GET CANADA POST BACK ON TRACK WITH SOME OPEN, HEALTHY COMPETITION
We all love a large corporation. Especially a corporation that is government sanctioned and comes with a massive amount of protection against competition. Such a corporation goes by the name (misnomer) of "CANADA POST".
If one chooses to use "snail-mail" then you would place your letter in an envelope, add the name and address of the the person whom you wish to receive this letter, purchase and apply the appropriate postage stamp and drop it in the mailbox. Then, after a few days or a few more days, your letter will mysteriously find it's way to the addressees mailbox. Right?
Now, suppose you want to be sure that the intended recipient actually receives this important missive? You go and pay EXTRA to send this letter by "registered" mail so that when the post person delivers this precious piece of mail, he or she collects a signature before he or she leaves this piece of mail. Right?
Well, let me tell you, I was the lucky recipient of a "notice" from our esteemed "CANADA POST" telling me that there was a letter for me which required my signature. O.K. Obviously someone wanted to be sure that I received this letter so, they paid "extra" to do so. But, where is the letter? Does the postal carrier have it? NO! But why? I mean I'm home 24/7 and he or she had to stop at my house to leave the said "notice" but did he or she bring the "letter" with him or her? Nope! That might lead to some kind of "efficiency". We can't have that. Not with our precious mail service. I'm expected to go and pick up my letter that someone took the time to address to me and.........paid EXTRA postage, just so I could go and pick it up somewhere else.
So, just where is my letter? I live in a very small town with one post office. This post office is just three short blocks from my house. That's not too bad, right? Wrong again. My letter can't be picked up at the Canada Post "POST OFFICE". How stupid of me. Imagine, the idea of picking up a letter at the Canada Post "POST OFFICE"? I'm expected to go sixteen blocks downtown to......now get this.....to our local "SHOPPER'S DRUG MART".
The reason I'm home 24/7 is because I have a great deal of difficulty getting around. My son, 22, volunteered to go and pick up the letter on my behalf. Great! I gave him the notice that our postal service delivered to me, along with a signed letter from me giving the drug store clerk (no postal clerk there) permission to release MY letter to my son. Problem solved? You guessed it. He didn't come home empty-handed though. They sent him home with a form....No letterhead, nothing official about this form at all. To be filled out by me giving whoever, permission to pick up this and any future registered mail on my behalf. End of problem....? Right again, not a chance.
I have to fill this form out in front of the drug store "clerk" so that they could witness that this guy (me), who has a problem physically, coming in to pick up his letter, which was addressed to his "home address" and had EXTRA postage paid for the privilege, could come in to fill in this ridiculous "Mickey Mouse" form.
Anyway, it ended up that someone came to the house so that I could fill out the "form" in front of them. Pretty good you'd think, right? Well guess what? The letter is still 16 blocks away, waiting to be picked up. Why couldn't this representative of our postal "service" bring it with them? I mean, I had to sign anyway. Just think..... someone has paid EXTRA to see that I receive this letter, the "Canada Post" post office filled out and delivered a little card letting me know that they had a letter requiring my signature, my son spent time and gas to go and pick up the letter, they spent time and gas to come here so I could sign their form and now, my son or someone else STILL has to spend more time and gas to pick this letter up. Now that is a protected corporation for you. Efficient? It's worse now than it was before it was "privatized".
How about getting rid of this protectionism and maybe "Canada Post" will learn to run like a real business or someone else will take it from them.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Teen tries to quiet the voices caused by schizophrenia - CNN.com
"That's when he explained to me the reason he sleeps," Kanyuch said. "He doesn't hear the voices. He doesn't hear them telling him he's fat, stupid, there's a conspiracy. It's a break for him to sleep."
From a report on CNN.
My own daughter, 20, has been living this nightmare for the last five years. For us, her mother, brother, friends and myself, it's been five years of worry, frustration, denial, helplessness and occasionally even hope. For her it's been five years of pure Hell. Voices, self mutilation including cutting and burning and voices. Did I say voices? Lots and lots of evil, deviant and demanding voices.
Over the past five years she's been shuffled between three different hospitals, I've lost track of the number of psychiatrists and of course, each comes with his or her own idea of the appropriate psychotic drug cocktail (today's substitute for isolating the cause and instituting a cure).
I can't really put all the blame on the system but, they've seen it often enough to know that people with low IQ's don't get afflicted with this disorder very often. It's the intelligent ones. They seem to know what the psychiatrist want's to hear and have no problem spouting the appropriate rhetoric at the right time. The psychiatrist, being human first and professional second is all too willing to accept this as an indication of just what a good job he or she is doing, what a great psychiatrist they are. Meanwhile, the patient is released from the institution with a pat on the head, a pharmacy load of pills and told "now if you have any problems, don't hesitate to call". Ha! What a joke. To the schizophrenic teen, the doctors and nurses are all in on the "conspiracy".
Well, my daughter has been home for the last four and a half months. She's still fighting to maintain some semblance of normalcy (I almost said reality, whatever that is). She is now on a very light, by comparison, medication therapy and although we're not out of the woods yet, I have to believe that there's light at the end of the tunnel.
If any of you have any comments or wish to add an experience of your own, I'd love to hear from you. You don't have to identify yourself but I'm sure that mine isn't a small club.
Brightest blessings, Rev. Roger
From a report on CNN.
My own daughter, 20, has been living this nightmare for the last five years. For us, her mother, brother, friends and myself, it's been five years of worry, frustration, denial, helplessness and occasionally even hope. For her it's been five years of pure Hell. Voices, self mutilation including cutting and burning and voices. Did I say voices? Lots and lots of evil, deviant and demanding voices.
Over the past five years she's been shuffled between three different hospitals, I've lost track of the number of psychiatrists and of course, each comes with his or her own idea of the appropriate psychotic drug cocktail (today's substitute for isolating the cause and instituting a cure).
I can't really put all the blame on the system but, they've seen it often enough to know that people with low IQ's don't get afflicted with this disorder very often. It's the intelligent ones. They seem to know what the psychiatrist want's to hear and have no problem spouting the appropriate rhetoric at the right time. The psychiatrist, being human first and professional second is all too willing to accept this as an indication of just what a good job he or she is doing, what a great psychiatrist they are. Meanwhile, the patient is released from the institution with a pat on the head, a pharmacy load of pills and told "now if you have any problems, don't hesitate to call". Ha! What a joke. To the schizophrenic teen, the doctors and nurses are all in on the "conspiracy".
Well, my daughter has been home for the last four and a half months. She's still fighting to maintain some semblance of normalcy (I almost said reality, whatever that is). She is now on a very light, by comparison, medication therapy and although we're not out of the woods yet, I have to believe that there's light at the end of the tunnel.
If any of you have any comments or wish to add an experience of your own, I'd love to hear from you. You don't have to identify yourself but I'm sure that mine isn't a small club.
Brightest blessings, Rev. Roger
Sunday, April 19, 2009
The following is an excerpt from a letter to a friend of mine, we were talking about strange dreams.
Mine are what your hubby would call "crap". Ever since that incident with the weird lights back in January I've been having dreams about "visitors" being here. We see mostly their "shuttle" type craft but the majority of them, the so-called "mother ships" are in orbit behind the sun with a smaller contingency holding station on the dark side of the moon. In the dreams, the beings in these ships are not only observing us, they're also protecting either us or the earth in general. In the dreams I've often seen them (I guess with my "super" vision.......you know how it is in dreams) anyway, I've seen them actually doing their "star wars" type battles in space. Yeh, I know, it's crazy.
I remember when I was little, maybe 5 or 6 years old, back in England, I had a very similar dream. I remember it was around Christmas time and the year would of been 1953 or 54, and when I woke up after the dream, I was standing on my window ledge......on the outside, in my pajamas. My bedroom window was on the second floor of an old farm house in Lancashire and below my window was the cobbled barnyard. That is not a place (my window ledge) that I would dare to be if I had been awake at the time. For a little kid, it was one heck of a way down. I know I'm not now nor, to the best of my knowledge, was I as a child, known for sleep walking.
Mine are what your hubby would call "crap". Ever since that incident with the weird lights back in January I've been having dreams about "visitors" being here. We see mostly their "shuttle" type craft but the majority of them, the so-called "mother ships" are in orbit behind the sun with a smaller contingency holding station on the dark side of the moon. In the dreams, the beings in these ships are not only observing us, they're also protecting either us or the earth in general. In the dreams I've often seen them (I guess with my "super" vision.......you know how it is in dreams) anyway, I've seen them actually doing their "star wars" type battles in space. Yeh, I know, it's crazy.
I remember when I was little, maybe 5 or 6 years old, back in England, I had a very similar dream. I remember it was around Christmas time and the year would of been 1953 or 54, and when I woke up after the dream, I was standing on my window ledge......on the outside, in my pajamas. My bedroom window was on the second floor of an old farm house in Lancashire and below my window was the cobbled barnyard. That is not a place (my window ledge) that I would dare to be if I had been awake at the time. For a little kid, it was one heck of a way down. I know I'm not now nor, to the best of my knowledge, was I as a child, known for sleep walking.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Please Don't Poison Your Dog
Please tell every dog or cat owner you know. Even if you
don't have a pet, please pass this to those who do.
Over the weekend the doting owner of two young lab mixes
purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in their garden.
They loved the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep
cats away from their garden. Their dog Calypso decided that
the mulch smelled good enough to eat and devoured a large
helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when she
eats something new but wasn't acting lethargic in any way.
The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out for her
morning walk .. Half way through the walk, she had a
seizure and died instantly.
Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label,
upon further investigation on the company's website, this
product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs and cats.
Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey's, and they claim
that 'It is true that studies have shown that 50% of the
dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer physical harm to a
variety of degrees (depending on each individual dog).
However, 98% of all dogs won't eat it.'
This Snopes site gives the following
information:http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamul
ch.asp
Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman's Garden
Supply and other Garden supply stores, contains a lethal
ingredient called ' Theobromine'. It is lethal to dogs and
cats. It smells like chocolate and it really attracts dogs.
They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths already
occurred in the last 2-3 weeks. Theobromine is in all
chocolate, especially dark or baker's chocolate which is
toxic to dogs. Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic
quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound similar in
effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog that ingested a
lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean shells
developed severe convulsions and died 17 hours later.
Analysis of the stomach contents and the ingested cacao
bean shells revealed the presence of lethal amounts of
theobromine.."
_______________________________________________________________________
Joan, thanks for taking the time to forward this piece of scary information to me. Certainly, the more people that are made aware of this the fewer animals there will be meeting an unpleasant & untimely end. It's not only cats and dogs that could fall foul of this product but wildlife too would be vulnerable. I hope that enough shit is raised concerning the safety of this stuff that the stores are forced to remove it from their shelves. Unfortunately, it'll probably take more than a few lost loved ones (pets) & perhaps a few lawsuits to get their attention.
Brightest blessings, R.
don't have a pet, please pass this to those who do.
Over the weekend the doting owner of two young lab mixes
purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in their garden.
They loved the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep
cats away from their garden. Their dog Calypso decided that
the mulch smelled good enough to eat and devoured a large
helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when she
eats something new but wasn't acting lethargic in any way.
The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out for her
morning walk .. Half way through the walk, she had a
seizure and died instantly.
Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label,
upon further investigation on the company's website, this
product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs and cats.
Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey's, and they claim
that 'It is true that studies have shown that 50% of the
dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer physical harm to a
variety of degrees (depending on each individual dog).
However, 98% of all dogs won't eat it.'
This Snopes site gives the following
information:http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamul
ch.asp
Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman's Garden
Supply and other Garden supply stores, contains a lethal
ingredient called ' Theobromine'. It is lethal to dogs and
cats. It smells like chocolate and it really attracts dogs.
They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths already
occurred in the last 2-3 weeks. Theobromine is in all
chocolate, especially dark or baker's chocolate which is
toxic to dogs. Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic
quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound similar in
effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog that ingested a
lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean shells
developed severe convulsions and died 17 hours later.
Analysis of the stomach contents and the ingested cacao
bean shells revealed the presence of lethal amounts of
theobromine.."
_______________________________________________________________________
Joan, thanks for taking the time to forward this piece of scary information to me. Certainly, the more people that are made aware of this the fewer animals there will be meeting an unpleasant & untimely end. It's not only cats and dogs that could fall foul of this product but wildlife too would be vulnerable. I hope that enough shit is raised concerning the safety of this stuff that the stores are forced to remove it from their shelves. Unfortunately, it'll probably take more than a few lost loved ones (pets) & perhaps a few lawsuits to get their attention.
Brightest blessings, R.
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