From my wise and religiously-inclined friend Stephen, father of my God Daughter:

i am not one to proselytize and i don’t think everyone has to have kids, but i do think that there is so much you learn about yourself and others and so many changes for the better that happen to you with kids that it would be hard to have those changes happen any other way. i’ve been working with a guy who is 54 and unmarried and childless and his whole life revolves around what happened to him when he was under 25. i like the sufi expression - “shatter my heart to make it ready for a greater love than i have ever known”.
He’s right.

A couple of years ago, I wanted to set up the Pagoo system to act as my answering machine. To do this required a service from the phone company called Call Forward Busy. At the time, the phone company told me that no such service was available; I pressed them with CRTC rulings, and then, as if by magic, the service became available. It’s interesting, in this light, to find the following notice on the phone company’s website:

(*Call Forward Busy is needed to make this service work. If you were to purchase this or a similar service from another provider, Island Tel would charge residential-line customers $2.25 per month and business-line customers $3.25 per month on your phone bill for Call Forward Busy. That’s in addition to what you pay your other provider. Island Tel bundles the two together so you can save money!)
All they want to do is to save me money!

Transmission work is something each of us will probably have done only once or twice in a lifetime. And for most of us, transmissions remain a deep dark automotive mystery, one of those things usually prefaced by a statement like “we’ll have to drop it out and take a look, and that will cost $600 up front.” And then there’s Precision Transmission in Charlottetown. Two years ago, the transmission in my 1993 Eagle Summit got all chewed to hell, and I needed a new one. My local dealer quoted me a starting price of $4500 for a new one (I only paid $6000 for the car); the guys at Precision rebuilt the transmission for $1500. They’re friendly, don’t talk in mechanic-speak, and I would highly recommend them when and if you experience the dread that comes from shifting into drive and having nothing happen.

The last two years have seen the opening of four new or heavily renovated grocery stores in the Charlottetown area: a new Sobey’s in Stratford, a renovated Sobey’s in West Royalty, and new stores for IGA and Atlantic Superstore (both Loblaw outposts) in Charlottetown. What’s remarkable about these stores is how much more functional the design of the Sobey’s stores is. This is made most obvious by the fact that in the Sobey’s stores the produce sections’ flooring material is nice smooth linoleum whereas the Loblaw stores use rackety ceramic tile. The result: my cart glides through Sobey’s and rattles through Loblaws, something made more obvious with a rattling 3 month year old infant riding on board.

We had much opportunity to experience the new Air Canada this holiday season, flying up to Ontario for the holidays. The bad: the Air Canada call centre appears to have about 3 staff (or 1 million callers), as call wait times over the holidays were 15-25 minutes; the pilot missed the runway in Halifax, had to circle back, and ended up flying through very bumpy air for 30 minutes (much bard ensued); their Pearson Airport operation is under-staffed: things proceed fairly well under normal conditions, but they really need a “mobile strike force” to swoop into action when flights are cancelled or delayed. The good: the express check-in for e-ticket passengers is a wonder: well designed, quick to use, saves 15 or 20 minutes in line (question: why does it still take so long to check in manually?); we were upgraded to business class for the return flight because our original flight was cancelled: business class makes flying bearable (good meals, wide seats, friendly staff), but also makes the thought of the inevitable return to “hospitality” class unbearable. And, of course, there was our newfound ability to take advantage of pre-boarding for “passengers with small children or other requiring assistance.”

On the road in Ontario this week. We stopped in at the new eatons store at Yorkdale in Toronto this afternoon. Generally impressive: more staff; much better design (delightful shelving for suitcases, with cast aluminium airplanes atop was a highlight); more interesting product mix, free Lindor chocolates. The most interesting section was linens, which must cover 10,000 square feet of the 3rd floor: beautifully laid out, beds made up so you can touch the sheets, excellent selection, friendly staff. Downsides: there are more staff, but they vary widely in maturity and experience; Guest Services (where you get information, check your coat, etc.) is located in an obscure spot on the 2nd floor; had to wait 15 minutes to pay for a coat; staff seem more attentive to well dress yuppies than to dump-looking Islanders bearing sleepy infants. When all was said and done, though, I signed up for an eatons card (they gave me 10% off my purchased today if I signed up), bought some nice Nautica sheets and a wool coat, and was happy to see a trusted, spruced up friend back on the scene. Too bad I have to fly to Toronto to shop, though!

If you thought saying “www” was hard, try saying it in Spanish [30K RealAudio] or Italian [58K RealAudio] (voices courtesy of the Bell Labs Text to Speech system).

If you’re looking for something to listen to while computing, I recommend: Trent Radio (my old stomping grounds; community radio in Peterborough, Ontario); WNAN (affiliated with WGBH; broadcasting from Cape Cod, MA); 680 News (used to be CFTR, a top-40 station, when I went to summer camp; it was the only station you could pick up on Beausoleil Island); Radio Netherlands (if only to hear Dutch announcers speaking Spanish; very mellifluous).

Tune in this week to Off the Beaten Track on CBC Prince Edward Island (Friday, Dec. 15 at 4:30 p.m.) to learn more than you ever thought possible about the world of MICR and cheque clearing. (You can listen live via RealAudio, or find an archive link here late Friday).

Okay, so Island Tel Advanced Solutions [sic] doesn’t send paper bills for High Speed Internet — my only option is to receive my bill by email. But they don’t accept electronic bill payment from my credit union. This leaves them as the only bill that I can’t pay online (and this includes everything from electric and oil to my little insurance broker down the street). Oh, and they don’t even print their mailing address on the invoice — where am I supposed to send the cheque?

About This Blog

Photo of Peter RukavinaI am . I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.

To learn more about me, read my /nowlook at my bio, listen to audio I’ve posted, read presentations and speeches I’ve written, or get in touch (peter@rukavina.net is the quickest way). 

I have been writing here since May 1999: you can explore the 25+ years of blog posts in the archive.

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