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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2005-12-07, Page 66 Exeter Times -Advocate Wednesday, December 7, 2005 Opinion Forum News Seniors' perspective Continued from page 5 4,5 and 6; 1st Katie Hartai - Exeter Public School, 2nd Cole Leslie Vincent - Stephen Central Public School, 3rd William Dearing - Stephen Central Public School. NewYears Eve Dance; At the Legion, Sat., Dece. 31 9p.m. to 1 a.m. Music by Don Harvey and you will be served a delicious late buffet. Tickets are $15 each or 2 for $25 a couple. Call the legion at 235-2962 or 235-1167. Seats will be reserved. For a great evening of fun and dancing, plan ahead and reserve your tickets. The Legion NeedsYou: Help honour our veterans by joining the Legion. In this "The Year of the Veteran" join now for 2006. Enjoy the comradeship and friendship of many of your friends and neighbors. Anyone 18 or over can join. If you are the child, stepchild, grandchild, sibling, niece, nephew, parent, spouse or widow(er) of someone who is or was an "Ordinary" member (usually a Veteran) you can join as an "Associate" member and have a vote in the way the legion is run. If no relative is an "Ordinary" member, you can still join as an "Affiliate" member. After two years you can vote. Early bird 2006 membership dues for the Legion now $45 for the remainder of 2005 and all of 2006 until Dec. 1, contact the Legion at 235-2962 for more information. Legion & Auxiliary Hall Rental & Catering: Weddings, Anniversaries, Dances or Funeral Lunches. You do not have to be a Legion member to attend public events at the Legion. Union Gas - Energy SavingTips: • Everyone should have an energy reduction plan. Start by using the Union Gas Wise Energy Guide, avail- able at www.uniongas.com • Turn down the thermostat! Turning it down a few degrees while you are out at work and while sleeping can save you $100 a year! Install a programmable ther- mostat and pre-program your home's temperature. • Reduce leaks by applying weather stripping and caulking to all doors and windows, and add foam gas- kets to all electrical outlets. • Wash your clothes in cold water. • Insulate your hot water heater and hot water pipes with foam insulation and foam wrap. • Install low -flow faucet aerators in your shower and on your taps. They save water and the energy required to heat it. • Install a high -efficiency natural gas furnace and enjoy thousands of dollars in energy savings over the life of the furnace. • Change the air filter on the furnace every one to two months. A dirty air filter reduced the airflow into your furnace forcing it to work harder. • Let the sunshine in! Open window coverings and let the sun in during the day to help heat your home, then close the blinds and drapes at night to help keep the heat in. • Close doors and vents to unused rooms. Ensure that furniture and draperies are not obstructing airflow from heating vents. • And finally, if you are cold, use a sweater or a blan- ket. The Sad Passing of Common Sense: Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial poli- cies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable par- enting strategies (adults, not children in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well inten- tioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Panadol, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student, but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault. Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was prompt- ly granted a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death by his par- ents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daugh- ter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by three stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, and I', a Victim. Not many attended the funeral because so few realized he was gone. If You still remember him pass this on, if not join the majority and do nothing. HOME ADAPTATION'S for SENIORS' INDEPENDENCES: First about, HASI • HASI helps low-income seniors who have difficulties in the home, by providing financial assistance to home- owners and landlords to carry out minor adaptations. Generally, adaptations to the dwelling unit will be permanent additions, replacements or relocations will allow easier and safer performing of daily activities and will be related to occupant's loss of ability. • Items such as handrails in the hallways and on stairways, easy -to -reach work and storage areas in the kitchen, lever handles on doors, walk-in showers with grab bars, and bathtub grab bars and seats are exam- ples of the types of adaptations that can be made under this initiative. • Questions about HASI should be directed to local CMHC offices. www.cmhc.ca • Funds are limited and applications will be handled on a first-come basis. What Financial Assistance Can I Get? • Assistance in the form of a forgivable loan of up to $3500 is available. This loan does not have to be repaid provided that the; • Homeowner agrees to continue to occupy the unit for the duration of the loan forgiveness period. If the adaptation work is being done on a rental unit, the landlord must agree that rents will not increase as a result of the adaptations. • The loan forgiveness period is six months and may be reduced in extenuating circumstances. • If you have received assistance under (HASI) previ- ously, you may be eligible for reduced assistance. Other Financial Assistance; • If the dwelling unit requires extensive modifica- tions such as wider doorways and increased space for wheelchair maneuvering. Ask your local CMHC office for information on Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program (RRAP) for persons with Disabilities. Contact; www.cmhc.ca or call Toll Free; 1-800-668-2642. Subject: GETTIN' OLD 1. A very elderly gentleman (mid nineties), very well dressed, hair well groomed, great looking suit, flower in his lapel smelling slightly of a good after shave, pre- senting a well looked after image, walks into an up- scale cocktail lounge. Seated at the bar is an elderly looking lady (mid eighties). The gentleman walks over, sits along side of her, orders a drink, takes a sip, turns to her and says, "So tell me, do I come here often?" 2. Two elderly gentlemen from a retirement centre were sitting on a bench under a tree when one turns to the other and says ... "Slim, I'm 83 years old now and I'm just full of aches and pains. I know you're about my age. How do you feel?" Slim says, "I feel just like a new- born baby." Really!? Like a new-born baby!?" "Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants. 3. Hospital regulations require a wheelchair for patients being discharged. However, while working as a student nurse, I found one elderly gentleman -- already dressed and sitting on the bed with a suitcase at his feet -- who insisted he didn't need my help to leave the hospital. After a chat about rules being rules, he reluc- tantly let me wheel him to the elevator.On the way down I asked him if his wife was meeting him. "I don't know," he said. "She's still upstairs in the bathroom changing out of her hospital gown." Final exams drawing closer at South Huron Districh High School EXETER — On Wednesday of this week (Dec. 7), students in Grade 9 and 10 classes will receive their second official report card of the year. The marks and comments from the November report card will re -appear and added to them will be marks and comments for the year-long courses they are taking, as well as the final marks for Civics and Career Studies from the first term. This report card will provide parents and stu- dents with information about student progress in all of the courses the students are currently taking. In first period on Wednesday, students in Grades 9 and 10 will complete the Response Form page of the report card. This page must be brought home to be signed by a parent/guardian and then be returned to the school for filing in the stu- dents' Ontario School Records. Students in Grades 11 and 12 were given the Response Form with the November report and should by now have returned them to the school. As an added incentive for getting these forms returned to us, we are making it a condition for attendance at the annual Semi -Formal on Dec. 22. Students who fail to have the form returned, complete with a parent/guardian signature, will be ineligi- ble to attend the dance.The next official report card, by the way, will be issued in February at the conclusion of the first semester. Students and parents are reminded as well that we do have a PA Day scheduled for this Friday, Dec. 9. I would like to remind parents and students that we do have final exams coming up in January for first semester courses. The exam period runs from Jan. 27 to Feb. 1; so we would ask that you check ahead and make sure that you do not have any medical or dental appointments scheduled during this period. Any appointments that might conflict with exams should be re -scheduled. The exam timetable will be coming out shortly and students are reminded to check it carefully, to take note of when their exams are scheduled, and to report any exam timetable conflicts to the office as soon as possible. During last Friday's snow day, we had some com- munication issues that we hope will be resolved before the next storm. On Friday conditions worsened between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m., resulting in Highway 23 being closed. At the same time, some of our drivers in the Grand Bend area were finding severe visibility problems on the road, and so we decided just before 7 a.m. to cancel the buses. Normally we like to have a decision made well in advance of that time, but the changing condi- RN tions on Friday resulted in a rather late call. This situation was compounded by the fact that one local radio station issued a conflict- ing report, first stating that our buses were cancelled and then telling its listeners that we were on a two-hour delay. We are not sure where the radio station received the latter information as we at no time even con- sidered a delay. The result, of course, was consid- erable confusion for our staff and students. JEFF REABU PRINCIPAL MESSAGE We also had reports of difficulties with the "Weather Cancellations" page on the Board web- site. We think the problem is the result of large numbers of people trying to get access to the page at the same time; so, if you experience difficulty with this page, please be patient. It may take a couple of attempts but as long as you can get to the Board's main web -page, you should eventually be able to get through to the Weather Cancellations page. The Board technicians are working to resolve the issue. Also, on days when the bad weather is wide- spread throughout our Board's jurisdiction, there may be multiple pages of school bus cancellations and viewers may have to scroll to the right to get to a second, third, or even fourth page of notices. I also had a concern expressed that my notice on the Board's web -page did not give the school bus cancellation details in the subject line and that viewers had trouble opening the actual email mes- sage. I apologize for that problem, but I deliberately left the details out of the subject line so that stu- dents and parents would have to open my message. That was because I had added to the message that an event scheduled for Friday night at the school had also been postponed and there wasn't room for all of that information in the subject line. I wasn't aware at the time that I posted the notice that there would be problems when viewers tried to open it. In future, I will ensure that the subject line contains the bus cancellation information and I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.