Halloween Part 2

Only 16 trick-or-treaters. Maybe it's because I forgot to turn on the outside lights at first. Maybe they couldn't read the sign on my door that said the doorbell isn't working.

People started showing up at 6-something, and they'd mostly stopped by 7:30 or 7:45. I still saw people in costumes walking around outside after that, but none asked for candy. I don't remember what time the trick-or-treating stopped last year, so it's hard to compare.

If you come and visit me sometime soon (if you know where I live, or if you have my email address or phone number so you can ask me where I live), I'll give you candy. For reasons I will not disclose, I will also give you garlic if you should so desire.

Halloween and Daylight Saving Time

It's 6:00 on Halloween evening and it's still light out. This doesn't seem normal. I remember trick-or-treating in the dark when I was younger, and more recently, I remember handing out candy in the dark. Granted, the trick-or-treaters haven't started to show up yet, but I'm sure they will soon.

This must be because of the change in Daylight Saving Time rules. Now we set our clocks back after Halloween; we used to always do that before Halloween. A year ago it was 5:00.

I wonder if people will complain that it wasn't dark enough. I wonder if the trick-or-treaters will stay out later. Combine that with the decent weather, and I wonder if I bought enough candy. Stay tuned...

Oil and friends

Premier Ed Stelmach has finally announced his decision about oil and gas royalty payments, jacking up royalties by about $1.5 billion per year, total. I'm no economist, so it's really hard for me to predict what effect this will have on the oil industry and on job prospects in Alberta. While I don't want to see people lose jobs, it probably wouldn't be bad for Alberta if our economic growth was slower. As it is, we may be the richest province in Canada, but it's an expensive place to live. I've heard before that Alberta has the highest rate of depression in Canada--more evidence that money doesn't buy happiness.

One piece of evidence the premier may have found the right balance: people on both sides are angry.

On Saturday I went to visit two friends who moved to Forestburg, Alberta a while back. They went to my church while they lived in Edmonton. So a few of us from church went to visit them. They have a funny dog named Rolo who was scared of my other friends' baby at first. Actually, the dog was scared of all of us at first, but she got less fearful of most of us. Except Curtis. (If you'd seen how he treated Rolo, you'd understand.)

Our Forestburg friends took us to the school where they work and we played a sport called "pilo-polo" or something like that. Their description went something like this: "It's kind of like floor hockey, but you play with a ball. And there are nets." At this point I was wondering what the difference is. "You hit the ball with these foam bats." Then I was starting to see the difference. And it turned out the ball was larger and softer than typical floor hockey balls. It was a tiring, challenging game, maybe because I'm kind of out of shape, but it was fun and I scored two goals. One of them was even for my team!

"I was elected to lead, not to read"

Back in July, I said on this blog that I'd have to see the Simpsons movie in the expensive theatre, even if it sucks. Now I must apologize. I did not see it in the expensive theatre. I saw it this past weekend at a cheap theatre in Calgary with Kate. But I'm happy to say, it didn't suck. It was quite a bit better than Bean and Duct Tape Forever. (I still want to see Mr. Bean's Holiday though.) It had so many funny parts, they didn't even fit in the trailer! Overall, I think the earlier part of the movie was funnier and the later part got more serious (maybe a little overly serious). If you like the Simpsons, go see this movie.

Meanwhile, we had a civic election here in Edmonton on Monday. All of the currently serving councilors who ran again were expected to win, but one lost--Mike Nickel. Last year there was a big controversy because council voted themselves a rather large pay increase. Mike Nickel was one of only two councilors to vote against the raise, and the only councilor to vote against all the proposed pay and benefits increases (see this page for the complete list). Obviously Edmonton voters didn't consider this the most important issue.

Something I'm relieved about: it looks like we won't have a federal election this year.

New Anesthetic

I saw an article recently about a new type of anesthetic that's being tested on rats now. This anesthetic only disables pain-sensing neurons. This would avoid the numbness and paralysis that normal local anesthetics cause. The only recent time that I had a local anesthetic was when I got my wisdom teeth out. I was drooling and couldn't talk for an hour or two after I got out, and my mouth was partially numb longer than that. So I could see this new anesthetic being good for surgery recovery.

The problem that I see is during the surgery. I'd still be able to feel the doctor cutting me (whether they're cutting my gums or some other body part), but it wouldn't hurt. I think that might be freaky. It also might make people flinch as soon as the doctor starts cutting, and generally, I don't think you want flinching during delicate surgery.

Do you think you could handle feeling yourself being cut open if there was no pain?

So in conclusion, I think this research shows a lot of promise, but there are some situations where I'd be wary of using it.