Poor little squirrel.

This is not a happy post. Kinda sad actually you have been warned.
I was on call today. I was at a bar fixing their ice machine. I had to make a call so I went out to my truck. As I am talking I notice a squirrel a couple meters away, I though this was odd ans they rarely get so close. I approach slowly and he does not run away, then I see why. His skin/fur is intact but both his back legs are kinda dragging behind him as if his pelvis is crushed. He isn't whimpering or making any sounds that he is in pain although I am sure he was. I go inside and tell the cook, he comes out and says "We need to put him out of his misery" it sucks but I agree although want no part of it, he says he will feed it then take care of it. I go back to the ice machine. He comes back a few minutes later saying he just can't do it. Being a country boy he admitted to having killed animals for similar reasons in the past but this time he just could not do it. A customer hears this and decides to check it out. I did not go back out but the customer returned after a few minutes with a bloody hand, not sure why but he decided to pick up the injured squirrel. He got himself cleaned up and bandaged then said he will take it with him alive. He is concerned about rabies, he didn't say exactly where he was going to take it but I assume the humane society. I hope he will be OK and that the poor little squirrel is out of his misery now.

Big or small?

Mom and pop or big box? Which is better? A simple answer neither. Both have advantages and disadvantages. 

Lets start with the big box stores, being big well they have lots of stuff it's pretty convenient to walk into one building and get all you want. The prices are usually lower than smaller stores always a good thing to save some money. Once you have been to one you have been to all, I love new things when vacationing but if I lose my luggage I know I can walk into a Walmart and pick whatever I need. Hours of operation are also pretty good at many of these store, I am not a huge shopping fan, but if I do need something after 17:00 I can get it.

The mom and pop store well if big is good so is small. If I am looking for something unique it can be much easier to locate in a small store. The staff care more, a little bit of a generalisation but if the owners also work the cash register they want their business to succeed. If you decide to open say a plumbing supply store chances are you know a thing or two about plumbing. The quality of products sold can be much higher of course this is reflected by a higher price. If there is a problem with your new product it's much nicer to deal with a real decision maker than a customer service specialist. 

So there you have a basic list of why both have advantages, now why the hate for the evil big box? They kill the mom and pop store, this can be true and it is unfortunate but we live in a capitalist society if customers chose the competition over you well that's just the way it is. They pay "slave wages" I think that argument here is not what they pay their employees but what they are allowed to pay them depending on the state/provincial minimum wage, if you don't think it's enough to live on full time minimum wage lobby your government to increase it. The problem with that is the cost of living always goes up, sadly minimum wage will never be enough. I will say the practice of having very few full time employees in exchange for benefit free part timers is a practice I do not agree with. That being said is this really only a problem with the big box stores? 

Almost time for school

As you may or may not know I work as a refrigeration technician, technically  I am still an apprentice. Part of my apprentice training requires that I attend school three separate occasions, this will be my third round after that I can write the test for my licence. School is actually kind of a nice break from work. I would not call it a vacation but the day are pretty short and since school is in Toronto I get to stay at my friends's place. Since my days are short I make dinner most nights, I am not a good dinner maker under normal circumstances since I have trouble planning ahead of time what I will want to eat, once I get home I just want something quick. This way I am home in the early afternoon and at that point I can usually decide what I want and I have time to prepare it properly. It's also nice to prepare food for non picky adventurous eaters.
I am hoping to check out some Toronto eateries while in the area, dim-sum is already on the list I have yet to try it but I am told it is quite good, and quite cheap too.
As for school itself I am hoping to get the same teacher again that I got the last two times, he is a good guy and knows how to make sometimes boring subject matter interesting. I do not think I will get my wish though, last time there the third round teacher was a different guy, I had him for one class in round one, he is actually an interesting guy but his teaching style is not optimum to my learning style, I might actually have to study with him.
Well that is all for this week.

Zero tolerance for Zero tolerance.

Recently a law was passed, a zero tolerance law. The law states that persons under the age of 22 can not drive with any alcohol in their blood. First off I do not condone drunk driving, or for that matter "buzzed" driving, but this is not how we should try and stop it. In a radio interview today, a politician involved in enacting this law(sorry didn't catch her name) was saying that this law is to help change society's attitude towards drinking and driving, a noble effort but there are other ways. The interviewer even asked if this zero tolerance law would eventually apply to all age groups, she didn't give a clear answer but started talking very political like.
There is no doubt that alcohol will affect ones ability to drive, the question is how much? When you hear of an accident where "alcohol was a factor" what does the really mean? Is alcohol a factor if I crash my car with a BAC of 0.05, what if I was simply hooning about and lost control, was the alcohol really a factor? What I really fear with this is the innocent person who had a few drinks earlier in the day, had a meal then gets into his car for what ever reason thinking the alcohol is long gone, wrong, it's still there, now he does still need to get caught but he does and a drunk driving charge is not a good thing. "Well he should not have drove" some will argue but you tell me how you know when your BAC is at 000? A night out drinking, when can you drive again? the next morning, noon, afternoon?
Zero Tolerance just doesn't make sense, be it for school yard violence, drinking and driving or even murder, yep murder if there was a zero tolerance law what do you think would happen in self defence cases?

Why do I feel guilty?

It's not Wednesday but I had something to say. Why is it that I feel guilty for refusing to take an extra night On Call? A guy at work asked my to cover him for Saturday evening to Sunday morning. I don't have any actual plans but I am not really in the mood. I just got off the pager Monday morning and I would like a weekend to relax. I told him I would think about it and this morning told him unless it was something important (friends wedding) it was a no. He seemed a little disappointed but said never mind. I still feel guilty though, it was the same thing back in the Bingoland days I didn't want to cover a shift yet I would feel guilty and end up saying yes. At least now it is more likely that the favour will be paid back, but when? The guy who asked me is a real good guy but I can't expect him to drop his plans last minute if something comes up on one of my Saturdays On Call. The thing is there is a very good chance if I do say yes nothing will come in, I get to be the good guy and I don't actually have to do anything, yet as I said before, it's not really the work itself that bothers me when On Call it's the not knowing where or when, also if parts are needed for a big fringe or freezer it can be a major pain to track down.

Anyway I am still contemplating calling tomorrow to say yes, but I will not be happy, wish me luck sticking to my word.

Thank you

I have come to find out that I have at least 7 followers on my little blog here. Sure in the grand scheme of the internet that isn't much but it's more than I thought and there may be even more than that.
I have temporarily located for a little over a week so that I can dog/house sit for Colin's aunt and uncle. They have a jack russell, she is a pretty easy going dog, although she is blind so I have to be sure not to cut her off or she will bump into me. The house itself is also pretty cool, there is a party hut at the back of the yard.
I am also reporting this week from a MAC, I was originally thinking of bringing my own computer but they have internet through bell, unlike cable I would need to login and I don't want to mess with that. I won't bash the MAC quite yet all I have really done so far is open up Firefox to surf the net. Do people even say surf the net anymore? I will say I am not happy with the mouse though it just feels cheap to me.  I don't know what this house is made of though because the cell phone reception sucks indoors, yet is fine outside.

My week on call ended on Monday morning so I actually had a day off to relax a bit before heading back to work. So far the week has flown by. I am looking forward to a proper week end though. I know a guy who is heading to the Grand Bend dragstrip Friday, I know the MINI isn't really a drag car but I may take it out there just for a pass or two, it's always fun going fast without worrying about the police.  I may ed up chickening out though State Farm is not likely to pay out if something were to happen, even if it is rather unlikely. It will be fun to watch either way.

I have been reading Richard Hammonds book  On The Edge, it's pretty good, but I was under the impression that it was a little more about how he got to be on Top Gear and his life as a motoring journalist/enthousiast. While that is covered it is done so rather quickly. The book is more about his accident with the jet powered dragster and his recovery. Severe brain injuries can be scary. The funny thing is my first day here I notice the "Uncle John" has the same book on his bookshelf. Had I waited a week to order it I could have read it for free.

Well that is all for now. I may actually update sometime before next Wednesday, I had a subject in mind earlier and forgot what I wanted to talk about, I was driving at the time so writing a note was not possible.