A Class All It's Own

Late vacation approvals are ruining me. A few years ago, when I was a student on a co-op work term, I didn't think I was going to be able to go home for Christmas for more than a weekend.  So I bought a ticket to go home on Friday, and return Sunday.  Then I was told I could take a few more days off. I would still return to work as originally planned, but I could leave for Halifax a few days earlier.

When I went to change my booking, the only seats available were in First Class.  They weren't too expensive, so I bought them.

If you've never flown First Class, I highly recommend it.  It's not the same as being upgraded to First Class.  Buying a First Class ticket is different.

When you arrive at the airport, you check your bags in a different line. It's a shorter line. Then you go through security like everyone else. Then, with Air Canada, you get to enjoy complementary access to their Maple Leaf Lounge. The lounge has Internet access, a TV, free food, drinks (including wine and beer, and other alcoholic beverages). (Okay, it's not free. It's included in the price of the ticket.)

When it's time to go to your flight, you can board at anytime. You get a bigger seat with more leg room  You always have either a window seat, or an aisle seat. You get a meal with complementary alcoholic beverages. It's a much nicer experience.

Then, when your flight touches down, you're amongst the first off the plane. When you get to the baggage claim, at some airports they have a special carousel for first class bags. From the moment the plane comes to a complete stop, they have a certain amount of time before the first "priority" bag appears on the "priority" carousel. When I worked at Pearson in Toronto, they had a special priority carousel. They don't have one in Halifax. I had to wait for my luggage with everyone else.

That year, when I flew back to Ottawa I flew coach. I left first thing in the morning. I had a three hour stop-over in Montreal. My first class experience made that all the harder.

I haven't flown first class since - until this year. Our vacation approvals came in a little close to the requested dates. When I checked flight prices I could have flown pretty cheaply, but I would have had another three hour stop-over in Montreal, and an arrival in Halifax after midnight, which is like the middle of the night to me. In order to get a flight at a decent time, it was only a few dollars more to get a ticket under Air Canada's new "Lower Executive" class. It has a few more restrictions than their full Executive class. But, for all intents and purposes, it's First Class.

I'm glad I did get those tickets.  My flight to Halifax was delayed by 7 hours.  My flight back to Ottawa was delayed by two and a half hours.  Let me tell you, if you have to spend 7 hours in an airport, you want to be in the Maple Leaf lounge.

Here are a couple of videos to highlight the differences between First Class and Economy:

The Decline of Tim Hortons

Last weekend, Pastor Jack and I went to the local Tim Hortons in Embrun. They had just finished renovations. There was a whole new look and feel. For the most part it was good. But one thing was different that I didn't like: The sandwich bar was at the back, facing the back wall. It used to be off to the side, facing the customers. Now, the poor sandwich lady had to shout to one end of the store asking Jack about his bagel, then the other end to shout something to me about my sandwich.

I have watched Tim Hortons go from a really nice place to go for a snack and hang-out to a place I don't want to go to at all. It's time I blogged about it.

When I was in high school I used to go to Timmies all the time with friends. I'd get a hot chocolate and two oatmeal-raisin cookies. The hot chocolate was smooth and delicious. The cookies were big and soft. Over time the cookies got smaller and harder. They were no longer appetizing.

This was long before their switch to "Always Fresh" where they stopped baking the products at the local Tim Hortons' and started baking at a central location, freezing the product, and shipping it out to the individual stores.  I know a lot of people were disappointed with this change.  They felt the quality of the donuts, muffins, etc. really went downhill.

Then they got new hot chocolate machines. They used to have a dedicated hot chocolate machine. Then they got machines that would dispense hot chocolate and "cappuccinos". I suspect they got a new hot chocolate formula at this time too. The quality of the drink went down the drain. I switched from hot chocolate to tea.

The nice things about tea is that I can control how long the tea has been steeping in the cup, and it's one price no matter what size you get. I like weak tea. I like the fact I can take the bag out of the cup when I want.

Then they changed that! They introduced steeped tea. I got it once. Once was enough. I couldn't finish the stuff. I had to pour it out. Oh well, I usually got Earl Grey tea anyway.  Their Ear Grey tea isn't steeped.  It only comes in individual bags.

Then I went in one day ready to beat the system by getting a large Earl Grey tea. I could let it steep for as little, or long, as I wanted. Then I was charged extra for the large! A large tea is not any more product than a small. It's one tea bag! The only difference is the size of the cup and the amount of water! This was the last straw.  No more Tim Hortons for me!  Now I only go to Tim Hortons as a last resort. Unfortunately, in Embrun there really isn't much else. If I'm willing to drive to Vars I'll go to the Country Style by the exit. (It turns out Country Style coffee is way better than Tim Hortons coffee.)

Now, they've changed the location of the sandwich bar. Jack likes to get a bagel with butter. They usually put too much butter on his bagel for his taste, so he likes to tell them to go easy on the butter. Now that they're way over behind the cash, with their back to him, it's a lot harder to ask for that. Interaction with your sandwich artist is important. They have taken that away from us.

Another thing, which may be only at the Embrun Timmies, is they no longer have napkins on the tables. That is so annoying! You're comfortably sitting down, you get some schmultz on your hands, and you have to get up, and go over to the busy counter to look for a napkin.

To recap, the ways Tim Hortons has gone downhill over the last several years are as follows:

1. The Hot Chocolate quality;
2. The quality of the cookies;
3. The "Always Fresh"way of providing baked goods;
4. Steeped Tea;
5. Greedy tea pricing schemes;
6. Relocation of the Sandwich Bar; and
7. No more napkins on the tables.

It hasn't been all bad. In that time, Tim Hortons has introduced cappuccinos, Bagels, Sandwiches, Soups, Chilli, and made all restaurants non-smoking.

All these complaints. Tim Hortons will never listen to me. Now, if only I had a friend who worked for Tim Hortons head office.....

Wake Up! It's Time To Sneeze!

Yesterday I was pretending to sleep for a long period of time. (Long story. Don't ask. Not bloggable. Yet.) Then something happened. I felt a tickle in my nose. It was coming. There was nothing I could do about it. I was about to sneeze!

There are things you can do to prevent sneezes. There are certain pressure points you can touch to stop the sneeze. You can stifle it. But you can't do any of these when you're pretending to be asleep. I asked myself "Quick! How would a sleeping person handle a sneeze?" I didn't have an answer.

I decided the jig was up.  My cover was blown.  (Pun intended.)  No more pretending to sleep. I covered my mouth with my arm (a move I invented, by the way) and let loose.

It got me thinking. Can you sneeze while sleeping? I don't remember ever waking up to sneeze. I don't think I've heard of anyone waking up to sneeze. I suppose you could sneeze in you sleep, but surely it would wake you up! When you're sick with gastroenteritis (a.k.a. "Stomach Flu"), you wake up to go to the toilet. But, what about sneezing?

I thought about asking Quirks and Quarks - a science program on CBC, but that could take too long to get an answer. So I decided to ask Mr. Google.

It turns out, you can't sneeze while sleeping - sort of. Sneezing is a neurological reaction to stimuli in the body. But the reaction is processed in the brain. When you're asleep, you're brain is in a different state than when you're awake, and it doesn't respond to normal sneeze-inducing stimuli - unless the stimulus is strong enough.

I guess the only thing to say now is "gesundheit!"

I'm Tired Of The Pressure (Part 2)

On Monday I drove in to work.  When I walked out I saw one of my tires was looking a little low.  Sometimes the tires just look low, but they're not.  I decided it would be a good idea to check the pressure just in case.  I did.  It was low.  Of course, when I was checking the pressure I noticed something was lodged into the treads.  A nail!

I managed to get my car into Canadian Tire (where I bought the tires) where they took out the nail and fixed the tire.

If this blog post is causing you deja vu, that's because I blogged about something similar last week.  In real life, these two incidents were about a month apart.  That's right.  Two nails in two tires within a month!

I'm Tired Of The Pressure

One day shortly after I got home from work, Wendy was outside. She came in and yelled at me to check my tires. One of them looked flat.

Sure enough, when I went outside it was looking pretty low. I got out my tire pressure gauge and checked. As I bent down I saw something stuck in the treads. It looked like a little piece of metal. I started to push it, thinking it was just stuck. As I did, I heard the "psssssssst" of a deflating tire, and I saw the threads of a screw coming through the rubber of the tire!

The time was 5:30. I tried calling the dealership to see if it was something they could repair, and, if so, make an appointment for the next day. They close at 5:30. I couldn't get through.  There was no guarantee of an appointment the next day. I checked the 14 day forecast to see if it would be going above 15 degrees much. Thankfully, it wasn't. I had an hour of daylight left. I scrambled and got my winter tires on in just over an hour.

When I got the tires on, I checked the pressure. 3 of the tires were right about where they should be - within 1 psi. One of them was down 20 psi! Great! Now I have to keep an eye on that tire all winter.

It's been a few weeks now. So far so good.

This Is All Very Draining

Back in June, the main upstairs bathroom - the one I use - got a new sink. When the plug was raised, it wasn't very high. This caused the water to drain rather slowly.

One night, when I was shaving, I was trying to get the water to drain faster. I was jiggling it, and it stopped moving up and down with the controller. So I had to figure out (with shaving cream all over my face) how that worked. I managed to get it fixed.

As I was planning on getting some Draino to clear out the sink I heard a clunk somewhere in the pipes and the water drained really fast. Cool. Problem solved.

The next morning as I was taking a shower, I noticed the water wasn't leaving the tub at all. It seemed that the blockage in the sink pipes had moved into the tub pipes. I didn't have time to investigate until after work.

When I got home Wendy and Jack told me that they put Draino in the tub. This cleared out the tub pipes, but pushed some black gunk into the tub in their washroom.  This blockage seemed to move from one set of pipes to another.

I believe they got that sorted out by now.

What About Singing In The Shower?

A while ago I blogged about an auto-body shop in Britain that turned up their radio loud enough to be heard by the public. They were sued for copyright infringement.

I thought, and still think, that's ridiculous for the following reasons:

• The very nature of radio broadcasts are public, not private. This is not a fuzzy statement, as one commenter said. Radio waves are fluctuations in the electro-magnetic spectrum which exists all around us.
• Radio signals are easy to convert into sound signals. Spock can do this with egg cartons and tin foil.
• Radio signals aren't encrypted.
• If you own a radio station that plays music, you've (presumably) paid for the right to play that music over the airwaves on your frequency. The rights to the music have been purchased.
• Playing music over the radio is a promotion device. It promotes the album, the band, and any concerts, etc.
• If you own a radio station, you likely want as many people listening as possible, not as few as possible.
• If you're a band trying to sell albums and concert tickets, you likely want as many people listening to your music on the radio.
• As a radio listener, I don't buy the right to listen to the radio.  The right to listen to any station it can pick up is implied. By not encrypting the radio signals, it's implied that if I own a radio, the radio station wants me to listen to their station.
• At the risk of beating a dead horse: if you own a radio station, concerning what goes over the air, you have NO expectation of privacy.

Anyway. Suffice it to say, I think they went too far with that.

Then I read Today's Article! This time, the British equivalent of the RIAA told a shop to turn down their radio because it could be heard by the public. *spits on floor* So the store did. But one of the shop workers liked music. If she couldn't listen to the radio, she'd make her own music, Gosh Golly Darn it! So she sang to herself as she stocked the shelves.

She was then contacted by the PRS and told she needed a performer's licnese to do that! A performer's license for singing to yourself while you work! Well, you'd better fine me too! I listen to my iPod at work, and sometimes, I hum along with the song I'm listening to.

I shouldn't have to explain why this is ridiculous, but after the last time, I think probably will.

At least in this case, the PRS realized they were being donkeys, and sent her an apology, along with a bouqet of flowers.  How nice.