Hi, I don't disagree about the surcharge - but I don't want to have to pay it! Our bill is largely "delivery" as well as is our natural gas bill and I have the heat pumping. And we were one of the 10,000 Toronto residents who were selected for the smart meter trial program so while other people were burning every light in their homes and using every appliance at normal rates we were charged the variable rates. I don't think anyone should have had to pay the smart meter rates until everyone did. Same with the garbage bins - once again we were the first to receive them in Toronto - so were restricted as to what we could put out - whereas people on the other side of Yonge St. were putting out half of their house contents it often seemed (and no, we don't put out that much - but still). Then of course both of us have been called for jury duty - last time for me it was for a 4 month first degree murder trial. I know a lot of people who have never been called - and others who have gotten out of it for the most stupid of reasons. So I figure with just the two of us we are paying our share. Then there is the couple with hardly any health issues that can be treated who must pay for everyone elses' 12 prescriptions (the average - no kidding). Funny you should mention electricity though. You may have heard on the news just the other night that it is expect that hydro bills will go up 33% over the next 2 - 3 years. Apparently people are going to be allowed to purchase energy efficient windows and pay for them via their hydro bills - they sure had better be paying for ALL of their own windows - and what happens if they sell? More money for the real estate lawyer for sure. A disaster waiting to happen, I can see it now. I don't know what I am going to do next election - I am somewhat of an independent although there is one party I will absolutely never vote for - and the one I would have voted for has a leader that will cost them the election. Then of course there will be the Toronto elections - particularly for the mayor. I do have a candidate in mind unless he/she is endorsed by our ward Councillor and then it will be back to the drawing board. Re groceries I can't believe how much cheaper dairy is in the U.S. and meat. I read on this forum how much (little) people are paying for dairy and meat and I can't believe it. Of course, the dog gets only the best....And I did buy a $50 million Lotto max ticket for this week - I do not expect to win. Great that they tracked that woman down who won and had lost her ticket. It is a very good thing that she paid via her credit card and was the only person who had a cc purchase of $16 that day. I would be really ticked off to have 6 numbers but not the bonus for the 7th and only receive $115,000. But someone has to win, so why not me (or my dog, who might share). Should I win tomorrow night it will be a very long weekend waiting for 9:00 a.m. Mon. morning. I would have our banker come and take the deposit at the lotto office. A woman who won $12 million several years ago did exactly that. She told her bank that if they wanted the money to come and get it. They made the right decision. Oh, to be in that position.

Had a slight fender-bender in the early morning of Wed. at Lloydminster, an oil town on the Sask.-Alberta border - a van made a slight scrape on the front of the car while I was feeding my face ... pulling the bumper partly off, but it's stable and not a lot of damage. Had a good visit with sis-in-law and nurse niece (plus nephew that was at the reunion) in Edmonton, now bound back toward my brother's near Regina via a more southerly route, am to visit former colleague from Korea days in seniors' home in the village where she's sold her house, then back into Saskatchewan to visit Danielle and family. Had better get moving, so that I can see them after her driving lesson ... ... and before I deprive them of too much beauty sleep. Good wishes to you all. ole joyful P.S. Danielle not only told me where to go ... ... but how to get there! Lots of people tell us where to go ... but few give directions (maybe they haven't been over that road themselves). o j

Ed got home about daybreak on Sat. I-75 northbound was under construction, they sent us via I-275 toward (Ann Arbor? and) Flint, then to take I-94 from Chicago, meeting by the airport, to the bridge, with everything being torn up in the vicinity of the bridge, as well. I hadn't gone off of one of those roads to look for a library - stopped to pull a substantial chunk of retread tire off of the driving lanes ... that a truck hit and kicked around ... then a car hit, moving it over into the lane by the curb, so it was not difficult to get to it, when there was a pause in traffic. I got just past the middle of the Ambassador Bridge about 7, then had to crawl toward immigration clearance ... first in one line, then two, after while a third, then 4 - 5 ... appraching 10 green lights. It took something over an hour, part of the time I had engine off, I thought most of that time with lights off, also ... but when I got next to talk ... the engine wouldn't start. I pushed it forward ... slightly past the door of the booth, and the occupant suggested that I might like to stop to talk to him. After I was cleared - a short interrogation, engine wouldn't go, he wondered if I needed help, I said not just yet, pushed car out of booth area, then pushed some more ... down a slight incline (so water wouldn't puddle in a rain, I expect) ... ... and the car started when I flipped it into gear, let out the clutch ... even though it was travelling quite slowly. It was slightly after 8, I figured likely hard to find a library open, visited the other cousin than the widow of the one that recently died, that I'd visited on the way down ... they'd both been at the reunion, with families. Needed milk, to feed my addiction, didn't see store as I left Windsor, tried in Tilbury (freeway skirts town, accessible at both ends) ... cost was $4.79, which gave my wallet the chills. Usually buy for $3.99 at Shoppers' Drug Mart ... one along the regular highway route near the edge of the city wasn't open ... got 4 litres (3.78 litres to U.S. gal.) at $4.59 which, though it caused some wallet-chill, was not serious enough to scotch the deal - so, at around midnight, my needs were filled and I was ready to head home. A few blocks up the street, several police lights flashing ... when I got there, it was RIDE ("Rejecting Drunk Driving Everywhere" ... or is that "Reducing?). When the guy asked where I was coming from and I said, "Georgia", he was somewhat surprised. Their checkpoint was visible for some distance, so I imagine that a driver approaching it still possessing some residual brain function would think that he heard a call from A side street. A few miles farther along the regular road, about three towns away, I felt rather tired, so pulled into a side street for a nap. Or so I thought. When I awoke, wondered where I was ... then decided that I was in the car ... with seat belt on ... to keep me from fallng out of bed, I guess. Looked at watch: 4:30 ... so it had been an extended sleep. Arrived home about an hour later, just as dawn was approaching. A couple of heavy digging machines in front of the house ... landlord's planning to build a third pond between the barn and the road, just in front of the garden. When I went out to check the garden ... I found that the (quite large) pond's already dug. He wants to irrigate the sod - has a bunch of aluminum pipes and a large reel with a spray gun on the end of the hose. Cucumbers are dying - again, as they did in other years. Corn is in silk stage, tomatoes are large and setting fruit, there are peas and beans, beets are large ... radishes are going to seed (many of them split) and lettuce, having been neglected, is spurring up, ready to go to seed. There are some zucchini ready to use (some rather large) and (large quantity of) round green squash are starting to bloom. Need to go pick some peas, beans, etc. to take to churches tomorrow. Glad to be home: think that I'll stay for a while. ole joyfyul

I haven't been out much this week - staying home and getting the establishment more or less back in shape. An art show has take over the village church today, and when I saw one of the old guys walking down the street away from the church, I'd forgotten that we were to meet at a seniors' apartment building this week, till I got to the church, then as I was going to the meeting place, passed him, there was traffic (four-lane street), I went down a short way and turned around, came back to pick him up. He was nowhere to be seen ... I almost went into a store there ... then saw someone walking down a side street, drove down there, picked him up and we went to the Old Farts' Coffee Hour. I wrote a story about the church magazine's situation, our discussion group, and my getting to know the other members in a much more in-depth situation than we usually find, maybe it would be a good idea to suggest it for other churches, to send to the magazine. I'd checked it with the minister of that church and went to pick it up today: she had minimal suggestions as to editorial revisions. Had a good visit with another cancer survivor that I've known for a dozen years, both members of an investment group: he'd had radiation and chemo at the same time, not a pleasant experience, and one doc had suggested that he might have only a few months to live ... but he's still here, and going strong. Fewer visits to bathroom, so feel that I'm on a much longer leash. At one grocery store today a staff person had picked up a stray bag of milk, and another said that he was careful about picking up stray items near the bathroom when the door was closed ... and a man came out just then to reclaim his bag. I thanked them for having that available bathroom, as I had made good use of it several times in recent months, sometimes when given quite short notice from an interior authority of an essential change in my plans. Weather's been rainy and chilly, but warmer, and the landlord cultivated both gardens yesterday, initial pass. He took out a full tractor trailer load of sod, yesterday afternoon: I was embarrassed, for I hadn't removed some of the stakes. So I guess that spring has finally sprung. "Spring is sprung ... the grass is riz ... I wonder where ... the flowers is?". Actually, forsythia and daffodils are out ... and some grape hyacinths down behind the shed. Can't resist this: one of the items passed around at the Old Farts' was a colour "pic" of a rather rough landscape, with a smiling civilian with an automatic rifle in a saddle atop a moose carrying large antlers ... titled, "Canadian Border Patrol ... watching for illegal Americans". Hope you're all having a good day - good wishes for the rest of the week. ole joyfuelled ... who, sitting at table right next to the stove, forgot to turn the burner off under the stew pot last night ... and had some scraping to do as a result