I suspect the 1.2 million people who lost their jobs in the US in 2008 (plus the 350 000 about to be announced for November) had an inkling that they might be in a recession. It’s also possible that the people behind the billions/trillions of dollars in various bailout dollars possibly considered that they were in the midst of a recession.

Thankfully, things don’t seem to be as dire here in Canada, though we are also in a recession. At least when they announced ours last week there was actually a question of whether we were already in one or whether we were about to start one. There was no question as to the short term outlook, but it was kind of hard to pin down just where we were in the process.

Unfortunately there’s not much to be done about a recession as an individual. The best you can hope to do is ride it out. The lucky amongst us will keep our jobs and only have to contend with cutbacks on our work budgets. Those not so lucky will either lose their job or have a hard time finding work. I really don’t have a whole lot of advice for anyone in that situation. If I find myself in that situation, my plan is try my best to do what I have to do to survive. At this point, I’d be eligible for some unemployment benefits which could string me along for a while. After that, if things still hadn’t panned out, it would be time to get a crappy job to make ends meet. I’ve had crappy jobs in my teens, but I have to admit that it’s been a while since I’ve had to do something I didn’t like for a living. When push comes to shove though, food and shelter is extremely vital to being happy, so if I’m not thrilled with my work, a full belly and a roof over my head will make contending with that minor detail much easier.

That reminds me, If you have the means right now, donate to your local food bank. They probably have dozens of different ways in which you can help them out, so you can find something that suits you. Food bank usage is way up throughout Canada and the US, but donations are dropping. There are hundreds of wonderful charities out there, but keeping families (in particular the kids) fed tends to trump most.

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The bright side of my white knuckle driving on the freshly snowed upon roads was that I received great praise for my winter driving skills from my passenger. To a Canadian, that’s a very big compliment. On the downside, I had to demonstrate that I could drive in conditions that many people don’t do so well in. That’s not a lot of fun, no matter how good a driver you may think you are.

But on Saturday morning came relief from the gripping fear that is snowy/icy roads on all seasons. I managed to get a fresh set of snow tires on the car. I was floored at the immediate difference. Usually I have them on early-ish and I don’t notice any dramatic change, I just maintain good grip through the seasons. But this time! Wow! Like night and day. I don’t even know what to compare it to. Perhaps the nearest analogy is comparing walking across a skating rink on shoes as compared to getting a good set of skates on your feet and having a pleasant (controlled) skate.

Normally at this point, I would normally offer my vote of encouragement for anyone who doesn’t have snows on yet and lives in a winter climate to get some on now. However, I don’t think that I need to bother because anyone who doesn’t have snows on and is driving in snow is already getting plenty of head’s up from mother nature. I don’t think anything I say will make much of a difference.

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Their widget sucks in Firefox, so here’s the link to the full sized version.

First of all, who goes out and gets a turkey that’s still feathered and still has its head on. I don’t know for sure how turkeys were done, but back home when my grandfather started preparing the chickens, the first thing that came off was the head. I have a hard time believing that you’d wait until after the stuffing.

Secondly, what’s with the bloody eggs??? That’s where I nearly peed myself laughing. I mean seriously, if your eggs are bleeding, then you need to find a new grocer ’cause wherever he’s getting his/her eggs is probably way too close to a nuclear plant.

Thirdly, dude, how bad a cook are you if your turkey looks like that after it’s done. Seriously, if your thanksgiving turkey looks like it’s been hit by a car and then got a sunburn, you’re not just doing it wrong, you’re flat out going to poison someone someday.

Now I’ll admit that showing people that you have to take the giblets out of the turkey before you cook it is probably reasonable. I mean if you don’t have the giblets to pull out the giblets, then maybe you should cook something a bit more docile like a carrot or a piece of broccoli. But in order to do that you’ll have to be ok with the fact that these plants were sitting there innocently before someone came and ripped them out their soft, fertile, earthy home only to go to cold, cold storage facilities and then on to you boiling pot of water where any life left in these living things is extinguished. That is, unless you eat them raw you monster.

I understand what the PETA people are trying to do as an organization. I just don’t believe in all of the things that they believe in. In this case though, I think they’ve got a big old FAIL on their hands.

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For the better part of a decade, horrible acts have been committed both against the citizens themselves and against citizens of other countries, all wrapped in a flag. The US flag became the protection mechanism for many acts that some would call patriotic while others would call them criminal if not outright treasonous. As such, the US flag became a symbol of all that was wrong in the US for those who believed the latter. I happen to be one of those people.

Today though, when I see an American flag, I see something entirely different. Today I see people who stood in line for many, many hours to exercise their right to vote. I see a nation that looked beyond the pettiness of race and made a choice that made sense to them on an intellectual level. After years of governmental buffoonery, I can now see that the people of the US can recognize the value of intelligence over who they’d rather have a beer with. Each has its place, but…

I am not normally an optimist and the US faces nothing but hardship over the next few months to few years. President Obama will face one of the greatest challenges event handed to a US president. His presidency will be one of struggles and hard times. He will not be able to change that with the wave of a magic wand. But I do see that word he used so often in his campaign when I now look at the US flag. I see hope.

I wish our American neighbours the all the best. November 4th, 2008 sent a powerful message to the world, and we’ve heard it loud and clear. Welcome back America.

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Note: these are 2 scenes with 2 angles each.

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The one thing that I have to point out as I compare the US electoral system with the Canadian one is the overall simplicity of the Canadian voting process. You get a voter registration card, you go in, they give you a ballot with a handful (4-6) of names on it and you put and “x” or a check mark in the circle next to the candidate you want. That’s it. No hanging chads, no weird levers and pulleys, only one position to vote for. I’m sure there are some US states that have it pared down to a simple exercise, but many don’t.

So here’s hoping all Canadians of age went out and voted. Let’s see what we get after the big roll of the dice.

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