Which Came First?

I dunno for for sure.

But I do know that I don't want to meet up with the chicken that laid these eggs.

When I first noticed these orb shaped structures in a back yard just outside the hamlet of Palermo, Ontario a few months back, I kept it to myself.

I feared that...

• a) No one would believe me
• b) That they would adjust my medication (again)
• c) That they were real, and would hatch and take over the world

Later, while I had someone else in the van, I asked them to look and see if they too saw the Giant Eggs of Palermo.

They did.

And so to discount the theory of mass hallucinations and experimental drugs, we took some pictures.

As you can see, these 'eggs' are around 10 feet in diameter and have some sort of hatch (no pun intended) near the bottom.

Your mission, Rocket Rangers, is to guess what they are, and what their purpose is.

Once I get enough submissions I will approach the home owner (while wearing a tinfoil hat to protect me from alien anti-matter) and find out what they are.

The correct or closest guess will win, oh I don't know, a secret decoder ring or some x-ray specs.

Live long and prosper.

DJW

DJ has never been abducted and probed by aliens.
That he knows of.
Yet.

'Scuse Me?

A story from Sun Media today describes the plight of some 85,000 people in Toronto, Ontario. These estimated 85,000 people are upset at Mayor David Miller because they are having a great deal of difficulty gaining access to Social Housing, Welfare, Health Care, Schools and better-than-minimum-wage jobs.

Yes, somewhere between the population of Niagara Falls (82,000) and Pickering (88,000) or, the combined population of Timmins and West Vancouver (source 2006 Census) are upset that they can't access the same Government run services as you and me.

Why not?

They are illegal immigrants.

I'm not making this up.

Eighty-Five Thousand Illegal Immigrants.

In Toronto alone.

Oh, it gets better. They have formed a coalition and are demanding the same rights as a person who was born here or who came here via the normal channels. They have a website, http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org , which has some very, shall we say, insightful reading.

Their list of 'demands' reads thus:

• An end to all deportations and detentions
• The implementation of a full and inclusive regularization program for all non-status people
• Access without fear to essential services for all undocumented people
• The recognition of indigenous sovereignty
• An end to the exploitation of temporary workers
• An end to all imperialist wars and occupations
• An end to the use of Security Certificates and secret trials

End all deportations? Sure. We will let you stay here, even if you are a criminal. It took me about 12 seconds on the net to find a story we hear often, "Gang Member Deported, Again". I am well aware that these cases are 1%ers, but, it floors me that we can't keep foreign born criminals out, yet natural born criminals can't get a passport to leave.

Secret trials? Well I suppose if we knew about them they wouldn't be secret.

I won't comment on the rest of the list of demands.

This is not just a local organization, it is international.

The basic principle is that if they make it here, they shouldn't need to go through all the proper channels and we shouldn't make them leave.

I am not against immigration, it is necessary to our survival as a country.

I am not against true refugees, I remember the Boat People.

A quick survey of a few friends revealed what we all know; that either themselves or their immediate ancestry were immigrants. Heck we all descended from people from other countries.

Among my immediate co-workers are both First and Second Generation Canadian's. Their families both came here after wars, and landed legally. My In-Laws did the same. My Great Grandfather on my Mother's side came over in the Potato Famine. My Great Uncle went to England for WWI, and married and found work, but still had to return to Canada and apply, and he was a British Subject!

I work with a man born in Angola, who came here for a better life for his family, escaping a bloody civil war. Should he be sent home? No. He went through all the proper channels and jumped through all the hoops. It takes a lot of guts to uproot your family, but to him it was well worth it.

According to this Organization, all he should have had to do was get here.

He should feel cheated.

We all should feel cheated.

DJW

Why? Updated

I have been trying to find a reason.

I want to have words of comfort.

I want to know where fairness is.

I cannot find any rational explanation why cancer had to take a 5 year old.

Farewell Caitlin.

In your short time you inspired and touched so many with your courage and spirit.

Rest in peace.

There has been a trust fund account set up to buy medical equipment for Mac Master Children's Hospital in Caitlin's name. Donations may be made at any Scotiabank in the name of Caitlin Hutson.

Work Hazards

Why it takes me so long to create a blog....




Not the kind of mouse we'd hope he would go after!

DJW

...if your computer has mice, Orfeo will take care of them!

While The Mice Are Away....

...The cats will play!

He he he.

Lets set the mood, shall we...

Its a relaxingly warm winter afternoon.

Both kids are out. Till late.

My Darling Bride gives me that special look and motions to the living room.

I get her oh-so-subtle hint and break out the vinyl.

You heard right. Vinyl.

We have a vinyl fetish of sorts. > ;-)~

The Rumours that I'm a Supertramp on 52nd Street are all True.

For dinner, we will dine on Shaved Fish and American Pie.

Later, at The Turn of a Friendly Card, we'll head out to Honky Chateau for a Second Helping.

Nothing compares to the vinyl experience.

With a 10 disc changer in my car, I can drive to Montreal and half way back and not hear the same song twice. We have enough CD's in the house to start a small, eclectic radio station. And with four hard drives in the house, it is entirely possible we could play 24/7 for a few weeks.

But an LP was an experience. With only eighteen minutes a side, the artist had very little time to capture your imagination, draw you in and keep you there. While Sgt. Pepper's and Tommy were basically rock musicals cast in plastic, landmark theme albums like Aqualung broke the mold.

While CD's and mp3's may have sound superiority and durability over vinyl, what they do not have is art. Each LP had at least 2 square feet of canvass to work with, twice as much if it was a double or folded album, and the art was worth half the money.

Who didn't have Led Zep IV , Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Queen's News of the World, Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell or Uriah Heep's Magicians Birthday on their bedroom wall. Lets not forget The Cars! Candy O and Heartbeat City were as good as swiping your Dad's old Playboy's, with cover art by the venerable Vargas of Playboy and Esquire fame.

I hear that vinyl is making a comeback, driven by DJ's and the want for house music, but alas, its not the same. Today they are just a collection of songs, concept albums like In Search of the Lost Chord, Ziggy Stardust and The Wall just don't come out anymore.

These are truly the Days of Future Passed for us Vinylphiles.

If you started reading this blog thinking it was about something naughty, I'm sorry for the Cheap Trick.

DJW

DJ admits to having 2 K-Tel ablums, e-mail to find out what.

Here we go again.

The Ontario Legislature has passed yet another unenforceable, un-needed law.

Bill 69, an act to protect children from second-hand tobacco smoke in motor vehicles by amending the Smoke-Free Ontario Act has come into effect.

What this law basically states is that you are not allowed to smoke in cars with children under the age of 16.

Apparently, if you are over 16, you are immune to second hand smoke.

My beef of this law is not the wording or concept, but the enforceability. I can see it becoming nothing more than a nuisance call for police.

Here is my (hopefully) imaginary call...

Operator: "Nine-one-one do you require Police, Fire or Ambulance?"

Caller:"Police, and quickly!

O:"What's the problem, Sir?"

C:"There's a guy driving west on East Street, just past North Ave. and he's smoking, and he has kids in the car!"

O:"That is a problem, Sir. I have two Officers in the area. Can you stay with him?"

C:"You should also know he's talking on a handset cellphone!"

O:"The Scofflaw! O.K. I've alerted the S.W.A.T. Team, they're on the way!"

C:"And...are you ready for this? There is a pillow clearly visible in the back window, and would you believe that the 'DO NOT REMOVE UNDER PENALTY OF LAW' tag has been torn off?"

O:"The chopper is in the air..."

O.K. so I went a bit overboard.

Maybe.

I am just so darned proud that there are people in my Government that are spending a lot of time and effort on these real issues instead of wasting themselves on trivial matters like, oh I don't know, LAND CLAIMS? Or justice reform? Or Senior Citizens living in poverty?

A wise man once said, "The State has no business in the bedrooms of the Nation."

Oh wait, that was a Politician.

A pretty big one too if I recall.

DJW

DJ was smoking when he typed this. Hopefully that's still legal.

Have you ever....

...tried pricing building supplies online?

I don't mean low voltage lighting or sinks or designer toilets.

I mean for lumber, roofing, windows, you know, the stuff you actually build stuff with.

If you have, then you know my frustration with trying to price out what it will cost me to replace my roof.

It's not like I live in some backwoods, backwards town where there is only one lumberyard, and they know you by name. Where I live we have all the major players; Home Depot, Lowes, Home Building Center, Rona/Cashway, and a regional chain, Turkstra. So pricing a job in this, the age of Google, should be as easy as accessing a website and searching for a product, right?

Wrong. I can get prices for roofing tar and plywood clips, but not for roofing or plywood.

So, I have to estimate how much of each component I need, write it all down, then trundle off to my local building supply store, choosing either Big Box or Big Bux.

I have to find the material I want, jot down the price per sheet/foot/piece.Then I calculate the extended price at each store before I make my choice.

But wait there's more...

...because I want metal roofing, I can't even calculate it for myself. They don't post the prices of that stuff on the wall, to get prices you have to seek out an 'Associate' (that always makes me think of a bad mob movie, "Yo, I'm Vinny an dis is my associate, Guido.")

So, because I'm paying for this work myself (for the reason why, read this), and I don't want to spend any more than I have to, I need to repeat this process at every store.

The kick of this all is two fold:

• most of them have a price match system, where they will match the prices of their competition, and
• the 'Associates' have to punch up the prices on their own computers.

So why can't they link their databases to their websites? It would save a lot of time for us do-it-yourselfers.

If the retailers are forcing me to go traipsing about the town to get prices to save a buck on one thing and two bucks on another, that's how I'm going to buy it too. I'll buy the plywood at the store with the best price, the roofing at another store, soffit and fascia at another, eaves trough at the other guy and so on.

And I'll arrange for delivery from them all on the same day.

It's not like I live in some backwoods, backwards town where there is only one lumberyard, and they know you by name.

But if I did, it would go like this, "Fred? It's D.J. Yep, the girls are great. How's your boy? Good. listen, I need a new roof. Make it metal, green, 18 gauge. 10 square. 1/2" Sheathing, 125 feet of soffit and fascia, and 50 feet of eaves trough, 4 downspouts. Oh, and 25' of ridge vent. Yup, I'll be home Saturday before noon. Great, see ya at darts on Tuesday."

DJW

Don't get me started on pricing car parts on-line.