Ever have one of those days when you feel like a total slob? Just gross and fat and horrible and not fit to be seen in public? A bad hair day on steroids?
Well, this is the story for you.
A few years ago, "Cops" used to be a favorite TV show that my sister and I would watch faithfully. It was one of those shows that, no matter how bad our life seemed on any given day, we could watch "Cops" and realize that life could be a whole lot more pathetic and awful. A real pick-me-up!!
The same is true for this story.
On Sunday, a 43 year old man in Ohio had to be - firstly - cut out of his chair in which his morbidly obese self had been seated for the past 2 years, then - secondly - cut out of his house.
He had been sat there so long, his skin had fused to the fabric. He was covered with feces and urine, and maggots. Yummy.
Not only that, but he was living with two people, one of whom was his girlfriend - his girlfriend, mind you - who had been feeding him all this time.
What is with these stories?!?!?!
A few years ago, there was the story of the woman in Kansas who had been sat on a toilet for years. At least she had the decency to anticipate needing "to go" from time to time.
I think it's fair to assume a high degree of mental illness is at the forefront of these stories. That would explain the behavior of the sitters. But, what about the people who are living with these people day in and day out? Feeding them? In the bathroom?!?! For TWO YEARS?!?!
Come ON!!
The community is now clamoring to get answers to how this could happen. It's hard to imagine, really. The landlord said, "...he was always sitting under a blanket." Well, landlord, I house-sat for two cats, who I left for two days, and the stench from the kitty litter after two days nearly knocked me down when I returned. Two years worth of pee and poo in a literally maggoty chair is not going to be masked by a blanket, even if it's a blanket made out of Bounce sheets. The smell of ammonia once you got in the driveway would have been enough to raise red flags, I'm pretty sure.
Landlord did have a kind of point, though. When you rent to adults, you figure they know how to... well... live some kind of a normal life.
I really have to wonder at the girlfriend, though. I mean, really. After he sh*t in the chair for the first time, didn't she find that a little off-putting? Didn't she have a moment where she chose to rethink the romance?
I'll tell you this, if Colin Firth, who I adore, decided to sh*t in a chair in my home, my infatuation would come to a screeching halt, no question. End of story. Just once.
I wonder did Chair Guy get the idea from Toilet Girl? Was he looking for his 15 minutes of fame? Was he figuring he could do this, and probably write a best-selling book at the end of it?
Sadly, we will never know his motivations. It was reported Wednesday night that he had passed away. I have to believe he's a happier man today, wherever he is, than he was a week ago. Having skin fused with the waste-covered chair, and swatting away your own maggots has to be a pretty hellish existence, even for a nut.
.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Not Danny Williams' finest moment, I fear
Oh, Danny boy...
What on earth are you thinking?
So, he resigns as premier of Newfoundland last December, and the place went up. Tears were shed, mine included, and it was generally felt that the good times Newfoundland had seen since 2003 were well and truly over, never to return.
The flag flap.
The Atlantic Accord battle with Ottawa. The ABC campaign.
Paul & Heather McCartney.
The lower Churchill. All great moments with Danny's unique touch firmly emblazoned on them.
Yes, Kathy Dunderdale was being left in charge, and she was felt to be fully competent and capable.
On her best day, though, she was no Danny Williams.
As it has a habit of doing, life went on. The sun did continue to rise and set, tides continued to ebb and flow. Politicians continued to do politic-y things.
One of the things this particular set of PC politicians was doing, in the background, was planning a tribute dinner honoring Danny. He himself had been involved in the planning of this, for months. That's all well and good, and as it should be. However, last week, out of the blue, Danny Williams announces that he will not be attending the tribute dinner. The one that's honoring him. The same one that he had been involved in planning. For months.
Now, your average bayfolk on the street is wondering, whassup with that? A few Townies are scratching their heads as well, truth be told.
The speculation started out that Danny was miffed because the current government did not rant and roar sufficiently when Elizabeth Matthews was under fire for her patronage appointment to the C-NLOPB, an appointment from which she subsequently resigned.
There are also comments that Danny was refused the cell phone numbers of Cabinet ministers. As Mrs. Dunderdale said on the news tonight, most of the numbers haven't changed over the past 8 years.
Whatever the reason, I think that ol' Danny is going to come out the loser on this.
It is only natural that a new government, particularly one having to emerge from Danny Williams' shadow, would want to put their own stamp on things, to be seen as its own entity, and not seen as the party-minus-Danny. Danny's well documented battles with Ottawa were good for the province at the time, and will go down in history as the thing of legends, but the time has probably come to move beyond that, and mend some of the rifts. A change in leadership has allowed that to happen.
I sense that Danny is having a dose of 'resigner's remorse'. He had essentially disappeared from the public stage over the past 5 months. I'm thinking that now, with the federal election on the go, and a provincial election coming in October, he's missing the limelight, and the power, and control. He's resentful, I believe, of the warmer relationship between Ottawa and Newfoundland. He probably sees it as disloyalty to him.
Danny, your time is past. Not because we wanted it to be, God knows. We wanted you to stick around forever. But, you made your decision, and those left behind are dealing with it.
This kind of pettiness, be it related to cell phones or Elizabeth Matthews or whatever, is only making you look bad, sir. It's giving your critics something to get their teeth into, which is neither beneficial to you, nor to the party that is heading to the polls in the near future. Why am I detecting a mild (so far) stench of sabotage in among all of this? Do you want to see the PCs fail, so you can then compare your government to this new one in a favorable light? Are you afraid that they can do well without you? What would that say to your legacy?
What it would say, if ego was not driving this situation, is that you had an exceptionally competent team behind you, who are capable of continuing to carry the torch very effectively even after you've gone. There is some satisfaction to be gained in that, if, as I said, your ego is not getting in the way.
If it is, then you are not the man I thought you were. And that would be a very sad thing, indeed.
Oh, Danny boy...
.
What on earth are you thinking?
So, he resigns as premier of Newfoundland last December, and the place went up. Tears were shed, mine included, and it was generally felt that the good times Newfoundland had seen since 2003 were well and truly over, never to return.
The flag flap.
The Atlantic Accord battle with Ottawa. The ABC campaign.
Paul & Heather McCartney.
The lower Churchill. All great moments with Danny's unique touch firmly emblazoned on them.
Yes, Kathy Dunderdale was being left in charge, and she was felt to be fully competent and capable.
On her best day, though, she was no Danny Williams.
As it has a habit of doing, life went on. The sun did continue to rise and set, tides continued to ebb and flow. Politicians continued to do politic-y things.
One of the things this particular set of PC politicians was doing, in the background, was planning a tribute dinner honoring Danny. He himself had been involved in the planning of this, for months. That's all well and good, and as it should be. However, last week, out of the blue, Danny Williams announces that he will not be attending the tribute dinner. The one that's honoring him. The same one that he had been involved in planning. For months.
Now, your average bayfolk on the street is wondering, whassup with that? A few Townies are scratching their heads as well, truth be told.
The speculation started out that Danny was miffed because the current government did not rant and roar sufficiently when Elizabeth Matthews was under fire for her patronage appointment to the C-NLOPB, an appointment from which she subsequently resigned.
There are also comments that Danny was refused the cell phone numbers of Cabinet ministers. As Mrs. Dunderdale said on the news tonight, most of the numbers haven't changed over the past 8 years.
Whatever the reason, I think that ol' Danny is going to come out the loser on this.
It is only natural that a new government, particularly one having to emerge from Danny Williams' shadow, would want to put their own stamp on things, to be seen as its own entity, and not seen as the party-minus-Danny. Danny's well documented battles with Ottawa were good for the province at the time, and will go down in history as the thing of legends, but the time has probably come to move beyond that, and mend some of the rifts. A change in leadership has allowed that to happen.
I sense that Danny is having a dose of 'resigner's remorse'. He had essentially disappeared from the public stage over the past 5 months. I'm thinking that now, with the federal election on the go, and a provincial election coming in October, he's missing the limelight, and the power, and control. He's resentful, I believe, of the warmer relationship between Ottawa and Newfoundland. He probably sees it as disloyalty to him.
Danny, your time is past. Not because we wanted it to be, God knows. We wanted you to stick around forever. But, you made your decision, and those left behind are dealing with it.
This kind of pettiness, be it related to cell phones or Elizabeth Matthews or whatever, is only making you look bad, sir. It's giving your critics something to get their teeth into, which is neither beneficial to you, nor to the party that is heading to the polls in the near future. Why am I detecting a mild (so far) stench of sabotage in among all of this? Do you want to see the PCs fail, so you can then compare your government to this new one in a favorable light? Are you afraid that they can do well without you? What would that say to your legacy?
What it would say, if ego was not driving this situation, is that you had an exceptionally competent team behind you, who are capable of continuing to carry the torch very effectively even after you've gone. There is some satisfaction to be gained in that, if, as I said, your ego is not getting in the way.
If it is, then you are not the man I thought you were. And that would be a very sad thing, indeed.
Oh, Danny boy...
.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Fabian Manning - he really is as dumb as he looks.
Here he is, Fabian Manning, leaving the Senate to run in the federal election. What is he, nuts?
A political patronage appointment, for which he is getting paid the best kind of money with the best kind of pension for the rest of his unnatural life, and he's throwing it all away after 2 1/2 years, to run in the district of Avalon.
Unbelieveable.
It just goes to show the stupidity and the arrogance of the man. He figures, I guess, that now that Danny's gone, everything will be back to 'normal', and the Conservatives will get their seats back. Not so fast, my son. Every time Steve Harper turned around during these past 2 1/2 years, Manning was right there behind him with that screwed up face that my sister likes to say makes him look like he was weaned on a pickle. The people of Newfoundland are not so quick to forget the treachery of Steve Harper, and that the good senator was right there, every time.
Joined at the hip. Yes, indeed. Which would be all well and good, if Fabian Manning had one single clue to call his own. Or even if he looked like he did.
The person who captured the true essence of Fabian Manning was Mark Critch, on a recent "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" episode. Whatever they pay Mark Critch is not nearly enough. This was brilliant television! The best bit starts at 1:55 minutes. Brilliant.
This, ladies & gentlemen, is the person who will be running in the district of Avalon. Please God, let the voters see that there has to be a better representative for that district than him!!!
.
Unbelieveable.
It just goes to show the stupidity and the arrogance of the man. He figures, I guess, that now that Danny's gone, everything will be back to 'normal', and the Conservatives will get their seats back. Not so fast, my son. Every time Steve Harper turned around during these past 2 1/2 years, Manning was right there behind him with that screwed up face that my sister likes to say makes him look like he was weaned on a pickle. The people of Newfoundland are not so quick to forget the treachery of Steve Harper, and that the good senator was right there, every time.
Joined at the hip. Yes, indeed. Which would be all well and good, if Fabian Manning had one single clue to call his own. Or even if he looked like he did.
The person who captured the true essence of Fabian Manning was Mark Critch, on a recent "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" episode. Whatever they pay Mark Critch is not nearly enough. This was brilliant television! The best bit starts at 1:55 minutes. Brilliant.
This, ladies & gentlemen, is the person who will be running in the district of Avalon. Please God, let the voters see that there has to be a better representative for that district than him!!!
.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Mixmaster Monday
Welcome back to Mixmaster Monday!!
I actually brought my camera to my sister's yesterday, fully intending to get a photo of the genuine Mixmaster, but Happy Hour intervened, and then I forgot. You know how it is...
:-)
This week, I'm mimicking Sharon Snow's "Places to Go" segment from the NTV Evening News. I'm featuring Chef To Go, a local company that, among other things, offers cooking courses of all kinds to people like me who enjoy cooking, but, quite frankly, don't have a clue what we're up to.
Here is the link to the Chef To Go website.
A co-worker of mine called me today, asking if I was interested in participating in a class this coming Saturday. I didn't get much more information than that because I had to decline because I am working this Saturday.
When I had a chance, though, I went in on the website to see what sort of courses are offered. It seems that there are Saturday Seminars, where you start preparing a meal at 9 a.m. with your group. At 4 p.m., you go home to get ready for dinner, and return at 7.30 p.m. with a guest to enjoy the meal the group prepared that day. Sounds kinda nifty, I think!
There are other, multi-week courses on all kinds of topics, from vegetarian cooking to appetizers and tapas to methods and techniques.
There are some I would love to have the time to do. I don't right now, but maybe you do, and if so, here is something you might enjoy! If I ever do get the opportunity to do one of these courses or seminars, I will definitely be here to tell about it!
.
I actually brought my camera to my sister's yesterday, fully intending to get a photo of the genuine Mixmaster, but Happy Hour intervened, and then I forgot. You know how it is...
:-)
This week, I'm mimicking Sharon Snow's "Places to Go" segment from the NTV Evening News. I'm featuring Chef To Go, a local company that, among other things, offers cooking courses of all kinds to people like me who enjoy cooking, but, quite frankly, don't have a clue what we're up to.
Here is the link to the Chef To Go website.
A co-worker of mine called me today, asking if I was interested in participating in a class this coming Saturday. I didn't get much more information than that because I had to decline because I am working this Saturday.
When I had a chance, though, I went in on the website to see what sort of courses are offered. It seems that there are Saturday Seminars, where you start preparing a meal at 9 a.m. with your group. At 4 p.m., you go home to get ready for dinner, and return at 7.30 p.m. with a guest to enjoy the meal the group prepared that day. Sounds kinda nifty, I think!
There are other, multi-week courses on all kinds of topics, from vegetarian cooking to appetizers and tapas to methods and techniques.
There are some I would love to have the time to do. I don't right now, but maybe you do, and if so, here is something you might enjoy! If I ever do get the opportunity to do one of these courses or seminars, I will definitely be here to tell about it!
.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Joe Biden - Vice Kidnapper-in-Chief
Up until now, I have never mentioned Vice President Joe Biden, simply because it is impolite and just plain wrong to make fun of the mentally handicapped. I still believe this, of course, but this latest antic has eclipsed him being just intellectually challenged, to being someone who feels entitled to subvert the freedom of the press. That's not good, even if most of the press are left-wing nutjobs.
Here is an article posted today on the Drudge Report website. Not only have I added the link, I'm also going to post the article in its entirety and the accompanying photo, because to summarize this would just not do justice to the creepiness of what happened at this fundraising event held last Wednesday.
(The Drudge Report, in case you're not familiar, is a news weblog started by Matt Drudge many years ago. He is probably most famous for being the one who scooped the story of Monica Lewinsky's infamous semen-stained blue dress, when the rest of the media wouldn't touch the story with a presidential pole. His site gets tens of millions of hits a day, a few more than mine!!)
Of course, being that the media is, as I said, mostly comprised of left-wing nutjobs, you won't see this on the front page of the New York Times, but you should. Every journalist, regardless of political stripe (which they're not supposed to have because they're supposed to be objective and impartial hahahahaha), should be outraged. It's a sign of the times that they aren't, and it's also a sign of the times that if Dick Cheney had even considered doing this, it WOULD be front page news, for months.
Even the guy who was held as the article describes didn't write about it in his two pool reports that day. Talk about objectivity and truth in reporting!!
Just think about all that, as you read this article...
From DrudgeReport.com -
*** REPORTER CONFINED IN CLOSET DURING VEEP'S FUNDRAISER ***
Sat March 26 2011 17:04:37 EDT
Staffers with Vice President Joe Biden confined an Orlando Sentinel reporter in a closet this week to keep him from mingling with high-powered guests gathered for a Democratic fundraiser.
Reporter Scott Powers was the designated "pool reporter" for the vice president's Wednesday visit to the massive Winter Park, Fla., home of developer and philanthropist Alan Ginsburg. The veep hadn't arrived yet but most of the 150 guests (minimum $500 donation) had. They were busy noshing on caprese crostini with oven-dried mozzarella and basil, rosemary flatbread with grapes honey and gorgonzola cheese and bacon deviled eggs, before a lunch of grilled chicken Caesar and garden vegetable wraps.
Not so for Powers. A "low-level staffer" put Powers in a storage closet and then stood guard outside the door, Powers told the DRUDGE REPORT. "When I'd stick my head out, they'd say, 'Not yet. We'll let you know when you can come out.'"
And no crustini for Powers, either. He made do with a bottle of water to sip as he sat at a tiny makeshift desk, right next to a bag marked "consignment." Powers was closeted at about 11:30 a.m., held for about an hour and 15 minutes, came out for 35 minutes of remarks by Biden and Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, and then returned to his jail for the remainder of the event.
Powers' phone didn't work in the closet, but his Blackberry did, so he fired a picture of his impromptu prison to his editors, who posted a short blog item on the lack of freedom of the press under the veep's control.
Powers didn't mention his confinement in either of his pool reports that day, saying only that "press coverage was limited to a single pool reporter, filing on behalf of all local media, who was allowed to listen to the remarks but not given an opportunity to talk with anyone at the event."
On Friday, Powers said, the home's owner called him. "He said he had no idea they'd put me in a closet and was very sorry. He said he was just following their lead and was extremely embarrassed by the whole thing."
End of article.
Y'know? I dunno. If I was worldly and savvy enough to be a millionaire developer and philanthropist, I think I'd be a little more assertive than to blindly "follow their lead" and allow someone (even the feds) to lock someone in a closet in my home, without being a bit creeped out by the whole thing. But that's just me.
Journalists! Be advised that if I ever hold a fundraiser for Kathy Dunderdale, you will not be relegated to my closet for the evening, ok? OK!
**UPDATE**
The following was posted on the Fox News website, an apology from a Biden aide for the above incident. To hell with the aide!! Biden himself should have apologized, profusely, to the entire American populace for subverting the freedom of the press.
Disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful.
.
My little friend the moose here is wearing sunglasses because he's too embarrassed to be associated with such a dumb story.
And then, what about moose hunting season? Will the government also have to install gates in this famous fence for the hunters to get in? And issue them all with keys to the locks?
And will they install automatic garage door openers for all the roads that intersect the Trans Canada Highway, so traffic can pass through?
It's all rubbish. Ridiculous rubbish.
The irony of the fence-building is this... building a fence along the whole length of the Trans Canada Highway wouldn't have slowed this mental midget down. She was on the Conception Bay North highway. Sooooo, are we supposed to fence every byway as well?
Here is an article posted today on the Drudge Report website. Not only have I added the link, I'm also going to post the article in its entirety and the accompanying photo, because to summarize this would just not do justice to the creepiness of what happened at this fundraising event held last Wednesday.
(The Drudge Report, in case you're not familiar, is a news weblog started by Matt Drudge many years ago. He is probably most famous for being the one who scooped the story of Monica Lewinsky's infamous semen-stained blue dress, when the rest of the media wouldn't touch the story with a presidential pole. His site gets tens of millions of hits a day, a few more than mine!!)
Of course, being that the media is, as I said, mostly comprised of left-wing nutjobs, you won't see this on the front page of the New York Times, but you should. Every journalist, regardless of political stripe (which they're not supposed to have because they're supposed to be objective and impartial hahahahaha), should be outraged. It's a sign of the times that they aren't, and it's also a sign of the times that if Dick Cheney had even considered doing this, it WOULD be front page news, for months.
Even the guy who was held as the article describes didn't write about it in his two pool reports that day. Talk about objectivity and truth in reporting!!
Just think about all that, as you read this article...
From DrudgeReport.com -
*** REPORTER CONFINED IN CLOSET DURING VEEP'S FUNDRAISER ***
Sat March 26 2011 17:04:37 EDT
Staffers with Vice President Joe Biden confined an Orlando Sentinel reporter in a closet this week to keep him from mingling with high-powered guests gathered for a Democratic fundraiser.
Reporter Scott Powers was the designated "pool reporter" for the vice president's Wednesday visit to the massive Winter Park, Fla., home of developer and philanthropist Alan Ginsburg. The veep hadn't arrived yet but most of the 150 guests (minimum $500 donation) had. They were busy noshing on caprese crostini with oven-dried mozzarella and basil, rosemary flatbread with grapes honey and gorgonzola cheese and bacon deviled eggs, before a lunch of grilled chicken Caesar and garden vegetable wraps.
Not so for Powers. A "low-level staffer" put Powers in a storage closet and then stood guard outside the door, Powers told the DRUDGE REPORT. "When I'd stick my head out, they'd say, 'Not yet. We'll let you know when you can come out.'
And no crustini for Powers, either. He made do with a bottle of water to sip as he sat at a tiny makeshift desk, right next to a bag marked "consignment." Powers was closeted at about 11:30 a.m., held for about an hour and 15 minutes, came out for 35 minutes of remarks by Biden and Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, and then returned to his jail for the remainder of the event.
Powers' phone didn't work in the closet, but his Blackberry did, so he fired a picture of his impromptu prison to his editors, who posted a short blog item on the lack of freedom of the press under the veep's control.
Powers didn't mention his confinement in either of his pool reports that day, saying only that "press coverage was limited to a single pool reporter, filing on behalf of all local media, who was allowed to listen to the remarks but not given an opportunity to talk with anyone at the event."
On Friday, Powers said, the home's owner called him. "He said he had no idea they'd put me in a closet and was very sorry. He said he was just following their lead and was extremely embarrassed by the whole thing."
End of article.
Y'know? I dunno. If I was worldly and savvy enough to be a millionaire developer and philanthropist, I think I'd be a little more assertive than to blindly "follow their lead" and allow someone (even the feds) to lock someone in a closet in my home, without being a bit creeped out by the whole thing. But that's just me.
Journalists! Be advised that if I ever hold a fundraiser for Kathy Dunderdale, you will not be relegated to my closet for the evening, ok? OK!
**UPDATE**
The following was posted on the Fox News website, an apology from a Biden aide for the above incident. To hell with the aide!! Biden himself should have apologized, profusely, to the entire American populace for subverting the freedom of the press.
Disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful.
.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard - doing Obama's dirty work, but going to earn the glory
I just read that a Canadian general is taking over command of the NATO operations in Libya. Interesting.
If his name is anything to go by, Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, I'm guessing he's French. This gave me pause when I first read this article on this story. As my brother has been known to say many times over the years, the shortest book ever written is "French Heroes of World War II".
However, maybe this gentleman will be the exception.
It was certainly predictable that Obambi would wash his hands of the whole situation. My God, it just can't happen that he would go down in history as supporting a war with Libya. Why, that might cause someone to call him a war-monger, in the same way as George W. Bush was called one, by Obambi! Well, Deflector-in-Chief, whether you continue to lead, or to hide out on a golf course, the fact is that you DID start this. Not sayin' that's a bad thing, but I'm just sayin' you should have the 'nads to take credit for doing it, and more importantly for seeing it to the end. The Democratic party might frown on that, but that's what being the president, and having 'nads, is all about.
Instead, you've pawned it off on NATO, and can sit and watch from the sidelines. That's what Democrats do best, I suppose.
Whatever happened to all those miraculous, Second-Coming-of-Christ-like promises you made during the election? Where's all that hope and change?
Iraq? Still there.
Afghanistan? Still there.
Guantanamo Bay? Still there.
Now Libya? Started the fight, but now hiding like a little girl.
Hmmm... seems less like your own presidency, and more like someone stepping in to continue the work started by GWB (...except for the hiding like a little girl part. That's definitely your own stamp on things.)
And, where were you when Japan was starting to glow green, and Gaddafi was committing genocide? Playing the 69th game of golf of your presidency, and then heading to Latin America with the wife and kids. I hasten to point out that that behavior was very un-GWB-like, entirely. It is well-documented that you played more golf in the first 9 months of your presidency than GWB did in his full 8 years. (Bush actually only played for 2 years, 10 months, then didn't play anymore, but the big 'O' still played more in 9 months.)
You are so entirely unworthy to hold that office, that it's embarrassing. I never thought I would live to see the day where I would think that a president was worse than Bill Clinton, but buddy? You d' man.
Whatever. The point is, it's a Canadian who will now be taking the reins in Libya. I wish him well. As a commenter at the end of the above-linked article said, "Let me start off by saying that I'm mostly conservative and American. Canada has demonstrated, time and time again, that they are a responsible global power and have been willing to kill or die to protect western civilization in its time of need. In fact, they beat us to Europe in WW I and II, not to mention, as someone else pointed out, their service in Afghanistan has been critical and exemplary. We have very few friends that are better than Canada. We would do well to remember that."
This person's comment was not the only one in praise of a Canadian leading this operation. I was quite surprised, as a matter of fact.
Another one I liked was, "Sounds good to me. Anybody other than our ditherer-in-chief is a good choice to lead this fiasco. Good luck Lt. General Bouchard."
Yes, and good luck from me, too.
.
If his name is anything to go by, Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, I'm guessing he's French. This gave me pause when I first read this article on this story. As my brother has been known to say many times over the years, the shortest book ever written is "French Heroes of World War II".
However, maybe this gentleman will be the exception.
It was certainly predictable that Obambi would wash his hands of the whole situation. My God, it just can't happen that he would go down in history as supporting a war with Libya. Why, that might cause someone to call him a war-monger, in the same way as George W. Bush was called one, by Obambi! Well, Deflector-in-Chief, whether you continue to lead, or to hide out on a golf course, the fact is that you DID start this. Not sayin' that's a bad thing, but I'm just sayin' you should have the 'nads to take credit for doing it, and more importantly for seeing it to the end. The Democratic party might frown on that, but that's what being the president, and having 'nads, is all about.
Instead, you've pawned it off on NATO, and can sit and watch from the sidelines. That's what Democrats do best, I suppose.
Whatever happened to all those miraculous, Second-Coming-of-Christ-like promises you made during the election? Where's all that hope and change?
Iraq? Still there.
Afghanistan? Still there.
Guantanamo Bay? Still there.
Now Libya? Started the fight, but now hiding like a little girl.
Hmmm... seems less like your own presidency, and more like someone stepping in to continue the work started by GWB (...except for the hiding like a little girl part. That's definitely your own stamp on things.)
And, where were you when Japan was starting to glow green, and Gaddafi was committing genocide? Playing the 69th game of golf of your presidency, and then heading to Latin America with the wife and kids. I hasten to point out that that behavior was very un-GWB-like, entirely. It is well-documented that you played more golf in the first 9 months of your presidency than GWB did in his full 8 years. (Bush actually only played for 2 years, 10 months, then didn't play anymore, but the big 'O' still played more in 9 months.)
You are so entirely unworthy to hold that office, that it's embarrassing. I never thought I would live to see the day where I would think that a president was worse than Bill Clinton, but buddy? You d' man.
Whatever. The point is, it's a Canadian who will now be taking the reins in Libya. I wish him well. As a commenter at the end of the above-linked article said, "Let me start off by saying that I'm mostly conservative and American. Canada has demonstrated, time and time again, that they are a responsible global power and have been willing to kill or die to protect western civilization in its time of need. In fact, they beat us to Europe in WW I and II, not to mention, as someone else pointed out, their service in Afghanistan has been critical and exemplary. We have very few friends that are better than Canada. We would do well to remember that."
This person's comment was not the only one in praise of a Canadian leading this operation. I was quite surprised, as a matter of fact.
Another one I liked was, "Sounds good to me. Anybody other than our ditherer-in-chief is a good choice to lead this fiasco. Good luck Lt. General Bouchard."
Yes, and good luck from me, too.
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Friday, March 25, 2011
25cm of snow?? Bring it on!!!
I'm heading off to work this morning like someone heading to the ice. I'll have on my warmest winter coat and my highest winter boots, and be about as stylish as a bag lady. The only thing missing will be a babushka.
I'm pretty sure I'll get there with no problem. Finding somewhere to park in the same time zone might be a bit of a challenge. That Health Sciences parking acreage (forget "lot") is wicked. There should be ballads written about staff members who've headed out to their cars during storms, whose bodies were eventually found on the Heart's Content barrens.
It's the coming home part that I'm not really looking forward to. Not that I love work so much. It's just the mountains of snow I'm probably going to have to face in order to get in my driveway. Ugh.
But - the thought of a lovely bottle of wine waiting for me, as well as the latest episodes of "House" & "Republic of Doyle" on my PVR to curl up and watch... well, that will be a very sweet reward for a long, hard day, indeed!!
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I'm pretty sure I'll get there with no problem. Finding somewhere to park in the same time zone might be a bit of a challenge. That Health Sciences parking acreage (forget "lot") is wicked. There should be ballads written about staff members who've headed out to their cars during storms, whose bodies were eventually found on the Heart's Content barrens.
It's the coming home part that I'm not really looking forward to. Not that I love work so much. It's just the mountains of snow I'm probably going to have to face in order to get in my driveway. Ugh.
But - the thought of a lovely bottle of wine waiting for me, as well as the latest episodes of "House" & "Republic of Doyle" on my PVR to curl up and watch... well, that will be a very sweet reward for a long, hard day, indeed!!
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Thursday, March 24, 2011
This global warming nonsense has NOT resulted in no snow in Nfld in March. Get over it.
I really thought I was going to have my first non-post day today. I could think of NOTHING to get all caught up in the throat about, until I got home and had a look at Facebook.
WHY-WHY-WHY are people coming all unglued about the 25cm of snow forecast for tomorrow??? It will be March 25th. It snows in Newfoundland in March. This is a well-known fact over the past however number of millenia there have been. Not only that, but it snows in April, AND... it snows in May. Sometimes it even snows in June.
FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!! SHUT UP ABOUT IT!!!!
There was a guy from AMEC on NTV news at the end of February (that's who gives them their weather forecasts), stating with all his authority that the long term forecast for Newfoundland was indicating that the last storm in February was probably going to be the last major snow event for this winter.
My gin and tonic spurted out of my nose at that RIDICULOUS assertion. Absolutely insanely stupidly false assertion. He should have been fired right there and then.
Where the hell was this guy from? He must have been from Florida somewhere. It was the biggest pile of hooey to ever be broadcast on the NTV news, and that's saying something. (Almost as bad as their "Today in History" segment last week, where Jim Furlong said that the Signal Hill noonday gun ENDED in 1942. Now there's a pile of crap for you. I'd hear it, and see the puff of smoke from it, every day when I was walking home from school for lunch, and that was the late 1960's. Jim's stash must have been particular potent that week.)
Anyway, I'm getting really bored and annoyed with people who are all astonished that there is snow IN MARCH IN NEWFOUNDLAND!!!! Yes, people, and the sun comes up in the morning, and goes down in the evening. That's as guaranteed as having snow in Newfoundland in March.
GIVE YOURSELF A SMACK UPSIDE THE HEAD, AND COME BACK TO EARTH WITH THE REST OF US!!!!!
.
WHY-WHY-WHY are people coming all unglued about the 25cm of snow forecast for tomorrow??? It will be March 25th. It snows in Newfoundland in March. This is a well-known fact over the past however number of millenia there have been. Not only that, but it snows in April, AND... it snows in May. Sometimes it even snows in June.
FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!! SHUT UP ABOUT IT!!!!
There was a guy from AMEC on NTV news at the end of February (that's who gives them their weather forecasts), stating with all his authority that the long term forecast for Newfoundland was indicating that the last storm in February was probably going to be the last major snow event for this winter.
My gin and tonic spurted out of my nose at that RIDICULOUS assertion. Absolutely insanely stupidly false assertion. He should have been fired right there and then.
Where the hell was this guy from? He must have been from Florida somewhere. It was the biggest pile of hooey to ever be broadcast on the NTV news, and that's saying something. (Almost as bad as their "Today in History" segment last week, where Jim Furlong said that the Signal Hill noonday gun ENDED in 1942. Now there's a pile of crap for you. I'd hear it, and see the puff of smoke from it, every day when I was walking home from school for lunch, and that was the late 1960's. Jim's stash must have been particular potent that week.)
Anyway, I'm getting really bored and annoyed with people who are all astonished that there is snow IN MARCH IN NEWFOUNDLAND!!!! Yes, people, and the sun comes up in the morning, and goes down in the evening. That's as guaranteed as having snow in Newfoundland in March.
GIVE YOURSELF A SMACK UPSIDE THE HEAD, AND COME BACK TO EARTH WITH THE REST OF US!!!!!
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Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Those bloody helicopters!! Stop buzzing my house!!
I'm getting sick and tired and fed up with Cougar helicopters buzzing my house on an almost daily basis, and only wish I knew what could be done about it.
Yes, I live near the airport. Aside from the helicopters, though, all I ever hear are small, private planes, and those are very infrequent. The runway the small planes use is on a line with my house, and I asked about that before I bought it. It's not the runway the jets use.
The runway location is not even relevent. Helicopters don't require runways. But, for some reason, some of the pilots seem to think they do. When I was flying offshore here, some pilots would lift off and head out. Others would square up on the runway and taxi down, like they were pretending they were flying 747s. Stupid.
They certainly don't require runways when taking off and landing offshore!
In the 10 years I worked out there, NEVER did a helicopter that I was riding in pass over my house. I would have noticed that, for sure. But in the past couple of years, and really in the past couple of months, it's happening almost daily. And some days it's multiple times a day.
They can't tell me in any way I'll believe that it's anything having to do with wind directions or any such blather as that. Does Hibernia's gazillion-ton gravity base structure twirl around to make the helipad more accessible based on wind direction? I think not!
They could come flying in over Clovelly and Stavanger Drive, disturbing no one, if they so choose. But no, they buzz my house, rattling my fillings, making me feel sometimes like I should duck. It's just wrong.
Maybe I'm just more conscious of it since the helicopter crash in 2009. And now, in particular, since the NTSB report was made public basically saying the S-92s are piles of crap, this makes their proximity to my coffee table a little more off-putting, to say the least.
If I ever get a day off during the week again, I will have to make a concerted effort to find out the top 10 numbers of people I can drive insane, to get to the bottom of this.
And, while I'm at it, I'll also ask about the reek of aviation fuel that can be smelled all over the east end from time to time, like yesterday. I don't know what they're doing, but it's as if jets are dumping fuel before they land or something. It's really wide-spread. It can be smelled at my Dad's / sister's house too, not just here in 'd Heights. I dunno.
All I know is that I wish Steve Harper would create a no-fly zone over 52 Branscombe Street. I might even vote for him again, if he were able to pull that one off.
.
Yes, I live near the airport. Aside from the helicopters, though, all I ever hear are small, private planes, and those are very infrequent. The runway the small planes use is on a line with my house, and I asked about that before I bought it. It's not the runway the jets use.
The runway location is not even relevent. Helicopters don't require runways. But, for some reason, some of the pilots seem to think they do. When I was flying offshore here, some pilots would lift off and head out. Others would square up on the runway and taxi down, like they were pretending they were flying 747s. Stupid.
They certainly don't require runways when taking off and landing offshore!
In the 10 years I worked out there, NEVER did a helicopter that I was riding in pass over my house. I would have noticed that, for sure. But in the past couple of years, and really in the past couple of months, it's happening almost daily. And some days it's multiple times a day.
They can't tell me in any way I'll believe that it's anything having to do with wind directions or any such blather as that. Does Hibernia's gazillion-ton gravity base structure twirl around to make the helipad more accessible based on wind direction? I think not!
They could come flying in over Clovelly and Stavanger Drive, disturbing no one, if they so choose. But no, they buzz my house, rattling my fillings, making me feel sometimes like I should duck. It's just wrong.
Maybe I'm just more conscious of it since the helicopter crash in 2009. And now, in particular, since the NTSB report was made public basically saying the S-92s are piles of crap, this makes their proximity to my coffee table a little more off-putting, to say the least.
If I ever get a day off during the week again, I will have to make a concerted effort to find out the top 10 numbers of people I can drive insane, to get to the bottom of this.
And, while I'm at it, I'll also ask about the reek of aviation fuel that can be smelled all over the east end from time to time, like yesterday. I don't know what they're doing, but it's as if jets are dumping fuel before they land or something. It's really wide-spread. It can be smelled at my Dad's / sister's house too, not just here in 'd Heights. I dunno.
All I know is that I wish Steve Harper would create a no-fly zone over 52 Branscombe Street. I might even vote for him again, if he were able to pull that one off.
.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
First impressions - here's hoping they last!
Well, yesterday went really well at work. First impressions were good, on my side, anyway. They may think I'm a total loss, but were too polite to say. They welcomed me and treated me well, so I'll take 'em as I find 'em, and I find 'em quite a nice bunch, so far.
The nurses who work there made a few vague comments about how they think they are perceived (poorly) by their colleagues at another unit. I think this is really too bad, but it's a fact of life.
I always find it interesting how that happens. People in one unit crap on those in another unit, believing their own to be the be-all and end-all. I saw it a hundred years ago when I worked in ICU. The ICU nurses thought they were far superior to the CCU nurses, and both ICU and CCU nurses thought Emergency Dep't nurses were the worst. And now, I come across that again.
Is it a nurse-thing, or is it a predominantly-female-profession-thing? I'm leaning towards the latter.
No two units, of any sort, are identically run, nor do they have the same focus. In very few - if any - cases, can a nurse walk from one into another and function effectively without any orientation. The way the ICU nurses I used to work with talked, there was nothing they couldn't do better than anyone else, doctors included. Doctors cramped their style, and just needed to be told, in their opinion.
Poppycock. I knew it was poppycock as a 21 year old new grad, and I know it just as well today. Sad part is, this sort of thing still persists.
All I know is this... no matter where I've ever worked, there were people who were just wonderful to work with, and there were also those who were screaming out to be taken down a peg or two. There were people who understood what we're there for, and those who were more concerned with what people thought of them, and it better be good or else. And then there were those who were more concerned with being the center of attention, selling tickets and arranging nights out - the 'social organizers' whose mission, I eventually learned, was to deflect attention away from exactly how little work they did. And of course, there were those that were so intolerant of new people that they were said to have been born with a black band on their caps. (A throw-back reference to when nurses used to wear caps.)
Anyway, this might not make any sense to anyone else but me. For each line I've typed, I can think of someone I've worked with over the past 29 years to whom it applies. I'm just hoping that when I start my new job, whenever that might be, I can get on with it with as little nit-picking garbage to put up with as possible. Wishful thinking, but a girl can dream...
.
The nurses who work there made a few vague comments about how they think they are perceived (poorly) by their colleagues at another unit. I think this is really too bad, but it's a fact of life.
I always find it interesting how that happens. People in one unit crap on those in another unit, believing their own to be the be-all and end-all. I saw it a hundred years ago when I worked in ICU. The ICU nurses thought they were far superior to the CCU nurses, and both ICU and CCU nurses thought Emergency Dep't nurses were the worst. And now, I come across that again.
Is it a nurse-thing, or is it a predominantly-female-profession-thing? I'm leaning towards the latter.
No two units, of any sort, are identically run, nor do they have the same focus. In very few - if any - cases, can a nurse walk from one into another and function effectively without any orientation. The way the ICU nurses I used to work with talked, there was nothing they couldn't do better than anyone else, doctors included. Doctors cramped their style, and just needed to be told, in their opinion.
Poppycock. I knew it was poppycock as a 21 year old new grad, and I know it just as well today. Sad part is, this sort of thing still persists.
All I know is this... no matter where I've ever worked, there were people who were just wonderful to work with, and there were also those who were screaming out to be taken down a peg or two. There were people who understood what we're there for, and those who were more concerned with what people thought of them, and it better be good or else. And then there were those who were more concerned with being the center of attention, selling tickets and arranging nights out - the 'social organizers' whose mission, I eventually learned, was to deflect attention away from exactly how little work they did. And of course, there were those that were so intolerant of new people that they were said to have been born with a black band on their caps. (A throw-back reference to when nurses used to wear caps.)
Anyway, this might not make any sense to anyone else but me. For each line I've typed, I can think of someone I've worked with over the past 29 years to whom it applies. I'm just hoping that when I start my new job, whenever that might be, I can get on with it with as little nit-picking garbage to put up with as possible. Wishful thinking, but a girl can dream...
.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Mixmaster Monday
YIKES!!!!
I almost forgot that today is Mixmaster Monday!
The truth of the matter is that I was less focused on Mixmastering today than I was on being sick and starting my kinda new job (same job, different site). So, between the jigs and the reels, I neglected to come up with something for today.
Woe is me!
Well, I did come across a recipe today that caught my eye, and my Pavlovian response kicked in, which is a good sign, so even though I haven't tried this myself, yet, I'm going to share it with you.
It is a ridiculously easy recipe I saw on the Food Network, on the show "5 Ingredient Fix". If I had a couple of bananas in the house, I'd try it right now, but it will have to wait, dammit!!!
I am choosing this recipe to spotlight today, because I have eaten a whack of ice cream over the past few days due to my sore throat, and this sounded like a nice change from vanilla.
Here it is...
(The 'nanner' really is in the name of the recipe. That ain't my twist on the theme, I promise.)
Ingredients:
2 - 3 ripe bananas
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 - 2 tbsp honey
Instructions:
1 - Cut the bananas into 1-inch pieces and freeze.
2 - Put the frozen bananas in a food processor and puree, scraping down the sides occasionally until smooth.
Now, missus on TV said you can stop right here, and you then have banana ice cream, which she said (and I believe) tastes wonderful. However, she did decide to forge on, and add the other two ingredients...
3 - Add the peanut butter and honey, and puree.
4 - Serve immediately, or refreeze until ready to enjoy.
My God, it doesn't get much easier than this! Bananas and peanut butter really do work well together.
She added a few thin slices of banana to the top for garnish. It looked really nice. She says the yield is 2 - 4 servings. I'm thinking it's a generous helping for 1, but that's just my gluttonous nature and my current hunger talking.
Until next week, then, when I hope to be on time and not as sick and forgetful as I was today!!
.
I almost forgot that today is Mixmaster Monday!
The truth of the matter is that I was less focused on Mixmastering today than I was on being sick and starting my kinda new job (same job, different site). So, between the jigs and the reels, I neglected to come up with something for today.
Woe is me!
Well, I did come across a recipe today that caught my eye, and my Pavlovian response kicked in, which is a good sign, so even though I haven't tried this myself, yet, I'm going to share it with you.
It is a ridiculously easy recipe I saw on the Food Network, on the show "5 Ingredient Fix". If I had a couple of bananas in the house, I'd try it right now, but it will have to wait, dammit!!!
I am choosing this recipe to spotlight today, because I have eaten a whack of ice cream over the past few days due to my sore throat, and this sounded like a nice change from vanilla.
Here it is...
Peanut Butter and Nanner Ice Cream
(The 'nanner' really is in the name of the recipe. That ain't my twist on the theme, I promise.)
Ingredients:
2 - 3 ripe bananas
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 - 2 tbsp honey
Instructions:
1 - Cut the bananas into 1-inch pieces and freeze.
2 - Put the frozen bananas in a food processor and puree, scraping down the sides occasionally until smooth.
Now, missus on TV said you can stop right here, and you then have banana ice cream, which she said (and I believe) tastes wonderful. However, she did decide to forge on, and add the other two ingredients...
3 - Add the peanut butter and honey, and puree.
4 - Serve immediately, or refreeze until ready to enjoy.
My God, it doesn't get much easier than this! Bananas and peanut butter really do work well together.
She added a few thin slices of banana to the top for garnish. It looked really nice. She says the yield is 2 - 4 servings. I'm thinking it's a generous helping for 1, but that's just my gluttonous nature and my current hunger talking.
Until next week, then, when I hope to be on time and not as sick and forgetful as I was today!!
.
St. John's as seen by "Republic of Doyle"
I am still sick as a dog, with a throat that feels like it's been cut and aching muscles and joints making me feel like I'm 90, not 50. The whining, as you can see, continues...
I've not been in this temporary position long enough to have accumulated any sick leave, and seeing as how I haven't had to take a sick day since 1995, I am not eager to go that route, anyway.
Add to that the fact that I am doing a week at the Health Sciences starting today, learning about dialyzing patients in the ICU, well... it's a bad day in the making.
Then, on top of that, I woke up at 3:30 a.m., without having anything ready to post here before I go to work. That was keeping me awake, so here I am, at 4:30 a.m., trying to put my OCD, if not myself, to bed.
I came across this link, below, both on the CBC website as well as on Facebook over the past few days. It's a video of the scenes of St. John's that were filmed for the TV series "Republic of Doyle" and set to the The Fables' song, "St. John's". It's really very good, and as I am a great lover of anything having to do with Newfoundland, St. John's and / or "Republic of Doyle", I thought this would make a good post today. It's cheery and chipper, two things I am not. Maybe its magic will rub off!!
So without further ado... The Fables, and St. John's, as seen by "Republic of Doyle"!!
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I've not been in this temporary position long enough to have accumulated any sick leave, and seeing as how I haven't had to take a sick day since 1995, I am not eager to go that route, anyway.
Add to that the fact that I am doing a week at the Health Sciences starting today, learning about dialyzing patients in the ICU, well... it's a bad day in the making.
Then, on top of that, I woke up at 3:30 a.m., without having anything ready to post here before I go to work. That was keeping me awake, so here I am, at 4:30 a.m., trying to put my OCD, if not myself, to bed.
I came across this link, below, both on the CBC website as well as on Facebook over the past few days. It's a video of the scenes of St. John's that were filmed for the TV series "Republic of Doyle" and set to the The Fables' song, "St. John's". It's really very good, and as I am a great lover of anything having to do with Newfoundland, St. John's and / or "Republic of Doyle", I thought this would make a good post today. It's cheery and chipper, two things I am not. Maybe its magic will rub off!!
So without further ado... The Fables, and St. John's, as seen by "Republic of Doyle"!!
.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Sick Day
I'm sick as a dog today, so there'll be no ranting and roaring. I can hardly get up enough steam to get dressed, let alone rant and roar. I've turned into a whining, moaning, wimp. It must be Man Flu. That's the usual symptoms seen in men when they're sick, isn't it?
Woe is me.
Happy First Day of Spring, by the way. Can't forget my manners, even if I have Man Flu.
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Woe is me.
Happy First Day of Spring, by the way. Can't forget my manners, even if I have Man Flu.
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Saturday, March 19, 2011
$upermarket pharmacie$ - ma$ter manipulator$
You know how everyone says that police have a 'quota' of tickets that they are required to write each month? The existence of this quota has never been confirmed officially, and has probably been denied, but it is part of the law and order lore that persists from decade to decade.
Well, I'm beginning to believe that supermarket pharmacies have the same kind of never-confirmed, but clearly real agreement with the supermarkets. They are seemingly obliged to tell each customer that it will take a half hour to fill their prescription, regardless if it's a simple tube of pre-packaged cream, or a duffle bag full of oxy.
You can walk into a pharmacy at the moment it opens in the morning, and they will tell you it won't be ready for a half hour. Guaranteed. Like pizza delivery. I would LOVE to know what they do in that half hour. Their whole 'thing' is to get the prescription shoppers to buy stuff in the supermarket, stuff they had no intention of buying when they walked in. Now, though, they have a half hour to kill, so they end up spending money, much to the delight of Dominion!
I had to pick up a tube of cream for my Dad today. She held it up in front of me. I said, "Can I pay for that now?" She said, "No, it'll be a half hour." I said, "Sure, you've got it right there, why can't I pay for it now?" She replied, "Because we have to label it, and there are a lot of other people ahead of you." There was not another soul within 30 feet of us. Not a soul. It was the same as having to wait 30 minutes to buy a tube of toothpaste, only it was behind the counter and I had to ask for it.
They'll tell you some malarky like, "We have to check for interactions or contraindications". Baloney they do. The computers do it all. Plug in someone's name, and it will tell you everything you need / want to know, including red flashing indications if there actually IS a problem. The computer even spews out all the information about the medication. Do you think the pharmacist types up all that? No, not quite. There is not one thought process required in dispensing a tube of ointment, other than "What button do I push to print that label?"
My brother is of the opinion that pharmacists can easily be replaced with machines similar to Pepsi dispensing machines. I believe that in a lot of cases, he's absolutely right. I believe there are areas, in hospitals, where pharmacists are, pardon the pun, indispensible, but in your average supermarket? Set up a system whereby the machine reads the prescription, you feed it in, and have it chuck out the proper pills. How hard could that be? If there is a contraindication, it will spit out a note to you to see your GP.
My sister stands (or, should I say, "sits") on her constitutional right to just wait there, staring at the pharmacist for the 30 minutes, making it clear that their desire to inspire unnecessary shopping is not going to work on her. It usually cuts down the waiting time to 15 minutes. I've done the same thing, too. If I don't have to buy something when I go into the drug store, I'm not going shopping just to line the pockets of the very people who have coerced me into this situation.
My Dad deals with Justa Pharmacy in the Nfld Drive Family Practice building on Nfld Drive. It's literally just a pharmacy. The whole customer area is about 8 square feet. Never has the pharmacist there ever said, "This will take a half hour." He takes the prescription, fills it, labels it, hands it over and gets paid. Then he goes to the next customer. That's exactly what most people who need prescriptions want - not to be hoodwinked into spending money in the underhanded fashion some supermarkets and huge drug store chains employ. Shame on them.
.
Well, I'm beginning to believe that supermarket pharmacies have the same kind of never-confirmed, but clearly real agreement with the supermarkets. They are seemingly obliged to tell each customer that it will take a half hour to fill their prescription, regardless if it's a simple tube of pre-packaged cream, or a duffle bag full of oxy.
You can walk into a pharmacy at the moment it opens in the morning, and they will tell you it won't be ready for a half hour. Guaranteed. Like pizza delivery. I would LOVE to know what they do in that half hour. Their whole 'thing' is to get the prescription shoppers to buy stuff in the supermarket, stuff they had no intention of buying when they walked in. Now, though, they have a half hour to kill, so they end up spending money, much to the delight of Dominion!
I had to pick up a tube of cream for my Dad today. She held it up in front of me. I said, "Can I pay for that now?" She said, "No, it'll be a half hour." I said, "Sure, you've got it right there, why can't I pay for it now?" She replied, "Because we have to label it, and there are a lot of other people ahead of you." There was not another soul within 30 feet of us. Not a soul. It was the same as having to wait 30 minutes to buy a tube of toothpaste, only it was behind the counter and I had to ask for it.
They'll tell you some malarky like, "We have to check for interactions or contraindications". Baloney they do. The computers do it all. Plug in someone's name, and it will tell you everything you need / want to know, including red flashing indications if there actually IS a problem. The computer even spews out all the information about the medication. Do you think the pharmacist types up all that? No, not quite. There is not one thought process required in dispensing a tube of ointment, other than "What button do I push to print that label?"
My brother is of the opinion that pharmacists can easily be replaced with machines similar to Pepsi dispensing machines. I believe that in a lot of cases, he's absolutely right. I believe there are areas, in hospitals, where pharmacists are, pardon the pun, indispensible, but in your average supermarket? Set up a system whereby the machine reads the prescription, you feed it in, and have it chuck out the proper pills. How hard could that be? If there is a contraindication, it will spit out a note to you to see your GP.
My sister stands (or, should I say, "sits") on her constitutional right to just wait there, staring at the pharmacist for the 30 minutes, making it clear that their desire to inspire unnecessary shopping is not going to work on her. It usually cuts down the waiting time to 15 minutes. I've done the same thing, too. If I don't have to buy something when I go into the drug store, I'm not going shopping just to line the pockets of the very people who have coerced me into this situation.
My Dad deals with Justa Pharmacy in the Nfld Drive Family Practice building on Nfld Drive. It's literally just a pharmacy. The whole customer area is about 8 square feet. Never has the pharmacist there ever said, "This will take a half hour." He takes the prescription, fills it, labels it, hands it over and gets paid. Then he goes to the next customer. That's exactly what most people who need prescriptions want - not to be hoodwinked into spending money in the underhanded fashion some supermarkets and huge drug store chains employ. Shame on them.
.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Moose and fences and Patricia Regular - she's the one who needs to be fenced in
Have you seen this article on the cbc.ca website about a woman from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, Patricia Regular, who, since last May, has hit three – YES, THREE – moose, and is now in a snit, wanting the government to ‘do something’ about it??
Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
She has written off 2 cars. In 10 months. Hitting 3 moose.
What the hell is this woman still doing with a driver’s license? THAT'S what the government should be doing about it!! They should be stripping this nutjob's driver's license from her.
My little friend the moose here is wearing sunglasses because he's too embarrassed to be associated with such a dumb story.
She drives back and forth from Harbour Grace to Clarke's Beach for work. There are long-haul transport truck drivers who drive 20 or 30 times what she does in the run of a day, and they're not having that many accidents.
IF they ARE, they're not stupid enough to put their name out there, admitting to being such dangerous drivers.
One thing I just noticed about this article... It says, as I just mentioned, that the accidents all happened between Harbour Grace and Clarke's Beach, yet the latest accident happened on the Conception Bay South highway. A small geographical inconsistency there, methinks. Are they considering Clarke's Beach to be Conception Bay SOUTH? That's ridiculous, if so. But I digress...
So this dame drives, according to Google Maps, 23km to work...
...and has hit three moose...
...in 10 months. Frankly, I'm just plain gobsmacked.
...and has hit three moose...
What a nerve for her to demand the government spend MY tax dollars to take action on the moose problem, when it is clearly a Patricia Regular problem? She was stupid enough to say that she had "turned for a second, then bang". THERE'S YOUR PROBLEM, LADY!!! KEEP YOUR FRIGGIN' EYES ON THE ROAD!!!! Dammit all, if I had collided with one, and certainly TWO moose in less than a year, I don't think I'd blink for the whole 23km trip, let alone "turn for a second". She's a moron.
So now all the bleeding hearts will resurrect the notion of building fences and underpasses for the goddamned moose. It's not just the $$$ required to build the fence, you know. We get snow here, lots of it. Fences break, then they'd need repairs. More and more tax dollars being thrown away, when the real, effective solution is ridiculously simple...
SLOW THE HELL DOWN AND KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED WHEN YOU ARE BEHIND THE WHEEL ON THE HIGHWAY.
Moose won't die. People won't die. My taxes will be spent on something legitimate instead.
It's just as stupid as people who blame all the accidents on the Outer Ring Road, on the ROAD!! My personal message to the idiots who say this - It's not the road or the moose!! IT'S YOU!!!!!!!
And, for the sake of argument, what if a fence was built? Does that then mean that the Patricia Regulars of the world are now no longer required to watch out for moose? How high, exactly, do these fences need to be to guarantee no more moose accidents? We get a lot of snow... they would have to be high enough that there is no way that they'll be snow-covered enough for a moose to merely walk over them. Are they going to be strong enough to withstand Newfoundland's winds? Can you say "Wreckhouse"?? The only way that will work is if they build a 45 foot high concrete bunker on both sides of the highway, from St. John's to Port aux Basques. It HAS to be on both sides, of course... can't have moose wandering from one side now, can we? A fence on one side of the highway, and the first accident after that will have the great unwashed masses screaming that the government put the friggin' thing on the wrong side of the road.
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! (That's me, roaring.)
It's just as stupid as people who blame all the accidents on the Outer Ring Road, on the ROAD!! My personal message to the idiots who say this - It's not the road or the moose!! IT'S YOU!!!!!!!
And, for the sake of argument, what if a fence was built? Does that then mean that the Patricia Regulars of the world are now no longer required to watch out for moose? How high, exactly, do these fences need to be to guarantee no more moose accidents? We get a lot of snow... they would have to be high enough that there is no way that they'll be snow-covered enough for a moose to merely walk over them. Are they going to be strong enough to withstand Newfoundland's winds? Can you say "Wreckhouse"?? The only way that will work is if they build a 45 foot high concrete bunker on both sides of the highway, from St. John's to Port aux Basques. It HAS to be on both sides, of course... can't have moose wandering from one side now, can we? A fence on one side of the highway, and the first accident after that will have the great unwashed masses screaming that the government put the friggin' thing on the wrong side of the road.
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! (That's me, roaring.)
And then, what about moose hunting season? Will the government also have to install gates in this famous fence for the hunters to get in? And issue them all with keys to the locks?
And will they install automatic garage door openers for all the roads that intersect the Trans Canada Highway, so traffic can pass through?
It's all rubbish. Ridiculous rubbish.
The irony of the fence-building is this... building a fence along the whole length of the Trans Canada Highway wouldn't have slowed this mental midget down. She was on the Conception Bay North highway. Sooooo, are we supposed to fence every byway as well?
There have been moose spotted up here in Airport Heights. Does that mean the government are now responsible for fencing my back garden, too? Wicked.
If all else fails, I guess we could teach them to read and obey the rules of the road...
As one commenter at the bottom of the cbc.ca article wrote, "The moose have petitioned the government to keep this lady off the highway." That's about the size of it, too. Some of the other comments are very good, as well. It's good to see that more Newfoundlanders than just me see the lunacy in this whole story.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
So far, so good...!!
Dad came through his procedure yesterday with flying colors, thank God. Hopefully, he'll continue to do well today, and we'll get him out of Special Care and home in a day or two. Fingers still crossed...
Alice and I spent the better part of the day in a small waiting room off the main waiting room of the ICU at St. Clare's. In the main waiting room were the members of a huge family from the Southern Shore, who were pretty high-strung about the condition of a family member of theirs, who is also in Special Care. They stayed in their waiting room, and left us alone in our waiting room, and it was ideal. Not one aggravation the whole day long - no gum-cracking, whistling, nosey people to have to deal with. They did their thing, we did ours.
The all-round professionalism of the nursing staff was reminiscent of St. Clare's of the good ol' days! It's nice to see that same level of care still persists there. It was a totally different experience than what Dad and Alice endured at the Health Sciences a couple of months ago. Totally different.
We toasted his successful procedure with a glass of wine at the Duke of Duckworth! A wonderful end to a day that we had envisioned ending a whole lot differently.
Thank God.
.
Alice and I spent the better part of the day in a small waiting room off the main waiting room of the ICU at St. Clare's. In the main waiting room were the members of a huge family from the Southern Shore, who were pretty high-strung about the condition of a family member of theirs, who is also in Special Care. They stayed in their waiting room, and left us alone in our waiting room, and it was ideal. Not one aggravation the whole day long - no gum-cracking, whistling, nosey people to have to deal with. They did their thing, we did ours.
The all-round professionalism of the nursing staff was reminiscent of St. Clare's of the good ol' days! It's nice to see that same level of care still persists there. It was a totally different experience than what Dad and Alice endured at the Health Sciences a couple of months ago. Totally different.
We toasted his successful procedure with a glass of wine at the Duke of Duckworth! A wonderful end to a day that we had envisioned ending a whole lot differently.
Thank God.
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Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Nerves are pretty much shot...
Dad is having surgery today. Nothing to rant and / or roar about, and I hope it stays that way. I hope St. Clare's' reputation serves him well. If I'm back here tomorrow, that will be a very good sign.
Prayers heading heavenward...
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Prayers heading heavenward...
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Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Crazy winter drivers - stop taking MY life into YOUR hands!!
Why is it that some drivers think that they can drive on a stormy day like yesterday, in the same manner as they drive on a toasty warm summer day? Who are these people that they think they are impervious to slippery, snowy, icy, slushy, wintery road conditions? And why do they hang on my bumper, and alongside me, like I’m some kind of idiot-driver magnet?
Nobody has ever accused me of being “Driver of the Year”, God knows. There are times, though, and blizzards are among them, when even the most road-hoggiest among us must pull in our horns in an attempt to keep body and soul together on the road.
I drove home from work yesterday, taking the long way through town in order to avoid the double lanes on the Crosstown Arterial and the Outer Ring Road. My favorite pastime during winter storms is looking out the back windows of my house to see the frozen-brained idiots on the Outer Ring Road flip over in the ice and snow. I was not going to be one of those frozen-brained idiots. I figured, correctly, that if I was in a single lane of traffic coming through town, it’s safer, even if it is as annoying as hell to be going 2km per hour.
As it turns out, the road conditions were indeed horrible, and 2km per hour was not a bad idea. Quite an admission, coming from ol’ Lady Lead Foot herself.
The snow clearing was... well… it was non-existent. I’m usually all there for praising the city’s snow clearing. I love seeing Paul Mackey, Deputy City Manager, with his brand new teeth on the evening news, defending the snow clearing, and we’re right there cheering with him, usually. Yesterday, though, I could not disagree with our snow clearing critics from d’ Pearl and CBS. For a storm that started around dinnertime, the roads were untouched on major arteries like LeMarchant Road at 4.30pm. Ridiculous. It reinforced my good decision to stay off Columbus Drive / Prince Phillip Drive and the Ring Road, for sure.
I managed to get across town with minimal infusions of adrenalin, until I got to the new set of lights at the intersection of New Cove Road and Portugal Cove Road. Once I made that left turn, heading to Airport Heights, I was then in the land of double lanes, and the sacred territory of suicidal idiots who believe that regardless of the weather conditions, or the width of the snow-covered road – if there are two lanes painted on the road in the summer, then, by God, there are two lanes there in the height of a blizzard, and they are going to charge forth, all other drivers be damned!!!
I don’t know what kind of winter tires or studded tires they have, but whatever they are, they’re not good enough. I have studded tires, and I was slipping around Portugal Cove Road like I was on ice skates. The only thing missing in the mix was my wobbly ankles.
People in general are nutz, I’ve come to that conclusion, but a large majority of people (except me!) with SUVs and studded tires are at a whole other level of nutz-ness.
I got home in one piece, due solely to my superbly defensive driving, and pulled on my jammies fast as time, eager to forget how people I don’t even know just tried to kill me with their driving.
Idiots.
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Monday, March 14, 2011
Mixmaster Monday
Welcome to this week's edition of Mixmaster Monday!
Between the tragedy unfolding in Japan and the 2nd anniversary of the Cougar helicopter crash this past week, it was just a sucky week all around. To counteract that, I am going to start this new week by injecting a bit of humor in Mixmaster Monday.
While keeping in mind that 'a joke explained is a joke lost', I will try to share a recipe I came upon about 6 years ago, that still makes me laugh, I mean belly-laugh, to this very day!
You may or may not be familiar with the website http://www.epicurious.com/. It's a recipe site, where the recipes tend to be a little on the higher-brow side of the kitchen than where I usually find myself.
Back in January, 2005, I went looking for a spaghetti sauce recipe on this website. I found one, this one, which I saved to the site's recipe box.
The thing about this website is that it will provide a link in recipes to other recipes. This is very convenient. OBSESSIVELY so, in the case of this particular spaghetti sauce. As you know, spaghetti needs to be boiled in salted water. The recipe for this spaghetti sauce included a link to a 'recipe' for boiling salted water. You can see in the image below, in the preparation section, how the words "boiling salted water" are bolded. You can actually click on this link when you're on the epicurious website, and it will tell you how to boil salted water.
... but that's not the funny part.
The thing about most (if not all) recipe sites is that they allow for people to submit their reviews of recipes. Sometimes they're helpful, sometimes they're not. In the case of the "Boiling Salted Water" recipe, though, the 869-and-counting recipe reviews are - almost without exception - knee-slappingly funny!
The 'recipe' itself reads like this...
First off, it offers you the option to print a shopping list for the ingredients for this recipe. HA!!
But, the piece d'resistance are the reviews and comments. There are, as you can see, 869 of them, over 87 pages. When I first found this recipe, there were probably about 350 - 400 reviews. I started reading at the very beginning, and it didn't take too long before I had tears running down my face from laughing! I even added a comment or two myself.
So, if you are in need of a good laugh, I can wholeheartedly recommend to you that you will not be disappointed if you read the comments and reviews of this recipe for Boiling Salted Water. Some are just plain classic! Here is the link to the reviews. I can't make it any easier for you than this.
I do suggest that once there, scroll to the bottom where you can click on the pages and start at the very beginning. It took me a couple of tries to get through them all, but it was well worth it! Enjoy!!
.
Between the tragedy unfolding in Japan and the 2nd anniversary of the Cougar helicopter crash this past week, it was just a sucky week all around. To counteract that, I am going to start this new week by injecting a bit of humor in Mixmaster Monday.
While keeping in mind that 'a joke explained is a joke lost', I will try to share a recipe I came upon about 6 years ago, that still makes me laugh, I mean belly-laugh, to this very day!
You may or may not be familiar with the website http://www.epicurious.com/. It's a recipe site, where the recipes tend to be a little on the higher-brow side of the kitchen than where I usually find myself.
Back in January, 2005, I went looking for a spaghetti sauce recipe on this website. I found one, this one, which I saved to the site's recipe box.
The thing about this website is that it will provide a link in recipes to other recipes. This is very convenient. OBSESSIVELY so, in the case of this particular spaghetti sauce. As you know, spaghetti needs to be boiled in salted water. The recipe for this spaghetti sauce included a link to a 'recipe' for boiling salted water. You can see in the image below, in the preparation section, how the words "boiling salted water" are bolded. You can actually click on this link when you're on the epicurious website, and it will tell you how to boil salted water.
... but that's not the funny part.
The thing about most (if not all) recipe sites is that they allow for people to submit their reviews of recipes. Sometimes they're helpful, sometimes they're not. In the case of the "Boiling Salted Water" recipe, though, the 869-and-counting recipe reviews are - almost without exception - knee-slappingly funny!
The 'recipe' itself reads like this...
First off, it offers you the option to print a shopping list for the ingredients for this recipe. HA!!
But, the piece d'resistance are the reviews and comments. There are, as you can see, 869 of them, over 87 pages. When I first found this recipe, there were probably about 350 - 400 reviews. I started reading at the very beginning, and it didn't take too long before I had tears running down my face from laughing! I even added a comment or two myself.
So, if you are in need of a good laugh, I can wholeheartedly recommend to you that you will not be disappointed if you read the comments and reviews of this recipe for Boiling Salted Water. Some are just plain classic! Here is the link to the reviews. I can't make it any easier for you than this.
I do suggest that once there, scroll to the bottom where you can click on the pages and start at the very beginning. It took me a couple of tries to get through them all, but it was well worth it! Enjoy!!
.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Japan earthquake and tsunami - what words are there?
These past two days, I have been faced with two very different events which I would like to write about, but for which I can find no adequate words.
Yesterday, it was the 2nd anniversary of the crash of Cougar 491. That was an event that touched me in both personal and professional ways. Two years on, I can still find no words that are adequate to convey my feelings, so I posted what I could.
I haven't touched on the second event, the earthquake in Japan, until now. I wanted to wait until the Cougar anniversary had passed first.
The thing about trying to find words to express my feelings about the horror that is unfolding in Japan is that it is such an incomprehensible disaster that gets worse, hour by hour, and who am I to think I can do any kind of justice in summing up my feelings about it?
I can't get one video I saw out of my head, the one of all the rubble flowing over the farmland. One moment, it's peaceful farm fields, growing their crops. The next minute, they're inundated with and unstoppable wall of water, debris, homes, vehicles, ships, bodies, God knows what. But one thing is certain - that farmland that looked so orderly and fruitful will never, ever be the same. And, what has happened to that farmer and his family? Maybe we unknowingly watched them get swallowed up with their farmland. Can you imagine being there, watching that happen, watching that coming at you? It's incomprehensible.
And now, the nuclear state of emergency. What is going to happen to Japan? How can they ever recover from this? With the help of the rest of the world, they will, but it is hard to imagine right now how that will ever happen.
God help them.
Video - Massive wall of water sweeps ashore in Japan - 7.42 minutes
Video - Moment of impact - 0.56 minutes
,
Yesterday, it was the 2nd anniversary of the crash of Cougar 491. That was an event that touched me in both personal and professional ways. Two years on, I can still find no words that are adequate to convey my feelings, so I posted what I could.
I haven't touched on the second event, the earthquake in Japan, until now. I wanted to wait until the Cougar anniversary had passed first.
The thing about trying to find words to express my feelings about the horror that is unfolding in Japan is that it is such an incomprehensible disaster that gets worse, hour by hour, and who am I to think I can do any kind of justice in summing up my feelings about it?
I can't get one video I saw out of my head, the one of all the rubble flowing over the farmland. One moment, it's peaceful farm fields, growing their crops. The next minute, they're inundated with and unstoppable wall of water, debris, homes, vehicles, ships, bodies, God knows what. But one thing is certain - that farmland that looked so orderly and fruitful will never, ever be the same. And, what has happened to that farmer and his family? Maybe we unknowingly watched them get swallowed up with their farmland. Can you imagine being there, watching that happen, watching that coming at you? It's incomprehensible.
And now, the nuclear state of emergency. What is going to happen to Japan? How can they ever recover from this? With the help of the rest of the world, they will, but it is hard to imagine right now how that will ever happen.
God help them.
Video - Massive wall of water sweeps ashore in Japan - 7.42 minutes
Video - Moment of impact - 0.56 minutes
Remembering Cougar 491 - March 12, 2009
1 - Tim Lanouette, 1st Officer
2 - Matthew Davis, Pilot
3 - Derrick Mullowney
4 - Burch Nash
5 - Peter Breen
6 - Ken MacRae
7 - Wade Drake
8 - Allison Maher
9 - Greg Morris
10 - John Pelley, RN
11 - Wade Duggan
12 - Thomas Anwyll
13 - Corey Eddy
14 - Paul Pike
15 - Gary Corbett
16 - Colin Henley
17 - Keith Escott
National Post story from the enquiry -
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Sole survivor - Robert Decker
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