Ushering in 2008

After a White New Years followed by an arctic chill the rains have begun and this morning my world is lost in the fog. Thursday I made hot cider to warm the troops at work when they got back with cold feet and hands. Spent an hour pulling locks from a slum apartment building which is replacing their mail panels and will be back Monday to reinstall them. Today is laundry day—I’ve reached the point that it’s that or go bare—and it’s too cold for that option. [Did I put soap in that last load?]

Drove up early this morning to do my shopping at Longo’s and discovered that they abandoned their community bulletin board. Accordingly here’s the notice I would have posted:

Trafalgar Community Policing Committee Next Meeting at 6:00 PM, February 5, 2008 Iroquois Ridge Community Centre Library Program Room 1051 Glenashton Drive, Oakville Officer Carla Draper will be making a presentation on Drugs; what you should know and what to look for. Join us for this informative talk and to share your concerns about the community in which you live. Our committee provides a unique opportunity to meet with the people who serve and protect and those who set policy on the municipal and school board level.

I also noted in passing that the bag of carrots I bought this morning was advertised as ‘fresh’ Ontario Carrots—how is this possible? In the same department washed salad greens with a Jan 04 freshness date were on offer at regular price and I’ll note for the record that this is January 6, 2008. I will say that I’m thankful for freshness dates; I do miss price stickers on the actual item though.

On the way home filled my gas tank and watching the sale price accelerate faster than the litres pumped is scary. There too I noted that my local Shell station no longer has We Serve Pumps. In a move that took them in the opposite direction I discovered a couple months ago that the local Beer Store has switched from being a self-serve outlet to return to having an employee grab your order from the back room. I was nonchalantly informed, “Oh, we did that about a year ago.” Shows you how often I indulge in a case of beer. Actually, I was returning someone else’s empties picked up in our parking lot.

I’m sad to have to report that someone sabotaged Canada Post’s Santa Letter program by adding nasty comments to Santa’s reply letters. We receive millions of letters yearly from as far away as Australia and Germany. Granted some of the little greedy guts who write those letters have shopping lists totaling up to $250,000.00 but it’s a volunteer activity; if you don’t like doing it, stay away.

So here we are almost one week into 2008 and it would seem that little has changed. In just over a month the Chinese New Year ushers in the year of the Rat. Somehow I have the feeling that little is going to change in the next twelve months. Not being Nostradamus I will pass on making any predictions as to who may win the next presidential election. I will go on record as stating that I will not be sad to see Bush return permanently to his ranch in Texas. I still like the Jewish pundit’s observation that the last time they took advice from a bush they ended up wandering forty years in the wilderness.