Tremendous Things

More and more I am getting facebook appeals for me to sign a petition to support this good cause or to stop these other guys from doing what they are doing. If there was a ring involved, it would be like all of the phone calls I get to support all of these weird charities.

 

A number of years ago, my wife (and I) supported numerous charities, one of them being Wheelchair athletes. One day someone told my wife that although they played basketball in wheelchairs, most of the participants were not bound to wheelchairs. We just thought this to be another one of those urban myths until the next time that we were called to donate. My wife asked if all of the athletes were physically handicapped and the guy said that they all weren’t but most of the money went to support the sport. It turns out that our charitable money went to fund healthy people playing wheelchair sports. That was the last time we gave to them, I have always felt that if you want to play sports, then you can pay your own way.

When I was working, it seemed that there was always someone selling chocolate almonds, popcorn or tickets on a draw to help fund their kid’s activity. I always bought because I sold items for my kid’s teams and activities and turnabout is fair play. One day a guy came up selling tickets on a draw and I asked if it were for his son’s team. He told me it was for his own baseball team and they were going to Las Vegas to play in a tournament. I told him that if he wanted to go to Vegas, that was fine but I wouldn’t be paying his way.

 

So far this morning I had a facebook plea to sign a petition to save the CBC radio from the Conservative government’s bill that would cut its funding. The CBC is publicly funded and is able to do things that doesn’t generate a profit but makes for a better Canada. They show both sides of whatever issue is in the news and will play the music of Canadian musicians that might not be as popular as Justin Beiber. Private radio stations have an editorial bias from the owners that comes through either intentionally or secretly. This particular government has attempted to muzzle the CBC in the past with funding cuts and veiled threats. I signed the online petition, but it has been my experience that governments will do what they want and tell you that it is your best interest.

 

There was another plea just a minute or so ago for me to sign a petition to stop Nestles from draining the aquifer in an Ontario town of Hillsborough. It seems that the company has managed to get government approval to take upwards of a million litres of water a day for their bottling operation. The town has to limit the water usage in summer months and they don’t feel it is right that Nestles can continue to draw water unabated. I guess this is where the petition comes in. I’m not a big fan of large conglomerates, so I will more than likely sign the petition, with some hesitation.

I don’t like big business, but they make the world turn and pay the salaries that make it possible for our society to have the standard of living that we have. The trouble with petitions, all petitions, is that they only reflect the opinion of one side and the other side doesn’t get to state their side of the argument. The internet is also notorious for incorrect statistics and sometimes just outright lies. You don’t know the facts unless you take the time to research and most of us don’t bother to. It is especially true when I am already prone to find the big corporations and government guilty of pretty much any kind of crooked, thieving behaviour.

I am just going to sign the petition even though I like Nestles chocolate drink mix and many of their chocolate bars. It is possible that Nestles is just the North American branch of the WONKA Chocolate factory and everything will just be fine because "…tremendous things are in store for you."

It’s a Good Feeling

I guess I am a serial killer of sorts.

Not humans or animals, well at least not in recent years, I’m talking about our chlorophylled friends of the plant kingdom. I mentioned in a blog the other day how I put a contract on an Elm tree that was getting too close and it became one of those him or me situations. It turned out that it was him. Don’t mess with me!

I picked up a couple of large tomato plants from the Co-op the other day. Normally I either start them from seed or very small plants. Partly that is because it is cheaper that way and also I sort of feel that I was involved in the whole growth process. Okay, it’s because it is cheaper. I have had some success over the years but if I am to be truthful, I have had more failure that success. Often I think it is because the soil is does not have the right ph balance and it may lack some of the important nutrients necessary for optimum growth. It could be that I don’t water enough or that I water too much. It might even be that our growing season is pathetically short.

I suspect that in spite of those excuses it actually boils down to my having a bad attitude. I really just don’t care whether we get tomatoes or not. Don’t get me wrong, I like tomatoes, tomato sauce and BLT sandwiches. The thing is that if I have a bumper crop that means I will be eating tomatoes every meal for a month or more. Sometimes they will grow fairly big, but not ripen on the vine and that means I have to have fried green tomatoes for every meal. Tomatoes are pretty cheap in the store and for the amount I eat I don’t mind paying the price. Yes…I know the home grown ones taste better, I just haven’t decided if all of the watering, weeding, covering is worth the taste difference.

Tomatoes are canned within four or five hours after being picked which means that if I picked a tomato in the morning and had it for supper, it wouldn’t be as fresh as a canned tomato. Plus, I wouldn’t have had to do anything for it to grow. These two plants I put in today don’t seem to be very happy with their new home. I can’t imagine it was any better on a rolling shelf at the Co-op than it is in my garden, but perhaps there has been talk amongst the other tomato plants. We will see how things work out tomorrow after they have spent a chilly, cold night in the dirt.

I’ve got some other plants that I’m not too sure about. Carrots, onions, cucumbers and lettuce will probably do alright; the ones underground have a better chance of survival I suppose. You will notice that I haven’t mentioned any flowers at all. I will probably plant some seeds, but over the years I have found that they just seem to mock me by being miniaturized versions of real plants. I look forward to the fall when they freeze to death.

I look forward to next week when it will be dry enough for me to spray some poison on the dandelions. I don’t care about the poison going into our water supply, because I have a feeling that my little bit of weed killer is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to toxins in the water. Yep, I hope to see some shrivelled up, suffering weeds late next week. It’s a good feeling.