Out behind the barn

Nope! My education wasn't from out behind the barn. Perhaps not far from it but a long ways from the education system of today. I'm not sure if that's for the better or worse. My education was based on the teachings from a small town, Nova Scotia, Roman Catholic parochial school.


While the nuns where strict disciplinarians, they were also avid teachers. Their lives being devoted to teaching rather than acquisition of wealth. Perhaps that's why so many of their teachings are still valid today. Almost daily I am reminded of some classroom discussions pertaining to events from today. As my education took place from mid 1940s to the later part of 1950s this is rather amazing, or at least it is to me. Things like the internal combustion engine being the single largest contributing factor in the destruction of the ozone layer. That there were companies back then that were striving to perfect the advent of the ultimate electric car. They advocated the use of wind energy as well as solar. I am sure that the nuns in small town Nova Scotia didn't invent this stuff.They must have garnered these bits of intelligence from forces supposedly in the know. So I have to ask myself, why is it, more than 50 years later, that we are still facing the same problems? Could it be that the nuns were forward thinking while our politicians are always covering the other end. Why have we allowed ourselves to become slaves to the oil industry when it was predicted by those same nuns half a century ago that the oil industry was corroding not only our atmosphere but also the minds of the people who had the ability to change it.

Is it going to stop somewhere?

It has recently been touted that PEI will soon be a world leader in wind energy. This is supposed to be a good thing. I am all for wind powered energy. However, I have concerns as to whether PEI is going about this in the right way. Is this another ill fated attempt by our political leaders to garner undeserved world recognition? I would like to know how this attempt at world leadership is being financed. By reading my light bill over the past year I would say that I am totally financing the project all by my lonesome.

From Oct./07 my rate for electricity was .1155 cents/kwh. In Oct./08 my rate had increased to .1553 cents /kwh. I'm not sure how they do their math nut according to my calculations that would amount to an increase of just under 35% in one year. Now, taking it a step further My bill in Dec. of 07 had increased to .1179 cents /kwh. A modest livable increase, if it stayed there. Obviously we know it didn't. Upon reading my bill for Dec. 08 I see my rate has moved up to .1604 cents./kwh. Again, according to my calculations that would be a 36+% increase in a year.

It keeps going up.

According to Statistics Canada, PEI has about the highest increases in cost of living. For sure our pay increases and pensions can't keep up to it. The last time I checked, the cost of living index for PEI was sitting at 6-7%. Our pensions and pay increases sit at around 1-3%. This is one of the basic reasons why the rich get richer and the poor pay for it.

I want to know if the increases in our power bills is going to finance the wind energy project, from which we get little, if any, benefits. Who actually benefits? Who actually gets paid for the energy that gets shipped off island, which more than 80% is destined to go? and who gets the accolades for being world leaders in wind energy, regardless of the cost to the citizens of the province?

Does PEI have a public utilities board? If so, what do they do? Is there anybody on the board who does basic math? Is there anybody on the board who cares about the citizens of PEI, who they are supposed to be protecting?

It won't be long now, the way these monopolistic companies, who are protected more so than the average Joe, before we will no longer need to go to the bank with our paychecks. We can just sign them over to the Govt. and let them send us a loaf of bread every once in a while. From where I am sitting, it doesn't look like that possibility is too far away.

Who is out there to answer my questions? Who is out there who cares enough to question their MLAs?

Holy Crappola! It's Christmas again! Where the heck did 2008 go? I guess I was too busy to notice it passing by. Now I can't say if it was a good year or not. I'm still here, so I guess it wasn't really bad. And we did manage to get a fair bit done on the house so it wasn't a wasted year. Anything not wasted is good I suppose. H0wever, even though my year has been rather productive and fruitful, Kathryn has had a less than enjoyable year with a hip out of alignment and causing a great deal of pain by pinching her siatic nerve. A Chiropractor helped for a while but his manipulations have worn thin as of late. She has waited since Feb. to get an appointment this past Monday to see a specialist only to find out her appointment had been changed to the previous Monday, so she had missed it. Luckily for her that tears still work, and they found an opening for her this Friday. Our present day politicians, seeing little possibility in garnering public recognition from the health care system don't hesitate to steal from it in order to fund projects that have a better chance to immortalize them. Sorry! Didn't mean to go off on a rant.

Here is some of what I did this past summer. I started off by stripping off the old, improperly installed cedar shingles. What a shame. I would have preferred cedar shakes to any other type of siding. However, these shingles had so many nails in them that they were unsalvageable. This was not a complete waste though, as the shingles make great kindling for anyone with a wood stove. Aaaaaahem! We replaced our wood stove with a pellet stove. However, the neighbours were glad to help us get rid of the shingles as they all still have their wood heating elements.

There were a few surprises along the way. After I had removed the cedar shingles and the black fiber board underlay I discoverd that the house had originally been covered by white masonite clapboards. Oh my! Something else to get rid of. The neighbours didn't want this stuff. Even thogh it burns, it's too bulky to handle for the fireplace. So I loaded it, the black fiberboard and the tarred felt into my utility trailer and off to the waste management plant we go. Now I had taken stuff there before, and it was always free. Not this time though. They let me in with my load of perfectly good refuse, but when I tried to leave after unloading, they wanted me to pay them. The lady said 35, and I was sure she wanted 35 cents as our waste management is supposed to be free. Being embarrassed that I didn't have .35 in my pockets as I very seldom carry any cash, as was the case on this day. I felt rather silly handing over my debit card for a .35 cent charge but it was all that I had. When I got my card and receipt back I saw i had no reason to be embarrassed as the charge was for $35 n ot the .35 cents. I made the decision from there that any furtherwaste would be burned in a outdoor fire pit or the old woodstove I had put out in the yard. The neighbours weren't really happy about all the black smoke emitting from our yard so I began waiting until after dark to burn so they couldn't see the black smoke. Some of the things you have to do to keep your neighbours happy.

My recommendations

OK!

So ya want a few $Billion to save some jobs! It's not my job that you're talking about saving, and I could care less about yours. However, I do care about the environment and the state of our economic woes. So here are a few things that I would recommend be included in the package.

#1. The Auto makers have to get out of the bed that they have been sharing with the oils magnates.

The technology has been available way too long to be ignored any longer to produce much more fuel efficient vehicles. Edison had the answer more than a hundred years ago. Electric cars are a viability today. There are much smaller companies than the "big three" who are developing EVs (Electric

vehicles) that not only have Formula 1 speeds but have the capabilities of going much longer distances between charges, with some having the added advantage of being totally recharged in a matter of minutes. Hydrogen as an alternative to gasoline in a hybrid vehicle. These are doable viables for companies with billions of other peoples dollars, mine included.

#2. Top executives have to forego their fat bonuses (or any bonuses) until they start to show profits again. And even then a cap should be imposed on bonuses. If there is that big a surplus that execs can grab hundreds of millions of dollars each year for overcharging the public for their goods, then the profits should go back to the people who supported them by buying their vehicle by lowering the price on their next years line of vehicles. I don't like the idea that I am funding some auto execs exotic paradise mansion while I'm freezing my butt trying to get the piece of crap I overpaid for started. Bonus for performance, not just because you want it. If the topped was trimmed to what was essential, there would be huge amounts of working equity. Make the people who manage to keep their jobs actually earn their pay. Some of us out here had our whole lives income based on productivity. I personally don't believe that any person should be paid for what he knows, but rather on what he does with what he knows.

#3. The unions will have to bend a little as well. I don't mean that they should have to take drastic cuts in salary, however wage cuts cannot be ruled out. Also, expectations on pay raises should not be expected until the time that bonuses are starting to flow again.

#4. The monies that you receive are not outright grants. They are repayable loans. In case of foreclosure, the Govt. stands at the front of the line for repayment. The loans should be monitored to be used for operational and development costs only, and not for repairs on Joe's swimming pool.

Tax shelters

Tax shelters don't apply to the average man/woman. They are chiefly designed to protect the income of the very wealthy. This means that the people who are making enough money to be able to afford to pay taxes, don't. Leaving the burden of the tax load on the middle class families, thusly affording an ever increasing income disparity. This is not likely to change in our foreseeable future because it would require changes to our tax structure, which can only be done by political consensus. This is not likely to happen, as most, probably all, politicians require the finances provided by tax deductable donations which come from the wealthy citizens and corporations that will , in turn, expect considerations in return. It is not the lower or middle class who are providing the bulk of the considerable costs of running a political campaign. So what does the politician owe to the people who provided next to nothing towards his/her race to victory? You guessed it. And who will have his/her tax shelters protected? Wow, you guessed it again. I need say no more. 10:30 AM 06/12/2008

Saving the "Big 3"? ......Why?

Saving the "Big 3"?

Why?

It has been known for decades that the internal combustion engine is the single largest provider of carbons into our endangered atmosphere. These industry giants have not seen it fit to provide an alternative to gas powered engines. On the contrary, they idealized the need to have larger trucks and SUVs while ignoring their obligation to provide more fuel efficient transportation. All three manufactures have consistently put out inferior quality vehicles and then found, or had inserted, loopholes by which they were able to sidestep their warranty obligations. I am not naive enough to think that I am the only person that this has happened to. I am also fully aware that all three have been guilty of this practice. Perhaps in looking after customer complaints might have eaten into the billions of dollars in bonus funds provided for executive level members on their combined boards. It has long been obvious to the average purchaser that the concerns of these execs. were not on the global effects of their products on the ecology or on putting low cost quality vehicles into the hands of the average potential buyers. I have to wonder why they waited until an off-shore manufacturer introduced a hybrid vehicle to the market before they started looking into that potential.

Electric vehicles are being manufactured by manufacturers with much less capital venture funds that were available to the "Big 3". GM is the only one of the three who has taken a step in that direction that I know of. And the possibility of that ever making it to the marketplace is becoming ever slimmer. At the rate that plants are being closed, it's a pretty safe bet that the "Volt" will be lost. Although I believe that the "Volt" would have been a step in the right direction, I also believe it to be a couple of decades late. However, better late than never, right? I will go so far as to say that the electric vehicle will be our mainstay method of transport in the not to distant future. God bless Edison! He had it right over a hundred years ago.

In my humble opinion, if there are funds available to the auto industry, they should have the stipulation that those funds be used solely for the manufacture of hybrid type vehicles with the emphasis on electric. My choice would be an electric/hydrogen combination. It is not an amazingly new discovery to know that hydrogen can be produced on the go, thus negating the need for fuel cells or a fuel storage tank. Batteries would propel the vehicle and produce hydrogen on demand to fuel a small motor which in turn recharges the batteries. Sounds simple enough to me. Can you see the potential Ford, GM, Chrysler?

We are currently the sad owners of a 2 year old GM produced vehicle and would gladly trade back for our 12 year old Toyota.

Pump price vs. cash register price

Yesterday I filled a gas can for my generator. I noticed the price on the pump read .809/L. The can was a 20L can so I knew it wouldn't hold $20 worth so I stopped it at $15. I went into the store and paid the $15 and didn't pay any attention to the receipt at the time. When I got home, I was telling the wife about the price being down to .809/L. Then I happened to glance at the receipt. To my amazement, the receipt said that I paid .856/L. After seeing this, my wife checked the receipt she had from a fill-up the previous day, which she said that the price showing on the pump was .82/L. Her receipt also said that she paid .856/L. These were 2 different stations and companies. Can anyone explain what is going on with this? I don't believe that I have ever checked my receipts as to price/L before. If the pump said that I had $40, I paid the $40 and went on my way thinking that I get my $40 worth. Now I'm wondering if some dealers have found a way to keep their price up without the consumer knowing it. I know I will be checking my receipts much more closely from now on.

Low-Fat White Sauce

LOW-FAT WHITE SAUCE

This can be used to lighten any casserole that calls for a white sauce.

6 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 cups low-fat (1%) milk
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 large egg, beaten to blend
1 teaspoon butter

Whisk flour in heavy medium saucepan to remove any lumps. Gradually add 1 cup milk, whisking until smooth. Add remaining 2 cups milk and nutmeg; whisk over medium heat until mixture thickens and boils, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Whisk in Parmesan, egg and butter. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over low heat until heated through before using; do not boil.)

Makes 3 cups.

Bon Appétit