Wednesday, October 16, 2024

The Loneliness of Old Age

" Grow old along with me! the best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made:" Rabbi ben Ezra by Robert Browning.

Sometimes things catch me unaware. I know 1974 was 50 years ago but this meme sort hit me hard, because it really felt like "just like that!"

There was an article a while back, which of course I can't find now and the link below is not it, about how lonely centenarians feel. They may have friends, family, an active social life, yet there is an emptiness. Their peers have all died. They have buried both parents, a spouse, possibly a child, their siblings, several nieces and nephews, and too many friends and neighbors to count, longevity comes with a curse. It is the dull ache of loneliness — reflected in every framed family portrait; every personalized calendar; every faded snapshot stuck on the side of the fridge. All those people are gone, and they're still here.

It comes with the knowledge that for all they have experienced, there is no one left to share it with. Maybe that is the hardest part. The solitude of unshareable experience. My mother had couins that tipped the hundred, as did my father, one of whom is still alive. I wish I could sit down with her and ask about how she feels being so old.

I need another 23 years to hit 100. My FB friend Natalie and I have an agreement that when we hit the magic number we will tell people who ask the secret that we ate a pinecone every day for 40 years.

The 70s were 50 years ago. The 60s were 60 years ago. Every time I listen to a song (and it is mostly when I listen to music) and realize it was 50 or 60 years ago that it was released, I feel lonely. Those were times that can never be repeated. Some of the people I knew then are still here but they too have changed.

Friday, October 11, 2024

Global Transportation Hub Please No mo'e Moe

“Conservative governments are such firm believers in private enterprise they will spend any amount of public dollars to make it work”.

The Sask Party has destroyed our Health Care and Education with gross underfunding (though they have money for private religious schools which need not follow government education standards). They have untold money for useless mega-projects such as the Global Transportation Hub, the Regina Bypass which costs Saskatchewan taxpayer roughly $10,000 per vehicle that uses it, and now an irrigation project that even KPMG’s feasibility study says cannot repay the principle costs in 50 years.

A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports, and ferry slips.

Regina’s Global Transportation Hub Industrial Park (GTH) is an integrated transportation and logistics inland port designed to encourage manufacturing, value-added processing, warehousing and distribution operations in the heart of Western Canada, according to their website.

GTH according to their website

The GTH became the subject of controversy over its involvement in a land purchase that disproportionately benefited businessmen with personal ties to Sask Party MLA Bill Boyd (Wikipedia).

Loblaws was the first business to locate in the GTH. Their warehouse is a disaster as they did not take into account the nature of Regina’s clay soil when pouring the floor. If, as rumour has it, they may have attracted attention of a large American regional chain with their own distribution centre, it would likely close if a merger occurs.

Several City of Regina (Emterra) and provincial crown corporations (SaskTel, SaskPower, Sask Liquor and Gaming Commission) have located there but don’t really count as location decisions were politically made.

The largest company to locate there is a Cargill canola crushing plant on the far west edge of the GTH. However, no modern large scale crushing plant will be built without access to both rail lines, e.g. the Yorkton crushing plants, so the government must build a spur from CPKC and CN to the plant to allow unit trains. The government built a CPKC (South) rail spur to create an intermodal terminal for container transfer. Now it must extend it to the Cargill plant and build a spur from the CN line to the Cargill plant - at what cost?. I would love to know why Cargill located there. What did they pay for the land? How much are they paying for utilities? The government is paying for the rail connections.

GTH showing location of Cargill plant and the CPKC rail spur and intermodal terminal

Please, in the upcoming election, No MOE, no mo’e.

Sunday, October 6, 2024

Of Doctors and Dentists

Canada has a nonrefundable Disability Tax. I dont qualify as I get all my tax back every year anyway. I need more income. But for fun, I made a list of all my disabilities. Then I wondered how it is I am still alive. But it does explain why I seem to be doctoring all the time. Once I see a cardiologist I will have seen every specialist but a gynocologist and an oncologist.

Last week was no exception as I went for a CT scan. And also to a dentist. I had two extractions last year and one filling. In September I had two more extractions and a filling. Oct 2 I had a root canal and an extraction. I was 2.5 hours in the dental chair. The extraction took over an hour and a half. The 25 mm (1") root refused to budge and came out one small piece at a time. My dentist did an expert job and I have no quarel with him, only with my genetics as my father's teeth were the same way.

My dentist was exhausted when he finished. I said that I expected he would sleep the Sleep of the Just that night, though others prefer the sleep of the just after. My jaw still aches and I take pain killers at night to sleep

My plan is to post on my blog one day and then read all the blogs I follow the next day. My energy this week was at an all time low so I didnt read anyone's blog. I managed to walk the dog every day. I promise to do better. Though there is a saying attributed to a member of the Soviet Politburo, "We tried to do better but the result was just the same". For some reason Tanya quotes that to me every so often.

Speaking of dogs, Lucky is racist. Dog PAAWS provide volunteer dog walkers for old people who need them. I need a relief walker whenever I get my knee replacement and my cataracts removed. The organizer is an 84 year old woman who taught English in refugee camps around the world. She found a volunteer and brought him to our house one evening to meet us and Lucky. The volunteer is a second year pre-veteriany student from India with dog training experience.

Lucky acepted the woman immediately and then took 5 minutes of barking before he accepted Dev. Dev is brown. Lucky has only seen non-white people in the dog park where he ignores them. In our home apparently it is a different matter. Lucky didn't phase Dev at all and we have been walking several times together now. Dev can run with him which I cant and Lucky loves that. But he still takes a minute to accept him when he arrives at our door. What a Doofus.

Lucky with his favourite toys - tennis balls to catch on the bounce

Monday, September 30, 2024

Abortion is Health Care

The Religious Right aka Evangelicals are violently opposed to abortion. They want it outlawed with serious penalties for anyone having or supected of having an abortion, including miscarriages. At the same time they are opposed to policies that actually reduce abortions because they would be paid for by tax dollars. And because the life of the fetus isn't reaally the point. It is to punish women for enjoying teh same sexual freedom that men have always enjoyed. Women are simply to be baby machines at and for the pleasure of men. They love to say that the bible is opposed to abortion. Of course they really have to work hard to find some way for it to say that, because it isn't.

The Founding Fathers whom they worship like Lenin or Ataturk were not opposed.