Davina’s weekend

It was my granddaughter’s birthday this month, so we had our get-together this weekend.

She came for a sleep-over on Friday night.  I picked her up at day-care and we stopped at the beach on the way home because it was quite hot and a paddle and some sand play was seeming like a good thing to do.  We got some chicken, noodles, broccoli and asparagus and made a lovely stir fry for supper, then we cut up some carrots and apples for the horses we were going to ride today.

We went up to Wildwood Manor Ranch which is near Erin, and planned to get there early so we could feed the horses the treats and then have a good chance of getting some nice “tame” horses as The GD has only had one pony ride before, and I haven’t been a regular rider for decades.  The last stable we went to only let children her age ride ponies and would not let them go on the trail rides, and she was most unhappy about that.  So we switched stables and had a wonderful time with some really well-mannered horses.

The staff was really great too, and the place apparently has a camp that they run during the summer.  I’d love to get back there and try to make riding a part of what I do more frequently.

Davina sneaking a carrot for herself.

Sizing up the available horseflesh

There was a bit of trepidation when she initially got up on the horse, though it was not a really huge one, but very soon into the ride she was having a really good time and quickly learned how to make her horse stop and wait when it got too close to the horse in front.  Her horse was named Smokin, and mine was named Rain – also a well-trained and biddable lady.

Part of the group who doesn't want their horses to run.

All alone, way up high.

Two new practices here that I hadn’t run across before was that the smaller kids don’t get stirrups fitted as these folks say it’s safer for them to not be in stirrups, and the use of plastic shower caps under the helmets, no doubt necessitated by the epidemic of head lice around all the junior schools in Southern Ontario.  So after some basic instruction s on starting, stopping, turning and the absolute imperative of NOT screaming no matter what happened, we were off.  Joining the regular riders was a pack of Girl Guides, all about 12 years old.

If you should go to the woods today . . .

Checking to see that granny is right behind

It was an absolutely perfect day for a trail ride in the woods.  Hot enough to make the shade welcome, but not so hot as to be uncomfortable.  Peaceful, just interrupted by birdsong and the sound of the wind rustling the leaves.  At least until the Guides started the entertainment portion of the program.  The first episode was on young lady calling out to all her peers ” I really think this would be an excellent time to remember our posture”.  I thought I’d fall off my horse laughing and tried not to be obvious or make any snorting sounds.  Some of the other young ladies were also first-time riders and I’m sure that they were much more concentrated on the death-grips that they were certain was all that was keeping them off the ground than their posture at that moment.  Then another young lady gave a rhapsodical monologue about how ‘environmental’ she felt, and how wonderful it was to be “driving a horse”, among other things.  They were quite an interesting group.

The ride was just perfect and when we got to the  cleared meadow area, they separated those who wanted to go for a good run from us walkers and we went meandering around the meadow while the runners went a ways away and got their thrills.

After the ride The GD and I drove into Erin for lunch.  A lovely small town and I wouldn’t mind going there again either.  We found the ice-cream store that everyone at the stables told us about, and got a hot dog with cheese and bacon each and then had some really good local ice cream to top it off.  Next door to the ice cream place was a store that sold locally made tourtierres, and other ready-made goodies like shepherds’ pie, and they had fresh fish and meat, and some huge rounds of good cheese, as well as many other things like sauces and jams.

I wanted to bring a few things home – they were giving samples of the tourtierre and it was really good – but had no cooler, so they found me one of the styrofoam packing boxes that some of their goods came in and that kept things cool and/or frozen until I got home after I dropped The GD back at her house so her mother could see her too.  It was just a lovely weekend.

The Ice Cream Store

Good food

Sleepless in Sleep Country

I bought a really lovely new mattress a couple months ago.  Got it from Sleep Country – figured since they specialised they’d have a good selection.

Well, the selection wasn’t so hot at all, and that’s just for starters.

The mattress, though supposed to be a standard size, doesn’t fit the bed frame.  It’s enough too narrow that if you roll over, or otherwise move on the bed, the mattress jams itself down between the frame rails on one side or the other so then it’s on a tilt and you feel as if you have to hang on in order not to roll off.

I called Sleep Country when I got it on the frame and discovered the problem, but they’re not interested.  Nevermind that many decades of mattresses have fit properly on that frame and their mattress is the culprit.

So now I have to put the mattress on the floor until I can get a new bed.

You’ve heard of businesses “nickle-and-diming you to death”?  I think Sleep Country is trying to save big bucks by shaving and inch or two off their mattresses.

Shoddy product, terrible customer service, and if you really want a good sleep, stay away from Sleep Country!!

Another Government Rip-off

I’ve lived a few days now with this time-of-use monkey-business.  I didn’t like the sound of it when it was proposed and I like it even less now.

First of all, the options we have for actually using anything we need at any specified time – any of us – are limited.  Can you wait until 9 p.m. for supper, or do you want to put a load of laundry in the dryer right before bed so it’s all wrinkly from sitting all night when you get a chance to take it out in the morning?  Can you turn your refrigerator off during peak hours?

And for those who are home all day, the punishment is worse.  Low rates are only between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. – “mid-peak” rates don’t count for much as they’re virtually the same as the high rates, very little difference – so you don’t even have the benefit of having a day at work to use your employer’s lights, heating/cooling, and tea/coffee/food preparation and not get billed for that at home.

And who are those people who are home all day?  Pensioners, mothers on maternity leave, unemployed people and those who are too ill to go out.  So what we have here is a system that not only has no saving grace, but one that is nearly impossible to change in your favour, even for a few dollars worth, and penalises the poorest folks among us.

The only people this initiative was designed to benefit are those who were already well-off enough to leave their air-conditioners or heating on all day while they were at work, as that’s about all that can be tweaked in the customer’s favour.  And if they were that thoughtless without this program, this is not going to change them.

We need to get rid of the government that foisted this ill-advised program on us and try to find a few good politicians who actually think things through.

Volunteering Solutions and Advance Africa

A copy of a post I made on the Beware of Volunteering Solutions Facebook page.

I went to Kenya with Volunteering Solutions, on the Maasai program, and it was a joke.  I had to leave their “program” (which wasn’t programmed, and the hosts were not paid for my board, and on and on).  Sahil said I’d get some money back, but it has never materialised.  (I did finally get some money back some long time later)
Joe Ngugi, who runs their Kenya program, and the Kenya program for several other volunteer agencies, through Advance Africa is a total thief, and whatever you are promised by him won’t materialize.

Instead of the hotel I was told I’d be booked into for my first ‘orientation’ weekend, we were taken way out of town to a hostel with one washroom and shower for 24 beds, and barely any food.  That was just the start.  It got worse from there.  And for everyone using Ngugi and Advance Africa, not just for VS people.
The other volunteers there, who had come to Kenya with other organisations who contracted their placements to Ngugi had some real horror stories to tell also.

The rest of the story – or at least all that I wanted to bore my friends and relatives with can be seen on: grannyinkenya.wordpress.com

You ‘Murricans are Scaring Me to Death!

I’ve watched politics in both our countries for a good long time now. What’s going on these days in the US of A is just so frightening I have trouble believing that I haven’t somehow strayed into a novel while I’m reading the news.

All these years of silliness, non-co-operation, inflamed rhetoric and lack of logic and common sense that has assailed both our countries and I still had the faith that somehow, it would all work out – that the highest impulses would win out over greed and chicanery.

After all, we’re democracies, right? The ideals of civic education, rational dialogue, and working together for the good of society are supposed to be part of the basics of what we’ve defined as the type of society we want to live in. So what on earth has happened with this health-care business?

Sure, I’m prejudiced as to the outcome. Living in a country where “free” basic health care is a right for everyone, I’ve been astonished that there is a democratic country that doesn’t see that as a necessity. I’ve been appalled at the stories friends have told of losing their homes to necessary health care costs, of being dropped from their health insurance for inexplicable reasons just when they actually needed it, of health insurance companies claiming bankruptcy and leaving everyone with no care. And what is the estimate? Forty million people there without any kind of care insurance at all?

And this thing you have where someone else can tell you what doctor you have to use? Good grief! That would be the day, for anyone in Canada!

But finally someone comes along in your government and seriously tries to initiate some kind of change and you’ve got the whole world wondering if someone has spiked the water supply with rabies! And fearing it might spread to other areas of your public discourse.

Certainly nothing in the past half-century of politics has come anywhere near the hysteria, irrationality and falsifying of facts that is so evident right now. Edited video, photoshopped pictures and outright lying about the facts and figures is so overwhelmingly prevalent – and neither side is entirely innocent – that the rest of the world is aghast, and frankly quite frightened, that the world’s major super-power has erupted into a banshee-shrieking, saliva-spitting, unthinking, fractured mob scene.

And nobody’s listening either. There is no chance, it seems, for a reasoned discussion of the facts, or even a civilised exchange on the interpretation of the facts. Open your mouth on the subject and immediately your audience closes it’s mind and likely starts hurling insults and inane slogans.

What on earth is going on with you people?

There are three major candidates for some kind of reason (or excuse) for all of this, and I expect it is a combination, with different factors having different weights depending on the weigher.

So tell me what you see and honestly think. Is it racism, fear, or greed?

Certainly some people seem to be having a hard time dealing with your first black President, and for those folks, no matter what the poor man does, they will attempt to vilify him and veto his plans.

Is it fear of the unknown? Combined, of course with a lack of what could truly be called facts in any meaningful discussion?

Or is greed the main motivator here, and pushing both of the other excuses and any other thing they can get hold of to make people behave like lunatics? Certainly the medical insurance lobby has to be almost as powerful as the petro lobby, and they certainly have the money to throw around. They stand to perhaps lose a big chunk of that income, along with the heady power of life and death over their subscribers if there are significant changes. You already have “death panels”, and those insurance companies run them, nevermind the silliness that was put forth by some of the preposterous anti-change groups.

So, can anyone tell me – just what is it that you’re so afraid of anyway?

And when do you expect that you will start behaving in a manner that won’t have the rest of the world – but especially those close to your borders – wondering what nightmare-inducing lunacy might next break out within your borders and spill over to affect the rest of the world?

Who makes your jeans?

I just saw the most amazing documentary called China Blue.

It follows the lives of two young girls (not yet really women) who come from the country to work in a blue jeans factory in the city.  It chronicles the 7-day-a-week, sometimes round the clock for 36 or more hours if there is a big order, working life of these women.  Their pitiful pay and the attitudes of the factory owners and management are shown at length too.

Fantastically enlightened management in this part of the world seems to be shown if you give the workers a free bun and cup of tea at midnight when you’re forcing them to work all night with no overtime pay.  The owner’s rants about lazy workers who will cheat him if they have a chance are amazing to us who see workers too exhausted to work any more, but who are prodded awake and urged to glue their eyelids open to stay awake (doesn’t work).

The horrible thing is, that even though our clothing manufacturers here are telling us that they’re on top of the situation as far as child labour and exploitation are concerned, it’s just not so.  They pay the factories so little per order that for the boss to make his expected profit the workers get unfairly paid.  The factories are notified ahead of time, either formally or through the grapevine, when an inspection is coming so they can temporarily improve things and give the workers scripts to spout about how wonderful their job is.

One of the very best things about this movie though is the way it focuses on the girls as whole human beings with dreams and aspirations.  Their thoughts, diaries and curiosity about the world are amazing.  I’m not sure I’d have energy for any of that if I worked those hours in those conditions.

You know though – we are all, each one of us that supports any company manufacturing its goods in China, responsible for this situation.  Look at the profits of these companies – they’re well able to afford to pay enough in China or elsewhere to get their jeans and whatever else made within reasonable hours and at a living wage.  If you buy things Made in China, until both the retailers here and the Chinese factory owners behave in a more humane fashion, you are as responsible for the unacceptable working conditions these people face as anyone else in the chain.

Money talks!! The only way we can change anything in this world is by “voting with our pocketbooks” and not giving our money to those who put profit – and excessive profit at that – before human well-being and dignity.

So, read your labels and tell your retailers you want alternative goods NOT “Made in China”.  And see this documentary if you ever get the chance!

A couple of reviews of this documentary:

“China Blue is more than an exercise in cinematic activism…the film develops a natural dramatic structure that’s profoundly affecting. Mr. Peled doesn’t just record the girl’s indignities, he listens to their dreams…China Blue examines the plight of the world’s largest pool of cheap labor and traces its exploitation to a retail outlet near you.” THE NEW YORK TIMES

“The most heartbreaking, moving film in theaters right now is not “Babel,” “Letters From Iwo Jima” or “Little Children.” It is China Blue…This is an unforgettable film.” THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Is this FOOD??

Wow!  I was just cleaning out my fridge and decided that the litre of milk that I’d been saving (to make sour-milk pancakes) since I bought it at Christmas should probably be thrown out.

As I poured it down the sink, I noticed that it wasn’t even curdled yet, so decided to taste it – and it wasn’t even sour!

What kind of milk – or any food product – last for that length of time?  This stuff must be pure chemicals, or treated to the point where it couldn’t possible have any nutritional value left.

Literacy

The following was written in response to a relative’s sending me the following link:

http://www.globecampus.ca/blogs/parents-view/

Oh, Lordy! Don’t get me started!

From the time when the children were in elementary school, and I’d send the school handouts back to the principal with the spelling, punctuation and grammar corrected, to the working world in an office, trying to make sure that letters to clients and diary entries on the work log are at least comprehensible, never mind professional – it has been a losing battle.

If our educators (those that make the policies) had thought that literacy was important, it would have been taught. They didn’t, it wasn’t – and now we’re left with a population where most under 50 think that the way they communicate on e-mail or cell phone text is the height of communicative skill.

And for anyone who reads a brief look at newspapers or recently published books will tell you that even the supposed “editors” are illiterate. Reading has started to aggravate me so much that I’m turning vigilante and reading with a red pen in hand to correct errors so that the next reader isn’t encouraged to think that the mistakes I find are the correct way to do things. I also started clipping mistakes from the local papers and sending them to the editors, but found that that endeavour could take most of the day, many days, so I gave up. And that was over a decade ago, and it’s only gotten worse.

Language vigilantes – Arise! Unite!

It’s “Dew-rag”, for Pete’s sake!!

That thing young people wear on their heads is called a dew-rag, NOT a do-rag.

And it’s NOT a ‘black thing’, it’s a farm thing – as is wearing your hat backwards.

I get so fed up with seeing the language butchered by folks who don’t seem to know anything about what they’re talking about.

I’m a (white) grandmother, and my grandmother wore a dew-rag, and that’s what she called it, as did all the women who worked on farms, or even did their own housecleaning, back in the day.

My grandmother explained to me that it was called a dew-rag, because women in those days weren’t allowed to do anything as vulgar as sweat – instead they “got all dewy”. And the rag was there to ‘soak up the dew on their brows’.

And this whole thing with wearing your hat backwards – give me a break! Farms, plantations, road gangs – all those guys wore their hats backwards. Well, after billed caps were invented, and provided they were lucky enough to have a hat at all. The purpose was to protect their necks from the sun while they were bent over working. The boss wore his brim forward to shade his eyes so he could keep an eye on the workers.

I would see it as being more constructive to emulate something a bit more forward looking.

Neither of these clothing choices was invented by the current young generation, and both look back to a hard past – a time that is still being lived out in many countries. Just because we have been fortunate enough to leave much of that behind doesn’t seem to be a good reason to trivialize those customs.

And then there is the fad of wearing jail-house attire. Shoes flopping off the feet, great baggy clothes. Why are we allowing our youth (and Heaven forfend!, sometimes copying them) to glorify the criminal class, and then in the next breath whining about the crime rate? We can’t have it both ways – but that’s a whole other story, too . . .

Boycott Cuban Vacations and Travel!

I’ve just been alerted (by a Cuban-American friend) that Cuba has prematurely shut down the petroleum agreement they had with Canada.

Pebercan had prospected for the petroleum and signed an agreement with the Cuban government for shared development rights, from 1993 – 2018.  It was announced Friday in the Cuban business media and Reuters picked it up, that the Cubans have trashed the agreement.  My friend says the Cubans have made a new deal with the Russians.   What, they couldn’t wait until this deal ran its course?

I’ve got to say, I’m really ticked. I’d say anyone who vacations in Cuba after this is just telling the Cuban government that it doesn’t matter how Canada is treated, or whether they are honest in their dealings with us.

Was your cheap vacation partially funded by this act of dishonesty? Think about it . . . . and pass this on. (If new developments somehow vindicate the Cubans in this, I’ll be sure to pass on that information too.)

Gathering Herbs in Cuba