April 10 2020 - How Much Stuff in a House?

I have a sense that in the future there will be less stuff around to keep virus-free. For now, it is staying at home as the location donation organization is not accepting things because of COVID-19 (open for food donations). How much stuff is there to donate?  I found 21 surprising statistics about how much stuff we actually own HERE - this is a website on becoming minimalist. How many items does a person own?  There are 300,000 items in the average American home, according to the LA Times.  British research found that the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 daily, according to the Telegraph. The average American woman owns 30 outfits - one for every day of the month.  In 1930, that figure was nine.  Source:  Forbes. What is the impact of owning this many things? Over the course of our lifetime, we will spend a total of 3,680 hours or 153 days searching for misplaced items.The research found we lose up to nine items every day—or 198,743 in a lifetime. Phones, keys, sunglasses, and paperwork top the list (The Daily Mail).  The Pansy Orchid is our picture of the day.

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Feb 23 2020 - Families in Grimsby

I volunteered for the Coldest Night Walk/Run yesterday.  When I worked at Chartwell from 2002 - 2008, Jeff Smith, the president, was on the board of Homes First, a charity in support of housing in Toronto. They came up with the idea of the first Coldest Night fund-raiser  - it  raised money through the fee to attend an evening aimed at the corporate crowd - fancy appetizers along with auction items.  Having a fund raiser in the middle of winter - a dead time for charities - turned out to be a huge success.  And so it continued and is all across Canada now. What I saw yesterday was lots of families - little children - in strollers and wagons - participating in the walk.  What a change in the focus of the fund raising.  Families, friends, residents, supporting affordable living in their own community - very inclusive and community centred. Being at the Welcome Station, I got to greet everyone.  I wondered about what these families do on regular weekends.   Where do they congregate?  I haven't figured it out. So how much is raised from this one day event?  Almost $50,000 for West Niagara. Turkstra Lumber in Smithville  with 9 members walking  placed first in the fund raisers - with $8,680.  That's a big number to me.   Their corporate number is even larger - $30,000.  That number placed them second in the corporate challenge. At the end of a cold walk is the reward of a chili taste-off. Think CHILLY taste-off - the perfect food to follow a cold weather walk.  The chili makers included Smoke and Moonshine, Station 1, JJ's On the Docks, Maplecrest Retirement Home, Stoney Creek, and more.  We'll have to wait to find out the winner. My vote was with Smoke and Moonshine.  The smoky BBQ flavours are unmistakable and delicious, although it might be a bit spicy for most. It's the Orchid Show at Royal Botanical Gardens next weekend.  Here's a beauty from a previous show - a "Pansy Orchid".  Looking forward to an exceptional display of exotic blooms again this year.

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May 22 - Please the Fans Finale

The Elevator mystery is unsolved after almost 300 episodes, but the ding of its arrival is a completion for the Big Bang Theory. Once that door opened, the series was allowed to complete.  I had not realized that the most enduring question is Penny's surname.  It remains a mystery.  The show seemed to have a traditional set of resolutions, the highlight being Sheldon finding grace.   I saw part of an episode of the Lucy Show a few weeks ago. The finale of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour mirrored their real-life circumstances - Wikipedia says it wasn't intentional. In the show Lucy and Ricky were about to divorce and end the show. Edie Adams was the guest star and chose the song to sing without knowing the plot - "That's All".  It is considered prophetic. While the show's finale divorce didn't happen, their real-life divorce was final and they only reconciled many years later. Viewership of finales is very important. The BBT viewership 'grew' to 23.44 million viewers, up from the 18 million who watched it live.  This makes it the most watched non-sports series program of 2018-19.  But it falls far short of the most watched television series finales of all time: M*A*S*H // 1983. 105.9 million viewers Cheers // 1993. 80.4 million The Fugitive // 1967. 78 million Seinfeld // 1998. 76.3 million Friends // 2004. 52.5 Magnum, P.I. // 1988. 50.7 The Cosby Show // 1992. 44.4 All in the Family // 1979. 40.2 Family ties // 1989. 36.3  Home Improvement //1999. 35.5 million Can you imagine these numbers?  The M*A*S*H episode drew 77% of those watching televisions at the time. Only the 2010's Super Bowl XLIV had 106 million viewers. The Cheers episode was watched by between 80.4 million and 93.5 million, with the rise of cable television. We look at a Miltonia orchid today.  Also known as the Pansy Orchid.