H2O Steam Mop

I’m not one to give reviews of cleaning utensils. Normally the subject couldn’t bore me more. But whoa boy! Did I find a gadget I could learn to love.

You may have seen the ads on TV of a triangular shaped mop that emits steam. The claims are that you don’t have to use harsh chemicals and it will clean up really tough messes without much effort. Normally I watch these TV ads for a little while, amused by how incompetent the “don’t do this” people are. Usually they are tearing into their own skin, breaking off well manicured fingernails, or squirting poison in their eyes. All of these things solved by whatever product is being advertised. But dear readers, I swear, this one is different!

I bought an H2o mop today at Wal-Mart. It was on sale for $69.99. I almost bought a different brand which had more attachments but it was more than double the price and since I wasn’t sure if I would like it, I opted for the cheaper item. I reasoned that if it really blew me away, I could step up to a better model later.

I got this thing home today and the first thing I noticed when I got it out of the box was that it was made with real steel. Remember steel? It’s that shiny metal stuff that they used to make things like vacuum cleaner hoses out of. It required a couple of screws to put together but the instructions were easy enough to follow; even for a manual dolt such as myself.

I plugged it in and whoo-hoo! It was removing stains from my floor that had been there for months. Washing after washing, some stains just won’t take a hint and scram. They had no choice with this beauty. Away you go! Take that and never come back again! I’m flummoxed! Flabbergasted! Gob-smacked! It even took some greasy stains off my kitchen wall that wouldn’t come off with the most vigorous scrubbing and the most caustic cleaning liquid. A while back I poured some toxic waste on those stains. You know the kind. The bottle has a picture of a skeleton hand immersed in liquid, except this one had a symbol of a nuclear blast mushroom cloud. Still, the stains remained.

I’m convinced now that steam is the most awesome and dangerous cleaning tool known to man. With this new-found respect, I’m going to keep my face far away from the electric kettle when she blows.

I have been extremely busy lately. It’s Spring here in Wasaga Beach. I said that as if it isn’t Spring everywhere else in North America, but if you could hear the inflection of my voice you would have detected that all-knowing tone that we all have here. “It’s Spring here in Wasaga Beach” means extra work and almost zero time for anything else. This is a summer resort town as you know and all the cottage owners and seasonal businesses are preparing for their opening. Some have already opened but others wait until May 24 has passed to open.

I have promised myself that I should be writing more so today I opened up my blog admin panel and was about to click “Add New” (as in “add new blog post”) but just before my finger hit the button I noticed that there are some comments to some of my previous blog posts. Perhaps I should pay more attention, but I didn’t even know I had this blog set to accept comments. I’m glad it was though as it was completely refreshing to learn for the very first time that people actually read this and that some people actually have it bookmarked. Most of all, I was thrilled to see that some people follow the blog and my wasaga.com website because they enjoy it.

It takes time to write these posts. Sometimes I can labour over a subject for several hours, while other times the words just flow out. You never know which is going to happen until it’s too late to turn back. Now that I know that people read these things, I know I’ll be more inclined to remember to post.

Thanks for your comments everyone. I am humbled by your words and it inspires me to work just a little harder.

97.7 the Beach reports that 2 blocks of Collingwood downtown Hurontario Street (at 1st) will be closed for construction.

I had a chance to be in one of those stores the other day and we talked about it briefly. The business owners said “I hope we can whether the street closure”. The reality is that people don’t like to wade through construction areas to go shopping. It’s not convenient, it’s dusty and if there is a similar store somewhere else, most are likely to bypass this area to shop elsewhere. Please don’t.

Businesses in this area have been through enough lately with bad weather, bad press, and people on tighter budgets. If you can buy something from these folks during this tough time, do it. Have a heart and support these people.

Someone’s job depends on it.

I read yesterday that Stephen Harper is looking for a new Governor General to replace Michaëlle Jean.

I’m not sure if this is a political move, perhaps to find someone more conservative to hold that position. I am unaware of Michaëlle Jean’s political affiliations. She has come across a being fairly non-partisan as far as I could tell. But what I have enjoyed about her time in the office of Governor General is the sense of style and class she brings to the job. She is well dressed, well mannered, a woman of colour who represents a great deal of Canadians just by being a visible minority. She is proud of her heritage but clearly loves being Canadian. Isn’t this exactly what we want from anyone who gains citizen status here?

So I am left to wonder what it is about her that Mr. Harper doesn’t like? What has gone on behind the scenes that makes him feel she should be removed. Judging by the comments I have read online so far, she has been a popular Governor General. She exuded a certain feeling for most people that she was one of us, yet carried herself elegantly. Based upon the history of the Stephen Harper Government, we will probably never know what she did that got under his skin. He plays his cards very close to his chest. He is the least transparent politician I have ever seen.

I just wanted to express that although I did not agree with everything she did during her time in the Governor General’s oak trimmed, red velvet chair, I had respect for her ability to make Canadians proud with her infectious enthusiasm. She represented us well. Perhaps it’s not too late for Harper to change his mind but although she will never likely read this little Maiden with a Microphone blog, I wish her the best for the future. She has proven at least to me that there are still people in the political realm who don’t pronounce themselves “left” or “right” and approach their job with the intention of serving us all.

Good work Michaëlle!

Easter Bunny

Today I had the opportunity to go out for lunch with a very good friend of mine, Mariane McLeod of 97.7 the Beach and we got talking about food and recipes. Normally, I’m not the Suzy Homemaker type of gal, but Mariane has some terrific culinary ideas and I enjoyed hearing them. She makes everything sound so simple.

We ate at Café Chartreuse which is on Hurontario at 2nd Street (or Simcoe Street). Delicious and decadent! We had freshly baked croissants. She had tomato salad. I had a beet/apple salad with cappuccino; reasonably priced!  When lunch was finished, we walked down Hurontario Street in Collingwood, between 1st and 2nd Streets to peruse the items for sale in a couple of candy/chocolate stores. I am so out of touch. I had no idea there were two chocolate stores in the span of only 2 blocks. I knew about one of them, but Mariane had the other scoped out and it was apparent that she was familiar with the place well enough that she could direct a customer like she worked there. Did I mention that Mariane is clearly insane? Before she was done in the first store, she had rung up over $40.00 worth of delightful, tasty chocolate and sweet and/or sour candy treats to give away to her nieces. And if that wasn’t enough she spent another $20-$30 more at the second store for a dinner party she is throwing for close friends this weekend. It’s Easter this week so I’m told.

Easter is of course the holiday which is associated with the consumption of copious amounts of chocolate. I’m not sure how this tradition began but it’s a pretty good tradition if you ask me. As we left the second store, she opened my little hand and pressed a square of hand-made dark chocolate into it. Oh my God! It was to die for. That almost sounds blasphemous, but it is true.

Dark chocolate reminds me of two other things. Dear reader, you are going to think I’m nuts for saying this, but dark chocolate has always reminded me of fresh coffee beans and tobacco. It’s not for everyone. It’s an acquired taste. It’s slightly bitter and a little burnt tasting. At first taste, it is almost unpleasant – but when you allow your tongue to savour the flavour, it’s addictive! Apparently, it is loaded with flavonoids, which act as antioxidants. Antioxidants protect the body from aging caused by free radicals. The health benefits don’t end there. Dark chocolate also relaxes blood pressure through the production of nitric oxide and balance certain hormones in the body.  I won’t pretend I even know – or care what all this means, but I am told that it is good for you – yes, decadence with health benefits.  All I know is that once you become adjusted to the unusual flavour of dark chocolate, you are launched into an expensive new candy bracket. It’s not cheap but if there is anything merciful about dark chocolate, it is not something that you can eat a lot of. It’s intense and it is best savoured in small pieces. It’s akin to a sexual experience. Yeah, I said it. It’s like an orgasm! If I still smoked, I’d have lit up a du Maurier and prepared a freshly brewed cup of java to follow the experience. Let the chocolate melt slowly – sensually so, in your mouth, allowing your tastebuds to respond like you are engaging in foreplay. Your eyes will roll back in your head, you will take a deep breath and you will marvel at how flavourful this little piece of heavenly dark brown candy tastes. It’s a wonderful experience that will cause you to feel in awe of this decadent gift from Mother Nature. And although it is sinfully delicious, it is actually good for you. We are warned that anything this good has to be bad for you, yet studies have  proven the exact opposite. Dark chocolate in moderation is delicious, delightful and good for you!

So this weekend, my choices are as follows:- do as Mariane has planned for her friends; have wonderful traditional Easter dinner followed by the Easter Egg hunt which are simply some adorable fun-shaped dark chocolate treats, or spend my time being useful and productive; cleaning much less fun and and disgustingly unpleasant Dust Bunnies from every possible nook and cranny – and skip the traditional Easter Egg hunt and the inevitable calories and extra pounds that will no doubt follow.

What would you do?

There, I said it! Doesn’t that feel better?

Say No To Rogers

Today I have decided that I am going to bring back my 2 Rogers cell phones. My beloved Nokia E71, and a HTC Dream, which are pretty good phones, and which have provided us with hours and hours of enjoyment. But the problem is that the monthly bill which was negotiated between myself and one of the oh-so-chirpy sales representatives has never arrived showing the correct amount. Not once! Instead, it is $50-60 more than the agreed upon price. Of course, when you try to read the details, you pretty much need a bevy of lawyers beside you to figure out what each and every charge is. But, every month we dutifully call Rogers and inform them that there is another error on their bill. It is an exhausting process!

First you must navigate the automated system to try and get a person. And then that person always tells you that this time you have someone who will solve your problem. The bill is adjusted, I pay the bill, and then the next month the routine begins all over again. I’m so weary! And I don’t really care what they think they can do to me if I throw both phones on their sales desk and walk away. There is a saying that fits here “you can’t get blood out of a stone”. Do your best. Hurt my credit rating. I still have plenty of good, honest, cheerful and co-operative companies who are willing to take my money so their threats are really very meaningless. I suppose if I was trying to buy a home, it would matter, but I already have one of those.

Have you ever been late paying a Rogers bill? I’ll sheepishly admit that I am late frequently enough. But as I have argued over the phone with the representatives, why don’t you take a look at my 20 year record with your company and come up with one single example where I didn’t pay? You won’t find one. I am self employed. I get paid when I get paid. I don’t have the luxury of a weekly, or bi-monthly paycheck. And sometimes, I am searching the couch cushions for spare change, while other times it seems I am months ahead in my payments. That’s the life I live and Rogers, if they keep correct records should know this about me by now.  But lord forgive me if I’m 31 days late on a payment. I can be 20 days, 25 days, but 31 days is the magic number. Then the harassing calls begin. And they will boldly tell you that until you give them a date of payment, the calls will continue. Of course, I mess with them. Okay, I will pay a week from Tuesday. ;) Borrowing from the old Wimpey character of the Popeye cartoon series. The phone operator is always too young to get that reference though and marks it down as the gospel truth.

So wish me luck people. This ought to be a battle that will leave someone in tears. Perhaps I’ll let you know which one of us it was. ;)

UPDATE: January 21 2010

I spent about an hour on the phone with a nice young lady, then another nice young man, and then the “manager” a guy who I found out to be about the age of 26 (which he said was “irrelevant” to which I replied “well, not when you are talking about a 20 year loyalty to a company it isn’t”. After a lot of conversation, during most of which I insisted that they were going to take these phones back and waive the $800 (yes, you read that right) penalty, he said he could not do that because he was offering me a solution. His solution was to change my plan again. I asked for it in writing. It was supposed to arrive by email today. Surprise! It did not. I have to admit that this manager was unflinching even when I informed him that both phones would find their way into a crevice of his that is meant only for outgoing, not incoming material.

I await that email. Anyone want to make a wager on whether or not this email will arrive? More to come….

UPDATE: June 27 2010

This was an interesting and very long interaction. The reason this update is so late is that it took months of back and forth, checking each monthly bill for problems and calling Rogers when there was. (there always was!) In the end, I happened to be reading an article in one of the major newspapers which mentioned that Rogers had an ombudsman. Well, could have fooled me. I could find no mention of it on their website. I found their contact info and within a few hours, my problems with Rogers were on their way to being solved. Although my next month’s bill was still wrong, I re-contacted the ombudsman and the woman who was assigned to my case promised to have the problem sorted out. Of course I was skeptical and figured sooner or later I’d be taking my beloved phone back but surprise, surprise! They came through and fixed the billing issues.

For those of you out there who – like me – are at times late paying their Rogers bill and are subject to their annoying collection calls. I found a solution to that too. It was quite by accident of course but one day I answered my phone and of course it was Rogers. I think I was a day late, but I had already paid the bill by internet so their payment hadn’t been recorded yet. It takes five business days when you pay online. Anyhow, the person asked for “Darlene” so I said just a minute and handed the phone to my husband. In a high voice, doing his best to mimic a woman (and failing miserably), he said “hello“. The Rogers rep began talking but my husband interrupted him and said “I don’t know any Roger“. The rep knew she was had and said thank you, I will call another time. Funny and effective. ;)

Typically Quentin Tarantino. Graphic violence, engaging dialogue. Great performances throughout notably by some top notch French and German actors who are not recognizable on this side of the ocean. Christoph Waltz leaves you feeling unsettled as the Jew Hunter; an extremely unlikeable villian. You may recognize B.J. Novak from the Office (American Version) as a Jewish-American soldier with an axe to grind and some scalps to collect. Brad Pitt is hilarious as the American known throughout Germany as “Aldo The Apache” with the heavy accent and the cowboy rhetoric. This movie had me looking away from the screen about 30% of the time, but I did manage to self-censor the violence without losing the plot. It’s difficult to discuss this movie without including spoilers so all I will say is that this is an American fantasy of how Hitler would have been handled if they could go back and re-write the events of World War II. Unfortunately history recalls the incidents differently, but this version is much more satisfying and extremely entertaining. See the reviews and descriptions here at IMDB – This movie gets an astounding 8.5 star rating by viewers.

• Movie Information for Galaxy Theatre in Collingwood, ON

  http://www.cineplex.com/Theatres/TheatreDetails/655D0AE8/Galaxy_Collingwood.aspx

• Official Movie Trailer
  Inglourious Basterds

The News Headlines Will Hurt Haiti Long After The Damage Has Been Cleaned Up

I have been trying to avoid the images on the news from Haiti. I hope that doesn’t sound heartless, but my mind can’t process that level of suffering. It just can’t. I can only recall a couple of times in my life when I felt so horrible about something that was completely unrelated to my own life that I had to turn off the news and try not to be blind-sided by unfathomable, distressing images.

One of my favourite places in the world to vacation is Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They have experienced their share of Mother Nature’s fury. They have unbearable heat in the summer, hurricanes, and earthquakes. I happened to be there in 2003 at a resort called the Nautilus Marina Resort (Now a Howard Johnson’s) when an Earthquake rattled the buildings and frightened the tourists and locals alike. Lucky for us, the centre of the quake was located miles away in a place called “Colima“. I can honestly say that I have never been so frightened in my entire life. I’ve had some very strange experiences over the years – many of which I will share with you here, but this was the closest I have ever come to thinking “I’m going to die, and it will be within the next few minutes“. That is how frightening an earthquake is. And this one was mild by the standard set by the Haiti earthquake. It was only a 5.0 on the richter scale. At the centre is was much higher (7.6 according to Wikipedia) I cannot imagine what those people in Haiti are going through (theirs was 7.3) and it breaks my heart to see their suffering. This is a country that has so very little to begin with and now they are left struggling for life, battling against disease, looking for clean water and food, the essentials of life. While I would give every penny I could afford to help the relief efforts, I know much of it will arrive too late to help many of these people.

During my experience in Puerto Vallarta (see the photo above and on the left), I was sitting on the couch with my husband when we began to feel the building move. It was slow at first, and nothing much to get excited about. I had lived through an amusing little Earthquake in the same town just a couple of years before this. My chair at the pool of the Las Palmas Resort Hotel moved a few inches. Nobody really noticed until I said out loud “why is my chair moving?” Only then did people stand up and shout “Earthquake, get away from the building!”.  When the room began to shake a little, we didn’t really panic until we realized that it was moving enough that standing up would be impossible. You could literally see the room sway, slowly back and forth. The realization that this could be catastrophic took only a few seconds.

Have you ever wondered what you might do if you and your spouse were to have a few moments before you died together? It is not at all like you see in the movies. We didn’t look at each other and say “Well my love, it’s been great. I love you and I hope to see you on the other side.” Nope. Nothing like that happened at all. I tucked my head between my legs, covered my head with both arms (figuring that broken arms might be better than a broken head) and waited for the roof to cave in. The entire time, my husband to his credit, put his arms around me like a shield and we waited until it slowed down enough to give us a chance to get up and bolt for the doorway. I shamefully admit that I wasn’t the picture of bravery. My husband stayed silent, but I whimpered “we’re going to die!” I think he said “No we’re not, just hang on.” or something like that but he was much more composed than I was. I learned later that he was every bit as rattled as I was, but his reaction was completely different than mine. My reaction could have been much worse if I had realized that my room was not on the top floor as I thought it was. I had envisioned layers of concrete raining down on my head, but I took some comfort in the thought that there was no room above me. It wasn’t until later that I realized that there was indeed an entire floor, full of furniture and more concrete and building materials above my head. Thank goodness I was ignorant of this fact.

At the first opportunity, we ran for the door, leaving everything behind. We got as far away from the building as possible. Outside, Mexican women were crying and holding each other. I could tell even without understanding a word that they had experienced this before, possibly in much worse circumstances because one woman was inconsolable. I wondered if she had lost family members or friends in an earthquake before. What a terrible thought. I didn’t know what to do. Should I offer to help, or keep moving? Her friends appeared to have the situation under control, so we kept moving.

We walked down the street to assess  the situation, to see if all the surrounding buildings had made it. There was a large hotel chain, I believe it was the Westin Regina, or some similar chain which had a huge crack from top to bottom. I wondered how a repair crew would go about repairing something like that? Everyone by this time was outside the buildings, discussing the earthquake and talking about what to do next. Most agreed that there could be aftershocks and going back inside was ill advised. I remember saying to my husband “I guess we’ll be grabbing some pool chairs and sleeping outside tonight”.

A few hours passed and although there had been one or two tiny aftershocks, we hadn’t noticed them. Somebody told me to put a glass of water beside my bedside. They explained that if you see the water moving, it could be an aftershock, or another earthquake and to get out before it turned more deadly. All night long, I woke up every few minutes and looked at that glass of water. I slept fully clothed and with my money pouch and passport around my neck.

I mentioned that Puerto Vallarta has been ravaged by Mother Nature before. In 2002, the town was hit by a category 5 hurricane named “Kenna“. I have never seen such damage! The destruction of the boardwalk, and the downtown was so bad that we chose to stay for the very first time in the Marina area which is where we happened to be when the earthquake hit. Normally we would have stayed in the hotel zone, but it was hit so hard that many of the buildings were still closed to the public. It was astounding to me how fast the Mexican people worked to ready much of their properties to welcome tourists again, but many tourists stayed away. Bad news headlines as we have learned more recently here in Wasaga Beach can do a great deal of damage to the tourist industry. And even when Puerto Vallarta was better than before, many still stayed away because they thought that the danger was too high. As someone who has been a frequent traveller to the area, I felt a responsibility to re-visit to help inject money into their economy – especially then.

Natural disasters are difficult to process for a sympathetic mind. The news media seems to derive a sense of twisted glee from publishing the worst images they can capture. It leaves any intelligent thinking person feeling manipulated. Our Government seems to deliberately minimize the images we are exposed to when it comes to their expensive, political wars; but when natural disasters hit, the news media are all over it. If you are old enough to remember the image of a young girl, naked and burned from napalm, running through the streets, crying and with a look of terror, you might understand why these images are supressed. It was images like that which caused people to stop supporting the Vietnam War. Her name by the way was Phan Thị Kim Phúc and she immigrated to Canada. She still does speeches about her experience. She was here in Wasaga Beach in January of 2008 (if memory serves me correctly) to appear on our local station 97.7 the Beach where I worked briefly as a receptionist. The radio was playing and I could hear her telling her story in a very calm voice but for every minute she was on our station, I fought the urge to cry. Some things are just too horrible to imagine.

Who can forget the photos of bloated bodies floating down city streets in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina? Or those poor people stranded on searing hot rooftops trying to get the attention of rescue helicopters? Or that horrible, heart wrenching phone call of the woman who called 911 to ask for help with her voice shaking – telling the operator  “I’m ‘a gonna die up here in da attic, M’am“. Or how about those grotesque images of people desperately trying to flee the waves that turned a beautiful day in the sun in Thailand into a nightmare beyond any you could dream up in your mind?  The lucky ones who were strong and healthy enough to scale palm trees clung to them for dear life for hours, while bodies floated by. And of course there is the most infamous since Pearl Harbour – 9/11. The images  of which we have seen played, and replayed and used to change politics and label Liberals as un-American, and to divide a Country at a time when they should be sticking together.  The reports, the photos and the videos and the endless talking heads and political opportunists are unavoidable unless you are willing to disconnect yourself from it all and live in the woods, but for those of us who simply can’t bear to see such unimaginable suffering, I can only turn my head and mute the volume -  but it won’t do a thing to keep my mind from feeling their terror, and their pain.

To the people of Haiti, I have no words that can minimize the intense suffering. All one can do is offer whatever aid you can.  Here is the link to the UNICEF website. If you have even one dollar, give what you can. There is no amount too small. We are all suffering in this recession, but even one dollar from every one of us will make a difference. http://www.unicef.org/

This blog is my online diary. It is one of millions of such places on the Internet, and I won’t pretend that this one has anything special to offer. It is just a collection of the random thoughts of one Canadian woman about life, happy times, sad times and hopefully interesting tidbits that I find here and there which are worth sharing.

As I begin the first stage of this blog; setting up the pages, deciding about the structure of categories and topics, I amuse myself with the realization that the people most interested in reading this will be those who don’t like me. The “lurkers” I call them. People who have one reason or another to want to know about me, but aren’t brave enough, or just too stubborn to send an actual email. Family members who aren’t speaking, ex-boyfriends, former friends, and rivals. You know who you are. ; ) Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs have all become a place for cyber-stalking in some circles. And then of course there are the spammers, bots and telemarketers, the real scum of the internet who visit sites like this to gather information and statistics to sell.  Yes, the internet can be a bit creepy sometimes. But, I’ll do my best to share as candidly as I can in spite of the negative aspects of blogging. To these people, I say welcome – make yourself at home, peek in the bathroom cabinet, and open my dresser drawers for a look inside.  I only ask that you don’t try on my underwear. That’s just weird. Otherwise knock yourselves out.

Despite the obvious pitfalls of blogging, I have met many interesting people throughout the years by visiting BBS’s (an old pre-internet term for those real geeks out there), forums and discussion groups. Over the years I’ve been re-connected with people who I never expected to meet again in my lifetime, including family members who I didn’t even know existed. The stories are interesting and perhaps as I have time I will share a few of them here. How many people have had a chance to thank their Grade Four teacher for a kindness of 40 years ago? Or reconnect with a 30-something year old man who was just a child when I babysat him when he was only 8?  As weird and uncertain as the internet can be sometimes, it is also a place of re-birth for some people. Reconnecting with the past and forging new friends for the future.

If it does turn out that anyone other than lurkers and spammers read my blog, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to comment.

Your friend in cyberspace, Darlene Watters.