HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-11-05, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2015. PAGE 5.
Whenever I find myself getting
mopey and longing for the bright
dancing days of my exuberant
youth I chant out loud a one-word mantra that
provides an instant cure.
“Algebra.”
I was never good at math. Hell, I was terrible
at math. Oh, I could add, subtract, multiply and
divide decently enough but when math went
all Picasso-ish into hallucinations like Algebra
and Calculus I was lost. “Let x be the unknown
factor” my Algebra text instructed.
It was. Still is.
I hadn't yet realized that humankind is
divided into two major sub sets: those whose
brains resemble filing cabinets and those
whose brains resemble, well, messy bedrooms.
Messy Bedroom Heads give us our singers and
dancers, our poets and painters. Filing Cabinet
Heads provide clerks and accountants, drill
sergeants and lawyers.
And, all too often, our prime ministers.
I'm not making a value judgement. We
need our Filing Cabinet Heads to make sure
water keeps coming out of the tap and the
Number 9 bus runs on time. I'm just saying
that I'm not the guy to fill those job
descriptions.
Nor was Randolph Churchill who, despite
having been Great Britain's Chancellor of the
Exchequer, confessed to bafflement over the
decimal system: “I never could make out what
all those damned dots meant.”
I sympathize completely. Randolph's and
my fate were permanently sealed away back
in the 9th century AD when some
anonymous Hindu scribe scratched out ten
symbols to represent the numbers 0 to 9.
In subsequent centuries Arab armies invaded
India, stealing, among lesser treasures
such as gold and jewels, the precious
secret code, which they refined and passed
on to the rest of the world as the Arabic
numerals we still use today. Arab scholars
threw in symbols for addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division. Modern
mathematics was born.
And in our own lifetime, another
evolutionary leap forward: binary script for
computers. I don't pretend to comprehend it,
but they tell me every word I peck out on my
computer keyboard is transformed magically
inside my computer into various combinations
of the numbers zero and one.
I can think of only two possible
combinations of zero and one, but that's what I
get for having a Messy Bedroom Head.
Computers have changed everything.
Including us. Computers were supposed to be
a handy tool to serve our communications
needs. Turns out computers rule. To play in
their league we have to become the handy
tools. That involves among other things,
overhauling our language.
I came of age in a world where icons were
religious statues, surfers were guys who hung
out at the beach, browsers were Holsteins and
a hack was either a taxicab or a lousy writer.
Not only must I update my personal dictionary,
I have to make room for a whole raft of
lexicographical gibberish such as HTTP,
HTML , ISP, URL and VOIP. Not to mention
the binary code.
All too much for this Messy Bedroom Head.
I take solace in an old limerick from my
favourite poet, Anon:
“There was an old fellow of Trinity
Who solved the square root of infinity
But it gave him such fidgets
To count up the digits
He chucked Math and took up Divinity.”
Arthur
Black
Shawn
Loughlin
Shawn’s Sense
While there were plenty of ghouls and
goblins about on Halloween and a
few running around on Devil’s
Night (also known as Oct. 30), I didn’t get my
spooks in until Nov. 1
“Remember, remember the [first] of
November” because it was the day that a lot of
things changed.
First off, we lost what little sunshine we had
after work with the implementation of
Daylight Saving Time. Secondly, we all lost a
little more money.
Alright, maybe ‘all’ might be too blanket a
term for some people, including my editor,
but I’m willing to bet that the majority
of us are affected by one, if not both,
of the price increases that were implemented
on Nov. 1.
The first increase is the price of electricity as
a commodity.
The Ontario Energy Board (OEB)
announced, just a couple weeks back, that
prices would be increased across all three
usage times (off-peak, mid-peak and peak). On
Nov. 1, those changes were implemented.
The price for off-peak electrical usage is
increasing from 8 cents per kilowatt hour
(kWh) to 8.3 cents per kWh.
Mid-peak electrical prices are increasing
from 12.2 cents per KWh to 12.6 and on-peak
will increase from 16.1 cents per kWh to 17.5.
While those price changes may not seem to
be all that bad, adding some background might
make this a very scary story indeed.
The CBC did a bit of research and
discovered that, as of November 2010, before
tiered electrical usage hours, the price of
electricity was 9.9 cents per kWh.
What does that mean? Well it means that
using power in the middle of the day has gone
up 77 per cent since then. It also means that the
price of off-peak usage, at 8.3 cents per kWh is
slowly but surely sneaking up to what we were
paying for electricity five years ago at all
times of the day.
Why is that important? Well the
tiered system was implemented to
encourage people to use less electricity
during peak hours by offering it then at a
somewhat-discounted rate.
Now, the discounted rate is going to be what
the normal rate was five years ago.
Also, take note that we’re now in winter
time-of-use billing which means that, at
7 a.m. and 5 p.m., when it’s still dark
outside, we’re going to be paying more
for the simple joy of not living in complete
darkness like some caveman that hasn’t
yet discovered fire.
The OEB said the increased prices are due to
the increased costs it faces related to
generating power.
Also, in case this isn’t scary
enough, come Jan. 1, 2016 all tier prices
will go up 10 per cent as the Clean Energy
Benefit ends.
The CBC reports that right now the
average home, with an electrical bill of
$100 in 2010, is paying $131 now, and could
be paying as much as $190 in just over six
years.
All of that and we still can’t get reliable
electrical service in Blyth... oh wait, that was
another column. Sorry.
So, you wake up on Sunday, Nov. 1 and
you’re paying more for electricity and having
to swallow that bitter pill.
By the time the afternoon rolls around,
you’re probably pretty frustrated and maybe
you want a beverage to calm your nerves and
wash the taste of increased costs out of your
mouth. Well, don’t reach for a beer. That’s
gone up in price as well.
In the first of three increases that will occur
on that magical date of Nov. 1 for the next two
years, the provincial tax on beer was increased
three cents per litre.
Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Liberal
Party of Ontario hope that the increase
will bring in $100 million a year for the
province once all three changes are
implemented.
Right now, estimates have the increase
making a case of 24 beers costing about a
quarter more.
Don’t worry, however, as the government is
looking out for you.
They have, through negotiations with major
brewers, made sure they are swallowing some
of those increases. So, instead of getting hit all
at once, the price, per bottle of beer, will likely
go up about one cent per year for the next four
years.
After that, however, it’s no holds barred.
Maybe hard liquor is a better bet, or better yet,
moonshine. They can’t tax it if they don’t
know you’ve got it.
Somehow, this is going to affect everyone.
Breweries is going to have to eventually
charge more to recover the tax increase.
Businesses at large are going to need to charge
more cover the increase in electrical costs.
Even if you don’t pay your own electrical bill
and don’t drink beer, this will, eventually,
trickle down to you and increase your cost of
living.
So keep your ghouls, your goblins, your
ghosts, your scary movies and your Halloween
pranks. This year, the provincial government
(as Hydro One, which will be benefitting from
these increases in Blyth and the surrounding
communities, is still a crown corporation) has
seen to it that Ontario residents have all the
scare they need the next time they try to
balance their books.
Denny
Scott
Denny’s Den
Step by step
Whether you’re in favour or not, it’s
nice to see work being done on the
Goderich-to-Guelph (G2G) Rail
Trail – a project that has been a long time in
the making, to say the least.
True, there are many people who remain
against the trail and their concerns are in the
process of, hopefully, being addressed through
a G2G working group and a forthcoming
report from the Huron County Planning and
Development Department. But, for both sides,
I think it’s good to see work being done.
If you’re against the trail, this work will give
you an idea of what the trail will look like
when it’s complete. Those against the trail will
know what to expect and they’ll know exactly
what representatives of the group are talking
about when they try to communicate their
vision for the lengthy trail. And maybe seeing
it for themselves will answer some questions.
If you’re in favour of the trail, the reason
work on the trail is a good thing is obvious.
After years of discussion and planning, work
is being done and permanent structures are
being placed in the ground. This means that the
trail is actually happening and it’s not just an
idea floating around in someone’s head.
In my interview with G2G Vice-Chair Chris
Lee this week, he said he, and others involved
with the trail, felt it was important to have this
“departure” site of the trail complete before
winter.
He specifically cited the International
Plowing Match in 2017 as a driving force
behind the trail. This event, which attracts tens
of thousands of visitors annually to the match’s
host community, is an important one on the
G2G calendar.
If people from Guelph or Goderich could
theoretically walk from their homes to Walton
to attend the match and the biggest rural expo
in the province, think of the value to the Huron
County community at large, says Lee.
This two-kilometre stretch running east of
Walton will show people what the trail will
look like. It will be like having a model home,
or having a specific model of car on display –
serving the same purpose, allowing people to
see, touch and experience this concept.
Seeing signage, fencing and infrastructure
all in place, in addition to a freshly-graded
surface for safe travel for adventure cyclists,
may put to rest some of those fears carried by
opponents of the trail. Then again, maybe not –
but it certainly can’t hurt.
For the longest time, the trail existed as an
idea belonging to Lee and Paul VanderMolen.
They felt there was economic potential for the
community in the trail and moved on it.
Since then, there have been countless stories
in The Citizen, as well as other area
newspapers, telling many different sides of the
story. Whether it was the public relations gaff
(admitted by G2G Inc.) of jumping the gun in
announcing the trail open before valid leases
were set to expire, the numerous delegations
spearheaded by area farmers and adjacent
landowners or Walking Home, a book written
by Lynda Wilson, who was one of the first
people to walk the trail end to end, many
stories have been told about the trail – some
good and some not so good.
Now, the trail – at least a two-kilometre
stretch of it – will be able to tell its own story
through visuals.
With the Planning Department’s report still
on its way and Huron County councillors yet
to make an official declaration of support, the
case is far from closed, but this work is a step
in the right direction – and if you’re facing the
right direction, you just have to keep walking.
Other Views
Messy bedroom or filing cabinet?
Oct. 30? 31? No, Nov. 1 was scary
“The most beautiful people we have known
are those who have known defeat, known
suffering, known struggle, known loss, and
have found their way out of the depths.
These persons have an appreciation, a
sensitivity, and an understanding of life that
fills them with compassion, gentleness, and
a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do
not just happen.”
– Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Final Thought