Odds and Ends

I completed the book I mentioned in my last post. I have a very fine set of books on Christian history and enjoyed reading about the Crusades, the rise of Islam, and the Mongol Empire. What is very clear is that the timely death of one of Genghis Khan's heirs, his son Ogedei, changed the entire history of the world. The "Golden Horde", as his armies were known as, was spreading toward western Europe after conquering Hungary and Russsia, and were unchallenged in their next quest to "run to the sea". They would have held all of Europe and the Renaissance, the industrial revolution, etc. would never have happened. In fact, we would probably all be speaking a dialect of Chinese. But Ogedei's death necessitated the return of the Princes of the Empire from the battle fields to take care of things back home where there was an internal struggle for the title of Khan. I am finding it fascinating reading as I have now consumed all four of Conn Iggulden's books on the Khan Dynasty.

Like most other Canuck fans, I am counting down the hours to game time. Forty years of being an avid follower of the team, and a lover of hockey in general, will culminate in the following weeks as we head into the Stanley Cup finals. I make no apologies for revolving my life around hockey for the next little while. This may not happen again in my lifetime.

Shopping in the Costco in Bellingham, we were surrounded, at the checkout, by carts containing twenty or more gallons of milk. Again, stopping at Ed and Eileen's dairy on the way home, for the mandatory chocolate soft serve, we encountered shopping carts piled high with milk. There is a certain ethnicity that is milk crazy. What do they do with all that milk, besides make their sweet tea with it? If cows were allowed in back yards in our town, like chickens are allowed in back yards in Vancouver, we would be over run with mini dairy farms. 

Our 'mail in' Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) referendum is soon upon us, just in time to be delayed by a postal strike. Will the reduction to 10% be enough to save the tax? I have maintained from day one that if they had combined the taxes (PST and GST) and then dropped it 2%, it would have been an easier sell. It would then have approached revenue neutral and the politicians would not have been seen as the liars they are. In the end, we do not want a socialist government in this province, no matter what we call the tax or at what % it is.

My computer is doing hateful things to me. What did I do to deserve all the 'freezing and re-booting'? It was completely re-formatted about a month ago, and was working better than ever. Now, not so much. There are no virus issues, RAM or ROM issues, nor have I been tapping it with my sledge hammer, although I have come close. Technology is changing every five minutes and I would not even know what to get to replace what I have. I just know that it is inevitable.