Rose's Cantina

I opened my water bill a few weeks back and I couldn't believe my eyes. The bill said my water cost was $350. Two bills ago, it was $125. I called up the city, on the famous 3-1-1 line Hello, City of Ottawa. Hi. I'm calling about my water and sewer bill. It's doubled in the last three months. Silence. I'm hoping you can tell me why that is. Why what is? That my bill has doubled. How many people are currently living in your house? Five. Oh. Well, we estimate that every person uses $50 worth of water. And one is a baby. To my thinking, she uses about three litres a week. Yes, as I said, we estimate that every person in a household uses $50 worth of water. Well, that makes it $250. Hah. Well, then, you must have a leaky toilet. You should have the toilet checked. That is the primary reason why people's bills go up. We don't have a leaky toilet. You'd be surprised. Go into your bathroom and tell me: is it running? No. Perhaps you should ...

What's with all the banning of stuff? Our politicians seem to have this false sense of confidence, now that they've been able to tear the cigarettes from the yellowed hands and wrinkly upper lips of smokers. Don't get me wrong; I'm all for a smoking ban in areas where non-smokers collide with smokers, like on a train or in a restaurant or office space. I still remember having to choke through a shift in a newsroom while an oldtimer hacked up a lung at the next desk. Indeed, it wasn't pretty. And I often wondered to myself how anyone could believe you could have a smoking section in a compressed cabin on an airline. But I do feel for the poor smoker who isn't able to light up a butt on a park bench or on an open air patio. What are we afraid of? That the seagull trying to take a guy's sandwich is going to succumb to lung cancer? I'm somewhat in favor of a smoking ban, but a plastic bag ban? Please. That's what's happening in Toron...

For the most part, the City of Ottawa does a pretty good job of running things. For the most part. But the city's water and sewer department is, in my opinion, a disaster. We don't run out of water and the sewer in my neighborhood is never found spewing stink all over the street. And there's always enough water to make sure your house doesn't burn down. I'm talking about its billing department. Yesterday, I got my water bill and I opened it with trepidation. That's because the cost of water delivery has soared over the last year. I've said to Scott, more than once, that we shouldn't have to pay this much for water when we don't have a washer or a dishwasher. So imagine my surprise when the water bill wasn't a bill at all. It was a statement which said "credit balance -- do not pay". It seems we've overpaid our water bill by $163.87. That's a lot of overpayment. This happened to me a few years ago, when the w...