Little of this, lots of that!

Today's lesson... save or you may have to rewrite your whole post over!

---Little this.

Since yesterday it is freezing here. As warm as it was last week, 24-25 and more.. that is 78+F ... we wake up this morning and it is 1, with a windshield factor of -3. In Fahrenheit that is 33 degrees and perhaps as little as 27-28 with the wind factor.

I just wanted to put on woolen socks and not care if I looked like a babushka.. I was freezing!
----

My brother Henry came on the weekend.

He lives in Granby but travels to Montreal to work. Shirley, his partner, is an RCMP officer and since a few months also has been working in Montreal. They have been traveling 2 hours a day, and 3-4 when there is heavy traffic. They traveled in different vehicules since they aren't on the same schedules. Since a few weeks ago, they have rented an apartment in Montreal. They will stay there during the week and go home weekends.

also

He hadn't seen any of the photographs I had done since I started and even though he is my brother it is a huge compliment to me that he not only really liked them but wants several of them to display on his walls. He just happens to have great taste!

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Martha Stewart: I hear she's going to prison very soon. Ok, I know she lied.. so now we can all sleep soundly knowing our streets will be safe now that she is behind bars.
enough said.
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Lots of that!

Remember my one day job for a mine. I was talking to Donald about them and we did a little bit of research about them on the internet. (great invention, by the way! ;) )

Long story.. short!


- Flashback 15 or so years.
They own a small meatpacking plant in the US. They have problems with the union.. they go to court.. they close down.

-- they come up with the idea of buying mines that have gone under but that they believe are still profitable as long as they have "good management".

--
fastforward a bit...
They invest in a mine in Canada.. they put up a little.. government puts up alot.
They again have problems with the union.

There is a strike.. things get very nasty. They helicopter in scabs to work the mines.. things get worse. There is violence. They fire the security people and bring in a private company and lower the amount of security around the mine. One crazy miner goes into the mines and plants a bomb.. 9 people are killed.

The CEO, a woman and the current CEO of the company, is being sued as being just as responsable as the guy that planted the bomb as she allowed the violence to escalate and didn't augment security when it was really needed. She has also angered many people by not wanting to shut the mine down temporarily after the incident.

They go broke.. Well.. she has received 1.75 million a year since she's been there.. but that money is of course safe!

--

They invest in another mine.. I guess it is true that she can sell ice to the eskimoes because she manages to get more money.

This time around they again have problems with the union. When gold prices fall.. they close the mine. They leave it 600 million in debt. They also leave a huge amount of arsenic trioxide to clean up.. it can cost anywhere form 500 million to over a billion dollars to clean.

They have also been fined several times for polluting.

-hijack: One engineer said it was the first place he ever worked where he was obliged
to bring his own pencil from home to work. /hijack

Even though they knew they were in trouble.. they decided to not put the money they should have into the worker's retirement plan.. instead they re-invested it into their own company... so not only have they gone bankrupt but now workers have lost 25% of their retirement money. Don't these guys have one moral bone in their bodies?
There's more.. but too long to add here... so

--Today.

Now they are here.

They have changed their company's name. They use hotmail as their email address! (What?.. that just sounds so professional, don't you think? ) and their CEO has changed her name and is using her maiden name now! I guess she really doesn't want anyone to confuse her with the other "CEO" from that "other company".

Donald has been keeping my up-to-date on how lovely they are. They are not too happy about Hyrdro-Québec. We don't have any competitors here for electricity.. it's Hydro-Québec or it's nothing. Donald says they are quite angry because they think it is way too expensive.. and told him our government was Communist. lol!

anyways.. enough rambling for now.