I have always loved biking, since I was a kid and it meant freedom, to explore my neighbourhood, to find new hiding places, to try and see if I could make that jump off the curb, usually with a resulting skinned knee. As I got older I graduated to faster and more expensive bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes.

Antifreeze is deadly to pets, thousands of animals have died from ingesting the liquid which is used in all engines.  The problem lies in the fact that antifreeze contains ethylene glycol which is extremely toxic to both people and animals.  Adding to the problem is the fact that to an animal antifreeze smells sweet and enticing, and they also like the taste.  Even the smallest amount of antifreeze is deadly, and 88% of animal encounters with the substance will be fatal.

But it doesn't have to be the case.

I never knew that wrapping paper isn't recycleable. I assumed you put it in with the rest of your mixed paper and away it goes.

Tessa at Condofire.com found this out the other day and she found some suggestions on alternatives to using traditional wrapping paper. Among these the most obvious is to use other types of paper, like newspaper, or use reusable fabrics instead of paper. I think these ideas are great, does anyone else have any others?

Parks crews are harvesting a great deal of wood from Stanley Park, from the trees that have been blown down in the last wind storm. They are going to be selling this wood to fund the replacement of the trees. Vancouver blogger Darren Barefoot has a better idea though; he suggests selling it to local artisans.

Here’s my alternative idea: give the wood (or some of it, at least) to local artists and artisans. They make sculpture, furniture, knick knacks and so forth, sell their wares and share the profits with the park. There are two attractive points for the buyer: they know they’re supporting the rehabilitation of the park, and there’d be a certain cachet in owning something made out of Stanley Park wood. There’s only a limited amount of it, after all. I probably wouldn’t just donate to this cause, but I’d probably buy a cool picture frame on its behalf.

Stanley Park was ravaged in the wind storm that we experienced last week; the park lost more than 1000 trees, some of them hundreds of years old.

Local radio station CKNW has launched a campaign to rebuild Stanley Park. Donations of $50 or more are tax deducible. You can replace an entire tree for $2000.

More Information

I found this posting on Craigslist this evening, I thought it was touching:

" I am a single mom of a little girl, I am on disability income assistance.
This is difficult, asking for help at this time of year. I just don't have enough money to make a Christmas for my daughter. We don't have any family. I would be so grateful of anything anyone can offer as help towards making Christmas special for my baby, I want her Christmas to be happy. I don't want any gifts or anything for myself. Please help. Merry Christmas "

A commuter who states on his blog that he is "willing to bike/public transit from Toronto to Oshawa (130km round trip- 45km by bike and 85 by Go Train) to get to work, in order to save afew polar bears". Has prepared a petition which he will present to the House of Commons to promote cycling as a solution to Canada's climate-change problems.

More information is on my blog HERE.

My co-author at IndieScribe has written a post about how Gordon Campbell is trying to push privatized water treatment facilities onto British Columbians, and how is going to have a hard time of it because we don't support it.  LINK.

Is it not true that our tax dollars pay for clean water?  And if the city, district, province or whoever cannot provide this sufficiently then it is their failing?  I know that they cannot control mother nature, but come on - shouldn't they have anticipated something like this could have happened?  I mean, boohoo we got a lot of rain - we live in a rain forest - it isn't much of a stretch to think that it is a possibility that we would get this much rain, therefore fowling our water?

The boil water advisory has been lifted for all areas of the lower mainland with the exception of Vancouver, North Shore and Burnaby. Too bad that is most of the lower mainland.

FROM THE GVRD:

Medical Health Authorities have advised that “at the recommendation of the Medical Health Officers, the boil water advisory is lifted for all areas except Vancouver, North Shore and Burnaby. Turbidity levels for all other areas is at acceptable levels, because they are being served by the Coquitlam water source. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

It's day two of the boil water advisory, and I almost had a panic attack this morning when the radio which was waking me up announced that Starbucks and Tim Hortons would not be open because they have no water. OH MY GOD, NO COFFEE!

What would I do? Good thing my wife is a genius; she had boiled some water the night before and was using that to make me my morning coffee. The world would be alright after all!