Not So Friendly Skies

Up until now, when a person flies from a Canadian airport to any destination that requires using USA airspace, their names had to be compared with a list of “No Fly” names submitted to the airlines from the USA. This means simply flying through USA airspace, not landing in the USA. If a flagged name came up, the airline had to notify Homeland Security.

This was bad enough but now we have a Bill before the House Of Commons that, if passed, gives the USA access to passenger lists and final say on who is allowed to board any flight that enters USA airspace. Passenger lists must be presented to the USA 72 hours prior to departure for approval of each and every passenger.

This means if you are flying from Canada to Mexico, South America, Cuba or even into Toronto from most of Canada, you are crossing into USA airspace and Homeland Security has final say if you are allowed. It also means an end to "Last Minute" deals on vacation packages if the time is too short to submit passenger's names.

So who is on the “No Fly” list? There are not that many known terrorists so the list must be inflated with many other names. Political activists? Members of certain political parties? Certain nationalities? People who have called George Bush an ass? Who knows!

If this Bill passes then the hundreds of Americans who vacation in Cuba by flying from Canada will be “outed” to their own Government and either kicked off the flight or interrogated when they return home.

There is substantial opposition to this Bill growing among the Opposition Parties which in fact form the Majority in Canada’s Government. It is possible this Bill will fail in a vote or even more likely that it will be withdrawn by the Government. Lets hope!

Visitors

Brooks and Linda came up for the weekend. It was a nice visit and for once we did not have any projects lined up for them to help us with. We are 2/3 done with the small bathroom but as there is no room for more than one person in there working, we put that project on hold until tomorrow when we will grout and cut new baseboard.

We were talking about vacations and their need of one so we decided to all go together to Cuba in October for Brooks' 40th birthday. We looked for a deal on the Internet but could not find any really good deals so we will keep watching. It will just be eight days as they cannot leave their business for too long. Brooks and Linda have been there before so know their way around. We will have an all inclusive in Veradaro and leave for a couple of nights in a B&B in Havana. I will get to see Hemingway's chair in the El Floridita bar, another thing to check off the "Bucket List". If you look closely at the first photo you can see "Papa's" statue at the far end of the bar.



Here is Papa's statue in front of a photo of Hemingway and Fidel Castro:


The chair beside him is where I will order a mojito!

Still Tiling...

We are still working on the floor in the small bathroom. We took out the vanity and decided to replace it. We did not realize these things are so expensive but once we started looking we were committed. We found a nice one with five drawers and a china top and basin for $700 that we bought. It is black enameled birch with a matching mirror. We also bought a new toilet. so it will be a $1000 project when it is all added up. It will make it look like the Queen's bathroom!

We put the old vanity down at the end of the driveway with a "Free" sign on it and this morning a pickup stopped and a man and woman loaded it up. Beats hauling it to the dump.

Yesterday we cut and dry laid all the tiles. Tomorrow we will cement them down. The walls and ceiling have to be painted before the new vanity comes in as well as a new drain installed so it will be a couple more days. As usual, it turned into a much larger project than we planned.

We took today off to explore the new WalMart that opened this week. It is a "Super Center" with a grocery department but unfortunately, no auto center. It does not have a very large parking lot so I will be curious to see if they allow overnight RV parking. I hope they do.

So, What Is The problem?

My dog shits in your yard, I clean it up! Your oil well leaks in my gulf, you clean it up! Make it like it never happened. Why is this a problem? If you want a dog (or oil well) you must be prepared to accept the consequences. Dogs shit. Oil wells leak. Don't come crying to taxpayers when the dog shits! That is what they do! Why is this a problem?

Now Republican Bobby Jindal (Gov Louisiana) says he would rather have more oil wells leaking into the Gulf then to loose a few jobs. A judge agrees with him. But wait, that judge is personally heavily invested in Big Oil!

Why do we call them GOBP? They don't want to clean up after their dog. Or the oil. The Government should mot be apologizing to BP but should instead be telling them that the WILL remove every trace of that oil from the Gulf and its shores. Period.

Oil Spill From Space

This is what Republicans (now known as the GOBP) are saying Obama is being too mean to BP over. One hundred and sixty million gallons and still counting!

Oh, My Aching Bones!

I am 65. Everyone knows that except me sometimes.

This morning I tackled one of the major jobs in the job jar: tiling the en-suite bathroom floor. It has been sitting in the job jar for years and last year we actually bought the tiles. The job got pushed back until it was too late to do it before we left for Mexico.

The existing floor covering is carpet, thanks to a previous owner. Can you imagine anything more disgusting than carpet in a bathroom? Yuk! Norma is the only one to use that room and she is much "tidier" than me so that is the only reason it has not been done sooner.

Today I removed the toilet and vanity and ripped up the old carpet. It actually was not as bad as I thought it might be. The carpet was a little rotten under the toilet but there was no sign of long term water damage. The tack strip around the outside of the room was the worst job. It is impossible to remove that stuff without damaging your hands and I again proved that. My hands are bleeding, I ripped a sock on a nail that I failed to pull and I tore my jeans on another. Par for the course.

I cut out the concrete board to fit the room and tomorrow I buy some thin set to lay it with. Then I will dry lay the tiles and make all the necessary cuts. Several years ago we bought a cheap $100 wet tile saw. Most people rent them when they need them but I figured if I used it more than three or four days I was ahead and I certainly have done that. The next day Norma will lay the tiles. She has more patience to get them "just right" than I do. I would be good at laying them the "Mexican way". Down there none of the tile floors are perfect. Tiles are not exactly square, edges are chipped, colors vary slightly tile to tile and grout lines are not perfect but the end result is beautiful! Here, everything has to be perfect and a buyer will walk in and say, "this grout line is 1/32 of an inch wider than the rest. We will have to re-do the floor". I do not have the patience for it.

The next project is to tile the main bathroom. But not before a few days rest. I am good at resting!

Fathers Day

We had a great Fathers Day down at Brooks and Linda's. Our ten year old granddaughter Sierrah was there as well as Linda's mom, Janice. I always have fun with Janice! Her and I sing great Johnny Rivers duets together! Brooks and Linda's neighbors/friends Mike and Audrey came over so it was a great evening. We stayed just the one night and left after breakfast. On the way home we found a nice restaurant in French Creek on the Old Island Highway that we have never been to and stopped for brunch.

Sierrah asked her dad to make her a planting box for her vegetable garden at home and Brooks told her if she wanted one, she could build it herself and he would help her. That was great news for her as she loves anything to do with working with her hands. She takes after her dad in this. Brooks cut all the pieces for her and then she laid it all out and went to work with the nail gun (don't worry, she had safety glasses, the nail gun was on safety and we were close by). She did an excellent job and finished the project up by drilling a bunch of drain holes in the bottom. She will be growing tomatoes and peas in this one.

She wants to learn all about the fencing/decking business as she says she fully intends to work for her dad and to buy the business when he retires. In her spare time she will be an artist and I don't doubt her in the least!

Eagle Lunch

We bought a sockeye salmon to take to Brooks' for dinner tomorrow. We trimmed it out so I had a bag of scraps to feed to the eagles on the beach out front. I know they have a nest somewhere behind the house as I can hear their conversations but I have not been able to spot the nest.

I placed the bones and head on a large flat rock, retreated back a ways, sat down with my camera and waited. In about two minutes a couple of seagulls landed but saw the circling pair of eagles and decided that discretion was the better part of valor and left. The eagles circled a couple of times until they decided that I meant no harm and swept in. The first one landed and grabbed the backbone, followed closely by his/her mate who grabbed the head. It was all over in a few seconds. They did not leave a tip but I got the photos.

These photos were a test of my new 18 - 250 Tamron lens. I decided to return the 18 - 200 that was sent in error and to get the one I wanted in the first place. I am happy I did.

Reflections on Retirement

Our Pension Plan is very rich and everyone’s retirement is guaranteed no matter what happens to the company. The fund is not controlled by or held by Telus but is controlled by elected Union Trustees and appointed Company Trustees. Retirement age is determined with a a formula allowing retirement when you reach age 55 with a minimum of 25 years service. Sort of an “80” formula. This was all gained by decades of successful bargaining and lots of work convincing our members to have part of negotiated increases put into the Pension Plan instead of pay raises in their pockets. I took advantage of this on the day before my 55th birthday with 34 years service and retired with about 75% of my exit wages. There have been a couple of small increases since then to try to keep up with inflation.

Our Union put on seminars for everyone as they approached the “magic age”. There are about twenty choices you have to make when you retire determining if you get more now and less later when the Government pensions cut in. You also have to declare what percentage you leave your spouse. All this controls what your pension cheque will be. It is all a little overwhelming to face these decisions at the same time as all the other life changing things are happening. It is important to get good advice and these seminars are valuable as one step in this process.

At the end of the two day seminar they asked the question: “What do you most fear about retirement”? Most people chose “money problems”, a couple of single people chose “loneliness” but one fellow I worked with was the only one in the room to choose “boredom”. I can understand the first two concerns but boredom? Man, that is the last thing that concerned me! Actually I found it impossible to answer this question. I had thought it out and planned to the point that I had answered all these concerns myself. I had my finances in order, the house was paid for and I had a sizeable “rainy day fund” hidden away. I knew I was going to be doing lots of travel and splitting my time between Canada and a warm climate. I had paid cash for our “starter” motorhome.

If I had a concern it was the fact that this would be the first time I would be spending extensive periods of time with my wife. All through my career with the phone company, I travelled extensively and was seldom around during the week. Norma was the same with her job working for the local Member of Parliament and her work with the New Democratic party. These jobs kept her away as much as me and our only real time together was during vacations. When we moved to Vancouver Island, my job was in Campbell River and hers was hundreds of miles away in Vancouver and then Victoria. We only saw each other on weekends, and not all of them. This was going to be a great lifestyle change for both of us!

That was ten years ago and we are both still alive so it worked out. The “rainy day fund” is still waiting for some rain although it took one hit when Norma needed extensive dental work and another when we dipped into it to buy the new motorhome. All in all my decision over which of the twenty some pension choices to take is proving to be smart. I got a raise at 60 when I took the Canada Pension Plan payments early and then another raise at 65 when the Old Age Pension started. Our income is enough to live and travel on and the fund is building itself up again. Life is good.

Off To Brooks'

Our son invited us down to Shawnigan Lake for Father's Day weekend. It is a four hour drive but well worth the trip because he is an excellent cook! Our littlest granddaughter, Sierrah (10), will be there and she is in the process of building her own garden so that will be fun.

Our deer ate the tops off all Norma's lilies this morning before she got up so she is worrying about what will happen to the rest of her flowers if she leaves. I am telling her she is just like her dad who would never leave his property in the summer for the same reason. I don't think that scored me any points!