Are Distracted Driving Laws Enough?

Since Bill 16 was brought into and passed through legislation in Alberta there are still flagrant violations occurring on a daily basis. Distracted Driving is as deadly as impaired driving whether through alcohol or spontaneous health problems. But people still believe that they can maneuver a 4 or 5000 pound vehicle through traffic, school zones and on Alberta's busy highways while talking or texting on their phones.

Obviously the fine of $172 isn't enough because folks are still doing it. I've witnessed Moms with Kids in the vehicle zooming (120 Kph plus) down the Queen E 11 highway between Calgary and Edmonton with, yup you guessed it a Cell Phone stuck to their ear in bumper to bumper traffic. Maybe the name of the law should be changed to Dumb Ass Driving and the fine increased to $500 minimum and removal of said electronic device for at least 6 months. Oh and perhaps a safe driving course thrown in for good measure. (those are presented in the oil patch safety meetings all the time.

How privileged do these people feel that they just have to yak on the phone while driving. It smacks of arrogance and small thinking. I remember at a PC conference in Calgary where a discussion about a new distracted driving law was floating around. Former Premier Stelmach was on the main stage taking questions from the audience and this young lady stood up to ask the Premier why the caucus would even consider putting forth such a draconian law. Another law to control the people and that she thought it was wrong to burden the public with another control. The Premier responded (and I'm paraphrasing here) that it has been proven that reaction time while driving is slowed even more when conducting other activities in the vehicle. Also that multi-tasking severely increased the possibility of causing a driver to become further distracted and creating the potential for a vehicular accident. The young lady was still miffed and said " I'm young and I have no problem multi-tasking so the law should be scrapped! Obviously here was a person that wasn't prepared to listen to reason but believed that it was her right to drive and phone at the same time. HOW then do we break that chain of thought?

Unfortunately the costs of enforcement via our police forces is prohibitive in that you would need a huge squad of officers, to check and stop and write up ever violator and deal with all the other criminal activities and highway violations. Perhaps its time to place the place the problem squarely in the lap of other citizens of the province.  Not that we should have them stopping and charging violators but perhaps a hotline number that could be called to report licence numbers and activities of the offenders. From that phone in a 1st notice could be generated and sent to that individual stating that they were observed violating the Distracted Driving law on the date in question and that if a second report came forward that demerits would be applied to their licence. The potential threat of losing their licence could prove to be a much stronger reinforcement method than the $172 fine.

There are certainly a few wrinkles with a plan like that such as chagrined spouses reporting their mates just to get back at them but they could have their day in court to explain or plea bargain. The inconvenience of it all might be enough to start changing some attitudes.

It could be an interesting discussion amongst the powers that be. And, it just may work. Your thoughts?

Don't Believe me? Check this link for more stats.Think it doesn't happen?

The Rockie Mountains & Evelyn's Coffee are Amazing

We actually managed to get away for a few days this past summer and I've felt the beautiful Rockie mountains calling for some time. Our granddaughter was up visiting from Ontario and she'd never seen them so we started looking at accommodations and mountain towns we'd like to visit. 

Lake Louise

The most popular destination for many are the Jasper and Banff National parks that join together close to the Columbia Ice fields to form a huge mountain playground with amazing views, wonderful campsites and thrilling highways to drive.  We were only able to take a three day weekend so we had to make it within comfortable driving distance and for some reason the town of Canmore came up.

I did a couple of online searches using www.booking.com and found a great deal on a condo-style villa with enough beds for the four of us and the plans were in place. Well sort of, the Missus, our son and his daughter were able to leave a day earlier on a Thursday and I had to stay behind to finish up some business. Its too bad I couldn't get to witness our Granddaughter's first look at the mountains. She actually didn't notice them at first and kept saying "look at the big valleys Grandma" not realizing they were the bottoms of those big rocks all around.

In any case, I caught up the next day and it was a fantastic trip. Mountain air seems to have a slight scent of pine and just seems to be more clear than at home. Canmore is a great town with lots of services and dining establishments and sits in a valley among the first mountains you see as you travel westward from Calgary on  Trans Canada Highway #1 . Its four lanes all the way  from Calgary and you really have to move because there doesn't seem to be a speed limit even though the signs said 110 Km/hour I don't think anyone was actually going that slow.

Inn Of The Rockies

Our weekend domicile was the Inn of the Rockies which is on Harvey Heights road just west of Canmore. Part of the facility is undergoing some major renovations by the new owners and is just a half a mile from the Banff National Park gates.  Our unit was a two story with two large bedrooms a nice bathroom and even a washer and dryer. The main floor featured a living area with fireplace, a flat screen TV, a hide-a-bed couch  and a recliner, the open concept had the dining area right next in line adjacent to the nicely equipped kitchen. This alone saved us tons of money on dining as we prepared our own breakfasts and lunches for the day and popped the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Ah, all the conveniences of home.

Banff Upper Hot Springs courtesy Travel Alberta

The weekend was spent driving into Canmore to explore and then Banff to take in the Gondola ride to the top of Sulphur Mountain and a soaking in the Hot Springs at the base of the mountain. A great way to sooth those aching bones. The water was at 41 degrees celcius which is about 106 degrees farenheit and it takes a moment to get used to it. Once you're in though it is heavenly.

Another great pass time is walking the main thoroughfare called Banff Avenue. Its lined with shops of all sorts and restaurants and an amazing coffee outlet called Evelyn's Coffee Bar. This coffee emporium is so popular that there are three of them. Two along the avenue and one on Bear Street. One even features live entertainment each evening. I also spent a while with one of their large coffees just people and busker watching. There is every nation under the sun represented here so its a great mix and great watching. There's lots of comfortable benches along the avenue and the weather was perfect. I let our group go "shopping" and enjoyed my respite.

Parking hint: Go early in the morning and stake out a place by at least 10 a.m. or you'll drive around for a while trying to find a parking space. There are meters on main street so you'd have to keep coming back to plug it.  So unless your athletic and like to run or walk, find off street parking where you can. The lots are free and located one block either side of the main thoroughfare. Most lots have access to the shops from the lots so its very convenient.

It was a great little mini holiday and I will take another one.  Talk again soon.
Dave

Our Garden has Exploded

Even though I know that Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin have been overexercising their expense allotments and there are likely others among them, I won't dwell on the negative. I'm going to share something positive that helps me to relax and enjoy. While gardening is not my usual fare on this blog, I just had to do a little horn tooting for the spectacular garden we have growing in our yard right now.

Over the past several years we have been doing a lot of soil amendment to bring it back to life. The former owner used a 50/50 crop and summer fallow or just kept one half black on a rotation basis. The only trouble is there didn't appear to be anything added to maintain the soils breathability (strange word but) it was just dead and would pack hard if you walked on it too much.

Straw bed potatoes

Year after year, we saved every green scrap from the kitchen, all of our leaves (my missus even purloined bags of leaves from the neighbors waste bin one evening) and straw that we used for a couple of growing experiments I'll talk about later. Finally after six years we opened up the garden this year to a beautiful soft, diggable (another strange word) piece of ground that was a pleasure to work. There was lots of humus in the soil, the big lumps were gone and if you held a handful to your nose, it smelled clean and fresh and full of life. It just smelled healthy!

The Missus had attended a spring gardeners day workshop locally and the guest speaker there
suggested that we were better to plant in small squares (3 x 3 feet or 4 x 4). This keeps the plants closer together and they support each other and some plants that self pollinate can more easily do that whereas, long rows just string them out too far.  (Maybe there's an analogy there about how you and your partner can grow together in life's garden). Always being

Straw Bed Spuds After.

willing to experiment (in the garden) we set about marking out loose plots in a random pattern throughout the garden. Nice neat little plots with four or five or six rows each about 4 or 5 feet long parked side by side. It looked a little weird at first but now that the veggies are up it looks pretty neat. There are little pathways in between so we can still walk and reach with a hoe or by hand to weed. We did this with nearly every plant set except the potatoes (I'm coming to this new idea). The germination appears to be nearly 100 % of every thing we've planted so far except for the lettuce and we've reseeded that. In any case, everything else is doing extremely well and we're excited to harvest the bounty.

It might have been something to do with the fact that we planted on the May long weekend and the weather was hot and dry. There's an old

Last years bounty!

saying that goes "Plant in the Dust and your graineries will bust". Here's hoping.

Now to the potatoes. We've planted them in straw beds to success and dismal failure. To plant them in the soil has been disappointing because of the little black bugs or worms that get to them before we can so we've been looking for alternatives. Voila, the potato bag! Someone has invented a bag made of plastic tarp material with appropriate drain holes. The premise is that you add four to six inches of soil (we used an 80-15-5 % ration of black dirt, peat and steer manure (aged) to the bag. We then placed five seed potatoes in the mix and covered them with another 4 inches of the mix. You just roll the sides down to the level of the top of the dirt plus a bit above then water them. Within two weeks we had little spuds poking their plant heads above the dirt with 100% germination. We've also planted some in the dirt beside them in a traditional planting using the mix to fill the holes and they are all up as well. With the potatoes in the bag we'll add more dirt to keep the stems covered and just the leaves sticking out. As they grow, we'll unroll the bag some more and add more dirt until we reach the top. We'll hill the others with our dirt mix so they are all receiving the same nutrients. Once the bag is completely unrolled, we'll let the potatoes mature and blossom. Once they've died down, we can harvest (we might sneak a few new ones for an early treat because once the blossoms come on, the potatoes are about the size of an egg.  How do we get into the bag you ask. Well, this inventor made a handy trap door with velcro closers so you can just open it up, and go prodding gently in the earth for a few spuds. Then close it up stuffing the dirt back inside so the spuds can grow some more.

potato bags

There now wasn't that more cathartic than me ranting about some folks who feel self-entitled.
Watch for more about our gardening progression in the up coming weeks. Like how we kept the aphids at bay and how we repaired a worn patch in the lawn using our amazing dirt mix. Might even share my grape adventures - there's a least four bunches growing on the vines as we speak.
Till then, keep on gardening. Dave

Is Alberta's Premier Redford Sliding into the Abyss?

Recent polls list Alberta's Premier Redford as only having a 29% popularity rating with those who answered the survey and that is considerably less than the 53% plus rating for her chief competitor Danielle Smith of the Wild Rose party. According to the most recent Angus Reid Poll, Redford even

placed behind Brian Mason of the NDP and Raj Sherman of the Alberta Liberals who each garnered a 34% rating.

Redford's survival over the summer into the fall leadership review is all hinged on the success of her many trips to the power corridors of Washington, DC and New York city to promote the Keystone XL pipeline. In the meantime, budget woes and push backs from those affected most by the 2013 budget are keeping Finance Minister Horner and Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk busy, responding too and defending the home front. Will they all be successful? Will any of them still be there following the fall convention of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Association this November? The way competing camps are gathering for the leadership review there could be an early exit from the seat of power for Ms Redford and her executive team.
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On another note, the winter snows seem to be retreating and the garden spot is starting to peak out from under a significant pile of snow. Warmer temps are still a bit down the trail and a large dump is forecast for this weekend in places around and west of Edmonton.  Any way you look at it this has been one long winter. It needs to end soon. Our gardening tools are calling and we're anxious to experiment with our new potatoe bags.
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Finally, this is one of the funniest stories I've heard in a long time. 
A fellow was laying in his hospital bed with an oxygen mask on while a young nurse trainee started to give him a sponge bath.  As she progressed down his chest the man asked her this question through the mask "are my testicles black?" The young nurse looked up in surprise and said "Excuse me?".  Through the mask the man once again asked her "are my testicles black?"  She said " I'm just starting my training and I don't believe I'm prepared to handle that situation."  As she continued to bathe him, she summoned up the courage and thought to herself "I am training to be a nurse and these types of things are going to occur so here goes."
She rolled the sheet down and lifted the bottom of his gown and picked up both "boys" in her hands. She looked them over thoroughly and then placed the cover over the man and said "they seem to be fine sir."  The patient then removed his oxygen masked and said "that was very nice miss but one more time I'm asking; Are My Test Results Back?"
Enjoy your week.
Dave

Hockey Is Done In Our Town

Yes, Hockey is done in Our Town. Just for the AJHL (Alberta Junior Hockey League) season folks. Our ever-loving Bonnyville Pontiacs gave it a good run but lost out in the second round to the Whitecourt Wolverines who won the last four games in the best of seven series. They will now move to take on the Spruce Grove Saints in the North Division Semi-Final. Its really excellent hockey folks so regardless of who you might be cheering for, get out and support these young men.

Better than the performances of our overpaid glory boys in the NHL. Geez, there must be a fortune in first round draft picks in the Oilers pen but they have a hard time putting together anything that even resembles a string of wins. They are sitting in the middle of the pack in the trailing Vancouver by 1 point and just ahead of Calgary. Can we expect them to show in the stretch. Here's hoping but they need to win at least the next six or seven games to show that they are contenders.

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A friend of mine passed this bit on to me recently and I thought I'd share it with you.  I presume its reference to a book written by Professor Ian Plimer called "Heaven and Earth"
It's got some interesting information but I'll let you be the judge.

Okay, here's the bombshell. The volcanic eruption in Iceland, since its first spewing of volcanic ash has, in just FOUR DAYS, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2emissions on our planet - all of you.

Of course you know about this evil carbon dioxide that we are trying to suppress - it’s that vital chemical compound that every plant requires to live and grow and to synthesize into oxygen for us humans and all animal life. I know, it's very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of: driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up till midnight to finish your kid's"The Green Revolution" science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, vacationing at home instead of abroad, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your 50 cents light bulbs with $10.00 light bulbs ...well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just four days.

The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in just four days - yes - FOUR DAYS ONLY by that volcano in Iceland, has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, carbon. And there are around 200 active volcanoes on the planet spewing out this crud at any one time - EVERY DAY.

I don't really want to rain on your parade too much, but I should mention that when the volcano Mt Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it spewed out more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire human race had emitted in all its years on earth. Yes folks, Mt Pinatubo was active for over one year - think about it. Of course I shouldn't spoil this touchy-feely tree-hugging moment and mention the effect of solar and cosmic activity and the well-recognized 800-year global heating and cooling cycle, which keep happening, despite our completely insignificant efforts to affect climate change.

And I do wish I had a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud but the fact of the matter is that the bush fire season across the western USA and Australia this year alone will negate your efforts to reduce carbon in our world for the next two to three years. And it happens every year. Just remember that your government just tried to impose a whopping carbon tax on you on the basis of the bogus “human-caused” climate change scenario. Hey, isn’t it interesting how they don’t mention “Global Warming” any more, but just“Climate Change” - you know why? It’s because the planet has COOLED by 0.7 degrees in the past century and these global warming bull artists got caught with their pants down.

And just keep in mind that you might yet have an Emissions Trading Scheme - that whopping new tax - imposed on you, that will achieve absolutely nothing except make you poorer. It won’t stop any volcanoes from erupting, that’s for sure.

But hey, relax, give the world a hug and have a nice day!

The Hockey Gods Have Smiled on Edmonton

Frankly, I was surprised by the outcome following the Edmonton City council vote to get into the arena business again. Yes, again because they are already part owners of an arena or would be in line to inherit the building if Northlands, the current operators should ever shut down then Rexall Place title would revert back to the City of Edmonton. Would they then turn over use to the Edmonton Oil Kings?

You're probably wondering where I came up with this notion. Its really quite simple. Northlands is the child of the Edmonton Exhibition Association and prior to that it was the Edmonton Agricultural Society who used to operate a race track or course as they called them in the good old days, down in the river valley where Renfrew Park - oops Telus Field sits today. The founders of that original Ag Society decided they needed more room to build things. Things like a livestock show palace where local producers could show off their animals and their grains and produce because the Edmonton area used to grow amazing crops. (It now only seems to grow more subdivisions and acreages and big box malls. (I digress). Oh,. And, perhaps a place to play hockey indoors.

Beginnings (1879-1899)

The roots of Northlands Park took hold when various individuals assembled themselves to create an organization through which the town of Edmonton and its surrounding communities could make their agricultural and horticultural capabilities visible to the public. 
The preceding paragraph was borrowed from Northlands own historical website: Early Northlands History

With plans in hand they trudged up the hill from the river valley looking for a level piece of land to build on.  Strange thing, developers had already beaten them to it and had most of the land tied up for new housing developments for a growing city.  Not to be deterred they found a bargain piece of land just northeast of the Rat Creek Ravine on the western edge of the Highlands and Ada Boulevard already contained some pretty posh mansions overlooking Edmonton's spectacular river valley.

With a burgeoning population, comes garbage and where do you suppose they put it? Into a low piece of and just north of what is now 111 avenue east of 82nd street. Aha the Ag board thought we can pick land up cheaply, add some fill, level it out and we can build our fair grounds and Agricultural Emporium.  This was in 1910 and the City administration not wanting to miss out on an opportunity to promote the area to new Canadians purchased the land and "the City of Edmonton set out terms for a lease whereby the land would be rented by the EEA (Edmonton Exhibition Association) at a nominal fee of $1 CDN a year. The association, which undoubtedly benefited from this open-ended arrangement, accepted the generous terms. With the stability of land tenancy, the organization could now strive to expand without inordinate risk." (from Northlands history Edmonton)

(At this point I must let you know that I'm paraphrasing this story to move it along. Exactness of detail is not relevant because, well, this story is just to give you an idea about how the area was developed and how the City became a partner.)

Edmonton Gardens from City of Edmonton Archives

Now to continue. the Ag Board had grand ideas and hatched a plan to build a grand arena for the display of all things farmey. The final outcome was the Edmonton Gardens an amazing building for its time that stood for many years and served the public well. In fact, it was so well built that when they brought in a demolition company to bring it down, the dynamite set in strategic locations in the building went off as planned and it only ruffled the feathers of a few pigeons who had nested in the higher regions of the building. It took quite awhile for the company to bring the old girl down and I'm not sure they made any money on the deal.

Northlands Coliseum (Rexall Place) courtesy of the Edmonton Journal

To quickly conclude this story, the Coliseum was built and hockey was moved from the Gardens to the new building north of Alberta Avenue. Through all this time the City has had representation on the board of the Northlands so should be well aware that they are competing against themselves with the New Downtown Arena. No matter though because we have to appease the developers who have a dieing city centre after dark and a billionaire plus needs a place to park his hockey toys.

Oh, and there was talk that the Province of Alberta might throw some money into the deal after all and yet our Premier Allison Redford and our Minister of Finance Doug Horner is telling us that the budget they gave us not that long ago is just not going to meet expectations and that there should be a tightening of belts all round. As has been said, basing a budget solely on the vagaries of the petroleum market place is shaky science at best. It will be interesting to see where this extra 100 Million comes from because it sure isn't coming from the main beneficiaries of this new edifice.
Have a lovely week. Dave

Will the NHL Agreement Meet Your Needs?

At 5 a.m. this morning, January 6, 2013 the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) finally concluded their 113 day discussions with an agreement to end the lock-out/ strike that has affected more people than all of them put together can even count.

Oh, each of these partners in the negotiations will survive, and go on to live lives of luxury most of us can only dream about. The travesty here is that it was all about lining their pockets and ensuring that they will be looked after in their dotage or should I say doughtage (my word) where they'll now have a defined pension. You would think that after making XXX millions of dollars each year that they would have put together some sort of plan to build their own nest egg. Hell, the average citizen manages to do that on a lot less annual income, why can't they.

I got off track a little bit there because the real story here is that over the past 113 days plus/minus, who has the NHL lock-out/strike hurt? Directly, it has affected the many people who work in the arenas where these folks play! Think about the young people who have some ambition to get ahead and take a job working in the parking lots, or the gates or the concessions or food services or security to name a few. Not just young people but maybe single parents or seniors who are trying to make ends meet with a part time job. What have they lost, never to get back with a fancy new contract for 10 years or eight if your just not happy. Give me a break.

There are others in the widening circle of support for these playboys and their billionaire owners that are affected as well. There's the suppliers to these arenas for food, cleaning supplies, signs, and toilet paper. Or how about the people who put the ice in and paint the markings and maintain the ice in pristine condition so these darlings have the best.

The good will that has been destroyed will take a long time to repair. How will the new product (tic) be any better than the old one? Will youngsters still gaze with starry eyes on their heroes? Will dad or mom even be able to afford to take them to the rink and then afford the expensive food when they get there? These are questions that will soon be answered as these princes of the puck make their way back to their respective rinks in a much shortened season.

Another question begs to be answered. When are they going to get rid of Gary Bettman which many media pundits are saying should have happened a long time ago. Here is a guy that was so dictatorial that they had to bring in another mediator to get the job done. Here is a guy that has spent so much time building markets in marginal hockey territory where hockey takes a back seat to baseball, football and basketball that other teams in real hockey territory have to support them with a $300 Million dollar equalization payment.  I think its time for him to go.

I think its also time to think about the value of what they are presenting and start to care for the folks that pay for the tickets that keep them in business. I don't deny them a very good salary after all they are the elite of their sport, the best of the best.

I'm thinking though that all these folks could take a lesson from the proving ground where they all started - Minor hockey, where they play for the love of the game.