Bad Driving

Abbotsford is about the most tense place to drive that I have ever experienced. Now, admittedly I'm not a world traveller as much as some, but I really know that I'm getting close to home after a long road trip when I suddenly notice two key things: I'm being tailgated and I'm only driving about 10km/h over the speed limit. Now the average speed in Abbotsford is about 20-30km/h over the limit - 40km/h on the Trans-Canada.

I do have issues with road rage sometimes...I might respond to the yelling driver or the completely boneheaded decision the other one made. Or was the other one the bonehead?

I've tried to cope when I drive to my Monday night class by playing music in the car. Right now I'm playing Johnny Cash's hymns CD over and over. When I'm going 110km/h and the majority of drivers fly by me like I'm standing still, I'm humming "I'll Fly Away". That helps.

The issue with tailgaters is solved (for me, anyway) by gradually slowing down to EXACTLY the speed limit and not looking in my rearview mirror. Honestly, I could care less what they think. I don't understand how they think coming up to my bumper helps things.

The last thing I do is mumble: "Get off the phone." whenever I see the ignoramous chatting away on a cell phone. This is impaired driving. I've only seen what I thought what drunk driving once and never had a near miss with a drunk driver. Cell phone idiots? I've had more close calls than I care to describe and usually witness at least 3 different close calls with me or others each month. There are at least two times that I could have lost my life if things were just a few centimetres closer. I wonder if Mothers Against Drunk Driving has taken up the cause of cell phone drivers? (I'm feeling too lazy to look it up.)

I am thankful that I received, however reluctantly I took it at the time, defensive driving instruction when I was first learning to drive. This has helped me a lot in coping. I highly recommend it to the frustrated. It helps to not yell out windows too. Also, letting my wife drive most of the time is the best way to deal with it.

Having a Voice

I've had two letters published in the local papers so far, with apologies to Ruth. I've gone through the phase of sitting back and letting others settle issues. After all, I think, I can't vote being an immigrant and all. I'm still an American citizen only. I haven't become a dual citizen. Why not? I have this issue with saying I'm a citizen of two countries at the same time. It just seems....well...impossible. However, I've come to the point where I really do care about what happens here as much as anyone else. Therefore, I am writing letters to the editor because I can't think of anything else at the moment.

I'm very concerned: not about the projects but in the contradictions in numbers that seem to be happening. Right now, everything about Plan A seems to be very murky and confusing. City hall refuses to give out number about how the tax payers' money was used to fund the "Vote yes on Plan A" campaign. City hall did not allow an official 'no' campaign at all. City hall has suddenly come out and said the tax increase is only 7.5% when the 'pro-Plan A' media has said that it will be 16% that's a huge difference.

I may be a landed immigrant, but I am a taxpayer, too. Just like a Canadian. I hate dishonesty and deception. Build the projects, but be honest about the costs. I, unlike many immigrants, have the skill and command of the English language to write letters that demand honesty from those who are spending our tax money. It's the least I can do for my family's hometown.

A Rant

One of my favourite shows happens to also be Canadian - The Rick Mercer Report. In this show, Rick has a weekly Rant - I will now have my rant about the some local Abbotsford stuff. I can't vote, since I'm not a Canadian citizen - so this is my only way to say what I'm thinking. (That, and I promised my wife I wouldn't write any more letters to the editor...)

It's amazing how far a lie can get you in this town. I refuse to call it a city any more. New York is a city. Vancouver is a city. Philadelphia is a city. Abbotsford, with a population of 130,000 - that's a SUBURB!! Canadians don't seem to have suburbs, though. They go right to calling this a city.

"So what?" you may be asking, "What's the harm?"

Well...I'll tell you:

This idea of Abbotsford as a city has led to a lie called
Plan A. Using the idea of Abbotsford as a 'city', the city council has decided that we need $85 million dollars of improvements. The real problem comes down to the $55 million dollar sports arena. The lies started fast and furious when selling this plan to the voting public. There were actually ads in the local paper that had pictures of ticketmaster-type tickets printed up. They were tickets to shows like: Disney on Ice and, believe it or not, MADONNA!!! You're telling me that Madonna is going to show up to perform in a 7,000 seat arena in SUBURBIA???? Madonna's namesake is more likely to show up as an image in a donut at a local Tim Horton's!

Now referendum day comes and: no one shows up. It's snowing - a huge snowfall begins that day that closes schools the following Monday AND Tuesday! The turnout was pitiful. It was approved by less than 20% of voters here. Most people were panicking about the snow - this is not being made up. When it snows in Abbotsford people panic like Stephen Harper at a Greenpeace rally. They weren't thinking about voting - they were thinking: "OH MY GOD!!! Do I have enough bottled water!??!"

Now the lies come fast and furious. The cost isn't $85 million - It's over $100 million now and growing! The councillor in charge of this public robbery states that this increase represents 'soft costs' or some other double-speak phrase and they always knew about the extra costs. Well...then, why didn't they say anything about it in advance? One councillor has finally spoken up (Moe Gill) and said, "Maybe we should rethink this..."

That doesn't seem like much, but for an Abbotsford councillor to say that at a council meeting is like George Bush saying: "Maybe we need to rethink this whole Iraq business..."

Now we're facing a 16% tax increase.

I love how they explain it as: "Well, you voted for it..."

Who exactly is 'you'? Oh, yeah...the business owners who had a shovel and plow that voted in November.

Best Burger in Abbotsford

The thing is burgers are a matter of taste. If you're really into lots of goop and sauces on your burger or you like a good, meaty patty. Now the tricky part of being an American in Canada is that Canadians have an intense love-affair with mayonnaise. This is probably a youtube clip somewhere, but in the movie The Whole Nine Yards, Bruce Willis has this great scene in a Montreal restaurant ordering a burger. He goes to extreme lengths to describe that he does NOT want mayo on the burger. He threatens, etc. Then the burger comes back later with mayo.

Another movie, the classic A vs C movie, Canadian Bacon (by Michael Moore - who would do well to think about making more funny movies like this to make his point rather than ridiculous ones like Farenheit 9/11). In CB, there is a scene of a news anchor describing the results of a Canadian takeover and one of his points is 'there would be mayo on everything'. My father-in-law likes to put mayo on his hot dogs. Can you handle that, Americans????

Now back to the best burger, which is what this is supposed to be about. What does that ridiculous newspaper vote as best burger every flippin' year? White Spot!!! Now these are good burgers. If you like tons of mayo that you MIGHT be able to convince them to leave off. I gotta admit, if you ask for no mayo, it's about a 50-50 chance it will come WITH mayo. So the goop lovers rejoice at White Spot, but the meat lovers, like yours truly, go good, but not BEST!

What's best? In terms of a good, satisfying burger with lots of styles of burgers to choose from. Not just goopy, but blue cheese, Hawaiian, avocado, etc. or a fantastic cheeseburger, then the hands down winner is Red Robin's!!! They are by far the best here in Abbotsford. So go down to South Fraser Way and order yourself a Blue Ribbon Burger!

Abby's Best

I have a confession to make. This isn't my first foray into blogging. I actually started a blog called something like abby's best. That was two upgrade/crashes ago, so I lost the website address. I haven't been able to find it, but I'm hoping it was put to a merciful death by the host site. In it, I raved in a highly sarcastic way about my current hometown, Abbotsford. I especcially ranted about how terrible the driving is here, which it is, but, what can you do?

Another thing I wanted to do was respond to the Abbotsford Time's so-called Reader's Choice Awards, which I am convinced really translates to the cheapest eats in Abbotsford awards. So I began rating the best this and the best that to eat in Abbotsford. I think I might get to that, but in a less sarcastic way here. I've experienced the worst that sarcasm can do at different times in my life and I'm convinced that it is definitely the lowest form of humor.

Anyway, the first thing I want to discuss about what is best here is where to find the best cup of coffee. This is very important, since you wouldn't believe the amount of coffee shops we have here. And, thankfully, most of the coffee places are NOT Starbuck's!! Abbotsford actually only supports three Starbuck's that I've noticed and that's enough for me. I like buying ground coffee there every now and then as a treat, but I'm eternally baffled about what to order there. I especially despise how they treat coffee sizes. I mean, really, what the hell is a "venti" anyway??? Oh, I was gonna put a youtube link here about starbucks, because there is a really funny rant about starbucks -but every other word is....not appropriate...so just go to
youtube and search for starbucks and you'll come up with the old fart from Brooklyn's rant. Don't say I didn't warn you....

So, what, you are thinking is the best coffee. Well, I'll tell you - the best cup of coffee is that Canadian tradition (with headquarters in Ohio - 'American owned' is yet another Canadian tradition) - Tim Horton's. It's actually named after a hockey player, I mean, how Canadian is that? This is the best
coffee - you also get an extra large cup for about $2 (Eat my shorts, Starbucks!) The thing is, Abbotsford is CRAZY about Tim Horton's! We have at least 5 or more Timmy's here and they are all busy. Tim Horton's is doing better than McDonalds! Also, during spring, there is a contest at Timmy's called Rrrroll up the Rim. I hardly ever win, but my staff at school keep a running tally on our staffroom white board of wins and losses.

The thing is - you could get away with eating at Tim Horton's for breakfast, lunch and dinner without doing a Supersize Me health emergency. They now have breakfast sandwiches, which probably aren't the best for you, but you could get away with a bagel or something. I don't find the 'eats' at Starbucks interesting, the baked goods tend to be dry and cardboard-y. At Tim Horton's you can get great soup and sandwiches made to order. I've heard that TH's have started leaking into the US, so US readers get ready for a Tim Horton's near you!

Let it Snow!

We've had a huge storm over the past days. This picture shows the level of snow on the top of an outside railing - this is from Sunday. We had quite the dump and it continued snowing into and through the night. Schools (I can't think of any that were actually open - this is quite rare here!) were closed yesterday and they continue to be closed today. After the snow - we got an incredibly cold Arctic wind that kept the streets and sidewalks ice-covered. There are white-out conditions on the major routes around Abbotsford and the side roads are very icy. Now, Abbotsford is often the one place in the area that has rain. We just haven't had this much snow in a long time. It's great though, because I have report cards due next week and I'm hoping to get a lot done before the weekend. So, I write this entry. This is supposed to help me 'warm up' to writing comments. Dunno if it's gonna help. Plus I'm listening to Diana Krall's Christmas CD- which is incredible. Pick it up if you can! So I'll leave you with one more picture and I'll try to get to work ;-)

The REAL 'Best of Abbotsford/Mission'

A local paper here, which shall not be named here in order to sound like I'm being responsible or something, gives out 'Readers' Choice' Awards regularly to local businesses and the 5 or so regular readers fill out ballots and send them in. (An aside - this paper was on strike a while back and when they finally came back in print after a whole summer of no paper, I said to my father-in-law, 'Well, they're back!"
He just looked puzzled and said, 'Where did they go?'
"They went on strike."
"Oh, I didn't notice.")
Now, these readers are kinda weird in their tastes. Some of the regular winners make sense and I agree with, but SOME are just ridiculous.

Then comes THE POST (No website yet - it's THAT new!) A new paper trying to make its way in town. I'm not sure about the 'twin cities' thing and if that'll catch on, but who knows? Probably the only paper that will actually tell it like it is, it looks like. I notice that the POST has none of those annoyingly wasteful Plan A ads. This is good, because the ad-campaign itself could end up defeating the plan due to the high amount of tax dollars being spent wastefully by city hall to keep people from actually thinking that there is more than one option to vote for. But I digress from the news of major importance! It actually has a restaurant critic, anonymous of course, that toodles around town to find out what's really good. Now she has only written twice, but both sound great. Want a good breakfast? Don't listen to readers' choice - go to Rivers Restaurant. This week she reviewed Wee Chippie in Mission which actually has deep fried Mars bars on the menu. Hmmm...sounds interesting....
(Another aside: The Deep fried mars bar scored alot of hits on Google! Sounds terrible, awful and I gotta try one at least one time in my life!) Now I want the critic to actually find out the best Chinese food in Abbotsford, because the one that wins it every year must be bribing the paper-that-must-not-be-named, because it is not the best by a long shot. It's cheaper though, so maybe that must be the 5 readers actual criteria