Down South...

I hear people talking about what a waste of time it is to travel south, let's say to an Island - Dominican, Cuba, Turks, etc during the summer time. Indeed it is pretty warm up here, temps reaching into the high 80's plus the humidex, why would you want to travel down there rather than enjoy the temps at home?

Then I think - why are you judging your "vacation" solely on temperature? I can tell you that when I went to Aruba, the wind is always blowing, making it very comfortable. In the Dominican, Puerto Plata, you have a nice breeze from the Atlantic Ocean and while it might be humid, you have pools and the ocean to cool off. It is really no different in temps except that it does not cool down as much during the evening. Yes, A/C is a must.

But the point is, your on vacation. All-inclusive, free food, drinks, entertainment, relaxation.

And consider this - if people are in the mindset that it's just as warm up here so don't bother going south? Sure. Now, look at package prices......change your mind?

Patience

One of the reasons why I have stayed clear of this blog is because of some "less than negative" feedback that I have received in regards to my hobbies and subject content.

Obviously I am concerned about my own best interests but then I received information today about a fellow who has taken ill and may not be around much longer - something that really means something to me because as I see it, life is very precious, regardless of your age, culture, creed, religion.

The point is, my blog - Onwards we Travel, means just that. Your journey. It's a portal to explore everything, no matter how good or bad and have it brought to your attention.

Perhaps I did not need to even make this post; I should have just dove in with my ramblings, but it strikes a chord with me; Yesterday was Rememberance day and some stuff happened that really shook us up.

Reality check for a moment???? Yup we are still human. If anything, we just need to work on our patience. Patience that will one day prove that things will work out.

We should know better......

Do you think that one could be wicked enough to portray the morals of a decent human being while doing the exact opposite, hidden from the public eye? If there is a hint of the word "Politician" then yeah, you are probably getting what I mean. Lots of others in that same category are out there too but the list is too long to make it worthwhile posting.

So what sort of pickle is up my ass that makes me write about this tonight? Lot of stuff going on in the world today and I come home to find out that I am part of that world. You know, you look at that 32" square box called SONY and think yeah, ok cool - move along to the next thing. You dont realize that some of the stuff it spits out affects YOU.

The Lehman brothers story was shown on the Fifth Estate on CBC. A good show and a great documentary. I cannot say that I was directly involved with the issues, I mean, they are bankrupt and Barclay's has taken them over, but the thing is, when an empire gets that large, that powerful - to the point that it affects the US housing market across the nation, ultimately affecting inflation, wages, bankruptcies, interest rates, pretty much ALL the fabric of society, we look down, we are embarrassed and no doubt ashamed. But we shouldn't be.

This regime, like many others, was permitted to operate in the USA and Canada without enough government and policy intervention to restrict and expose the real intentions that were in force and of "good faith". It was happening while we slept. Money being stolen from the coffers of every good employee who had to pull a couple of overtime shifts to cover the doubled mortgage payment due to "interest rate increases" or a "change to your terms and conditions".

If you know me, you'll know that I don't even live in the States. Nice place but it's not the place for me. I already have my roots set and aside from winning the lottery and bailing out to a nice peaceful refuge I'm here for the long run.

But here is the thing. Canada and the US are hooked together so closely in the financial scheme of things that we just take the day to day as "well this is what is happening in North America". Yeah, we are the western civilization. More notably, we are becoming a nation of people who raise their voice at the TV about a proposed hike or a foreclosure, but I'm certainly waging a bet that you won't be at the "associated protest" a week later, if there is one. Lazy fucks.

Money spells convenience. What is it worth to you? If you heard on the evening news that the city was going to charge an extra 75c to pickup your garbage, you would be outraged!!! In fact, the verbage would probably be something like "those god damn poeple cant do this, I pay my god-damn taxes and they go and do this?" After that, you'll still be pissed but it will wear off - quickly - in most cases by the next day, or maybe sooner - You might be distracted by the pizza guy at the door or your burgers on the grill, but thats it......You get your tax bill a few weeks later and there is that 75c charge. Big deal. You pay it - like nothing happened.

You just supported infrastructure. Its one of those mystical words and I hear that if people say it too many times they explode. LOL. The extra 75c might not even go into the garbage pickup but it's in the hands of the people who are going to invest it and move it around to make it work for them.....Because of the shitheads like the Lehman Brothers; investments and the like are now being created, explored and worked with. Remember, US & Canadian investments were closely related so LB closing down had some pretty intense response from Canada.

And the garbage pickup thing - it was an example, but it also goes to show you how we are so fluid with our day to day life and just the mere fact that we accept that we have to pay more and do so. Where is that money going? Look at your options. Just "look" in general. We have been blind for so long. Time to open our eyes.

J

Deal with it

As I stand in the checkout line of Walmart waiting to pay for one of those "insane" deals only makes me realize that after fuel & time did not make it worth the deal. At all.

It makes me wonder about how many other times a seemingly great deal ends up costing us more in the long run. I remember quite a number of years ago, I saw a small boat motor for sale in Peterborough. At the time I lived about 45 minutes north or Toronto and so just the driving time alone would be at least 2 - 3 hours to go pick this thing up. And then there is the return trip. So in reality, I would have spent about $25 in fuel and of course my time to pickup something that retailed for about $50 cheaper than other places. Why did I feel it was worth it? I think it is partially because I felt that I "found the deal" and I wanted to take advantage of it. It was mine for the taking. If people ask, I could say "Hey, I got this boat motor for this much money! And they may look in awe but the fact is, it cost me a lot more than what I mentioned, all summed up.

There are GOOD deals out there. Many times they are few and far between. Can't do much but sit and wait for them to happen, or perhaps you could be proactive and look for them, but it begins into that vicious cycle again---lump in the time you spent looking for the deal into the final cost of the deal. It might not end up being a deal at all!!

What....the....hell?????

I don't ask for much from fellow motorists around me when I'm driving. I mean, if you want to blare your stereo or have your girlfriend hanging their feet out the passenger window, fine. Whatever turns your crank and I really don't give a crap. Then, today, out of the blue, this fellow beside me pulled right up to the bumper of the car in front of it. The light turned green and as soon as it did so the guy tapped his horn. Being about 6 or 7 cars back from the intersection, didn't start moving for a few seconds after it turned green and that it absolutely obvious, but the chap insisted on taping on his horn.

First thought - he did it by accident. I drop it, went about listening to my music. Next intersection - my god, the same thing???

Now things like this shouldn't irritate me,but it did. This fellow was an obsessive lane-changer who was trying to jockey his way to the front of the rolling crowd not realizing that it's rush hour on our way out of the city and it's not really going to be possible.

And so he ended up behind me. Not sure how, I wasn't in any real hurry but I deducted that he was just being stupid with some of his traffic moves as I later noted, which really were idiotic.

And here we are, approaching a light turning yellow. I slow down but I think he was expecting me to run it because he certainly wanted to and almost ended up eating my bumper.

The light turned green and no sooner had it done so that he taped on his horn. I paused for a moment then began to move ahead. He noticed a gap between cars and shot into the other lane to try and overtake me. That's fine, I have to pull onto this on-ramp anyways to catch the highway and as I did so, he pull across 2 lanes of traffic and hit the gas to try and merge in front of me on the ramp, but it was like it was happening in slow motion because his movements were so predictable. I continued on the ramp and I knew he wasn't going to make it without having to slam on his brakes and fall in behind me otherwise he would have hit the median. And that is exactly what happened. At the last minute you could see the nose of the car dive down as he hit the brakes then he swung in right behind me.

We entered the highway and as I expected he swung right out into the middle lane of the highway will pulling away and a pretty good speed and so I left it at that. Then I saw him pull into the far left lane (the "hammer" lane) and he probably felt good about the fact that he was passing everyone and whatever he had on the go, well he might just make it on time. I guess it was that pride and joy - the satisfaction of knowing that you are making headway that also makes you lose sit of the fact that you just fu**ed up. He flew right onto the 407 Toll which consists of barriers so he cant swing across the lanes to get onto the regular highway where I was. The only thing you can do is pull onto the shoulder and backup to where the split begins. Except that is illegal and dangerous as hell, but hey, maybe he will just honk his horn... LOL....

I guess it's proof that patience and keeping you cool pays off because I know that I was ahead of him and yet I was driving normally. Refreshing.