’s the chance you take), and I also bought another knife for the usual 25 cents. I don’t need another knife but the price was right. It’s an old knife that has seen better days, but it still has a nice blade on that  holds an edge and the handle is solid. I’ll probably use it in the garage somewhere, because my wife doesn’t want it in the kitchen. Go figure. Just because it’s old and a bit worn doesn’t mean it should be discarded. That type of thinking scares me. I also bought a 23 liter glass carboy for my wine-making. I paid $5.00 for it. I have a few carboys already, but I can actually use another one. It allows me to have more than one sets of wine going. My wife did find a few useful items, also, which didn't make me feel guilty for spending money on stuff I hadn't missed until now.

Could this be our ticket to who-knows-where?
However, what excited me most was the little carved wooden statue of an old man carrying a bundle of wood we bought for $7.00. It was hand-crafted in France. I have no idea how old it is. When I saw it I knew I wanted it, but I had to talk my wife into buying it. “Where should we put it?” she asked. “We have enough stuff standing around on the shelves already.” I told her we’d find a place for it. It isn’t a big statue. Not even a foot tall. I’ve always liked statues. Mind you, it was statues of nude women I liked, but that is just a minor detail. So why did I buy a carved statue of an old man? Beats me. I just liked it. Maybe I’m going through a change of life and that scares me, too. Could it be that I’m older and more mature now? Is that why I liked the statue of an old man?

Now, of course, my wife wonders if we might have stumbled upon a treasure that could be worth millions. It would mean we’d be selling the little statue of the old man with his bundle of wood on his shoulders and I’m not sure if that would make me happy. I like this statue. I immediately went on the internet and did a search about a statue of an old man carrying a bundle of wood. I found only one made from terra cotta (what the heck is terra cotta? I have to look that one up). The bidding for that little treasure starts at 99 cents, no bidders yet, which is a far cry from the millions of dollars we envisioned for our little statue. Except ours is carved from wood. I don’t know if that makes a big difference.
 


Thursday, June 27, 2013

Supper at the Beachcomber Restaurant in the Forks in Winnipeg



Yesterday was our 48th wedding anniversary. It seems my wife and I were the only ones who remembered it, because we didn’t get any emails to congratulate us. A bit disappointing, since I send emails with good wishes to many people on their birthdays and anniversaries, but I don't want to whine. People are busy with their own lives. Actually, we did get one email last week from our dear friends Don and Norma.

We celebrated our anniversary quietly by going out for supper to the Beachcomber.

The food was good with few complaints, nothing really important. We don’t go out that often anymore except for lunch when we shop and it comes as a bit of a shock to see how expensive going out for dinner has become. The place wasn’t busy, probably because since it was Wednesday. Most people go out for supper on the weekend. We like to go to the restaurant in the Casino where the food is still quite reasonable and plentiful.

My wife ordered Giant Prawns topped with Crabmeat, accompanied by Rice Pilaf and hot vegetables. It cost $24.00. I ordered a sirloin steak with 2 Giant Prawns topped with Crabmeat, hot vegetables, and Lemon wedges (Potatoes). Price $32.00 (It was our anniversary, so I splurged ^_^.)

Everything is à la carte these days and if one isn’t careful it can add up to an expensive meal. I guess the restaurants do it that way to make the individual items seem less expensive.

We ordered one Caesar salad which we planned to share. The waiter brought us one huge Caesar salad, which cost $10.00. That wasn’t really the plan. Had we wanted 2 salads we would have ordered 2 separate salads, but it wasn’t a big deal. We didn’t complain. The salad was fine but nothing special.

My steak was good, medium as ordered, nicely spiced. The Prawns (mine and my wife’s) tasted delicious. No complaints there.

My only real complaint was the fact that I didn’t have any choice when it came to the potato. It was either lemon wedges or Rice Pilaf. I would have preferred a baked potato.
The lemon wedges were actually only half a potato. They were hard and tasted too lemony for me. Some people probably would have liked them. The portions are a bit on the small side when it comes to vegetables and the potato. Also, they didn’t serve bread with the salad. These are small things, that don't cost much to add, but those small things might turn some potential customers away.

We had 2 glasses of beer on tap, which cost $6.50 each. Not cheap. As far as I’m concerned, alcohol is too expensive in some restaurants and, of course, to buy from the liquor commission. There is too much profit built into it.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

A good day of fishing for Walleye…or was it?



Yesterday I went fishing for Walleye and Northern Pike with my good friend Rudy and my cousin Manfried. This was the third time this year that we headed for one of the big lakes in the Whiteshell Provincial Park.  The weather forecast was for sunshine and no rain.

The forecasters were correct but they never mentioned the wind.

Wind brings high waves. High waves make a boat rock. A rocking boat on the water makes some people sea-sick.

I’ve never been able to go on roller-coaster rides or on anything that moves fast in a circle, like a carousel. Even a swing doesn’t do me any good. Motion like that makes me sick to my stomach, with all the trimmings.

We got to the campground where we launch the boat before 11 o’clock. Already I should have seen the hint how the day was going to play out. Rudy pushed the trailer with the boat into the water while I sat in the boat. My job was to paddle from the launch site to the dock where Rudy and Manfried would join me in the boat. Well, I paddled like a Cuban refugee trying to get to America, but the wind started pushing the boat past the dock toward the open lake. Manfried saw me struggling and rushed to the end of the dock, but I realized there was a good chance I was going to miss the dock, because the rope that I needed to throw to Manfried was still tied to one of the hooks. Fortunately, the knot was loose and as I drifted past the dock I threw the rope to Manfried. He caught it and pulled me and the boat back. By this time I thought my arm was going to fall off from the strain.

Okay, there was a motor on the boat and the whole thing wasn’t as disastrous as it sounds. I could have started the motor and brought the boat back, but at the moment I didn’t even think of that. Besides, I don’t have a license to drive a boat, which, I know, is a lame excuse.

It took about twenty minutes to reach our fishing spot. The waves were high with whitecaps. By the time we got there my stomach was already in knots. Then we started trolling by letting the wind and the current carry us. Our boat was rocking on the waves sideways and from front to back like a nutshell in a washing machine. Well…it wasn’t quite as bad but if felt like it to my stomach.

It didn’t take long before I was totally nauseous and I asked myself what I was doing here. I love the water, I love riding in a boat, I love fishing, but only when the sun is shining and the water is calm.

But the rocking of the boat wasn’t the only thing making this a fun experience. Every time we turned the boat around to get back to our starting point, we faced into the wind. In no time we were soaking wet from the spraying water as we jumped across the high waves.

But somehow the Universe is fair and does balance things. With every negative there is always a positive somehow.

I have to admit it was the best day ever of fishing, or perhaps I should say one of the best. I’m sure I must have had a good day of fishing at one time or other in the past, I just don’t remember at the moment. However, right now this one felt like the best, possible because I felt so rotten. Even my continuous nauseous state could not dampen my joy as I pulled out the first Walleye only moments after we began trolling.

It was a nice fish, measuring nearly 45 cm, dangerously close to the legal limit for keeping Walleye. Since it was the first keeper, Rudy and Manfried had to pay me one dollar each. That is tradition. I was happy, but it didn’t stop there. After that I caught a Walleye that measured 54 cm, too large to keep, but I took a picture for my album. The next fish was a smaller one, a keeper, and then I caught one 43 cm long, also a keeper. In addition to the Walleye I caught a couple of Perch and a few Pikes.

The 54 cm Walleye and me. It made me smile.


According to my friend Rudy fishing is best when the waves are high. He was right, but I’m not sure if I want to experience that again.

A small incident marred our joy a bit, and it was partially my fault. We kept our fish on a stringer floating beside the boat, but when we moved fast, we had to bring the fish into the boat. That was my job.

The incident I’m talking about happened when Rudy started the motor before I could pull the stringer with the fish into the boat. Three of our large Pike got caught in the propeller and had to be released. They were dead, of course. One had its head nearly severed, the other one was nothing but fish-burger still inside its skin, and the third one didn’t look much better. In the end, though, we did drive home with 2 large Pike, 1 Perch, and 12 nice looking Walleye.

I do have a valid excuse for what happened. When Rudy said, “I’m starting the motor,” I was busy hanging my head over the rim of the boat trying to empty the contents of my stomach. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, which meant my stomach was already empty. All I could manage was dry heaves, which is bad enough. You feel like all your intestines want to leave you through your mouth…all at the same time. Not something I want to experience too often, actually not at all. I haven’t been this sick with an upset stomach since I was on holidays in Mexico a few years ago, but that was from eating contaminated food.

We usually have our lunch at 12:00. How Rudy and Manfried could eat while listening to my retching sounds I don’t know. I guess they have better stomachs than I have. I had made some nice sandwiches for my lunch, but I didn’t eat or drink anything all day, because I didn’t want to upset my stomach any further, if at all possible.

Even though I had such a terrible day, I enjoyed spending it with my cousin and my friend. Catching fish was secondary, because there is nothing more precious than being in the company of good friends and I consider myself lucky to have them.

Apparently, I was as white as a ghost most of the day, but I’m okay today. My stomach has settled and the color is back in my face. You know, it is a good thing our memories are short when it comes to bad experiences, because in a few days I will have forgotten how rotten I felt. And who knows? I may be back in the water in a short time. However, from now on I will carry a bottle of Gravol in my tackle box, along with the mosquito repellant and the sun tan lotion.

A stringer full of fish. The water is calm in the bay. I\m happy to be back on land.



Thursday, June 20, 2013

The Buddy Holly Story

Yesterday we went to see the Buddy Holly Story playing on the Rainbow Stage in Winnipeg.

Wow, what a wonderful  show. The performers are so talented and enthusiastic, it was such great entertainment. Of course, in order to enjoy the show one has to love the music. Peggy Sue, That'll be the day, and other classic songs by Buddy Holly surely took one back in time when Rock'n Roll was popular. Your just can't compare today's music to those great songs.

As anyone who is familiar with Buddy Holly's story knows, the entertainer died February 3, 1959 tragically in a plane crash that also took the life of The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, two other great and  talented singers. Now, 54 years later, their music is still remembered. I don't  think 50 years from now anyone will remember today's songs. There just aren't any memorable songs out there. At  least I don't know of any. Listening to today's singers, I can't understand any words, and the music itself does nothing for me. Songs like 'Peggy Sue' got your feet tapping for sure, and one could even understand the lyrics.

One thing I also enjoyed was the way the performers played their guitars. Such  talent, and most of them are still quite young. What sets the music from that era apart from today's music is the fact that there was still a beat that could be recognized and one could actually dance to the songs.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Bacon...give me more bacon and a nail for my coffin

Now I've heard everything. A couple of days ago I saw on the news that the latest gift for Father's Day is a box full of bacon. It is one of the biggest sellers. A new trend. People put bacon into chocolate chip cookies (that's right!), milk shakes, salads, and, of course, hamburgers, not to mention bacon and eggs. In fact, they put bacon into about everything.

What is wrong with people? There aren't enough fat (yes...fat, I'm not politically correct) people in America? We need to put bacon on top of the already way too fatty foods we eat like we need a hole in the head, to use a metaphor. Too many people eat too many ready-made foods anyway. They are too fatty, too salty or too sweet. And then they complain if they can't lose weight, get high blood pressure, or become diabetic. All those ailments are directly related to poor eating habits. And usually too much of those unhealthy foods.

When we go shopping we look at the labels. Too much sugar, too much salt, too much fat...we don't  buy it. We look for foods with less of those things. And they are available, one just has to do a bit more looking around. We eat 0 % Yogurt. My wife drinks skim milk. We don't put sugar into the tea we drink, never add salt to anything. It is amazing if after a while of doing that suddenly everything you buy from the store, even eat in restaurants, tastes too sweet or too salty. Without all that salt and sugar, you can actually taste the food you eat, not the salt or sugar. It doesn't mean we don't use spices, we do, plenty of them. We eat lots of vegetables, make our own soups and other foods from scratch. In the summer we have a garden. We grow lettuce, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. We make our own salsa and pickle beets, sometime pickles. It depends on the harvest. We don't have to worry about too many chemicals and preservatives in the stuff we make. Sure, it takes time and effort, but it is well worth it. Besides saving a ton of money.

So, take my advice: Don't fall for the newest trend. Skip the bacon and if you must eat some, use common sense. Don't pig out. Your heart  and body will thank you for it and you won't need those nails for your coffin for a long time.

Save the salt, the sugar...and the bacon.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Who needs enemies with friends like these



The following is something I've been holding back for a while. I want to publish it on a larger scale than just my blog, but I'm waiting for a response from the case worker at the Worker's Compensation Board of Manitoba. I'm giving her a chance to plead her case with me before I publish it.

The Competition Bureau is worried about price-fixing, but mainly about monopolies. They don’t want companies getting too large so they can control the market. The latest company to be investigated is one of the chocolate companies. It is sort of a double standard, because there is plenty of price-fixing and control going on. The government is the biggest offender. I’m talking about marketing boards that control the supply and price of milk, eggs, alcohol etc. And let’s not forget the oil companies that dictate to the consumer the price of oil. But this is not what I want to talk about here. This is a bit more personal and involves the Worker’s Compensation Board, who is supposed to be a friend in need.

The Worker’s Compensation Board was created to help workers financially when they get injured on the job. It is for insurance. A novel idea when implemented correctly and honestly, but the reality is different from the idea. The Worker’s Compensation Board works just like any other insurance company: They don’t like to pay out. They pay only when their conditions are met. And since they have the monopoly in ‘protecting’ workers, they dictate the conditions. Most of them are impossible to meet.

To pay out money means, of course, getting it first. So they force companies to register and pay the WCB a certain percentage of the wages the company pays to its employees. Companies have no choice. They must register or face fines. That’s how governments work. The WCB makes the rules, sets the percentage, and collects the money. Naturally, they need people to do this work. And, as every one knows, government employees get paid high wages and have plenty of benefits. This money comes out of the coffer that is meant for the payment of injured workers.

Now here is my case and my beef: I’m a retired Electrician. For most of my career I ran my own business as an Electrical Contractor, but before that I worked for a couple of different Electrical Contractors. Both are out of business now, the owners are dead, which is one of the problems. A very convenient problem actually for the WCB. I was a registered apprentice for three years with the first company and 2 years with the second. Construction sites are noisy at the best of times. Electric saws, drills, compressors, generators and heavy machinery. They all produce noise that can be detrimental to a person’s hearing. I worked at different jobs, some residential buildings and some commercial buildings. In those days (1960s) apprentices were cheap labour and we worked hard. I spent sometimes days with an electric hammer smashing concrete. Every house needed an electric service, which meant drilling a hole through the concrete wall. That needed to be done sometimes every day. The houses were small and we had to wire one house a day. We didn’t have electric hammers with a diamond bit. The bits we used were hardened steel and we had to turn the bit by hand. It took sometimes an hour to drill through a wall. Plenty of noise to damage a worker’s hearing. Nobody told us about ear protection. To make a long story short, I did damage my hearing, and over the years it became worse.

Now my hearing has reached a point where I need a hearing aid. Since I was 'covered' with the WCB, I applied for financial aid with them. My application was turned down for various reasons. First, I needed to prove that I actually worked for the company in question, which I did by producing a paper from the Labour board stating that I was an apprentice with the said company. That wasn’t good enough. Then they wanted proof that I worked in a noisy environment. I suggested to the case worker to visit a construction site and find out for herself about the noise.

Next I was requested to give them names of people I worked with who could testify that I worked at that company (Something I already proved with my contract). In addition, these people also needed to proof that they worked for this company.

Now, we are talking about people who are either dead or, if still alive, in their 80s. Most of the people I worked with I only knew their first name, and even those names are beginning to fade in my memory. Besides, it is not easy to prove that anyone worked at all. The government, apparently, keeps records only for about 10 years, so anyone needing a T4 Slip to prove who they worked for is out of luck. The same goes for any other government department, be it the Department of Labour or the Canada Pension Plan. Nobody seems to keep any records. Apparently. Most people throw away their own records, especially if they are not in the workforce anymore. All these facts must be known to the case workers of the WCB. If they don’t they can’t be very competent, and that is something I will not suggest. They are quite competent...in denying claims. That's what they've been trained for. As far as I’m concerned they are not the friend of injured workers but an adversary. I'm going as far as saying they already know from the start which claim they will accept and which one they'll deny. So why do they play these games with us if they already know from the beginning that none of the conditions can be met? Why make us jump through loops. I wasted a lot of time searching for the documents I was supposed to produce in order for my claim to be accepted. It was all for nothing. And that makes me angry.

What good is an insurance if you can’t collect when you need it? The WCB took my hard earned money. The WCB uses strong-arm tactics and intimidation to get companies to register. Anyone building a house must report to them all the contractors and sub-contractors, so the WCB can check up if they are registered and in good standing. If they are not registered or haven’t paid their dues, the WCB will tell the builder not to pay the trades. The WCB will deny this vehemently, but it is true. I can testify to that, so can other trades people I talked to. Trades people still in the workforce won't report this because of the intimidation tactics of the WCB, but I'm retired and won't be intimidated.
One of the General Contractors I worked for as a sub-contractor was audited by the WCB. There were a few sub-contractors who were not registered. I was one of them. So they forced the General Contractors to pay the dues plus a fine. They also told him not to pay us trades until we were in good standing with the WCB. For years sub-contractors, if they didn’t employ anyone, were not required to take out coverage for themselves with the WCB, but that was suddenly changed one year. The WCB has the power to make up rules like that whenever they feel like it. When I told the employee from the WCB that I had private insurance, I was told that it didn’t count. I was required to be registered with them. And yet, in one of their brochures it stated if anyone was collecting money from somewhere else after an injury the WCB would not pay out anything. Also, if they did pay out some money and if the claimant went back to work, the claimant had to pay back all the money paid to them by the WCB. That to me sounded like a scam. I brought this up with the Director of the WCB at the time, and he said to me, “Well, we know the system isn’t perfect, but we listen to you boys out there.” Incidentally, they did change that rule the next year.

When I told the Director that I was not happy about being forced to register and that it wasn’t right to charge the General Contractor a fine and force him to pay the dues for us, he said that had I been injured I would have been covered. I said, “I did injure my back and had to spend money with a chiropractor to get it fixed,” he told me to put in my claim and it would be looked at and taken care of. Well, I put in my claim. It was turned down.

While I was in the 'protection' of the WCB I had an accident on the job where I hit my head so hard that from that day on I’ve suffered from ringing in my ears. I went to see my doctor, but I never reported it or put in a claim. I knew it would be useless because there were no witnesses, and, according to their rules, an injured person’s word isn’t good enough. There need to be witnesses to the accident. How convenient! Accidents don’t always happen in the presence of others. At another occasion I fell from my ladder and injured my back. Now I am in constant pain, even painkillers don’t work. I’ve spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars going for therapy and to chiropractors with little results, because of the damage to my spine. I didn’t report this accident either, even though I was paying into the WCB, because I knew it would be a useless exercise. There was only one tradesman present when it happened, but he didn’t see it happen. He only helped my get to my feet after he heard the clatter and saw me lying on the floor. I would not have been able to meet the WCB’s requirements.

Mine is not the only case. I’ve talked to many other trades people who had their cases dismissed. Some injured workers don’t even report their accidents, especially self-employed tradesmen like me. I am retired now. I would have liked to work longer, but I had to quit because of my injured back. There is something wrong with a system that forces you to pay, promising protection, but refuses to keep the promise. It is time for a shakeup and an investigation into such practices. And perhaps a bit more transparency where the money they collect goes and how many cases they accept and how many they refuse, and on what grounds.

To briefly come back to my private insurance. I had a hernia operation. My insurance company paid me for 6 weeks, which is the allotted time for such an operation. I didn’t have to prove when I got my hernia or how I got it. I didn’t have to provide any witnesses, either. Just the fact that I had a hernia and needed an operation was good enough. By the way, I was covered 24/7, unlike with the WCB that covers only work-related accidents. In addition, it cost me far less to be covered than what I had to pay the Compensation Board.

I will be appealing my case regarding financial assistance with a hearing aid, but I’m not holding my breath. The review board has to follow the WCB’s guidelines. In other words a snowball has a better chance to survive in a hot oven than I have in getting my claim approved. They’ll just be going through the motions. It is impossible to meet the criteria imposed by an organization that doesn’t have to worry about losing customers, because the WCB has no competition and the case workers have been given the power to be judge, jury and executioner of any claim put in front of them. It is all designed to pay out as little as possible.

There was a time when a man’s word was good enough. Not anymore. These are certainly sad times.
My advice to any worker: If you are secure in the knowledge that you are protected by the WCB should you have a mishap at work, think again. They’ll make you jump through so many hoops and demand you meet impossible requirements that you finally will give up wasting your time. Arrange for more secure vehicles to deal with any tragedy you may suffer.

Disclaimer: Everything I wrote here is from my own experience with the WCB and I testify that it is true. It is the way I see it. Any assumption I made is just that. I cannot speak for other people and their experiences.

Become a snitch and you could earn some money

Wow! It never quits. It isn't enough that  Big Brother is watching  us, now the average citizen is encouraged to get involved. Some guy in Winnipeg (I don't know what I should call this guy: a genius or...?) came up with this great idea: If you see a car parked illegally, take a picture of its license plate with your SmartPhone and send it in (I don't know where and I don't care. To some newly created government department, I guess) and you will get 10 or 20% of the fine this illegal parker gets. One woman who was interviewed said, "You mean rat on my neighbor? I don't think so." But a guy said, "Oh sure. Great idea. An extra 10 or 20 bucks would be welcome." Yes, there will be those who will take advantage of this great opportunity to make some extra money. Also a great way to make new friends.
Of course, the idea isn't new. I mean the idea of making money by ratting on others. Judas got paid 30 pieces of silver for doing exactly that.

What will be next? Informing the authorities about a friend who does a few jobs on the side without declaring the money he makes? Someone making moonshine on his farm? Some farmer selling eggs without going through the Marketing Board? There are plenty of opportunities. By the way, that's how it was in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia.  Neighbors ratting on neighbors. We all know how that ended.

There are some things the ordinary citizen should not get involved with. If somebody breaks the law all the time, eventually they will get caught. If someone is in the habit of parking in the wrong places or speeding, they'll get a ticket eventually. There is no need for some idiot who happens to have a camera or SmartPhone to report this. It's just not right. That is morally wrong and an invasion of privacy, and that's how I see it.




Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Big Brother is watching us

What a surprise! Who would have known? The US and the Canadian government (and how many others) are keeping tabs on our phone calls, emails, blogs, FaceBook chatter, and other social media, probably also our websites. That's what this guy revealed. ( I won't name him here). Now he's hiding in Hongkong and the CIA wants him to stand trial for spilling secrets. What secrets? Everyone pretty much suspected it. The Spy agencies have had their bots surfing the internet for years spying on us. How else would they discover terrorist plots, find child molesters and other undesirables? So why would they want to put this man in jail? Just to make a point, like don't mess with us, because we are powerful and can do whatever we want? That is the scary part. They are flexing their muscles to intimidate us...the people who gave them that power. They, the public servants who are supposed to serve us not be our masters.

People are yelling invasion of privacy. That is a laugh. There is no such thing as privacy anymore. Governments, big corporations, stores and other places know more about us than we do ourselves. Every time we fill out a form, be it at a store to open up an account, at the bank, be it at the doctor's office, the hospital or any other facility, do a survey online or on the phone, we reveal some information about ourselves. This information is stored somewhere and even sold to other interested parties. We fool ourselves if we think we can live private lives. Those days are gone for good and we have to live with it.

And it will get worse. That is not a prediction, it is inevitable and just a logical conclusion. Part of the blame, probably a large part, lies with the terrorists, those religious radicals and fanatics who hate everyone who does not follow their doctrine. They want  to destroy our way of life, our free thinking, our ideals, so they terrorize us by trying to create chaos. It has cost us much of our freedom to travel, and changed the way we live. Another part that has to be blamed, of course, is the desire of some people to control others. Give them too much power and they will abuse it. They become, in a way, terrorists themselves.

It was 1993. My wife and I drove to the US to buy a lawn tractor and some other stuff. At the border this idiot Border Guard waved me on to drive up to the booth. When I didn't comply immediately, he yelled at me: When an officer tells you to move you move! What a jerk! He took his position too far. He should have greeted me with a friendly 'Hello' and told me to have a nice time in the US. After all, I went there to spend a large amount of money. Because of me and other cross-border shoppers he had a job. I was just about to tell him off when my wife hit me in the ribs with her elbow and knocked the breath out of me. All I could say was, "Ooof"'. She knew how I react to people yelling at me. That idiot may have kept us at the border all day and wasted our precious time. He did have the power to do that. Yes, the morons are among us. (See my last post)

Monday, June 10, 2013

Morons...they are alive and well

Sometimes I don't know if I should laugh or cry. I'm talking about the stupidity of people. There is this guy in the city who refuses to cut the grass on the boulevard in front of his house. He thinks it's the city's job and he won't cut if for free. According to his words, the city makes slaves out of people by forcing them to cut the grass if the property is not his.Huh? Come again...Slaves?

This guy is either a complete moron or just too damn lazy to do anything. Obviously, he doesn't have any pride. We live outside the city and we have a ditch about 175 ft long and 20 ft wide. It belongs to the municipality, in other words it is their job to cut the grass. I don't even want them to cut it, because they might just make a mess. I don't mind looking after that myself, because I want my property to look nice, and that includes the ditch, even if isn't mine. I fertilize the grass, I spread seeds into the ditch if it is  needed, and I cut the grass when and how I want it.

I am always baffled at the excuses some people come up with not to do any work that, according to them, isn't theirs to do. It's just being lazy, that's all. How long does it take to cut a strip of grass 50 or 60 feet long and 5 feet wide? I'm sure that's all it is on a city lot. This guy isn't the first one to come up with this. There have been others.

Not to be prejudiced, but there is a building in Winnipeg at the corner of Main and Sutherland that belongs to the First Nation's peoples. I think they use it as some kind of meeting place. It's all covered with copper plates that are tarnished now. The grass outside needs cutting, the property also needs a bit of care to make it look nice. All the bums walking around downtown you'd think they'd find someone to cut the grass or do some improvements, but I guess that's work, and who wants to work for nothing? Right? I mean who wants to be made a slave. That just wouldn't be right.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

The upside-down tomato is dead

Well, the first  casualty in the garden. The upside-down tomato is nothing but a limp piece of stem and leaves. What a pitiful sight! All that work for nothing. Now I  have to remove the soil from the bag. The soil is wet and won't come out easy. I had such high hopes for this tomato. Too bad I threw away the box. I may have gotten more money for the planter on the next garage sale. Luckily I only paid a couple of bucks for the kit.

All my other plants are growing nicely. The tomatoes and peppers are nice and green and are looking healthy. Most of the seeds have sprouted. If everything goes well I should have a nice crop of vegetables. In a couple of weeks I'll start spraying the tomato plants with Bordo copper spray to stave off the yellowing of leaves. Once that starts to happen, the plants slowly dry up and die. Last year I sprayed them faithfully and also kept grass for mulch on the ground, and that helped. My plants stayed healthy with few yellow leaves. The mulch is there to keep the soil from spattering over the leaves when it rains or when I water. I hardly water from the top, always from the bottom.

Friday, June 7, 2013

The Garden is done - hurray! Bring out the champagne.



My garden is finally finished. Yesterday and today I planted 31 tomato plants, 24 Honey & Cream Corn stalks, and a patch of Leek. I mulched the walkways and under the tomato plants with the grass I cut a few days ago. The grass had started to break down and it was really hot inside the pile. Besides, it stank like a rabbit cage. Anyone who ever raised rabbits knows the aroma. I seeded the corn  indoors on May 25th. Today, when I planted them, the plants were about 5 inches tall. I usually seed them outdoors, but they take a long time to sprout. This year, indoors, they sprouted after 3 days.

I pushed a toothpick into the ground beside every tomato stem for protection against cutworms and I put those conical tomato cages over each tomato plant. Then I pounded stakes into the ground and wrapped the whole thing with plastic, as I did with my pepper plants a few days ago. I keep the wraparound for a few weeks, until the plants are established. The plastic protects the plants from those strong winds we sometimes get, but it won’t do anything should we get hail. Then I’ll have to run out and throw a tarp over the garden. The same happens if we get frost, but I think we should be safe from frost now. Hopefully, we won’t get any hail.

I bought one of those hanging bags for tomatoes from the Dollar Store for two bucks. They sell them everywhere else for $8.00. I planted a Celebrity tomato. I hope it’s worth it and those tomatoes better be the damndest best tomatoes I’ve ever grown. You get detailed instructions, but what they don’t tell you is how heavy the planter is after you fill the bag with soil and add one gallon of water.

I bought an 8ft hanger for $10.00 at Canadian Tire. They were on sale. Being on the cautious side, I pounded two rods in an angle into the ground to support the hanger. After filling the bag the rod was still bending. I hope it doesn’t bend so badly that the container with the plant touches the ground. I wonder how many people buy this upside-down planter and use it only one year. The idea is quite good and logical, but is it worth the trouble? The planter needs to be watered every day. That already sounds like a lot of extra work.

I seeded quite a few peppers and tomatoes into flats indoors, but this year I will keep close tab on the plants and see how well they produce. If they don’t grow and produce to my satisfaction, next year I won’t bother growing my own plants indoors. If you hit the right time you can buy plants pretty cheap. I paid $1.19 for 6 tomato plants and the same price for 6 pepper plants at Canadian Tire when they began selling plants for the season. It was still early (the long weekend in May), but I kept them in our sunroom and all the plants have grown and they were of a good size when I planted them. Tall plants are fine. I strip the bottom leaves and plant the root ball deep to let the plants develop roots along the buried stem. That way the plants will have a good foothold in the soil. After the sale Canadian Tire was selling their vegetable plants $2.39 for six. That is still reasonable. And the plants are of good quality.

Most of my seeded vegetables have sprouted. Today, I could almost watch the Beans popping out of the ground. Since it was quite warm, I watered the garden as I planted. I used a watering can instead of a hose. It takes a long time but it does a better job. Last night I had a sprinkler going for a few hours to really soak the ground. It was quite dry. I use raised beds and they tend to dry out faster than if you just plant on flat ground.

So now I need warm weather, some soft, steady rain at regular intervals, no hail, no huge downpours, no strong winds, no more frost, and I should have a fine crop of vegetables.
Just in case it doesn’t turn out that way, I have my tarps, my burlap, and large pots on hand, ready to be used at a moments notice.

Chocolate companies charged with price-fixing

The Competition Bureau announced yesterday that three companies are facing conspiracy charges over their role in fixing chocolate prices in Canada.
The bureau uncovered evidence suggesting that Nestle Canada Inc., Mars Canada Inc. and ITWAL Limited, a network of wholesale distributors, conspired, agreed or arranged to fix prices of Canadian chocolate products – a criminal offence under the Competition Act.

The accused are facing a fine of up to 10 million Dollars or even jail time for up to 5 years.

This is quite laughable. The Competition Bureau should look into the practices of our own government. It  controls the sale and price of all alcohol products. Beer and wine prices are so high they make it nearly impossible for us to buy and drink them. What  about milk prices, and the price of eggs, fish? Everything controlled by some kind of Marketing board. I call that price-fixing. And it is perfectly legal because the government is doing it. We, as consumers, are being gouged everywhere and there is nothing we can do. All this threatening by the Competition Bureau, a government agency, about charging some companies is nothing but blowing wind to appease us, designed to take our attention away from really important issues. Who really cares about the price of chocolates? There are other more important things going on, things that really affect our standard of living. We can live with eating fewer chocolate bars. Perhaps we should. There are too many overweight people anyway.

Let's not even mention the price of gasoline. I've commented on that in other blog posts. Strange, how  every gas station changes the price at the same time to the same price. I get upset every time I have to fill up my car. Buying a chocolate bar doesn't have that effect on me. It doesn't bother me if every store charges the same price for a chocolate bar.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Walleye and Northern Pike

I took some time off from my gardening and went fishing with a couple of friends yesterday. We drove to the Whiteshell Provincial Park and fished in one of the large lakes. It was a beautiful day and we got lucky. We caught 12 nice Walleye (Pickerel in Manitoba) and 6 large Northern Pike (we call them Jackfish). We caught more, but we released the  smaller Pike and also 4 nice-sized Walleye. They were in length from 47 cm to 57 cm, too large to be kept, according to our fishing regulations. The largest we kept was 43 cm long. Usually, I don't keep and eat Pike anymore because of the bones. Also in the summer the flesh turns yellow and they don't taste that great  anymore. The water is still cold at this time of year and I decided to keep two for myself.
We also caught a couple of Perch. I haven't eaten Perch for at least 20 years, because they tend to have worms. My friends assured me these don't have any worms, so I'm going to eat them. They are beautiful fish.



Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Peppers

I planted 144 pepper plants today. I bought 60 plants, the rest I seeded into small containers at  the end of February. Once they sprouted, I kept them in our sunroom on a shelf. Because of the cold I had to take them into the house every night, but now I found out if you want the stems to get thick and not too spindly it is a good idea to keep the plants cool at night. That will stunt them but make the roots grow thicker in their pots. Mine were quite tall and thin. Mind you, pepper plants are like tomato plants. You want to plant them deeper. I removed the bottom leaves, dug a hole deeper than the rootball (about 5 inches deep) and planted the peppers. To protect them from cutworms I put a toothpick beside every plant. That way the cutworm cannot circle the stem and cut it off. I never had problems with cutworms before, but a couple of years ago I lost 4 plants to them. I always put collars made from newspaper around my tomato plants for the same reason. That works quite well. I'll be planting my tomatoes Thursday. Then I'm almost done with my garden. I'm late this year because of the cold weather and the rain we've had. My lettuce and the radishes are already sprouting.

144 pepper plants protected by a strip of plastic

A toothpick beside the stem to protect from cutworms

Fictitious Tales

No, it is not the title of my new book. It is the name of my new website. I was never really happy with my old website 'Herbert's World'. Since it was part of my service provider's package I didn't have much choice. It is just basic and not very impressive. It didn't even allow me to add a counter to see how many, if any, visitors I had. This new website is free and with weebly, but  it has plenty of options, most of them I still don't know how to use. I worked a few days on it now to get familiar with it and I managed to create a few pages, and I must admit it looks quite impressive.
If you'd like to check it out, just click HERE, and it will take you to the site. I still have a few things to do with it, but it takes time.

I've been busy with the yard and my garden. The weather is so unstable, with so much rain over the weekend. Yesterday I cut my grass and my bagger on the lawn tractor kept  plugging up with the wet grass. It took me most of the day to cut the grass, a job that usually takes only about 2 1/2 hours. But the grass looks good. We put  fertilizer on at the beginning of Spring and it helps.

Today is a bit cloudy and just perfect for planting. I'll be working in the garden, planting my peppers and, hopefully, the tomatoes. I have about 100 pepper plants, some bought, some seeded by me. They are all quite tall and waiting to be planted. They've been hardened off now for a couple of weeks and should have a good chance to survive the shock of being transplanted.

This year I'm cutting down on tomato plants. Last year I planted 50 plants, but I'll have half the amount this year. The problem is when you buy the plants there are usually 6 plants in one tray. If you want different varieties you end up with too many plants. I have to be ruthless and just disregard half of the plants I have. It will be tough to make the decision to just throw them into the composter, but it must be done.