A Thank You

Sunday was one of those days that reminded me that I'm a lucky guy. The best was when Jody called. She wanted to lend me a car for five weeks, so I might as well come for supper, Michael had cooked stew. Then she called Sally to get me a ride over.
So around 9pm, I was driving back into the neighbourhood, well fed, having enjoyed a supper that contained more than it's share of laughing, and I realize it's garbage night, people have been spring cleaning, and I've got a car.
But what's this? Right in front of my house, someone abandoned four wooden dresser drawers! I don't even have to load them into the trunk! They're right at my house!
I could bust them up for firewood, but you know what? They're just the right height to use as under-bed storage containers.
Thank you, Jody. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Sally. Thank you, person who carried four drawers over from Gladstone Street.

Making Money from Renewable Energy -- the David Taylor Plan

This past week the government of Ontario announced a new program called the Standard Offer Program in which they will buy electricity from small renewable energy projects:

Under the plan, the Ontario Power Authority will purchase electricity produced by wind, biomass or small hydroelectric at a base price of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour. The fixed price for solar will be 42 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Like most people, I saw this news and forgot about it. But not David Taylor. He put his mind to just how he could profit from it. And then he decided to share his method with the world. It makes me proud that he's chosen my blog as the route for dissemination. His diagram speaks for itself.

Electricity is purchased from Ontario Hydro. Electricity is generated by a rodent spinning a wheel. Electricity is sold to Ontario Hydro.

If you'd like to use this method yourself, I have a few notes:

• Dave recommends a guinea pig, however further research indicates that guinea pigs do not like spinning wheels and could even be injured by them. A hamster would be more suitable. [source]

• If you want to actually generate some electricty there is a detailed guide for building a hamster generator here, and an entertaining story about a lad who built a hamster-wheel cell phone charger and became famous on the internet but only got a C from his science teacher for it.

• While Dave's diagram indicates he would be getting the 11-cent rate for non-solar alternative power, I think an argument might be made that as hamsters eat plants to convert carbohydrates to energy and plants sunlight to convert CO2 and H2O to carboydrates, hamster power is really indirect solar and should be sold at the 42-cent solar power rate.
• However, asking for the 42-cent rate could draw attention to the secret black box technology and you might want to avoid that.
• If you're not quite getting how this works it's like this: (a) For your own personal consumption, you buy 1,000,000 kwh of power from Ontario Hydro at $0.05 per kwh. (b) Coincidentally, you sell Ontario Hydro 1,000,000 kwh from your "hamster generator" at $0.11 per kwh.

Links: Gov't of Ontario News Release; Backgrounder

A cartoon series with a lot of potential for growth

What is with the White Vans?

Ever since I've lived in this neighbourhood, there has been a used car lot on the corner of Lebreton and Gladstone. Last summer I noticed something different. The lot was full of white panel vans instead of the usual mixture of different automobiles and light trucks. After a few weeks, all the vans were gone.

Then a month or so later, the lot was full of white vans again.

After a while, they were gone.

This is the third or fourth time the lot has been full of white vans in less than a year.

Where do these vans come from? Who buys them?

Just asking.

Names for Law-Nerd Rock Bands

If any of you law students need a name for a band, here are several suggestions:

The difference between the willies and the heebie-jeebies

At dance class tonight, Peter led us through a Japanese foot massage. At one point we were using our fingers to rotate individual toes in circles and I noticed Lainie making a face.

"Why are you grimacing?" I asked.

"This gives me the willies," she said.

"It gives me the heebie-jeebies," said Peter.

"Which is worse: the willies or the heebie-jeebies?" I asked.

Ian spoke up with a certainty that surprised me. "The heebie-jeebies."

"What's the difference?"

"You can run away from the willies, but the heebie-jeebies can follow you anywhere."

Stop cooking with cheese?

It's the first day of spring. I was cycling along Gladstone when the temperature had almost reached it's high point for today: -3°C.

For some reason, I started thinking about that annoying series of commercials where an old lady tells people "Can't get your kids out of the house? Stop cooking with cheese!"

I wondered, how many people cook with cheese? The Italians do and they have a reputation for kids staying at home into adulthood. But the Chinese don't cook with cheese, and they've got a reputation for kids staying at home also. And if the kids are such big freeloaders, wouldn't it be smarter to just stop cooking everything?

I hear "stop cooking with cheese" and I think maybe the old lady is right. Isn't cheese high in saturated fat?

I pondered what if they'd done the opposite campaign: something like "don't want your girlfriend to leave? start cooking with cheese!" Someone I know who cooked roughly five meals in the last five years just moved into his own place near his girlfriend's apartment and word is he's cooking meals more than weekly. With cheese, I think.

What's all this got to do with the picture I've got here? Just after thinking all this about the cheese I saw this chesterfield with a snow bank resting on it.

Can't get winter out of your town? Stop giving it sofas to relax in!

Links:

• The fake ghost commercial
• Anti-cheese website: "Don't Say Cheese!"
• Pro-cheese website: Cheese Facts and Fallacies
• For non-Canadians: definition of chesterfield

Things I learned at the Vernissage

Michel learned from Andrew that the word "Vernissage" comes from the old practice of applying a coat of varnish to a painting as the final step. When the varnish has been applied, time for a celebration.

During a discussion about what Ottawans do with lost mittens, Michelle revealed that her husband Al expressed dismay about having lost a mitten one morning and within hours, she found the lost mitten on a fire hydrant marker.

Several weeks ago, she noticed a "scowly" woman on the street stop, bend over, pick up a mitten and place it on a sign post. She found it significant that even a person who appears to be having a bad day will take the time to elevate a lost mitten.

In further winter conversation, Michelle told us that after one snowfall this winter her snow shovels had vanished. No problem for our resourceful Michelle, she dug out her car with a large Rubbermaid container.

This prompted Davin to relate that he had also found an alternative winter use for a plastic storage container. When he couldn't find an ice-scraper, he cleared off his windshield with the lid from an Ikea food storage container.

It was at this point in the conversation that I took out my notebook to record these ideas for the blog. I could tell that Fran didn't feel happy that she hadn't contributed a blogworthy idea. I leaned over while the others were talking and told her I was sure she'd come up with something I could put in the blog. "Well, I do hoard those plastic disposable gloves you get at Herb and Spice and other bulk food stores."

"Ah, ha," I said, "that's exactly the kind of thing I'm interested in. What do you do with these gloves?"

"I have them in case I come across a doorknob I wouldn't want to touch."

"How often does that happen?" I asked.

"So far it hasn't..."

"but you never know when it could," I said, "so best to have some of those gloves around..."

"Yes," she said. "Davin thinks I shouldn't tell people this because it's kind of crazy..."

"Well, sure," I said, "of course it's crazy, but everybody is crazy in some way. Did you notice a bike outside with a broom attached to it?" She nodded and I continued, "it's mine."

Michel Thériault at the Manx

There's new art by Michel Thériault at the Manx for the next month and the vernissage is this Thursday, March 16, 5pm to 7pm. Michel will be there. His paintings are fun and under-priced if you ask me.

From his bio-sheet:

Michel Thériault is a New Brunswick Acadian, well-known in the Maritimes as a singer-songwriter. The "pop moutarde" singer, now living and working in Montreal, has two CDs and several radio hits. Recently, he has devoted more time to watercolour and has shown his work throughout New Brunswick.

Last summer, his exhibition, Bonhommes et paysages, was a big success at the Festivale Acadien in Caraquet, New Brunswick. His paintings, like his songs, present humourous and insightful perspectives of everyday life.

[Disclosure: Michel is a friend. But it's actually against my interest to tell you that his water colours are under-priced before I buy one.]

Neighbourhood Improvement?

Here in the Centretown neighbhourhood that many of us still think of as Dalhousie Ward, there are a number of signs that we are not in the Glebe. In addition to the houses being smaller and closer to the sidewalks and all the autobody shops, there's the pawn shop, the Money Mart, and the sex-trade workers. But a strange thing is happening -- some of these signs are going away.

Last summer, the Blue Moon porno store next to the Money Mart closed down and Dolmades Greek Delights opened in its place.

My energetic neighbour Pam finally had enough of the johns cruising the neighbourhood and started campaigning to make the neighbourhood safer. [Centretown News Story] I can tell you that if you're looking for a sex trade worker, there is no point cruising our corner any more. Word seems to be out. (On the other hand, over at Bell and Gladstone, there still seems to be a high likelihood of finding a woman looking for a "party".)

A few years after I moved here, the Invicta war memorabilia store turned into the Pawn-Da-Rosa. Today it has signs in the window that say "50% Off Everything Must Go!" and a big "For Sale" sign on the building. They're selling CDs for a dollar each. (There's a Shania Twain on the shelf, if you're interested.)

I'm eager to see what will go in there after the sale. [Tip for entrepreneurs: There's no Starbucks, Second Cup or any coffee joint for blocks and blocks!]

Okay, Dave, you're thinking, porno, prostitutes and pawn shops are on the decline, but you've still got the Money Mart bringing down the tone of the neighbourhood.

Yes, you're right, but maybe not for long. Last week the Supreme Court denied leave to appeal the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision to prevent MoneyMart from shutting down the Ontario class action lawsuit against them for charging criminal interest rates on their "PayDay" loans. [Toronto Star article here] If the class gets certified and they lose, could they go out of business? I don't know, but maybe, right? [Tip for entrepreneurs: Bronson and Gladstone would be a great corner for a fruit market!]

Of course, I shouldn't be so cheery about all this. If I ever do get burglarized, I'll have to go further to find the pawn shop with my cds and TV set. The people who can't get payday loans will go to loan sharks. And the johns? Maybe we're stuck with them, but I'd like to see them get a visit from the police every time they hit on a woman who is not a sex-trade worker. Maybe even a law that has them lose their drivers licence for a month for street solicitation.

Notes: Back from Spring; Train Travel Tip

I took the train to Toronto on Friday so I could be there for the Brass Band Festival. Sadly, I have very few photos due to a battery mixup.

I think this young woman was playing some sort of wargame on her laptop while waiting to board the train. Later when we boarded the train, she tried to get a seat at the back of the car, but they'd all been assigned.

After she moved up front to her seat, the young man next to me, a self-described veteran, told me that the back of the cars had the only outlets you could plug a laptop into. It didn't click until we were almost in Toronto that that is why the young woman had wanted to sit back where she might be spending the whole trip with limited foot room and someone across from her the whole time.

I want you to notice two things about this hydrant.

1. It has no hydrant marker. This means that nobody expects it to be covered with enough snow that firefighters would have trouble finding it.
2. It is surrounded by grass. Not by snow and ice.

See. Toronto.

Doesn't it look warm? People were walking around without coats. No toques. No mittens.

Meanwhile this is what it looked like in Ottawa when I got home. I've been good in recent years about accepting the weather. You know, that Serenitas thing "accept the things I cannot change, blah, blah, blah". But the cold 70kph winds today bugged me.

If you saw me in my Hawaiian shirt and wondered about it, I'm just lashing back at the weather. I'll get my serenity back and be wearing winter-appropriate shirts soon.

Lost and Found: Earring

Does anyone out there have an earring that looks just like this one? I do.

A letter to Darren Stevens

Darren, she could have given you the stars, and you put her in the kitchen.

"Magic is cheating," you said.

You ate meatloaf and macaroni when you could have dined on moonbeams.

Your work for Larry, it had to be your own. You could sell. You didn't need her help. Sure. Of course.

But think of the wonders you missed, the places you never saw, because you made her hide who she really was.

Spotting the Kayaks

I was walking home on Gladstone Avenue a couple of weeks ago when a woman walking in the opposite direction grinned at me and pointed over my shoulder. "Look at that! what a place for a boat!"

I said something reasonably appropriate in reply like "that's pretty wacky", but I wish I'd said "thank you".

I would guess the kayak got put out on the balcony in October at the latest. That means that I've bicycled or walked past it between eighty and a hundred times without seeing it. It was really good to get a reminder that there are interesting things to see that I'm missing.

p.s. [Happy International Women's Day!]

Dave Taylor and the Five Coats

Today we have a guest appearance from David Taylor. This piece originally appeared in the Ottawa Citizen, Nov. 26, 2005 and appears to have been ripped off by inspired a writer for the Times Online.

Our winter: Snow wonder you need five coats: One down parka won't do

When hosting visitors to Ottawa, I sometimes get asked about the origin of our city's name. I usually reply that Ottawa is the Algonquin word for "place of the people who have five winter coats". While my facetious comment usually doesn't get more than a brief chuckle, truth be told, this city seems unique in its winter fashion. And it's not that we are overtly fashionable. If one owns five different types of winter coats, it's purely for practical reasons determined solely by the variability of climate we get between October and April. Here is the list of my five winter coats and the respective reasons for their necessity:

The Parka: According to Environment Canada, Ottawa has about 20 days every winter where the mercury dips below minus 20 Celsius. By comparison, Vancouver has never had a day that cold -- ever. But as one friend's grandmother use to say: there are no such things as cold days, just cold clothes. My parka has a Gore-tex shell, goose down insulation, and a hood that covers my head, protecting me from the wind chill. It's puffy and bulky and makes me look like the Michelin Man.

The Long Wool Coat: If it is dry with no wind chill and the temperature is hovering between minus 15 Celsius and minus 10 Celsius, I usually opt for my long wool coat. It has the benefit of keeping me moderately warm while appearing more fashionable than my parka. It is also a convenient coat to have if one is going to a restaurant or pub where there is a shortage of hanger space. It can be easily placed on the spare chair at the table for four when there are only three in your party. That's another thing about Ottawans: we strategically dine in threes during the winter to accommodate our coats.

The Car Coat: If I'm able to stay out of the elements altogether, this is my winter coat of choice. I'll also wear it when the temperature is between minus 10 C and zero, which in a typical Ottawa winter is about every other day. It also doubles as my outdoor sport coat and comes in handy for skating on the canal. It has a detachable hood and is semi-waterproof for those few days we get every year when the morning starts off fairly cold but ends with rain, or freezing rain.

The Freezing Rain Coat: Yes, we Ottawans really need a freezing- rain coat. The sad fact about the location and topography of Ottawa is that it is more prone to have freezing rain than many of Canada's other major cities. The problem with freezing rain is that while it freezes when it hits cold surfaces, it's more like a cold rain when it hits you; hence, the need for a winter raincoat. Mine has the added luxury of a removable liner so that I stay warm while it repells water.

The Late Fall/Early Spring Coat: This is the favourite of my five coats, probably because I rarely get to wear it. I sport it when the temperature is between -5 C and 5 C. That tends to be in the seasonal transition months of November and March. It's actually two coats in one since it's reversible (which I'm guessing is an Ottawa invention by someone with little closet space). It's leather on one side and wool on the other.

Having to keep a stable of five winter coats presents some challenges to Ottawa's citizens -- coat rack and closet space being the greatest challenge. There is no room for visitors' overcoats in our hallway, and this is a house inhabited by two people.

Global warming may change everything for our city's future citizens. Perhaps one day our winters won't require five coats. Our descendants will wonder with bemusement why all the old homes had so many wall hooks, closets, and extra bedrooms.Though I bet they'll still need a freezing-rain coat. Mother Nature would never be so kind as to deny Vancouverites some climate related fact to lord over us.

Here is the article at the Timesonline. I understand Dave is consulting his advisors about his next steps. (I don't know how much support I can be. I only have 3 winter coats. The long wool overcoat, the leather jacket I wear under my reflective biking jacket, and the ratty ski jacket.)

Knitnut -- Lost Glove Alert and Dave X

I think that now that Zoom has gone and created a post just for me it's time I told you about her posting that made me add her Knitnut.net to my list of daily reads.

It was The Dave X Change Challenge. . It's a fascinating introduction to a fellow who lives on what other people lose or don't want and it describes a cool way that Zoom has got her entire workplace aware of the life of Dave X.

A Really Tricked Out Bike

Way back in 1984, I took an Emergency Medical Technician course at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I can't say that the course has ever helped me save a life, but I did gain a friend, my back-boarding partner, Ed Buckner. I've stayed in touch with Ed over the years. He's a good guy, the kind of guy who'd mail a package of spaghetti to a CUSO volunteer in Africa who mentions in a letter that he hasn't had spaghetti for a while and misses it.

Ed is an entrepreneur. Over the years, he has been involved in many different businesses. I'm always interested in what he's up to. In my second last email from him he told me he was involved in a mobility product in Chicago. I asked him to tell me more if it wouldn't require me signing a non-disclosure agreement.

The mobility product is the Conferenc Bike (or CoBi), and they're hoping to have twenty of them in downtown Chicago on intersecting loops so people can buy a day pass and get all around the city, or just go for a 15-20 minute ride.

According to the CoBi website:

Everyone who rides a Conference Bike lights up smiling.

It lowers inhibitions and after just a few minutes even complete strangers begin talking to one another. Children come running. Adults are transformed into children.

Ed says "the economics are amazing". I hope he's right, because I'd love to see them here in Ottawa going down Gladstone and up Elgin.