Absolutely surreal

 

This toilet was the surreal image greeting drivers as they reached the top of a steep hill in west London using its tightly looped roadway. I got this from my files to share today.

iPads are strangely ubiquitous

Before the arrival of  COVID-19, all my granddaughters did not have iPads, or what they like to call iPads. In truth, they have less expensive tablets made by Apple competitors. But whether iPads or tablets, these portable computers are now everywhere.

Find a kid and you may well find a tablet. The big force pushing tablets into our children's lives has not been games but school. With the arrival of COVID-19, the importance of computer learning has soared. All my granddaughters do a massive amount of their school work on their tablets. This is true both in school and at home.

But when school work is done and it is time to play, the versatility of these things becomes very evident. These tablets are also good for playing computer games, chatting and sharing pictures with distant friends and relatives and even for taking pictures.

Computer tablets are a good example of a product we didn't miss when it didn't exist but now many of us cannot live without them.

E-Bikes are amazing

E-bikes come in lots of styles: motorcycle, scooter, bicycle, mobility scooter and awfully expensive toys. All these various E bikes were cruising along under my personal radar until this afternoon. I had no idea these things even existed. I'm just an out-of-touch old geezer, I guess.

Imagine my surprise when two of these big beasts came up up the hill topped by a lookout over the city. Clearly, these machines are powerful. And the two riders appreciate that power and take their sturdy machines everywhere. Municipalities can prohibit the use of e-bikes on paths, trails and other property under city control but in London there are few restrictions.

There are a few rules: riders must be sixteen and must wear a proper motorcycle helmet. And there are rules determining what is and what is not an e-bike. For instance, an e-bike cannot weight more than 120 kg, nor exceed a speed of 32km/h.

The rules certainly leaves lots of room for fun.

Healthy hotdogs? I'm kidding, right?

It's pretty hard to claim that hotdogs are healthy. That said, I'm going to do it. These hotdogs are heart-doctor approved. One and a half hotdogs on buns dressed with strips of Strubs Full Sour pickles, chopped red onion, a slathering of French's mustard and French's ketchup has maybe 100 calories and no more than 50mg cholesterol. There is no trans-fats at all.

Why is the cholesterol so low? These are turkey-dogs from the family-owned turkey farm on the south edge of town. My heart doctors allow patients with serious heart problems meat only every other day. The daily limit for cholesterol is 100mg. It doesn't take much meat or many eggs to push one's consumption above the daily limit.

Being it's November 6th, it is safe to say that this is the last BBQ of the year. I refuse to stand in the snow to grill dinner. Why grilled hotdogs are considered a treat in my household, is a puzzle to me. But my wife and my granddaughters all are delighted when dinner is grilled turkey-dogs. When the hotdogs have swollen and split from the intense heat, the hotdogs are perfect. Serve immediately.

A word about the ketchup. It is French's in our home as in many homes across southwestern Ontario. The local Heinz plant, open for more than a century, closed awhile back, throwing the dedicated workers out of work. French's moved in and took up the slack. French's hired many of the unemployed workers and signed new contracts with many of the area tomato growing operations. French's, which in the past did not have shelf space in many stores, is now a southwest Ontario favourite when it comes to ketchup. French's mustard was always popular.

Remember when kids did stuff with other kids?

The other night we had to drive to a nearby mall. We noticed another closed business. It made me stop and recall for a moment a time when restaurants were packed with diners, cars lined up for take-out and, if it was warm outside, folks relaxed on restaurant patios.

And kids were able to get together in big groups with other kids to sing, to dance, to practice martial arts and dozens of other things. I miss those times.

Avoiding the bus in the COVID-19 era

 

More and more children are being picked up by parents after school. Why? My guess is to keep them off the somewhat crowded school buses to avoid COVID-19. Although the mortality rate for children seems to be exceedingly low at this time, there are other health issues being encountered by kids. Many parents are trying to minimize the risk by dropping their kids off at school and picking them up afterwards. No school buses for these children.

Reaching for a kind hand

I had to look through my files for a photo showing a moment of kindness. It may be stretching it a little but these two little girls both wanted to wet their hands in the backyard fountain. It took a little  kind cooperation between the two for both these young girls to reach the fountain and play in the water together.