Catpaw – diary of an angry cat

I’m having a real Monty Python moment here in Toronto. I wander all over the city and see lots of signs – I tend to ignore most of them. But this one always gets to me. Take a look at it… it says “No Live Animals Allowed” and it shows a picture of a parrot on it. I see this in a variety of stores and coffee shops.

A couple of things about this sign give me the giggles:

Why is there a picture of a parrot on the sign? I don’t know about your city, but people here don’t tend to wander the streets with a parrot on their shoulder. You really don’t have to warn folks not to bring their parrots into any eating establishment – not even the pirates.

Is it necessary to say No LIVE Animals? Seriously, who is going to be dragging their dead pet about the city with them? Each time I see this sign, I have visions of John Cleese coming in with his very dead parrot demanding service. I asked the clerk at one coffee shop if it was okay to bring in my dead parrot but this went right over her head. She obviously has never seen the famous Monty Python skit.

My entire point is, it is not necessary to specify whether the animal is dead or alive. What frightens me is the logic that may have been behind this sadly written sign – it implies dead animals can be brought in. I never refer to my ham sandwich as a Dead Pig on Toast, nor do I call my meatloaf Defunct Ground Cow. We do not refer to our edible meat products as animals so it is unnecessary to specify the establishment will only allow dead animals in. It’s a given. The sign is referring to pets anyway. Who in hell is going to try to bring in dead Fluffy and Rover?

Let me give you a tip to help you through the day, if your pet has died, bury it – don’t take it to Starbucks for a latte.

So who created this little masterpiece? The city of Toronto. In case you are not aware of it, Toronto is a large metropolitan city, not farm country. The sign should read No Pets Allowed. Or, No Animals Allowed if you happen to be in an area rife with goats and chickens. And no caveats about them being dead or alive please and thank you.

I awoke this morning to see snow! Ice! YUCK… yes indeed folks, its the first official snow storm of the winter. Not much out there, but we got a lot of freezing rain during the night. Its guaranteed to make for a slippery, messy morning. Since the muck started sometime last night, the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police who patrol our highways here in Ontario) have responded to over 200 collisions. That’s a lot of dented fenders. The figure doesn’t take into account how many fender benders took place here in the city itself. According to the spokesperson for the OPP, 100 of the collisions occurred over night but as of the start of rush hour this morning, police were seeing about 1 collision a minute. Most of the bang ups will be fender dents and crunches and cars skidding into the ditch because drivers won’t slow down.

It’s always nasty on the roads during the first storm of the season. Canadian’s seem to suffer from collective amnesia – we forget how to drive in winter conditions during our long, lovely summers and go into shock each time the snow and freezing rain falls. We are expected to get between 10 to 15 centimetres of snow (3 to 5 inches of the white stuff for not metric readers).

School buses are  cancelled so its a much anticipated “snow day” for a lot of kids – no school! Loved them when I was a kid. The weather also means Toronto’s fleet of 200 salt trucks will be out in force. All that salt is so hard on the shoes! Not to mention all that slippery ice is hard on the backside when you slip and fall.

All in all a good day to stay home and enjoy a crackling fire and good book. Alas, this little cat has to head out into the stuff in about an hour. So many computers to fix, so little time.

Two Canadian soldiers and their interpretor were killed in the early hours of the morning today. While we slept soundly here in Canada, Corp. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp of the 5th Field Ambulance in Valcartier and Pte. Michel Levesque of the Royal 22nd were killed when their light armoured vehicle hit an IED. Three other soldiers were wounded, but thankfully they will recover.

We have lost 73 soldiers in the past five years. Yes, it has been that long. Hard to believe that while we sit in our homes, with hardly a thought to what is going on a world away, the fight is continuing unabated. I have my own opinions about the wars and conflicts going on around the globe – and not all of these thoughts are polite or politically correct or will endure me to my readers. Today is not the time to debate the rights or wrongs of Iraq and other battles. But when it comes to the battle with the Taliban, I’m not torn at all. This vile group of misogynistic knuckle draggers have caused too much pain and devastation. They want to pull the world – and women in particular – into the dark ages of repression, violence and abject poverty, all in the misguided name of god. I think it is at times like this that god must weep at the hatred spewn in his name.

The soldiers in Afghanistan have said over and over, they believe they are doing the right thing – they believe they are helping the Afghan people fight a reprehensible enemy. Many of the soldiers have fallen in love with the people and country they are trying to help. Last week for Remembrance Day family members of a couple of the fallen soldiers were flown to Afghanistan to be with the serving troops during the services. One parent said it was special being so close to the soil her son died on, gave his life for. I’m sure more than one parent took home some sand from the parched landscape.

Remembrance Day is the day Canada stops to remember those fallen in all wars and peace keeping actions. On the 11 minute of the 11 day of the 11 month – 1918 signalled the end of the Great War, or the War to End All Wars. We simply refer to it as the First World War. Ironic isn’t it, the War to End All Wars is now the starting point for a century + of unrelenting carnage. Since 1919, this day has been kept as our national day of Remembrance. For years, while I was growing up, the crowds at the cenotaphs grew smaller, but in the last 2 years there has been a reversal. The Canadian public has woken up to the dangers and heartbreak of war. Years and decades went by when our Peacekeepers died without much more than a small article in the newspapers – 186 died. Now, Canadians are remembering.

It saddens me to think of the new generation Silver Cross mothers being created. Silver cross mothers are women who have been given a silver cross when their child dies in battle. This year’s mother, chosen to lay a wreath at the National War Memorial in Ottawa was Mrs. Wilhelmina Beerenfenger-Koehler of Embrun, Ontario. Her son, Corporal Robbie Christopher Beerenfenger, was killed near Kabul by a land mind in 2003. Robbie left behind his wife Tina and three children, Matthew, Kristopher and Madison. One Silver Cross is poor compensation.

Canadians have reacted in a typically Canadian fashion to the deaths. While our politicians twiddle their thumbs and ho hum about the tragedy of the deaths, we have created our own impromptu memorial or road of honour. When the soldiers are sent home, they arrive at Trenton Air Base and make the journey to Toronto’s Centre for Forensic Sciences and then returned to their families. They travel along Highway 401 – the main traffic artery that spans the country – which has been unofficially renamed Highway of Heroes. When a soldier makes this last journey, Canadians line the road and overpasses and silently stand as guards for their final trip home. For 172 kilometers from Trenton to Toronto, since 2002, people stand and salute these fallen Canadians.

Its not a glorification of war – its a brief second when the public feels a connection to the families that are now suffering such a horrible lose. It is the one point in the war, that regardless of your political beliefs, you stand with the families and soldiers and say “I’m sorry.”

No rhetoric, no speeches, no politicians, just citizens lining a long stretch of road saying goodbye and we’ll remember.

Seriously! I was! I had a nice little, amusing post for you and then Sympatico blew it. Sympatico is my internet provider. Normally I’m quite happy with them but this week I’ve been so steamed I can’t sit still for long.

I have no connection at home. None… bereft … I’m am without. Now how sad is that?

Very.

I have been internetless for over a day now with no relief in site until tomorrow afternoon. When I called to find out what was going on, I was told it may take 66 hours for the technicians to clear up the problem. 66 hours!?! Keep in mind these are business hours, not 24 hours. We are talking about sometime next week for resolution. I kept  hearing the same line over and over about how valuable a customer I am, yada yada yada. When I asked why it will take so long, I was told my patience is important, I am valuable… you get the picture. I lost all patience after being down for 10 hours and said as much.

Now, I was very nice to the poor sod on the other end of the line. But I did lose my temper with the endless repetion of “valuable customer” crap. I finally said “If I’m so bloody important, why will I have to wait so long?” I also said 66 hours is unacceptable and there is a lot of competition out there in the city.  66 hours is going to cost me a lot of $$$. I have customers who need some paper work, ebay customers who need invoices, questions to answer, an on-line store I’m getting off the ground… a lot of time is being wasted here.

Funny how quickly companies can reassess their priorities when you mention competition. I received a call from Sympatico about an hour after hanging up. “We’ll be out there with a new modem on Saturday” They suspect it is a bad modem – I kind of thought the same thing. They’ll also check the lines leading into the building to ensure that isn’t the problem. I have customers in the building with Sympatico and they are all running fine. So the problem is either a connection directly to my apartment, or my modem. I had a similar problem about 1 year ago and it was the modem then.

Granted the repair isn’t as fast as I would like, but Sympatico had major problems city wide yesterday and were left scrambling to fix it, so some patience is required.  In the meantime, I’ll camp out at Aroma Cafe and drink their cappaccinos and eat their sandwiches. Monday I’m going after Sympatico for a refund on the down time. No way am I going to pay for the time I couldn’t connect.

Now that I know someone is taking the problem seriously, I feel better.

May your Internet connection always be on. Live long and Blog!

A&E TV has finally put Dog the bounty hunter on hold. Finally!

The station, previously know as television that brought us interesting programs such as Tenko, thought provoking documentaries, original productions, has long slithered down the sewer of second rate, shock programming and rerun heaven.
A&E no longer stands for Arts and Entertainment TV, but Awful & Egregious. In the last few years, all originality has been sucked from its programming, to be replaced with such “reality” shows as:

Dog the Bounty Hunter – a self-righteous thug who thinks nothing of breaking foreign laws because “hey, I’m doing God’s work”

Growing Up Gotti – the noxious ode to criminal excess and horrid child rearing practices. Inflicting those wretched sons on the public should have been a criminal offense. And Gotti’s lionization of her father was sickening.

Sons of Hollywood – a lame attempt to employ the unemployed and talentless sons of Hollywood power

The Two Coreys – no comment needed on this other than Hollywood’s “lets employ the unemployable” scheme hard at work

The Rollergirls – oh what high entertainment this was.

The King of Cars – with episodes titled “We dooz it large” how could the public resist this

Dallas SWAT – no doubt the Arts portion of A&E’s licensing commitment

Caesars 24/7 – well, the gambling establishment does have the name of an historical figure in it, does that count?

Biography – information super lite with no substance

This is just a sampling of the sad programming decisions being made at the top levels of A&E. I was pleased to see the powers that be saw the writing on the wall and yanked Dog the Bounty Hunter after his nasty outburst, complete with the ‘n’ word, aimed at his own son’s black girlfriend. His over eager use of the ‘n’ and ‘b’ words made me want to track the bugger down and shove a thesaurus down his pathetic throat. What really annoyed me was the tepid “Oh I’m so sorry I didn’t mean it” apology.

Look pal – if you didn’t mean it, then don’t use the words. End of discussion.

I’m tired of listening to temper tantrum driven celebrities behaving in appalling fashions, insulting anyone in their way and then expecting all to be forgiven by saying the magic “If I’ve given offense” apology.

if? If? IF? Hell yes you offended us! You don’t need to be black to be completely repelled by your choice of words. EVERYONE should be offended. Your smarmy response doesn’t cut it with this cat. Learn to behave or keep your mouth shut. Dog defended the use of the ‘n’ word by saying he uses it all the time, its a habit. Well pal… any habit can be broken if you have the will power. And as a fully functioning adult, you should have understood a LONG time ago how hurtful the words you use are and taken the steps necessary to break yourself of the habit.

Apology not accepted.

Catpaw is pissed and is going to stay that way for a long time.