timing

Here's my quandary: now and again I'll have a gig that is somewhat special. It may be a concert for a large audience, a prestigious venue or a new band line-up. I am eager to invite friends, family and colleagues to the event. But I have found that I consistently run into two problems. 1) The timing is never right: too close to Christmas, too close to March break, too hot, too cold, relatives over from Mongolia, sickness in the family, a wedding, too rainy, too snowy...and more. 2) No matter when I announce the event, I get a slew of excuses: either my concert is too far in the future ("let me know closer to the date, we'll do our best to be there") or it's too close to the date ("would love to come but already have plans, you really ought to let us know more in advance")

Without further ado I'll admit that I've been known to employ the very same tactics. We are all very busy with way to many events flooding our schedule. I don't know whether this dilemma of mine even has a solution. I just wish I could discover the secret of perfect timing!

seeing red

The election is on January 23. Today, driving through my neighbourhood, I saw plenty of red Liberal election signs. Are these people not ashamed to put up a Liberal sign and vote for a party that is mired in scandal and corruption, that has embezzled millions of tax dollars, that has ridden roughshod over the electorate time and time again, broken promises, screwed up every file on the agenda and hung on to power through chicanery and unsavoury machinations?

As far as I know, most ridings have at least four candidates, some as many as eight: vote NDP, vote Conservative, vote Green, vote Communist, for chrissakes - but why on God's good earth would you vote for these crooks again? If someone can truly, truly help me understand it, I'd be grateful.

puppy pics

a few more Hugo pics...still waiting to take him back home

doctor's office

Yesterday I went to see a specialist. It had taken seven weeks to get the appointment. His office waiting room was cold and dank. The secretaries were unpleasant. I waited for 45 minutes to be called in. In fact, I was just about to get up and walk away (if you wait seven weeks for an appointment set for 9AM, doesn't it stand to reason that you should be seen right away?)

The actual office was colder than the waiting room. Literally no more than about 15 Celsius. The whole visit took about ten minutes. The doctor's questions were perfunctory. He didn't look into my file - until I asked him to do so. He didn't examine me or ask too many in-depth questions. His diagnosis was pretty much ready a minute after I walked through the door. He was professional and polite but cold and detached and obviously harried and uninterested (gee, that's a lot of adjectives! )

I went down to the parking lot, started my car and began the 40 minute drive home. I had learned nothing I couldn't have found out either from my own family physician or from the internet in the warmth and comfort of my home.

I am convinced that if a private system were allowed in Ontario and if I were permitted to pay the specialist $200 out of my own pocket, the office would be warm, the secretaries welcoming and the doctor attentive. I may have not come away with a more precise diagnosis but it would have been an all-round pleasant experience. As it was, it was a wasted mornig compounded by the aural insult of Rod Stewart's vile "jazz" renditions piped into the cold waiting room! Isn't OHIP bad enough? Do they have to throw Rod and his insipid "jazz" into the mix? Just asking....

mistake

I was sprawled on my couch last night, channel hopping as is my wont after 11PM when my wife is usually asleep and I am sick and tired of the computer. I surfed onto the CBC news channel. I listen to CBC radio occasionally but hardly ever watch CBC TV - though they do have the odd interesting documentary sandwiched between David "Have You Hugged Any Trees Lately" Suzuki and Peter "Watch My Lips For Words Of Great Import" Mansbridge. There was an item on the news about the two Canadians kidnapped in Iraq. I don't want to deal with why anyone would want to go to Iraq or why anyone would be surprised that people get kidnapped in Iraq. I also don't want to deal with the smug Canadian dismissal of any effort to get Iraq back on its feet or the local champagne socialist pooh-pooing the Iraqi elections. Whatever. That's another argument. What I want to talk about is a the short clip of a friend of the victims who, when interviewed by the CBC reporter, said: "There must be some mistake! The people who kidnapped my friends must have made a mistake!!"

Do you understand what's going on here? What this person is saying, in effect is this: My friends hate the Americans as much as you do, good fellows! When you kidnap the American or the British infidel - now THAT I can understand, THAT is not a mistake! But kidnapping these peace loving, America hating Canadians - THAT is a mistake. So just please return them to safety and go on kidnapping those WHO DESERVE to be kidnapped!

This is the refuge of all appeasers: I am your friend!! I want to help you!! I want to negotiate with you!! I want to understand your grievance!! UNLIKE ALL THOSE OTHERS - they want to fight you, but not me! This has never worked and will never work. Even old Osama doesn't distinguish between and betwixt the Canadian infidel and the American infidel or even the Spanish infidel. Thinking that being the nice, cozy, indulgent Canadians will protect us is folly. And it's also arrogant. It's no mistake, buddy. You have no business thinking that "the others" deserve to be kidnapped more than these two Canadian do-gooders.