I got a new car over the Christmas break. An expensive present to myself I guess. It was to replace my 2005 Honda Civic which was old with over 200,000 km and needed $2,000 of work from the mechanic's estimate.
It was new to me anyway a 2013 Nissan Sentra with only 19,000 km. Salesman said it was one owner coming off lease. It had some new type features such as 2 years and 40,000 km of full warranty left.
I got it at O'Regan's Green Light in Dartmouth. I bought from O'Regan's because they sponsored Dartmouth North baseball where my kids played.
It was a good buying experience. I identified some candidates in my budget range which was late model quality used with low mileage to replace the Honda. Their website was well designed to narrow the search. With a shortlist I booked an appointment and arrived for the test drives on a Saturday morning.
I drove the Sentra, a 2013 Ford Focus, and a 2012 Toyota Corolla. It was a close decision with the Corolla but I went with the Sentra as it was a year younger and had the best fuel economy.
I got dealer financing as there was a special where they offered either winter tires or a $500 gift card to the store of your choice if you use their financing. I went with the winter tires. So I'm all set there.
They threw in a welcome coupon for a free oil change and $10 off the next 4 oil changes. So I got my first minor service for free. With the coupons the cost of an oil change is the same as my regular garage so I'll be treating myself to dealer service for a little while at least. Maybe until the warranty wears off. will see.
The car is running well so far. The Civic ran well for 8 years and 205,000 km. I hope this vehicle can be as successful. One good thing is work from home starts next week so that will cut thousands of km a year and save a lot of wear and tear and hopefully extend the vehicle life.
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
Sunday, January 05, 2014
happy new year
wow January 5th already. back to work tomorrow, ugh. still it's good to have a job to go to. much better to face back to work tomorrow than to have to face pounding the pavement.
on new years eve I didn't have the kids for the first time in a few years. they're getting older on me. I went down to the casino to fill in the time. kids in the next day so I didn't want to drink. it was fine there. the countdown passed and everyone went back to their slot machines and table games.
figured it would be busy so I just took the bus down. the city had a nice thing with free buses and extended service so you could stay till midnight and still get home. so that's what I did, caught the bus at 12:45 and home around 1:30. It was nearly a half hour wait for the bus. I was very happy when it rode up the hill to the stop. It was freezing cold out.
sitting on the bus I thought how nice it was to be out of the cold with a nice seat and a free ride nearly to my place. how glad I was that the service was extended and it did arrive after the half hour and I was able to catch the ride home.
most years I don't do resolutions and I don't really have any this year. I guess it's just to notice and appreciate the positive little things a bit more. like when a bus arrives from the cold. and having a warm place to return to. and a job to go to on Mondays. and being paid to stay home on vacation for a few weeks over Christmas.
there's a lot of unknowns heading into 2014 and this time next year stuff that isn't on the radar screen today may end up being important. so whatever happens will happen. I can just try to do the right things and appreciate the positive and good results will follow.
on new years eve I didn't have the kids for the first time in a few years. they're getting older on me. I went down to the casino to fill in the time. kids in the next day so I didn't want to drink. it was fine there. the countdown passed and everyone went back to their slot machines and table games.
figured it would be busy so I just took the bus down. the city had a nice thing with free buses and extended service so you could stay till midnight and still get home. so that's what I did, caught the bus at 12:45 and home around 1:30. It was nearly a half hour wait for the bus. I was very happy when it rode up the hill to the stop. It was freezing cold out.
sitting on the bus I thought how nice it was to be out of the cold with a nice seat and a free ride nearly to my place. how glad I was that the service was extended and it did arrive after the half hour and I was able to catch the ride home.
most years I don't do resolutions and I don't really have any this year. I guess it's just to notice and appreciate the positive little things a bit more. like when a bus arrives from the cold. and having a warm place to return to. and a job to go to on Mondays. and being paid to stay home on vacation for a few weeks over Christmas.
there's a lot of unknowns heading into 2014 and this time next year stuff that isn't on the radar screen today may end up being important. so whatever happens will happen. I can just try to do the right things and appreciate the positive and good results will follow.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Nova Scotia demographic problems and solutions
In my previous post I discussed the severe problems and bleak future Nova Scotia faces due to a rapidly aging and shrinking population.
The greatest concern is the loss of 2,145 children from a group of 134,000. That's a horrible 1.6% lost in only the last year. If you project the 2,145 forward then in only about 62 years, around 3 generations, there will be no children left in Nova Scotia.
The loss can be attributed to children outmigrating from Nova Scotia with their parents among the 4,300 persons under age 65 who voluntarily left in the last year. Another problem is a low birth rate with more 14 year olds turning 15 than new babies being born.
The thing is, this youth group isn't the baby boomers or the children of baby boomers. So it's a distinct issue from that other major problem of the baby boom population aberration now aging and dying.
--
So what to do about it? Well I did promise solutions in the title. I got thinking about it the last couple of days and I realized I've actually already offered some solutions here on this site in earlier posts. So here they are.
here's a youth strategy and some ideas to increase the birth rate
here's a plan to shake off the malaise and reinvigorate the population
probably the biggest reason young working people are leaving Nova Scotia and taking their children with them is the severe lack of stable high paying blue collar jobs. here's a plan to reverse that and reestablish industrial and trades employment
The greatest concern is the loss of 2,145 children from a group of 134,000. That's a horrible 1.6% lost in only the last year. If you project the 2,145 forward then in only about 62 years, around 3 generations, there will be no children left in Nova Scotia.
The loss can be attributed to children outmigrating from Nova Scotia with their parents among the 4,300 persons under age 65 who voluntarily left in the last year. Another problem is a low birth rate with more 14 year olds turning 15 than new babies being born.
The thing is, this youth group isn't the baby boomers or the children of baby boomers. So it's a distinct issue from that other major problem of the baby boom population aberration now aging and dying.
--
So what to do about it? Well I did promise solutions in the title. I got thinking about it the last couple of days and I realized I've actually already offered some solutions here on this site in earlier posts. So here they are.
here's a youth strategy and some ideas to increase the birth rate
here's a plan to shake off the malaise and reinvigorate the population
probably the biggest reason young working people are leaving Nova Scotia and taking their children with them is the severe lack of stable high paying blue collar jobs. here's a plan to reverse that and reestablish industrial and trades employment
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Farewell to Nova Scotia
I'd heard a while ago that Nova Scotia lost over 4,000 people in just the last year. I knew that was bad.
But it's more than bad. The base statscan data is just awful. The loss of 4,300 people leads the nation. There are also more deaths than births in Nova Scotia each year.
But it gets even worse if you look at it by age group. The -4,300 is much worse than it looks. As the senior 65+ age group gained 6,400. So among the non-seniors under age 65 Nova Scotia shed 10,700 persons.
Using the statscan age group breakdowns we can see that there are around 774,000 people under age 65 in Nova Scotia. That means the under 65 lost 1.4% in just the last year. This is horrible. Those feel like Detroit numbers.
Now some of the loss is older middle aged graduating into the 65+ group. So if we estimate the net 6,400 new seniors as coming from the previous 64 year olds then there's still the 4,300 who voluntarily left Nova Scotia. They voted themselves off the island. So 0.55%, or about 1 in 180 people under age 65 just chose to leave in the last year.
I don't have the data on how many 65+ seniors died in the last year vs how many 64s became seniors vs net seniors moving to or leaving Nova Scotia from other areas vs births and new people moving to Nova Scotia. I believe the estimate of 4,300 under 65s choosing to leave Nova Scotia is close.
--
So Nova Scotia is in decline. Possibly terminal decline. I'm not going to speculate why in this post. I don't really have a strong theory. In the last generation the PC, Liberal and NDP have all elected solid majorities. So the voters have definitely been willing to make changes. The results just haven't been there. But again I said I wouldn't attempt to understand why Nova Scotia is going extinct.
This isn't a recent development. I remember back around the millennium 1999 there was a remarkable statistic published. From 1970-2000 the number of births in Nova Scotia declined every single year. That's incredible, not even once in that span was there an increase. Well of course if you play that out long enough then eventually there will be a year when the number of births finally declines to zero. And a few decades after that final child is born then you just go voluntarily extinct.
--
Can it be turned around? Will Nova Scotia eventually find bottom and stabilize its population at some lower point? What would that point be 700,000, 500,000, 300,000? Again probably not to speculate on in this post. Right now it doesn't look good. As long as deaths outnumber births and people leaving outnumber people moving in then it won't stabilize, it will just eventually wind all the way down.
But it's more than bad. The base statscan data is just awful. The loss of 4,300 people leads the nation. There are also more deaths than births in Nova Scotia each year.
But it gets even worse if you look at it by age group. The -4,300 is much worse than it looks. As the senior 65+ age group gained 6,400. So among the non-seniors under age 65 Nova Scotia shed 10,700 persons.
Using the statscan age group breakdowns we can see that there are around 774,000 people under age 65 in Nova Scotia. That means the under 65 lost 1.4% in just the last year. This is horrible. Those feel like Detroit numbers.
Now some of the loss is older middle aged graduating into the 65+ group. So if we estimate the net 6,400 new seniors as coming from the previous 64 year olds then there's still the 4,300 who voluntarily left Nova Scotia. They voted themselves off the island. So 0.55%, or about 1 in 180 people under age 65 just chose to leave in the last year.
I don't have the data on how many 65+ seniors died in the last year vs how many 64s became seniors vs net seniors moving to or leaving Nova Scotia from other areas vs births and new people moving to Nova Scotia. I believe the estimate of 4,300 under 65s choosing to leave Nova Scotia is close.
--
So Nova Scotia is in decline. Possibly terminal decline. I'm not going to speculate why in this post. I don't really have a strong theory. In the last generation the PC, Liberal and NDP have all elected solid majorities. So the voters have definitely been willing to make changes. The results just haven't been there. But again I said I wouldn't attempt to understand why Nova Scotia is going extinct.
This isn't a recent development. I remember back around the millennium 1999 there was a remarkable statistic published. From 1970-2000 the number of births in Nova Scotia declined every single year. That's incredible, not even once in that span was there an increase. Well of course if you play that out long enough then eventually there will be a year when the number of births finally declines to zero. And a few decades after that final child is born then you just go voluntarily extinct.
--
Can it be turned around? Will Nova Scotia eventually find bottom and stabilize its population at some lower point? What would that point be 700,000, 500,000, 300,000? Again probably not to speculate on in this post. Right now it doesn't look good. As long as deaths outnumber births and people leaving outnumber people moving in then it won't stabilize, it will just eventually wind all the way down.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Timeline by Michael Crichton
I finished another book. Timeline by Michael Crichton. It was a good book. A fast paced Crichton read. In the book a group in France is excavating a 14 century site with castles on opposite sides of a river. The work is sponsored by a secretive company called ITC from Arizona. While doing the excavation the team finds an unexpected document on ancient parchment. Another unexpected document arrives via a man found mumbling incoherently in the Arizona desert. The France researchers realize ITC knows more about the site as it was in the 14th century than they should and they are summoned back to Arizona.
Back in AZ ITC has been working on a fantastic device. Based on the famous double-slit experiments where it was shown that every electron in the universe somehow "knows" about every other electron. They exploit the multiverse to show with some leaps of logic that it is possible to travel back in time. The modern researchers are sent back to 14th century France to find and bring back their professor who went back a few days earlier and then failed to return.
Typical Crichton techno thriller there are numerous unexpected twists both in France in the past and in USA in the present. The transporters only work for 37 hours and it's a race against time on both sites to bring the researchers back.
I liked this book. It was from a good phase in Chrichton's career. Crichton does the "grad students thrown into crazy situation" theme pretty well and this is a strong title.
I found the book at Doull's, a fine store. I thought I might be finished with Crichton but on the sites I can see there's still a couple titles left.
Back in AZ ITC has been working on a fantastic device. Based on the famous double-slit experiments where it was shown that every electron in the universe somehow "knows" about every other electron. They exploit the multiverse to show with some leaps of logic that it is possible to travel back in time. The modern researchers are sent back to 14th century France to find and bring back their professor who went back a few days earlier and then failed to return.
Typical Crichton techno thriller there are numerous unexpected twists both in France in the past and in USA in the present. The transporters only work for 37 hours and it's a race against time on both sites to bring the researchers back.
I liked this book. It was from a good phase in Chrichton's career. Crichton does the "grad students thrown into crazy situation" theme pretty well and this is a strong title.
I found the book at Doull's, a fine store. I thought I might be finished with Crichton but on the sites I can see there's still a couple titles left.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
switched to FibreOP
I'm writing this from Internet provided by Aliant FibreOP. They were in this week and did the install on Thursday. It's been working well so far. I was thinking of switching and there was a deal with a 42 inch TV to switch so I made the jump. Nice intro price $99 for the first three months. Then it just goes to what I had to pay Eastlink so no cost increase. The TV should be in by Christmas.
It's nice having some HD channels now. It will take some getting used to the new channel numbers but everything I cared about from the past is still there. The PVR is something that I've heard about but never used. Another nice throw in.
I now have a landline number again for the first time in many years. I still have to get a phone for it though. I don't need an answering machine as there's voicemail thrown in. It will be nice to have a reliable number again the cell can be sketchy where I live. I'll have to think about the phone. I might get a cordless.
It's nice having some HD channels now. It will take some getting used to the new channel numbers but everything I cared about from the past is still there. The PVR is something that I've heard about but never used. Another nice throw in.
I now have a landline number again for the first time in many years. I still have to get a phone for it though. I don't need an answering machine as there's voicemail thrown in. It will be nice to have a reliable number again the cell can be sketchy where I live. I'll have to think about the phone. I might get a cordless.
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