Grandpa Richard Speaks

Driving is a full time job. At least it is when you are driving.

Grandpa Richard is not a distracted driving type of guy. I tend to leave the stereo tuned in to a single station. I never text while driving. I don’t even answer calls when driving. If I was expecting a call, I will let it go to the answering service and stop as soon as I can to return the call.

Yes. I know about blue tooth gadgets, but hands free is only that – hands free. It is not brain free.

Despite all those safety oriented habits, I still suffer from distracted driving.

How so, you ask.

My brain wanders.

If the drive is boring, I sometimes almost zone out. I have had some close calls over the years. Hey, I am a grandpa, so by “years” I do mean lots of them. I really believe that it is only by divine guidance that I have never been in an accident with another vehicle that was caused by moi. I was rear ended once, but it was the other guy’s fault, and no reportable damage was done to my vehicle. It already had lots of scratches!

That said, I am really taking a beating for my most recent close call. Who is giving me the psychological thrashing? I am. It was a stupid incident, and, again, divine guidance (or fate if you so choose) saved me.

I was driving home from a relaxing trip to the big city (Toronto), during which I had coffee with a former co-worker (thank you VS), had a great conversation with a young photographer at a retail store (thanks so much Bryan), and completed some other tasks. I was on the short south bound stretch of the 403 as it heads towards the Ford plant in Oakville, doing the limit, which is 100 k/h at that point. I was definitely not following too closely. I am not sure, but I would guess I was close to 5 seconds behind the driver in front of me, on dry pavement, and with perfect visibility.

That driver’s brake lights went on, which is to be expected as cars start heading around the curve down to join the QEW. I think I took my foot off the gas, but did not bother with the brakes. What I did not notice (was I zoned out?) is that the cars had come to a complete stop. By the time I realized that, it was too late. I hit the brakes but I realized immediately that I was not going to stop in time.

Meanwhile, the driver in front of me had pulled part way off to the left (I think he was also surprised by the sudden changes) and I started pulling to the right a bit. I do not know how close behind me there were cars in the right lane. No time to look, but I know there was no one right beside me. I just missed the 2 cars in the left lane, and then I was in the right lane with no cars close in front of me. No noises from behind me, and then I could see that there was a car about 2 car lengths behind me.

I looked in the rear view mirror again, and there was a lot of smoke and dust going up in the air as lots of other cars braked hard.

Once I knew I was safe, I had this horrible feeling about what had just happened. I wanted to get out and apologize to the driver in the right lane that I had cut off. And above all I felt this horrible guilt and a deep desire to be able to transport back 1 minute and change what had just happened.

We can’t do that. No time machines. When it comes to things like driving, do what is right the first time. You can’t fix it later, and if your mistake causes an injury, or worse yet, a death, you will never be able to totally forget it.

Driving a ton of metal is a full time job. Concentrate every second.

There have already been articles in the newspapers about how a dash cam has helped an innocent person prove their innocence against another driver. One case in particular is burned into my memory. Perp backed up on purpose on 401 when traffic was at a standstill. Then they got out of vehicle grimacing in pain (fake) and holding their neck, asking the driver behind them why they rear ended them.

Cop shows up and the 2nd driver shows cop the video from a dash cam. The perp tried to back up his story. Too late. Busted.

Fast forward several years. Are dash cams about to become standard on all cars, recording data for use by police and insurance companies?

That is the suggestion is this article.

What about Grandpa Richard? Yep, dash cam in place, recording about 90 minutes of video before erasing oldest 5 minute chunk and recording a new one.

According to this article in The Star, “Few noticed last year when RBC’s Nixon was entrusted with the keys to Ontario’s economic future by then-premier Dalton McGuinty. Lavishing praise upon this lavishly paid banker — $12.6 million last year — McGuinty described him as the perfect fit to head the new Jobs and Prosperity Council that would diagnose the province’s economic ills and prescribe thoughtful remedies.”

You have to be kidding. The Jobs and Prosperity Council? Headed by a banker who likes outsourcing to foreigners!!!

I hope Mr. Nixon did the right thing and resigned, or that Ms. Wynn fires him.

See the story in the Star about the Royal Bank style outsourcing from an agency’s viewpoint.

Don’t ask the government to do anything about this. They already use some of the same techniques. How can they point a finger at corporations when they are on the same path.

I don’t know of any cases of the Ontario Government using “foreigners”, but they use some of the techniques described in the above article. Why? Well, you lay off employees, then replace them with contractors. Then you tell the voters that you have decreased the employee count. Political brownie points follow.

Or, how about using techniques that will avoid CRA (Canada’s tax group) applying the “contractor or employee” rules.

Don’t just pick on corporations. Talk to your MPP about the government’s shameful actions.

(p.s. This, to me, is part of the “letter of the law vs. spirit of the law”. The Royal Bank claimed that it followed the letter of the law, and I am sure they did. But all laws have loop holes. What our governments and corporations need to do is follow the spirit of the law. Don’t use the loop holes.)

Was doing one of my favourite activities last night – grocery shopping! I really love doing that.

Saw that my all time favourite granola was on sale. I seldom buy it as even on sale it is expensive. Just about as happy buying no-name brands, or even making my own.

But, the price was really great this time. Wow! And right there near the top of the packaging were the words, “New lower price.” Double-wow!!

Then I noticed the weight. 500+ (forget actual number)

Those dirty rotten …..

Of course it is a lower price. You lowered the size of the product!!!

(on a per 100 g basis, even on sale, it is still more expensive – AND, I hate it when companies try to fool us with smaller sizes at lower prices)

Grandpa Richard

How often have you uttered that phrase, “It’s the principle of the matter”?

It is often used when you want to continue battling an opposing view, even though there are no real consequences either way, or the consequences are inconsequential? (wow – those last 3 words look good together. LOL)

Let’s examine a real life example. One dear to my heart (er, stomach).

I love having my oatmeal for breakfast. The long cooking variety. (and I am looking at introducing the steel cut variety!) I add in some frozen fruit, a banana, and a sprinkling of sunflower seeds.

For years I have been buying 2.25 kg bags of the oatmeal. No Name brand of course. Rarely on sale, but the regular price made it a better deal than on sale name brands. When I moved in late in 2012 I had trouble finding a supplier in my new surroundings. Finally found one and would usually buy 2 bags at a time.

One day recently I went to buy more, and none was on the shelf. I went asking and was told they did not carry it anymore. Oh woe is me, I thought. To have to buy a famous brand at a ridiculously high price was abhorrent.

I was bemoaning all of this to a friend and they asked how much of a dent this was going to make in my budget. Valid question. All I could utter at the time was that, even on sale, the name brand was 25% more. 25% !!!!!

Several days later, the friend’s question was bugging me, so, having some vestiges of the disease my ex labelled me with, detailitis, I set about to do the math.

I had an unopened bag of the name brand oatmeal. I opened it and carefully measured out how many servings were represented. 25. I assumed that it would be the same for the no name brand, for the same weight.

On sale, the name brand was $2.50 and the equivalent sized no name version was $2.00, a difference of 50 cents, or 25%. (please note the huge 25% – how would you feel if your pay was cut that much) Divide that 50 cents by the 25 servings, and you get 2 cents per serving. Hmmm. Not very impressive when converted to pennies. That massive 25% difference translated to 2 cents per day in increased costs, on a breakfast that I now estimate costs me about 75 cents in total.

Bottom line.

A 25% increase in the cost of one item in a recipe led to a 2.7% increase in the entire recipe. In my case, $7.30 a year.

But, it’s the principle of the matter.

Grandpa Richard

James Cameron’s Avatar was awesome. I can remember watching those little 3D flower like things floating down just after the 2 main animated characters met. I was very impressed.

But was the story original?

Seems that Mr. Cameron’s lawyers have been busy ever since the movie came out. Many writers claim they had the story before Cameron, and in some cases even tried to interest him in theirs. He continues to claim that he already had the story in his head before any of them approached him.

James Cameron Uses Xenogenesis Film To Fight Avatar Lawsuit

http://atlantablackstar.com12/13/12

A recent example is the highest grossing movie of all time, Avatar. Writer director James Cameron (pictured) and Lightstorm Entertainment are reportedly fighting multiple lawsuits concerning the film, one in particular from a …

James Cameron, Fox Get ‘Avatar‘ Copyright Suit Dismissed – Deadline

http://www.deadline.com9/18/12

There are 5 or 6 other lawsuits pending against Cameron for Avatar. Apparently he ripped off everyone who ever wrote a science fiction story about another planet. His story was generic and cliched but he had an enormous …

Avatar Trailer The Movie (New Extended HD Trailer)

Avatar: The Movie New 2nd Trailer [HD] Director: James Cameron Release: 12/18/2009 Genre: Action/Adventure Studio: 20th Century Fox Website: www.avatarmovie….