Happy News

Was in touch with a friend who started me blogging a couple years ago. The reason that she started was not a pleasant one. She continued until recently and now she has stopped. Hopefully, she will start again when the mood strikes her. She is worried that right now all she can do is complain about her situation and the things that she faces.
I think that not complaining in your blog is a good philosophy although as you may have noticed I will complain about contractors and others who are supposed to get work done and do not do it in a timely manner. In some cases, this is a warning to me to get things done.
I have good news, I am helping a friend at One of Kind. Time to get ready to help.
Got to run.

Contractor

Good news, the contractor finally sent the information. I know that the work might be more than we had actually planned but it will be good to have it done. I think that these companies are happy to have bigger jobs so our job was not significant. The job will be done in two stages but I made sure that the part that had to be done, keeping the rad pipes warm was done the first stage. Not sure when the second stage will be done but it will happen before Christmas. Guess these companies do not care what things you have to rearrange. And rearrange, I did.
Will let you know how things progress as the work gets done.

Contractors!

Don't you hate contractors who come to do the estimate and then after several days still have not submitted an estimate? What are they waiting for? That you become so desperate to have the work done that you will do anything and pay any price to have the work done?
I am very frustrated with these people. I am now going to make more phone calls to find another company. Wish that the estimator or company would just come out and say that they are not interested in the work and recommend someone else instead of having you hang on and wonder what is going on.
Feel like starting a list of company that you can trust. Why bother giving the companies that are disreputable a forum?
Good luck with your work.

Plans using e-mail

Making plans using e-mail is certainly easier than the phone. Many years, I used to the phone to arrange gigs for a quintet that I used to be in. I would have to call the other 4 players and get their commitments, sometimes it would take two or three phone calls. Right now, I am busy arranging a luncheon with a group of friends and we have settled on the date, now the location. Using e-mail, the date has been confirmed although one of the members does not have e-mail so I check with her when I play tennis with her. We play a couple times a week.
The same can be said of my trio, I send out an e-mail and then receive responses about dates for performances. So much easier.
I am glad that I have e-mail for these purposes.
Sometimes, I wonder how I managed before.

Landing a rewarding Job

The perfect gift for a high school, college or university graduate: a professional career counsellor?
My goodness: $50 for a professionally produced resume. You can not do it yourself? If you can't should you be applying for the job?
Several thousand dollars can buy career coaching, interview coaching and a step-by-step plan on how to land a rewarding job.
People are willing to spend upward of $40,000 to get a MBA but then don't spend a penny on learning how to get the job they want. If they are capable of getting a MBA surely they don't need career counselling, they can give it.
The article points out an important point that it is not easy finding bona fide counsellors.
The resume is now a marketing tool according to the article, hasn't it always been.
Interesting, another career opportunity but not for those who looking for jobs. What a strange world that we need people to write resumes for us and point us in the right direction.

Slow Movement enters the design mainstream

I love the Slow food movement. It is important to cook and enjoy food, not rush out to the local fast food emporium. Now, it seems that the slow movement has also entered the realm of design. The Slow movement in design wants us to allow for reflection, association and appreciation to become part of the design process. This translates into a renewed enthusiasm for traditional over high-tech, the local over global and the artisanal over the mass-produced-with the additional value in the design content of made-to-last quality over the cheap and disposable.
Chief among the stylishly slow practitioners is a New York based textile company called Pollack whose line is available to the trade in Toronto through Primavera Interior Furnishings. Pollack's design director, Rachel Doriss recently gave a presentation at the Textile Museum of Canada.
Doriss talked about her grandmother and her skills with a sewing machine and knitting needles. "We live in a super-throwaway society now", observes Doriss. "There used to be a fix-it guy who could fix your washing machine and your TV. Now, if it's broken, we just throw it away and get a new one."
Doriss' designs and desire to work slowly are running into problems as small companies go out of business. Hopefully, there will always be companies that agree with her philosophy. I certainly do.

Many Facets of People

Earlier today, I received an e-mail asking about information about Miep Koenig. When I found some information, I was told but the person who they were looking for lived in Toronto. Well, further research revealed that Miep Koenig, part of the family that hid Anne Frank and her family during WW II was the same person who moved to Toronto and had been an educator. It seems that the person who asked about her did not know her background. Fascinating. On the weekend, I participated in a course about writing. The participants also had varied backgrounds. It was interesting to find out more about each individual. One was a former top model, another had lived in Burma and then worked for the UN, another a statistician. Each of these people had stories to be told and unless you dug dip enough you might never know about the many facets of these people.
Amazing that people do have many sides to them and that we do not always see the other side.

Lost Violins

Why do so many violinists lose their instruments?
As a general rule, violin cases should come with wrist manacles.
Whether it's down to their travel schedules or the fact that the gene responsible for musical talent is also the one that causes scatterbrainedness, violinists are always losing their instruments.
The latest: A jet lagged German musician who remembered his dirty underwear but forgot his $1.4 million violin on a train headed into downtown Munich this week. He had just gotten off a plane arriving from Asia.
The instrument fashioned in Italy in 1748, was left propped on a seat. When the unidentified 45 year-old musician finally realized what he'd done, he phoned up his manager and then had a panic attack that required emergency medical treatment. Fortunately, the violin was where he left it.
The list goes on.
Our conscious mind prioritizes things by importance, but on a cellular level, our memory does not.
Bottom line: If you can lose your car keys, you can also forget a briefcase full of cash- or a priceless violin.

Hydro Costs

Among the many things that the provincial government is arguing and debating about is the cost of hydro. The government is claiming that old meters did not accurately meter the hydro being used. Well, okay but if you look at a hydro bill most of the costs are not the actual hydro being used. The costs are other fixed costs that no amount of fiddling with times of usage would change. I think that the government needs to look at the hydro bills carefully. The fixed costs have risen a great deal and this has nothing to do with meters and how smart they are.
The New Democrats asked that the HST be removed from hydro bills and the government does not seem to be budging at that either.
Wonder what other things the government will increase?

Twinkie dieter drops 26 pounds

Now this is a diet that I might consider. After 10 weeks on his celebrated Twinkie diet, Mark Haub has lost 26 pounds, sleeps better and has more energy.
He's been downing Little Debbie Twinkie and Zinger snack cakes steadily since August 25.
What started as a four-week experiment stretched to last Friday because the results were so good. Haub told the Star on Monday. Now that his weight has slipped inside the "normal" Body Mass Index range, he's working out a slightly more extravagant diet.
But Little Debbie will still feature heavily in it.
"My wife says she wishes I'd been like this the whole time we've been married," the Kansas State University nutrition professor says.
As the weight dropped off, he stopped snoring and burned off his new-found energy by doing chores around the house.
His cholesterol levels, once high fell to normal.
The secret, the 41 year-old Haub contends, is how much you eat, not what you eat.
A veteran of low-carb and low-fat diets, the 5-foot-10 Haub was 201 pounds when he gave up whole grains and meat for Little Debbie. A daily calorie intake of around 3,000 slid down to about 1,700.
"Basically, my diet was lactovegetarian," he says of his milk and junk-food regime.
"The message from the movie Super Size me was 'Fast Food is bad,' But that's taking it out of context. His rule was he had to eat everything. It's not the fast food, it's the amount.
He points out he is "physically and mentally improved by increasing what's not recommended and decreasing what is."
Interesting premise that it is the calories that count, not where they come from. Food is fuel and nutrients.

Garden at school

Just read about a garden at D. A. Morrison Middle School. Wonderful what a teacher decided to do. Apparently the front entrance of the school was not very attractive and a teacher decided to do something about it.
Four years ago, Rita Strautins decided that it was time to take back the space and along with students she planted a garden. She created a garden that eliminated the weeds that had taken over the space and grown to the height of two feet. Most unattractive in front of the school.
Initially, Strautins was told that there wasn't much point in starting the garden because students would trample it, but she hasn't had much trouble with that. In fact, she said, the students generally respect the garden.
Safereerah Zainab, 12 is a student in Strautins' French class. She thinks having the garden is a great way to start being part of the community and make the world a better place.
"It shows we actually care about the environment," she said. "It's really nice and it represents the school very well."
The kids are now starting a garden club and next spring they will be tackling a spot near the rear of the building under an old tree. When it's finished, it will make some of the students like Ricci Crowder, 13, happy because she'll be able to eat her lunch outside by the garden.
Strautins did most of the weeding and the students did most of the planting. She found it difficult to take almost 30 student out to build the garden so she began taking a few students at a time on the preparation period. The front garden has different flowers that bloom almost year-round.
The school board did not give D.A. Morrison any money for the project. Instead teachers, students and community members donated resources. But most of the plants come Strautins herself.
What a wonderful example of what can be done!

Trees on our property!

You have read about my complaints about city trees before if you have read this blog in the past. You know that I am not pleased with the care that city trees are receiving. Today, I had another experience with our city tree. Over 6 months ago, a branch fell from our tree and hit the neighbour's car. The branch caused about $7,000 of damage. Yes, you read correctly. The branch hit the edge of the rear window and then gradually slid down crumpling the window and other parts of the car. It took over a week for the repair. The city would not pay and also claimed that our tree is fine. Today, many months later a company from Keswick came to trim the tree. How they know which branches are fine when there are no leaves on the tree is interesting in itself. According to my neighbour the company came and looked at the tree several days before. I am sure that the company manages to charge for each trip all the way from Keswick. Again, why can't a Toronto company do this?

Thank Goodness, I am retired!

Oh dear, life is never a straight line. Michael and I discussed the worst things that happened to us and it would be the death of our parents. We were comparing terrible things because yesterday we developed a heating problem. Oh yes, the rads starting leaking in one spot. Thank goodness, it was not on the second floor. Good that the temperatures are not like they will be in a couple weeks. Not sure how difficult it will be to fix the problem but we will deal with it. Someone is coming this morning and then once heat is back on we will figure out what the next steps are. In other words, do we have to do some remodeling etc?
Hopefully, the rest of you are having uneventful lives and have no major repairs.

Health

Just wrote to a friend who is experiencing health issues. Have another friend whose brother developed pancreatic cancer and those of you who have some knowledge of these things know that the prognosis is not good. However, I did hear that Libby Znaimer had pancreatic cancer and she is a survivor- one of 6%. There is always a chance.
My cold is much better and I just have sniffles and I am grateful that is all that it was.
All else does not matter if you do not have your health. For that I am thankful again and hope that everyone else can enjoy their good health and help those whose health is not as good.
Time to think about these issues. Michael and I have a number of possible trips in the near future and I will use my supply teaching money for them. Will be a good use of the money.
Will tell you about the trips once they are confirmed, but they should be good.

Cold?

How do you catch a cold when you are no longer teaching full-time? I got a cold and a bad one at that. I am finally up and not napping constantly. I think that I will actually practise my instrument to prepare for a performance tomorrow evening.
I have not been able to do much the past few days and as always, I gage how sick I am by how much TV I watch. I have been able to watch plenty and not get bored. Have you noticed how few good shows are on these days and I don't mean just in the afternoons? I actually find that there is more on in the afternoons than in the evenings. Murder, She wrote is a favourite stand-by but how many times can you watch the same shows? I have seen a few more than once. Oh well, I am better and now can be productive. Knitting scarves is good but I watch television when I do that. Oh well, plenty of practising that I can do. Time to do it.