The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Very cool – stats for my blog!
Here’s an excerpt:
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,200 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.
I had an appointment early this week for the dreaded “annual physical”. My doctor is usually pretty upbeat but she was not a happy camper. She advised me that the OMA had concluded negotiations with the Province in terms of what services doctors will provide and how they will be paid for them.
WE ARE IN BIG TROUBLE.
I got a woman’s perspective, of course – but here are a few examples:
The list was a long one and I don’t remember all she said. What I did hear is that we will get significantly less service and the doctors are not happy about that.
It seems to me that reducing the amount of preventive medicine currently being done is absolutely the wrong way to go about reducing healthcare costs. This will only cost more money down the road if health issues aren’t detected early and/or managed. Treating cervical cancer MUST cost far more than a PAPS test. Treating the associated illnesses that can come from diabetes that isn’t properly managed MUST cost far more than the quarterly visits to your GP. This seems so very shortsighted to me.
Worse still – no alternatives are being offered. If something is no longer going to be provided by our doctors – nor covered by OHIP, we should be able to get these services some other way and pay for them. This is my body. If I can’t get adequate medical care from my GP (and not through any fault of hers), I need to have alternatives. Where are they?
I immediately sent an email to my MPP – after all – that’s where these decisions are made. I hope everyone who reads this (and lives in Ontario) does the same thing. This is really hitting too close to home.
Now I am afraid.
The last of my 3 nephews was married last weekend. Though not the youngest of the three, he certainly held out the longest – and, it appears, for good reason. He was waiting for the one person who could make him happier than he ever dreamed possible.
Two beautiful young ladies came along as a package deal – and a dog.
Let me tell you about the depth of this man’s commitment.
The bride showed respect for her about-to-be husband’s passion and career by walking down the aisle to the original theme from Hockey Night in Canada! I’m sure that was a first!
All kidding aside – the photographer (a family friend) said it best when he described the event as a warm and wonderful gathering of friends and family that just happened to have a wedding in it.
It was a great weekend!
It amuses me to listen to (and experience) the varying definitions of being busy.
When I was working full time for IBM, I spent an average of 10 hours per day at work (and believe me, they expected and extracted more than a pound of flesh), an hour or more per day getting to and from work, managed to get appointments and errands squeezed in, spent Saturday mornings with my Mom and still had a social life. How on earth did I ever do this week after week after week? Yes, I was busy – but everything got done.
I had friends and acquaintances who worked in jobs (I won’t say where) who lived by the clock (or were paid overtime), took their sick days as a given, had coffee breaks morning and afternoon, never missed the bus home – and they felt they were run off their feet busy.
Now I’m retired – well more or less. I work part-time for 6 real estate agents – but luckily the work I do can usually be done on my own time, when it suits me. Even so, when I look at my calendar and see an appointment, social event, meeting, class, bridge game, etc – JUST ONE on each day of the week – I think to myself – I have a busy week. When it gets to two items on several of the days of any given week, I feel too busy and start to balk, wanting more “me-time”.
How can BUSY have so many different definitions?
I can also tell you, from personal experience, the more you have on your plate, the more you can get done. When you have spare time, the “manana” factor kicks in and nothing gets crossed off the list!
What is your definition of busy??????
Sue
What is it about this morning that has given me a huge case of the blahs??
Could it be the fact that it was still dark at 8am this morning??? I don’t like the delay in changing our clocks!!….at least not at this end of the deal.
Maybe it is also because I just booked an appointment to have my snow tires installed – now that IS depressing – not only because of the very thought of snow and winter – but these are brand new snow tires – and oooohhhh – the cost!! – certainly more than I was expecting!
Am I subconsciously depressed at the thought of biweekly garbage collection? Actually, I get somewhat depressed (or angry) when I think of just about anything related to our municipal government and how our fair city is managed……so no, I don’t think it’s the garbage nonsense.
When I read in this morning’s paper that our City contracts to Quebec truck drivers to handle snow removal while Ottawa truck drivers are looking for work – I saw RED. What a hypocrite is our Mr. Watson. He wants a casino in downtown Ottawa to keep the gambling money from going to Quebec, yet his own organization is handing out contracts to Quebec trucking companies. There is something wrong with this picture – but then, the picture has always been hung slightly off-kilter on the wall!!
For sure, I’m really angry about there being no NHL hockey. There isn’t much else to watch on television these days. I blame the players and the owners (well, at least the 6 or 7 team owners that form part of Bettman’s pack) equally. The fans and the other service providers who support the teams don’t seem to matter. The very small-market teams most of this argument seems to be about are going to go under all on their own – because of the lockout. If there isn’t sufficient interest when there are games to be watched – the powers that be surely can’t be silly enough to think that interest will grow if there is no hockey at all!!
Good thing I’m going out to play bridge today – that will be fun and will lift me out of this fog I’m in. Thank goodness for friends. There is NOTHING about my group of friends that makes me feel down – in fact thinking of some of them is enough to make me smile, and maybe even chuckle. There! That’s done it. I feel better already. Onwards!
When is the last time you called or wrote to your City Councillor or the Mayor? Your MPP? Your MP? Do you even know who they are?
So many of us have opinions on all sorts of things and we freely express them to our friends and neighbours – but just what do you think these friends or neighbours can or will do about any of it? Wouldn’t it be more productive to provide your thoughts and input to the people who are in a position to do something? You voted for them to represent you – they can’t do that if they are left trying to be mind-readers – or worse – to hear input from only the tree-hugger types who adopt “a cause” just for sake of having “a cause”.
GET INVOLVED! I call it EARNING THE RIGHT TO WHINE! Just think – you could actually make a difference!! Contacting any of these people is easy by email. Know that your input IS important and your opinions ARE valid. Make them heard!!
Casino for Ottawa: Let’s start with the frenzy going on about a new casino for our fair city. It seems that the OLG will insist on ONLY ONE casino in Ottawa and it will likely be where they want it to be (aka Downtown). Calgary has multiple casinos – a smaller city in population than Ottawa. Edmonton has multiple casinos – a smaller population than Ottawa. Winnipeg has multiple casinos – again a smaller population than Ottawa – so what on earth is going on here? The rumors that Dalton McGuinty has made some sort of deal with a large casino conglomerate who is insisting on no competition might just be true – otherwise this “one casino for Ottawa” scenario makes absolutely no sense at all. Why not leave Rideau Carleton Raceway just the way it is???? Harness Racing – although not my favourite way to spend my money – has been a part of this city for as long as I can remember and Rideau Carleton appears to be a very profitable and very Canadian company. It is a money maker for both the City and the Province and employees a large number of people – all tax payers!! Build another casino if the powers that be want another casino. I have no doubt there is room for both.
NHL Lockout: I read this morning that BMO Capital Markets economist Doug Porter said the NHL strike is likely to take a $1.8 billion cut out of our (Canadian) gross domestic product this year. WHAT????
High-Speed Longboards (i.e. skateboards meant for getting from a to b vs doing tricks): If we aren’t careful, there will be another special commuter lane on Laurier Avenue – for longboards! Where do they fit? On the sidewalks? On the roads? In the bike lanes? Maybe we should insist on brake lights and turn signals on these boards!! OMG – then what about little old ladies using walkers, electric wheelchairs, strollers, etc. Are we really having conversations about this sort of stuff????
Did you ever stop to think how much influence labour unions have on our lives? It seems to me they have a significant say in so many things:
In fact, it is difficult to think of a single area that affects the way we live (and what it costs to do so) that doesn’t have union involvement of some kind.
EEGADS! Unions are in charge of the country!! Is this what happened in Greece?
I’m having a difficult time with this one.
For those who haven’t been following the story, the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the NHL and the Players’ Association expires September 15th. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has stated that the players will be locked out (not allowed to play) if an agreement isn’t negotiated and signed prior to the old one running out.
Players are being asked to take a reduction in salary (among other things) with the monies gathered by doing this used to spread the wealth among the weaker financial teams. It appears that the players are interested in the idea of stronger financial teams aiding weaker ones, but expect the owners to pay for it. The franchise owners want the players to foot the bill.
I’m sure I have made this sound uncomplicated – there are other issues on the table that I won’t even pretend to understand – so I am sticking to the one I do get….. not that it matters a whole lot given what I’m about to offer up next.
My question is this: If a franchise can’t make a go of it, it generally means that there isn’t a large enough audience both interested in going to hockey games and willing to pay high ticket prices to do so. Why on earth are there hockey clubs in these cities in the first place? Who made what should have been a “sound business decision” when an NHL franchise was awarded to these “weaker teams”?? Why should successful hockey teams be penalized? Who decided there needed to be expansion, expansion and more expansion?? If weaker teams are “subsidized” what will ensure those teams continue to make every effort to become independent of hockey welfare???
I could get into an entirely new theme if I started to chat about the ridiculous salaries some of the players earn – and/or the cost of attending a hockey game in a place like Toronto, New York or even Ottawa…..but I won’t go there today.
I believe the NHL and the Players’ Association owe it to hockey fans to find a way to reach agreement and avoid a lockout. Why make a bad situation worse? How will a lockout help hockey?? The world is becoming a greedy place!
I’m sure my nephew, the ultimate hockey buff, will quickly correct any misunderstandings on my part – so watch for his comments!!
Let me start by saying that I’m not against bilingualism per se and I think it is wonderful to be able to speak more than one language – whatever languages they might be. I am, however, getting more and more concerned about the cost. Can we really afford this?
The recent report from the Fraser Institute states that the provinces spend more than $900-million PER YEAR offering services and education in both official languages and Ottawa spends an additional $1.5-billion PER YEAR offering federal services in french and english…….a total of $2.4-billion annually – and that doesn’t take into account the monies spent in a very large number of municipalities, businesses and organizations.
According to the latest (2006) census, only 300,000 people in Canada are minority language speakers who are unable to communicate in the language of the majority that surrounds them. That is less than 1% of the population.
ONLY IN CANADA would this kind of money (our money, by the way) be spent on such a small group of people – and – what has it done for us? Has it made the country “more unified”? Is Quebec happy? Are Albertans delighted to be spending this amount of effort and money to offer bilingual print-media and services in their province? Have a larger number of people become truly bilingual? Apparently, after more than 40 years spent promoting official bilingualism, 97% of people in Ontario still work almost entirely in english (down from 98% 4 decades ago) and exactly the same percentage of Quebecers (23%) work daily in English as there was when the grand experiment began.
This takes me back to an earlier blog about the demise of Common Sense. After all these years, and all this money, we are no more bilingual nor any more unified than we were when we began the bilingualism journey. So – why continue??
It is time to take a look at priorities. Would you rather bilingualism than good health care? It may come down to just that!!
justbitchinrantsandraves 