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Overcharged for Hydro in Ontario


in Whinging

electrocuteWhen a neighbour of mine popped over recently to ask if I too were being charged insane monthly hydro amounts, I looked back on my bills for the summer (I live in Portland, Ontario) to learn they’ve been consistently $500 and over for many, many months. How did I miss these ridiculous charges? My lame excuse is: because the monthly hydro bills are directly withdrawn from my bank account. So I logged into said account and looked a little closer to see that for September’s bill of over $900 had just been directly placed in Hydro One’s coffers. “WTF?” doesn’t really cover the reaction that followed.

And here’s the thing – I’ve been having issues with my furnace and have had it completely switched off for over 4 weeks now. Were I running a grow-op with massive amounts of hydroponic equipment nurturing illegal flora in my basement, I’d keep my mouth shut. But since my Hydro bill should have actually been dramatically less for last month – well, it’s driven me to blog about this nonsense in the hopes eventual readers might be able to share their stories or shed some light on just what the heck is going on. And forget the $900 for a second. I’ve easily been paying over 50% more every month than should be normal for a 30 day utility charge for over a frickin’ year now.

Hydro One: I’m not building a spaceship, powering a nuclear reactor or harbouring the Trailer Park Boys’ next big growing scheme on my property. I’m going to call you next week and try to get to the bottom of this. And by “get to the bottom of this” I actually mean “get a massive credit/refund”. I will keep everyone updated as to what transpires. If you’ve found this post via a Google search and are in the same boat – please leave your own story in the comments below. In the meantime, I’ll be panhandling or selling my body in anticipation of next month’s financial haemorrhage.

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Now Hoarding at Gate 6


in Television

Regarding the older episode of "Hoarders" that aired right after the season premiere last night: One decade-old kitty corpse in your house is nasty. Two? Well, that just "reeks" of a larger problem. See what I did there?

dead-cat-hoarders I thought my Grandmother’s basement was bad when, whilst clearing it out in the Summer of 2007, I found the blackened top of my parent’s wedding cake from 1966 (among other similarly odd treasures). But when you’re actually misplacing house pets as they’re crushed underneath mountains of fast food containers and kipple – it’s definitely time to call your son in Seattle, who looks like he may have been a member of Screaming Trees at one point, to come to the rescue. And perhaps a very talented psychiatrist.

The popularity of this cringe-worthy A&E show isn’t hard to understand. As I wrote about 6 years ago when talking about The Real World and other popular reality shows of the time, these televised train wrecks make us feel better about our own lives and the comparatively petty day-to-day dreck we choose to worry about obsessively. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m positive my dentures are right here under this mountain of Taco Bell hot sauce packets.

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Veekend Video: Boston Terriers CAN Swim


in Animalistic

One of the advantages of living on a lake, I mean besides the simplicity of body disposal, is the ability to introduce your household pets to water at an early age. I’m not saying I’ve encouraged 3-yr-olds to try and pitch Golden Retrievers into the drink unattended. I learned that lesson a long time ago. I’m saying when the animals are young you get make sure they grow up to love the water and learn how to swim. Which is what Janet and I did with Rhuby and Shep. So here’s a cute video of them from Canada Day weekend doing just that.

 

The BT breed is not known for their aquatic prowess, so we’re quite pleased that they’ve ended up as hairy little Phelpses. One of these days though, as you can see, Shep is quite liable to paddle away and discover Atlantis. Or sink like a stone and drown. I’ll be keeping an eye on him. Hope you enjoyed.

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