Weekly Rant 2008-05-31

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.

Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915)

Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows.

David T. Wolf (1943 - )

Today is the last day of May 2008. Hard to believe. As the saying goes it’s an ill wind that blows no one any good. The warm spell we’ve experienced the latter part of this past week went out with a bang last night with a thundering episode of Odin banging his sledgehammer against the roof of the world accompanied by buckets of cats and dogs raining from the sky. At least it served to keep my rowdy neighbours indoors rather than under my balcony window. Company I can do without.

The closer I get to retirement the more I long for that day and the lower my tolerance for the bureaucratic nonsense that is Canada Post becomes. It took an entire week to get a Group Mailbox placed and when it did arrive the contractors placed it half a mile from its intended resting place on a parallel street. Add to that the frustration of being just under two months from my departure date and still waiting for the first shred of the mountain of paperwork that is bound to arrive eventually. It’s not that I didn’t give them plenty (six months) notice—why would the corporate we plan for anything. With one-third of their employees reaching retirement age in the next five years it would never occur to them that they should train people to out-process those who have given such long faithful service.

Despite the rain this weekend I should attack the remaining mountain of laundry I have been essaying the last two weekends. Keeping ahead of it is a losing battle as the pile grows daily. Despite my pile of new DVD’s I switched back this week to VHS and watched The Rock with Sir Sean and Copycat with a fav of mine Dermot Mulroney. Those old tapes looked good on my widescreen. On Thursday I finally broke down and went shopping. The experience re-enforced my reticence in the first place; everywhere I went the goods I was looking for had been moved, there was remodeling in process, unresponsive sales staff, and products changed or no longer available. When I finally made it home there was the struggle to lug everything through locked doors, an elevator, and then the unpacking.

Happenings in the world at large make me reluctant to listen to the news. Every time I turn around there seems to be word of another monster development, the latest being a massive two tower apartment complex that would replace the decommissioned Extendicare Centre on Lyons Lane adjoining Trafalgar Village Shopping Mall. On the banks of the Sixteen Mile Creek Ravine this is a prime location; unfortunately it is also mere feet from the QEW. Beside this proposed complex is a Heritage Cemetery whose deteriorating condition is highlighted in the same edition of that newspaper along with news of an enormous drug bust on Wyecroft Rd not far from our office. I needed neither newspaper nor other media to be aware of the latest collision at Marlborough Court and Trafalgar Road Friday afternoon; the sound of rending metal was audible from my seat here in front of this computer, the clangor of fire trucks, ambulances and police followed. Speaking of automobiles, word came this week that Volkswagon is developing a vehicle that can park itself enabling the owner to squeeze into that narrow parking space.

On a personal level I’ve been feeling tired lately. Shopping took a great deal out of me, whatever my orientation my maleness with regard to an abhorrence of shopping is very much intact. Now that the trees are fully leafed out only the pines remain as a source of pollen and grasses begin their seasonal peak. Some garbage I didn’t get to the garbage chute in a timely manner has led to an outbreak of fruit flies; now I have to wait until the progeny die out and take care lest they find somewhere else to breed. I did say I was feeling lethargic and unproductive didn’t I, the fruit flies apparently don’t suffer from my ennui. Now I must go fold last weekend’s laundry, wash up my kitchen, get out my washing machine, and recommence hostilities against dirt.

Weekly Rant 2008-05-24

Well, it’s official, we’ve had the coldest May on record here in Southern Ontario. How cold has it been, not quite so cold as to send Wiarton Willie back to bed but cold and wet enough to make a self-respecting songbird think of migrating back to a warmer clime. The temperature has barely reached double digits and it’s rained every weekend in May.

In the world at large the Junta in Burma have finally bowed to public opinion and the United Nations and agreed to let in aid workers to ease the suffering of their traumatized nation. In China a one hundred and two year-old woman was dug alive from the rubble of the earth quake there. On Martha’s Vineyard it was announced that Edward Kennedy has a form of brain cancer which is almost always fatal. In South Africa xenophobia has reared its ugly head as Poor Township’s people near Johannesburg riot to protest their perceived accusations that equally desperate immigrants from neighbouring nations are stealing their jobs. The spectre of blacks killing blacks over menial jobs is deplorable to behold.

As pleasant and lazy as it is to enjoy a long weekend as we did last week some sun would not have gone amiss. Oh sol did put in an appearance in the late afternoon on at least two occasions but that hardly made up for the rest of those cold miserable days. Unfortunately long weekends are followed by four days catching up on five days’ worth of mail. Finally on Friday the sun came out and during the day the temperature rose dramatically. Mind you the die-hards in our gang seem to insist on wearing shorts even when the rest of the world feels the weather isn’t quite right for it.

Victoria Day Holiday Weekend

Apparently my mind is distracted lately. It wasn’t until a customer mentioned the fact that we probably wouldn’t be open Monday that it even occurred to me that this was to be a long weekend. My mind has obviously been on other things of late; I suppose this explains the pyrotechnic noises outside my window in the last few days. RABA is obviously selling fireworks. In the world at large nature has been proving that there are plenty of natural calamities possible without humankind adding to the suffering. In Burma the military junta continues to prefer allowing their people to die of hunger, thirst, and disease than allow foreign aid workers onto their soil. In China an earthquake has wiped out an entire generation in some areas as their schools pancaked killing the offspring of entire towns. China is at least allowing aid workers in but access to many areas is so difficult that it will be some time before the full extent of the disaster will be known. With an Olympics impending the communist government could do with more positive news coverage. For the record, Tibet is not part of China—might does not make right; and the Dalai Lama still lives in exile from the country of which he is the spiritual leader.

In a lighter vein I learn that Honda Corporation programmed a robot to conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra—after a rehearsal or two the orchestra having learned what to expect adjusted well. As I’ve opined in the past if you watch the Toronto Symphony under conductor Guenter Herbig you’ll notice that aside from the opening downbeat and the final cut only the newest members of the orchestra pay him any attention at all—they know exactly what to expect. This is not a compliment to the maestro in case you’re wandering. It has also been announced that the final instalment of the Harry Potter Novel movie adaptation will be a two-part effort released over two years. Whether or not this is a recognition of the fact that the books are too storyline rich for the plot to be adequately covered in the span of one movie or just a money-grab remains to be seen.

I have spent the week watching the BBC Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood. I’m still attempting to collect my thoughts on the series to write a blog but I am piqued at the BBC for forcing me to watch their advertising before I can access the menu for the main feature on each and every disk—how churlish of them. I spent one evening with my feet in my foot spa hoping to ease what I believed to be a muscle spasm in my left heel. The pain and soreness is easing so perhaps my self-diagnosis worked. This week I managed to cook two meals out of five and desperately need to go shopping this weekend though my distaste for mingling with the common herd and hibernating in check-out line-ups means I’ll probably wait until early Sunday Morning now—most places being closed on Victoria Day. Picked up the Dylan biopic I’m Not There but haven’t gotten to watching it as yet. On Sunday I did finish Eureka season one.

On Monday I acquired the download version of Windows XP Service Pack 3--350 MB of the Operating System’s not broken. Looks to be the equivalent of replacing the engine in an automobile. At work I spent a couple days shredding old files--10 large garbage bags worth. When I wasn’t destroying hard copy evidence I spent the remainder of my time pushing electronic paper. Last night I started the movie Little Children but drifted off to sleep before it completed. At the moment I’m not sure whether I should attack the day or go back to bed for another nap while things are still quiet outside. So far the noisiest critter stirring is an over-sexed robin in the maple outside my window. The leaves are almost fully expanded so finding his perch is almost impossible; the pine trees are candling and will soon spread clouds of greenish-yellow pollen. One compensation for the expected weekend of rain is the fact that it will serve to keep down the pollen.

The Countdown Continues

Days to retirement: 109
I’ve just finished final week 12 to put it the other way.

Bad weather is still the best law enforcement peacekeeper around. So long as it’s cold and wet I get to obtain a good night’s sleep. Thursday morning, however, I was awakened by the chirping of my smoke alarm letting me know its battery was running low. So report me to the authorities, I haven’t gotten around to replacing that battery yet; at least the one upstairs outside my bedroom still works. When I do get around to going out I need to put gasoline in my car. Guess it’s pointless to wait for it to improve, lately the price just keeps rising. So do the oil company profits--ironic how that works. In Burma the military junta in charge would rather let its people die than allow foreign aid workers onto their soil to distribute food and water. Again the issue of political sovereignty comes into question. I’d be extremely suspicious about handing over cash to a regime that has been victimizing its own people for years; I may be getting old and cynical but I’d expect them to line their own pockets and spend the money on arms to support their continued suppression of any dissent. Of course, given the circumstance anyone entering the hardest hit areas would need military support of some kind or they’d be stampeded by the starving, dehydrated masses.

On the subject of the environment this week marks the start of the West Nile Virus season. If global warming continues Malaria will soon be following. The cyclone that hit South-East Asia is only one sympton of the problem that is now a world-wide phenomenon. For the moment tree pollen is my main issue, Oak tree pollen having just peaked. The fact the Oak pollen is still an issue means that at least some have survived Oak Decline. The maples outside my window are in full leaf at this point. Birches are no longer much of an issue here in our urban setting as unless they are regularly treated with poison they do not survive. The flowering crabs are already beginning to open.

I’ve been lazy this week, eating out 4 of the 5 work days. When I get home I just can’t seem to manufacture the energy to cook. At least I get some nutrition this way but having so many different people handle the food you eat is hard on the digestive system. My excuse for not shopping is my attempt to empty my deep freeze before I start travelling.

Spent considerable time getting my portable aps suite up and running on my thumb drive last weekend. I still need to copy my bookmarks into portable Firefox. Unfortunately the import facility doesn’t appear to be compatible with Windows Vista. The list of programs available just keeps growing. I just need to remember that there is a finite amount of space on my thumb drive. The portable menu cannot be stopped in Windows Vista unless one uses the Task Manager to close it.

I’ll write about the movies I’ve been watching in my movie blog and restore the shortcut to my main blog when I get around to it. First I want to catch up on my weekend reading and Weekend America in iTunes. I spent yesterday catching up on E-mail and browsing; then did some computer house-cleaning and housekeeping. There always seems to be something that needs updating.

We’ll see if submitting my blog from PolyEdit works better than it did from Word.

Moving Into May

May 4 Entries

If you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time you’ll notice a distinct change. For some reason when I post my entries by E-mail Blogger scrambles the text changing the font, its colour and size. In attempting to correct these problems I appear to have upset my template and therefore to correct that problem I decided to change my template and in doing so lost my links. When I find the time I'll re-instate them. If I were an HTML whiz I could probably have cleaned up the template but as I m not this seems the path of least resistance. I tend to find the present format a better fit for my verbose writing style. If you've visited my Movie Blog I must apologize for the fact that I haven t made time to upload the usual covers.

This past one has been number 13 in my count-down of the last weeks of my working life. I have 145 days to go to the actual retirement day but I'll be taking my annual leave in those last weeks. I began this week attempting to assemble two new modular letter carrier cases. Part way through the second one I discovered there were 150 pieces missing; when I went online I discovered I'm only allowed to order 50 at one time. The case can’t be use without all the pieces. Retirement can’t come soon enough. Thursday I managed to pull off a breakfast for the entire office crew though someone else did most of the work. Friday I took off work early and had lunch with friends but ended up back at work fixing up a case. When you order in outside help count on it they will show up at the least convenient time. The guy finished repairing a case at 3:15 and only then could I start putting the new case plan into it. Retirement looks very good.

My friend claims the Clinton/Obama contest is a set piece designed to keep the Democrats in the public eye; that the backroom boys have already decided the outcome; and that the media are in on the joke. Guess I m going to have to wait until this fall to see the outcome with the rest of the world.

This part of the world has been enjoying a wave of cold air for the last week along with some much needed rain. Seeing a bit of sun tomorrow will not go amiss.