How come all my favourite habits fall into the “BAD” category! I like to lay about on the couch & watch TV. While doing that, I like to feed my face with chips, dips & chicken wings. Sometimes it’s a meat lovers pizza, or some French fries, with beer. When those are all gone, I like to indulge in some chocolate, cookies, cake or ice cream. Sometimes more than one of them.

Awesome Ice Cream!

I like sex, booze, rock ‘n’ roll, & cigarettes. Everyone tells me these are all bad habits.

Unfortunately, they may be right. And I am economically & circumferentially challenged to such an extent that I either can not, or should not, do such things all the time anyway. Some of these habits, the helpful people suggest, I should never indulge in again. I have tried so many time to quit smoking. I am currently in remission, yet I’m really still, at heart (or is that “at lung”!), a smoker. Every time I quit smoking for any length of time, I pile on the weight. I’ve tried alternatives. Spinach, lettuce & other green stuff just isn’t as tasty as a smoked meat sandwich. Water doesn’t have quite the same appeal as beer on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon. Nothing matches the humble spud, especially in its deep fried state, for snacking on. I’ve even tried a pacifier (a baby’s dummy!) to replace the eating that comes with not smoking but it doesn’t work. Vaping, close though it is to the process, still isn’t quite the same as a real cigarette. And we just know there’s going to be some awful outcome from the chemicals in that juice too, don’t we?

I don’t think those experts recommending habit substitution have ever had a bad habit in their lives. They have absolutely no idea how good these bad habits are. Yes, I know such habits will probably end my life sooner. But along the way, I find myself wondering what’s the point if I’m just going to be miserable all the time. Unlike most folk, who would like to pass away peacefully in their sleep at a ripe old age, I don’t want that. I want a little warning. I told my doctor that when he finally gives me that terminal diagnosis, I’m off to the store to fill my trunk with sufficient cigarettes to take me there. You should have seen the look on his face!

Sadly, I love my bad habits so much that I was only half joking. If you know of some good habits that I should test drive, please share.

I’m politically confused. I think I always was but it’s getting worse. The Progressive Conservatives swept the provincial elections in Ontario yesterday. Sweeping out the Liberals in the process. Along with giving the NDP their best result ever, & official opposition status. Though I realised that I was probably wasting my time, I actually voted for what I felt was the good of the province, rather than for my own short term good. How big of me, eh! Not that it mattered, the candidate I voted for lost & the one that won was the one I would have voted for if I was looking for personal benefit so all is well. Now I get to feel good about being so magnanimous & I get the benefits of my fellow Ontarians having voted more wisely than I.

What a load of tripe! I have no idea what I was playing at.

Politics is now an entertainment industry, with success driven by tweets & posts. Information is shared by marketing soundbites, none of which have to be substantiated. Party politics is just weird in modern times. Get some money & the party machine behind you, keep singing the same song ’til everyone knows the chorus & you’re in business. And in power.

While we usually get around to copying them, I suppose I should be grateful that we’re not yet mimicking the reality TV politics of our cousins south of the border. I watch that stuff all the time & I think it ought to be called “Battling Billionaires at the Big House”. Up here, the billionaires seem to keep a lower profile. I think they send out their multi-millionaire lackeys to do the political dirty work. And to engage with the regular people. Regardless, while I’m grateful to not be short of any essential need, I think we’re all being played.

How come we don’t know for sure already whether trickle down economics works or not? One side wants to reduce taxes on everyone, especially business. The other wants to tax everyone, with a proclaimed bias towards the rich & corporations. We’ve been doing this for years, wouldn’t you think we’d have figured out which way is best by now? Why do we give one side a shot for several years, then we get tired & try the other side? It’s been flip-flopping for ever, shouldn’t we all get together & do some study on this? There ought to be a right way to do things.

I’m beginning to think we’re looking at the wrong axis. The divide isn’t between left & right. It’s up & down. Though I’m not sure if that axis is based on wealth & power, or intelligence. Perhaps both.

All a little too simplistic? Sure it is. But remember how they’re winning our votes these days & tell me how it can be any other way!

I’m voting tomorrow & I have no idea who I’m voting for. What am I concerned about? I like Canada’s healthcare system & I wish it was better funded. All the main parties say they’re going to improve it so I think that’s all good. They’re all going to do something slightly different for education, but generally that’s good too. Daycare isn’t a big deal for me but I know it is for a lot of people so I guess that’s a good thing. I’d generally like things to be cheaper in Ontario. I would prefer to pay less taxes & to have a more vibrant economy. They all say they’ll make those things happen. One will tax the rich, one will tax everyone, the other will have everything appear, at no cost, by some miraculous deed. Okay, I’m being a little silly but here’s one thing I don’t understand …

One perspective is to have the rich & corporations pay a bigger, some would say a fairer, share. Others want to give tax breaks to those same people & companies to attract business, with the promise that the money will trickle down. I’ve never had any money trickle down to me that I was aware of. But I wouldn’t want our Ontario companies heading off to greener pastures either. I need to educate myself on this. Have both theories ever been tested & pitted against each other in the real world?

Anyone got any recommendations on what I can read to understand which of these perspective is correct?

And give me a quick resume of your take before I have to go vote tomorrow!!!

Paul

As usual, after months, maybe years, of procrastination … I’ve jumped headfirst into one more thing, totally unprepared. This site & blog is focused on those of us who are middle aged. OMG … I can’t believe I just said that out loud. Crap! Though that might not have been the word that first came to mind!

I’d like this to be a place to swap notes with others who are chronologically challenged. But who are really waaayyy younger on the inside. Some of us are smarter than our kids when it comes to tech toys but some of us are not. It might be nice to have a place where we can ask questions & maybe pick up some tech tips. Without having to make like we’re idiots in front of our now-adult, eye-rolling, children. There may be a few of us looking for something that prevents our slowing metabolisms adding a bit of girth. And maybe some of you have found the answer. Discussing politics is such a combat sport these days. Perhaps we can do some of that without having to call in the army. Who knows what it will turn into. If enough of us find a groove where we like to hang out, then that’s probably what it’ll be.

By now, the younger set & the very partisan will already have been bored stiff & stopped reading. I’m hoping those that continued will hang around. Now we can talk about our kids. Share stories about how we totally screwed up raising them. And try to figure out, together, if there’s anything we can do to fix things. Maybe we can even talk about how we’re not yet ready for retirement without getting embarrassed. Are we emotionally ready for that? How about financially? Most of us are probably carrying a cartload of guilt on all the things we did wrong. Hopefully here is where we can share the horror stories. And laugh at them together.

Welcome!

And please hang around long enough ’til I get the hang of how to do a 2nd & more posts before making your mind up.

Scoff

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton