Live~NRGY

In the short time that I’ve actually cut the cord sort of speaking – travel and move to another city to live out a dream and see the world and the way other people engage it, I know that 1 city doesn’t entirely cut it. However in all fairness to living out this dream, it’s taken me 53 years and a huge push and shove to get the ball rolling in overcoming my own fears on many levels.

One of the things that I’ve encountered and definitely would like to point out is the following….

I’ve spoken loudly on the issue of a need for electrical outlets just recently however it’s been on my radar screen for many years as an observation. I suspect there is a policy in place which I believe needs to change now that I’m aware of it’s importance.

Recently after having moved to Calgary with basically little money to my name due to a severe lack of work in Kemptville/Ottawa area and little to show for the last 6 months of just getting back to the job market after raising my 2 kids for the last 10 years and going through divorce hell and back, I was desperately trying to get work in Calgary with little success.

Through it all I had managed to find a local landscaper who was willing to hire me supposedly through an acquaintance I met at the Salvation Army who had given me the lead. So armed with the information and contact made, I was to meet him after working for him a few hours in the evening laying sod in Calgary. Seemed like a nice fellow to work for – jovial and all. He asked me to come in the next day and told me to meet him where he had parked his truck and trailer near Centre St and McKnight. I had been thrown out of the Salvation Army the night before starting work for him and was up all night trying to find a Tim Hortons to drink coffee and stay out of trouble. Didn’t see the need to go to the Calgary Drop In center as I was not intoxicated nor on drugs. So I ended up on Centre St & 64th Ave. staying up all night outside trying to stay warm. I did manage to get a coffee from the Tim Hortons drive thru even though I had no car.

So here is the crux of the matter – cellphone and laptop running on batteries only. No plug for electrical power to recharge. Had to turn off cellphone to manage the power level. Next morning after walking down Centre St towards Mcknight at the pre-arranged rendez-vous point, the landscape owner was late and cellphone batter almost dead. Called him to make contact and he told me he would be there soon and I told him about my cellphone battery issue. He told me to go to the 7 Eleven at Centre St & Mcknight to charge up. No plug in sight at 7 Eleven and Petro Canada plug across the street was off.

Had to walk back to the rendez-vous point and waited for landscape owner to show up. Houses across the street from his parked truck had outlets on outside of the house, so I decided to go and ask permission to plug my cellphone battery in to recharge. No one home at 8:30am so on to the next house. Knocked and rang door bell. Asian man finally answered and I asked if I could recharge my cellphone on an outside wall plug. He hesitated and didn’t know what to say. So I told him I would pay him $5.00 dollars to charge my cellphone and laptop. He agreed and I paid him. Waited approximately 10 minutes until landscape owner showed up and he waved hello to the Asian man whom he knew. I finally realized that this is a major problem for traveling people around the world.

So here it is in a nutshell –

Make it a law for all businesses to have outside working electrical plugs in every country globally. Make it a max of 5 or 10 amps to limit what can be plugged in. Just cellphones or laptops type of thing. No heavy duty electrical outlets and maybe make it time limited with a time-out period so that nobody is hoarding all day long at the same outlet.

Make it a law and make it deductible for income tax purposes from a business perspective. Call it charity or donation if you will.

From my perspective – 2 things are vital now in today’s connected world – A communications provider(Telco/Cellphone/Internet) & energy(battery and capacity to recharge it).

This is for safety, security, sanity and respect for traveling visitors and local people who otherwise would be considered to be stealing power from unsuspecting people and/or businesses.

It’s not too much to ask and not overly complex to do. Reasonable and practical is the object.

Beside the point, if we can provide clients with all the Free Wi-Fi connections all over the place, it’s only reasonable and logical to help with the power issue too. We’re not getting less connected devices we’re actually getting more. Imagine a time when your cellphone on it’s last battery legs has your Dance of Life crammed into it – I.D., credit cards and whatnot around the corner. It’s a matter of time before someone in dire need without power contemplates lawsuit city if charged for unlawfully siphoning off power from someone in case of an emergency. Don’t need geniuses here to figure that one out.

P.S.
Make sure power outlets are available AND accessible 27/7/365 1/4 days of the year.

Simple plan – make it so….. 🙂 🙂 🙂