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Sarnia/Port Hurons Best Rock!
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  .: Tony Frangis :. E-mail The Studio Right Now rock@k106fm.com
 1415 London Road Studio: (519) 464-1063 or Office: (519) 542-5500 or Fax: (519)542-1520 |
April 15, 2008ANGRY
Maybe the problem is the time of year they conducted this survey. Late winter and early spring in Canada is a horrible time to ask us about our mood. We’ve just come through another harrowing winter and while we’re starting to see more sunshine, unless you’re a novice Canadian, you know there could still be more winter to come. The problem with winter is, it just starts to wear you down. You’re cooped up in the house with your family all the time. You don’t get any fresh air, you rarely see the sun and your skin is raw from the friction that comes from bundling and unbundling every time you have to leave the house. I’ve been wearing so many layers for so long now even I wouldn’t know if I’d lost or gained weight over the winter. I think every one this time of year runs into more people with frayed nerves.
However I don’t think that counts as being angry. We’re just frustrated and want the warm weather to get here. What may make it even more frustrating is the scientists and environmentalists have been promising us Global Warming and yet, it never seems to come. This has been one of the worst winters in recent memory. Where are all these promises of warming temperatures and milder winters?? So you can’t blame us if it gets under our frostbitten skin a bit when spring is on the cusp but it just hasn’t quite arrived yet.
I see the sun shining and then step outside and there’s still a cool wind. I notice the puddles and mud all around me and then notice early in the morning how the puddles have frozen over and the mud has gotten hard. Nope, it’s not the spring I want quite yet. If people are becoming more angry these days maybe there are other factors. The cost of living seems to just keep going up with new service fees and hikes in prices but the cost of living raise many of us receive each year, doesn’t seem to be rising at the same rate. If there is more anger out there I believe it’s likely born of frustration rather than people actually being mad at something.
If you are mad at the situation your life is in, you really need to step back and take a moment to realize how lucky we are. Even if you aren’t living the high life you still probably have it better than most of the people on the planet. Fresh drinking water, a roof over your head, some food in the cupboard. That’s all it takes to be living what some on this planet would consider a very rich life indeed. Whether there’s more anger out there or not, I think it’s safe to say, there shouldn’t be a lot of it. If people are overworked they likely only have themselves to blame. We could all probably make out just fine with a little less in our lives in order to have a little more time to enjoy it. Multiple TV’s, electronic whatchamacallits and all the whoosits we can afford aren’t much fun if you have to work two jobs to get them.
We should all just take a deep breath and think about how fortunate we are to be living in Canada. Even if it is still winter despite what the calendar says. Don’t worry, spring will ease into summer and the anger will fade. At least until we run into that big construction delay on the highway.
Until next time, Your Friendly Neighborhood
Blogger
March 25, 2008
SPEEDING LIMITS
The Ontario government is moving forward on
legislation to put speed limiters on big trucks. They would mechanically
alter the engine so the big rigs can’t go faster than 105 kilometers an
hour. It’s sort of what’s old is new again because there was a time in
Ontario when big trucks had governors on them and there was even a time when
trucks had a different speed limit than cars on Ontario’s roads. Most of
Ontario’s highways have a speed limit of 100 kilometers an hour and the
people behind the new law are citing a number of good reasons for it.
Reduced gas consumption, fewer pollutants in the air and improved safety on the roads with fewer runaway trucks flying down the highway. However when looking at this story all I can think of is, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. A rather strange only saying that is apropos when arguing that limiters should be placed on all vehicles. There’s no question that trucks are involved in a lot of accidents on the highways but there are a lot of trucks on the highways. We have great, experienced drivers behind the wheels of big rigs from coast to coast and sadly they get slagged every time a big truck is involved in an accident. The fact is these people spend their lives driving and are, in most cases, much better and more experienced drivers than anyone else. We see a big wreck on the news and invariable people start blaming the truck that was involved when we don’t have any clue what caused the accident. People cutting trucks off, the truck trying to avoid an even bigger accident, poor driving conditions that come up suddenly. There are lots of reasons other than driver error that may have lead to that accident and yet people are ready to jump all over the truck as the problem. Consider the millions of kilometers logged by trucks and the countless hours they’re on the roads. Consider that truck accidents tend to make the news more because when one of those behemoths gets out of control there tends to be a lot of destruction. Consider that in my many years of driving I have seen far worse behavior and displays of idiotic driving skills from people in cars than any trucks. I have no problem with limiters or governors on trucks to keep them from speeding out of control. However I am of the mind that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Put limiters on all vehicles. Pick a speed that’s fair, give people a little leeway for speeding so they can pass or get away from a problem, and then cap every vehicle at that speed. No more teenagers getting in mom and dad’s car on a Friday night and burying the needle to be cool. No more getaway cars speeding away from a crime because they can’t getaway from a police car that doesn’t have a limiter on it. No more racing on our highways because it’s pointless if the guy in the slow lane is beating you because you can’t go any faster than him. There is no valid argument why a vehicle needs to be able to go 140 or 150 kilometers an hour. There is no highway or road in this country where you can drive it that fast so why do you need the temptation?? It’s like putting crack in every car that’s sold. Yes there is no place where you can legally smoke this drug but we put it in the car anyway knowing you’d never actually use it, would you?? There is no way to make the highways 100% safe. We have forced the auto industry to fill our cars with all kinds of safety devices to protect us in an accident. However the one thing we’ve failed to do is take away a person’s ability to turn their car into a speeding missile. It’s true that a car can go really fast down a deserted stretch of highway and in all likelihood nothing will happen. However we don’t have any deserted stretches of highway. Other cars pull out in front, giant potholes open up on our roads, things happen. The car companies sell us speed in their commercials and there are lots of people who like speed. This is why it’s only through government legislation that we can force them to add the one safety feature that they’ve resisted. It’s the same argument for putting limiters on trucks. Better fuel consumption, fewer pollutants in the air and a safer highway for everyone to drive on. If you want to drive at supersonic speeds you’ll have to go and borrow a race car and rent some time on a race track where the only person you’ll kill is yourself. A poor driver on the road is a menace, a poor driver going too fast is an even bigger problem. However it’s a bigger problem that we actually have a solution for, so the only thing I want to see speeding in this country is, the legislation to fix this problem, speeding through parliament. Until Tomorrow, Your Friendly Neighborhood Blogger
March 18, 2008
BUSY WEEK The problem is the arrival of such an early Easter. Actually this is about as early as Easter can arrive. It is always on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring Equinox. We have Equinox on Thursday and then full moon right away so Easter shows up immediately. The downside of this is that Easter traditionally is more of an April celebration. Easter egg hunts outside are suppose to be ruined by April showers not the fact that the ground is still covered in snow?? So now we’re going to come out of spring break, into the Easter break and then April, no break?? Nothing, nadda, zip. No holiday, no day off, no break from the hectic pace of diverting water away from your home for the whole month. Even April Fool’s Day isn’t a holiday. Heck, it’s not even a full day since all April Fool’s jokes must be completed by twelve noon. So now we’ve got the busiest March ever and then an April that’s going to slide right into a May without anything to look forward to. The clocks don’t change in April anymore and even our May holiday comes at the end so we’re looking at a month and a half of nothing but soakers and with the way this winter has been going, probably more snow. I’m not complaining it’s just that these little diversions help us spice up an otherwise humdrum week. Looking forward to having a rare Friday off. Preparing for Easter and getting extra sleep so you can stay up for all of The Ten Commandments at least once. These are April rituals. It’s all catching me a bit off guard. I haven’t even began to bank sleep and The Ten Commandments is on this Saturday night. Besides that I like Easter when it’s a little warmer because I like my chocolate soft and not frozen rock hard. Not that I’m complaining. Well, I guess I am, but it’s just that, I may have stayed out too late for St. Patrick’s Day last night and now I’m grumpy. Although this is nothing, just wait until early next week when I lose even more sleep watching The Ten Commandments. Until Tomorrow, Your Friendly Neighborhood Blogger |
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