Just when you thought you’ve got friends

I got an email from Aeroplan today. It was my first email in days on that account. There was all kinds of cool things in the email about contests I could win, ING insurance, places to travel to.

I was pretty excited.

So I replied to them right away, just to let them know that.

Dear Aeroplan

Oh thank you. I haven’t had an email for 2 days and I was getting depressed. Then you came along with this groovy email. Thanks again. I can relax knowing I have a friend on the planet

Affectionately yours, Stephen

Before I could press the send key twice they wrote me back. Great.

Thank you for contacting Aeroplan

The email to which you replied is used only to send, not to receive, Aeroplan® emails. We regret that we are unable to respond to your query via this communication.

the aeroplan.com team

I tried to make sense of it. Is this a put-off or some girl trying to play hard to get.

Come in stranger

Illustration by Carolina Arentsen

Ed: A friend wrote me about the end of World, God style and this came to me.

God sent us here not to sit around
Waiting for the End our buts on the ground
He gave us strength and two good hands
To get out and about, help our fellow man.

If things are tough, like they often are
Stop your moping, you’re better by far
Than billions of people who go to bed
With a hungry stomach cause they ain’t fed

They don’t care about Wal-Mart color TV’s
Driving in fancy cars taking their ease
They need a doctor when they get ill
And the help to buy expensive pills.

God’ll come when he does, who knows when
Then he’ll be asking what you did for your fellow man
Did you clothe him, or feed him or take him in
Give him a drink, go to prison, and forgive his sin.

If you’re doing all that, you don’t need to worry
Your life will pass by in one awful hurry
And when you meet God, wherever that may be
He’ll say “Come in stranger you belong to me.”

Matthew 25:40 ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

And my bird can sing

Everyone should have a musical bird. Deeter is mine. He likes music. If I practice in the music room he screeches to get there. If I let him stay on my shoulder he will climb down either arm to watch what I do, picking hand or freting hand.

Weird you say, well watch the video. It’s not that easy to practice guitar and sing with a bird on your hand. Bird on a wire maybe but not a bird on your hand. Well let’s say its not a club act.

Two amazing things. I played a couple of songs and he refused to come down my arm for the camera until I threatened him with the end of music (at the front of the clip). He promptly walked down to my hand. What is that?

Then at the end he starts pinching my arm. Ouch! I had to stop and divert him back up my arm. Whereupon he proceeded to do his business on my sleeve. Talk about wearing your fart on your sleeve!

Then I remembered: when he nibbles and nips on me it’s the sign he wants to be taken back to the cage to do his duty. A housebroken bird, what next?

Enjoy.

Things found while cleaning

While cleaning my office I came across a large booklet called “Bob Dylan”. That’s amazing. There are very few things around here with that name on them. It is artfully made and contains a couple of interviews, one with Muddy Waters from 1978 and another from the Times Sentinel from 1992.

It must be one of those show programs from the US concerts. Usually those things catch your eye. The Muddy Waters interview makes this an interesting book.

Whilst you might find this hard to believe, I am not the devoted Bob Dylan fan you suspect. I eschew the role of “Fan”. Read on and you can leave your comments as to the appropriate label for me vis a vis Bob. There are whole decades of my life when I wouldn’t drive across town to see him perform. Lately I’ve made it a summer vacation.

I first heard Bob Dylan in high school after reading about and buying his second album “The Freewheelin Bob Dylan.” The folk boom was in full swing in 1963 and Bob Dylan was a fresh voice. Criteria for liking him included: I could play guitar like him, sing like him and the harmonica part seemed easy with a homemade coat-hanger harp holder. His songs were more interesting than the “Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore” material everyone else was singing.

Then there was protest. I was a natural student protester. Young people were protesting whatever was wrong with the universe and I was in the thick of it. We protested autocratic school principals, the war in Vietnam and Civil Rights. Some things haven’t changed have they? Take it to the streets!

Thus began a life of collection all things Bob Dylan. I must have every album, on vinyl and CD, plus Super Audio CD. I have 120 hours of bootlegs, concert recordings made by people in the audience. For example, within 2 weeks of going to the Pittsfield Massachusetts concert last year, someone posted the whole concert on the web. I was playing it on my computer when Edith said “Hey, that’s the concert.” Pretty cool.

I have books on Dylan’s life, books on his recordings, books on his concerts, books on his poetry, and dry but interesting books that dissect his music and literary influences.

I have VHS recordings of concerts, DVD’s legal and bootlegged, video recorded by me and other people in the audience, “Ronaldo and Clara” the unreleased movie, “Hard Rain” the Japanese TV program not released in North America. There is a rate computer multi-media CD that works on Windows and older Mac’s. It contains interview with people from Greenwich Village in the 60’s and from the studio recording of Highway 61. Mac’s are so disappointing. Backward compatibility is never their strong card. It used to play on my Mac from 1993 but wouldn’t work on my Powerbook.

So write in your comments. Give my interest/devotion a name. I’m going to put the program in a safe place.

Hi ho, hi ho its off to EastLink we go

I changed to EastLink this week for my phone, Internet and cable. The move was smooth but not without extra work which I needed like a toothache. It its Election month and I’m lobbying for the disabled night and day. The extra work and problems with EastLink will go on for weeks. The change was made for a small monthly savings and the illusion of better service.

Like most people, I had been with Aliant for decades back when they were called Island Tel. I remember the early struggling years on PEI in the 70’s when Island Tel was synonymous with having one’s phone cut off. Those warm, friendly people in accounts.

As my fortunes improved, it became apparent that Island Tel’s monopoly made them imperious in their customer service. They never listened: they told you what to do.

When deregulation started to hit PEI we contemplated going with – get this – our own equipment, a shocking concept. We did a small amount of business with Island Tel and our 3rd level manager warned us not to think about switching equipment unless we wanted to lose our business with them. This was the old “heavy handed treatment”. Most of the business was going to a nephew of another 3rd level manager but we sucked in our pride and stayed loyal to Island Tel.

I met our old manager, now retired and working as a commissionaire, this spring. He has the same imperious attitude ingrained in him by decades inside “the phone company”. Seeing him try to push me around one more time reminded me of the great scene in “Fun with Dick and Jane”. When they hold up the business office of Pacific Bell, the customers in the line applaud the robbers.

There are a lot of nice people within Island Tel. We’ve met them over the years. There are also some people who still think they have a monopoly. They’re worse in Halifax at the old MT&T Company. They tell you what to think and do.

Aliant became like an old shoe, not perfect but comfortable. As my children moved out they were getting the new service EastLink for phone, cable and Internet. I was told emphatically that I was an old fart for staying with Aliant. EastLink’s service was faster, cheaper, whiter brighter. So what, I said.

Then last month Bell ExpressVu sent me a letter that my fees were going up $5 per month. There was no reason. They just wanted more money. They do that every year. I used to pay $35 a month and now I pay $54 no $59.

This was the straw that broke the camel’s back, the catalyst for change. Doing some Internet shopping I discovered service from EastLink was the same or better and the price lower. Good bye Aliant. Hello EastLink. It’s never too late to change.