Catpaw - diary of an angry cat

As of this morning, Toronto set a record for the wettest city in Canada. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I’m so thrilled. According to Enviroment Canada, over a 2 month period, Toronto has set a record for the most rain, beating a 30 year old record.

On average, Toronto records 792.7 mm of precipitation each year. But with 623.6 mm as of yesterday afternoon, even with August predicted to be dryer than normal, we could eclipse the previous full-year record of 971.3 mm, which was set in 1977.

Toronto Star http://www.thestar.com/article/466411

Yes, we are soggy. We have had some lovely days, don’t get me wrong. I’ve enjoyed them. But the rain is getting to be a bit much. We are expected to get more rain today, tomorrow and on the weekend.

I’m building an Ark on the balcony. Anyone wants to reserve a seat, send your payment via Paypal.

In the meantime, I’m trading my tabby stripes in for some nice feathers and learning to swim.

- Oh I feel so lazy lately… I look at my lovely little blog and say, I should gripe about this, I should moan about that and then I see the fresh fruits and veggies, the bbq, the sun (well not today, it’s coming down in buckets) and say “Screw it… let’s go loaf” and I do.

I’ve been wandering around the city enjoying myself and finding it hard to moan and complain. If this rain keeps up, I’ll be back to normal!

I wandered through the comments that arrived while I was so lazy and am chuffed! To the person who agreed about liking a specific movie is all relative - thank you! It was nice of you to say so.

To Frog - I am so happy to read your comments - all is well in catpaw land, except I’m having a hard time staying angry. Life is tough sometimes!

Roufa and Mimi? What can I say.. if you could see under my fur (no peeking please) you’d see I’m beet red from blushing so much. Thanks for the honour.  I’m just… well … chuffed… My secret mission to the North Pole is complete and the smackerals are all safe .. er .. okay .. I ate them all. But they were safe….

As new readers may discover, there is an underground network of blog writers. We tend to visit each other a lot and often leave what may appear to be cryptic messages to one another.  If you follow links and read the blogs of the other posters, all becomes clear.  The messages aren’t secret codes, just part of a long conversation that may span 2 or 3 different blogs and sometimes may take days to finish off.

I did receive one comment that could only be deemed hateful and mean spirited. It wasn’t aimed at me - it was aimed at the family who’s parents were murdered a few months back. If the poster returns, which I doubt: yes I removed your comment. While I normally leave comments I don’t agree with, and simply answer them in public, your message was racist, hateful and nasty. These were good Canadians. PERIOD. Simply because they had some hardships and their children are facing more financial hardships is no reason to call into doubt whether they were real Canadians. Your comment have no place on my blog.

Opps, guess I’m back to normal….

Oh life can be good. It’s strawberry season here in Ontario. Mmmmmm….

Also picked up some nice kabobs for the BBQ, local grown green onions, radishes hmmmm… put the onions around the potatoes and on the grill they go. Yum. Along with some great local asparagus and there you go.

Strawberries for desert. Nice cool breeze just starting up.Good night to sit around watching the sun go down.

Sorry - no more time to write, times awasting. Need to go and sit outside for awhile. No complaints, no rants, no problems. Can’t be bothered with annoyances today - maybe tomorrow. Fresh Ontario strawberries have that effect on me.

Oh my, what a nasty kettle of fish this story has opened. Ontario is pondering a ban on cell phone use while driving. Hurray - it’s long overdue. The local paper, The Toronto Star, ran an article last week that, I suppose, was supposed to drum up support for cab drivers here in the city. Seems cabbies want to fight the ban because they
… say a behind-the-wheel cellphone ban, … impact[s] them more than most.

Further they say “Cabbies, … have become very skilled at driving while talking on the phone. “With a very high usage of cellphones we’ve not seen a correlating increase in accidents,” he argues.

Well, with that said, let’s put all our lives at risk and let the phone calls begin! If anything, this story has me hopping mad. Cab drivers in this city are some of the most irresponsible drivers I have ever seen. AND THAT IS SAYING A LOT! Toronto seems to excel at horrific near misses, arrogant driving, obnoxious behaviour and aggressiveness pushed to the nth level. There may not be a REPORTED correlation in increased accidents, but there sure are a lot of near misses.

Quite frankly I don’t give a rat’s ass about their complaint. Normally, I try to see both sides of the argument, but in this case you are talking about public safety - my safety. And just because they are cab drivers, doesn’t make them any better at driving. On the contrary, many of the drivers seem to treat the streets of Toronto as a some sort of demented speedway. I’ve been nearly clipped twice by cabs running through crosswalks - that dent in the side of the Becks cab last month? That was my foot hitting the side panel as it played beat the pedestrian through the LEGAL crosswalk. How about the nifty, and illegal U turns that go on all the time? Again, how many times do I have to be honked at, while crossing safely, by some jackass in a cab who wants to finish his U turn in the middle of an intersection. The unsafe lane changes are legendary - zipping in and out at high speeds, rushing lights, crowding cars that are too slow. Nice. Oh and suddenly shifting from a north bound lane to a south bound lane (in the middle of a traffic jam) was a sight to behold, especially when the cabbie started to push his way into our lane, blocking traffic coming both ways. His rude gestures to us were very appreciated by the way.

Let’s look at the cabs from a passenger’s point of view - something I only do in an emergency now. I’ve been treated to trips that make Mr Toad’s wild ride look tediously boring. They can be hair raising, often for the unsafe lane changes, abrupt stops and lack of attention by the driver. But what really ticks me off is the lack of knowledge some of the drivers display about the city itself. I had one driver not even know where St. Mike’s hospital is. Now how in hell can you be a cab driver in this city and not know a major downtown landmark? This is not unusual either. I often print off a map of where I’m going before getting into a cab or I’ll get taken for a real ride. I’ve had cabbies so interested in their phone calls, they’ve completely missed where they are taking me.  I had one driver, so intent on his conversation, he went West instead of South East. When I pointed out to him he was going the wrong way, he kept saying he was taking a shortcut. No sorry pal, West never gets you East. Get the f’n phone out of your ear and pay attention. I’ve actually insisted the cab pull over so I can get out because of the driver’s attitude - I know when I’m being taken for a ride. I know this city very well. I get hot under the collar when someone tries to tell me I’m ignorant about the traffic (his words, not mine by the way). No matter how hard the cab driver tries, I know you cannot get to Union Station by going West on Bloor street to Spadina. It is not a shortcut. Trust me.  When I get a good cabbie, I tip very well. That used to be quite often. Now it seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

I’m all for having the phones for safety or for use while NOT driving. But this idea of being exempt from the ban is ludicrious. Cabbies, if anyone, should adhere to the ban because they are playing with the lives of their passengers, not just their own. Call home when you don’t have a passenger and are pulled over.  Leave the line open when you have a passenger, but take the phone away from your ear and pay attention to your job.