Earth Hour takes place tomorrow (Saturday) night at 8:00 p.m. In case you haven’t heard, Montreal is one of the participating cities that will be turning off the lights for one hour as a symbolic gesture to counter climate change. For those who wish, it’s also possible to sign up to pledge your participation.

As for yours truly, although I think it’s a noble cause, I have tickets for a show on Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. I’m hoping that they won’t be turning off the lights at the theatre. Otherwise, we’ll have to spend an hour imagining what they’re doing on stage. I’m pretty energy-efficient most of the time so I don’t feel guilty about not taking part. Saving energy for one hour doesn’t make a difference if you spend the rest of your life wasting it.

   Recent story in The Globe and Mail regarding the throttling of P2P traffic as well as recent discussions on various forums, have determined that Bell Canada is now throttling all P2P traffic. Not just theirs, that is on Sympatico, but anyone who happens to be a client of Bell including independent 3rd party ISP’s such as TekSavvy.

I’m surprised, but not really. The Achilles heel  of all of these DSL outfits was that the last mile is Bell Canada. And Bell Canada being what they are, have a tendency to do things the way a monopoly feels it should. I am proud to say that for the past two years, not one Bell bill enters my home. I am completely free of them. I’ve been scorned once too often by that company and therefore have sworn them off.

This latest move by them only reinforces this idea.

So the battle by all these 3rd party ISP’s now begins. Bring in the lawyers, the government lobbying and everything that goes with it.

It’s a shame but it’s a perfect example of why we need Net Neutrality in Canada.

    Yes, I know. It was Easter weekend. I should be writing about how warm it was and how my second weekend outdoor ride went.

Mont Tremblant is in an alternate universe. At least, I don’t think it’s in Quebec. We ran up Friday (big mistake) to ski Tremblant. First time in close to 20 years. I had seen the changes, just never skied there since. What a zoo.

1. Wait in line for a bus to take you to the hill.
2. Wait in line for 40 minutes to buy your lift ticket (70 bucks)
3. Wait in line for another 40 minutes to get to the top via the gondola.

It wasn’t like that 20 years ago! When I first skied Tremblant as a kid, I remember the single chairlift on the North Side. I even remember taking it..

Chalk full of tourists.. Lots of Americans and British. All the staff speak to you in English with accents. It’s so bizare. It’s Quebec, yet not quite.  Tourists who routinely ask you how you are doing.. Whoa, again, we don’t do that in Quebec!

Winds at the top were insane. If you slid down with your arms out, the wind would stop you from moving. Conditions however were still excellent. Mid winter stuff, yet on Easter Weekend.

Sunday was a quick trip to Sauveur. No one there. No one. Skied all morning without having to wait for a chair. Conditions there too were the best I have seen all year.

Next weekend is the famous Pond Crossing at Morin Heights.  If this weather holds up, they are going to have a hard time keeping that water from freezing.

The STM is about to put articulated buses on the road and I for one, am quite looking forward to boarding one of them. Over the next few months, passengers will get to try out two model buses that will run on the 80-165-535 route.

If you’ve ever had to take the 535 during rush hour, you will be able to relate to how hellish an experience it can be. I always like to think of it as playing the Lotto 535 because you never know if the bus that’s approaching your stop will be too full to even stop or if anyone will be able to get on if it does. If you’re not a “people who need people” kind of person, playing the Lotto 535 is not your game cuz’ more often than not, you will find yourself thrust up against total strangers who you would perhaps not normally choose to be so intimate with.

The addition of articulated buses will hopefully remedy the sardine situation. The new buses have been redesigned with wider aisles and of course, more seating by virtue of the fact that they will be longer. Reconfigured layout, poles and windows are some of the other improved features. That said, I hope that the new buses are also less “jerky” than the current low-floor ones. The STM will have a questionnaire on their site for comments about the test buses. So now is the time to voice your opinions. The next time you see the 535 coming round the mountain, hop on and take it for a spin. Then, let the STM know what you think.

I myself, have just about HAD IT with winter. A few weeks ago, I was still going around saying, I’ve spent all my life here, it’s just another winter, nothing to get worked up about. But last week’s storm was the last straw. And never have I had to literally climb over a snow bank right in front of my stairs in order to get onto the sidewalk. Seems that in the night, a snow plow passed by, pushing all the snow to one side, leaving a gigantic hardened pile right at the bottom of my stairs when I came out in the morning. I had to kick away at it with my boot until I could secure a foothold and clambor over it. Aye Carumba! Or as one of my former bosses used to say all the time, “J’suis tanné!”.

So today I took some time off to head to the spa. I treated myself to my first pedicure ever. Even though it’s clearly not sandal season, I needed a ray of hope and some pampering for my poor dry feet. They too have suffered through this endless winter. Being a newbie to the pedicure, I had to ask around for recommendations. A friend of mine hooked me up with a naturopathic spa in the NDG area. I am delighted to report that I had a wonderful experience at the Source d’Eden Spa. This spa is located on Décarie just a few blocks from Villa Maria metro and was just the kind of oasis I needed. My feet are now soft and smooth and my toes are looking forward to the day when they can be freed from the confines of boots and slipped into a nice pair of breezy sandals.

I often like to ask people to recommend their favourite places for different treatments. That’s how I found my massage therapist at the MAA Sports Clinic. And my hairdresser who I’ve been seeing for countless years. So to the girls (and metrosexuals?) out there, do you have any good recommendations to share? Hidden jewels in Montreal? Specialists who are so good, you don’t really want anybody else to know about them? C’mon. Time to spill. I think most Montrealers are in need of some spa therapy right about now.

I have just learned that the “Commission scolaire de Montreal” has ordered the evacuation of all of its schools.

Évacuation d’urgence, le vendredi 14 mars 2008 - Compte tenu de l’accumulation de neige, à titre de mesure préventive, la CSDM procède actuellement à l’évacuation de tous ses établissements scolaires. Les endroits où les élèves ont été déplacés seront indiqués sur chacune des portes des établissements. Une chaîne téléphonique a été déclenchée pour joindre tous les parents. Tous les établissements scolaires seront donc fermés jusqu’au lundi 17 mars inclusivement.

High school students are being sent home while the evacuation points for younger students are listed on the doors of their respective schools. This decision came as a result of inspections that were ordered after a snow-induced roof collapse killed three workers in Morin Heights.

Schools from the Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys, which covers most of the West Island, are not considered to be at risk and classes will continue this afternoon.

I get out of the house and head for the metro station. I pass the (how do you say tourniquet in English?) and I see two girls (women? They looked like teenagers) with a trolley and there was a real living baby inside.

One of the girls could either be the mother or the sister, but that’s not important. The two women were lifting the carriage from either extremities and as they were clumsily going down the stairs, the trolley was continuously swinging front and back.

Of course, the only thought in my mind was that the baby was going to fly which is very cool to see in movies.

The worst didn’t happen, so this is just a little story without a bad ending.

Everytime there’s a storm, you know that beautiful days are coming up, like the yesterday and today; beautiful sunny sky, mild wind, not too cold. Of course, anybody who goes to school or to work can’t enjoy any of that.

When I see a storm or live through one, the storm itself doesn’t annoy me. That’s actually the fun part. The sad part is people’s pain and misery. Why can’t people just  smile and enjoy a little difference in life? Without things like storms, life wouldn’t be valuable. Catastrophes are important.

The snow storm occurred Saturday and I was moving around a lot. Snow flying around and low visibility sure made things fun (no sarcasm). Sunday was the aftermath. I spent most of the day outside, shoveling. I noticed everybody helping each other, especially with cars. Add a snow storm and you notice that human beings are actually capable of working together. I’m just wondering why a disaster has to take place for something like that to happen.

I’ve seen an old man who wouldn’t hold the door for a mother holding her baby and carrying bags. I’ve also seen the opposite. For readers in the world who never dealt with snow, holding a door is actually much easier than shoveling white powder falling from the sky.

Today is Tuesday. There are still mountains of snow on many streets. It’s a pain to walk on sidewalks, at least that’s how most people feel. Try this: It’s fun to slide around on sidewalks. Brighten up your day! The sun is already there to help with that.

By now, a lot of the local media has been covering the misadventures of all of those “poor” travelers who were returning from a week (or more) in the sun only to fall victim of The Storm of 2008 (trademarked). I still don’t understand why some companies still consider it normal to keep their passengers prisoners of their metal tubes for 12 hours as the water runs out and the toilets start to overflow. What do you think will happen when next year’s clients start their research by googling “Air Cubana”?On Saturday, we were on our way back from Rome via Amsterdam on a KLM MD11. We’ve known since Wednesday that we would be coming in during a storm but the captain was hoping to get us in just before the worst of it. Unfortunately, the position of the jet-stream forced us on a flight path that was much further north than usual (seeing Greenland was immensely cool) and KLM lost their bet.We were initially diverted to Detroit but, as we flew over Ontario, the captain was told that the weather over Toronto was “barely” acceptable. Since many of his passengers didn’t have a visa to enter the US, he decided to give Pearsons a try. That guy was one great pilot, although the visibility over YYZ was atrocious, this was the smoothest landing I’ve seen in years. Not everyone was so lucky, while we were taxiing to our gate, we could barely see the landing lights of another plane as it came in but then aborted its landing.From that point on, we would spend many hours simply waiting. Waiting to be allowed to disembark (1 hour), waiting for our bags (2 hours), waiting in line at the check-in the next day (4.5 hours), waiting for our departure authorization after boarding (1.5 hours) and waiting for the stupid people movers (1.5 hours) at Trudeau Airport because we were now a “domestic” flight. Total travel time from our Rome appartment to our house in Pierrefonds, 50 hours. Nevertheless, we were always kept informed, the water, booze and juices didn’t run out, the toilets didn’t overflow and, even through they were under no legal obligation to do so, KLM got all of their passengers to spend Saturday night in a nice hotel in downtown Toronto. They even paid for a breakfast buffet on Sunday which did wonders for our mood. Furthermore, we could really tell that they were doing all that they could to get us at our final destination. No bullshit, if they didn’t know about something they told us so. Importantly, if they told us a time estimate they also told us where the info came from and whether we should believe it or not. Sometimes the captain would get so frustrated with ground control that his communications were almost funny but we appreciated being treated like adults for a change. All in all, the crew performed admirably under very difficult conditions.The moral of the story is that sometimes you get what you pay for. Cheap flights are cheap because they can’t afford to plan for anything else than optimal conditions.