Ideas from a Manic Mind: Our New Year’s Resolutions

Ideas from a Manic Mind: Our New Year’s Resolutions: "With every New Year we all make hard to keep news year's resolutions. Don't know about everyone but when I do there always seems to be some ..."

Our New Year’s Resolutions

With every New Year, we all make hard to keep news year's resolutions. Don't know about everyone, but when I do there always seems to be some reason to begin and then quit after a few weeks. I guess the big thing is that we really what to get somewhere in our lives or our personal health and wellbeing. The key with doing something like starting a diet and exercising it has to be habit forming and in that way we don't tend to break the contract because it will cause us to feel really bad about ourselves. This time of year we tend to buy exercise gear, gym memberships and diet plans. The industry is making big profits at this time of year on our hopes and plans. But all too soon for a lot of us we give up and feel pretty shitty about the whole thing. I find with my past experiences not to set myself up by try to do a little more exercise than I normally did the year before and I have already began eating healthier so now I am feeling better with the nutrition and now I lost a few pounds making me feel good about myself. The problems with all the years before the plans were too daunting an endeavour to do. Just small doable steps is what I will be doing fon.rom now

Ideas from a Manic Mind: The Vinyl Record Shops of Yesterday

Ideas from a Manic Mind: The Vinyl Record Shops of Yesterday: "Back in the seventies and eighties I used to collected records. Going down to the record shop once a week and buying a few albums was an en..."

The Vinyl Record Shops of Yesterday

Back in the seventies and eighties I used to collected records. Going down to the record shop once a week and buying a few albums was an enjoyable pastime. Gone are those day's unfortunately, back then I could ta talk to the store clerks about the latest albums that would complement my collects. Record shop got to know my tastes and genre of music that I liked the most. Getting an album that was highly recommended was a wonderful thing in those days. I learned to discover recording as I would in a book in a library or private book store. The excitement was taking to album and playing it for the first time and then playing the album for a second or third time until it grew on me. Letting other people see my record collection was a way in defining my tastes in music within my home. The idea of the concept albums was a time of music generous in that time. There was the picture disc albums and vinyl of transparent colors. The Hi Fi end of recording was just coming into existence. The sound was warm and alive, not so with digital recording, also with downloadable music there is always the case of using credit cards. At one time cash was valued and used, you took so much as with you and that was the extent of what you bought. Consumerism of today has run amuck with credit instead of hard earned cash. The mom and pop stores of yesterday have been overrun by an industry that only takes credit.

I wish for the return of a simple music purchase system such as the around the corner record shop. I've heard that vinyl may take a comeback but when will this be? I sure miss those days badly, things just were a lot more sensible then; there was a beauty of buying good music. In this world of an industrialized music sales so is the way of good quality music. Of course there is some good music on today, but to back they wouldn't publish the recordings in vinyl once again. Bring back the record stores like Sam's or some of the smaller stores. Please everyone needs to discover the benefits of collecting good vinyl music once again.

Finally The Snow Has Stopped

We have a day without it snowing; at least it's stopped for now. The skiing should be good for the hill. The dry spell will allow work crews to get the machines out and clear up the downtown Street and business. The three feet of snow overnight is just too much for us to handle. I wonder how the seniors and disabled are managing, a lot must be house bound. In past years clearing the driveway a snow shovel was all that was needed, but now a very large snow-blower is all that could handle this stuff. With this sort of weather we have thought about investing in a snow-blower but so probably and much other residence of Collingwood and the out lying area. Who knows if we buy one next year we may see the last of storms like this.

Enough is enough

Shovelling never seems to end and with the amount of snow we got in Collingwood, today is the first day to start digging the worst of it out. So far we have only been able to dig a walking path to the front door so that the postal carrier and other delivery services can get in. Fortunately I do not own a car anymore so shovelling a driveway to get out isn't necessary.

Today is the first day in days that it seems to be slowing down. The downtown and the Streets is a real mess. I read in the Enterprise Bulletin that the dump trucks hauled away and built a hills 35 feet high the length of a football field, not only one but two of them. The problem was the three foot banks going into stores that people had to climb to get into from cars, another reason why I'm happy I don't drive…

The crazy thing about some people is when police tell them to stay off the roads they mean it, but some don't listen making tow trucks and body shops busy. Wasaga Beach got it really bad also; it funny because not long ago Collingwood had most of the snow and the beach was spared. But it wasn't long until Mother Nature came along and hit Wasaga with a big dump of snow.

I hope this winter that these storms are the end of the worst of it and we get some sensible winter weather. It's bad when they close down a ski hill, because of the storm that getting bad. Usually the ski hills love the white stuff, but maybe not that much.