Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto
Don’t forget to visit Chatty- she still needs lots of TLC
Toronto Beaches, January –
Driftwood on the beach at sunset
Sunset over Lake Ontario
Lifeguard station, sunset, done in Sepia
I hope your Wednesday was great- remember it gets better from here on in!
Toronto Sunset – Summer 2005
Camping weekend- the great outdoors! My hubby is the one at the back right.
What do you think of the sites new look? I worked hard on the new header and the new theme. Do you like it? Is the text big enough? Leave a comment and let me know. 🙂
The guy Canadians love to hate has been axed!
Yep, that’s right folks! No more noisy neighbor bursting into your home via your T.V. screen telling you that your home improvement tools and gadgets just aren’t good enough and that his are better. Nope, Canadian Tire finally came to the wise decision and axed the long standing commercials. I’m assuming that his T.V. wife is also gone with the deal, unless of course she divorced that do gooder and has taken up home improvement on her own- or perhaps she’ll have her own branch of commercials with her rumored secret lover.
Now I know my American and other international readers probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but I’m sure you have some commercial stars that you just love to hate as well. 🙂 Actually … since we get so much American T.V. here in Canada … perhaps you guys get a little bit of ours too? Along the lines of free trade? Aw come on … I know you do- I’ve talked to lots of Americans that actually admit to watching the Red-Green show (Canadian tire guy is a bit like him in some ways- but with tools instead of duct tape, and the things he makes stay together), and Much Music and the CBC. Perhaps you secretly loved to hate Canadian Tire guy too?
Anyway, for those that don’t know, Canadian Tire is a hardware, garden center type store along the lines of a small Home Depot. You know, on one of your trips to Canada you might have had to purchase a battery for your car, or replace a flat tire, or get some camping gear for your trip and ended up stopping in at Canadian Tire. You know, the store that gave you that weird funny money back with your change.
No that’s not real Canadian money- although ours is colorful and you might think it looks a bit funny. 🙂
Getting Canadian tire money is like getting a coupon towards your next purchase, although you might have to save it for a while to get it to add up to a substantial enough amount that you can actually purchase a product on it’s own with only Canadian tire money. I think at last count I had about $98 in Canadian tire money saved up. Yep, the stack is about a foot high. 🙂
So back to the Canadian tire guy and his almost as annoying wife. Canadian tire ran a series of commercials for approximately 8 years starring this man and his wife, and eventually a son, and dog. Yes it just got more and more grating.
He was the kind of neighbor that would see you outside washing your car by hand and he’d come over with his brand new super deluxe power washer and use it to make all the paint fly off your car! His drill, or power saw was always better than yours- quicker, quieter, handier – simply better.
If you were barbecuing he had a great barbecue for you to use and special tools for you to clean it with; if you were vacuuming a small spill his super sucker could do it best; if you were going camping he had inflatable beds for you, and special inflatable pumps that ran off your cars battery. He plugged the solar powered engine warmer too! Everything and anything that’s sold by Canadian tire- he had it- the newest version and he tried to talk you into getting one too. His wife was often by his side plugging the products too, and occasionally she was on her own offering up her latest housewares.
I’m sure that if these characters were actual people that lived on your street you’d be hiding from them all the time. Keeping your curtains shut; working on your home renovations after hours when the noisy neighbors would hopefully be asleep in bed. Heck- maybe you’d be trying to sell your house just to get away from the overly friendly neighbors?
I Googled Canadian Tire Guy and came up with pages and pages discussing him. There are forums, bl0g posts, a Macleans Magazine article (Macleans for Canada is like the New York Times Magazine). Actually it was probably the Macleans article that did him in, it’s story line was similar to the way I’m writing this post. Macleans own discussion forum was filled with letters of agreement on the article- it had to have caught the powers that be at Canadian Tires eye.
So now who’s next to go? We’ve already lost that creepy Alexander Keith’s beer ad guy who was quickly becoming another commercial character that I personally loved to hate. (He was recently arrested for p0rnography)
Hmmm I wonder if Frank and Gordon the new and still lovable Beaver reps for Bell will be the next to be lovingly hated?
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We probably should have posted this on our other site- Odd Planet – since that’s our strange news story and humor site, but well- this is my place and so there! 🙂
Rant mode:
What would you think of a political candidate who puts a sign in your front yard without asking you for permission first?
I’ve seen this happen TWICE this week! Once to me, and also to a few of my neighbors- from two different political candidates running in our provinces by-election.
Earlier in the week- let’s call in it Monday – I saw a car moving slowly by our house. It pulled up into a neighbors driveway and a guy jumped out with some signs for one of the political parties. He walks up to my closest neighbors house and starts putting the sign NOT in her lawn but her front flower bed. My neighbor barely speaks English, is very elderly, and always looks at us quite perplexed when we say we are going to vote (whenever there’s been some kind of election going on that is). So I know she didn’t give them permission to put the sign in her yard. I also knew that she would be upset when she discovered it. Then he went to the lady beside her house and put a sign on her lawn and kept moving down the street that way with the car following. We removed the sign for our neighbor.
I was thinking- there is no way my neighbor said yes to a sign, and I’m pretty sure that a whole street full of people all side by side wouldn’t ALL allow signs – most of them have never had political signs on their lawn in the past and definitely not for the party that was being promoted.
Then yesterday I get up and look outside, check my mail, and I notice a little green piece of paper in my door. I pull it out and take a look and it’s from one of the other parties- one we supported in the federal election this past January, one that we did allow to put a sign up at that time. The note was thanking us for allowing them to put up a sign and had a number we could call if we wanted it removed.
What’s this? It sounded like something off the internet where by signing up once you are automatically “opted in” for anything else that comes later, and you have to manually opt out on your own if you don’t want to participate anymore.
When did political parties start taking on sleazy internet type methods of getting people to participate or accept their junk?
Why would they assume that because I was promoting one party in the federal election that I would back the same party in a provincial election? Yes sometimes people stick with the same party both federally and provincially, but not always. Hey, traditionally in Ontario where I live the elected provincial government party has almost always been the official opposition party of the federal government. When the same party is running both the province and the nation it usually works out badly for all – see last two years of Canadian politics for reference.
I come from a very political family. Actually I come from a historical political family. My great great grand-father was one of Canada’s 13 founding fathers of confederation. Other members of my family have also been involved in provincial and municipal politics. But I’m a bit of a black sheep. I’m sure I vote quite the opposite of most of my family members. I don’t always vote for the same party. I vote for whichever candidate I think will do the best for the area that I’m living in first and move on from there. If the best candidate for my area is going to ruin the city, province or nation, I go for the next best candidate.
So, that’s another reason why I’m fuming over this sign that is in my yard. I’m not necessarily voting for that candidate, AND they didn’t ask me if they could deface my property. That’s a big strike against this candidate- and for the other candidate who had signs put up on my neighbors lawn without her permission too. I still have to decide who I’m voting for- I’ve gotta do my research and read up on all the people running for election. So, in the end I might end up voting for this person who ASSumed they could put a sign on my lawn without asking, but they’ve ticked me off and I can’t guarantee anything right now.
Oh and did I tell you the sign isn’t a little one? No, it’s huge! It’s not pounded into my lawn either. It’s attached to the metal trellis on the front of my house with computer ties! I have to go out there with some scissors to remove the darn ties and get rid of the sign.
Odd Mode:
Speaking of signs …
I’ve been intrigued by one of the residents of my street for some time. This person lives several blocks East of me. For the last year or so, whenever we pass by the house, I’ve noticed this persons front porches windows. I’ve noticed them because more times than not they are totally plastered with handwritten signs and drawings. We are always driving when we pass the house and it’s at a tricky curve in the road just past a traffic light, so it’s difficult to stop right in front of the house and just GAWK like I really want to do. LOL
I really have to stop and take pictures some time. As I’ve passed by in the past I’ve noticed the words Murder, killed, blood, rent and just long rants. It’s like this person gets creative and writes out long rants at whatever he or she is mad about that day and then tapes all the pages onto their front porch windows and door. I’m pretty sure the person has a screw or two loose to be doing something like this. I do have pity for his/her neighbors though- it would be hard to try to sell the house next door with the neighbors strangely posted thoughts plastered all over the windows and sometimes lawn next door.
I will get a picture sometime- I’m sure you’ll be as amused and intrigued as I am when you see it. 🙂
Yep, Sofie again. 🙁
She just called me a little while ago to remind me not to forget her. She also told me that she can see me working at my desk.
Remember … I said my computer was near a window? Well, our windows are opposite each other. For her to see me from her window she likely has to get to the farthest left side of her window- meaning wedging herself between her window and her dining room table that is against her window wall. My computer desk is at the furthest left side of my dining room window. I’m sure she can barely see me and that it must be difficult for her to get to the exact spot in her window that she could see me from. But she does!
This is new behaviour for her. At least new in the fact that she’s telling me she’s watching me from her window. 🙁 She’s told me twice in the last week.
Since it’s winter and I’m not going outside much- at least not to my backyard – she’s gotta find another way to keep an eye on me.
Arghhhhh! Go watch T.V. Sofie!