Monthly Archives: April 2007

Insta-Depression

If you want to get depressed in a hurry (doesn’t everybody?) you should go out and rent the documentary “The End Of Suburbia”. This happy little film discusses the inevitable downfall of our society due to the decreasing availability of oil.

We all know about this and are aware of the many obvious costs of our oil gluttony: war, global warming, environment depletion. The doc discussese these issues in detail but the key element discussed which is described by the title is how this is will affect our day-to-day lives. With our exploitation of oil we have created the suburbia that is seen today and when the oil runs out will dramatically change the landscape of these environments.

The dwellers of suburbia by definition are required to drive their vehicle many miles for virtually all their needs. When the oil runs out, these suburbs will become the new ‘slums’ or become extinct as people move closer together as before the big boom in the 60’s. Alternatively, the slums will adapt and re-adjust to small communities that have the needs within walking distance. But there will be a cost to this: Many of these ‘McMansions’ as they are called by the documentary will become quasi-apartment buildings, very similar to what is seen in inner-city suburbs today.

Not to bore you or put myself into a deeper state of depression, I’ll skip the finer points and wrap up with some points that are important to me:

– how will the oil depletion affect the value of my home in the future? We live in an older suburb on the outskirts of the city. But it is located within a fairly self-supporting village with other small towns and villages within a 5 kilometer radius. Will the future see an increase or decrease in value? What services need to exist in the community to become even more self-sufficient and thus worthwhile to live in the community? Given that driving may become overly-expensive, how attractive is our community?
– To answer the above, we need to also think about what type of work people will be doing in 10, 20, 30 or 40 years from now? Our local metropolis is fairly diverse (several colleges, universities, factories, etc.) but has become prevalently a technology centre. What value will these jobs have down the road? How expensive will it be to drive into these jobs from outside of the city? What will I be doing?

– These questions will certainly drive the path we take whenever we evaluate our place of living, whether we should think about moving and to where we should be moving. And this evaluation should be ongoing along with a healthy (but not paranoid) awareness of housing trends and other indicators that provide insight into the future (cost of oil, US invasions into other oil rich countries, that sort of thing).

– Wherever we live, it’ll someday need to be a walkable, smart growth community.  Already, subdivisions are being built to accommodate this and they are selling at a monster premium.

The doc was a little over the top and most likely produced by conspiracy theorists, but when reviewed rationally there was good discussion within the film and some value to take away from it.

Trip to the Jays

We headed down to the Jays game last Saturday afternoon to watch them play against the 2006 AL champs the Detroit Tigers.  Always a fun affair, Jays games are a little more interesting to me this year than in past years.  Not because they are a contender this year (at least before their B.J. Ryan went down with an injury) but because I own a few of the players on my fantasy team this year:  Alex Rios, Lyle Overbay and Jason Frasor.  Additionally this game I would see a couple more of my players in action ala Pudge Rodriguez and the Detroit closer Todd Jones.

The game was a high scoring affiar with the Jays losing 10-7.  Both Rios and Overbay hit HRs with Overbays being very important (at the time) in the bottom of the 8th that gave the Jays the lead 8-7, and as equally important, a win opportunity for Frasor after he blew a 7-5 lead in the top of the 8th.  Unfortunately and yet still fortunately Ryan came into the 9th to close and gave up 4 runs to leave it 10-7 into the bottom of the 9th.  The win was erased but instead I was able to pick up the save when Jones came in to close it for Detroit.  So, a very active game to watch and for me personally for the fantasy world in which I live.

There was also very rare excitement in the top of the 8th when Craig Monroe fouled off a Frasor offering directly to Sonia.  Her hands were full with OG but fortunately the ball landed directly beneath her seat unimpeded.  She was able to pluck it out before anyone else could get to it.  The first time she has had a foul ball hit to her at a major league game.  It was quite obvious on impact that the ball was going to come close.  We were in row 40, the top row of the lower level along the first base line (section 115).  Since the batter is a rightie it had a nasty curve on in it but was very predictable as long as it wasn’t deflected which it wasn’t.  There was no real concern that OG would get hit.

We plan on buying a flexpack to see 5 more games this year so one of the games we’ll head down early and we’ll head down to the field to get a signature from Frasor and/or other Jays.  They won’t be able to resist the wiles of OG.

Bermuda undone

We were this close to going to Bermuda this spring to visit my brother one more time. An on the cheap experience that is hard to come by on that island. The trip has been delayed indefinitely for alternative plans. Perhaps I’ll get a chance to go in the fall or next year before it’s too late and Greg has to say farewall to Bermuda.

In honour of this almost vacation I’m posting some pics from our trip from late April 2003 just before the tourist season started and we had the run of the island. The beaches were empty and the towns were quiet.

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