The CBC cuts suck…

One of the things I really enjoy about CBC Radio One is that it is current. You used to be able to hear relevant programming about issues today. “The Point,” one of the shows which was cut in the latest round was a great show. Aamer Haleem had guests on who would debate the issues of the day. While I did not agree with some of his guests generally the other one took up my side in a debate. The show was witty and timely. Plus they also reduced BC Almanac to one hour. The second hour of this show was always very informative. I hate gardening but I loved listening to Brian Minter. So instead of having a call in show that would have provided information we were treated to a repeat of Wachtel and the arts where the person she was interviewing made a reference to George Bush making him want to leave his country. I have nothing against Wachtel and the Arts I just want current programming in my day. On Thursday afternoons we will be treated to re-runs of Dispatches – which at the best of times puts me to sleep. To make it worse after Dispatches they are really going to mine the archives and bring us Rewind where we can listen to Peter Gzwoski. I am too young to remember much of him on the CBC. I am sure he was brilliant but I think he has been dead for 20 years, really what relevance does it have for today? On Tuesdays at 1 pm we are going to be treated to a show called “In the Field.” It would be useful if we knew what it was going to be about. The CBC.CA website has no information for that show.

This is really frustrating for a dedicated CBC addict. Fully 1/3 of my day will consist of crap programming with little or no relevance to me or the world I live in. The CBC had been working hard to attract a younger demographic to Radio one and in one fell swoop they have lost much of them now. Most plugged in techie people are not interested in hearing a discussion about Mozart and Shakespeare in the middle of the afternoon. They want information and news that is relevant to them.

We can only hope that the CBC will recognize the error and restore programming like The Point – which in my opinion was brilliant. Podcasts here I come.

Update Mashup

It has been a while since I have blogged about the goings on at chez Shihtzustaff, so I thought it was time for an update:

• We have adopted Tucker and Gemma Joy.  We found out this week that Gemma has mets in her lungs from her cancer and more masses in her abdomen. She is palliative now. She is still feeling great and enjoying life. For the first time she is out of a pen and not being forced to breed. It was because of the breeding that Gemma ended up with mammary cancer. Please spay your female dogs before they go into heat and you can reduce the chances that they will develop this very lethal form of cancer by almost 100%. Tucker continues to be with us. He is developing some canine cognitive disorder like behaviours so we are working with the vets to manage that and his pain. He continues to ensure that he does not miss a thing around here – especially food!
• Molly our ancient toothless pom is like the energizer bunny of dogs. She stretches and spins and does her various yoga poses. You can’t help but laugh at her. She is so full of life. We do see her slowing down a bit though. She has started to put herself to bed most nights now.
• Living with senior dogs is not for the faint of heart. The other day I was coming into the house and Tucker was laying in front of the door. Tucker is deaf so telling him to move is not effective. So I gently push the door against him and I see his eyes roll back in his head. I think he is having a stroke or a seizure or something that is not good. Nope, he is just hard asleep.
• Kiefer gets the most improved award this month. Because he is big he is able to reach plates on tables etc and this often results in Kiefer inspecting (and slobbering on) everything we eat. I came up with a way to stop him – as he comes for the plate, the plate moves toward him. It only took him a couple of tries and now he has stopped completely. Way to go Kiefer!
• Everybody else is doing well. The pug is adorable and so well socialized. She goes to SAINTS occassionally and visits with all the animals.
• Work is going well. My health seems to be doing ok. Pain level still quite high most days but I can deal with that most of the time. I need to be very careful to get enough sleep or things go south quickly. Plus I am now going to see a psychiatrist to deal with the anxiety caused by chronic pain and disease and see if there is something better that can be done to address both issues. The problem is that my anxiety ramps up every time I am in pain.
• And the best news of all? I got an iPhone 3GS. It is a work of art I must say. It is so incredibly easy to use and set up. I virtually needed no instructions whatsoever. I can’t wait to use it on a daily basis. No more getting lost in Abbotsford with built in GPS!

Thankfully it is summer!

No, I have not become a fan of summer. Actually, truth be told, I detest by summer. But summer has some advantages. Right now, the biggest advantage is that parliament is no longer in session, which means we are not going to be forced to put up with the machinations of the idiot talking heads who have been elected to run this country or not as they see fit. The big election threat last week over changes to EI was absolutely ridiculous. It is all scaremongering and brinksmanship politics which does nothing to provide stability to the country in the midst of a recession. What exactly did Michael Ignatieff get? He got a ‘panel of six experts to look into it.’ I am sure he could have held his breath and at least had Stephen Harper agree to a Royal Commission. It would have given them something to do over the summer and employed a lot of bureaucrats.

In all seriousness we need some leadership here. We are being subjected to brokerage politics in the extreme. No one has any ideology. They seem to disagree for the sake of it and have nothing new to offer. Where are the bold plans? The new ideas?

Wally Oppal

I am not of fan of Gordon Campbell and his band of fake “Liberals.” However, I have always been a fan of Wally Oppal. When he was a judge he made courageous decisions. He was the one bright light in the provincial cabinet. Although I think he got it wrong in charging the Bountiful group with polygamy (he should of gone after them for child sexual abuse) because ultimately I believe they will lose. Almost all of his other decisions were well thought out and reasoned. There is no way Gordon Campbell can top Wally Oppal as Attorney-General.

PSA for the Day

Given that we are baking already, it is time for everyone to act responsibly with regard to fire. In particular, this PSA is directed at those individuals who smoke and who feel the need to flick their cigarette butt out the window. Not only is smoking a disgusting habit some smokers lower the bar by littering their lit butts in to the grassy medians around Metro Vancouver. So, if you smoke, please use the ashtray in your car.

We’re back…

Well we are back home from our yearly visit to the Mother unit. Although this year, it appears, we have been roped into going back at Labour Day. Besides all the computer stuff I did for my Mother, there was a great amount of other work accomplished as well. When we got there I helped my mother set up her sun room. My mother is a heavy smoker (who continues to smoke even though she has <a href=”http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/copd/DS00916″>COPD</a>) and if she smokes in her sun room it is not as offensive as it is mostly open. This involved getting rid of the wood for the fireplace, washing down the walls, vacuuming, setting up the furniture etc. As soon as we got there Deb started cooking because she was making a shit load of food for my mother – who doesn’t really eat. The idea is that it is in her freezer so it is easy and hopefully she will eat. She is a tall woman and is down to 127 pounds after being overweight her entire life. Deb made 2 kinds of muffins, soup, meat pies, fruit pies, her special ‘rollups’, and 2 kinds of cookies. She literally did not stop working for the entire time we were there.

It was an exhausting 5 days. Deb and I did really well though. Usually my mother is able to get us sniping at one another but this year we made a decision that we would not allow that to happen. We were supportive and considerate of each other the entire trip. It made the trip so much less stressful than it would have been otherwise.

Right up until the moment we left, my mother was sucking every little bit of attention out of us that she could. It was really sad and pathetic. It is really hard watching parents age and become a shadow of their former selves. I saw this with my step-dad when he died of leukemia in 2004. We talked about some past stuff and my mother said that it was him who insisted he was going to our wedding. This was such an amazing transformation from the man who would not even speak to Deb when he first he met her. My mother has also come around quite well. She does not introduce Deb as my partner but refers to us as her daughters from Vancouver. Not perfect, but it will do.

This post would not be complete with giving kudos to WestJet. We are so lucky that they fly out of Abbotsford. They are so accommodating. Both Deb and I are on the large side and they always manage to find a row to put us in where they can block the middle seat. It makes the flight so much nicer for us and we don’t torture anyone else. Plus they were all happy on our flight home as it was profit sharing day. I have never had a bad experience flying WestJet!

We are in the Kootnays!

Deb and I are on our annual trip to help my mother. This year she needed a new computer installed in Calgary. Off we trooped to London Drugs to get the one on sale and we were told they did not have any. So I asked if we could buy the floor model and they said yes. The only crappy part was that they would have to wipe it clean which would mean I would have to install windows and all the drivers. No problem I said.

I unpacked the computer the next morning and immediately had trouble with the video card. There was a card on board but they had also put in a much better stand alone card. When I finally got the video in the right place I installed windows. Then I installed the drivers. The first one I did was the video driver and as soon as it restarted the monitor did not display anything. I had already ruled out the monitor as the problem so I called. They had me go through all the trouble shooting I had already done and finally the solution was to turn the computer off and press delete as it came back up (he reasoned that the driver may have not sufficiently installed in the registry). I did this and it came back up but I remained suspicious.

I installed all the other drivers and everything was working fine. I set up a network as I had my laptop with me. I did the scanner and then I installed office. We went out for dinner and when I came back the monitor was dead. I restarted the computer and it still did not come up. Tried a few more things and decided it must be an intermittent video card problem.

So the next morning I called LD and got a bit of a run around. I have to say that I don’t think the ones in Calgary are as good as what we have in BC but I digress. We got another new computer and at least I did not have to do windows or the drivers. I got the other one mostly done in less than 2 hours including network, scanner and printer. When we go back on Thursday I will finish it.

I always love to see the Rocky Mountains. I grew up with these mountains and spent a lot of time camping and just looking at how they change on almost a daily basis. I love our mountains at home too but they are not quite as majestic as the Rockies.

This visit has not been as bad as other ones. It is a bit disturbing to watch your mother change from being a strong determined woman to a depressed widow who appears anorexic these days. If she gets sick she has nothing to fight with which I find quite disturbing. At 5′ 7″ she weighs 127 pounds.

We will be back home on Friday. I have a 3-day weekend before I am back to work next week.

Wooden Buttons redux

I went to my favourite clothing store the other day and bought a blouse that had wooden buttons. So now the test will be to see if the wooden buttons break. I am still not convinced that plastic buttons break at all like Craig does from Our Green Year. I sure hope none of the buttons break because they did not supply a replacement. I will keep you all posted about the state of my buttons as I know some of you will be waiting with baited breath to hear what happens!

Another Four Years of Crap

I cannot believe we are stuck with Gordon Campbell and his band of idiots, criminals and downright heartless jerks for yet another four years. Many of the people in the BC Liberal party seem to have no qualms about breaking laws and continuing to think they have the right to serve the public. John van Dongen is the latest example with his speeding tickets and losing his license. Why should we be surprised? After all the Premier himself was arrested for drunk driving in Hawaii. The bar has been set pretty low it would seem.

What about the NDP? It would seem like people have very long memories in BC and are loathe to elect another NDP government. I think there are other things at work here. Carole James has been an effective leader. She has increased the party’s standing in the legislature from 2 seats to 36 seats in 2 elections. However, for the NDP, under Carole James, winning remains elusive. There are several reasons for this situation. I think Carole James does not have the charisma necessary to win. She is a strong leader but she sounds the same all the time. She stays on message but the message is boring. She does not inspire. She has provided stable, effective leadership to a party that was in complete disarray. The NDP need a new leader – a charasmatic individual who can inspire hope.

Antoher more daunting (and perhaps more serious problem) issue facing the NDP is the Green Party. If you add together the NDP and the Green’s popular vote you hit 50% which would have given the victory to the NDP. The NDP has always had strong environmental policy in their platforms. However, this time, I think Carole James mis-read the strong (perhaps bandwagon) support for environmental issues. Her stance on repealing the carbon tax because she thought it was the wrong tax and that the tax penalized ordinary British Columbians was great for the unions and the middle class but it did not sit well with environmentalists. If we are ever to get out of this mess with the BC Liberals, the NDP are going to have to get the environmentalists back on side.

Voter turnout for this election was a measly 52%. With such daunting issues facing the province like health care, education, the economic situation etc., there is something there that affects everyone. Where are the other 48% who did not bother to vote? There is no doubt that low voter turnout affected the outcome of the election.

I would like to see James replaced as leader of the NDP. I think she has done all that she can to move the party forward and she has done an admirable job. It is now time for someone younger perhaps and more charismatic to take over the leadership. James needs to make the decision sooner rather than later so that someone else has a chance to build support and relationships with key NDP supporters. Most importantly, the NDP needs to figure out how to tap into the environmental movement and siphon some votes away from the Green party who do not stand a chance of forming the government.

There is lots of work to be done. I only hope that those in the NDP realize what they need to do if they ever hope to get out of opposition.

The Inmates have Taken Over the Asylum – Part 2

It has been a long time since I have updated everyone about the dogs. Lots has happened at Chez Thomas so here we go.

We welcome Gemma Joy who came to us from SAINTS via Turtle Gardens. Gemma was rescued by Turtle Gardens up north where she was a puppy mill dog.

Gemma Joy after her shave

Gemmy is a shihtzu and is now starting to show all the characteristics associated with shihtzus. She is playful and tenacious and she is learning to play. She loves to cuddle and she just soaks up all the attention she wants. There are some concerns about her health as she had some mammary tumours removed (please get your female dogs spayed early, it reduces their chances of getting this awful disease by over 90%). Three tumours were removed and one was an aggressive cancer. The surgeons said they got good margins and we are hoping it did not metastacize before they removed it. She seems like a dog in good health:

Gemma Joy running on the dikes.

Gemma had many litters of puppies and now she is treating all of the toys in the house like her ‘babies.’ She carefully gathers them up and sleeps with them. It is both cute and sad at the same time. We are pretty sure that she does not think they are her ‘babies’ because she chews on their heads.

Gemma and her 'babies'

Everybody please think good thoughts for Gemma. She will have an x-ray in about a month to see if the cancer spread. We are so hoping it has not and that she will be with us for a very, very long time!

One other thing – Gemma is continent! She is the first dog from SAINTS we have had who is continent!!! It is the little things that are important!

Now on to Molly. She is the oldest of our dogs at 20. She is a former SAINT and she is still going strong. She does her ‘pilates’ everyday. Since Gemma Joy came she has been doing a lot more stretching so that she makes sure she is noticed. We had to shave her a while back because her mats got really bad. She hates to be combed and we do not want to unduly stress her out. We had her in a little sweater for some time because it was still cold.

Molly yawning - notice the lack of teeth!

Speaking of haircuts, the day Molly was shaved Deb and Angelina also shaved Clio and gave her a mohawk. I thought it was very mean and they thought it was cute:

Clio with a mohawk

Madison is now 16 and is deaf as a post. It seem to come on all of a sudden. We have been working with our vet to manage her pain. Unfortunately, the one medication that would really help her also causes gastric upset so we have to further reduce how often she gets that med.

Madison laying down

She is still mommy to all the little girls. We often see her curled up with them in the big beds.

Kirby is doing great! He has become quite self-actualized and is not afraid as much anymore. He loves going in the truck with Deb and she has a really hard time getting out of here without him. Kirbs is 10 this year! He loves getting jiggy in the morning and lives for his tummy rubs!

Kirby

Sienna, who is Angelina’s dog, lives  with us as well. Lately, our living room has been turned into a toy paradise and all she wants to do is destroy them. Poor Sienna! Sienna loves to play fetch and go to the park. She is a such a sucky pitbull (the way they are supposed to be) and she makes some incredible noises when her ears are being rubbed. She is also doing quite well in Rally-O.

Sienna

Tucker is our other foster dog from SAINTS. He has overcome his vestibular disease. Then he got giardia. He seems to be doing much better now that he has taken his course of flagyl. Unfortunately for Tucker he got stuck eating canned gastro food for the time he was on meds. It will be back to raw for him today.

Tucker at the dikes

Piper the punk is doing really well. We were worried that she would be upset and jealous of Gemma Joy. Nope all she wants is for Gemma to play with her. It is really quite amazing to see the efforst she puts into trying to make friends. I am sure, that over time, she and Piper will become a duo. They are already barking together as they guard the house.

Piper at the park

We are a little concerned about Mackenzie as her aggression seems to be escalating. She took Piper’s spot in Rally-O (because Piper has no obedience skills, sigh) and she is doing very well. Mackenzie loves to go to the park and chase and kill balls. We go through a lot of tennis balls!

Mackenzie at the dikes

And last, but certainly not least, is Kiefer. He is not the shy wallflower type. He talks a lot and soemtimes it is very, very loud. He is especially joyful in the morning. Kief lives to eat and does so with gusto. He is also very handy when I take too much food – usually the leftovers will all fit into his waiting mouth.

Kiefer at the water even though he does not swim.

Bella

I have saved the best for last. Bella, our Maine Coon cat, is in love. She adores Lynn. Her new favourite game is to crawl up on to Lynn and put her but in Lynn’s face while she kneads her. She will then turn around and knead other sensitive bits. This cat is no light weight either. She weighs 25 pounds and has talons for nails. Since Bella peed in Deb’s shoes everyone is afraid to do something to piss off the cat. Getting the cat off of Lynn can be a 2 person job now as we try to convince her that it was her idea to get down.

Life is never boring here!

Here is one last pic:

The notorious Bacon Sisters

I have bacon on the weekend the little girls all gather around and they share. Needless to say I do not get to eat much bacon!