Resident Canada Goose Nest and Egg Depredation Order

I was browsing the US Fish and Wildlife website to see if I could also post information on US permits when I stumbled upon this link:
https://epermits.fws.gov/eRCGR/geSI.aspx

This is the US government's Login page if you want to register to destroy the nests and eggs of Canada Geese on your property in the United States?

Reading further, Oh! It's all alright... this is a seasonal activity? The government monitors your ... what they term... 'take'?

They impose restrictions: Eggs must be shaken, punctured or oiled. Must use 100% corn oil. Apparently it's exempt from regulation by the US EPA under Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.
Destroyed nest material may be left in the field or disposed of by burial, incineration or placement in the outgoing trash. You may not retain the eggs for personal use. (Sure, just destroy them... you wouldn't want to actually use them for food or fertilizer now, would you!) And oh! you can't sell, barter or trade them either.

I'm not going to really give an opinion on this... wouldn't think I'd have to. Up in Canada, we have an overpopulation of deer. They cause a ton of car accidents and actually some winters they can't survive because there's just not enough food for them. So, the Ontario government culls them...and I can't hardly wrap my brain around killing such a lovely creature... BUT... they have organized hunts where people can use them for food. Each hunter gets a quota. They count them and spend oodles of our tax money doing studies and... you get the picture.

I just have a problem with waste. Wasting a life. Wasting a beautiful bird. Wasting eggs. With so many people hungry and wanting in North America, can't we do something other than search and destroy?

Oops! There! I gave my opinion after all!

My new Blog: My Secrets for Happiness!

I’ve made a decision. No, not whether to honour No Shave November. Not whether to wear blue or black today, but something a little more fun and noteworthy. Here it is:

I decided I’m just not having enough fun with Almost Retired Handbook and so I am launching a new Blog entitled: My Secrets For Happiness.

I want to pass along recipes and how to’s and folk lore and things we’ve done and places we’ve seen and this Blog here just doesn’t seem to be the place to do that, so, hence the new Blog! I started this whole Blog thing after seeing the movie
Julia and Julia, so it seems fitting, doesn’t it? (If you’ve not seen that movie, oh my goodness, do so!)

Almost Retired will continue with relevant information and news events and how to and wherefor’s... but a little more targeted to that audience, specifically, for people of a certain age and position in life.

Maybe I won’t post on it everyday, but I will post regularly. Maybe it won’t be as pretty or fluffy.... that will be the job of the new kid: My Secrets for Happiness! But it will still have jokes and photos and graphics and oh yes, my opinions and I hope will still be worth reading once in awhile.
Silver and Hollowware Replacements will continue existence simply because I need to think I’m still a Gypsy and am trading in something. I still offer items on Ebay under Lucy74Port and oh! We also both have full time jobs! Think what I can do once I retire!

I hope my followers will also enjoy my new Blog as much I as I will love writing it and any comments or suggestions you don’t want posted are always welcome to Lucy74Port@yahoo.com


v

No Shave November?

I've just read a great Blog by Eva Gallant who posts Wrestling With Retirement and have learned too late that it has been No Shave November!

Well! I hide my face in shame! (Or is it scraped skin in shame?) Who knew and why didn't anybody tell me about this in October? Or maybe in September when I bought that jumbo bag of razors on sale at Shoppers?

Oh! But she also says it's No Sex November! Apparently invented to combat No Sex November? Wait! We 'older folks' have enough trouble getting it on period, let alone following all these new traditions and Fads!

I just got used to having to wear a bra every day! (You know, bigger boobs since I quit smoking and not as much muscle to hold them up?)

Well, you can all research that fad and maybe yes or maybe no hold the tradition next November, but me? I'm hoping the Alzheimer's sets in and I forget all about it!

Eva's Blog can be found at: http://wrestlingretirement.blogspot.com She is very entertaining and I am enjoying her blog everyday! Go check her out!

77 Days to go: The Olympics Vancouver 2010

This next year, the winter Olympics are being held in Vancouver, Canada. I am going to post some things of interest in the next few weeks.

The web site is : http://www.vancouver2010.com/

Today the Olympic torch is being carried from Fredericton, New Brunswick to Bathurst, New Brunswick on it's way across Canada. It is expected in Vancouver to light the Olympic Cauldron on February 12th, 2010.
There is an interactive map link on the website that you can follow the route the runners will take. May they have sunny skies and mild temperatures for their run.

Olympic Flame
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Olympic Flame or Olympic Torch is a symbol of the Olympic Games. Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, where a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The fire was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since. The torch relay of modern times which transports the flame from Greece to the various designated sites of the games had no ancient precedent and was introduced by Carl Diem at the controversial 1936 Berlin Olympics.

American Thanksgiving, I am also thankful

Our Canadian Thanksgiving is always the second Monday of October and so we have long since ironed the tablecloths and put the dishes all away, but:

On this day as Americans are celebrating their Thanksgiving, I here in Canada would also like to give thanks. I live in a wonderful place, free from worry and strife for the most part. I am so lucky!

Our poor old world has had to endure many atrocities in the form of wars and catastrophes. We have suffered things that people should never have to live through. Although we have never had a war on our own soil in my lifetime, many good people in my lifetime and before me, have lost their lives and many families' future have been forever altered because of wars that our armed services have fought in.

91st Battalion Panorama, The Great War 1914 to 1918

CLICK PHOTO TO MAKE LARGER PLEASE!

Today, I would like to honor the 91st Overseas Battalion. This photo was taken in May 1916, one month prior to their departure overseas. the 91st saw action in battles including, but not limited to: The Somme, Arras, Passchendaele, Ypres, St Eloi, Vimy Ridge and Amens. 58 decorations were bestowed on the members of the Battalion including four Military Crosses.
One out of every six men in this photo were "killed in action" and more than 50% of them were wounded in action and many several times.

The Armouries, pictured in the centre, was constructed in 1903 and now houses the Elgin Regiment (RCAC)

The County of Elgin, Ontario, Canada, maintains a website: /www.elgin.ca/fww and they archive many collections there for you to visit online.

Every day, we should stop for just a minute to give thanks!

How to pick a driving school? What! You need to go to school to drive?

Up here, we have a monthly little magazine distributed by CAA, which is the Canadian version of AAA. It has various articles and ads about travel, insurance and hotels and such...

One of the articles this month was titled: Teaching Your Teen To Drive.

...and I thought to myself... "teach your teen???"

I have to tell you all that I'm old enough to have been driving since I was eleven years old! Ok. So we lived on a farm in the sticks where a cop went down the road about every six years... but seriously! How did I ever see over the steering wheel?

And.. it was my Dad's pickup truck too! An International Harvestor half ton pickup it was and painted barn red! With three in the tree no less! Manual steering and no power brakes. And, did I mention I was only eleven?

I can't recall how I came to be behind the wheel, but I can still remember my Dad's face... all grins... Cigarette in hand ... Felt fedora at that jaunty angle he always wore... Not explaining to me how to drive his truck, because I thought I already knew... but how to feather the gas between gears so the rev's would stay up and the truck would not lurch.. and how to just hold the steering wheel lightly between my thumb and fore fingers so as not to over steer!

Many miles I drove before I finally turned sixteen and marched into the St Thomas Driver's License office to get my beginners. Ten days later, I had my real license... no graduated crap for us experts! I had my first car that same week and elected to get the $75.00 a year collision insurance. (Insurance wasn't even mandatory back then.)

So when you're grandkids go off to take their Driver's Ed, don't tell them about me out flogging Dad's pickup over the anthills in the back forty. It'll only make them mad and hopefully a little jealous of an old girl who grew up in Canada!

We 've had a mild November: My geranium.

I've been feeling left out! Several of you are posting pictures of your geraniums and well, I needed to as well. You know, follow along and bond sort of?

So Outside I went tonight, trusty Canon in hand and snapped some pictures of my one and only geranium left outside. We had one in a pot this year, a gift from my niece on Mother's Day and it has given us much pleasure all summer with it's prolific blooms. It has been outside all summer. We really haven't had a hard frost yet here.

It is an Ivy Geranium, bought at good old Canadale's Nursery in St Thomas. Every Mommas day my sweetheart of a niece buys me and her other mom's a beautiful outdoor plant. She is like a daughter to us and in fact Dick proudly gave her away at her wedding a few years ago. She would be so happy it has lasted so long. I will have to send her a copy of this photo.

Yes, we are in southwestern Ontario, Canada, but if you look at a map, we are only 65 miles north of Cleveland, Ohio, across Lake Erie. We have had a wonderfully mild fall mind, last November this day, we had several inches of snow on the ground!

Enjoy my photos as poor as they are and hope my American friends are all having fun getting ready for their Thanksgiving. Stay well, Lucy!

Out Door Cards. Ontario, Canada

This is taken directly from the Ontario Government website and it boils down to you need a license from our government to hunt and fish in Ontario UNTIL you are 65. After that age, they figger we don't need to pay for that privilege. Oh! You can also fish free if you are a minor or under the age of 18. (Like we're ever going to see that again, but good to know if you're taking the grandkids fishing!)
There are different regulations for visitors to Canada, listed below as well.

Also farther down and just for the yuks, I've posted to rate plans for the different options. Leave it to the government to make it as involved and confusing as they possible can! Remember that we still use British English spellings for lots of words.

Fast Facts about Ontario Outdoors Cards and Fishing Licences


A licence to fish in Ontario consists of an Outdoors Card plus a fishing licence tag (either affixed to the card or accompanying the card). Here is a quick overview of the basics for Ontario residents, Canadian residents, and non-Canadian residents.

Note: An Outdoors Card is not required for a one-day fishing licence.





Ontario Residents

Ontario residents need an Outdoors Card to fish in Ontario if they are at least 18 years old but have not reached their 65th birthday. The sportfishing licence tag or the conservation fishing licence tag (3 year or 1 year) is affixed to, or accompanied by, the plastic Outdoors Card.

If you have never had an Outdoors Card, you can request an application form be mailed to you by phoning the Outdoors Card Centre from anywhere in Canada at 1-800-387-7011.

Your Outdoors Card is good for three calendar years.

If you are an Ontario resident between 18 and 65 years of age and you want to fish in Ontario right away, you can buy a "Resident Temporary Fishing Licence and Outdoors Card and Application" from one of more than 1,800 licence issuers across the province. This temporary paper licence is effective immediately and valid until December 31 of the year in which it was purchased.

The fee for a temporary paper licence includes the cost of a three-year plastic Outdoors Card.

If your Outdoors Card will soon expire, or has already expired, the fastest and easiest way to renew your Outdoors Card is a three year renewal by credit card with a call to 1-800-288-1155 or online at the Outdoors Card website.

Ontario resident hunters can also fish under the authority of their Outdoors Card (hunting version) with the appropriate fishing licence tag.

You can also get more information on the Outdoors Card by calling the Outdoors Card Centre at 1-800-387-7011. This toll-free number works from all regions of Canada, from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time).


Canadian (other than Ontario) Residents


Canadian residents need an Outdoors Card to fish in Ontario if they are at least 18 years old but have not reached their 65th birthday. The sportfishing licence tag or the conservation fishing licence tag accompanies the plastic Outdoors Card.



If you have never had an Outdoors Card, you can purchase a "Canadian Resident Temporary Fishing Outdoors Card and Application" from one of more than 1,800 licence issuers across the province. The Canadian Resident Temporary Fishing Outdoors Card and Application does not include the fishing licence tag. The fishing licence tag will be a separate paper permit.



The temporary Outdoors Card and paper licence tag are effective immediately. Your plastic Outdoors Card will be mailed to you by year end, and is valid for three calendar years (including the year of purchase).



Canadian resident hunters can also fish under the authority of their Outdoor Card (hunting version) with the appropriate fishing licence tag.



You can also get more information on the Outdoors Card by calling the Outdoors Card Centre at 1-800-387-7011. This toll-free number works from all regions of Canada, from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time).



Non-Canadian Residents


Non-Canadian residents need an Outdoors Card to fish in Ontario if they are 18 years of age and over. (NOTE: Non-residents 65 years of age or older are not exempt from requiring a licence). The sportfishing licence tag (1 one year or 8 day) or the conservation fishing licence tag (1 year or 8 day) accompanies the plastic Outdoors Card.

If you have never had an Outdoors Card, you can purchase a "Non-Canadian Resident Temporary Fishing Outdoors Card and Application" from one of more than 1,800 licence issuers across the province. The Non-Canadian Resident Temporary Fishing Outdoors Card and Application does not include the fishing licence tag. The fishing licence tag will be a separate paper permit.

The temporary Outdoors Card and paper licence are effective immediately. Your plastic Outdoors Card will be mailed to you by year end, and is valid for three calendar years (including the year of purchase).

Non-Canadian resident hunters can also fish under the authority of their Outdoor Card (hunting version) with the appropriate fishing licence tag.

You can also get more information on the Outdoors Card by calling the Outdoors Card Centre at 1-800-387-7011. This toll-free number works from all of North America, from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time).
______________________________________________________________
These one-year Ontario resident licence fees are in effect from January 1, 2009, until December 31, 2009. Three-year fees are subject to change after August 31, 2010. For the location of the licence issuer nearest you, contact your local Ministry of Natural Resources office.



NOTE: The 2009 Ontario Budget proposed a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) for the Province of Ontario. Subject to legislative approval, the HST would come into effect on July 1, 2010 and would generally apply to fees that cover a period that occurs on or after July 1, 2010. For this reason, these rates may change.





Licence Type
Available From

2010 Fee for Ontario Residents
(includes GST)
Outdoors Card plus three-year Sport Fishing Licence Tag

* Available online at the Outdoors Card website (renewal only)
* by phone (renewal only) at 1-800-288-1155
* by mail (new application or renewal)$83.25

Outdoors Card plus three-year Conservation Fishing Licence Tag

* Available online at the Outdoors Card website (renewal only)
* by phone (renewal only) at 1-800-288-1155
* by mail (new application or renewal)$51.75

Sport Fishing Licence Tag (one year) and Outdoors Card and Application. (Outdoors Card is included in this fee.)

* Available as an E-licence (renewal only) at the Outdoors Card website
* from 1,800+ licence issuers throughout the province.$33.25

Conservation Fishing Licence Tag (one year) and Outdoors Card and Application. (Outdoors Card is included in this fee.)

* Available as an E-licence (renewal only) at the Outdoors Card website
* from 1,800+ licence issuers throughout the province. $23.00

Ontario/Canadian Resident One-Day Fishing Licence

(Outdoors Card not required.)
Most licence issuers (including ServiceOntario offices) throughout the province. $11.25

Three-year Outdoors Card only (no licence tags). This Outdoors Card becomes a fishing licence when a one-year licence tag is affixed or when accompanied by an E-licence.

* Available online (renewal only) at the Outdoors Card website.
* by phone (renewal only) at 1-800-288-1155
* by mail (new application or renewal) $9.00
One-year Sport Fishing Licence Tag (for holders of a valid Outdoors Card)

* Available as an E-licence at the Outdoors Card website
* from 1,800+ licence issuers throughout the province.$24.25

One-year Conservation Fishing Licence Tag (for holders of a valid Outdoors Card)

* Available as an E-licence at the Outdoors Card website
* from 1,800+ licence issuers throughout the province. $14.00

ONTARIO RESIDENTS: If you wish to both fish and hunt, you may apply for an Outdoors Card (hunting/fishing version) which provides for both privileges.

For information on this option call the Outdoors Card Centre: 1-800-387-7011.

To renew your Outdoors Card (hunting/fishing version) with a credit card, call 1-800-288-1155 or go to the Outdoors Card website.

Various

Address changes for Ontario, Canada Residents

You've been in the same house your whole adult life and now you move to your retirement home or apartment and you've got all those documents to change. What do you do? Where do you turn? Maybe I can put some helpful links in here.

Driver's License, Outdoor Cards, Health Cards.

There's an internet web site that you can go to and only enter the information once for an address change and all three Ministries will be notified. How simple can that be?

To access this on-line service see:
www.servicepontario.ca/english/iac/address_change.htm
...and you can choose all or one of these too change.

Kiosks - Service Ontario.
There are 70 Service Ontario kiosks located throughout the province of Ontario to access a number of government of Ontario services including:renewing license plate stickers, ordering personalized license plates, purchasing driver and vehicle abstracts, paying Ontario provincial court fines, changing your address on your Ontario Health Card or Driver''s License and finally renewing your Outdoor cards.
You'll need your credit card or debit card to take advantage of these easy to use (they call them) machines.
They are open seven days a week at most locations with extended service hours. Located in /major shopping centres.
You can call:1-800-268-4646
web site: www.mto.gov.on.ca

Go have a look and see what's up!

Ontario Government Information

I know, most of my current followers are from the United States, but I wanted to add some Ontario specific information on my Blog. It is after all supposed to be informative and so with information, you will be informed! (No wonder folks never take me seriously!)
I would think that your own government would have like web services available for you.

This is taken from a book I picked up at our Libro (The old St Willibroard Credit Union...previously known as the Care Credit union...)

Online: The Government of Ontario, the Federal Government and most Municipalities provide a wide range of information and services via the worldwide web.
-Online Service. www.cbs.gov.on.ca/mcbs/english/services.htm
This web site enables you to complete some routine tasks online like:
...request a birth certificate.
...renew a driver's licence
...register a change of name.
...renew an outdoors card and much more....? (Outdoors card is hunting and fishing in Canadian.)

What my government calls Life Event Bundles and here's what that says:
Significant changes come into everyone's life such as birth, marriage, retirement, (here we go!) and even losing one's wallet. We call these life events. The Ontario Government is using Life Events as a new way to organize information and services to bring everything on a subject together in one place.
If you are dealing with a certain life event, the Online Services gateway operated by the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services can provide one-window access to information from many different departments and jurisdictions to help you deal with that life event.
Current life event services bundled online include:
...Getting ready to retire.
...Leisure and Active Living For Older Adults.
...Getting Married (Something some of us are still doing..)
...Losing Your Wallet.
...How to Deal with Spouse Abuse.
...Moving
...Managing your debt
...Vacation Ontario
...What to do when someone dies. )this will certainly be helpful.)

For more information visit the "Life Events" section at the Government of Ontario Web site:
www.gov.on.ca
Or visit a government Information centre nearest you. For a directory call Citizen's Inquiry Bureau at 1-800-267-8097.

Friday night in almost retired land.

Friday night is kind of our date night still. We meet in the lane way after work and drive the few blocks to our favorite restaurant in town for a couple sodas and some Lake Erie Perch caught fresh today. A well deserved treat after our hard week at our jobs.
We walk into the Buccaneer Restaurant and the girls greet us. Normally we sit at the same table. Our sodas magically appear. (Who am I kidding? Dick's double white rum and coke and mine with coke and tequila!)
We sit for a couple of hours chatting about our week's. Sometimes some friends will sit with us and we will yak and yak. Tonight we exchanged stories with Rick and Brenda about Car shows and Zephyrhills, Florida.
Here we are after our busy, long evening back home sitting in our lazy boy chairs, me on the laptop and Dick surfing the TV. Soon, I will hand him the Mac Book Pro so he can surf Ebay and he will hand me the remote for the TV. We will watch Ghost Whisperers.
A couple of hours of TV watching.. (hopefully I can be awake long enough for Diner's Drive-in's and Dives..) and we will go to bed.

Another perfect Friday night with my beloved Dick. Life is sweet!

Finding financial peace? Say What?

There's an article called: "People Who Have Found Financial Peace!"
Of course I had to go read it to find out what the advice was. Turns out the author of the article was divulging the four top methods of attaining what she termed was financial peace and I asked myself: 'What ta heck is that anyway?'

...so read on....

1. They know exactly where their money goes.
The suggestion is to write down everything you spend for two months until you know where every penny goes. Apparently you'll be more aware of your bank balance and not go into overdraft or run up your credit cards on things you don't need if you write everything down. The expert said it's harder to spend cash than it is to swipe a plastic card. If you're not worrying every minute about how much everybody in the house is spending, you'd feel better.
Personally, I like to hide the odd thing from Dick. Keeps him on his toes if he can't explain every nickel away in our bank account.

2. They know what they want their money to do.
We are supposed to focus on two or three big goals we value, like a house, set a time line, and then break the goal into smaller steps. Set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to a saving vehicle weekly or monthly or to an RRSP. Pay attention to your own goals instead of what the neighbors are doing so you don't feel like you're always behind. Remember the grass is always greener on the other side? It might look like the neighbors have more than you, but they likely lied about the amount of their debt too!

3. They don't carry revolving debt, (credit cards,) or they have a specific plan to pay it down.
This means don't just pay the minimum on your credit cards every month. Did you know that if you put $1,000 on a credit card at 18 percent and make just minimum payments, it will take 12 years to pay off and cost $1,100 in interest? (Totaling $2,100.00 out of your pocket!) Put $20 more a month toward that card and it would be paid off in two years and a few months, with only $226 in interest.
Used to be that credit cards were for emergencies only and now people seem to use them every day to live on. They have trapped us by offering points and low introductory interest rates.

4. They invest in their job skills, and don't expand their lifestyles as fast as their salaries.
ie: If you have an opportunity to send out resumes or take a course to better your job and hence your income... do it.
... and don't live above your income. If you have to use a credit card every week just to buy food, gas, cell phones or another of your 'necessities' you can't afford them! To get anywhere, you have to have money left over every month. You just have to is all!

I know most of this, you've heard a million times before and really, it's just common sense, but if just one person says eureka! And gets a little ahead of the wolves that are always at our doors, then it's worth going over it again.
Remember I'm not an expert and I'm hardly a responsible adult let alone anything else, even at my age! So take my advice with a grain of pepper and use it as you see fit.

Oh! And if you want to link this or paste it... Fill yer boots!

Some more about my retirement home.

To finish my thoughts about my retirement home, let me explain some more stuff.

Not too big so it doesn't take too long to vacuum. Does anybody out there like to vacuum? Well! Come on over! Seriously! The last thing I want to do is say something like... 'Oh! Sorry, I can't go with you for the nice long drive today honey because I have to vacuum?' That whining, screaming thing that you have to lean over to use cause they don't make 'tall vacuums' yet? The appliance that is always full of cat hair when you want to whip around with it? That thing that cost a bundle to get one that will even suck up the cat hair?

How would I have time to Blog if I always had to vacuum?

A tall toilet for my retirement home.

You likely noticed the wish for a tall toilet in my 'retired' house and you shook your head and went huh? What ta heck is a tall toilet?

Well, my next house will have one and here is what is is:

They make toilets that are higher than the regular ones that we all have in our regular houses. Just a couple of inches taller mind.... but once your knees start to give out and the old artheritus kicks in, you want to give those grab bars you had installed when you hit sixty all the help you can!

I have a little exercise for you tonight and you'll 'get' what I'm talkin' about here!
Step number 1: Go in your bathroom and sit on yer toilet. Once down, (and yes, I mean allll the way down...) get up. Take note of how difficult it actually is to stand once you've plunked yer butt down? Did your knees groan and your calf muscles scream? Didn't it feel like you had sat so far down your butt was lower than your ankles?
Step number 2: Now! Go out to the kitchen and plunk down on a chair. There! Now stand. Was it as difficult? Didn't you feel much more civilized? (Of course you did! You weren't sitting on a toilet!) Anyway... it was easier to get up from, right?
Step number 3: A man would say: 'get your Lowe's tape measure and measure the utilized chair and then compare to the measurement of the toilet...' But I say hell! Drag the said chair into the bathroom and eyeball the two! See? They make chairs taller!

So! When we renovate the new house, I'm going to install a tall toilet in our bathroom. And I won't strain a vertebrae hawling my sorry old arse up from my throne!

A middle aged problem.

I can’t bend over. Sure, I’m in my late 50’s , but I’m only a few pounds overweight (no, really, only a few! ) Sure, I have arthritis. But not a lot. Not like my sister does... it’s not the problem...
Ok, so I don’t walk sixteen miles a day. I do not go to yoga or kung Fu or Ty whatever once a week. There’s no Pilates mat in my cupboard and anyways... according to my Doctor, none of those are apparently my problem.
It’s not because I wear a cinch belt as wide as Texas like I wore in the eighties. Nor is it because I wear a playtex girdle like the gals of my mom’s generation did that kept their backs ram rod straight.
Yep! You’ve got it! You’re a good guesser! You found me out!
It’s my hormones! My ‘middle aged spread.’ My bigger belly that makes all the pants in the world not fit! Makes me buy a long handled shoe horn from the dollar store to be able to slide my dressy shoes on. Makes me grunt and groan like a puppy just trying to lean down to pat the cat.

Middle...Now there’s a word that will diddle your brain....

Middle age
Middle man
Middle most
Middle school.
Middle management
Middle of the road

My middle is meddling with my feet: I can’t hardly reach them! Bah!

November sunrise at our cottage

The other day I posted a picture of an awesome sunset taken from my front deck. I couldn't resist going outside and taking these of the sun rise from my same front deck.

A Retirement Joke!

A friend of Dick's sent him a joke today. I loved it! Please take the language and content as it's intended. It wouldn't be the same if I edited.

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting.



Well, for example, the other day my wife and I went into town and went into a shop. We were only in there for about 5 minutes. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and said, 'Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?

He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him an inconsiderate turd.

He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires.

So my wife called him a shit-head. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote.
Personally, we didn't care. We came into town by bus and the car he was ticketing had a Quebec license plate.

We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired. It's important at our age and they say humor heals all.

My Retirement Home Will be:

When I finally get to live in the cottage we've bought to retire to, it:

-is only about 1,200 sq feet inside.
-won't take too long to keep clean.
-has 2 bedrooms, one will fit a king for us, one for an office.
-has enough room for our two lazy boy chairs and a 46 inch TV.
-has a dishwasher.
-will have a big bathroom that has a two man shower and a tall toilet.
-has a big front porch to sit out on to watch the world drive by.
-has sunsets out the front window.
-has a full, dry basement with a workbench all mine!
-has central air.
-has a back yard big enough for a small garden with raised beds.
-has a car port.
-will have a two car garage for Dick to putter in.
-will have a shed for our Harley.
-will have a double wide paved lane way.

Won't it be swell? What will yours be like? Let me know!

Our November Sunset

I came upstairs tonight and couldn't help but notice the awesome sunset over our lake.

Back to the cottage!

You've decided to buy a cottage. Good for you! We live full time at the Lake and we have never regretted moving here.

I'm going to keep it short and simple tonight.

You say: Oh! We couldn't move to the lake! We'd miss our friends!

Ask anybody who has moved away and they'll let you know how your friends are. The good ones will still come see you and the ones that weren't friends will fall by the wayside. We made darned sure we had a 'spare' room and you know, almost nobody slept in it? We're planning on a sofa bed for the next house.
If you've moved to a resort area... there will be a B & B or hotel anyway!

Miss you're friends? Take the $200.00 cure. Hop a plane and go visit!

Cross Border Christmas Shopping

Ah! What do you get when you mix a minivan, four women and November?

The yearly trip to Port Huron for Christmas shopping!

MY FEET ARE SOOO SORE!

We live only an hour and a half from Port Huron, Michigan and my friends and I decided we 'needed' a weekend away from our men. So! Saturday morning we loaded small suitcases into Sarah's mini van, got our Timmies in the drive through and off we barrelled to shop, shop, shop! (Timmies are take out coffee's from Tim Horton's, the famous coffee shop of Ontario, named after it's creator the late NHL Hockey player.)

And... I got almost all my Christmas shopping done! Yaay!

Why do I shop there rather than locally you ask?

I do shop locally. But, even factoring in the exchange rate on the money; I can buy Ontario eggs in Michigan for more than a dollar less than here. I can buy better, nicer bath sheets at half the price that I can here. I can buys toys for our little ones way cheaper. The result is our limited dollars go farther and Christmas will be more bountiful. (Our products are mostly manufactured in the same countries anyway and they pretty much all come to this continent by ship, don't they?)

I believe in shopping locally... I do and we spend ninety-nine percent of our money here. I believe in buying most of our food produced in Ontario, Canada. I will put down the grown in Peru fruit and buy things grown closer to home and I think we all should. You know, green footprint and all....

We can only go so far and do so much before we cut off our noses to spite our faces.

We work damned hard all our lives to get what little we can to spend the last quarter of our lives in retirement doing what we want instead of doing what our boss, our spouse or the kids want and it comes down to this:

If I want to spend my money in Port Huron... I will!

Merry Christmas!

When you retire, where do you want to live?

Is the house you live in your dream home? Is where you live right now where you thought you'd be at this stage in your life? Is it cool, convenient, comfy, cheap to keep or a cottage? Have you given it any though what so ever?

Maybe it's time to think about what you want for a change!

Some things to consider about your place of residence:
-Are the monthly costs within your budget?
-Is there enough space to accommodate your hobbies?
-Does it take hours and hours to clean?
-Do you enjoy doing the necessary repairs to maintain it?
-Is it a single story house?
-How many stairs to get up into it?
-Is it's location close enough to a hospital, or emergency unit?
-Is their transportation?
-How far away is the grocery, library, drug store... liquor store? (Yahoo!)
-Do they accept pets?

...more on this subject to follow... Let me know what you think?

An article about retirement I read this morning

There's a really interesting article on my Yahoo homepage this morning. The lead in line is:

Why retirement is bad for you. by Steven Berglas, Forbes.com

It is all about what happens when we spend every day in a vacuum of nothingness and it actually now has a serious sounding name.

This is taken directly from the article and I urge all to go to the Yahoo Finance page and read the whole thing.

"I call this idleness-borne syndrome Supernova Burnout. Unlike other forms of fatigue, this brand of burnout is very private and self-condemnatory. Those who suffer from it experience chronic trepidation, despondency or depression. In some cases they turn to alcohol, abandon their loved ones or fall prey to some other form of self destruction."

Wow! Doesn't that sound serious? My dear mom said many times that if you sit down, you get old quick. (She was driving her own Buick and led a vibrant life until 3 months before she died at 85.)
So start getting hobbies and interests lined up and figure out what you'll do when you do retire 'cause you didn't work all these years to have this happen, did you?

Another hobby for your retirement

You might ask: "Why on earth do you have a blog about silver replacements?" Well, everybody needs a hobby, don't they and when you retire, you need something to fill all those hours you used to spend working!

Dick and I like to sell stuff and once upon a time, we sold a few things here and there on Ebay. We loved it! We enjoyed hunting for items to sell. We enjoyed taking the pictures and doing the descriptions. And we actually liked the shipping too!
We would pack underwear and toothbrushes into a bag, throw the bag in our green half ton pickup and off we would go to search out antiques and oddities and frankly whatever people wanted to buy on Ebay that particular week. I printed a list off the internet of all the Sally Anns, Goodwills and Value Villages in Southern Ontario and we would head a direction and hunt the thrift shops on our way til dark, find a motel and check in for the night. The next morning, we would hunt and scrounge our way back home. Sometimes we would find some really cool stuff and sometimes not, but each and every trip was special and just so much fun!
We enjoyed the local auctions too and spent almost every Thursday night at Shackelton's Auction in Springfield, Ontario. We often reminisce about the things we bought there and definitely the sandwiches and homemade pie!
We would list our finds and then wait and watch to see what sold and what we would have to donate back to our local thrift shops for the next entrepreneur to discover.

We had a common goal and interest which gave us tons to talk about.
We would drive around holding hands and laugh and joke and isn't that how you'd like to spend your retirement? I do.

So, one of our blogs is about silver replacement. Some will be antique, some will be newer, some might be just cool old stuff, but we will have fun finding it, listing it and maybe actually selling it. I hope you can find a hobby you enjoy too.