I'm sorry, your rights are only upheld if it's convenient to the local highway...

This makes me sick, really.

"The ministry has said previously it has made repeated buyout offers, based on three independent property appraisals, for the land needed to reconstruct an interchange at Lake Ridge Rd. and Highway 401."

I didn't hear anyone involved say anything about a dollar value, there, Ministry.  I didn't even hear them complaining about how much they were offered, really.  It's the fact that you offered anything.  Why can't you understand that you will never offer them enough to replace THE VALUE OF THEIR FAMILY HOME that was built by his own hands?  It's not about your stupid road, or about how important it is that all the pissed off people in the world get to work 5 minutes faster --- because clearly another highway is going to cut down on traffic; It'll only last about 2 years... or until 10 more subdivisions pop up on the fancy prime property with highway access, and subsequently clusterfuck the new on-ramp. Whichever comes first.

But seriously, it's not about how much the world needs another highway.  It's about being human, and human rights.  I really don't think "The Ministry" should have the right to kick ANYONE out of their property unless they agree to sell it.  That's total BS and it makes me kindof ashamed to be Canadian, if this is how we treat senior citizens.  I don't care how much you offered them.  I agree, it wouldn't be enough for me either.  Let me get this straight... you can offer them $600k for their land, but you can't find a way to use that money and go around it?  Hell, they can't even have enough human kindness to say "Since we're plowing through your house to build our highway, why don't we CREATE some road access to the remaining land that you won't sell?"...  Just a thought.

Ugh.  It's like nothing is sacred.  We work all our lives looking forward to the point where we'll own our own things and our own property and build our own home (figuratively or literally) and raise our family... but don't hold your breath, because your Government cares so much about you that they'll kick you out on your ass when you're older than dirt because the younger generation can't get off their ass and take a GO train - we clearly just need more highways, more apartment buildings... less pesky green farm fields and wooded areas.

*** EDIT *** I should add... no, I didn't read any other articles about the 407 or anything.  I really quite honestly don't care - what I care about is the atrocious way this situation is/was being handled.  Whether it's a route or an extension or a new highway or an old highway ---- the point is I don't think what they did to this family is right.

Dream entry

I'd love to be more interesting and share the entire dream with you - I'm sure it was a good one.  However, unfortunately I can only recall one small part.  But, since it's somewhat amusing and I actually recall it 3 hours later, that's got to be a sign or something I guess.

So... at some point in the part of the dream I can't remember, I yelled at a shark.  Stay with me.  It gets better.  I don't remember why I yelled at it, but I'm pretty sure it was something like "I HATE YOU!!!" that I screamed in its face for whatever vile thing it had apparently done.

Fast Forward to the karma at the end of the dream (what's that in dream time? seconds?).  I told you I don't remember the whole dream, what were you expecting?

So now I'm at the end of the dock (what dock? who knows.) and I'm getting ready to go inside. I step out onto the raft (which is apparently a plain ordinary warehouse pallet) to pick up the couple of things I had left sitting on it...
...and all of a sudden, the pallet lurches under my feet, I'm knocked on my ass and am holding on for dear life, as this "pallet" goes flying across the ?lake? like a really back-woods style inner tube, where I am dumped unceremoniously into the water, and...

... the shark pops out of the water, looks at me, and somewhere between weird chittering and English, screams "I HATE YOU!!!" back in my face... and proceeds to swim off and leave me stranded with my pallet at the far end of a lake.  In the dream I remember putting my head under to watch the shark swim off into the depths and wondering whether screaming "I'M SORRY!!!" loudly enough, would cause the shark to forgive me and motor-boat me back to shore...???