With 30 feet of heat tape (an outdoor electrical wire made to keep water pipes from freezing), you can make a defroster for your satellite dish. Combined with a smart plug, to turn on and off, no more will you need to go out to the back of the house or climb a ladder to clear the snow from your satellite dish. With the heat tape, it took about 30 min to clear off the snow in the top photo. The outdoor temperature at the time was -15 degrees Celceus.
The orange wire is the heat tape held in place with cable ties. It was necessary to drill a couple of extra small holes in the folded back metal around the edge of the dish.
Not shown is a 1/2 inch thick waterproof, soft, rubbery type matt I bought at the dollar store and cut to the shape of the back of the dish. This is held in place and covered by a piece of hard plastic cut to the same shape. Holes are drilled in the plastic at the location of the holes on the dish. Cable ties are used in the same holes as the heat tape to hold the plastic in place, sandwiching the rubber matt and providing insulation.
Dave Lister
listerlogic.com
Note: This is an original idea by me but there may be similar products or patents already. I am not an expert, if you attempt to build always consult with an expert and check with all local codes and laws. Build at your own risk.
Nowhere in Canada is a company allowed to advertise a product at a certain price without being made to sell it for that price. That is, except when it comes to real estate. The recent practice of creating bidding wars by advertising a house for a price far below what the vendor is willing to sell, crosses the ethical line.
In bidding wars, potential buyers are not provided with details of other offers, forcing them into making high-pressure, time-limited decisions that can cause them to overpay by tens of thousands of dollars. It is purposely designed to place buyers in a vulnerable state in order to take advantage of them. Also, overpaying falsely drives up the cost of housing, especially when supply is low.
Bidding wars are the latest of what, up until now, was a gray area in the ways real estate agents can manipulate buyers and sellers. Most methods are subtle, and you may not even be aware of them. Think about it, when looking to buy a house, the agent showing the property has nothing to do with whether or not you like it and how much you are willing to pay. Sure, they can provide details of the neighborhood, and point out the house’s features, but most of this is obvious and shown on the MLS listing. Beware of agents claiming to be better at sales than all the rest, they are the ones skilled at various psychological techniques that can be used against you.
Open houses, for example, mostly benefit the agent. After all, if your house is listed on the MLS, any serious buyers know it’s for sale and can schedule a private viewing at their convenience. Nosy neighbors and people not serious about buying tend to account for most of the traffic. It is those who are not serious that agents are looking for. These are their possible future clients. They can even be used as ponds for the house they are selling. Being falsely led to believe that the seller could accept a ridiculously low offer can get a non-serious buyer engaged. Who could pass up the “deal of a lifetime”? Even though the offer doesn’t go anywhere, it softens up the seller on other future offers below asking price. The experience also changes the non-serious buyer’s mindset, making it easier for the agent to get them to look at other “deal of a lifetime properties”.
Offering free appraisals for people not serious about moving is another tactic. Some agents will overestimate the value of their current house to convince them to sell. Once listed, they come up with complex market situations as to why their house is not selling and how they need to drop the price.
The negotiation part of the sale, when the offer is going back and forth, is another stressful time to watch out for. A counter offer has a much better chance of being accepted if it is presented just before it expires. Your own agent could purposely hold off on presenting a counter offer to you for this reason.
These are only the methods I have personally noticed when buying and selling, no doubt there are many more. For most of us, buying or selling real estate is the biggest financial transaction of our life. Decisions made should be well thought out, and not while in a temporary, artificially created mental state. When buying or selling, beware of the friendly agent that brags they can do a better job than anyone else. Manipulating you is how they do it.
In Ontario, those who have a family doctor are considered to be fortunate, but not all of them get the benefits they should. On Feb 28th, I called to make an appointment with a family doctor and was told the next available appointment was May 21st (12 weeks away). For years now, even with a family doctor, excessively long waits for appointments have resulted in receiving most health care through walk-in clinics and hospital emergency departments. Not to say all family doctors are the same, for some, it only takes a day or two to get an appointment.
In a recent provincial election, providing a family doctor for everyone was a big part of a couple of the candidates’ platforms. It was implied that the percentage of people with family doctors was a gauge to measure how well our healthcare system works. However, being provided with a family doctor that you can’t see within a reasonable amount of time does little for the patient and nothing to relieve the hospital emergency room backlogs.
Shortages of family doctors does not mean our entire health care system is bad. Although it still needs a lot of work, aside from long waits, I would rate some of the care received lately at walk-in clinics and hospital emergency departments up to 5 out of 5.
We have a health care system that is in transition. Changes in the way doctors are paid, hospital procedures, and the hiring of more people make the system hard to rate. Don’t be fooled by those who claim the number of people with a family doctor is a way of measuring it.
It won’t happen while Donald Trump is in power, or by threats, but the idea of Canada and the US eventually joining together to become one self-contained mega country makes sense. Those who can’t think past their pride can imagine it as the US joining Canada as 50 new provinces. In actuality, it would be an entirely new country with a hybrid universal constitution and a blueprint for a free healthcare system that works. So obviously it won’t happen overnight.
Nowhere in the world do two such large countries border together that are so similar. If a mutually agreed upon merger of any two Countries ever happens, it will be here. Both Countries still have some evolving to do, but as that happens I believe we will become even more alike.
Forming a self-contained mega-country that is easily defendable would also preserve our freedom. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s secretive agendas, we should never assume we will never be challenged. Not to say we shouldn’t have trade with other countries, just not be dependent on it.
In a world that has seen nothing but Countries splitting apart or taken over, the voluntary merger of Canada and the US would demonstrate cooperation never seen before. They could be an example of what other democratic Countries strive to be like and join once they achieve it.
What better legacy for a president, prime minister, and the people of 2 countries to leave behind than the merging of two nations, laying the cornerstone for world peace.
Another dog owner has had their beloved pet snatched away, helpless to do anything but imagine it crying out for their help as it is torn apart by Coyote. A haunting memory that will stay with them for years. There have already been averted attacks on small children but it’s only a matter of time until a mother is needlessly made to endure what far too many dog owners have gone through.
Toronto’s idea that dangerous wild animals belong and can co-exist in the most densely populated urban areas of Canada is as baffling as their idea that converting lanes of traffic to bike lanes reduces gridlock. These coyotes are quickly becoming less afraid of people and typical hazing techniques are no longer effective. The only solution is also the most obvious, Get rid of the coyotes! one way or the other.
