Dry Ice

Final blog entry - for now!

I have not blogged since late March of this year and it is now early September. My workload has increased considerably and I have been back at work full time since May 1st. I am now coordinator of the Marketing programs and we are currently planning to launch several new programs, which is keeping me very busy.

On the cancer side, I had a mammogram in August and the result was thankfully negative. My next oncology followup is in November. I continue to have side effects that I am trying to deal with. After yet another discussion with the oncologist, I finally relented and agreed to take medication to reduce the number of hot flashes and night sweats that have plagued me for well over a year now. The medication seems to be helping somewhat.

As for the tendon tears, I am about to get a third opinion. The first two orthopedic surgeons do not seem to be optimistic that a surgical repair will work -  nor do they think it will address the pain. My GP has tried three different medications thus far, most of which have resulted in my running to the "porcelain god". My body is very sensitive to medication (which is why I am reluctant to take any) and the strong medication he's been prescribing has made me nauseous beyond belief. I've returned all of the remaining pills to his disposal service. Last Saturday, he gave me samples of yet another medication, and I'm pleased to report that this one seems to be working - it is not giving me the 24-hour relief I'd hoped for, but I am getting about 12 hours with only mild pain. I will be picking up a slightly stronger version later this morning which will hopefully last longer.

This will be my last posting for awhile. I may resurrect this blog later on, when I have determined what direction I would like it to take, but for now, I will give it a rest. The previous entries will still be available for anyone going through breast cancer who would like a glimpse of what it will be like. A thank you from the bottom of my heart to my many loyal readers - knowing you were accompanying me on my journey helped me get up every morning and establish a routine - and stay connected - all of which helped greatly with my recovery. Bye for now!

Las Vegas is NOT my kind of town

A few weeks ago, we visited Las Vegas for the first - and probably the last time. We still had $400 worth of United Airlines coupons, which had to be used by April 11th, courtesy of last year's 24-hour delayed return from Savannah. After thinking about where we might go for a very short trip (it was mid-semester, after all), we decided that using the coupons to fly out of Buffalo to Vegas would give us the most value for our money. So, Las Vegas it was.

Now, let me first say that neither my husband nor I are the least bit interested in gambling, the nightlife or the expensive shops that are the hallmarks of this desert oasis. Our attraction to the place was fuelled by the knowledge that Cirque du Soleil produced several shows there that could not be seen elsewhere, and that Hoover Dam and Red Rock Canyon were only a day trip away. With that in mind, we made our way to this strangest of cities, home to the highest rate of foreclosures in the entire U.S. of A.

The gentleman I sat next to on the plane, a bar owner from Sudbury, described Las Vegas as an amusement park for adults. To say I was astonished by what I saw there is an understatement. It was just so "over the top" in so many ways. Everything was fake, fake, fake, from the attempts to recreate great cities like Paris and Venice, to the high-pitched ringing of the slot machines announcing that someone had beaten the impossible odds, to the bosoms of the showgirls standing outside the bars of Fremont Street.

We saw two Cirque du Soleil shows: O and Ka. Both were superb. We dined at Bally's Sterling Brunch on Sunday, where we feasted on all the lobster, caviar, crab legs and shrimp we could eat, washed down with as much Perrier-Jouet champagne as we could drink. Not cheap, and certainly out of character for us, but Las Vegas is the kind of place where this kind of behaviour is made to seem almost normal. Our excursion to Red Rock and Hoover Dam exceeded our expectations, despite a very dusty day, with winds gusting to 50 miles an hour.

Am I glad I went? Yes. Would I go back? No. It is simply not my kind of town. It seems transient and soulless, and nothing there - not the bling, not the glitter, not the gilt - is as it seems. Somehow, watching women in their eighties, smoking and drinking at 7 a.m., tethered to a slot machine by a  plastic card, punching the slot relentlessly, does not make me feel good about the world. 

Martin took some truly amazing photos, and has uploaded several Web albums to Picasa, which I urge you to take a look at. The link is Martin's Picasa photo albums. I've included a few to whet your appetite.

A Dry Spell for Dry Ice

Today, March 24, marks almost a month since I posted my last blog. I have had a few friendly inquiries from regular readers asking if I am OK, and yes, I am OK. Thank you for asking!

I have had a very busy month: a visit from my cousin Donna, a short trip to Las Vegas, a Study Week focused on intensive curriculum development, a bone density test, some shopping for a new countertop/sink/faucet, Centennial's Open House, and a guest lecture to develop and which I delivered just yesterday to the students of Centennial holistic practitioner program. In between all of this, I have been fighting a cold that just doesn't seem to want to let go. I have also tried - and thus far failed - to adjust to a new pain medication, and spent many a sleepless night, tossing and turning, trying to get into a comfortable position that does not impinge on my torn tendons. Easier said than done. I now have a date with the orthopaedic surgeon - April 22nd. This is just a consult, and I'm told it could take as long as six months before I can get in for an actual repair. In the interim, I've noticed that I am getting grumpier; my usual good humour is strained and my ability to think quickly and work efficiently is certainly affected by the lack of sleep. What it all means is that I have had to direct my more lucid moments towards work-related matters rather than blog writing, so that is what I have done - and will likely continue to do for the next while, as the semester moves into its most intense phase.

Toronto: One city, four major daily newspapers...waiting to see who'll be left standing

Over the past few months, I have gradually allowed my newspaper subscriptions to lapse. Once an avid reader of three newspapers each morning, I was noticing that much of what I was reading (save for the columnists) was redundant, and it was simply taking up too much of my time. So, I went from three to two, and eventually to one, and finally, I now receive only the Saturday Star. Like my students before me, I have migrated to these same papers on the Internet. Every morning I sit down with my homemade latte, and I click on Mozilla Firefox's "add-on", appropriately called "Morning Coffee", which immediately opens up Facebook, along with three tabs: the National Post, the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail, as well as Google Trends. There, at no cost to me, save for my high-speed Internet connection, I can peruse all three papers at my leisure, and go as deep as I want to go into a topic, since all previous articles on a particular topic are linked to an archive.

Now any businesswoman worth her salt would be asking herself: how could this business model possibly be sustainable? How can any city the size of Toronto have four major daily newspapers (Post, G&M, Star and Sun), not to mention all the free rags that are handed out at every GO and subway station? And with all of the content available free of charge on the Internet, and advertising revenues tanking, how can any of these newspapers be making any money? Add to that the fact that CanWest Global, parent of the National Post, has a $100,000,000 debt payment due this coming Friday, and you have to ask yourself how much longer can this last.

So it was with not even a flicker of surprise this morning that I noted that my National Post tab was not loading at all. When I went in search of it in other ways, I found a post from last night, and one from the Post's Financial Post section this morning. But I could not find the usual front page. Are they simply having a technical glitch? Maybe. But my sense is that the National Post could be the canary in the coal mine for Toronto daily newspapers, and it will only be a matter of time before Toronto's four dailies become three.

Turning on one another - the generational divide and the blame game

Yesterday I wrote about my concern that non-GM workers are starting to turn on GM workers, and people who've been faithfully paying their mortgage and bills in the U.S. are starting to turn on those who've had to foreclose. Then, this morning, I came across an article written just yesterday by the National Post's Colby Cosh which shows just how mean-spirited and broadly-based the backlash is becoming. His invective "That'll teach them" targets the baby boomer generation, or more specifically the latter half of the baby boomers, i.e. those between aged 55 and 65, and goes something like this - and I quote:

'"For the children of the Baby Boomers, there is a special delight in watching the world economy shake itself to pieces like a two-dollar pram at this particular moment. Our elders, who bought prosperity and nice pensions at our expense and pulled the ripcords on their "Freedom 55" parachutes without leaving any behind in the passenger cabin, are getting it in the neck just when they thought a secure old age, with money for travel and expensive pastimes, was a safe bet. I'm willing to watch my meagre savings suffer from market turmoil in exchange for contemplating the dilemma of those who are now between 55 and 65.

These are people who started their working lives at a time when labour unions were strong, taxpayers outnumbered retirees nearly 10 to one, housing was as cheap as borscht and the basic personal exemption covered most of a living wage. They congratulated themselves on building an elaborate "social safety net" at the expense of their children. Their great numbers have allowed their preferences and superstitions to dominate culture and media. They're the ones who burned through tonnes of pot and then launched a War on Drugs when they grew bored with it; they drove mighty-bowelled Mustangs and Thunderbirds in their youth, and only started worrying about the environment when they no longer needed a capacious backseat to fornicate in; they espoused and took full advantage of sexual liberation, but were safely hors de combat by the time AIDS reared its head. The first time I see one shopping for dog food, I doubt I'll be able to suppress a laugh." For all of the vitriol in its original context, follow this link: Colby Cosh article

I think Mr. Cosh, who will be turning 38 in a few months, misses the mark as he fails to recognize that those same baby boomers have given their children (him?) a very good life. While they've worked hard at their careers, they've also proven to be devoted parents, doing everything they could to make sure their children wanted for nothing. Now one might argue that this has led to the "entitlement generation" we find today, but the fact of the matter is that the boomers' intent was noble: they wanted the very best for their children. My guess, Mr. Cosh, is that your selfish take on this issue will come back to bite you eventually. Remember that inheritance you've been counting on to pay off YOUR mortgage? I suspect once your parents have had a chance to read your thoughts about them and their generation, they'll be rewriting their wills and making a bequest of whatever is left in their estate to the nearest charity!

Turn on each other or pull together: how will this generation react to tough times?

With the economy faltering and a deep and lengthy recession ahead of us, major newspapers are turning to people who survived the Depression of the 1930s to solicit their advice on how to weather this financial storm. Journalists are filling column inches with interviews of nursing home residents who lived through the Dirty Thirties, trying to eke out some some helpful hints for their readers. A common theme that appears to be emerging from these interviews is how folks helped one another out - sharing what little they had with one another, doing what they could to get through it together. There is ample evidence out there to suggest that the approach of these kindhearted folks is in sharp contrast to how the current generation is reacting to the recent downturn.

Over the last week or so, I've been surfing a lot of discussion boards, gauging readers' reactions to the proposed GM bailout here in Canada as well as the foreclosure bailout in the U.S., and one thing is abundantly clear: folks are starting to turn on each other. As it gradually begins to dawn on Canadian and American taxpayers just how deep this recession is going to be, and how long it is likely to last, the voices on these discussion boards are getting angrier and angrier. And where in the past, this anger would have been directed toward government and big business, the kind of anger I am witnessing in the discussion board posts is far more personal in nature. Witness one woman who wrote that she had never had a pension plan, and now finds herself living on the meagre stipend provided through Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security. This woman, like many Canadian taxpayers, is enraged at the thought that her hard-earned money might be used to fund GM's pension plan and its health benefits.  Likewise, frugal Americans who bought houses they could afford and did not overextend themselves credit-wise are furious that taxpayer dollars will be used to fund their avaricious neighbours who were not nearly as cautious. And on it goes.

Yes, it's getting very personal out there, and frankly, it's starting to get scary. I don't know where it will end. The one thing I do know however, is that if, as a society, we decide to approach this very big problem with the attitude that it's "every man and woman for him or herself", we ignore at our peril the simple fact that our world has never been more connected than it is today, and that our neighbour's fate and our own have never been more intertwined.

Anger and blame at a personal level can quickly escalate into violence and even civil war on a mass level.  Whatever one might think of the situation we now find ourselves in, this is not a time for anger and blame, for righteous indignation and turning on our neighbour. It is time to take a lesson from those who came before us: it's time to band together and focus on solutions.

Now is the time for the frugal to benefit

Well, it's taken awhile, but my natural bent towards frugality is finally becoming mainstream. Open up any newspaper or magazine today and chances are you'll find an article on how to live more frugally in tough times. Here's one from today's Toronto Star: 25 Tips for Hard Times.

You see, when you are frugal in an economy that is going gangbusters, you are generally viewed as simply being "cheap". However, as the economy starts to falter,  "being cheap" gradually morphs into  "being frugal", and suddenly, those who may have laughed derisively at your penny pinching ways in the past are looking to you for advice on how to weather the storm.

Martin and I have never been much for keeping up with the Jones, and our aversion to debt has resulted in a "save now, buy later" approach that, in recent years, has appeared quaint and decidedly outdated to others, particular to the generations younger than we are who have embraced debt like it is the Second Coming. But now, our time has come.

You see, when you save and scrimp during good times, you can take advantage of the many deals that are available when economies go south. It's all about going against the trend. When others are spending freely - and contractors' services are going to the highest bidder - we are lying in wait for a time when those same contractors are anxiously looking for customers. When others are leasing bigger and better cars and never actually owning anything, we are driving around in a 9-year-old Toyota that is paid for - while saving for the next car purchase. All those years without a car payment place us in an enviable position as we look for a new car in the coming months - with sales sputtering, auto dealers will be eager to do deals - and so will we!

For the past decade or so, we have become strong advocates of the book "Your Money or Your Life" by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. It has changed our approach to living.

Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financia

Vicki Robin

 

We make our lattes at home. We bring our lunches to work. We save for our vacations before taking them. We increase the payments against our mortgage on a regular basis. We pay our credit card balance off every month. We use Entertainment Book coupons for restaurant meals. We ask for discounts. Quaint? Maybe. But we go into this recession (depression?) knowing that we don't have to change our lifestyle much, if at all. Let's face it: you don't miss what you've never had. For the many out there who have lived to the max and acquired lots of "stuff" over the the course of this last bull market (much of it leased or not yet paid for), this will not be a fun time. I would not want to be in their shoes.

Odds and sods

It's been another busy week, but thankfully, there is a long weekend to help recover, thanks to Ontario's Family Day.

It's also been a weekend of new flavours, as I made my very first Osso Bucco on Valentine's Day, along with a couscous that matched it perfectly (OK, I know risotto is the favoured accompaniment, but my guy likes couscous - and it was Valentine's Day after all!). The recipe is so incredibly simple - as long as you leave time do the work for you. Truly delectable, especially with the gremolata on top! We had it with my latest find, Monkey Bay sauvignon from New Zealand. If you haven't tried it yet and you like sauvignon, run - don't walk - to your nearest liquor store and pick up a bottle. I've always been a fan of Oyster Bay, but Monkey Bay is just as good - and $4-$5 cheaper. And you already know how I love a bargain! Tonight Martin made us Pisco Sours, a specialty of Peru, thanks to a colleague of this who gave him a bottle of pisco and the drink mix. Excellent, but not the kind of drink you could have more than two of!

 

I've been checking out some interesting Web sites lately, and thought I'd share a few with you. For you foodies, there's a list of the 100 things you should eat before you die. As someone who has recently had cancer, I have to admit that these "bucket lists" sometimes hit a bit too close to home, but this list is a good one. Interestingly, it contains such delicacies as homegrown poutine, as well as the delectable dulce de leche (try a jar of the President's Choice version and I dare you to keep it in your pantry for over a week!), the wonderfully smoky lapsang soochong tea, chewy paneer (cheese) which I especially like when done with saag (spinach) and the simplest of simple - root beer floats! I've also been reading a fascinating book called Fruit Hunters, where a Montreal journalist goes in search of the most interesting and exotic fruit around the world. Cleary inspired by the Orchid Thief, this is a fascinating account of the world's fruit, and a great read!

 

The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession

Adam Gollner

 

 

 A rather disturbing Web site I found while looking at the demographic profiles of various counties in New York State is the Sex Offenders Registry.

What is amazing is just how many convicted sex offenders are out there, and also, the fact that you can look at a small town of fewer than 6000 people in upstate New York and locate more than 30 of them, along with their photos, history of convictions and their address, then locate them on a map, no less!

Try the little town of Medina, New York, which is a stone's throw from Rochester, and you'll see what I mean. It's really creepy to think that there can be that many nasty people in such a small, rural area. 

I've also switched to a new browser, Mozilla's Firefox 3, and it is a delight! It beats Internet Explorer hands down. One of the features I love is an add-on called Morning Coffee, where you can pre-select your favourite web sites and it opens them up in the order you choose. I do this every morning and with one click, I open up the National Post, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and, of course, Facebook. Then, I devour my morning latte as I browse through the news and make my latest Scrabble moves. You can't help but think that the era of the news"paper" is winding down. I still have no idea how there is still room for 4 dailies in Toronto!

 

And finally, a Web site I have known about for a long time, but have only begun to look at daily, is Google Trends, a site that tracks that hourly zeitgeist of the planet. Fascinating for many reasons - you see what people are talking about today, but you can also look back at any date you like, and even filter by a particular country!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Car and house insurance "financing charges" are an outrage!

A task that has been taking up a fair bit of my time lately is shopping around our insurance. I've been trying to simplify by consolidating house and car, in anticipation of adding scooter insurance come April.

Insurance is an incredibly complicated product; it makes cell phone plans look like child's play! So many options, such a complicated algorithm, and so many unknowns that the insurance company won't reveal.

And then, there's my biggest pet peeve: a 3% financing charge for a product that you don't get in advance to begin with! I pay almost all of our bills on a monthly basis using pre-authorized payments: property tax, gas, electricity, cable, Internet, and so forth. Yet only the insurance companies would dare to charge me for the service - every single time I renew the policy, I might add. It's absolutely ridiculous, yet when you ask them about the charge, they say it's a set up fee for the pre-authorized payment. Hell, it's not like it has to be set up every year! And a 3% charge on $2000 worth of insurance $60 a year - to finance what, exactly? With a car loan, you are getting the use of the car before it's paid off, so of course you expect to pay a financing charge for doing so. But with insurance, you are using it as you go, not receiving the service in advance. So what's with the financing charge???

 

Are you a resident of Ontario who has pays for your insurance on a monthly basis - and gets charged a "financing fee" for doing so? Does this upset you as much as it upsets me? Why not let the powers that be know how you feel by sending an email to the Financial Services Tribunal? You can email them by clicking on the following link:  contact@fstontario.ca . I have asked the tribunal to respond, and will publish their response once I receive it.

Two weeks without blogging feels like an eternity!

Well, I haven't blogged since Jan 24th, and it's now February 9th. That's the longest period I've gone without blogging since I started doing it!  By way of explanation, I guess I've allowed my new college program coordinator duties to take over my days, and at the same time, I've also been working through a very bad cold.

The coordinator work is currently made up of what I call "investment-oriented tasks" - the kind of stuff you do upfront when you first get a job that makes things easier as you proceed in it. Unfortunately, this type of front-end work has figuratively and literally been swallowing up my hours and days but fortunately, I am getting a great deal of help from Angela, our administrative support person, as I make my way through mounds of data and try to get a handle on where our program stands overall. I am also trying to put in place some technology, processes and a filing approach that will make it easy for everyone in the program to know where things stand. I've been tracking my time very carefully - I am given 8.5 hours per week to accomplish tasks relating to coordination. In a 15-week semester, that's 127.5 hours. By my current estimation, I've already worked 85 hours, and we are only into week #5!

As for my business analysis class, it is going really well, and I am seeing many of the "lightbulb moments" that teaching is all about.

On the health side, as I mentioned, the cold sapped me of much of my strength, and it lasted well over a week, so it's also been more than a week without aquafit. I am still awaiting a call to find out when I will meet with the orthopaedic surgeon about my tendon tears.

Socially, we've been pretty low key because of my cold (the first one I've had since my cancer diagnosis in June 07, so I can't really complain!). We did manage an evening with my colleague and friend Drew, and his wife Gabrielle. We went for a "Winterlicious" supper at Globe Bistro on the Danforth. The restaurant is an old bowling alley, and is very atmospheric - great lighting and excellent service. A Winterlicious supper with Drew and Gabrielle has become an annual event and as usual, we very much enjoyed their company. Unfortunately, I was pretty tired and we ended up calling it an early night and I headed home straight to bed.

Anyway, now that I am finally starting to feel like myself again, I'll probably be blogging a bit more, so watch this space!