BR60103

Our club's first two shows were in a hotel in downtown Toronto on the umpteenth floor. The elevator we were using on Saturday morning was the same one that room service and housekeeping used.

I've had an idea that I'd like to check out. Scale newspapers for newsstands. I'm not sure if they could be produced readable in scale. but we could have generic headlines: Phew, What a Scorcher. It's THAT MAN again! England loses again. any others?

Fresh country air!

From our village newsletter.

Marco will eat whatever we put down for him, usually. If we put out a plateful because w'll be out all day, it probably doesn't last past coffee break. Fortunately, he likes the kibble and we can give it to him as a treat. If he eats too much too fast he will regurgitate it.

I'm picking up mail and checking the house for our neighbours. They had an envelope returned "not known" addressed to their granddaughter at university. Jim told me that it was an Easter card. Uni terms end about the end of April over here. (and the Uni across the street just had move-in day this past weekend.)

My mother was from Edinburgh. When I was looking for a job, a man from an employment agency called our home. Mother talked to him, recognised the accent, and they decided that he might have played football against one of my uncles. I was told that when I heard something like that I should inquire. I probably didn't notice because he would have sounded like my mother and I didn't think she had any accent.

I'd never heard of RAAC. But the following in a BBC post: It is aerated, or "bubbly", like an Aero chocolate bar. But it is less durable and has a lifespan of around 30 years. I didn't realise what Aero's best before date was.

I wonder: when you naturally speak in one accent, how do you manage to read someone else's impression of that accent? (I think Thomas Hardy was criticised by a Scot for his rendition of Scots. He claimed that every word she spoke justified what he'd done.)

Would another alcohol work? I have Isopropyl in my workshop.

This was finally carpet scrubbing day as we got a round tuit. I spent most of the morning pushing the device back and forth and running downstairs to deal with the dirty water and filling up new clean hot water. The device is an upright and looks like a set of tanks on a vacuum cleaner -- and made by Hoover. SWMBO saw how much work this entails and this afternoon we took the device to Goodwill. At least I had all the extra bits and the instruction book. Later our newspaper deliverer called. He is looking for extra work cleaning. I received a note from the bookstore that a book I ordered is in. Actually two notes as I seem to have ordered it twice.

Wahl hair clipper oil was recommended by some to be applied to the rail surface to improve contact. I have some but I can't tell if it does any good. Are you looking for a lubricant or a contact improver? (like Electrolube)

I may be straying into politics here. There is a movement to rename one of the main streets in Toronto (and many miles beyond). It was named after a British politician. Apparently, when there was a bill to abolish slavery in Parliament, he added the word "gradually". This doesn't go down well with a number of people. His supporters claim that the word was introduced to help the bill pass. It didn't.

On Pensions: Canadian practice (regulations) is that the standard pension has a 50% survivor benefit to the spouse. This is the spouse at the time of either leaving the job or retirement while employed. I think that the amount can be recalculated for the single employee. Companies may be more generous. There are extra provisions for a 5-year or 10-year guarantee, which is regarded as making sure the retiree receives their contributions (and the company's) back even if they die sooner. They can also (in some cases) request a change to a different survivor percentage -- usually 66 or 100. I don't know of any provision for a lump sum; the idea is to provide income for life. Pensioners dieing earlier is called "mortality gain" by the actuaries and the money goes to the fund or the insurance company to pay for the longer-lived. During my career, there was a general removal of the clause that terminated pension payments if the widow remarried; the companies did not want to be seen encouraging people to live in sin. (This is based on remembering stuff from over 20 years ago.)

The government could also claim that 70% of the electorate did not vote against them.

Having worked with pensions all my career, I felt that the desire to take early retirement depended on the amount of control the employee had in the job. Executives might try to stay beyond NRA while the rank and file would look to retire when the numbers worked right.

Polly: unfortunately, the best view of the Tooth of Time is from downstream. They put in a lot of concrete reinforcing on the upstream side. The falls also seem to have been reinforced.

We had a call yesterday morning that the Michigan cousins had decided to come after all. We set out to meet them under the Bluewater Bridge, but it was raining so hard that we turned back after about 20 miles. They didn't have any trouble, but called us after arriving in Guelph when they found out that the hotel was going to be over C$220 a night. And NO FREE BREAKFAST! We persuaded them to go anyways and brought them over for an evening at our place. We took them out for breakfast this morning and then drove up to Elora to see the Tooth of Time. This is a rock formation in the middle of the falls in the Grand River as it enters the gorge. They left with plans to go to Point Pelee. There were reports on the news tonight of major flooding in that part of Ontario. A couple of neighbours came over today to return a book. (His claim to fame is having acted on stage with Bill Shatner -- about 70 years ago*). Dayle invited them in to see the trains. They seemed interested but I couldn't get the train on my layout to run. So I ran Dayle's Galloping Goose. The train started to run all by itself while I was diagnosing the problem. * No, we don't bring that up when we see him.

I don't know about insects, but I have a number of buildings that a cat has nibbled. And some plastic bits as well.

We had call from one of Dayle's cousins that she and her mother won't be coming to see us tomorrow as her mother (95) isn't feeling well. They live in Michigan, an 8 hour drive away. We were going to meet them under the international bridge for chips and then come back here for 3 days. That's actually a relief as the weather forecast for the next couple of days is very wet -- possibly the remains of Hilary. So I had my hair cut today for nothing.

For those dealing with elderly relatives, In my dad's last few years he might not remember what he'd had for lunch, or even if he'd had lunch. Buthe was ready to discuss the pros and cons of Oliver Cromwell. (I think he forgot to do it, so I still don't know what to think.)

My sister-in-law was co-executor for one of her aunts. There was a problem with some of the bequests as the charities named did not exist as named (and probably had never had those names). I don't remember how it worked out. We need to redo our wills. The estate was to de divided between my father and her mother and they're both gone now.

My father lived in his house just short of 50 years. When we cleaned it out, we found medicine for my mother from the druggist in the previous town they'd lived in. We lived in our previous house for 20 years. This is the longest I stayed anywhere, but they keep getting longer so I have hopes of being in this one to about age 90.

Big event today was having our eyes checked. No significant change; a slight alteration to the formula in case I need new glasses sometime. I asked about a big spot that I can see when the light is quite dim. This is apparently a result of my eye having been attacked by lasers about 20 years ago, roughly the same time as the detached retina in the other eye. Problems getting a good picture of the repaired eye as it's not in prime shape and my eyelid tends to droop.