From 6pm on Friday Sept 26th until 6pm on Saturday the 27th, the Town of SBP asks that you leave your still re-usable offerings out on your curbside, then bundle up the family and go out walkabout around the neighbourhoods to see what treasures you can score!

Swap Day is a fun, environmental program which allows people to recycle unwanted items.

Place unwanted items such as furniture, books, tools, sporting goods, toys, etc at the end of your driveway or the edge of your lawn. Tie a white plastic bag to one or more of the items to indicate that the items are meant for Swap Day.
[ South Bruce Peninsula Crier: Swap Day September 27 2008 ]

Kind of like a Trick or Treat for the homeowners, or being a Womble for a day :) I think it would be great fun to do our rummaging under cover of the overnight darkness, our whole town a midnight buzz of wagon-toting torchlit human racoons, maybe some lanterns, street vendors and buskers to make it more alive and festive, and then everybody wakes up next morning and voilà! All your old trash is completely replaced with new trash! This could be a real Happening! Be like an Art Event: The Night of the Recyclers

May and I are packing our gear (and the kids) and we're headed up the road to Tobermory today to do a 30 minute set in aid of the Music on the Bruce Roots Festival, a new pay what you can local-arts fest being set in motion by David Smout as a fundraiser for their local medical services building. We'll be on the main stage from 6pm to 6:30, our first public gig billed as May and Gary Murphy ;) and we've got you a setlist that's something old, something new, something borrowed and a little blue, short and sweet, and built for a late summer's evening.

I have heard our wonderful bylaw officers give warnings on a number of occasions and have never witnessed tickets being written. Has anybody else noticed this? Their job is not to create their own personal social network. They must be missing a lot of revenue and people are starting to view the bylaws as a bit of a joke, methinks. But just try to walk your dog. They then become Dog Police. Ain't never seen a dog turd on the beach but sure see illegally parked vehicles. They also seem to be missing the boat with fireworks. I wouldn't mind a job driving around , smiling and talking to the tourists. Maybe the Commerce guys have more influence on them than job conscience. I also heard a rumour that one of our councillors encourages them not to write tickets. Any truth to that?

I counted about 200 entries to the car show and they stayed until almost 2:00 pm and what beautiful babies they were. These are true, dyed in the wool car nuts who actually drive their babies in bad weather....true enthusiasts all. Sunset Cruisers be proud. I take my soaking wet hat and tip it to all of you. Kudos also to Friends of Sauble Beach, feeding the throngs and finishing the day by distributing free burgers and dogs to the Cruisers. What a great day! Surprising that so many showed, even considering no Sandfest Looking forward to next year, hopefully in the sun.

Amazing the stories you can find online. Here's one, found in the Hansard, and it is a tale of intrigue and power, a tale some say is slipping the attention of the press. Pet abductions, charges over dirty budgie cages and the wobbily question of whether or not a doghouse should or should not be stuffed with straw, even if the dog hates straw. Pretty scary stuff, boys and girls, and standing up to it to demand some accountability is our own ex-Mayor Carl Noble:
"I would like to provide some examples of what I think needs serious improvement; and I conclude with five brief recommendations that I believe would improve the legislation and the thrust of what we are trying to achieve"

You know the old saying that men will not stop and ask for directions. So I am thinking the internet also falls under that stigma as bigoted a comment as that is.. But here I am so I hope they don't rescind my "Man membership Card"
I have looking around for information/procedures/forms and case histories regarding initiating a Judicial review in regards to a government agencies decision.

My wifes says the clearest indication of insanity is to keep trying the same thing and hopeing for a different result.

that being said:)

But for those who know me and the "situation" know I have what should be an open and shut case and yet going through the proper channels has proved frustrating and may I say a little "tilted".
Being objective and trying not to sound "insane" the government agency involved asks for evidence and never appears to read it and I really wonder if the person involved had the right file in front of them when they come back with a decision.

There was a Black Bear wandering around Carson Lake Crescent in Sauble Beach last night and this morming - August 4, 2008. He was about 6 feet tall when on his hind legs and was overturning everyone's garbage bins.

Paid parking did not seem to scare away tourists this weekend. I cannot remember seeing so many people ever. They were parked everywhere, all the way to Sauble falls parkway and beyond. I think it is time to charge for parking EVERYWHERE! I also think we should charge even more for parking!! We have to pay for the cleanup of these ignorant tourists somehow!! I helped neighbours on Second Av clean up garbage and even escort people from their lanes who had the audacity to set up camp stoves and barbecues on private property. these ignoramuses were also quite indignant when asked to move. I agree that Sauble is everyone's beach but at what price to those of us who are residents?

Our lives are littered with habits, some of them get us in trouble, most of them do us quite well, nearly all of them are brazenly invisible and that's what makes it so inviting to get into the habit for the changes we want to make. The thing is, we habitually avoid changing our habits, we have a great deal of aversion reaction to anyone trying to rock the even-keel boat of our same old used-to-be behaviours. But right there, there's the trick to this species of brain-hack: It's all in building on what is already ingrained, and it's that secret that both lets P&G sell gallons of de-scenting spray to conscientious homecleaners, and let's public health workers sell the use of simple life-saving bars of soap to third-world mothers:  read more »

Ok, not being on Town Water, I don't know enough about this to know where or what the 'Thompson Water System' is without looking it up, but isn't this just a bit of begging for explanation as to how it might be that said water system should become contaminated with a radio-active material? Note, this is not Boil Water advisory:

The water is NOT safe for human consumption or food preparation. Boiling water will not reduce the levels of Radium 226. The water is safe to use for hand washing, bathing, showers, dishes and laundry.
[ Town of South Bruce Doc #41806695 ]

The release goes on to say water will be provided at the Community Centre between 9am and 6pm and, as with this notice, we will be 'notified' when they give the all-clear. The document is dated four days ago, but was not posted to the town site until today where it appears only as Foreman Water System 'Precautionary' Water Notice and in search-opaque PDF; because it is a scan of the Ontario Clean Water Agency's faxThe Crier, you have to read the PDF. Radium 226, for those wondering, is a by-product in the decay of Uranium.

How do we put a stop to all of this noise and commotion? All through every single night the skies at Sauble are filled with Fireworks. The bylaw police are quick to put the stop to little doggies on the beach but cannot be found when fireworks fly carelessly into the forests and cottage rooves around Sauble. Do we need a major fire or tragedy to be the catalyst to bring this problem under control? I have seen children lighting these light cannons and I have seen them aimed towards cottages and forested areas. Am I the only one agitated at this?

I know that this post does not pertain to the socio-political goings on at Sauble, BUT, I thought I would forward this message on, as I could not figure out how to do it on facecrack. I put it on my personal blog as well. I was not aware of the fact that an at home test was available.

It may benefit someone in the SBP area, or anywhere. Think about it. A friend's father was diagnosed with leukemia, and the test is easy, just a few swabs of your mouth that you can do at home to see if you are a match for his father, or anyone out there suffering with the disease.

Thanks,

Lisa

Bone Marrow Registry~~~Message from a friend. Please Think of Taking the Test, it's easy
A friend's dad was recently diagnosed with Leukemia. In his message he wrote on Facebook:

Seems like everyone has a take on what has happened to the Tourist Trade this season. I did a straw poll and WEATHER and the COST OF FUEL seem to be far more dastardly than the pittance for parking fees. People are far less willing to chance bad weather reports because of the huge investment to fill their gas tanks should the weather actually be as bad as the weather man predicts. I think it would be fair to BLAME THE WEATHER MAN for such poor turn out. Maybe the high cost of stuffing the kids' mouths with exorbantly expensive tube steaks and other fast food slop might also contribute to the problem. It remains a problem when you can park for a day for less than the price of a hot dog and fries. Can't remember the last time I could afford a hot dog at Sauble...I think I bought it at Marge's.

Some astute observations from Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman on the topic of our survival:
No human society, present or past, has lacked music. Music is therefore one of the very few human universals, which puts it on the same level as food and sex.


It follows that any tendency to consider music as a "luxury" is dangerous. This patently false idea leads to devaluing music in general education, often to the point of eliminating it entirely when budgets are tight. That Plato, Confucius and many other great thinkers have held music to be the indispensable cornerstone of education should help strengthen the resolve of parents and educators to make music part of every home and to maintain and strengthen music programs in our schools.
[ Spirit into Sound: The Magic of Music ]

I've heard of Transparency in Government, but this is a bit of too much to comprehend. Is this a joke? They are actually going to pick and choose at the curb (I don't have a curb, but you know what I mean) as to is this is or is this ain't the sort of garbage they want?

Residential trash in South Bruce Peninsula may have to go out in clear plastic bags starting in January.

That's to help municipal officials face both a looming shortage of dump space and the region's worst recycling record.

Residents diverted just 21 per cent of South Bruce Peninsula's trash from waste disposal through recycling in 2007.

[ SBP May Require Clear Trash Bags ]

Are you mathematical?

Let me put that another way: Do you like music? Because, inescapably, they are the same question, and the 'why' of that riddle has perplexed natural philosophers and musicians for at least 3 millenia. Of course our mathematics cannot really describe nature, but it is tantalizingly curious that nature should be even approximately describable by our humble equations, and for those curious about that "unknowing exercise of our mathematical faculties" we call 'music', Seed offers an intro article by Dmitri Tymoczko, discoverer of the bold new math of music, a short article one might call A Young Person's Guide to the Orbifold Quotient Space Theory of Music.

Read carefully, there will be an exam later ...  read more »

Those interested in Sauble Beach should listen to CFOS Open Line Friday at 9 a.m. It should prove to be interesting.

Just a reminder, in case you've got spare tasks here and there, there's today even more folks out there waking up to community un-engagement. In this latest round of "loosing the ballast", it is nearly a quarter of the Owen Sound plant -- GM may not know this, but we do: The secret of a happy and productive society is having a gainfully engaged and 100% involved membership :)

Tenneco Canada Inc. workers learned Monday the company will lay off 104 of its 524 workers in September as part of a permanent staff reduction at the plant. It says the move is a direct result of GM cuts announced last month.

The facility assembles shocks for a range of GM small pickups and SUVs. The vast majority of the layoffs are manufacturing jobs.
[ Auto supplier Tenneco Canada to lay off 104 ]

For those who may have dreamed of a return of the iron horse, some hope on a distant horizeon in a Sun-Times piece called "Thought of bringing back rail service suddenly topical"
Thirteen years have passed since a train last chugged through Owen Sound, but factors like escalating fuel prices could lay the tracks for a revival of rail ... [Google News: SBP]

I had a long talk with a festival promoter today. He really wants us on his bill, but, y'see, there's a basic problem here: he offers that we "make our money" off "exposure to a tourist audience" which is fine and cool but we ain't got nuthin' t' sell! -- after probably an hour trying to explain the anthropological imperative of the community dynamics of a grounded music divest of status strata and legality ornamentation, I'm not certain I was any closer. "ok, ok" he says, and we agree because its a charitable cause but in the next breath he asks if we'd like to play a dinner club.

What I should have said was "Only if they stop eating, paint their faces and dance a dervish around the burning buffet tables. But I didn't.  read more »