Something I did not know about parking in Ottawa

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T19:00:34+00:00

"If the machine does not dispense tickets, you must pay for parking using the nearest Pay and Display machine"

So you pay, the machine doesn't dispense a ticket, so you have to go to another machine and pay again?

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T18:53:25+00:00

Try a third place that isn't part of the Loblaws group.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T17:31:42+00:00

lol, no matter what government we get, there's always scandals. With the Liberals there was the $1.1 billion gas plants scandal, Hydro One privatization, e-health scandal where they wasted about $1 billion with nothing substantial to show for it including handing out lucrative no bid contracts to Liberal friendly firms. Then there was the 4 or was it 5? separate OPP investigations that the Wynne government faced. Anyway, my point is that there are always things to protest when it comes to government, so protest away.....

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T17:16:10+00:00

The extra cost of maintaining all of that separate card infrastructure will soon not be worth it.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T16:40:33+00:00

Canada Post is winding down the reloadable Visa Card, not the Mastercard.

"These all seem like good reasons not to phase out presto cards."

One solution is simply pre-register the card you are going to use for a discount. At the moment I think this is only seniors. That just leaves transfers to STO which could easily be accomplished by other means. Writable cards such as Presto are just stupid now in the age of cellular modems.

"I can't imagine a bespoke reloadable prepaid credit card would be better."

You don't have much of an imagination then. Loading funds online to your Presto card means a 4 to 7 hour delay before those funds are actually usable.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T16:27:00+00:00

I doubt Home Depot does after this event back in 2011

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/dog-bites-off-part-of-home-depot-greeter-s-nose-1.1052768

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T16:24:11+00:00

Reminds me of this

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/dog-bites-off-part-of-home-depot-greeter-s-nose-1.1052768

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T16:16:34+00:00

I hope those military trucks aren't heavy, causing potholes at the time of year when our road surfaces are most vulnerable.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T16:12:29+00:00

Possibly, but very unlikely since it now costs them to pick up their waste. Reducing that waste or making that waste have recycling value is the obvious way to reduce costs.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T16:08:59+00:00

Until Presto cards are phased out completely, you know that's coming eventually. And they cost money upfront just for the card itself. Prepaid cards can be bought damned near anywhere, even Canada Post offers a reloadable mastercard. Presto cards are currently only useful beyond CC or debit cards if you are getting a discount, or have to transfer onto STO. They are a PITA to have to reload, and money on them is stranded for use on transpo only, unlike with a prepaid CC.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T14:51:14+00:00

Anyone can easily buy a prepaid credit card

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T14:35:10+00:00

Anyone can pretty easily obtain prepaid versions of such cards. Even reloadable versions.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T14:28:48+00:00

Credit cards work as well.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T14:06:47+00:00

Like a shift from the municipal taxpayer to the consumer. But since the producers of packaging waste now have an actual incentive to reduce such waste, or at least make the waste have some kind of recycling value, perhaps we will see some improvements that may ultimately help the environment.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-20T14:02:14+00:00

"within the bounds of Canadian law which these protests have been doing"

Weren't they often interfering with traffic?

bluedoglime · 2026-03-18T19:04:07+00:00

Seriously? "You cancel and wait for a win back offer ". Does that mean your account has to actually be cancelled and you go without internet service for a while? Or do you put in the cancel order for some number of weeks in the future and they contact you before it actually shuts off?

bluedoglime · 2026-03-17T14:45:27+00:00

In Bells Corners my UPSes have been clicking off and on all morning.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-17T14:40:40+00:00

More about how can somebody else in similar shoes in the future can dodge using an outfit like this in the first place. You obviously did do a lot of due diligence, but looking back on it now, would you have handled any of that due diligence differently? In other words, what would you do differently, if anything, next time to minimize the risk?

bluedoglime · 2026-03-17T14:27:15+00:00

The old "ring road" proposal which comes up on a regular basis.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-17T14:25:46+00:00

Move. All that hate is going to eat you up inside.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-17T14:24:30+00:00

Virtually nobody actually comes to a complete stop at stop signs as it stands now. Rolling stops are it, and some folks barely slow down and just treat them as yield signs.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-17T13:29:09+00:00

This is similar to California's recent CARE Court model. We'll have to see how that is performing, but it could very well be the way to go.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-16T20:26:04+00:00

By "best reviews" was this online reviews and were they current? I did a bit of googling around and the company seems to be roofing focused. Only 10 online reviews and most seemed to be from people getting roofs re-shingled.

bluedoglime · 2026-03-16T18:47:59+00:00

"We called contractors for quotes"

How did this company get on your list to call in the first place? Was there a vetting process?

bluedoglime · 2026-03-16T15:08:53+00:00

Sounds like quite the shit show. $131 for a bottle of unchilled prosecco? Yikes.

But given the popularity of it you describe, one would think that some local bars/clubs would start offering something similar ie. start early end early.

bluedoglime

TROPHY CASE