The Oppenheimer Report 7/28/09

Last week I had the very interesting experience of taking some garbage to one of the Toronto transfer stations. Because of this never ending garbage strike, my mother and father-in-law had some uncollected garbage, which had been building up in their garage over the past several weeks. I, the good son-in-law, offered to dispose of it for them, not fully realizing what that would entail. When I arrived at the transfer station, there were picketers and police cars, and a bit of a line up. When it was my turn, I realized that, before I could actually dispose of my garbage, I must listen to one of the striking workers present their case. Of course, after he was through with his little talk, I had a few questions for him. In all, it was an edifying exchange of words, and no punches were thrown. Clearly this strike has caused a great deal of animosity, but it takes two to tango. I read an interesting article in the Toronto Star the other day – I do read sometimes – suggesting that the reason this crippling strike has gone on so long is that both sides have gone public with their negotiating strategies. By doing so, they have painted themselves into a corner, because once they have stated their position publically it becomes much more difficult to compromise. Wasn’t it the SALT talks three decades ago, before the end of the cold war, when Russia and the United States were in dispute over the shape of the negotiating table? Yikes.

I came up north last weekend with the good intention of completing some of the outside staining work I have not yet been able to finish, but the weather would not co-operate, In fact the weather continues to be atrocious here, and what has been particularly frustrating has been its unpredictability. One minute the sun is shining the next there is thunder rolling in. Today, I was at the dump in Burk’s Falls, dropping off some of the construction debris from our site. I seem to be spending a lot of time in these places of late. Unlike the fancy Toronto transfer station, the Burk’s Falls dump is basically a big landfill, with a little building for recyclable materials. Once one presents one’s dump card, one is let through to the landfill to dispose of one’s garbage. Before I could get out of the car though, the heaven’s let loose and we had a downpour the likes of which I have rarely seen. Even the ever-present black bears, who roam around picking through the plentiful supply of bear delicacies, were driven off. By the time the twenty minute deluge was over, there was a waterfall of muddy crap streaming down from the top of the fill and pools of water everywhere. I had a desperate call from Shauna to come back to the house, because apparently one of the old culverts near our property had backed up diverting an over-abundance of water onto our property. I understand the town of Huntsville, thirty kilometres to our south, had some substantial flooding, causing washed out roads and sink holes. Within several hours, our property had drained off, but how devastating this weather must be for the folks in low lying areas. There is great song by Chuck Pyle called (I believe) “Here Comes the Water” describing a flash flood in a valley. When the ground is already saturated and we get rain such as we got today, the storm drains back up, and there is no where for the water to go. Too bad we haven’t found a way to divert our over supply of H2O to the more arid regions of our country.

This coming weekend, weather-permitting, I plan to participate in a power boat poker run on my friend Bob’s 27’ Magnum. Though he’s invited me to attend many times, this will be my first. He claims his will be the slowest boat out there, at 65mph. I hope to report on that adventure next week. Stay dry! Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED