January 27, 2023
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Home Depot Hi-Jinx

If you’ve followed the news over the past couple days, you will have read or heard about Home Depot getting caught selling customer data to the folks at Facebook without customer permission. Since 2018, they’ve been asking customers at checkout if we would like to receive an emailed receipt instead of a paper one. Those are the folks whose data has been sold.

From the start, I had assumed they were selling the information. That’s why, when asked, I generally say, my customer data is valuable and I don’t give it away for nothing. Usually I offer to sell them my email address for $200 cash. Of course the cashiers just look at me like I’m a crazy man. Several have promised me they don’t sell my data. Liar, liar, pants on fire! All this is to say that I’m not surprised, not even a little bit. I doubt it’s just Home Depot either, though they’re the company with the media target on their back right this minute. I bet loads of big corporations do this routinely.

These days, consumers have become product. What we buy, where we shop, how often we return and more – these days it all has value. I’m willing to play ball, but not for free. Maybe we should all produce personal rate cards to present to companies when asked for valuable information. I’m not inflexible. I would accept store credits in return for data.

Ever since Loblaws cooked up the Great Bread Price-fixing Scandal a few years ago and brought their competitors on board, I’ve simply assumed we’re being systematically scammed at every turn. I’d like to be proved wrong. Enough with the conspiracy theories, Eugene, companies don’t do that! Right? Now Home Depot has shown us that maybe there is truth to my sad assumption.

I think all the money Home Depot made surreptitiously selling customer information should be divvied up among the victims. What? How could they do that? Well, they do have the data. Shame on you Home Depot.

January 18, 2023
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The Shining Birch Tree

I came across this video from 1992 on the YouTube – with Wade Hemsworth and the McGarrigles, and Adrienne Clarkson, who went on to become Canada’s Governor General. I had seen Mr. Hemsworth perform either that year or maybe it was the year before, when Mariposa was in Barrie. I guess he only wrote a couple dozen songs but they’re all great songs, some of the finest songwriting this country has heard. I think as Canadians, The Blackfly Song and The Log Driver’s Waltz have become part of our DNA over time. I’ve watched this video many times of the years. In it, Wade and Kate and Anna sing part of The Shining Birch Tree – in my opinion his greatest song. “In the quiet of the evening when the camp settles down, and the night is cold, so very cold, and Old Rory Bory start shiftin’ around, shiftin’ around…..then you think of the warm lips and the laughter so free, in the land of the muskeg and the shinin’ birch tree, the shinin’ birch tree.”

Here’s Mr. Hemsworth’s original recording of The Shining Birch Tree. Maybe you’ll agree, it’s just perfect.

January 4, 2023
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Dogless for the first time in 15 years

With George’s passing in December, we find ourselves without a dog in the house for the first time in a long time. It feels strange and empty, and of course we miss our Georgie. For most of the past 15 years, we’ve had two Newfoundland dogs in the family. Already, we’re thinking we’d like to adopt a dog, if we can find one who is a good fit for us. There are many dogs available a local rescues, but finding one who is cool with cats who think they run the house is perhaps more challenging.

We’ve been looking at the websites for the various rescues. “Untested with cats” is a label that comes with most of the listed dogs. Of course that doesn’t mean they would not be good with the cats, just that we don’t know. When we adopted Ellie Mae, she was about 5 and she thought cats were for chasing. However, it only took about a week of umbilical training and she was fine, never again showing any aggression to cats in our home.

I think it will take some time, but it is time well-spent since a new addition to the family is a long-term commitment and we want to find a dog who is a great fit for us. We’re also mindful of the fact that we are getting older – so maybe we don’t want to have another giant on our hands, or a dog with serious behaviour issues. We don’t need to find a fancy pure-bread dog, and we’re fine with taking in an adult dog. In fact, we would prefer an adult dog to a puppy.

We’re going to fill in the application forms for a couple rescues and see if we have any success getting matched to an appropriate canine. We haven’t adopted from a rescue organization before, but we did attempt to do some several years ago. Unfortunately, that wasn’t successful and wasn’t a great experience for us.

I’ve looked at some of the application forms from rescues and some are quite involved, with interviews and home visits, in some cases including unannounced home visits. Totally understandable. One rescue wants 3 references + a vet reference. That’s pretty thorough. We have a fenced yard, which is a requirement for adopting many of the rescues – but the fence is just a four-footer, so an athletic dog could potentially easily hop it. Our Newfs were never in danger of hopping anything. In any case, I know we have a good situation for the right dog, and I’m sure in time we’ll make it happen.

If anyone knows of a nice dog in need of a home, don’t hesitate to reach out. Also, if you’d had really positive experiences with particular dog rescues, please feel free to share your experiences in the comments.

December 30, 2022
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Ian Tyson RIP

Back in the early 80s, I finished school and headed west. I had an old car and a bit of cash and I wanted to see a the west. Once I hit the prairies, I heard Ian Tyson singing cowboy songs on just about any radio station I tuned into. By the time I got home, quite a few of those songs were running through my head. I listened to so many of his songs over the years.

Ian Tyson was a great singer, a fabulous songwriter, and maybe even a national treasure. RIP

Filed under: RIP
December 29, 2022
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The Birds Out Back

Temperatures are mild this morning and it’s even a little sunny. The birds out back are very active. Lately we’ve seen lots of chickadees and nuthatches and juncos, but this morning there were goldfinches, house sparrows, mourning doves and house finches.

The goldfinches lose their bright yellow colour in the winter and that process seems to be happening now. Some of the goldfinches I watched this morning still had some bright yellow, but others had hardly any yellow showing.

When I see the house finches, I recall a description of them I read somewhere – suggesting they look like a bird that has had raspberry jam poured over its head.

Groups of mourning doves perch in the old apple tree for hours some days.

It isn’t nesting time, but the house sparrows occupy some of the bird houses this time of year.