Positive Distractions

Dr. Hugh Tildesley

First a shout out of thanks for the many cards and messages of support. They are very much appreciated, and please understand if I do not reply directly.

The blood work prior to Tuesday’s poison infusion showed some cause for optimism, White cell counts are stable and normal, thus risk of infection does not appear to be increased, bone marrow effect is a cumulative issue and anemia is present but not enough to cause any symptoms, by the same mechanism platelets are trending downward but at this stage marginally depressed. Liver function tests remain improved, total protein normal and albumin steady. The CA-19 tumour marker fell significantly over the last 2 weeks. Most importantly, I feel well, with a return of my appetite and weight at 159 pounds +/- 2 pounds on any given day. Deborah’s magic is working and my obsessive calorie counting reveals on average 3000 calories per day. Due to a planned trip to TO to visit family and to play in the annual CSGA Tournament my next therapy will be delayed a week. Probably a good idea to see if there is some marrow recovery.

The Tesla is a learning curve but a very enjoyable process. I took the family for a road test to Squamish and enjoyed some of the many features. The cruise control is smart; it can be programmed to follow between 1-6 car lengths behind the car in front. Deborah, who usual has white knuckles on the Sea to sky volunteered her love of this option, hand tension was absent.

The beast being fed

We plugged in at the Tesla Super charger, which delivers 500 KW per hour. This compared to my home system which of my 240 circuit delivers 233, my 110 outlet 110. The difference is that I can get a complete charge (400 KW) off the super charger in less than 1 hour. I have now activated my iPhone App so I can monitor the charge over the Internet as I grab a bite.

Using BC Hydro rates the cost of the 160 KM round trip was $2.95, but ½ of that was free as the Tesla charge stations are free. Total fuel cost $1.50. My EOS would get 420 KM per tank, using high octane with approx. $80.00 per tank. Estimated gas cost $30.00. This is consistent with other estimates of fuel cost being 1/10 of conventional vehicles.

As we were admiring the scenery on the return drive Donovan was reminded of being in Colorado and wondered if we could get his favourite station there. The magic of Internet radio! Catherine, the return co-pilot got it up in seconds. The menu is world wide, the sound system surround with Dolby, and of course syncs with the 3,000 plus tunes on my iPhone.

As mentioned in a previous posting our golfing group celebrates the ethnicity of the major golf champions each year with a dinner and wine pairings reflective of their home. This year’s US Open champion, Jordan Speith created a challenge , as we had to repeat another Texas theme (he won the Masters in April). This dinner was simple but elegant:

Appetizer: soft pretzels

Salad: Frito Salad

Main: Retire to the deck and individuals to cook their NY steaks

Served as side dishes

Cornbread

Baked Beans

Home fries

Desert:

Pecan Pie a la mode

Wines:

Duckhorn Sauvignon Blanc (Napa)

Jordan Cab Sauvignon ( Alexander Valley)

 

Butler doing his best imitation of " Please sir, may I have some more sir", 

Picture thanks to Joseph Chan, missing, Gorgeous George Seslija,likely taking a selfie

The pictures capture the camaraderie. Also the cooking expertise of McBride, his stature perfect to avoid any smoke inhalation.

Rantage Translink Again

Maybe they are listening. A cabinet shuffle has given the file to Mr. Fassbender. I hope he lives up to his name. His public pronunciations are saying all the right things; yes there is a governance issue, yes there needs re-organization but adroitly stepping around the key: taxpayers need to elect the board directly. T0 reflect on silliness of it all, we in Vancouver elect a parks board for goodness sake, the names are on the civic ballot, just replace this redundant bunch of clingons on the ballot with a translink election.

To demonstrate  how closely Mr. Fassbender is listening he reviewed his management 101 Coles notes and appropriately decided to suspend the translink CEO search. He noted the obvious. What competent candidate would take a job reporting to a board with no clear governance, mandate or public support? Seems like Fassbender is now the board.

Ongoing messes are being dealt with. The compass card method of payment has been watered down. The program was to allow differential fares depending on the length of trip. The whole idea was to capture user pay revenue, this will not be realized. This has now been abandoned so that one fare gets you anywhere. The payments to the contractor, San Diego based Cubic, are difficult to identify and are far from transparent in any public documents. The estimate is that the contract was for $171 million, with already $200. Million spent.

Anyone who has been to London is familiar with the Oyster card (London’s iteration of the compass card).  In my experience an efficient system with discount rewards as it is fully automated with the associated cost savings. Why did these clowns try to re-invent the wheel?

This program was also to be linked with gates to actually make people pay to use the system, you guessed still not operational with blatant cheaters taking millions from

Translink revenue.

Just walk right through and pay if you want to

But get this quote from the CFO of translink, who will soon be the third CEO in 6 months,

“Our plan of delivering Compass in phases is working,” said TransLink chief financial officer Cathy McLay. “We listened to our customers and what we heard was they were concerned about tapping out.”

I think in future perhaps Fassbender should speak.

Until next time