The Oppenheimer Report 6/30/14

Photo by Shauna Leigh Taylor

Today’s imponderable question is: Why do any electrical appliances require AAA batteries? They are, in my opinion, a particularly annoying battery. One can find the larger AAs in most stores, but the smaller AAAs are harder to find. Go to any Wal Mart or Canadian Tire in Canada, and the AA’s will be everywhere, but the AAA’s are sold out or not available in the larger economy packages. Also, they are generally more expensive than the AAs, which makes absolutely no sense. We use them in our little OFF mosquito replelling clip on machines, which work pretty well by the way. Several of our LED flashlights use them as well. We go through a lot of batteries in this household. As for rechargeable batteries, fuggetabotit. I have yet to find a rechargeable battery that is worth the powder to blow it away, which is a shame, because it would certainly lessen the battery disposal problem in the world. We have a couple rechargeable portable vacuum cleaners and they are relatively useless. I replaced the large cylinder-shaped batteries in one of my dust busters with what I believed were higher quality nickel metal hydride batteries, but they did not hold a charge any better than the original crappy nickel cadmium batteries. The only rechargeable batteries I have found somewhat useful are the lithium ions I use in my power tools, but so far I have not found rechargeable lithium ion batters available in AA or AAA size. I just bought a cordless weed whacker with a lithium ion battery and it works pretty well. With this new cordless job, I can go up our long driveway and tame some of the dense overgrowth that seems worse than ever this year.

We had a rainstorm a few weeks ago that flooded our property. The newly installed sump pump in our basement pumps at 25 gallons per minute, and it was going strong for well over an hour. Used to be that the rainstorms were soaking rains, good for the vegetation, but lately the rains have been hard and fast. When they come that fast they wash out the roads and flood the lawn before the water can absorb into the soil. Yesterday there were pop up thunderstorms, and one or two of them were quite severe. One minute it was blowing hard and pouring buckets, and five minutes later it was calm and sunny. Today I heard there was a tornado that touched down in nearby Burk’s Falls. I’ve always had a morbid fascination with tornadoes. I wish could see one in person, from a safe distance of course. I feel for the residents in Brandon, Manitoba who have been inundated with floods from excessive rain. But before all you AL Gore supporters tell me this is all because of our excessive carbon footprint, I think weather patterns are cyclical, and this would probably happen whether man was here to screw up the environment or not. I doubt any industrialized country will ever comply with the directives of Kyoto, or any other voluntary agreement to cut back on greenhouse gases, but it probably would not make much difference anyhow. To understand why weather change is impacting us more now than it did say 100 years ago, look at how our populations have swelled. So many people live so close to the ocean. I watched an interesting documentary on Hurricane Sandy the other night, and did not realize that the southern end of Manhattan is landfill. No wonder it flooded. Enough about the weather.   

There is a local record label up here called Tree Ring Records, actually more of a loosely based consortium of area musicians, and it has been instrumental (excuse the pun) in releasing the albums of some of our local artists. It’s a grassroots kind of thing, designed to promote local talent, and, hand in hand with Huntsville’s musician-friendly Hunter’s Bay Radio, it has been successful giving some exposure to musicians who might not otherwise be heard. And, as I have said before, there is A LOT of local talent up here.  My friend Sean Cotton is one of several founding members of Tree Ring, and the other day he did me the honor of inviting me to participate in a summer series of song writers showcases. I and my fellow songwriters will be performing at 4 local venues from Sundridge on the North side down to Bracebridge on the south end, throughout July and August. It’s called Tree Ring Tuesdays, and while I’m skeptical that this will draw any kind of large audience, I welcome the opportunity to play my tunes on a stage with some of my fellow songwriters. It is also a chance for me to develop my anemic performing skills. As I said, it is and always has been my goal to “go plywood” in Burk’s Falls, and I am in the process of forming my entourage now. Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends and a Happy Fourth of July to my fellow yanks stateside.

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED