All of this editorial 1000 times. We’ve said a bunch of this here already, but it still needs repeating. Plus it’s good to see governments coming around to the idea that you can’t always be nice and simply rely on people to do the right thing. Sometimes you really do need to slap some fuckers around a little for the sake of the greater good. If the government isn’t going to take important steps to protect us during one of the worst times of our lives, then why do we even have one?
A few choice cuts.
Reason hasn’t worked. Statistics haven’t worked. Pleading, begging, scolding and shaming haven’t worked.
Those refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 are doing great harm to the majority of responsible citizens, to Canada’s health-care system, to the overburdened men and women who work in it.
It is their irresponsibility that is largely to blame for the restraints under which Canadians are currently required to live.
It is no surprise, then, and largely to be applauded, that exasperated jurisdictions from Quebec to countries in Europe have opted to raise the cost of demonstrably anti-social behaviour.
The responsible majority of citizens are fed up to their locked-down ears with the tail wagging the dog.
…
Some of those frustrated with the intransigence of the anti-vaxx minority propose cutting them off from all social services. That would be too extreme.
But there’s no human right to the pleasures of life — to entertainment, libations, recreational drugs — and requiring vaccination as the price of admission is entirely reasonable.
…
But right now the responsible majority are paying an enormous price for the stubbornness of the recalcitrant – and it is not the former who should be asked to make endless accommodations.
O’Toole should understand that to give comfort to the unvaccinated is to support the ongoing necessity of lockdowns.
Epidemiologists have already called this “a pandemic of the unvaccinated” – a minority about five times more likely to be infected, 10 times more likely to end up in hospital and 25 times more likely to end up filling scarce ICU beds.
The majority of people who “did the right thing” and got vaccinated are effectively being held hostage to the selfishness of the few. At this point it’s entirely reasonable to raise the price of irresponsibility, and make life more difficult for those who won’t get their shots.
I swear, she danced along with *this* song. No joke! Maybe she’s worried about the service weasel. Anyway, she is overdue for an update. What a time she’s had!
It started off when she had a really persistent yeast infection in her ears. That thing would not go away! it took a couple of rounds of regular ear medication, plus some super duper long-lasting ear infection killing stuff, but finally she got the all clear.
It’s really weird when the vet gives medication to take home and we’re doing the curbside thing. I just don’t think to ask them to help me give the first dose. But I kind of got burned this time. I looked at the bottle and it looked like a kind of med I’d given before. But when I got it home, I could not open the darn thing! I eventually had to bother a neighbour because not even Aira could help me! So I try to remember if I’m getting any sort of medication to ask them to help me give the first dose. They said I could bring it back there and they would help me, but there was no way I was spending that much on cabs just for them to go *twist*.
She also lost some hair. They asked me if she was licking herself, but I didn’t notice. We gave her some anti-itch stuff and the hair came back, thankfully. And she kept spawning these pustules. They just went away on their own. Then I made the mistake of saying that she was asking for extra trips outside to pee. That sent us down a giant rabbit hole. The vet was very thorough and took me seriously, which I appreciate. But I wasn’t expecting the journey we would take.
First, they tested her for diabetes, and that came back good, so I was relieved. They also made sure she didn’t have a UTI. So I thought maybe she was just doing an older dog thing. Maybe her little doggy bladder can’t hold as much. But the vet didn’t like how diluted the urine was. So first we tested for kidney issues, and ran a whole pile of blood tests, and they all came back fine.
Next, the vet thought she might have Cushing’s disease, an endocrine issue that causes the dog to produce way too much cortisol. If she did, I would have been forced to laugh because I have endocrine issues that cause me to produce too little cortisol. As Steve is fond of saying, “They match you so well!” So I had to leave her at the vet so they could take blood a couple of hours apart to measure cortisol. That came back normal, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
We also reached out to the Ontario Veterinary College because we were pretty stumped. The college, plus the school, thought it would be a good idea to get an abdominal ultrasound to make sure all the organs in there looked good, and the college wondered if she had a teeny tiny UTI that just wasn’t showing up on urine tests because the urine was so diluted, so they asked for urine to be taken directly from the bladder and taken away to see if it would grow a culture. In case you’re wondering how they do that with dogs, they use an ultrasound to guide them, and then stick a needle right into the bladder! *shiver* Why is it that both Trixie and Tansy had to go through this? The ultrasound came back great, and so did the urine.
Then she wondered if Tansy had something called Diabetes Insipidus, which didn’t sound like her except for the part where she had to go outside more frequently. So we had to figure out how to measure how much water we put out versus how much she was drinking. Long story short, she wasn’t drinking a whole heap, which confused the heck out of my poor vet.
So, the only thing the vet could think to do is to test the urine concentration one more time before trying to give her this weird anti-diuretic hormone supplement, and by some miracle, it was pretty close to normal! So for now, we’re just sighing with relief and scratching our heads. But that was quite a ride.
We also discovered that Tansy’s eyes are starting to not be as good as they used to be. I mean, she’s over 10 and a half, who can blame her? I was starting to notice that she was having some depth perception issues, and if it was too dark when we would throw a ball, she wouldn’t try to go after it. So the vet looked at her eyes and said if she looked really closely, she could see a thickening in the eyes. She said there wasn’t anything that could be done for it, it was just dogs getting older. But if I wanted to, I could take her to an ophthalmologist and they could have a look. I talked to the school, and they said they would certainly help with paying for transportation if I wanted to go, but I didn’t get the sense this was something that needed doing urgently. I just had to think about not asking her to work in dark places. Since this is a pandemic, we’re not going too far, so I just let things be.
Tansy has never had a problem with the vet. She always has been happy to see them. But lately, she has changed her opinion on this. I can hear Steve saying “Gee, I wonder why! The last few times they have seen her, they have not done nice things to her!” Yeah, it’s probably true. Plus, they come for her when I’m outside, and then take her away from me and into the building, and that’s probably not the happiest thing. I feel like an evil person when I hand her leash over and she tries to stick to me like glue.
Speaking of leashes, Tansy broke hers! I’m pretty sure Trixie’s original leash lasted her until the end of her adult life. But one day in December when I was with someone at the Christkindl market, The rivets on the leash just went *pop!* Thankfully, it broke in such a way that she was still under control. It just wouldn’t let me change it from long leash to short leash. Also, thankfully I had a spare at home so I wasn’t screwed for too long. Man! Those leashes are mortal!
While we’re on the subject of equipment failures, I pulled out some Pawz boots that had been in my coat pocket since pre-pandemic, and somehow, the salt had eaten holes in them that I could feel! That was crazy. And I must have gotten out of practice with putting Pawz on because I’ve lost a couple from them just falling off on a small route. One fell off just from getting into and out of a cab! That never happens!
As she gets older, I get more comments about how old she looks and less about how puppy-like she is. That makes me a tiny bit sad, even if it’s inevitable. It happened suddenly. It was like a switch flipped and John Q. Public went from going “Wow! She’s 10?” to “She is getting older.” or “There’s a lot more grey now.” or “What’s wrong with your dog?” or the worst, “She looks kind of scared.” Poor Shmans is finally showing her age.
She seemed to have a really hard time adjusting to the latest time change. Sometimes, when we go through a time change, she’s a little weird about her potty trips outside for a week maximum. But she just kept sticking to the old times, and trying to find times somewhere in the middle between old and new. I called it Eastern Shmandard Time. Eventually, she pretty much normalized, but even now, she sometimes wants her final potty to be at 9 instead of 10.
She’s so lazy now. At dinner time, she hangs out right where Steve’s feet will wind up when he comes to sit down and eat. She waits until the last second…and then moves over a few feet so he won’t squish her. Sometimes she tries to anticipate where he’s going to go and fails. But she always waits until the last possible second.
One thing I still haven’t gotten used to in these COVID times is when I get into the back of a cab, I have to make sure her harness doesn’t snarl the barrier and maybe rip it. When I used to be allowed to get in the front of cabs, I was used to making sure the handle didn’t hit the dashboard, but I’m still getting used to watching out for the barrier. They’re all different, so I never know what I’m going to hit.
I guess the last thing I can write down for now is a dream I had about Tansy. I dreamed that Tansy was living with my parents, and someone hadn’t let her out and she had an accident right on the kitchen floor. I also had a dream that she would walk so slow that if I was walking with her and trying to follow other people I would lose them. In the dream, she refused to get in the car. I guess my brain is turning over what will be the thing that makes me retire her, and what will her last years be like. Apparently I have a morbid subconscious. But Tansy is getting up there, so this is something I have to think about.
But what I have to think about right now is getting out of this chair and feeding a certain hungry hound who still has some spring in her step yet. Until next time…
Back around Christmas, Steve and I went home to see my family. We took Via Rail, and I wanted to make a couple of observations about the experience.
First, to the people who think unmanned Via stations are acceptable: they suck if anyone needs a little bit of extra guidance or assistance. Yes, you can request assistance on your ticket, but that assistance only starts when the people on the train see you. They won’t see you until you make it out to the platform where the train is, which you may not find if you’re in an unmanned station and don’t happen to catch another soul who is willing or able to help you. Sound familiar? By the way, they still have no plan. The guy I spoke to thankfully informed me that the station was unmanned but his helpful suggestion was “Maybe your cab driver can stick around until your train gets here.” Um nope. Have you taken a cab lately? Failing that, do you have the time to clock off for a half hour to help someone with something unrelated to your profession? Probably not.
When we got there, the place was surprisingly desolate for Christmas time, for obvious reasons. So, our troubles began. There are several doors leading to lots of different parts of the outside, but how to know which door to hit? I know, listen for the other folks making it to the train and follow them like a sheep. But some people might choose to be dropped off outside and just walk around to the platform, which means there’s no shepherds to follow. Plus, in usual times, you have about 30 seconds or so from the train’s arrival to find it, find your car and get on. I don’t want to be starting that journey from the inside of the station.
Luckily some folks showed up, and I struck up a conversation with one. She was helping her mom get on the train. Her mom would need a bit of extra help, but I think she was newer at this whole disability thing, so thought she could just ask the station attendant for that. Hahahahahaha! Nope nope nope! There is no station attendant! She showed up repeatedly for days before her train and “there was no one around!” The poor lady. So we started to realize that this poor woman might not get the help she needs because she banked on talking to a Via staff member that doesn’t exist. I didn’t get to see her again because we were in different cars, but I hope she got what she needed.
Second, it was weird being on a train full of people and hearing less coughing than usual. In a group of people, there seems to be a trail of “ahems” and coughs and clearing of throats. There was hardly any of that here. I would feel guilty if I ever had to cough.
Third, I felt a little sorry for the Via staff and the things they had to tell us…over and over again. I’m sure the reason they say everything they say is because of experience. One common refrain was something like this: “Masks must be worn at all times unless you are actively consuming food or a beverage. Our mask protocol is more strict than that at a restaurant. If we may make a friendly suggestion, if you no longer have food but are still consuming a beverage, remove your mask, take a sip of your beverage and then replace your mask. Repeat these steps until there is no further beverage to consume.” Seriously? You had to say all of that? It wasn’t enough just to say that their rules are different than restaurant rules and unless you are actually eating or drinking, masks must be worn? Either someone is very detailed, or Via Rail staff had had many confrontations with passengers about how they have a drink in front of them so they should be able to take their mask off. I’m sadly going for column b. Gees!
All in all, once I got on the train, it was a wonderful experience and they took good care of us. But I can’t imagine the stupid they have to deal with every day.
I was murdered by yet another COVID shot on Thursday afternoon. After the awfulreactions I had to the first two, that’s pretty much what I expected would happen. In fact I expected it so much that I made the decision to wait until after Christmas to get it because there would be no Christmas otherwise.
The illness was comparatively mild this time. Note that the key word in that last sentence is comparatively. It was still enough to put me down for two whole days, time I spent watching even more wrestling than usual and thinking about how much I resent the willfully unvaccinated. I mean yeah, of course I resent them. But when you’re going through this for a third time in order to protect people you love, not be a burden on the health system and to try to get life back, it really hits you just how infuriating, selfish and terrible these people are. They do absolutely nothing to help, but then complain the loudest that nothing is changing or that things are getting worse. Listen, dipshits. You’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem. Either stand up and do your part to help or sit down, shut up and get out of the way. None of you has anything to say about lockdowns, shortages or anything else that the rest of us wants or needs to hear unless those things are “this is my fault” and “I’m sorry, I’ll do better.”
Speaking of things nobody needs, to the indignant old British fellow at the vaccine clinic who refused his shot and then held up the second desk line so he could whine about it being the wrong kind, bugger off, mate. Even if you developed the fuckin’ things and have brand loyalty, it’s not an excuse to be a man child. Just take what you’re given and get on with your day. those workers don’t need to be dealing with you when they have so much else to do.
I do want to end this on a happy note, so I’ll say that it was really nice to see a steady stream of folks coming in for a shot. It was even better that not all of those shots were boosters. I heard several first and second doses while I was there. It gives me a wee bit of hope knowing that there are still people coming around to the right side of things. That’s he only way we’re ever getting out of this. Boosting the same people over and over again is only going to get us so far.
Tipping is likely here to stay in Ontario — but should it?
With minimum wage increasing on Jan. 1, hospitality prof questions culture of tipping
When I was little, I was always under the impression that leaving a tip was meant to recognize really good service and that doing so or not was a customer’s choice to make. In spite of the fact that I’ve learned to act like everyone else and tip for every damn thing anybody does, I’ve never quite been able to shake that notion. Why should I be obligated to pay extra for the privilege of being treated like shit? Or what about those times when the food is great, but the people bringing it to me aren’t? I have no way of making sure my thanks goes to the people who deserve the credit. And why are we tipping people simply for doing what they’re supposed to be doing and not because they’ve gone above and beyond for us? Cab drivers, for example. The minimum requirements of your work day are to get me safely from one place to another. If you do that, lovely. And thank you very much for being competent. But why am I tipping for that if I’m not supposed to tip, say, the person at the grocery store for bagging my things logically and without breaking any jars? If the driver goes the extra step of helping me find my way inside of a building I’m not familiar with or the grocery person helps me carry things some distance, that’s a tip. Otherwise it’s just you doing your job, and the entire reason I’m expected to tip is because your employer doesn’t want to pay you properly. If you’re going to get the money out of me one way or another, I’d much rather be charged what something is truly felt to be worth than have to make that decision for myself but have no real choice in the matter. And no, that doesn’t mean a line item on a bill that says gratuity. That’s just a forced tip, which is insulting garbage to me.
“We strongly also felt that perhaps [the tipping model] was not the fair and equitable distribution of … service charge,” said Chaudhary, referencing how some employees in the “back of the house” are not as visible as servers, such as sous-chefs and line cooks.
His restaurant instead charges what it thinks guests should pay, which provides enough margin to pay staff a living wage — calculated at $18.60 in Ottawa, according to the Ontario Living Wage Network.
“Getting away from [the] tipping model, it really empowers the entire team,” Chaudhary said, adding his staff members also receive benefits thanks to this model.
Bruce McAdams, an associate professor of hospitality, food, and tourism management at the University of Guelph, said Alberta and British Columbia have both already eliminated the special minimum wage for alcohol servers. The practice of tipping remains, though.
What may happen instead, he says, is a business could readjust the distribution of tips evenly among staff who are either serving or cooking.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think tipping will go away,” McAdams said of Ontario.
It’s unfortunate, he explained, because after decades of working in and researching the industry, he realized tipping may be at the root of many issues.
“From pay, to discrimination, the sexualization of servers — it’s just the more I look into it, the more I wish it would go away,” said McAdams.
I can’t be 100% certain, but I think there might be a fairly well done phishing scam floating around in the name of the Waterloo Region vaccine effort, either that or someone is doing some testing in the production environment that ought not be done there.
While I was away over the holidays (Boxing Day to be specific in case that somehow helps someone figure out a pattern) and again today, I received the following text from the phone number 226-243-1548.
Region of Waterloo: This is a reminder that you have an appointment at 66 Pinebush Rd, Cambridge, ON N1R 8K5 on Thursday January 06 at 12:15 PM. If you need to cancel please click the link: https://vrt.link/9e9fc102
The address is correct, which lends the thing quite a bit of credibility. It also comes from the 226 area code, which is a local one. But it starts losing points for a few reasons.
I never made that appointment, nor did I ask anyone to make it for me.
The message didn’t call me by name, which is a fairly common thing for appointment reminder texts to do.
Googling that phone number doesn’t bring up any results that show it’s an official number that the health department or anybody else connected to regional administration is using.
That cancellation link just doesn’t sit right with me, especially because in each message the string of letters and numbers at the end is different. I don’t have a spare phone or computer I can sacrifice to whatever hell may await, so I haven’t clicked it to see where it goes. But if you do, feel free to have at it and report back.
When I got the second message, I decided that I would try to figure out who to call at the region to see about getting to the bottom of things when I had a minute. But before I got that far, this happened.
Your appointment for January 06, 2022 at 12::15 PM has been successfully cancelled.
So now you see why I’m not entirely sure what it is I’m dealing with. It’s sketchy enough to be scammy, but real looking enough that some fella testing functionality could have randomly mashed in the combo of digits that adds up to my phone number.
Watching the news right now and of course they’re talking about our newest COVID lockdown. Among the things they said were going to be closed down for the next few weeks at least are waterparks. Uh…what? It’s January. This is Ontario. Are waterparks even open? If so, why? And what sort of maniacs are planning trips to them?
I don’t know how Tansy did it, but over the holidays, she got some kind of tree sap-like gunk in her fur. I didn’t notice it until we got home, but boy did it look stuck. Even the thought of trying to brush it out gave me the shivers because of how sticky and tangly and…entrenched it was.
I thought back to when Tansy got gum stuck in her paw, and wondered if peanut butter would work on this, although the thought of putting peanut butter on her fur made me go yarf.
It turns out it will, if it’s the right kind and doesn’t have any of that dog-killing xylitol crap in it. It also has to be smooth, just so you don’t end up picking peanut bits out of her fur instead. But what I learned also works is a hair dryer on the lowest setting. Then once it’s softened up, I could just sort of comb it out. Yea! It was only a small amount, so I just gave it the hair dryer treatment and groomed her and I think it’s gone. I saw a few little hunks of crusty fur come out and I didn’t see so much sap. Shmans, how do you end up in these situations?
I enjoy drinking. I’m sipping on a beer right now, matter of fact. But I also know plenty of people who don’t drink ever if at all. That doesn’t cause me to enjoy those people any less, generally speaking. If you’re going to get preachy or nutty about it then that may change things, but besides that, it really isn’t that hard to adjust.
I haven’t had to worry about dating in a hundred years give or take, but honestly, any new social situation I’ve ever found myself dropped into involves essentially the same set of skills. If you’re any good at carrying a conversation and reading a room, you should be fine. Either order yourself something or don’t. Who cares? It’s not as though ordering a Coke or a water now and then is going to kill you. The do you want a drink conversation should last no longer than “do you want a drink?” and perhaps an “Are you sure?” depending on the context. Anything beyond that is too much unless it drifts into a getting to know more about someone moment.
Yes, drinking with other people can be fun, not to mention a good way to loosen up and get to know somebody. But if someone else not having a drink bends you that far out of shape, you have bigger things to worry about than is this person going to like me.
I feel similarly about trends like Dry January. If you find yourself needing a way to force yourself into not drinking for a set period, it’s time for you to do some self-reflecting and maybe ask yourself a few difficult questions. Ditto if you’re curious about what it’s like to be sober. No matter how much of a drinker you are, that should never be a concept you lose sight of.
If that’s where your mind is at, I hope that you can get yourself whatever help you need. If it’s not relaxing or fun, then maybe it’s not for you. And that’s ok. It’s ok just like your companion not drinking is ok.
I discovered something that can hopefully get me out of a bind if I remember it’s here, and if it stays around of course.
I was playing around on You Gotta Shop Here to figure out how it worked, and stumbled across Cart2Curb, a delivery service that serves the region and Guelph too. They’re like InstaCart, but without needing to have restrictive partnerships with stores. And heck, if you want, they’ll go through the store with you while on Zoom or Skype or whatever so you can see what’s going into your cart. I don’t know how well that works, I’ve never tried it and stores can have kind of bad connectivity, but the idea is neat.
I have used it once so far for something kind of unconventional. I had just taken Tansy to the vet for something. They are a bit far from here, so it was a big cab ride. I had ordered some fish oil pills for her, and usually they deliver them to me, but this time they couldn’t. Of course, the pills arrived the same day I had been to the vet, but after we got back home. There was no way I was going to cab there and back, again, so I thought I’d give Cart2Curb a try.
I think you’re supposed to make your delivery order on the website, but I gave them a call because I had called them before while trying to set up my account and stuff, and I thought since this was an unconventional request, I would just call and ask how we could do it. I think I scared the poor guy when I said that I wondered if they’d pick something up for me from Buck Animal Hospital. “So…is it an animal?” he asked. We both had a good laugh when I said it was pills. But they did it. I paid the vet and then just paid the delivery fee from Cart2Curb which was about $12.50, much less than it would have been in a cab. Here’s their FAQ.
They have some partners, but they’re not restricted to those partners at all. It just lets you pick from lists of products and makes your order process easier. But you can make custom orders too. For the moment, their partner logos are in a bit of an image jumble, but I told them about the problem and they said they would fix it soon. They really want to make this work for everybody. When I first reached out to them, they were willing to have me come on a Zoom call with their developers and show the issues I was having while signing up. I didn’t end up doing it, but I’m sure they would be open to feedback. They really seem like nice people.
So, if you live in the area, give them a try! I want Cart2Curb to do well!