10:24 PM - Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2004
Growth
So to continue the Mercury retrograde story........ My phone rang early this morning. It was the home delivery service of the grocery store. "We received your e-mail and just wanted to let you know that the order has already been combined and packed on the truck." Uh huh. "If you want two separate deliveries we can do that, but it will be later than the originally scheduled time for this morning - we are really busy" Fine.
The nice thing about this service is that the call is almost always possible for the day after one orders and one only has to wait for their arrival within a two hour period. That is the window of time allotted for "service calls". Compare that to the response I got from the cable company the other week with the first Mercury retrograde story when our cable was coming in in French on channels I didn't even know existed. In that case there was a weeks delay in getting someone out and the window for waiting for a service rep was from 8 am to 9 pm during the day designated with the proviso that I must be present for the call to be completed as opposed to having my youngest son present when receiving groceries.
The difference? Because of Federal and Provincial regulations there are only two cable companies allowed to operate in Calgary. One only operates north of the Bow River while the other only serves residents south of the same river. In school economics classes that was defined as a monopoly. We have several large grocery store chains that are fiercely competing for our dollars. Services that are deemed for the public good often operate like the cable company and in some ways I have no problem with that. Strict regulations and monitoring for health and education, finance and communication should be in place to protect basic rights of citizens. That said the application is capricious at best and only applies when it is convenient for the government in question - especially obvious at the Provincial level and that is why they are so often at loggerheads with their Federal counterparts. The provincial point of view is this Partypolitics. As a born and raised Albertan as was my Dad I disagree with everything that it states "We the People" want. The Federal government takes its responsibility to ensure all Canadians have "portable benefits" so that one isn't penalized for moving between different regions of the country. Sometimes that is unweildy and draconian to be sure but I think I'd choose that over the firesales of any profitable services to the buddies of our esteemed provincial government. In some ways I think that is the real reason behind this news story Iatroinfections and this Sovereignty. It can also explain the odd behaviour in Venezuela that had people standing in line for ten hours to vote for someone who puts their needs ahead of profit - what a concept Chavez.
Of more interest in the news was this bit poweroutage. Remember the massive blackout one year ago? It has turned Eastern Canadians into astrologers - oops, the typo might be a double dose of Mercury retrograde since I think the intent was to say astronomers. But then again who knows. The upshot was that it reminded a lot of people that there was a lot more to their environment than TVs. This story about finding fossils even older than first thought Mammals was just a bit of serendipity that I found interesting.
My daughter in law is still in the hospital and that is a relief in many ways. I don't think she is going to be ready to deal with her babies for at least another week or so. Lifting alone will be more than is safe. Means I'm going back to work for now. Tlaked with my supervisor at the end of the work day about it. He's not certain it's safe for me to return but he said he'd come and see me tomorrow during the day. I think his frequent presence will be protection enough. I've still got to make a living - especially since I think my oldest might need extra financial help for a bit with all the challenges he's been dealt. My grandbabies deserve the best we can give them - right? The big difficulty right now is the adult cats. They really miss my youngest and so does my son's gym buddy. When is he coming home? I miss my youngest too and in a week he's going to have to come home so he can concentrate on his schooling. Don't know how all that is going to get balanced out but we'll wait and see if the universe is still listening to my prayers - I did get the button and slip I was searching for. Surely more critical things "Consider the lilies of the fields......"
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