Prime Minister Harper: One Big Mistake

       For non Canadian followers you are welcome to skip this post as it is on Canadian politics.

       I very seldom comment on politics , but there comes a time when one has to speak out.

       I am very angry with Prime Minister Steven Harper. Steven Harper has some tremendous difficulties when it comes to communication. He evades questions. His answers are not connected to the question. He changes answers. This guy is a very poor communicator. Harper seems to think that by talking mumbo jumbo he fools people and can go on with his debatable policies. With the senate scandal, Harper has dodged, evaded and ignored question after question. He's provided no evidence. At least Duffy is coming up with emails and telling more about the issue. It's hard to believe someone who is extremely limited in his communication abilities.

      There are other issues where Steven Harper's credibility is severely stretched. Since the last general election there have been two issues that have been worrisome. Some of the Conservative candidates election spending has been over what is allowed. The Labrador Conservative member overspent his budget, resigned and was defeated in a bye election. Others have been accused of over spending and are fighting and delaying the issues as much as possible. Robo calls were done during the election to misinform voters. Those robo calls have a direct link to Steven Harper's party. Again the Harper party is delaying as much as they possibly can to provide evidence that is being requested by Elections Canada.

     I have watched with dismay the way Harper has treated our veterans. We have Afghan veterans who need support and treatment. They are being drummed out of the army as soon as possible so that the Conservative government doesn't have to pay for treatment or support. These veterans are given a lump sum payment and off they go. How mean and inconsiderate can you get?

    I expect to hear straight , honest talk from a Prime Minister. Is that too much to ask? I thought it should come with the territory.

    Steven Harper very seldom talks to the press. He limits conferences to five chosen questions. Is Steven Harper not confident enough to support his position? Is he showing a weakness? 

    It would seem to me that any Prime Minister has everything to gain and nothing to lose by open ,direct , and clear communication.

   I can no longer believe anything from This Prime Minister.

    I also find it unbelievable that the prime Minister's Office will find this little blog and check what I am saying?

A Blog Problem

    I have recently had a blog problem. 

    Some of my followers, and maybe all of you seem to get a batch of my posts all at once. One person reported receiving three, another 6 and another 7. I think many people have been receiving the posts normally as far as I can tell from comments. Some comments came after each post was posted. It's a mystery to me as to why this happens. Is it my computer? Is it blogger? How do I fix this?

    I wouldn't send out many posts at one time. I'm sure followers wouldn't like that . So my apologies to those who received a lot of posts at once.

    If anybody knows anything about this problem let me know. There might be something I can do to prevent the big batches being sent out. Has anybody else had the same problem?

Remembrance

      Tomorrow is Remembrance Day in Canada. Many communities will be having various events to remember a variety of things.

     It's important to stop and remember that thousands of lives were lost in the two world wars and numerous little wars that go on all the time. I try to think of the of individuals who died. I can remember people who I knew. Many people cannot make a similar connection today but they can certainly pick individuals they didn't know and stop for a moment and try to remember what they were like. I think it's important to remember the brave individuals who lost their lives in battle.

    It's necessary to stop and think about the freedom we have and what it cost. We must maintain that freedom for those who fought and for ourselves. Having read some history, it must have been very scary that in the second World War things went well for Hitler.

    It's valuable to stop and think about the awfulness of war. This year we've had stories in our local papers and the old vets tell about how afraid they were . It took bravery to face the danger and it takes courage to admit  fears.

   The older I get the more meaningful remembrance becomes. I do not attend formal ceremonies. I prefer to be by myself and quietly remember and hope that our remembrance will go a long way to improve our world.

The Runaround

     Like many people I have had a security light at my front door for a few years. For the last two years it would come on often ans stay on for for five or ten minutes. So I turned the light off. A few nights ago when it was Halloween, I wanted a light on so the kids could see where they're going. The light wouldn't come on.

    So it's time to get a new light.

     There was a ten year warranty on this light. My manager keeps all receipts and product information. So the next day she phoned the outlet we bought the light from. For most products, like lights, you take them back to the store and  get a new one.

     Now starts the runaround. She phoned the store. After a few false starts she finally got to customer service. The Bozo told her the store didn't exchange these lights and she would have to deal with the company. So he gave her a phone number that was wrong. We looked on the product booklet and found a number. Again runaround. You get one person and get put on hold and the line goes dead. Phone back again and somebody acts really dumb. Phone back again and get warranty. They say they don't look after this and you have to go to the technicians. Okay , the technicians say yes they look after warranty. The technician wanted us to put black tape over some eye and try it for a week and if it worked he would send us a gizmo for a permanent fix. If it didn't work, he'd give us a new one.

     Then my manager looked at the warranty again and it said , "Take the product back to the store for an exchange." So phone back to the store with the lousy phone system. This time customer service put her through to electrical. The person in electrical said, "Sure, they'd exchange. Just bring it in." 

   So after a couple of 8 hour days work we finally got our security light exchanged.

    The product had a nice fat ten year warranty. I really think the companies work on the theory that the customer will not look at the warranty and when the product quits the customer will go out and buy a new one.

    What a runaround!

    Have you had similar problems with stores, phone systems or warranties?

Potato Soup for the Cold

      Yes, I'm making soup again! It's cold out here and some nice warm soup would be very comforting.

       So two kind neighbors gave me potatoes a while ago. What do you do when you have lots of potatoes? Make soup!

       I don't have my own potato soup recipe or Grandma's recipe so I go straight to the net and find something that sounds good. I soon found out that there are hundreds of potato soup recipes. Potato soup is made all over the world. One site divided the soups into three categories: simple, hot and creamy. You can guess that I made a selection out of the first group. My favorite potato soup would be creamed but I don't want to mess around with milk and flour. Maybe next time for a creamy potato soup.

There's just a little bite to this soup

What a Blast!

     We had a very serious introduction to winter here this weekend. Light snow started falling about 10:00 AM Sat.  By 3:00 PM heavy wet snow was falling. We came home around 4 and shoveled before we went in the house. We shoveled again about 6:30 PM. I should have shoveled about 8 or 9. It snowed very heavily all night. Sun morning I started shoveling the wet snow. It was brutal. A neighbor across the street rescued me when he brought his snow blower over and  finished the job for me.

    We got about 30 cm (12 in.) of snow. For us that us a major snow fall. Most of our snowfalls are an inch or two.

    So we are ready for a white Christmas!

The tree is the same. The photo on the bottom was taken at night and the one on the top in the day.

Lilac at night full of snow.

My little birch with street light glare behind it.

There's a mugo pine under there!

Snow sculpture on the side of a car.

A heavily loaded bird feeder.

A huge spruce branch across the alley

    So this storm was a real blast! Usually I send my snow to Minnesota to Far Side of Fifty. This time it's not going to Minnesota as it seems to die out around the Alberta/Saskatchewan border.

     Oh, I didn't learn anything about taking pictures of snow at the night. I did get some snowflakes!

Book Review: To See Every Bird on Earth

      Sometimes you read a book That really gets your attention. Recently I read "To See Every Bird on Earth" by Dan Koeppel. This is a biography of Dan's dad, Richard, and it's told in an interesting way. 

     Dan's father first became interested in birds when he was twelve. For the rest of his life  revolved around birds.

     Dan's father, Richard had a difficult family situation. His parents wanted him to become a doctor from the time he was born. Richard was torn between pleasing his parents and wanting to do something else in his life. Over time he completed a medical degree. 

    Richard was a youth during the 50's and 60's and participated in the hippie culture. Richard married and had two children but the relationship was a failure and was a failure after the separation as well. 

    As a result of great unhappiness Richard turned to birds. In fact he became obsessed with birds. Richard was a lister. This means that all he wanted to do is make a list of birds. His goal was to see all the birds on earth.

    Dan Koeppel takes us through the world of bird listers as he tells us about his father. He compares his father to other listers and explains why his father was a successful lister. Richard saw and listed over 7000 birds. 

    Dan Koeppel spares no details as he describes the completely chaotic family relationship. It was a challenge for all of them. His father Richard gradually followed his bird listing hobby until it was a full time obsession.

    So I found this biography interesting as it covered my interest in birds , explained the world of bird listers and told about the challenges in life one individual faced.

    I enjoyed the book . If you like birds or stories that are told , warts and all, this is the book for you.

    Simon Winchester has a quote on the front cover. I've read 7 of Winchester's books so if Simon Winchester liked this one I thought it was a good recommendation.