More on life and death: Road Kill

No one is insensitive to the amount of roadkill seen every year May through October. One would think a "developed civilisation" such as our's would have managed to address this problem by now. Unhappily, no, we have not. According to Mahatma Gandhi: "You can judge a society by the way it treats its animals."

The human view is: better to kill them than ourselves. The advice is standard: if one cannot safely brake, then it is better to collide with the animal than risk injury or death in trying to avoid it. Statistics are rampant throughout the Web as to the number of human and animal deaths. Human injuries and vehicular damage (and resultant insurance costs) are also tracked but animal injury is not, given those who survive the initial impact retreat to nature to either heal or die...so animal deaths stats should include a + sign.

In my family, we've hit (and obviously survived) a moose, and a deer. The moose -- hit first by another car, then us -- was toast. The deer we're not sure as it bounced off the car and then was no where to be found. In both collisions, we count ourselves lucky. The cars, not us, were damaged. My husband narrowly missed hitting a large buck as it bounded from one ditch to another, and I was lucky when a deer ran between my car and an approaching car at dusk. My brother-in-law and his co-worker recently avoided killing a bear, not seeing, therefore running over, the two small cubs following her out of the ditch. People my sister knows avoided an animal collision but were badly injured themselves in doing so.

I used to think since we paint the roads, why not put some kind of scent to deter animals in the paint? According to some websites, animals quickly become inured or "habituated" to such deterrents so they work for a little while but not long. According to the Canada Safety Council, others are working on other means such as:

• Corridors like the 8-foot high Parks Canada fence along the Trans-Canada Highway through Banff National Park and the 22 underpasses (culverts) and two 164 foot wide overpasses built. Highway kills dropped 96 per cent.
• Designating high risk road sections may cause drivers to slow down
• The Wildlife Warning System, developed by Saskatoon-based International Road Dynamics Inc., uses proven technologies that sense approaching vehicles and then activate deterrents such as sounds or lights to warn animals in the area. The Saskatchewan government, testing the system on a stretch of highway notorious for wildlife-vehicle collisions, has published no official results yet, but its first year of operation has seen deer-vehicle collisions drop.
• Similar NASA infrared technology called NightVision (TM) is available in some General Motors cars. This helps the driver to to detect potentially dangerous situations, such as the presence of animals or pedestrians, beyond the range of the headlamps.

In CFC's words: there is still no substitute for a defensive driver.

Species most at risk are frogs, snakes and turtles. In my area, from my own day to day survey in my area, the majority of the dead are frogs, raccoons, porcupine and deer. In the case of frogs, entire species are at risk of disappearing.

For more tips on this topic, visit this wonderfully helpful site Wildlife Collision Prevention Program from the province of British Columbia in Canada. Learn to reduce the chance of a collision, what to do if you hit an animal, and where and when collisions might occur.

I stop to move slow-moving turtles out of the way (unless they happen to be snappers). I drive more slowly in high risk areas and pull over to let others pass if I'm too slow for the other road warriors.

I utter a little "God bless" under my breath everytime I see some hapless animal obliterated by a vehicle, and pray we find some way to stop this carnage.

On Managers: the good and the not so good

It's an overcast day, humid and hot, and promising rain. It's a good day for reflection which is what I'm doing instead of bringing in the washing from the line.

I'm reflecting on managers I've had in the past. Those I've loved best trusted me, and in letting me shine, they shone. Those I didn't love at all tried to bully or or victimize or stifle me...they couldn't or wouldn't let me shine and tarnished themselves as a result.

What distinguishes a good manager from a bad? Here's my admittedly simplistic take on it:

A good manager is, simply put: a good human being. She or he...

• communicates the goal, and the work needed to achieve the goal
• trusts you and your abilities to get the job done
• is not threatened by you or your abilities but uses these in a positive way to achieve the organization's goals
• advises or guides but does not to do the work assigned to you
• is constructively critical (but not mean) when necessary to help you redirect or improve your efforts
• recognizes your limitations and encourages ongoing development or change
• appreciates and recognizes your efforts
• has a healthy approach to life in general which in turn is reflected in healthy relationships with others be they above or below him or her in the hierarchy
• has the betterment of the organization at heart
• has a sense of humour to make fun a part of working life and workplace "fun"damentals.

People who work for good managers themselves improve as human beings. They become successful people in their own right, often as well-liked leaders and achievers. They develop others who continue to contribute to the health (and wealth) of the organization or to the world at large.

On the other hand, a bad manager is usually a human being still developing or needing to develop their own self to become a better human being. She or he might...

• not communicate or does communicate but on inappropriate matters, not work-related
• mistrust staff, double-check their work or re-assign work without explanation
• take steps to discredit or remove employees by whom he or she feels threatened
• take credit rightly due to staff
• bullies or victimizes staff due to own feelings of inferiority, vulnerability or importance
• gossips about staff or asks employee's opinions about other co-workers
• offers employees affection (favouritism) or gifts to compensate for his or her own destructive behaviour
• is obviously dysfunctional and lacks a healthy approach to life overall. In other words, is no fun
• creates a noxious or toxic work environment
• has his or her own goals at heart, not the organization's

People who work for bad managers (BMs) can

• experience ill health or setbacks or achieve nil to slow advancement in the workplace as their efforts focus on attending to the stress and negativity of the "bad manager experience" OR
• they become bad managers themselves, not having experienced or learned any better thus continuing to populate the world with BM's OR
• they improve as human beings in resolving not to emulate the bad manager. They too can be successful people in their own right, often as well-liked leaders and achievers, by choosing the good manager profile and rejecting the bad.

As I write this, while I've used the term "manager", I can't help but see this good/bad parallel exists everywhere: parents/children, relatives, coaches, friends, neighbours. How are YOU doing in this good manager/bad manager scenario?

I'm proud of Canada

This is about as blatantly political as I get. I find it ironic that 2 days after unanimously celebrating Canada's birthday, we're divided about celebrating Canada's choice to receive the Order of Canada.

The abortion issue has always been highly controversial and divisive in Canada, and I would add, throughout the world. Today, in Canada, people are reacting to the news that Henry Morgentaler, MD, has been named to the Order of Canada.

Some think it's an abomination, a day of shame for Canada. I think it's a day of pride for Canada and I congratulate those who decided Dr. Morgentaler merited this honour. Seldom does one see a person who puts himself and his family on the line for his beliefs.

I won't enter the discussion of when is a life a life and whether one has the right to take a life. I'm sure to get a few comments pro and con and I respect those who would argue with me.

I believe Dr. Morgentaler's work has saved lives. His work brought abortion out of the backstreets and into safe, clean clinics. His work has brought the word "abortion" into the open. It has been and will continue to be the source of much controversy and dispute, and his receiving the Order of Canada won't change that. But let it be a good thing as we, society, continue our evolution and our struggle in dealing with choices.

More on the story: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/02/f-morgentaler.html

What is the Order of Canada? http://www.gg.ca/honours/nat-ord/oc/index_e.asp

Where did June go?

I'm really not sticking to my original intention - to blog daily. Here a whole month has gone by and I'm blog-less! No, I don't intend to make up one month with this blog but perhaps my daily agenda can help renew my memory.

June saw me

• leave my temporary job where I made new friends, found a new purpose and learned new things.
• have another wonderful weekend with my friend, Pat who helps with the annual garage sale and we enjoy re-introducing her dog, Reilly to Spencer. Reilly's the boss, of course!
• escaping to Toronto for a mother/daughter theatre outing with my sister, her daughter, my daughter and me. Dirty Dancing was every bit as good (if not better) than the movie. We all tried not to cry at the end - such sucks we are!
• enjoying the company of my brother Tom and his wife Julie who arrived unexpectedly on their noisey old Harley for a quick visit.
• getting my hair cut
• lunching with my sister Syb who is recovering from an operation
• gardening...is there any end to the weeds I can manage to grow? I ended up with some kind of dermatitus on my fingers that has seriously eroded the skin on my hands. That'll teach me to pull weeds without gloves!
• golfing...although we've had so much rain, it's hard to run between the raindrops
• decorating R & P's golfcart for the July 1 (formerly Dominion Day, aka Canada's Birthday) parade...they were a great big hit, especially Spencer who sat regally with a Canada fag rag dangling down his back.

I still haven't gotten into the kayak nor put the sailboat in the water. Am trying to be diligent about walking dear old Spencer and loving dear old Dolly to bits given she's running out of lives.

Life is good here at the lake. The grass is green (how can it not be with all the rain we've had?), the loons make their nightly love calls, the robins are worming for their youngins and I'm re-retired!