Lakeside Living - Art in Nature

"Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain."

~ Henry David Thoreau

The waves battered the shoreline Saturday as the day spun through patterns of snow and rain and everything in between.  When the sunshine arrived early Sunday morning, I walked along the shore in search of the usual offerings of litter and found objects that arrive after a day of whitecaps. 

Along with bait containers, bobbins, tennis balls, soda cans and beer bottles, I found the shoreline shrubs in a sheath of ice.  The only evidence on this peaceful morning, of the battering they endured the day before.

 

Lakeside Living - A Storm Rolls In

"I was a complete tomboy. I loved wandering out in storms or walking on the beaches in the dark. It was a very free upbringing, and I'm grateful to my parents for that."

~ Amanda Burton

I was summoned from sleep Saturday morning by the sound of ice pellets tapping against my window.  I cracked an eye to the grey dawn and burrowed further beneath the blankets.  Some time later, the sound of the rising wind drew me from my bed.  I stood by the window and watched a squall work its way up the lake.

Our lakefront cottage provides front row seats for every system that settles in from the northwest -- and most of them do.  We watch fog creep up the lake or burn away under the heat of the morning sun.  We watch storm clouds roll and churn and tumble up the lake.  And sometimes, as it happened on Saturday, a squall arrives like a curtain drawing its way across the lake.

I am captivated by the way that nature can breathe life into a day with a breeze, that rises to a wind, that manifests into a storm and then dissolves back into a clear day.  A photograph may capture the mood, but never the energy..

I wish that I could find words to describe the miracle of nature.  Instead, I can explain only by saying that I feel closest to God when I am in the temple He created...rather than rejoicing in one we created for Him.  

On KD and Soda Pop

"No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated with any other means."

Maimonides

Food bloggers, I've learned, have started a petition to remove the artificial food dyes that are responsible for Kraft Dinner's distinct appearance. Tartrazine, or yellow food dye #5 and #6 is an approved food additive according to North American food watchdogs. It serves no nutritional purpose and does not affect product flavour...just colour.

In fact, and I find this strange, the same food dye is NOT in the same product sold overseas to European consumers. Hmmm.

In reading the article discussing consumer petitions, I learned that PepsiCo recently made modifications to their product after a consumer petition received national attention.  Good job active consumers!

I'm not a fan of Kraft Dinner.  I was raised on a macaroni and cheese casserole that my mom makes with tomatoes and sharp cheddar cheese.  There was not a lot of prepared food in our home.  Sliced bread, margarine, Miracle Whip, Peanut Butter, sometimes cookies and the occasional store-bought buttertart (thanks Dad), but otherwise we were a meat and potatoes, snack-deprived family. Apples were our snack.  "Have an apple." "Oh you're hungry?  Grab an apple, dinner will be ready in two hours."  Apples, apples, apples. 

Our meals were almost always made from scratch. The exception was grocery night which was, almost always, hot dog night. Fortunately, due to this tradition, I have already consumed my lifetime quota of hot dogs. KD was usually purchased for nights when the kids had to make dinner.

As far as PepsiCo goes....ahhhh geez....don't get me started.   I have a very low opinion of soda pop. At our grocery store, there is an entire isle dedicated to chips/snacks and soda pop.  One isle. An entire isle of carbonated, sugary drinks. Empty, pointless, tooth-rotting, belly-busting, soda. I can choose from over 20 kinds of soda pop in my grocery store. There are precisely three varieties of mushrooms in the vegetable isle. The bananas are almost always green and you have to check the bottom of the berries to make sure you're not buying half-rotten fruit....but there's a crap load of soda pop on the other side of the store.  ..... Sorry....didn't I say "don't get me started?"

KD is a childhood food really. I remember it from my childhood and I fed it to my kids when they were younger. I stopped buying it when my kids were able to eat using their own knife and fork....around the time KD hit a buck a box. I occasionally crave the nostalgia of Kraft Dinner but have learned, after a few failed attempts, that it's true...you can't go back. 

As a result, KD has been forever banished to my food category  "foods that you think you want, until you eat them, and then you're just disappointed."  KFC is also on that list....and fried egg sandwiches.

So there you have it.
1)  Kraft Dinner may become a paler version of what you're used to but...hey...they still eat it across the pond. 
2) Consumer petitions can be effective but the biggest impact consumers have is their choice to buy or not buy a product. 
3) I would strongly suggest you consider NOT BUYING soda pop. 

It's my opinion.  You are, as always, invited to take it or leave it.

Public Health Care - Canada's Frankenstein

"Time and health are two precious assets that we don't recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted."

~ Denis Waitley

I was born and raised in the province of Ontario. I am average, I am in good health and I pay taxes.  I use the health care system as necessary but I wouldn't want to rely on it to save my life.

Public health care is a noble idea.  When it was first introduced it was intended to provide its residents with emergency medical services and preventative care at no charge. (Well, no additional charge -- the "system" after all is financed through taxation.) It meant that the impoverished or the uninsured/uninsurable could access basic health care. Honourable.

Some forty years later, Ontario introduced an additional health care premium on personal tax returns based on annual earnings.   The same year the new levy was introduced, the provincial government began to de-list services that had, until then, been made available through OHIP.  Residents were now being asked to pay more for less. Those of us paying attention noticed that certain health care coverage was now offered to individuals under the age of 19, over the age of 65, or to individuals on social assistance.  Wage earners -- those funding the program through taxation -- were being asked to pay out of pocket for services available free of charge to the unemployed.

The fact is, our medical insurance program lost sight of its original purpose -- to provide emergency health care and preventative care at no cost.  It has grown over time to fund diagnoses and treatment across multiple modalities from birth until death on an inpatient and outpatient basis.  It became and unwieldy beast.  Our Canadian Frankenstein.  It was a good idea at the time...but it soon grew out of control.

How could an idea conceived 50 years ago integrate contingencies to reflect decades worth of medical advances and their financial implications much less anticipate swings in the economic landscape and changes to the the nation's demographics?  It cannot.  And, as with every other government program, failure to manage the program has resulted in a crisis.  That, in my opinion, is the single biggest flaw with government health care -- it is not managed.  It is budgeted, it is regulated, but it is not managed. 

So now what?  So now we have a system that is built to fail.  It is unsustainable. Worse still, Canadians feel it is their birthright and they become outraged when insurance drops another service.  Our health care program has become a political playground used to launch platforms and criticize government spending.   Now, doctors and bureaucrats are playing tug-o-war with our health insurance as the latest cuts focus on a "wage freeze" for physicians.  That's right...our government currently maintains that the health care crisis is partly due to medical professionals who have benefited from a 75% increase in earnings over the past 10 years.

Canadians need to read between the lines.  Politicians will not freely endorse or work towards a two-tiered system until it has the support of the Canadian public.  There is too much unease around any inequities that may follow.  We all agree that class should not dictate the level of care one receives...but it does.  It always did.  It always will.  If you have money, you can spend it on your health.  It is as simple as that.  Let's not be naive. 

Private health care options already exist in Canada, however they are few and far between.  The Canada Health Act penalizes provinces who, among other things, make private health care an option for their residents by reducing federal transfer payments.  Some view the penalty as an acceptable loss in exchange for alternative health care solutions that would alleviate a program in crisis.  Clearly it's a financial win for some provinces. 

Canada needs a strategy that would provide health care solutions for individuals covered by private insurance plans or who may be willing to pay out-of-pocket for health care services; a two-tiered system that alleviates a straining health care system without diminishing services to those that rely on a public health care.  A system that keeps health care dollars in Canada to promote research and development and create jobs for health care professionals that are being lured south of the border.

There has been no health care reform in Canada.  If anything, Canadians should not be upset because services are being de-listed, they should be outraged that their government is not planning a strategy that will outlast its term of office.

Bucket List - Yi Peng Festival, Thailand

“No one lights a lamp in order to hide it behind the door: the purpose of light is to create more light, to open people's eyes, to reveal the marvels around.”

~ Paulo Coelho

Each fall in Thailand, the Yi Peng lantern festival is held in Chiang Mai.  The picture below taken by Ng Chai Hock was recognized in Sony's 2013 Photo Awards.

The lanterns are released in respect for Buddah.  It is thought that this symbolic act would release bad memories and that the lantern would transport a wish for the future to the heavens.  It was monks who had traditionally released the lanterns but the festival has grown so that anyone may participate.  In the evening floating lanterns are released all around Chiang Mai province. 

This event has made its way to my bucket list.