the pod bay door

:: A few days ago I lamented Safeway’s decision to stop serving Italian wedding soup as one of their deli products. Last weekend, I went to Staples, wanting to purchase a few Easy Stick double-sided adhesive cartridges, and a couple Staedtler Lumocolor 313 Superfine pens. I could find neither product, and ensuing discussions with a Staples staff member proved fruitless. Short answer: they don’t carry these items anymore.

For years I wore the Reebok Newport walking shoe. Simple, straightforward, basic shoe, about $60Cdn, heckuva deal, as they say in Minnesota. A few weeks ago, I visited a shoe store where in the past, I purchased these shoes. I couldn’t see any about, so asked a clerk for help. I might as well have been staring into the eyes of a chicken – no such shoe exists, there is no Reebok Newport Classic anymore. Reebok still makes the Classic, but there is no Newport.

For many years, my mother sold nutrimetics. The line of men’s products was called Bavarian, and I really, really liked the soap and aftershave. A few years back, nutrimetics stopped producing the Bavarian line, and replaced it with another family of products that in my estimation, didn’t come close to its predecessor.

A new word needs to be coined or invented, in the English language, to describe when this happens. The definition of the word would read something like: when a product or service one likes, uses and purchases regularly, is suddenly withdrawn from market and made no longer available, resulting in feelings of anger and frustration for the consumer.

:: Snow. Lots of it, everywhere. On the roads, on the grass, on the sidewalk, on your driveway. It snowed here all day, by 5:00 pm the roads were so bad that it took me 65 minutes to drive home (usually a 15 minute drive on a good day.) Thankfully it stopped around 8:00 pm, and it’s now clear and cold.

It’s a good thing the snow stopped now, because on Saturday, there will be two outdoor hockey games in Edmonton involving the Montreal Canadiens and the Edmonton Oilers. One is an old-timers game featuring the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Guy Lafleur, followed by a regular-season game in the evening, the first outdoor NHL game in league history. The game, designated The Heritage Classic, is a sell-out, and will break the previous NHL attendance record by over 25,000 – expected attendance is 56,159, all of whom will need to dress warmly, as the high that day is predicted to be -7C, and it will be much cooler than that by the evening. A specially designed rink is being prepared for the game. The game coincides with the NHL’s 86th anniversary of its founding, and the 25th year of the Oilers in the league. The game is being broadcast in HDTV.

I’ve lived in Edmonton since 1978, but have always cheered for the Habs, and would love to attend the game, but no such luck. Tickets were awarded to names drawn from entries mailed in months ago, and I never made the time to enter. The outdoor game has already invoked a bit of nostalgia for me. As a kid, I played hockey for five years (not well, mind you!), and spent many a night on an outdoor rink, often helping to shovel snow from the ice surface so a game could happen. I played street hockey for years as well, with whichever kids were available at the time.

:: I’m off work this week, taking some holiday time. The weather has been cold, snowy and dull. I want to clean up my house, a task of major proportions at best. I started cleaning one room last night, so can report some progress. I’ve worked out in the morning the last two days, and it’s been a major struggle to get the body to accept this change, even for a few days. Normally I exercise after work. I don’t know how the morning people do it.

:: Derryl sent along this gem: examples of some of the worst album covers of all time.

:: You might think it odd to get upset over soup, but…Safeway sells hot soup every day, two varieties. All the soups sold are made by Campbell’s. My favorite is Italian-Style Wedding soup. I had never heard of it until Safeway started selling it in their deli. I haven’t been able to find it lately, so I spoke to someone there, who told me that a “new soup program” is imminent, so the other choices have been removed, permanently. The manager of my local store verified this, saying that it’s happening in all Safeway stores in Canada and the USA.

Italian-Style Wedding soup was one of Safeway’s most popular hot soups; the deli worker with whom I spoke confirmed this, noting that other customers have expressed their dismay as well. Why mess with success? It’s a decision made by suits in an office in a Big City somewhere far from here. Idiots.

:: If you are interested in the recent solar flare activity, check out the SOHO site: Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. There are some great pics and mpegs of what the sun has been doing (blasting the Earth with ionizing radiation as a result of exploding superflares.) Here in the Great White North, we’ve been missing the spectacular aurora activity because it’s been cloudy for days.

:: A lot of snow has fallen in Edmonton since Wednesday. Last Sunday, it was 17C in town; it’s -13C at the moment. The drastic, almost overnight change in the weather is a hard slap in the face from the nature gods; it is beyond offensive for this time of year. Life goes from a relaxed, gentle autumn, to a full-blown, angry, bitter winter in less than three days. What I’ve never understood is how the weather can change so quickly, without any period for a gradual change. It is not fair, but short of pounding sand, there is little to be done. But embrace it, I will not do, I refuse. I’ve done the minimum necessary to deal with the elements, such as shovelling my driveway. I heard today that cross-country skiers were already spotted in the city. I won’t give in that easiy, admitting and accepting that winter conditions are here to stay. Not yet, anyway; I’m still flipping the bird at the weather.

:: Last week, I searched my name on Google, and was shocked to see that the first entry in the list of results featured one word from a comment posted to an entry from a few months ago. The word was the “F” word. It was the only occurrence of the word on my site. How Google would come to use the word in its search algorithm is a mystery. Anyway, I removed the word from the comment, and a Google search on my name will no longer feature said “F” word.

:: I saw The Station Agent today, one of the best films of the year. Check it out if you can. It’s the story of a dwarf named Fin, who works in a model train station. Upon the death of the owner, Fin inherits an abandoned train station in Newfoundland NJ, and moves there to live, and to watch trains. Despite his best efforts to be left alone, he is drawn into relationships with some of the locals, played by Bobby Cannavale, Patricia Clarkson, and Michelle Williams. Fin is played by Peter Dinklage, in a career breaking performance that is very memorable, and worthy of award considerations in 2004.

:: I love quoting Dr Smith from Lost In Space. But I am in pain, damn it. My right shoulder, really aggravating, need pain killers, reaching for the pills. Maybe this is a test from God. Can I survive like this until November 12, when my physiotherapy begins?

However, this related story is almost too much to take: the health care system in Alberta has been under siege for ten years, since Ralph Klein took power. For the first time, the evidence of how bad it is hit me today. I need an MRI on my left arm because of the nagging tennis elbow condition. It takes a while in Alberta to get an MRI unless to pay to do it privately – hundreds of dollars – which means if you’re wealthy, you can jump the public queue. The government won’t provide enough funding to allow for enough MRI facilities to reduce the long waiting lists.

In the mail today, I received notification of my MRI appointment: 11 June 2004. When I read the date, I couldn’t help but smile at the irony: on June 11th, 2004, I’ll be in Nashville TN, at the end of my annual professional conference. It takes months to get an MRI appointment, and the first available date I can get in, eight months from now, is during the ONLY event I have scheduled in my life that takes place out of town UNTIL that date.

:: Dave Barry brilliantly summarizes recent baseball events, including the Cubs’ loss to his beloved Marlins, the arrogance of the NYY, and the (potentionally boring) World Series, beginning tonight. Reluctantly, I’ll pull for the Marlins – the lesser of two (boring) evils. (Via Derryl.)

:: It is a gorgeous sunny, fall day in Calgary. After two visits to Tim McKay, the best chiropractor on Planet Earth, my shoulder area is less painful, and my lower back feels fine. This morning I spent time with my dear friend Carole and her mom, and met her new, 5-day old angel, Grace Elizabeth. Later this afternoon I’m off for coffee with another friend, then a visit with my brother, Chris, and then on to my high school class Mini Reunion in the evening. Tomorrow morning it will be dim sum with – wait for it – another friend (it’s nice to have a lot of friends in Calgary!), and then either a movie, or head back to Edmonton.

:: Bill Maher makes an interesting case for the hypocrisy surrounding Rush Limbaugh’s addiction to pain killer medication and the ongoing drug wars in the USA.