S-Words

Smart, Stupid and Stubborn. They all start with the letter S. In fact, Stupid and Stubborn have the same first three letters. That’s quite a bond. Well, sometimes it is Smart to be Stubborn and Smart to take a Stand, but sometimes it is outright Stupid. I’m talking about Chrysler and its employees. Chrysler is on the verge of bankruptcy. Extreme measures have to be taken to Save the company and thousands of jobs. This is not the time to play tough, concessions need to be made. But of course, the Unions with their own agenda won’t listen to reason.
Electricians, Plumbers, and other construction workers earn about $30.00 an hour in Manitoba. Those are considered top wages. These tradesmen (I refuse to use the word ’Tradesperson’ or ‘Journeyperson’. It sounds so Stupid) work in all kinds of weather conditions. Much of the time outside. They have to go through years of apprenticeship training and go to school to get their papers before they can earn these wages.
Now, $60.00 an hour (that is after the drop of $19.00 Chrysler and the government propose) is not such a bad wage. I’m sure there are many unemployed workers who would gladly work for that. I’d bet that even a lot of employed workers would jump at the chance to work for that kind of money.
We are in a deep recession and being reasonable only makes common Sense.
I know what it means to make concessions. In the late eighties and early nineties, I experienced economic difficulties and had to adjust my prices down. Way down. Was I happy? Of course not, but it was a matter of Survival. Swim or Sink. I chose Swimming, barely Staying above water and I Survived the crisis. Nobody worried about me then.
I won’t feel Sympathetic either when Chrysler goes bankrupt because its employees (and Union) refuse to be Smart. Those unemployed autoworkers won’t find another $79.00 or even $60.00 an hour job. They’ll be lucky and happy to find work that pays minimum wage.
Somali Pirates is another S-word. Our Canadian government sent a helicopter and a Destroyer into the region plagued by pirates. Yesterday, they chased a pirate boat for Seven hours to finally catch and disarm Seven pirates only to let them go again so they can hijack another ship and take more hostages. Wow! Two S-words immediately pop into my mind: Stupid and Suckers. Those pirates must be laughing their heads off, while every other country groans. Any respect we had went out of the window. How many dollars did that useless little maneuver cost the Canadian Taxpayer?
But why are we Surprised? We let known terrorists into our country. When we catch them, we don’t send them back to their own country because they might be prosecuted there. We even pay them millions of dollars compensation when they have the audacity to sue us.
In days gone by, they used to hang pirates from the gallows. After all, they are nothing but common criminals. But, then again, we treat criminals with kid’s gloves. We call them misguided, troubled Souls.
Sorry about that but it needed to be Said.

Signs of Spring

Spring is here for sure. I counted over 50 Robins in our yard today. And a whole bunch more in the neighboring properties. They were digging in the grass, sitting in the trees and singing their beautiful songs. They won’t be around for a long time, probably just passing through. I also saw two red-winged blackbirds and one woodpecker. In addition to the many sparrows and juncos (another type of sparrow). A couple of blue jays also made their usual appearance by our bird feeders.

Took a walk down to the Red River. The water is still high and moving quickly. We’re expecting another crest in a few days. It wasn’t exactly warm today, only 5 degrees Celsius. Next week they promised us warmer weather.

Looking forward to working in the yard again…cough…cough…

FictionWise Stats

Periodically I check my sales on FictionWise. I did yesterday and found that 9 of my 13 books available on FictionWise are in the top 27 in sales, that means 1/3 of the 27 books sold on that date are mine. 'Cliffs of Time' is at number 3 position, 'Orion, the Hunt' at number 7. In fact, Orion is my bestselling book so far. Pretty impressive I’d say. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean that my books are selling hundreds or even thousands of copies (sigh!). When it comes to being profitable these sales mean little since I get only pennies for each book sold, but I’ve whined about that before. They are good for my ego and that’s all, but I’m still happy.
I had an interview with Whohub. If you are interested in reading it here is the link: whohub.com/hegro
I’ve been able to do a bit more writing. I put aside ‘Epsilon’ and Book 4 of ‘The Xandra’ and started a novel, which I wrote years, and years ago. I never finished it and I’m determined to finish it now. So far, I’m up to 20,000 words. Part of the novel is written in German (yes, that’s how long ago I started writing it!), which means I have to translate it into English. The novel is titled ‘The Mindgod’, but that may not be the title when I’m finished with it. I had a dream last night where an old man asked me if I was still writing. When I answered ‘Yes’ he said, “That’s good. You always finish what you start.” Maybe that is my subconscious telling me to finish all the stuff I’ve started writing. Wow! I have a lot of work ahead of me.
All of the snow is gone now. We are lucky because we are not living in the Flood zone, even though we are close to the Red River. They declared Winnipeg a disaster zone. Most of the farmland south of Winnipeg is flooded and it looks like a huge lake. The Red River is 20 km wide in some areas. Some towns are isolated islands, cut off by flooded roads. North of Winnipeg many houses and cottages have been destroyed by giant chunks of ice that were pushed on land.
It proves again, Mother Nature is stronger than ‘Mighty Man’. Floods, hurricanes, snowstorms, earthquakes. We are helpless against the forces of nature. But of course, that is not enough. We still have to make war and kill each other. Another Canadian soldier, a young woman, was killed in Afghanistan a few days ago. What a shame. I cannot support that war, not anymore, even though I support the young men and women who are there fighting a losing battle. You can’t fight religion. We in the Western World are trying to push our ideas on people who have lived with their customs for over a thousand years. You can’t change people unless they want to change. Yes, it is crime how the women are treated in those countries and we want to help them, but what is the price we have to pay to bring about changes? How many people have to die? Do we have the right to interfere in other people’s affairs?
People in the so-called civilized free world have always meddled. Missionaries went to Africa to enlighten the people who lived in the jungle. They were perfectly happy before the Missionaries came. They didn’t want to be ’enlightened’. I could go on but I won’t. Those are facts of history and can’t be denied. Do-gooders and fanatics always believe that only their view is right and everyone else is wrong and needs to be freed from their evil ways.
Of course, there is more behind it than what it looks like at the surface. The need for power and control is one of the factors driving some of these people. Money and greed are two more. Let’s face it, we are a violent race, and this will go on forever as long as mankind does not evolve and learn from mistakes.

Happy Easter

Spring is here for sure, even though we still have snow on the ground. We’re finally getting warmer weather. The coming week it is supposed to stay above zero Celsius even at night. That means the snow should be melting away. I picked some pussy willows yesterday and I saw my first Robin. The geese are also coming back in huge flocks.



I did not get a chance to take a picture of the Robin I saw, but I found this one on this cool site http://www.treknature.com/gallery/North_America/Canada/photo48252.htm




Happy Easter to everyone.