Obsolete and Not Aware?

The other day I had to go and pay a speeding ticket ( The first one since 1972). It turns out that the court house was closed, motor vehicle registration wanted $10 to process it and asked "why not mail it?" What a novel idea! Down to the post office I went and paid my 65? cents and the job was done. Now the other options were to use Paypal or Visa online. While standing in line I kind of asked myself "Why am I mailing this?" The other options were free. This caused further thoughts such as " In hard times, why does the P.O. still exist?" And , "If it were to disappear tomorrow, would I miss it?" The Government is always looking for ways to cut costs. Is this not a candidate? Our mail is mostly flyers and bills (which are paid automatically, so would we miss it? Not sure!

How about you? Is the post Office a near-extinct function?

Two Standards?

I was watching the news the other night and heard (again) that smoking is bad for your health, that it is a direct link to cancer and other nasty ailments. It appears the Canadian Government is concerned enough that they are talking about putting more vivid pictures on the packages, as people are getting complacent about the old ones.

They are also concerned about the cost to our medicare system in the future, that it will be a horrendous burden on the taxpayer.

The Government folks are also talking about increasing the tax on cigarettes to again discourage people from smoking.

Now, every time that you finish a pack in Canada, you have just smoked up a $10 bill so to speak.

If they increase the price to $15 per pack, will it stop people? History says "not likely".

The part that gets me is the government makes tremendous revenue from the sale of tobacco. Now, how can they push push people into quiting, yet enjoy the tax revenue?

How about hiking the tax way up AND put all revenue from the sale of tobacco into the Medicare system to help offset the cost of treatment? After all, to smoke or not to smoke is a choice that the individual makes. In other words, let the user pay!

Did I ever smoke? Yes, but I chose to quit cold turkey 36 years ago.

What are your thoughts about this social problem?

Why Engineers are a Pain!

Today was get the truck ready for winter. So, down to Canadian Tire I go to get the oil, oil filter and other goodies. I drained out the old oil which was pretty gross, then tried to get the oil filter off. No way would my filter wrench fit over the filter. Back down to Can Tire to get a larger wrench. Well, this is about where I hit the problem. I could see the oil filter, but I couldn't get at it. I could just barely see it from top. I could barely see it from the bottom. If I looked in over the front left tire I could see it and just barely get the wrench on it. Then I found that there was no room to turn the wrench, even with the swivel handle. Grrrr! Professional Engineers!

Finally, I was able to turn the wrench about 1/8 inch at a time to loosen it up. Now, I ask you, what engineer in his right mind would put an oil filter that is supposed to be changed every 5000 km, in such an awkward place. It's no wonder that there are so many Found On Road Dead vehicles. Who takes their vehicle back to the point of purchase and pays $125.00 / hour shop rate? The one stop oil change locations are also pretty pricey. If I ever get to one of those, I am going to do a visual ( with a mirror) on the replacement filter, 'cause I can't see a guy making $14.00/ hour going to all that trouble.

I thought that maybe this was the exception, so I looked at the wife's Government Motors vehicle, and it was even worse! The same idiotic design engineer must have been working for both companies!

Hint, when you get your oil changed at a service company, make sure that they actually change the filter!

My rant to start the week!

Popping Stumps

In the good old days before the world went mad, I would have brewed up a mess of low grade explosive and popped these dudes the easy way! Now, I'm forced to do it the armstrong method. One of the handiest tools on the Acreage is the good old hickory handled pick axe. Mine is my grandfathers, made by Garant way back about the turn of the century (not this one, the last one). The leverage is tremendous at about 12:1 when you step on the pointed end and reef on the handle. So about 100 pounds force gets you 1200 at the working end.

The pick gets used to pry out rocks, dig trenches, free up ice bound drainage ditches and now again to lever up a heavy block of firewood. Very useful and no moving parts to break down.

Sure, a small cat or a front end loader, or a medium tractor would do a quicker job, but it sure wouldn't be cheaper! Fortunately, I have only 3 acreas full of stumps, so it's do-able. In two hours, I popped out 15 wheelbarrow loads.

Besides, it's good exercise, and cheaper than going to the gym. I have this thing about peddling my butt off to go nowhere. This way, I can look back and say "Wow, I did it"

Unfortunately, we are 6 miles out of town so the Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut , which I craved, was out of reach.

I was looking at the new picks in the store the other day, and I see the hickory handle has been replaced by plastic, and the steel looks kind of fragile. I doubt the new- and- improved one would last as long as mine has. The modern method of getting the stumps out would cost about $1800.00!