Response to Cape Breton Post article on ATVs

Response to front page article: Blueberry Hill/ATV issue.

I was saddened reading the article on the front page of Saturaday's issue (dated August 23, 2008). I have to say that being a long time ATV enthusiast, engaged to a long time ATV enthusiast (over 15 years), I was offended by the broad spectrum brush of which we were all painted. I was further offended when reading the multitude of hate filled responses to the article online. I can't sit back and bite my tongue on the issue.

First of all, Mr. Serroul is mistaken in saying that the Blueberry Hill area is not an ATV trail. It is, in fact, a crossover trail linking the two halves of the main marked trail which is split by Victoria Road. Approximately eight years ago (the time he says the issue began), the RCMP at the time asked that ATV/MX riders use Blueberry Hill instead of travelling Victoria Road. It was a safer route for ATV riders, regular traffic and pedestrians. The police are also known to use this trail when they are on their ATVs for their own purposes.

A second note, Mr. Serroul does not make it easy on himself when it comes to ATV riders. He has been known to come out of his home or stop his car to yell obcenities. I know this because I have witnessed it first hand. Mr. Serroul has also been known to swerve his car toward ATV riders, running them off of the dirt road and into the uncleared bush. I know this also because my fiance and I, plus a number of our friends who live and ride in the Whitney Pier area, have been victim to it. I will admit that there were no phone calls to police because we all passed it off as just an angry man who was set in his ways. We have tried to keep our riding in the area to within respectable hours, considering that maybe the noise of the bikes was what was bothering him. Now I can see that we all should be covering ourselves and filing the appropriate reports.

As for a death on Blueberry Hill, that can happen anywhere ATVs are able to go. The gentleman who died in that accident was a friend of my fiance's, well loved and well respected. What happened was an unfortunate accident that could have happened to anyone. I think that he deserves a little more respect than to be belittled in an attack article in a local newspaper.

As for a car on Blueberry Hill -- it's called Blueberry Hill for a reason and there is more than one way to access it by road. If you see people up there in cars at this time of year, they're most likely picking berries. I have been guilty of that offence myself, picking berries with my kids. Harmless.

Mr. Serroul has tried many avenues before regarding this issue and has been shot down at most of them. Approximately three years ago he had contacted his local MLA about the issue. There was nothing done because the area is marked as a crossover to avoid higher traffic main streets and highways. Just as ATVs are allowed to cross the Sydney-Glace Bay Highway by CBU, they are allowed to cross Blueberry Hill. Mr. Serroul was sent a letter stating this from the MLAs office. How do I know? I was doing a school work term there at the time.

As for the comments online: Not everyone who owns a bike is in receipt of Social Assistance Benefits, nor are they drug dealers. All the people that I know who ride work full-time jobs, have families, pay taxes and buy their vehicles with the credit they had built. If they don't have enought credit, they save their money. I will admit it's not a cheap sport/hobby but it can be fulfilling, keeps you moving and keeps you outdoors. ATV riding is not is not something that is illegal nor is it dangerous when the right precautions are taken. It can be just as dangerous to drive a car or street bike on the roads -- accidents happen whether we like it or not, some are avoidable but most are not.

As for walking trails. I hate to say it but there are no marked walking trails in this area. There are marked hiking trails toward Baddeck, Ingonish, Washabuck, etc but none in the CBRM. If someone is walking in the woods, they are most likely walking an ATV offroad trail. Also, people who are large plots of land or farms also have ATV trails for their personal use so it is possible that whoever was walking in the woods was actually trespassing on someone's property.

People on ATVs have to take responsibility for themselves. Yes, there are some who blatantly disrespect law and safety but the majority are normal, law-abiding people who merely enjoy a different type of fun. I believe this is a case of one bad apple spoiling the whole bunch. If Mr. Serroul and others are so concerned, why don't they write the license plates down off of the bikes? By law, every bike has to be licensed, registered and insured, which most are so why aren't they writing the information down.
I could speak a lot more on the issue but I think I've made my point.

POOPSY-DAISY

I'm bored and straightening my hair again. My dog is upstairs trying to lick my kids but they're trying to sleep so it's not a good combination. Oh...here she comes, down the stairs being clumsy and stupid. Big Stupid Puppy. I love her because of that though. She wouldn't be my Kita if she was any different. Well, she's going to be a little different if she doesn't leave the cat alone. Sasha the 3-lb ninja is going to do some serious damage to the poor puppy if she doesn't leave her alone to sit in the window.

I'm getting tired of trying to get my hair done. It's the neverending head of hair. Seriously, it's too damn thick! I have to say I miss the length of it and completely regret getting it cut. It was a bad decision...a very, very bad decision and I want my hair back....not hair ON my back, just have my hair back, to the length it was before...ugh...you know what I mean.

Anyway, I'm off to see if I can find some Poopsy-Daisy. Miami saw it on the Home Shopping Channel and it's f'n fantastic. This stuff is the best invention EVER!! If it's not the best invention, the name is certainly going down in the history of products as having one of the most original and humourous of all product names. I've never tried it but I certainly want to buy it, if for nothing more than mere entertainment value.

C'mon -- POOPSY-DAISY -- yes, I did make that brown on purpose.

Here's the sales pitch or, at the very least, the way I would personally pitch the product:

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have for you today one product that you should not be without. Leave it in your bathroom, carry it in your purse or bag, take it wherever you go that may have a washroom. This amazing little product will take the smell out of a bull after a chili tasting contest, a man after a weekend of nothing but beer and barbeque and preggo poops which, as we all know, are the worst of all!!

All you have to do to use this amazing, one of a kind, piece of Heaven product is simply drop some into the toilet before the dreaded Number Two and as soon as that turd hits the water -- BAM -- stench is now neutralized!! You can now poop in peace no matter where you are!! No more worries about co-workers discussing your potty aroma behind your back, your children having who has stinkier parents contests or your spouse complaining about not being able to follow you to the crapper!! Remember, it's simple, squirt the bottle before you squirt your bum and you will stink no more....

Finally we can all be proud and loud and say, "MY SHIT DON'T STINK!!"

Bic pens lead to going home...

I'm tired and doing my "typing with my eyes closed" exercise again. I'm hoping the kettle will boil and my tea will make itself, or Kita the Amazing Tea Brewing Dog will do it for me....wishful thinking. Having the old eyes closed is interesting, feels more like I'm talking to myself than writing out a another blog post. Of course, I do have to admit that I talk to myself quite a bit and I certainly make no apologies for it considering I'm alone most of the time, who else am i going to talk to??? Maybe that's why I have animals -- then it doesn't feel like a form of mental illnes but rather conversations with my pets.

This blog is taking me forever to write. Between these two paragraphs I had two cups of tea, watched some TV but don't know what I watched because I was completely spaced out thinking about work tomorrow, making a lunch, having to get up so early in the morning, do I really want to go to bed with wet hair....and on and on ad naseum. Lily going into grade one is weighing a lot on my mind. I just can't get over how big she's getting, how old she's getting. She's an amazing little girl, so smart. I can't think about it or I'll have a Mom-Moment and start snivelling.

I was asked a stupid question: Is that a tattoo? First, if you've never seen what I look like, I have a very large tattoo on my left arm, a 3/4 sleeve. It's not coloured yet as it's not done but you can tell what it is. I walked into a Tim Horton's bathroom and the girl washing her hands asked me that. I just made a face and said yes but a friend of mine had a better idea. He said I should have told her it was a birthmark, that I had a rare disease that caused my body to excrete ink in fancy patterns. He told me to tell her that the Bic company came here every six months to drain my arm to make pens.

I'm having a shitty weekend. It's one of those times that I want to go home. I don't mean where I live now but where I grew up. The problem is that I can't. My parents are gone, the house is sold, there is no going home. It makes me sad. I miss them, I miss Norwood Street. In an odd way I miss my old, crackhead town. I can't wait to go back there even if I can't be exactly where I grew up. At the very least, I can go back to where I spent a good chunk of my formative years. Then I would be close to my sisters, neices and nephew, close to my friends -- the family I have left. I wouldn't be spending all of my evenings completely alone once the kids are in bed. I could have people over without either me or them having to drive twenty minutes to a full half hour to see each other. I like where I live but sometimes you have to go where your heart is and that's as close to home as you can get. I think I'm just sick of being lonely.

Being lonely sucks...

Excuse me?? Your tea isn't gold you know.

What an absolutely insane weekend. Between rotten green peppers, getting sick, broken cigars, broken hearts, weird people and horrible customer service experiences I'm surprised I haven't gone completely insane.

A local grocery store had a whole set of rotten green peppers. Every single green pepper in their little display basket was growing some sort of grey fuzz around the stem and a horrible bruise that was rotten right through. The worst part was that each green pepper was arranged so the good side was facing up as if they were purposly hiding the fact that they were all bad!!

After walking out of that store I decided to go somewhere else. While I was running around in Sobey's I stopped to grab the green peppers for my stir fry after I found some ground beef, a lady looks at me and says,

"You're too young to look so angry."

Then she walked away. I had no idea what to say. I just stood there completely shocked at what this woman just said to me. With green peppers and meat in hand (that sounded dirty) I just watched her walk away, totally bewildered. I had absolutly no comment for her and all I could think of was that my kids were in the car getting cranky, I just found out one of my friend's had his heart shattered/smashed/demolished (not even getting into that), the store I just came from was disgusting and I was starting to get sick. Of course I looked angry, I WAS angry. I was angry at the gross store, angry at the price of ground beef, angry that I was getting sick and had a raging headache, angry that my kids were cranky and acting up, angry that my friend was hurting and now angry at this crazy lady with her strange comments. I scowled, raised an eyebrow and kept squishing green peppers, it was all I could do. I think Big Cranky is right in that every now and then we just have to puck someone in the head. On that note.....

Tim Horton's sucks. Not all of them, just the one in town by the old betting place. I sat in a drive-though for 15 minutes and no one moved. We turned the car around and being a good passenger, I went in to get our order. Besides, I had to pee. The bathroom was a mess, there was toilet paper and newspapers all over the floor plus someone PISSED all over the stall. It was just lovely. So, after using the men's bathroom which, for some unknown reason, was exponentially cleaner than the woman's, I went to order. I stood at the counter while one person slowly did the drive-through, one person watched her, another person was making sandwiches and chatting with some guy. I should've known something was up because the two men who were in line before me left as I got there with nothing but a lot of swearing. I stood there. I was obviously waiting to order since there was a big, green twenty dollar bill in my hand but the one just standing there walked away grumbling that her "shit was finished and going on break". The other ones just kept doing what they were doing. After ten minutes of standing there and excusing myself to break their conversation, I flung up my hands, said "fuck this!" as politely as possible and left. I got my tea somewhere else, somewhere that has much better service and much better tea -- ROBIN'S.

I won my eBay auction for a brand new copy of the "The Story of O'' and it's being shipped this week. I'm really excited to read it since everyone I've been talking to is saying it's a good book. Right now, I need a really good book. Movies aren't doing it for me anymore and I'm sorry, but Dan Brown is not that great of an author. His stories are good, his plots are good but the books read more like movie scripts than novels. Sorry all you Dan Brown fans but that's just how I feel.

Anyhooooo.....I think I'm going to go to bed. I have work in the morning and I still need to jump in the shower and wash the stink off myself.

Have a good night!!

PS: Does anyone have any good tips on mending a broken heart??

Empty Desk Syndrome is a Sad, Sad Thing

I didn't take Kita into the vet today, I slept in. I stopped there to see if I could get an estimate on how much this puppy is going to cost me but they couldn't nail down a figure since they're not sure what exactly they're going to have to do. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll be able to do a payment plan and hopefully add the cost of her getting spayed and the x-rays on her hips. My dog is bow-legged. I think I got a dud in the puppy department. Her hips and legs are a mess, she can't poop right....

Work today was interesting, got a lot done. At least I think we got a lot done, it's hard to tell. There is so much going on in that place at any given moment that it's hard to tell whether or not you're making any dent in the amount of work there is to do. I just put my head down and trudge on through...editing, proofreading, copying, copying, copying, hole punching, running, having brain farts, stopping for to warm my tea for the 100th time. It sounds like it might be bad but I love it. The days fly by and there is a sense of accomplishment when that giant binder goes out the door.

There is such a thing as Empty Desk Syndrome. "Bye Bye little manual...it's been fun!!"

You know, I hate to end this blog so early but I seriously have nothing to write about. I work and come home and that's it. The only new thing I did lately was take the dog to the vet and I had lunch with an old friend yesterday. It was nice to see him again and see that he's doing well.

I can smell weed blowing in my window. Why kids feel the need to hide in my driveway to get high is beyond me. When you consider my driveway is directly perpendicular to the road, it's the highest house on the hill and everyone can see my place from pretty much anywhere on the street -- it's a pretty stupid spot to try to sneak a puff. OMG, that's getting a little overpowering, smells like I've been smoking it in here. I'm glad the kids are in bed since I'm sure I could get a residual high.

Has no one taught these kids any respect??