02 May 2010
Three Years
02/05/10 06:05
So I took a break for a few minutes to write this weeks note. I was painting the dining room so when the windows get installed tomorrow we'll be ready to move all the furniture back in. I swear our house must have bad breath or something. The windows arrived and then weren't right so they didn't install them, then 2 (TWO!) different vendors who were coming in to give us quotes stood us up. In reality I just chalk it up to the laid back attitude on the island. No real damage. I work at home anyway so it wasn't like I set aside time for them. I just kept working at my desk.
I took a break in all the painting and furniture moving in order to make some special notes. April 30 marked our third anniversary of our arrival in Canada. It seems amazing that it's been this long. Three years since we were fighting Minnesota Winters, U of MN politics, and Legislative stupidity. On the other hand we moved, have had several jobs, bought a house, done significant remodelling to it, sold the Mini, sold one of the computers, gone on a trip to China and Japan for an eclipse, done a couple of trips back to Minnesota, and more. It seems amazing that we got all this done in only three years.
Three years is significant for another reason. When we "landed" and got our Canadian Permanent Residence Cards in July of 2006 it started a clock. We then had to reside in Canada for at least three of the next five years. If we didn't we'd have to forfeit our status. Well, we've passed that requirement with over a year to spare. We're here to stay and that is very good news because we've come to love this place. The laid back people. The quiet, comparatively bug free summers. The winters with little snow and the sun every third or fourth day. It's been so different from living in the US. What's the biggest scandal in Canadian politics? Whether the government did ENOUGH to take care of detainees in Afghanistan. That's it. In the provence the big story is the Canucks beating the Blackhawks (hockey of course) and how scuba divers in Skaha Lake found a car that crashed in 1972 and solved a cold case disappearance. No foul play, just a car accident.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/04/30/bc-skaha-lake-body-car-betty-thomas.html?ref=rss
Canada is like a very large small town. We hear news of fender bender accidents in Saskatchewan, of new stores opening in Quebec, of companies laying off and hiring people in Labrador. We're all Canadian, above any Provincial loyalty (except of course for Quebec.) It's a very close country, despite being so huge. Tom Brokaw did a very nice piece on Canada for the Olympics.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80923599/
Canadians are rightly proud of their heritage and who they are in the world. A few years ago there was an ad on that summed it up called I Am Canadian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg&feature=related
It was wildly popular in Canada and the text can now be found on T-Shirts, posters, and a couple of Provinces put it in their official record. I seem to remember some talk about making it the Canadian Pledge ofAllegiance, but that was considered a bit immodest so cooler heads prevailed.
And what does the next three years hold for us? Well now that the big Japan trip is out of the way we plan on exploring Canada. First we'll start with British Columbia.
From the Mt Edziza, glacio-volcano up in the North.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/mt_edziza/
to the Okanagen Wine region in the South.
http://www.thewinefestivals.com/
From the old english charm of Victoria.
http://www.tourismvictoria.com/
to the modern metropolitan bustle of Vancouver
http://www.tourismvancouver.com/visitors/
to the 500 million year old fossil creatures in the Burgess Shale
http://www.burgess-shale.bc.ca/discover-burgess-shale/introduction
we have a lot of exploring to do.
There is a piece of music that we heard a couple of months ago. It's called The Great Escape. It's kinda' our theme song now. We did escape. As I've been saying for a couple of years: We earn half of what we did in Minnesota and do it with one hundredth the stress. We laugh more, enjoy more sunsets, walk on the beach more, and eat better. All in all we call that a fair deal.
Marsh and Doug
I took a break in all the painting and furniture moving in order to make some special notes. April 30 marked our third anniversary of our arrival in Canada. It seems amazing that it's been this long. Three years since we were fighting Minnesota Winters, U of MN politics, and Legislative stupidity. On the other hand we moved, have had several jobs, bought a house, done significant remodelling to it, sold the Mini, sold one of the computers, gone on a trip to China and Japan for an eclipse, done a couple of trips back to Minnesota, and more. It seems amazing that we got all this done in only three years.
Three years is significant for another reason. When we "landed" and got our Canadian Permanent Residence Cards in July of 2006 it started a clock. We then had to reside in Canada for at least three of the next five years. If we didn't we'd have to forfeit our status. Well, we've passed that requirement with over a year to spare. We're here to stay and that is very good news because we've come to love this place. The laid back people. The quiet, comparatively bug free summers. The winters with little snow and the sun every third or fourth day. It's been so different from living in the US. What's the biggest scandal in Canadian politics? Whether the government did ENOUGH to take care of detainees in Afghanistan. That's it. In the provence the big story is the Canucks beating the Blackhawks (hockey of course) and how scuba divers in Skaha Lake found a car that crashed in 1972 and solved a cold case disappearance. No foul play, just a car accident.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/04/30/bc-skaha-lake-body-car-betty-thomas.html?ref=rss
Canada is like a very large small town. We hear news of fender bender accidents in Saskatchewan, of new stores opening in Quebec, of companies laying off and hiring people in Labrador. We're all Canadian, above any Provincial loyalty (except of course for Quebec.) It's a very close country, despite being so huge. Tom Brokaw did a very nice piece on Canada for the Olympics.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80923599/
Canadians are rightly proud of their heritage and who they are in the world. A few years ago there was an ad on that summed it up called I Am Canadian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg&feature=related
It was wildly popular in Canada and the text can now be found on T-Shirts, posters, and a couple of Provinces put it in their official record. I seem to remember some talk about making it the Canadian Pledge ofAllegiance, but that was considered a bit immodest so cooler heads prevailed.
And what does the next three years hold for us? Well now that the big Japan trip is out of the way we plan on exploring Canada. First we'll start with British Columbia.
From the Mt Edziza, glacio-volcano up in the North.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/mt_edziza/
to the Okanagen Wine region in the South.
http://www.thewinefestivals.com/
From the old english charm of Victoria.
http://www.tourismvictoria.com/
to the modern metropolitan bustle of Vancouver
http://www.tourismvancouver.com/visitors/
to the 500 million year old fossil creatures in the Burgess Shale
http://www.burgess-shale.bc.ca/discover-burgess-shale/introduction
we have a lot of exploring to do.
There is a piece of music that we heard a couple of months ago. It's called The Great Escape. It's kinda' our theme song now. We did escape. As I've been saying for a couple of years: We earn half of what we did in Minnesota and do it with one hundredth the stress. We laugh more, enjoy more sunsets, walk on the beach more, and eat better. All in all we call that a fair deal.
Marsh and Doug