The New Year is coming

Do you believe in  New Year's resolutions? I don't. I just hope next year is better than this year. 



One must not think that the residents or the city of Kitchener knows when and how to clear snow and ice off sidewalks (and streets). I don't care too much about the streets right now because I don't commute by bus and so far the roads cleared simply by having cars driving on them but the sidewalks matter - to me at least. I don't think to too many other people because most  Canadians keep their ass attached to a (heated) car seat during the winter so what do they care what the sidewalks look like. Argh! Two days ago it first rained, then snowed fairly wet snow. Clever people would have gone out that evening and cleared the slush off their sidewalks before it could freeze. And they would have burnt off a lot of turkey calories at the same time! But nobody did. So yesterday my daughter and I stepped out the door and after my first step I thought, "oh shoot, ice!". By that time my daughter was already lying flat on her back, slipped in the ice (no, we did not have to go to ER). Poor baby, she will not be walking much outside this winter. Salt seems the most common "tool" in the fight of winter here in Kitchener and I don't like it.  The slush sticks far too well to the stroller. Never mind the puddles we leave behind every time we go into a shop or other building - stop starring, I am not going to clean it up. Get out the snow shovels and sand., they are much more effective and better for the environment. But I have not seen any yet.
 
So, I got a little book for Christmas called Life Lines. One of the first ones is, "We own nothing, everybody rents." It's true, especially when it comes to our planet. I received an email today from CPAWS asking  for donations and listing their achievements for this year. I am not even happy about the achievements, even though I probably wrote letters to lots of MPs telling them to help protect this or that space or area. But the tarsands are still there, still operating, still expanding. No change. Kyoto, a disaster - Canada, the big loser, bailed out. F*** this. The Canadian government ought to be jailed for it. Or have above phrase tattooed onto their foreheads. Do they really not get it? No they don't. That's far more than embarrassing.

Oh, and the worst, last year at this time we did make donations to different environmental organisations, this year we are far from it, low tide in the bank account due to a dead job market. Instead, we have the prospect of taking our building management to court over our windows. Hey, there's a new experience looming! When it rained inside our bedrooms the day we moved in we were told this problem is new. Recently I found out leaking windows have been an ongoing issue and the windows were apparrently repaired last spring. With no improvement obviously! Our building management is well aware of the problem, it has been contacted by our superintendents verbally and by us in writing at least twice. Nothing has happened. As soon as the temperatures dropped the outside window panes froze shut they were so wet. (Are they going to burst when too much ice accumulates?) The inside panes are daily covered with water and mould grows everywhere on the frame and surrounding area unless I clean it off every week. We think the windows do not comply with the local building standards. Neighbours have unsuccessfully tried to change the situation, with the management getting away with their poor maintenance. How can that be, I wonder?

I read an article recently from an engineer who wrote a letter to The Record suggesting Canada should produce pre-fabricated houses, just like they put up here everywhere but smaller, and ship them overseas to help with the housing crisis in poor countries. After all, Canada has plenty of forest to turn into lumber and it would help the economy. My quick thoughts on that: Safe the forest, and safe the rest of the world from these poor constructions called houses. Unless of course they come without windows. Maybe new houses like in all those ugly suburbs are better than the oldish apartment buildings we live in but then again I don't want to live in suburbia. That's for car-addicted people, not people like me who dream of giving their bike an upgrade and have fenders and other handy things installed. That is once I earn money of course. 

Over Christmas we rented a small car and unlike in Edmonton we got one too. Wow! It was a Toyota Yaris and with the three of us, car seat, stroller, Christmas gifts etc. it was well loaded too. It worked well and still it was very fuel-efficient. We need more of those, the cars I mean, and rental agencies that rent them out. 

home sweet home - flooring

I got this book from the library: Restore, Recycle, Repurpose – Create a beautiful home, It is a Country Living Book by Randy Florke with Nancy J. Becker, published by Hearst Books. Even though we don't have a country house or any house at all it has lots of information on decorating, sourcing your materials, furniture,and lots of other household items. It is trying to give sustainable options for every room of your home. Here is what Randy says about several flooring materials:    

-         Bamboo: considered environmentally friendly, grows quickly, needs little fertilizer, not as durable as hard woods, but typically from far-flung places so the shipping has a big foot print

-         Stone: durable, water resistant, renewable but takes millions of years to degrade and the excavation is damaging to the environment – slate and sandstone require a less intrusive form of mining than marble or granite that lie deep within the earth

-         Cork: more renewable resource than many woods because the trees are not destroyed when the cork is harvested. Insulating, microbial, with sound-proofing qualities

-         Reclaimed Wood: from trees that have fallen naturally due to storm or age and wood savaged from razed structures

-         Renewable Wood: woods like bamboo, cork and eucalyptus but consider the foot print of shipping, local maple or oak might be the better option

-         Concrete: manufacturing process creates large quantities of carbon dioxide, one source suggests that 7% of global CO2 emissions come from concrete. Hydrochloric acid is typically used as the base for concrete stain, but there are eco-friendly solutions available, like low-VOC acid-free soy-based stains. Check out Eco-Safety www.ecoprocote.com

-         Linoleum: is a natural product made from linseed oil solids. Durable, install with low-VOC adhesives, water-based adhesives are better than solvent-based

-         Marmoleum: looks like linoleum but it’s made of linseed oils, rosins, wood flour

This can't be energy-efficient

We live in an older apartment building. At the start of the winter last week, when the first snow fell, our management company sent us a letter advising us not to open the windows when temperatures are below zero degree Celsius. I wished I could! The windows consist of two single panes each in a metal frame. The outside pane froze the day the temperatures dropped. With current highs of - 20 C we have ice on the inside of the inside pane! That's how cold the windows are despite the fact that the thermostat is constantly on + 20 C. In the living room we have only one single pane window but the balcony outside seems to protect it enough from the cold that it does not freeze. The condensation on the windows reminds me of Dunedin, New Zealand, only that Edmonton has an arid climate and Dunedin a humid climate and temperatures don't usually drop below zero. 

Either way these windows can not be energy-efficient. What we experience does not seem uncommon here with heating costs in winter being the major utility expense for lots of people. Why these windows were put in in the first place is a question I can't answer. Maybe it was the standard of the day but technology has improved. Why don't the buildings get upgraded then? Surely, instead of paying hundreds of dollars every month in heating cost it must be better to put in proper windows, better for the wallet and the environment. Lack of funding can't be it then. Human inertia? Wrong priorities? Meanwhile I open the not quite yet frozen balcony door every day for 10 minutes to allow some of the stuffy air  to be replaced with fresher air. I simply can't breathe the same air over and over again for 5 months.