Poor Dixie

Dixie is my summer dog. She likes the heat while her adopted sister likes the cold. She is perfectly happy inside Belle needs to be out and about even if its just in the back yard. Belle is the winter dog. According to Belle snow is something to romp in, always, and rivers are for wading no matter the time of year. Dixie on the other hand likes her terra a little more firma. And water is for drinking otherwise why are there those nice dishes in the house.


And it is winter now. We had our first real taste of it this week. About a half inch of snow minus zero temperatures and wind. Not pleasant by any means. But the girls still need their walks. So out we went. Half way around Dixie is hopping on three feet and setting a blistering pace at that. Belle is nose down up to the eyeballs sniffing for what's under the snow. I expected Dixie not to like the cold so we got her back home as quick as we could. Nothing like a nipping from old Jack Frost to get Dixie on the move. Belle resisted as well as she could but due to the wind chill I sided with Dixie.


The next time out I put their coats on. Now how a coat like that for a dog can possibly do anything more than annoy them is beyond me, but they work. It helped that the wind had died down but the girls were nice and warm and back to their usual pace. So the second winter walk was fine. Dixie doesn't mind the cold if she is bundled up apparently.


The next day the city went around and salted the streets so they were slushy and wet. It was not too cold so we went without coats. And for the first while everything was good. But one street in particular was wet and sloppy and when Dixie crossed it she started to howl and didn't know which foot to lift first. You would have thought I was beating her. So I cleaned off her feet as best as I could and that stopped the crying at least. On the way home I carried her across that street. What ever chemical the city uses sure did not agree with her. For the next walk I dug out Belle's boots for Dixie.


She didn't like them in the house. She was high stepping around the living room like a cat in a wading pool. But outside she figured out what the boots were for almost immediately and she was just fine. She set the path for Belle through the deepest snow. So I was out today buying dog boots. I thought that since the chemical aggravated Dixie as much as it did it can't be good for Belle either so they both need their own boots. $40 later they are both ready to go. And at $40 a set they are as expensive as my shoes. I only paid $20 for my runners at Wally-mart but then again I only got two shoes, Dixie got 4. I don't know how families with kid's manage a budget. Anyway tonight Dixie gets to break in her own pair(s) of "Muttluks". Maybe Summer Dog will survve this winter after all. I will keep you posted.

Bundling everyone up against the cold ...



Randy

STUPID People

Yesterday I saw another article about texting while driving. That one solicited feedback and for the most part the feedback was either: "People who text while driving are STUPID" (the correct answer) or "I am not STUPID I am some kind of super human who can do both and don't you be telling me I can't " (the wrong answer). One "stuper-man" said all it took was "distributed attention". That is as i understand it the ability to split your attention between two activities. Nice to know there is a term for driving with half a brain.

Driving especially in a major urban center in winter in Canada is a full time job. It takes all your attention because the knuckle head in the other car might very well be texting, reloading his iPod, having breakfast, surfing the net, or reading the paper behind the wheel. "Distributing" their attention. Sorry but doing anything else while navigating traffic is STUPID. But if you are 25 and immortal you can do it. Guess again. If you are not paying attention to your driving you will be paying your insurance man. Sooner or later those habits will catch up with you.

We have all seen the doofus with the cell phone and the coffee careening down the road in and out of lanes expecting everyone to watch out for them. I say hit 'em. Hit 'em hard enough to jam that cell phone in their ear and dump that double double all over their designer suit and all over the leather interior of that leased gas guzzler with all the toys and whistles. I heard of a bumper sticker once that read "Maybe you would drive better if I crammed that cell phone up your ass!" I agree with the sentiment (and want one for my car).

It should be a law that if the police see you texting, chatting on the cell, reading a book, bobbing up and down tweaking the stereo, or any one of a hundred stupid things while driving, they should be able to stop you and take you off the road right then and there. Being stupid is not criminal. Getting behind the wheel and being stupid is. What did you do before text messaging and cell phones. People survived being out of touch for more than 10 minutes. The world will not end if someone cannot get you while you are in traffic. We did without that for years and some of us still do. They don't call them "crack berries" for nothing. You are addicted if you can't go for the duration of you commute with out your wireless device. And feeding your habit putting everyone else at risk is STUPID.

One last point, the car makers are enablers for these junkies too. They are installing technology in the vehicles that facilitate people being STUPID. GM is prviding an option to allow you to download music to your iPod while driving. And an option on my van (that I don't have, want or need) is a hands free phone that you can plug your cell into. It will turn your cell into a hands free phone with, (get this) call waiting! There is about 30 pages on how to use that phone in the user manual and only 3 pages on how to use the transmission. Think they might have their priorities all screwed up? Me too.

Sitting here watching the world go to hell in a hand basket...


Randy

A Chinook Would Be Nice

For those of you not familiar with it a Chinook (shin-ook) is a warm westerly wind. The climate scientists say that that it is warm Pacific air that is blown through the passes in the Rockies that warms up the province. Well our little piece of the province anyway. The word is a native word that means "snow eater". And if there is any snow around a Chinook will make short work of it. And we are waiting for our first one of the season. It has not been really cold, no minus zero Fahrenheit weather but cold enough. With the wind cold enough to make hands and joints ache. Cold enough to pull the winter coats out of storage. And its been that way for a couple of weeks now. Time for a Chinook.

The weather man on the TV has promised one by Friday. Unfortunately Dave is usually spot on on the bad news and off on the good. That is he is able to predict bad weather correctly more often than he predicts good weather. Or so it seems.

At least there is no snow and ice yet. That is what makes dog walking down right dangerous. Last year I fell on the icy sidewalks a couple of times. It was a good thing that Belle was young and quick because I nearly landed on her the first time. And how do you go back to the humane society and explain a squashed dog!

The second time Dixie was just in front of me and she slipped on the ice. And as I was telling her to be careful I wiped out. Belle tried to keep going (after all I had fallen before) but Dixie came back to see if I was dead. She was newly adopted then and needed to know if she still had a meal ticket.

And that's the bad side of a Chinook. If there is snow there will be ice and lots of it. So before the snow comes it would be nice to get a Chinook to warm things up a bit. One last chance to get out and do some of that yard work we have bee procrastinating about. Picking up the frozen dog rockets and picking up the garbage that has blown around. Actually I picked up after the dogs but we have a whole new collection of trash thanks to a gale that came through last week for a few days. (But unless it gets warmer that's not going to happen.. A bit of snow covers a multitude of sins.)

But I can't put off getting the Christmas Lights up. I don't want to look like the Grinch house. It looks like there will be lots of lights this year because some folks have their's up already. I think people are coming to Calgary this year. They don't put up lights if they are going away. So judging by the show this will be the place to be come December 25. And it is much more fun to put the lights up when it is warm. So a Chinook would be nice.

Hunkered down by the fire till the Chinook comes...

Randy

Give the Guns Away Free Then Sell the Bullets

There was an article on the web today talking about the price of ink for Kodak printers. And how Kodak was lowering the price on their ink which was overpriced to begin with etc etc. Well whoop-tee-do. It is their traditional approach. They used to give away Brownie cameras and then soak folks for the film. It is the idea that you give away the guns then sell the bullets to make your money. Cheap device expensive consumables. Why is this a surprise?

The worst case I saw for that was with a Lexmark printer I bought. The printer was $67 and came with 2 smaller ink cartridges. The printer was capable of using larger cartridges but they cost $79 a set. The small replacements were $45 a set. So what to do? I went with the larger replacements, getting hosed in the process. If the printer came from the factory with the larger cartridges I would have been better off getting a whole new printer. But it only comes with the small ones so replacing the machine just to replace the small cartridges was not viable. Pretty sneaky these printer guys. But let me tell you the next time they jack the cartridge prices look out. Also if the printer gives me one hiccup of trouble it is out the door too.

What was it Stompin' Tom sang? "The consumer they call us we always get a fair shake. We buy a Fridge that doesn't freeze and a stove that doesn't bake!" He nailed it pretty good if you ask me. And electronics are the worst offenders.

Take IPODs for example or MP3 players to a lesser extent. You can get a 500 meg IPOD that will store 700 songs. Several days worth of music non stop but is that good enough? No sir you need the 1 gig IPOD because you absolutely cannot live with out your top 1440 songs. Who has a list of 1440 top songs? No one. No one has 700 favorites either. I will put money on it no one, except the odd weirdo with too much time on their hands, can even list 700 songs. So what do they need a one gig for? Just cause they can afford it and it is bigger than their buddy's.

Everything is hype these days. They gouge you on the prices and hype it up till you think you can't live without it. Well give your head a shake folks do you really believe the hype?

And Christmas is coming. Hypee Holidays. Watch the companies ramp up the hype. The excited states are teetering on a recession so this will be their last chance to fleece the old consumers before the crunch. Better get the hype in gear big time. An one of their favorite tricks is to give the guns away free and then sell the bullets.

Mortgage Christmas and Hype the New Year...

Randy

Banff

We took the new van out to Banff on the weekend. It was Indian summer in Calgary and we wanted to try out the van. It was not Indian summer in Banff. A mere 80 miles and a few hundred feet in elevation and its winter. It was right cold and snowy out there and there was a wind off the Bow. Wind in the mountains. Aren't they supposed to stop the wind? Maybe it was just the fact that it was colder than we expected that made the wind so cold. The girls did not seem to care. There were squirrels or at least squirrel scents to get them excited as we walked them around town. So they were excited and let everyone know with an impromptu concert.

It will sure be nice when they get that town finished construction. World famous Banff Avenue was all torn up. In fact you could not drive right down the main drag. But since we did not know that there was construction we were pleased to see a reduction in traffic. Usually Banff rush hour runs from 10 am to 2 am. But last weekend traffic was bearable. Its the shoulder season up there too so that helped. The shoulder season is too late for summer but too early for skiing. Just the right time for us semi locals.

We did not get into the shops. We left too late in the day and spent too long walking the dogs around so all we did was grab a quick bite at Melissa's Missteak. One of our favorite restaurants. They specialize in homemade soup and sandwiches at lunch time and we like to go there. I expect that their steaks are good given the name but we are usually there at lunchtime. The food is good the rices are reasonable and the servings are too big. Everything you want in a restaurant. After a late lunch it was time to go home.

We could not find a parking spot in the outdoor lot so we had to park in the parkade. It was free but we wound up on the top level. Now normally I would take the stairs but with two dogs in tow that could be dangerous with leashes and all coming down four flights. You take your life in your hands going down three steps from the deck some mornings. So we took the elevators. And it was a glass elevator to boot. But the girls surprised us they did not panic or get excited, The rode down and back up like a couple of pros. You'd have though they did it every day, Someone had spilled potato chips and they did not even eat those. They were real ladies.

They did not think being left in the car was a good idea and sang a bit then but that is because we were obviously going for another walk and a ride in the funny little room and not taking them. We could have tied them up outside the restaurant but the last time we did that we almost lost Tiara. She chewed through her lead. It would have taken the girls about a minute to replicate the feat. Then we would have had to chase down two hounds in a town full of squirrel scents. No small trick. So the van was the best place for them but I think they would give you an argument on that.

All in all it was a good trip. The new van performed better than I expected (Chrysler sure fixed the cruise control as it kept the speed up on Scott Lake Hill both ways the old van could not do that even new,) The ride was good and quiet. Banff was not it's usual crazy self. And the girls were good as gold, if it would have been Indian summer it would have been a perfect trip.

Sitting back trying to get warm...

Randy