I’ve Moved!

For some time, I have had problems logging in, creating posts, and editing posts in WordPress using Safari, FireFox, and Chrome.  I experience this same glitch even on my iPad.  It has been narrowed down to the fact that the problem is on the WordPress side of things as this occurs on others’ computers when I try to log in to WordPress.

Therefore, I have made a new home for my blog over at Blogger.  The actual URL is:

http://rosalindwent.blogspot.com

Hope to see you there, and hope you change your browser’s bookmark to reflect this move.

Ontario’s Farcical Family Day

Dalton's Hypocrisy Meter

So comes the end of another Ontario Family Day, introduced by Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal Government a few short years ago.  Unfortunately, only select Ontarians are entitled to this public holiday, and my family isn’t in that Liberal-following crowd.

I find it absurd, to tell you the truth, that in the Family Day FAQ, found at the Ontario Ministry of Labour’s website, there is a line that reads, “Ontario’s economy is strong enough to accommodate another public holiday.”

With the Drummond Report released this past Wednesday, I find it yet another example of Delusional Dalton’s blowing of smoke.

It boggles my mind, it really does, that Ontarians voted for this man again, as he continues to steer this province on a downward spiral towards financial catastrophe.  But like the proverbial elephant in the middle of the room, no one seems to be talking about the fiscal destruction – implosion - of this province now that everyone has seen the real numbers, not the ones Dalton and Dwight pull out of the air at whim.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the Family Day FAQ:

What will be the benefits to employees to have this extra public holiday?

Generally speaking, most employees will get a day off with pay enabling them to spend time with their family and loved ones.

It will also give employees a day off between New Year’s Day and Easter, which is a long period of time in which people need a rest.

How will the additional public holiday affect business and the economy?

Ontario’s economy is strong enough to accommodate an extra public holiday.

While there may be some initial impact on productivity, that will likely be made up when employees return to work.

Employees who get time off may work even harder when they are back on the job.

There is good reason to believe a mid-winter holiday may spark an increase in industries such as tourism and entertainment/leisure.

By the way, you’ll notice that in the second paragraph, the word, may, is the operative word.  ”Employees may work even harder…”  “May spark an increase…”

May is a biggie.

I have to ask myself:  Who are these people who are paid good money to sit around and think up these answers?  Did they break up into small groups like we all did in primary school and then come back with the team’s answers?  Did they actually believe this claptrap when they wrote it, thinking that Ontarians are so gullible that they’d believe Dalton actually wanted us to have a day to spend with our family and it really wasn’t a last minute election promise to garner votes?  Sadly, too many Ontarians were indeed that gullible because he’s back in power again.

I’ve got to tell you that I just can’t understand why anyone would vote for this man after he’s driven us to the edge of financial ruin, broken so many promises, and raised taxes numerous times after vowing he never would.  (See YouTube video in earlier post.)

He makes former NDPer Bob Rae look like a financial genius.

Only YOU can put the ‘worthwhile’ into social media

Almost all of my friends are on either Facebook or Twitter.  Facebook, for all the abuse it takes(!) can be a marvellous and invaluable app for keeping in touch if used properly.

On the other hand, it can be post after post of boring nothingness.

I’ve been a part of the world of computers since the early 1980s, when word processors were the thing in offices.  Forget homes, microcomputers wouldn’t be making their way to home desktops for quite some time. I remember writing an article back in the mid ’90s for a computer publication on the growing number of email users and urging people to get an email address to stay in touch with others.

It seems almost ludicrous now to think that email was not a widespread application used on PCs at that time.  Back then it was clunky, and after using a number of email clients, I settled in with Outlook Express. Only a handful of my friends at that point had an email address and it was difficult for some of them to readily adopt it.

Fast forward to today and we can’t begin to imagine what we’d do without email.

I went on Facebook about three or so years ago, lasted a few weeks, got fed up, then deactivated my account.  It wasn’t long before I realized that I missed seeing what everyone was up to and I signed back in.  I’ve been back on Facebook ever since.

The good part about Facebook – at least for me – is that I am in touch with my very large family in Wales, with most of my cousins, or their spouses, and children.  Though I haven’t seen them in years, I can now keep up with their daily goings-on and see pictures and video instantly.

What I don’t like about Facebook is the vacuous commentary that sometimes goes on, but we’re all guilty of it at some time or another.   One of the fun times I had on Facebook was just in December when my husband and I sailed on the Queen Mary 2 out of Southampton into some very dirty weather on the Atlantic.  The British SIM card I’d bought for my iPhone 4 allowed me to hook into British cell connections well into the next day.  I gave frequent updates through that first evening of gale force conditions, and into the next morning.  It was instantaneous and all my Facebook ‘friends’ were able to keep abreast of our journey, their replies instantaneous – and humourous – too.

Recently, I’ve used Facebook for more important endeavours, like re-posting unwanted (Lincoln County Humane Society, Niagara Falls Humane Society and Beamsville Rescue) dogs and cats on my FB wall.  With the FB share button, any of my friends can – with one click – share that same post on their wall, and on it goes.  One post about one animal reaching hundreds of viewers on Facebook very quickly.

This is when Facebook is at its best, at least for me.  There’s a certain amount of satisfaction that you’re doing something worthwhile with social media in a time when it can be shallow and meaningless. Likewise, with Twitter.  But tweet about one of these unwanted animals and others can re-tweet, again, reaching their Twitter contacts.  Suddenly, meaningless turns into importance, by the sheer number of contacts one tweet reaches.

I am counting on this blog, Facebook and Twitter to assist me with finding these homeless dogs and cats good homes.  The two I am rallying for at the moment are Fatima the German Shepherd, and Leo, the hapless little fellow who is also looking for a home and a trusted owner.

I am lucky – fortunate – to have friends on Facebook, especially, who are equally determined to find these two dogs a home.  Right now, both of these dogs’ write-ups have been posted and re-posted on FB and tweeted and re-tweeted on Twitter.  If you have a Twitter account, please help by re-tweeting for these two.

I’m looking forward to the day when I can write here that both Fatima and Leo have been adopted.

A special little dog: Nine-month-old Leo

Leo

While I wanted to put up one cat and one dog weekly from our local shelters to highlight them in hopes of finding their ‘furrever’ homes, this one is a special case.  This little guy is only nine months old and already has gone through hell and back.

He is in Beamsville, Ontario (between Niagara Falls and Toronto) at the Beamsville Animal Rescue.  Here is his write-up:

He is nine months old and doesn’t know how to play. He hardly wags his tail and is just learning what affection is. If only he could tell us the hardship he has endured until now. The scars are deep but within time this lil guy will come around and be ready for his loving forever home! Kudos to Sandy for having a huge heart for these guys in need ♥

If you know of anyone who would be able to give Leo a good, caring home, please contact the Beamsville Rescue here:

Beamsville Rescue 

or see their page on Facebook.

Gotta love Home Depot

You might recall me mentioning when daughter #1 was in New Zealand in late January that she asked me to repaint her room while she was away.  Well, not only did I repaint the room, but we hauled up the carpet and laid new hardwood, as well.  Thankfully, that’s one more room in the house that is DONE.

Typically, when you do one thing as far as renovations go, it only makes something else in the house look worn and out-of-date, so this week we picked up another nine boxes of maple hardwood for the living room, which sits in our old mini-van, formerly known as the dog-mobile because we kept it for our old dog, Cubby, who, sadly, we had to euthanize three weeks ago.  Now we keep it for hauling all and sundry.

The new hardwood is for the living room, where I sit now.  After our contractor, and friend, Paul, arrived this afternoon to measure up the kitchen for the new backsplash in the kitchen, we decided that next Saturday will be the day to lay the hardwood in here.

We’ve been putting off this task because we have a piano in the living room, which is going to our daughter’s best friend’s house at the end of March, when her parents move house and two pianos (theirs and ours) were going to be moved together.  Yes, the flooring was dependent on the piano move, which was dependent on the house move.

Finally, I said, to hell with the piano, let’s just move it into the hall and get on with the flooring.

My husband, Paul, and I just made a trip to Home Depot where we chose the new backsplash (I can’t tell you how many samples of glass I have looked at in the last two weeks…).  Anyway, the choice was made, finally.  I am happy to announce, though no one else will give a damn, that the carpet I have despised for years will be ripped out of this living room on Thursday, five days from now, and the new hardwood will go in next Saturday.  Piano?  Couldn’t wait until the end of March, so the piano will be inched closer to the front door, taking up temporary residence in the hallway until our friends move house and the pianos will be transported.

I am currently thanking the furniture gods.

In the meantime, two new area rugs were bought this week – one for the family room and one smaller one for this living room.  I tell myself that in just over a week the renovations will be done and I won’t have to think about this any more.

As for Home Depot, I would love to work there, happily donning one of those orange aprons.  I wish I knew more about home renovations, having the ability to do all these things myself.  I admire people who are talented  that way – like my brother-in-law, but he lives in New Zealand.  At best, I am a good painter of rooms, but I would be quite content to know how to do other things like laying floors, tiling, grouting, etc.  A friend of mine, a university professor, is quite adept at so many things she astonishes me.  I arrived at her charming house one morning to find her happily tiling and grouting.  She never ceases to amaze me.

Maybe I should stop talking about wanting to do all this and just learn how to do more of these skills.

Update on our rescued kitten

Willy, just waking up.

For those of you not familiar, we are a household that enjoys the company of pets in the way of cats, now that our two Labrador Retrievers have passed away.

All of our cats were rescues in one form or another, the latest being our almost ten-month-old kitten, Willy.  He was spotted last June from one of our bedroom windows that looks out over our neighbours’ garden; all alone, he was a tiny thing (four weeks old) struggling to clamber over large cement blocks in the heat and humidity of a Niagara summer.

About fifteen minutes after that first sighting we managed to find him in amongst tall grass – it’s astonishing how agile even four-week-old kittens can be when they don’t want to be found.

While I won’t go into the whole ordeal here, as I’m sure I’ve written about it before, Willy is the most playful cat we have ever owned and, while he sometimes annoys his siblings, two of them usually end up playing with him, one of those practically all the time.  She’s a feisty, three-year-old Calico (Jinx) and they’ve become the best of friends.  In other words, she can keep up with him and they have regular races throughout the house.

I’ve added the photo of Willy here for you to see how he’s progressed from a waif-like little creature to the Boy Wonder (I know, I know, but anyone with pets end up giving them nicknames or variations on their names…).  He likes to sleep on his back sometimes, with his hind legs up against the back of the couch.  Though, having said that, he’s fast asleep behind me, curled up on the top of the cushions on another couch here in the living room, near the window.

My friend, Chris, and I were discussing animals during lunch this week.  She and her husband are very involved in animal rescue and welfare.  We both can’t imagine a home without at least one pet, because the joy that these cats and dogs bring is indescribable.  And it’s true what is often said:  if you’re in a bad mood, they tend to calm you down, but more importantly, they have an uncanny ability to put life into perspective.  If you’re feeling down and blah, they have a way of cheering you up.

One of my best friends just adopted another cat from the Lincoln County Humane Society’s successful Adopt-a-Thon last weekend. I went to visit her yesterday and was amazed at how calm this less-than-one-year-old cat is, even being adopted into a family where there are two other cats.  One can tell at a glance that there won’t be any issues.  All three cats are content, as is their owner.

If you are not the sort of person who wants to share your home with pets, please suggest to those who do that they consider adopting an animal from a rescue site or animal shelter, instead of buying from breeders.  There are far too many unwanted animals out there who already need homes.

 

 

Use social media to help save an unwanted animal

For writers, blogging is not only enjoyable, but is a great creative outlet, not to mention a perfect place to vent any frustrations.  (See my political rants!)

To sit down and write, along with a cup of coffee and surrounded by our cats, is a pleasurable way for me to spend time. Hopefully, what I write, my strong opinions and all, gives others some form of enjoyment, amusement, and cause to ponder issues that one person in the blogosphere (that’s the first time I’ve ever used that term) writes on one small MacBook Air screen, yet can be read by so many others.

This week I was extremely angered and frustrated by the Don Drummond report that was handed down on Wednesday.  I live in Ontario, Canada, and this report affects me, as it does all Ontarians.  I am angry that our provincial government is so careless with taxpayers’ money, and so unaccountable.  As you can tell, I was, to put it mildly, livid, when I read of the enormous amount of debt – and deficit – this premier has saddled us with.

Of course, if you live elsewhere, it will no doubt bore you no end.  For that, I apologize, but this is my blog, after all, and I do have regular local readers and it affects them too.  Some of my friends are unable to express their opinions for various reasons, but I’ve never had qualms making my opinions known and this blog, as I wrote earlier, is the most efficient way of getting things ‘out there.’

Apart from my anger with Dalton McGuinty, an important issue for me this week is finding a good home for an aging German Shepherd dog who has been in our local Niagara animal shelters since last October.  Two dedicated shelter volunteers have told me about her and how she is in desperate need of a home.

Sadly, many people do not want older animals, especially animals with health issues, preferring instead puppies or kittens.  After having two Labrador Retrievers (brothers from the same litter in May 2000), one who died in 2008 and the other who died twenty-four days ago, I know first-hand what looking after dogs requires.

Both our dogs had diabetes, which caused blindness in Cubby, the one we just lost.  For years we looked after both of them without question, never entering our minds to just dump them off because they were aging or ill.  Neither dog lost his vitality until the very end.  Cubby suffered from blindness, arthritis, diabetes, and eventually lung cancer.   I refused to put him through any more once the lung cancer was diagnosed, and he had been a happy, energetic, overgrown puppy ’til about a week before he was euthanized.

I am pleased that my Tweets have been re-tweeted today trying to help find Fatima a home.  There are plenty of good, caring people out there and one of them might just see a tweet, a blog post, a Facebook post, and adopt her, or know of someone who would like to adopt her.  This is where social media excels.

I am planning on posting at least one dog and cat on my blog per week that is in dire need of a home.  I will keep in touch with the shelters and ask which ones have been there the longest.  It’s so easy for us writers to do this and if you care for animals, it’s something that we can all do to ‘do our bit.’

Help Fatima find a forever home

**This following post appeared in an issue of Niagara this Week.  Please click here to see the original at that site.

If you are able, I would ask you to please Tweet this post or repost it for others to see so that Fatima can find a good home to live out the rest of her years.  Thank you.

Fatima, Photo by Virginia MacDonald

Homeward Bound Fatima will need to be the only pet in her forever home Homeward Bound.

Fatima is a stray that came to the Niagara Falls via the Lincoln County Humane Society.

The Niagara Falls Humane Society treats all animals with the care, respect and compassion they deserve. Finding loving, responsible forever families for animals in need is always our priority. This week we are featuring lovely Fatima.

She came to us from the Lincoln Country Humane Society where she was brought in as a stray back in October. That’s a long time to live in a shelter. Fatima is a senior lady. She is 10 years plus. Because she was a stray, there is no history, so we don’t know her exact age or anything about her life. What we do know is that she has weak hips and arthritis, so she needs a forever friend committed to taking her to the vet and making sure she is comfortable. Fatima has never been spayed, but she is too senior for that procedure now. Fatima isn’t friendly with other dogs, so we are looking for a home where she can be the only pet, perhaps even a chance to be the pampered princess she deserves to be.

She was a favourite amongst the volunteers at LCHS. She is described as a “sweet, sweet girl who deserves a nice home”. Our thanks to the volunteers who also shared with us that she loves to play with a soccer ball and will run and play like a puppy. She might move a little slower than she used to, but it doesn’t stop her from having fun. She likes to carry the ball around in her mouth so she’s always ready to play if a friend is close by. Fatima also loves to give hugs, and likes it best when all the attention is on her. We are all agreed that we would like to see Fatima go to a forever home where she can be the queen during her golden years.

We have chosen to waive the adoption fee for Fatima knowing that there will be veterinary expenses with her care. We are looking carefully at all applicants to find just the right forever home for this special girl. Have you ever considered what the word “stray” means in regards to a shelter cat or dog? It’s a word that always pushes my buttons. A stray should be an animal who somehow accidentally escapes their owner, who then frantically looks for them and reclaims them with great relief. But too often our dogs or cats are referred to as strays when clearly they were just neglected, abused, ignored, unloved, or abandoned. No one ever comes looking for them.

For these animals, like Fatima, I think we try extra hard to find that perfect forever home. All shelter animals have had a health check by the shelter’s vet techs, they are spayed or neutered, have had a rabies vaccine, are microchipped and come with six weeks of free pet insurance. All shelter dogs are walked by trained volunteers, so they learn basic obedience and commands.

You can help the animals in many other ways besides adoption. Plan to attend our next fundraiser, a pasta dinner Feb. 23, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall. Details can be found on the humane society’s website. We are also collecting photos, stories and memorabilia about the shelter’s history. If you have a contribution, please call or email me (humane@nfhs.ca) at the shelter. Both the shelter and the Cat Adoption Centre at Niagara Square are open every day. Visit www.nfhs.ca for more information about all the animals and upcoming events.

Cathy Fugler is Communications Director for the Niagara Falls Hunmane Society.

The Expert’s Guide to Deception, 101

Don Drummond catalogues the McGuinty mess in meticulous detail | Full Comment | National Post

The National Post’s Kelly McParland’s brilliant column regarding Dalton McGuinty’s delusional outlook post-Drummond Report.

Don Drummond catalogues the McGuinty mess in meticulous detail | Full Comment | National Post.

The day our premier shot himself in the foot

A puzzled Dalton McGuinty

Delusional Dalton McGuinty has posted the following statement on his “Dalton McGuinty, Public Figure” wall at Facebook, also described as “The Official Dalton McGuinty Fan Page.”

Let me stop laughing at that description before I go on…  Really, I’m not making it up – even I couldn’t think up something that absurd!

Yet again, we’re reminded of his Alice-in-Wonderland rhetoric, his shocking failure to see the writing on the wall.  As I read the following with disbelief, I can’t help but wonder if he really thinks anyone with an ounce of common sense will actually believe his cockamamie drivel.

Here it is…

Today, the Drummond Commission on the Reform of Public Services released their report including its 362 recommendations. We want to thank everyone involved for their hard work and their advice. Here’s what you need to know: – We’ve been saying since before the election that Ontario needs a serious plan for serious times and that’s what this report begins to deliver. But it doesn’t have all the answers. – The magnitude of the challenge facing Ontario requires our plan to more specifically identify how we will reduce the deficit at the same time that we position our economy to grow even stronger. – The Drummond Commission is just one of the ways we are reaching out to Ontarians to get their best advice on how we work together. We will also be hearing from Caucus, Opposition Parties, Stakeholders, and Ontario families as we develop a 2012 budget that eliminates the deficit, grows the economy and creates jobs. – As the Premier has said before: the commission advises and we decide. And that is what we will do in this year’s budget. The Hudak PCs see the global recession as a chance to push their extreme conservative ideology — rather than pitching in to build a stronger Ontario. The Horwath NDP have been silent on the economy, jobs and eliminating the deficit. They’re quick to criticize new ideas, but have no suggestions of their own. Inaction from the PCs and NDP would put our health care, our schools and our economy at risk. Ontario Liberals will eliminate the deficit by 2017/2018. And only Ontario Liberals are showing an unwavering determination to do what’s needed to reach that objective — so we can grow the economy, eliminate the deficit and provide good quality schools and hospitals.

Yes, let’s all call Sheila Copps and see if she’s got some leftover flags from her harebrained scheme of flag waving a while back.  Remember that?

Good God, she and Dalton’s half-baked ideas are as far-fetched as the easter bunny and the tooth fairy.

So, what we have is the premier who shot himself in the foot last year by giving respected economist Don Drummond carte blanche to delve into every nook and cranny, but now that the report is damning in every way (I’ve begun reading it and it’s not pretty, let me tell you) McGuinty’s decided that, hmmm, “it doesn’t have all the answers.”

Hey Dalton, neither do you!!!

Western’s day of reckoning

If you’ve read anything at all about the recent student elections at Western (University of Western Ontario) you’ve no doubt been witness to an astonishing amount of naiveté.

In a world where hackers are so adept at their trade that they can hack into the technologically strongest of world banks, how difficult could it be for the so-called talented, manipulative individuals who took hold of a school’s voting system?

Furthermore, there is a shocking level of naiveté on the part of the school’s administration, perhaps too complacent in its ivory-towered offices.  Have the tweedy academics, ensconced in their preferred surroundings, become the artless amongst a far more clever lot?

As adults, we’ve all been witness to this sort of complacency elsewhere, but when those halls of academia evolve into nothing more than a protective moat, keeping at bay the evils of society, then this becomes their day of reckoning.

While the fresh out of high school and the young twenty-somethings are hit with something as devious as this so close to home, they are learning something far more important than rising to an elected seat within the confines of school walls.  For years, students have been shielded by teachers who have enforced rules, perhaps ignored reports of hacking making the 6 o’clock news, or laughed at technologically-inclined others who rail against the system and infiltrate more powerful institutions.  The hotbed of university life during the sixties was, after all, a mind-awakening experience, full of student power, flower power, and damn-you-establishment power.  If the culprits are students themselves, then that student power has finally inflicted its wrath upon its own.

It’s a valuable ethics lesson learned for the students who will rise above this episode.  For the administration, well, call it what you will.

Don Drummond – my hero

Don Drummond - Ontario's financial SuperHero

For those of you who have children, you’ll know that while you want them to have everything good in life, sometimes it’s just not feasible.  Early on, when they’re having temper tantrums because you won’t buy them that new Barbie, or that remote-controlled truck that’s been all over the TV the last week, you learn pretty fast how to say, No.  Sure, it would be great to stop the nagging and “I wannit” episodes, but as a parent you suddenly become an economist, and a damn good one, learning what’s necessary and what’s just not on the books.

So it was for our premier, Dalton McGuinty, yesterday, who obviously never learned the meaning of the word, No, in the formative years.

And, while we’re on the topic of Dalton… has anyone seen him since that tall, bookish, gentleman called Don Drummond, handed down his report yesterday afternoon?  I’ve seen Dwight Duncan tap dancing a lot on news segments, but no sign of Dalton yet.

Kinda reminds you of that kids’ game, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, doesn’t it?

Don Drummond, thank you for telling it like it is, leaving this Liberal government gobsmacked.

And as for the other two leaders, Tim Hudak and Andrea Horwath, I don’t have much time for them either.  Suddenly, it’s a lot of  glib “I told you so” remarks (yeah, just like mine!) while probably thinking they got off scot-free and silently sighing a sigh of relief knowing that if either one of them comes to power in Ontario, they can always blame Dalton for the last decade of financial ruin.  Fair play, they’d be right, though, wouldn’t they?

Yep, “Chainsaw” Mike Harris is starting to look a lot like Father Christmas.

My memories of Paris

On a grey and overcast February day here in southern Ontario, autumn in Paris is especially tantalising as I look back through photo albums.

Enjoy these photos I shot in Paris (we stayed in Montparnasse, 14th Arrondissement) the last time we were there.

 

Montparnasse Cafe

 

 

Artist on the Seine

 

 

Gare St. Lazare

 

 

Paris Cafe

 

 

Sunday evening traffic

 

 

Cafe et croissants

 

 

J'adore Paris!

 

 

Wallenda will walk the walk – Niagara Falls Review – Ontario, CA

Yes, a complete turn-around by the (Canadian) Niagara Parks Commission.

In my opinion, a great opportunity for more tourism dollars and a brief return to the days when the Falls was infamous for its stunts.

Wallenda will walk the walk – Niagara Falls Review – Ontario, CA.