Mike Nabuurs's blog

The Name Game

What's in a name?   Someone famous asked that once and I never really thought much of it until I saw a list of the most popular baby names for 2007.   Many of the usual suspects were there, Emily, Emma, Jacob, Joshua, Isabella and of course Michael.   Michael has always hung tough on the most popular baby names list.  For decades it was always the most popular and this year it was number two.  Kind of a self fulfilling thing really, it was always so popular that just the number of Michael Junior's every year gives it a head start over the rest.  It's funny when it comes to naming a child because names have impressions for all of us.  Pick a name and throw it around and you quickly find out that some people might have fond feelings of someone they once knew by that name and they love it.  Likewise, you may run into a friend who was once beaten up by a guy by that name and he hates it.  Certain names just carrying an impression with all of us. Then there are the dreaded nicknames.  Before you can name a child you really have to consider all the possibilities.  From the initials of their full name to the short forms that will no doubt come about.  Trust me, as much as parents want it, you can be heading for quite a battle if you think you can force everyone to use your child's full name.  Elizabeth is a beautiful name but it's big and quickly becomes everything from Liz to Liza to Beth to Eli to Liddabit to just E.  There are a lot of variables to take into account.  Keep in mind, the longer the name the more variables there are.  The thing I find most interesting when it comes to names is the way that names come in and go out of vogue.  Go into any classroom now and you'll find groups of kids with the same name so their peers are forced to call them something else to separate them.  There's Sarah N. and Sarah J. and over there is Sarah L.   Sometimes they use last name initials or maybe they'll go with red-headed Jacob and dark haired Jacob and blue eyed Jacob.  Before any parents decide to name their kids with one of the "hot" names they should consider what other kids may be forced to call them.  Sure you can live with Madison P. and Madison J.  But you might not like the name game too much if suddenly there's a dumb Ethan and a smart Ethan in the class and the other kids have decided yours isn't the smart one.  Kids can be cruel, new parents should always remember that.  Asking themselves what's better for my kid?  There aren't a lot of Henry's or Robert's these days but maybe Henry or Robert is better then having to explain to your child why they have to be Fat Michael and can't be called Skinny Michael like the other Michael in class. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !

Consuming Gas

I am like many other Canadians I'm sure.  I take the stories of Global Warming seriously and even if they aren't true I think that anything we can do to improve our air and water quality is a good thing.  So I've committed to trying to find ways to reduce my carbon footprint.  Now when it comes to using gas I don't drive a lot and the price of gas, while annoying, hasn't really impacted me that much.  I drive a big vehicle that uses a lot of it but since I don't drive very far it still hasn't been an issue.  However on the weekend we were planning a bit of a hike for Mothers Day and it would add up to about three hours of driving.  Now I will admit that I am normally a 120 kilometers an hour guy on the highways.  I like the fast lane and I'm not afraid to use it.  For all intents and purposes the flow of traffic on most of our highways seems to be somewhere between 110 and 120 anyway, despite the 100 kilometer an hour maximum speed limit.  Now I've heard all the stories about how reducing your speed on the highways can reduce your gas consumption and I always figured they were talking about saving me a couple of bucks on a long car ride.  I like to go fast and I like to get where I'm going quickly so I guess I was always willing to throw in the couple of extra bucks so I could stay out there in the fast lane.  However with the price of gas the way it is we decided that on this past weekend's journey we would stick to the speed limit.  Take our time and just toddle along to our destination.  It was hard to stick to the speed limit.  Luckily I have cruise control so I got it up to 101 kilometers an hour and locked it in.  I stayed in the slow lane most of the time and eventually got used to the sound of cars whizzing by me. One after another after another they passed me like I was standing still.  Small cars, big cars, trucks, buses.  Evidently I was the only one going 101 kilometers an hour on the weekend.  However I stuck to my guns and in the end it maybe added to an extra 10 or 15 minutes on the road over the three hour trip.  Really not that much when you consider the big picture and especially when you consider how much gas I had left in the tank.  I have made this trip countless times and over the three hour drive I consistently use three quarters of a tank of gas.  I had filled up just before we left on our drive this past weekend and when we got home the needle was still above half a tank.  Some quick calculations.  Okay, they weren't quick, but that has more to do with my math issues than anything else.  In the end, I saved about $30 dollars in gas.  I have a big tank and I could not believe the savings were that great.  Just 20 kilometers an hour faster than the speed limit was using that much extra gas.  I couldn't believe the savings!!!!  As well, I must say, riding along in the slow lane is actually much less stressful.  You're not speeding up and slowing down and getting behind some idiot who shouldn't be in the fast lane and then aggressively trying to get by him at the first chance.  I was calm and relaxed and that was before I even found out how much I was saving.  Yes, we've all heard that driving slower saves gas.  We all understand that but how many of us put it into practice.  I would challenge you to make one trip in the slow lane and try it for yourself.  I am a new convert.  Speed is for the big spenders, I'm going to save my money and by not burning that extra quarter tank of gas, I'm helping the environment.  So the next time you see me on the highway give me a wave, I'm the guy in the slow lane, saving the Earth and some cash all at the same time. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !

Noise Disposal

Over the weekend I was confronted with a terrible noise.  No it wasn't Dad upset that it was Mother's Day so that meant, he couldn't go golfing.  My dishwasher started to make the most heinous sound.  Now I'm not talking about the sound that a kid makes when they're asked to be the dishwasher, that's really more of a horrific groan.  I'm talking about a grinding, whining sound of the dishwasher machines' death throw.  Suddenly I'm standing there wondering, should I have used Jet Dry more often?  What is Jet Dry anyway?  Is there some part of the machine I should have been greasing or cleaning off or replacing?  The problem is, I really don't know much about dishwashers other than, you put dishes in, run it and they come our relatively clean.  Have I been causing problems by being in too big of a rush when loading it and leaving hunks of food on the plates?  Does that gum up the works inside maybe?  There are so many questions and all I know is that right now, the dishwasher sounds like it's very sick.  The other problem with the dishwasher is, it's not an easy thing to get at when it's built into the counter.  It's not like a fridge or stove that you can pull out and stare at the back of it for awhile so it at least seems to your family like you might have a clue as to what's wrong.  The dishwasher makes a horrible noise and my wife looks at me and I, well, I just shrug my shoulders and wonder if there's any chance it will just go away on it's own.  I remember last year there was a recall on some dishwashers and I thought at the time, man, that would be tough to get that thing in to get it repaired.  Well now I face that same dilemma. Which brings up a problem faced by most of us on a regular basis these days.  Do I drop a hundred or more to have some guy come in and show me his butt crack for an hour only to tell me, "oh ya, she's toast, you're gonna have to get a new one buddy, here's my bill !"  Or do I just bite the bullet and go and buy a new one.  Which you know will be followed by a conversation with someone at some point where I'll share my noisy dishwasher story and they'll say, "oh ya, mine did that too, so I kicked it and it worked for another 15 years without a problem!"  Either way I'm going to get hosed and you know it.  The problem is how cheaply they make products these days in order to give us lower and lower prices.  I had my first VCR for nine years.  The last one I bought, didn't make it through the first show I taped, it lasted nine minutes !?!?!?!?  The realization is this, we live in a disposable society.  And I blame the people at Bic for starting it all with their throw away lighters. Now I'm off to go dishwasher shopping.  Although it does strike me as funny how, actually doing the dishes by hand, didn't even pop into my head as a possible solution to the problem. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !

To Mom

First and foremost she gave you life, while Dad just stood by

She made sure you were fed and changed your poopy bum,

Said you were brilliant when you did something dumb,

Held your hand the first time you ever crossed a road,

Rubbed stinky stuff on your chest when you had a cold,

She laughed herself silly when you told a joke,

Loved the ashtray you made her, even though she didn't smoke,

Gave you a zillion goodnight kisses on your little head

After a zillion bed time stories that she lovingly read

Get Cuttin'

The other day I cut my lawn for the first time this spring.  It took about four minutes to remember why I hate cutting the grass.  I love the look of a nice neat front lawn.  There's no question I've been conditioned like so many others to believe that a neat and tidy and green front lawn makes a home look great.  I grew up with that.  My parents spent hours outside manicuring their lawn  and gardens because that was what people did.  They didn't have the money to hire folks to do it and it was important to them that it always look neat and tidy.  I still remember the first time that my Dad let me cut the lawn.  I can't recall how old I was but I do remember what happened that lost me that chore.  Our front lawn had a hump in the middle of it and I was new at the grass cutting game.  I ran over that hump at full speed and managed to cut the grass at the top of it right down to the root.  A big lawn mower blade scuff right in the middle of my parents pride and joy.  My Dad came home that night, took one look at the new mud colored blemish on his lawn and promptly told me to consider another line of work.  I never cut the grass again at that house.  Eventually I moved to my own place and quickly learned the ins and outs of cutting the lawn.  For a long time I owned a push mower.  It was a good workout and of course a great way to cut the lawn if you're an environmentalist.  I would like to be able to tell you I still have a push mower but the fact is, you have to stay right on top of cutting the lawn if you're working the push mower.  You can never let the grass grow too long or suddenly it's like pushing the mower through quick sand.  Due to the fact that I wasn't a big fan of this chore, I would always leave it as long as I could and that pretty much lead to my decision to push the push mower into the garbage dump.  I now own an electric mower.  Once again I'm on the good side of the environmental argument but my electric mower is the kind with the really, really long extension chord.  I don't care how cool you are, you can't look cool cutting the lawn with a bright yellow extension chord getting in your way constantly.  Whipping the thing from the left to the right and having it whip your leg like a twisted up beach towel.  Yanking on it when you've run out of chord and find that you've either just pulled all the lawn furniture off the porch or the mower just died because you just pulled the plug out of the handle.  At best you'll look a bit clumsy out there, at worst, you'll run over the chord and really look clumsy as your body shakes from the inevitable electric shock.  Currently my big long yellow extension chord has at least five places on it where it's been patched with electric tape to cover over the gouges in the chord.  I am an industrial accident waiting to happen.  Regardless of that, the job must be done.  I do find it odd though as I throw fertilizer on my lawn, thinking about how, this is just going to make the grass grow faster and thicker and that means I'm just going to have to cut it more. The only upside of that is, once it is cut, man does it look good.  A freshly cut, neatly manicured front lawn still impresses me,  especially this time of year.  Since I know that it won't be long and I'll have to pour water on it so that I can keep cutting it.  Wow, when you put it that way, suddenly paving the whole thing over, doesn't sound like a bad idea. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !

Slowing It Down

The one thing we seem to all agree on is that life is too short and we're all living our lives at too fast a pace.  Stopping and smelling the roses has come down to sniffing the air as we whiz by not sure if they're roses we're smelling or not.  This fast paced lifestyle has lead to poor nutrition decisions, i.e. fast food way too often, as well as some poor habits we've developed when it comes to driving.  Speed limits are regularly ignored as we try to get where we're going just a little faster because we just don't have the time to waste.  The problem becomes that when everyone regularly travels at ten or twenty kilometers an hour over the speed limit, we as a society start to show a lack of respect for the law.  Quickly ten or twenty over slips to thirty over or forty over or more.  Speed limits have become more like guidelines, a suggested top speed, and not one that we feel we have to take seriously.  That becomes an even bigger problem when a select few in our society really blow the doors off the thing.  There was an interesting story this week out of Hamilton where a 31 year old woman in a Ford Explorer was caught traveling at 130 kilometers an hour in a 50 kilometer an hour zone in the city.  That is 80 kilometers an hour over the posted limit.  Across the country there have been other examples just as bad but this story goes a step further.  This was the second time in a month that this woman was caught going more than 50 kilometers an hour over the limit.  The first time she lost her license for a week and had her car impounded.  After paying the fines and fees, within two weeks she was again traveling at an idiotic rate of speed down a city street.  This is the moment when our laws need to change to embrace this act for what it is, wanton ignorance for the safety of her society.  This isn't a speeding infraction anymore, this is a criminal act.  If this same woman had been caught shooting a missile down a city street people would be outraged and she'd be off to prison for ten years.  Yet, that's precisely what she did.  Her Ford Explorer traveling at 130 kilometers an hour is a 3,000 pound missile.  She can't control it if something suddenly happened.  She fired a missile down a city street and needs to be punished for doing it.  Ultimately there are two things we can do and we will eliminate this problem once and for all.  Right off the top we need to move to limiters that will not allow any vehicle to travel above the highest posted speed limit in the land.  Why have a vehicle that can even go 130 kilometers an hour if there is not a single road in the province where you can drive it that fast.  The second thing we need to do is bring in aggressive, draconian punishments for people caught excessively speeding.  We can't rely on excessive insurance premiums to drive these people off the roads because some people are rich enough that they can afford to keep doing it.  Stripping offenders of their license, their vehicle and even bringing in prison time are not a problem for me.  I will never be caught going that fast, I would never consider it safe for me to go that fast never mind the safety of the residents of the community.  Horrific accidents will continue to be a part of our every day lives until we meet speeders head on with harsh and painful punishments.  Innocent people will continue to lose their lives in collisions with people who are reckless.  You can't discharge a gun within the city limits, so why on Earth are people getting away with unleashing a missile down the street?!?!?! Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !

Uniformed Opinion

So there I was staring at the fan on the weekend when all of a sudden, some stinky stuff hit it.  Sometimes there are decisions made in some far off boardroom and you just have to give your head a shake and wonder, who in the world thought that was a good idea?  Last week Canada's oldest retailer, the Hudson Bay Company, was reeling when the news got out that the uniforms they were going to dress our Olympic athletes in were mostly made in China.  I guess to someone it made some sense since the games are being held there, maybe the athletes can just pick them up at door in Beijing and save on shipping costs?  The Hudson Bay Company won the right to dress our Olympic athletes in 2005.  They paid a lot of money to be the official clothing supplier and no one told them they had to make the stuff in Canada.  So they had 80% of the 25 piece uniform made in China.  They claimed it was because the eco-friendly materials used in the clothes isn't easily available here, including using bamboo.  Since, for those of you who don't know, bamboo is a very popular Canadian tree.  Oh that's right, it's not.  I guess Canada doesn't have any eco-friendly materials??? So now back to the boardroom.  At what point in the meeting did someone say, "look, we can save millions if we just dress our Canadian athletes, paid for by the Canadian taxpayer in clothes, made in China".  Did anyone in that meeting suggest that the optics of that aren't great?  At a time when Ontario and Quebec are hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs and the Canadian textile industry is reeling because of cheap products made abroad, this would have been the opportune time for someone to invest in Canada. Especially since, it's our money.  It's our money that funds the athletes and if HBC hope to sell some of these Olympic clothing items to us it will be our money they'll pocket.  The Olympics is a wonderful world stage to show off some Canadian products.  Our athletes have to be Canadian to compete at the Olympics for us, shouldn't the clothes they wear also reflect where they're from.  Roots Canada, who actually had the contract before the Hudson Bay Company, used the Olympic stage to make a fortune.  They created uniforms for various Canadian teams that translated into great sales of their products.  Remember the beret that was so popular people were stealing them in the athletes village?  So Canada's oldest company, supplying uniforms to Canada's Olympic team decided to have the clothes made in China.  Should that basic statement not have raised a red flag in that board room meeting.  Or at the very least, a red and white flag with a little red maple leaf on it.  Oh that's right, that flag was probably made in China as well so what does it matter.  Listen, in this age of the global economy, we all buy stuff that's made all over the world.  I get that and I get that money is an issue.  It's an issue for manufacturers and it's an issue for people buying the stuff.  However, when you're entrusted to outfit a country's team that would be the perfect opportunity to highlight that country's top outfitters.  Having our athletes march in front of the world in their clothes would have been their Olympics.  For their part the Hudson Bay Company says that none of the clothes were made by child labor or forced labor and the factories they use pay a decent wage.  Which in China is, like a dollar a day.  The people in the board room who made this idiotic decision, made more money than that just getting out their made in China pens to write on their made in China note pads that we should have the uniforms made in China.  And for that they win the Olympic gold for stupidity. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !

Stuck in the Middle With You

Last week Statistics Canada released new income information and the lead news story from that 2006 Census report was that the rich in Canada are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is stagnant.  Kind of an icky word to describe most of us but then again it could be worse, we could have been losing ground.  The thing of it is, the middle class is a pretty big group.  It encompasses all kinds of people, so many in fact that over the years people have tried to break that group up into smaller bites.  The lower middle class, the upper middle class and the, well, I guess the middle middle class?  I, like the majority of Canadians, have lived my life somewhere in that vast wasteland known as the middle class.  The problem I had with last week's news reporting was the way so many media outlets made it sound like a bad and unfortunate state.  The funny thing is, most of the people reporting the story, also part of the middle class.  Labels are always a bit funky to work with because everyone's situation is different but, in the end, I'm really happy being part of that group.  Whether my income has been stagnant or not, it hasn't really affected me adversely.  The thing about the rich is, most of them work really hard at being rich.  It takes effort and a desire to want to constantly bring in wealth that I just don't have.  If they want to wine and dine and work the crowd and spend their time trying to figure out how to get even richer, that's their thing.  I have a modest house and live a modest lifestyle and I'm quite happy with the whole thing.  I really don't need a gigantic home with entire wings that no one even uses.  I don't need five and a half baths since I only use one.  The only problem I have with being part of the middle class is the way some people see it as a failure or a negative thing.  Some of us, believe it or not, are not driven by money or the need to have all the toys.  The fact of the matter is, this supposed "stagnant middle class" has more than they know what to do with.  The middle class in Canada has all the food they need, they have nice homes, cars to drive and more gadgets than you can shake a stick at.  This "stagnant" middle class is living a very comfortable life especially when compared to the one class that needs our help.  It's like Canada is an episode of The Brady Bunch.  The majority of us are Jan, stuck in the middle and all everyone talks about is Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.  The rich have this, the rich have that, the rich are getting richer.  Meanwhile no one is talking about poor Cindy.  She has nothing.  She doesn't have enough to eat, she can't find work that pays a decent wage, she lives in crime filled neighborhoods and needs our help.  The poor getting poorer according to the 2006 census is the real story.  That is the headline everyone needs to pay attention to.  Poverty leads to more crime and children who don't have enough to eat and that affects their ability to get a good education and break the cycle.  In a nation as rich and decent as Canada there should be no child that goes to be hungry.  Is the rich getting richer part of the problem?  Maybe it is, maybe they need to stop being so damn greedy and throw a little back to the poor in this country but in the end, no one should be worrying about the middle class.  There's a great line in the song "Lucky Man" by country band Montgomery Gentry.  The line goes "I look around at what everyone has and forget about all I've got".  That to me, sums up the problem with some in the middle class.  Forgetting about how fortunate we are because we're so damn busy looking at what the rich have we don't think enough about the people in our very community that need our help because they have nothing.  I'm proud to be a member of the middle class and I will be happy always being a member of that group.  What makes me ashamed is that we don't do more to force governments to help the poor, join our ranks. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !!