Al and Peggy Cunningham Voted Best Real Estate People- Brampton

Hello Active Rain

Just over a week ago we posted a blog on "Getting Hosed Again", if you didn't get a chance to look it over take a second and read it and the comments others offered.

A couple of days later we offered a solutions that many of you thought for one reason or another wouldn't work. Mainly the weather. Check it out "Found The Solutions".

What did you think of the solutions? Like some others, did you think it wouldn't work for you?

Well, sometimes we just need a little motivation to get our creative juices flowing. FEAR is a good motivator (false evidence appearing real).

Is this false evidence or can it or will it really happen...

Happy Pedaling,

CONGRATULATIONS

This year our men in black, the Ontario Provincial Police are celebrating 100 years of patrolling Ontario and keeping us the residents safe. To all 8,900 employees we salute you and thank you for a century of hard work.

The general headquarters of the Ontario Provincial Police, known to us as the OPP, is located in Orillia Ontario Canada and has been since 1995. Here you also find an OPP Museum with all kinds of fascinating exhibits.

October 13, 1909 was the first day that the OPP was considered an active organization with 45 officers and 2 inspectors.

It wasn't until 1910 that the first uniforms were issued. 1922 saw the OPP using motorcycles to patrol the highways but by 1941 new black Chevy coupes replaced them, with radar technology added in 1954 and then breathalyzer systems in 1956.

Ontarians quickly became familiar with the black and white cars, but in keeping with the times in 1989 they were replaced with an all new white cruiser.

However, with a new chief onboard in 2007, the old familiar black and white cruiser was back on the highways replacing the white cruisers as the fleet was re-newed.

Eyes in the skies in the form of a Cessna 206 equipped with a state-of-the-art glass cockpit and camera system; hash marks on the pavement and cruisers on the shoulder were added as a new resource to its traffic management in 2008!

It took until 1974 before women were recruited to the force as police officers.

After a century of policing, the Ontario Provincial Police is one of North America's largest deployed police services with now more than 5,900 uniformed officers, 2,600 civilian employees plus 850 auxiliary members, serving a province with more than 12 million people, one million square kilometers of land, over 110,000 square kilometers of waterways and more than 130,000 kilometers of provincial highways.

You better tell no lies here because the OPP is considered a world leader in the field of forensic polygraphy.

To OUR men in black of the Ontario Provincial Police, who entertain us at community events with their Golden Helmet Precision Motorcycle Team, distinctive plaid tartan and Ontario Provincial Police Pipes & Drum band, as well as protect us, we offer you congratulations on your milestone, our true respect for your dedication and our heartfelt thanks.

It's time to let our clocks and ourselves "fall" back one hour. This year adjusting our clocks falls,on a great night to catch an extra hour of sleep. After all the excitement of Hallowe'en, ghosts and goblins, we get to enjoy an extra hour of slumber.

Back in 1918, Benjamin Franklin was the first to propose the voluntary use of Daylight Saving Time in various parts of the United States. President Lyndon B. Johnson enacted the Uniform Time Act of 1966, to set standard beginning and ending dates for Daylight Saving Time across the United States.

Arizona and Hawaii don't adjust their clocks backwards or forwards twice a year.

We follow the same regulations here in Canada as well, springing our clocks ahead in March and letting them fall behind in November.

Wherever you live, this is also a great time to check your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors as well!

Enjoying our extra zzzz's til March,

Do You Know What This Is?

If you answered a "hydro meter", you were partly right.

What the picture is, is actually a brand new SMART METER, that was installed at our house yesterday. Not just any old hydro meter, let us tell you.

The old meters could only measure the amount of electricity being used over an entire billing period. The new Smart Meter will record the total electricity consumption hour by hour. And it is capable of sending that information wirelessly to the utility company. This new meter makes time-of-use pricing possible.

They say by the end of 2010 that every home and small business in Ontario will be equipped with one of these meters. This meter will allow you to manage your power consumption. The goal is to get us to adjust our habits and use the power in off hours putting less demand on the system.

They have developed daily and seasonal time-of-use periods. The cost of using the power will depend when you use it. There are three different times of use: on peak, mid peak and off peak. By using power in the off-peak times you would be able to take full advantage of the best prices and also help the system by using the power when demand is at it's lowest. In general, weekends, holidays and the hours of 10 pm to 7 am on weekdays will be rated as off-peak times.

By setting your timers on your dishwasher, washing machine and dryer you will be helping yourself financially and at the time putting less strain on the power systems.

We all have to do our part to help Mother Earth, there are many ways of reducing our waste to put less strain on the enviroment. This Smart Meter will help all of us do our part.

To learn more ways of helping the enviroment, check out fellow rainer Chris Smith's recent blog.

Happy Saturday Active Rain,

Hope your weather is good for your kids as they go out and fill their bags with candy tonight.  Our weather is overcast and trying really hard to rain.  Hope it stays away.

Anyway, we came across this little video showing how to get the most candy.  Give it a watch or let your kids have a watch.