Sunday, March 29, 2009

Someone Turn Out the Lights!

     Hello A and A fans, I'm back and have I got a bone to pick.  Last night there was "Earth Hour".  A lot of you might not have been aware of that and shame on you.  My wife was aware of it and as a result we had all the lights off for the designated "Earth Hour".  It's some campaign by one of the environmental groups to reduce our power consumption.  They know it is symbolic and I know it is symbolic and my wife is a good soul for going along with it, but...

     How come the homeowner is constantly being encouraged to turn off extra lights and keep the fridge door closed (both good things I guess), but you go outside on "Earth Hour" and every business in the neighbourhood that's been closed for hours has their multi-light bulb signs on and they'll be on all night.  Heck when you're outside at night in a commercial area it's bright enough to play football.  Meanwhile, while I'm closing up my fridge as fast as I can, the local grocery store doesn't even have a door on their freezers let alone their fridge!  Something's not right here people.

     I say that if your business is not open then your sign should be off and all grocery store fridges and freezers should have a door that closes.  A glass door like many stores do should be mandatory before they start bugging me about my habits.

    Now for the Anecdote...

     Speaking of fridges, I'm told that beer will stay good pretty much forever, if you keep it in the fridge.  My Dad, who sadly passed away this week, was not a beer drinker.  He also didn't keep his beer in the fridge.  Why did a non-beer drinker have beer you ask?  Well each summer when we were on vacation in Parksville, he and the other dads at the beach would have numerous contests (soccer, cards, croquet, horseshoes, etc.) and the stakes were a beer.  Whatever beer he had leftover would be stored in the basement and the next summer my father would dutifully pack the case into the car with all our other Parksville gear.  The opposition could be heard proclaiming on the first day of vacation, "We better not win anything early on or we'll have to drink Showers' skunky beer." 

5 comments:

  1. Welcome back.

    I was vaguely aware of something called Earth Day, and knew basically what it was about, but had no idea when it was or what time it was supposed to happen. I do remember late in the evening looking out and seeing no lights on at the neighbour's house and it crossed my mind that it might have been right then, but I didn't get up off the couch to shut off the lights. That would have been stoopid. The fridge door was closed, though. Do I get points for that?

    You dad looks like your brother in that fishing photo.

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  2. I'm with you a 100% on the business lights. If you are closed, turn off the lights! Good to see you are back and writing your silly A & A blog. Take care, colleague, xelA.

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  3. Colleague? I figured anyone writing their name backwards was in the 13-17 age range! Or dyslexic. Or both.

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  4. Little Jackie ShowersApril 1, 2009 at 9:37 PM

    Hey. No cheap shots between commenters. This is a friendly blog. Okay, maybe not so friendly if you're a hotel with no WiFi or a ferry with bad food.

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  5. Nice to see your posts again, Jack. We've missed you. I liked your story about your dad and his skunky beer. The Bergen fridge also contains such beer (as both of us hate the stuff) - a sad little mismatched array of two or three random bottles (left behind from past parties, and no, they're not open) that have been dutifully carted, a la your dad, from our old place to our new place--and god knows how long they were in the fridge at our old place. Beer lovers who plan to visit us, be forewarned!

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