where are the viewers coming from?

In the last month or so I received between 11 and 22 views of my posts:

The Blogger interface doesn't tell me, by post, who those viewers are, but I suspect most of them are bots.

Temps de partir?

Not all of the understandings that people have about other people are well understood.

Not all of the people that have understandings about themselves are always true.

Not all of the other people who suspect they have understandings about us are accurate.

All of the inaccuracies that people have in their understanding of others are not well known.

All of the people who insist they have understandings of themselves probably have more to learn.

All of the understandings that people have of each other could definitely use some improvement.

when the short stop stopped

When all of the mattress shipping companies collide, will that create a new planet?

dig it out, paint it plaid, not twice, or

The wicked search for a varnished cloud cover nixed the rage that fled secretly. The Baptist that made decisions didn't know what the clock should have said when it came time to blockade the leaches from counting eleven-teen times to two. Range driving, strange diving, lane deriving and brain striving. Lists of lists of lists. Twice.

Dandelion milk as a cross-typed cello player rode a transit bus driven by a melancholy driver wearing mismatched socks. Do I include the swim apparel options or not? That is the question left unanswered by the people who aren't risking their nail clippings or dandruff. That a trip to Dordrecht is even an option doesn't tell anyone the perfect time to start eating.

Dichotomous ambiguity was split in half, making two unequal sides. Makes me wonder if the word 'ambivalent' isn't always used correctly. That a stranger would even contemplate switching roles after having read the kite string's Miltonic sonnet comes as no surprise to the Baptist decision maker from the first sentence.

That line after line after line, one by me, and the next by elsewhom, was the only way for me to get past and passed was a mistake only later I understood to be a mistake. It didn't help that elsewhom didn't notice or didn't do anything about it. Wrench, bench, flinch, cinch, sloth, cloth, doth; that it was once, and then again, and then again, and then again, and then again, and then again, and then again, and then again; it didn't stop, it really didn't stop, it couldn't stop, it wouldn't stop, it even hasn't stopped if you look closely.

It is only on the upside that the downside or the upside down or the right side up or the left side wrong or the right side left... that even a unidirectional arrow could carry me backwards, it wouldn't be like ice fishing, snow shoeing or gargling. It also wouldn't be like golfing, slurring or braking. I should know.

Telepathy wouldn't have made a difference.

Comparing the micro with the macro, the vivid with the livid, the shameful with the shameless or the sentinel with the seasonal; it always takes two to Tango; but only one for a whole lot else.

Close or far, summarized or abstracted, quick or slow or stopped; all ranges that can be defining. All ranges that can be refined but not dined. All ranges that can be thrown but not brown?

Who knows if a mobile device in the summer of 1990 would have changed anything; who even knows what a mobile device will look like in 2090? That even this is under consideration is all that is up in the air, all that is made of that stinky cheese that few people really like to eat. I don't know if that is the correct method, the right way or the least broken strategy. Perhaps I'll never know.

Side-linked catharsis rings given out dolefully by urchins to followers knits fledgling marsupial author enlightenments to unprepared passers by.

Got the go, stop the pot, flop the goop, twinge and cringe and singe. Wake up, go to sleep, yawn, nap, flop, stop.

private vehicle ownership or not?

Last night I went to my van, which I am driving less and less and when I turned the key to start it, nothing happened. My suspicion is that the starter battery doesn't have enough charge.

I needed the van last night to do a Costco run to get food that at work, we would be preparing all together as a meal team that some of us from work would tomorrow serve to the homeless at a shelter.

I did not end up doing that last night. I will leave work at lunch time today to hopefully get the van issue ironed out, go to Costco, and then return to work in the late afternoon/evening.

Today I'm going to discuss this with my father-in-law who has dealt with automotive issues often. Specifically my question is if I get a boost to get the van started and then drive to Costco, that is only about an eleven minute drive. Is there a risk that it won't start again from there once I leave Costco. Or, optionally, I can always buy a new battery at Costco while I am there, but I am hoping to spend as little as possible on this van as I want to get rid of it soon.

So, getting rid of it; does this mean replacing it with a new-to-me vehicle, or ditching private vehicle ownership altogether?

The reason I am not driving so much any more is that I only get the kids half of the time and during the time I don't have them, I use public transit pretty much exclusively. When I have them, G-bot and C-ling both have transit cards that get them wherever they need to go, and where I live is within walking distance of V-8's school, so this is what we've been doing since the school year has begun.

There are and there will be some mornings that driving V-8 to school would be preferable (to walking) due to icy road conditions, or very cold windy weather, or heavy downpours. This could happen perhaps a dozen times throughout the school year, maybe less. My idea for this is to hire an Uber to bring V-8 to school.

Perhaps about once a month I go to Costco for my own groceries; I could use public transit to get there, and hire an Uber to get me home. For regular groceries I am within walking distance of a grocery store.

A few times a year (May Long Weekend, Family Camp, Spartan Race) where in the past I have really needed to have a car as the destination is not transit reachable. In these few rare cases I could rent a vehicle.

For these times (and other pre-planned times where having a car would be handy) that I am having to do a big Costco order for my work's meal team, perhaps I would sign up for Commun-auto, a car sharing service. An issue with this car-sharing service is that their zone for vehicle retrieval and return doesn't go as far west in the city as I live by about 15km; so any time I need to use this service there is an extra 30km added on to whatever my needs are.

I guess I will take a closer look at what my car-usage needs have been over the last year and do a cost comparison between what it would take with private car ownership and what it would take with Transit/Uber/Commun-auto.

frying flint stones like a book cover

Yesterday I was walking from my work to the train, about a twelve minute walk. About one third of the distance there I noticed a person with a rather elevated pace. I matched my pace to theirs for the rest of the way there and wonder how someone can keep this quick pace for so long or why they do it. When we got to the station there were still several minutes to spare, so it wasn't evidently to be certain of catching the train.

In other news, the first snow of the 2019-2020 winter season is falling here today; though, it is light snow and for the most part, melting as it touches ground.

In still other news, out of curiosity I installed an app on my mobile device called Freeletics, a body-weight exercise app. Without going to the gym or being anywhere I can do exercise I tried looking at one of the workouts. Looks interesting, so I'll give it a try the next time I go to the gym (or, as it is mostly body-weight exercises, I can do this at home).

And finally, I awoke at 4h40 this morning to watch the Canada vs Korea match of the Premier 12 tournament of the WBSC. The score was 0-0 when I had to leave to bring V-8 to school and head to work, and when I got to work it was 2-1 for Korea in the top of the 9th, so I watched Korea send in one more run and then the Canada team had all three batters retired, one by K, the other two by pop-outs.

The stadium where they played was practically empty for the non-Korean team games (Canada, Australia and Cuba where in the same group, all playing in Korea). The next Premier 12 tournament will be in 2023 and from what I can tell, ought to be hosted in the US somewhere. Maybe I'll go.

hitailing it down to up

Between the ages of about 15 and 20 I wrote tremendously.

Short fiction, poems, a diary, song lyrics, limericks and even nonsense, much like what can be witnessed in this blog to this day.

Last night I re-read a random selection of diary entries during that phase of my life.

Sometimes I wonder if I would have passed through those years differently given what I have learned since then.

Other times I figure that even knowing what I know now I'd still be the socially award teen I was, irrespective of any learned lessons.

image

So; yesterday was the Federal Election.

Here are the results in my riding:

When I looked at the political platforms of each of the major parties (the 'Animal Protection Party' is not a major party) I checked out what their proposals were with respect to addressing the Climate Crisis and only the Green Party had an aggressive enough plan, so that is where I put my vote.

Francis Scarpaleggia of the Liberal Party received 25,699 more votes than the Green Party candidate did, and by far the most overall, so Scarpa is now the representative of my riding in parliament.

It is not a terrible thing that the person I voted for did not get enough votes to win in this specific case, as having a Liberal Party candidate win means that there was one more Liberal to offset the gains that the Conservative Party had across Canada.

As you can see above, there is no party that received the min of 170 seats in parliament to form a majority government. The Liberal Party has the most number of seats, so they have won and will form a minority government. The way this has traditionally worked in the last generation or two is that rather than form an official coalition, the ruling party in a minority will align with other parties on an issue by issue basis as they bring new rules and laws into governance.

For example, the Liberals and the Conservatives both want the TMX pipeline to be built, but each of the other remaining opposing parties are against it, but the Liberals and the Conservatives can group together to form a majority on this issue and rule in its favour.

Similarly, the Liberals and the NDP/Green could agree on climate crisis regulations that the Conservatives would be against, and the Liberals and NDP/Green would form a majority for this issue.

Finally, for things that would benefit Quebec, the Liberals could align with the Bloc to form a majority and pass laws that help Quebec through this majority.

That's about it, for now.

wearing your sweater like a blanket

Not all of the past two posts, that started with the word 'So', needed to start that way. I should know.

I just filled out a survey in my town, and one of the questions was about the priority of putting high density housing near to the new REM stations. Two of the stations (Pointe-Claire and Des Sources) fall within my town.

Not only did I indicate on the quantitative question that this was a high priority, but in the comment box at the end I reiterated this, explaining that to reduce the number of cars on the road, the highest possible density (or higher still) should be built adjacent to, if not right on top of, the new stations. I also mentioned that what is built ought to be affordable housing, as so much that is being built around the city these days are 'luxury condo towers' that are all priced way out of the affordability of most people.

In another life I would have studied urban planning and worked for a city in this role; it interests me to quite a degree.

Election debate

So I watched most of the Federal Election's leader's debate last night.

From left to right on the stage:
Elizabeth May - leader of the Green Party of Canada
Justin Trudeau - leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (incumbent)
Andrew Scheer - leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (virtually tied in popularity with Trudeau)
Maxime Bernier - leader of the People's Party of Canada
Yves-François Blanchet - leader of the Bloc Québécois
Jagmeet Singh - leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada

There are a bunch of reviews about what happened throughout the debate from the various media pundits.

I didn't find that anything that was said swayed me at all.

The major issues of this election appear to be (in no meaningful order): Environment and Energy, Affordability, Indigenous Relations and the introduction of Pharmacare and possibly national dental care.

My particular number one priority is to see our national, provincial and municipal governments enact as may policies as possible, and aggressive ones, to combat the climate crisis.

Max Bernier insists that as a nation, we represent less than 2% of the emissions being made worldwide, so any reduction we make (at the cost of business competition losses) would be virtually meaningless.

Andrew Scheer wants to undo the Carbon Tax that the Trudeau government put in place; as far as I am concerned, the Carbon Tax needs to stay, and it needs to be far more aggressive in the price per tonne of GHG increases over the next few years.

The charge per GHG tonne as per the GHGPPA is as follows:
2019: 20$/tonne
2020: 30$
2021: 40$
2022: 50$

I'd like to see it go like this:
2019: 20$
2020: 40$
2021: 80$
2022: 160$

The GHG emission reduction targets of the LPC and the NDP are about the same, the Green's have doubled that target which means a far more aggressive societal change to get the reductions; and I'm all for that.

Climate March

So, Greta Thunberg came to the Montreal climate crisis protest on Friday, Sept 27. I took the day off work to also participate in the protest that claims in some places to have had ~320,000 people and in others, over half a million.

I got to the park on Park at around 10AM there weren't many people, perhaps a few hundred.

The first two examples of signs.

Though 'Change is now' isn't particularly meaningful; one of Greta's signature speech lines is that 'whether you like/know it or not, change is coming'.

I did not have my own sign, but I did walk around and see others.

I did happen to see Elizabeth May (Green Part of Canada leader) getting interview:

The march was supposed to start at around noon, but where I was standing, we only started moving at about 12h30. I, and others, did not follow the route exactly but did end up in the same place. Here are a few more photos.

Near the end of the march I found a spot in the shade where I could sit and see a screen that would show Greta's speech.

The sound system was working at first, just playing music from a local radio station. I got there at about 14h25 and the music played until about 15h15. Throughout this time, more and more people kept coming in and passing by me to continue to the destination. It was just amazing to see how many people were participating in this.
At about 15h15 the screen lit up with a performer on the stage; a person singing and playing their guitar. The sound system, however, was not producing any sound whatsoever. I stuck around for another half hour or so to see if this would get corrected; and it didn't. So I left, figuring that I would undoubtedly be able to listen to Greta's speech from home, later.



Not enough is being done by governments to put in policies that would combat the climate crisis. Individuals can do their part; however, there really won't be any global movement on emissions reductions without governmental action. We are in the midst of a Federal Election here in Canada, and only the Green Party of Canada has an aggressive enough target of CO2 reductions; the other left leaning parties are offering only half measures while the right-sided party is not convincing anyone they have a proper plan for any reductions.

I'd like to think that when V-8 starts high school, about 700 days from today, I'll be able to no longer be a car owner. All three of my kids will have transit passes by that time (as I have one) and so pretty much all of the driving that I do now I'd be able to stop. The occasional trip to Costco could be a transit there/Uber home; the once or twice a year car vacation could be a car rental. It helps that I am within walking distance of a grocery store; and for other shopping, an easy transit trip to a variety of shopping places. Of course there is also Amazon delivery, however, I'm not convinced that the delivery is great for the environment, so it is probably better if I just cut down on the acquisition of stuff.

Anyhow; if there is another well organized climate march on a Friday, I may consider going again. It is doubtful there would be as big of a turn out as for this one, many schools (high schools, CEGEPS, Universities) all closed for the afternoon; and Greta was here, so there were a number of factors that made it so that the turnout was exceptional.