Signage

Signs of the times

Round Robin Challenge: Signs of the Times

July 2nd
I like drive-by-shooting. I have been collecting signs from around the place. No rhyme nor reason. Just for fun. I once thought I'd create a learning activity from them, but then I burned out and quit teaching! Music: Mocking Shadows, "Blow the Rest Away".

Round Robin

G8 Signage

There are those who disparage it, but now that the money has been spent... an amazing amount of patience and skill, splitting the stone and placing it just so.

Local masons, etc., are getting work.

Here are the photos I took as the work was in progress.

Rock on, dudes! A couple of the men of Muskoka: they are skilled and hard workers! We have many wonderful contractors in the area.

Now what do you think they are up to?

Has to be new signage for the G8!

Can't wait!!!

While the deer are less visible, with snow virtually gone, I still drive checking the ditches for them.

Some dude in a BIG pickup truck was nudging my rear bumper, I pulled over to let him pass. With the sun right there, blame a teacher if he cannot read it!


♪♫ Sign, sign, everywhere a sign...♪♫

Oh, no. It's only a graphic!

He passed me, and ramped up his speed, again.
The next sign (no photo!) said 'Deer Winter Area = 8 km'.

I slowed down, better to breath the fresh aroma of spring, when I spotted HIM slowing down. Off to the speedy truck driver's left were two deer waiting to cross the road. He seemed to get the point.

He slowed down for about 3 km, then revved it up to warp speed again, late for something.

I paused to watch the deer cross the road. grabbing my camera, clicking as fast as I could.

They are amazing, are they not?

After driving around the area last weekend, I spotted my friends, the deer, in the middle of the road! Irony of irony.
My, my, after leaving my Hospice Client who said there were few in the area now.

Our friends in Wahta were saying the same thing: driving around, looking for deer or moose, then spotting one in your driveway.

I blame the cosmic joker!!!

Truth is, slow down, be careful. This is the season for critters abroad.

From a guest post about a deer accident:

We were at the hospital for 8 hours. She had no broken bones, did not need any stitches but we helped the nurse remove between 50-75 pieces of chard glass from her face.[His wife]
 

These are big creatures, judging by the size of the tracks beside my boot. I posted previously about a memorial: a moose collision that took the life of an OPP member.


Don't pick them up
let them be free
the way mother nature
meant them to be

Watch for lots of folks on the roads!!!

Signs of the times II: Requiem for Lola

A great tool, the GPS can help folks navigate their way through dangerous territory, finding streets, places of business, restaurants and gas stations when you feel lost and gone forever. In Muskoka it is a great tool. Roads, apparently going NE end up going NW. It can be confusing with Lake Muskoka in the centre and Bracebridge, Port Carling, Bala, Torrance, Gravenhurst surrounding it. You'll notice, those who know our region, that GPS & Google seems to feel that Southwood Rd. is a better route than Highway #169 from Gravenhurst up to Glen Orchard. They believed the GPS...

For those who travel, it can be a good thing, a GPS. But humankind has invented other tools, which utilised in conjunction with a GPS, make travel much better: snow tires, common sense, activated intuition, maps, emergency kits, a trusted co-pilot! (See a previous post:  Driving in Winter in Muskoka!)

Yes, there are issues with the GPS...

Following GPS device's directions strands couple for three days - The Globe and Mail
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009

• Bound for Reno from the Pacific Northwest, grandparents follow alternate route that directs them to a snowy, remote part of Oregon. They are stranded sans snow tires, gas, food...

Their mistakes? We won't call them errors...because that would imply that they might learn from their mistakes... They didn't fill up with gas before they left, ignored the signs saying, 'This road is not maintained in Winter', refrained from using snow tires or bringing chains.
The article goes on to mention other horror stories...

• In June, 2009, an Atlanta man's three-bedroom home was mistakenly torn down by a demolition crew following GPS co-ordinates.
• A month later, a Swedish couple on holiday in Italy misspelled their destination on a rental car's GPS. They were hoping to visit the island of Capri, but arrived instead in the town of Carpi, 660 kilometres to the north.
• And in 2007, a British woman drove her $200,000 Mercedes into a river while following GPS directions to a christening. She was pulled from the car before it was swept away.

Signs are important in Muskoka, even if they appear a bit tipsy...I posted a previous 'SIGNS on the times article. They struck me as quite drunk, due to the snowplows that zoom merrily along in the dark at 4:00 a.m.! But heed them, nonetheless.

The first of the 12 steps is admitting you have a problem!

Rick, a family friend and regular solitary escapee to warmer climes in the south, wrote about their GPS event. Usually he travels alone, stopping in meeting up with friends in the US. This is their guest post...
Hi

For those of you who don't remember Lola, she was my trusted companion on many journeys over the last few years. Yes I admit she was a GPS machine but much more than that when you spend 10 days alone in a car driving to Arizona and back. She was always there with handy keep left directions, arrival times and turn right directions. Without her I never would have made it to Arizona, Florida and so many other places.

Sadly, on this trip Lola started acting strangely as we drove on the I 81.  Suddenly, and without reason, she kept asking us to leave the I 81 and take mysterious side roads . We were puzzled and luckily for me Sandy [Rick's newly retired wife!] was there to say ignore Lola. If I had been alone I would as always have simply gone on these new exciting roads because Lola was never wrong.

As we progressed we noticed other strange  occurrences, shutting down and saying there were no roads while we were still on the I 81 , losing the satellite repeatedly and then not accepting any new Touch screen commands. Something was definitely wrong and I of course, moved to panic mode. Sandy reassured me and reminded me that she could read a map and we would be ok . This helped but my concern for Lola remained.

Later we removed an extra memory card thinking this may be the problem. It was, and Lola seemed to be functioning again. A few hours later, new problems began.

Suddenly we were in Baltimore's suburbs in an area that did not look too safe. That was it. We turned around and Sandy took over. Lola was shut off for the rest of that day.

The next day we tried again but Lola completely broke down and could not function at all.  This was it Lola, 5 year old technology, was done.

On arrival in Florida, we purchased a new GPS. We have named it Glenda after the wicked witch of the North. She has an assertive, aggressive American tone. This new technology works better even diverts around traffic jams automatically, etc.

Alas it will not be the same. Me: a very directionally challenged individual alone all the way to Arizona, totally dependent on Lola in getting there and back safely. This cannot be replaced and all I have are those memories.

Now, thankfully, I have Sandy with me and am not such a hopelessly dependent GPS individual. If Lola cannot be saved she will rest on a basement shelf with a home made plaque testifying to her amazing service .

Rick

Sign, sign, sign - sigh

Why do we need signs? To provide information, to advertise, to locate people, places and things, to present a store's name, for 911 purposes, to tell if you are open or closed, to tell you where to go, or what to do, or where to be. To tell us the obvious; or remind us of the law. Signs tell us where we are or where we've been "Thanks for visiting!"

They tell us current prices (don't want to know, really!), or warn of danger. They say we should buckle up, arrive alive, do not pass, and 'risk all, ye who go here'! (That was the red one: Agawa Bay, going to see the pictographs!) They HAVE lost a few tourists here, but still we visit.

It does colour the landscape and frame our roadways. It makes the country look like the city. It clutters and I become so distracted. Ads for places I will never visit, and places for which you need a reservation weeks in advance!

I read a comment in the Bracebridge Examiner:

Unfortunately, the development of Muskoka is turning it into a suburban extension of the GTA. Muskoka was formerly an escape from the aggravations of GTA city life: the high-speed traffic, the discourteous crowds, the relentless noise, the ubiquitous garbage.

I would very much agree! They left their garbage when they returned to a Toronto garbage strike. The very busy must hurry to the cottage, hurry home, escape the rain/traffic/heat/cold. They drive too quickly, they pass in unsafe conditions, they scream around the lakes and highways as if they are the most important people in the world, and the rest of us are chumps.

But it is the signage that is giving me a hard time. The powers-that-be have allowed signage at a great rate along the highway. It is a blight on the landscape. It destroys the beauty of the land that sea of green foliage we love so dearly.

I have collected photos of signs...the music is "Blow the Rest Away", by Mocking Shadows.

more signs of the times

I like signs. I did a previous post on this topic. In our current melt I cannot resist another. The photo (left) is our home and driveway in December.

Winters in Central Canada mean Lake Effect snow. We hire a company to do our driveway, as do many folks. They arrive, sometimes at 4:00 a.m., and plow us out, in the dark, at breakneck speed. Many of these contractors have 'day' jobs.

Snowplows on the big highways are slow, as they work their way through their roads. At some points during the winter, they go back and lower the snow banks with another pass. We cannot pass them, most of the time, and there is not other way around. You sit, relax and enjoy the clean road.

There is some damage done, as they drive along. I think of the damage I have done as I barrel along trying to accomplish something purposeful. Having moved, changed cities, homes, and careers to care for failing parents, there weren't many signs along the way.

You make the best decisions you can at the time, with the information, advice and encouragement of friends and family. I lost my even keel.

There are days I feel as tipsy as these signs. I hope, now that sign of spring have emerged, that we can move along the straight and narrow.

We have had fog, as the temperture of the ice and snow doesn't match the air temperature. You just have to make your way along as best you can - looking for signs along the way.

You might feel there is no exit, but we all make choices and can take control in some way.





There are place you cannot park, else you will be towed. This is alright - this is a place you were not meant to go. Sometimes the signs are meant to protect you.



Things appear a bit dishevelled along our highways and byways. I feel the same, ready to shed my winter clothes, clean away winter debris, and emerge anew.

How do the deer know to cross here?
The trick is in learning to read the signs.

Cornwall drug busts & signs on lawns

There has been much controversy regarding this issue. The Standard-Freeholder article shows a photo, which I will not reproduce as that violates copyright laws. I know that my adult children live on a street with a house that was formerly a Grow Op. If Realtors must disclose, wouldn't it make sense that neighbours would want to know, too?

I think I would like to know if drugs were potentially being dealt on my street. What with Neighbourhood Watch groups, we have to be vigilant. The police cannot be there all the time. These issues affect a neighbourhood, our right to safety and protection. While the potential criminals are not convicted, the fact that there was enough information to warrant a warrant, indicated that people must be vigilant. There is a difference between vigilantism or vengeance and preparation and prevention.

Grow Ops are illegal, and whether you agree or disagree with the marijuana laws, criminals shoot each other and take down innocent bystanders while they fight over drugs and territory.

"The fact that prohibition was or may have been wrong didn't make Al Capone a misunderstood businessman on the wrong side of the tracks.", said a friend of mine.

I heard Wei Chen, on CBC, interview the Police Service Chief. She was quite rude, demanding to know if they were planning to inform citizens about other arrests, or convictions including pedophiles, and then asked if he was planning on putting a scarlet letter on homes. What a shameful, disrespectful question. Her hidden agenda, not so hidden, is an increasingly left wing, highly biased journalism style on the part of CBC. I, for one, wants to know about such issues. It is a threat to my safety and security and supercedes freedom of information and privacy laws (FIPPA), since this is a risk to my health, which falls under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA).

Drugs, the abuse of drugs, addictive behaviours wreak such havoc on society, families, and individuals, that we must have all of the information that we can. Drug busts are a common problem. A Google search of drug busts in Canada brought 40,000 hits. Busts occur in homes, schools, parking lots, and at the border, and involve children and people we know. At the bottom of this article, Accidental Find Leads Cops to One of the Biggest Drug Busts in Toronto History, are signs of an Ecstasy lab in a home. Kids are at risk, as are the adults who must protect all of us.

Be vigilant.