A family affair

The winner was 14 years old.  She did the 2K Lake Windermere Open Water Swim in 28 minutes.  Seriously.  I took more than twice as long, but then I am 54 years older than she.  Let's see how she does when she's in my age category.  By the way, I was the oldest (including all but one of the men), but I did it and felt great! 

Two K is a long way.  Try measuring it in your car and you'll see that it is quite the haul if you're in the water.  But as usual, the weather was perfect and the competitors in fine fettle.  Most were in wet suits, but I am not going to fork out $300 for one swim a year.  Growing up in the ice cold lakes of Ontario and Quebec, Windermere is not much of a hardship.  Last year, the organizer and I were the only ones using a "swim buddy" (google it if you don't know what that is), but this year a bunch of swimmers wore one -- probably because a young man drowned during a triathlon in that lake less than a month ago, giving everyone a touch of the jitters.

Husband B was asked again this year to blow the horn for the mass start, but for me, the big thrill was that daughter, son-in-law and grands were on the beach to see me off and cheer me when I landed.  Given that both are Uber athletes in the "iron man" category, I was delighted they delayed their departure from Invermere to support me.  At one, Hilary has no clue and at three Reed was simply bored waiting, but they were there. 

One thing that annoyed me in Invermere was a restaurant we visited for dinner last evening.  Empty, its maitre'd asked if we had a reservation.  Duh, no.  It's a tourist town -- who knows the name or phone number of anything?!  "I'm sorry, we're full," was his reply.  Don't ya just hate that BS?!  But it is an absolutely beautiful town with flowers on every corner, in every window box and on every lamp standard. 

 

One example of what adorns every corner of every street in the town.





The beach on Lake Windermere where we start the swim.  The 1K buoy isn't even visible, and then you have to turn around and start back!



 



   

No surprise there

Guess which country boasts the largest underground economy in the world?  Greece.  They cheat themselves to the tune of a whopping 22.4% of their GDP.  And guess what this criminal behaviour results in?  A failed country with ever-increasing taxes necessitated by the fact that no one pays their fair share! 

No wonder the Germans -- and everyone else -- don't want to support that stupid place.  But not to be outdone in this fiscal race to the bottom, next in line is Italy at 20.1%, with Spain following closely behind at 18.2%.  These are three of the most disastrous countries in the world and it's no surprise.  Skipping out on the tax man is a cultural badge of honour for the citizens of these dumps -- something which they proudly practice wherever they venture.  I certainly know CRA was well aware of these deadbeats when I worked there, although it couldn't say so publically. 

Here are a few other notables:

Portugal -- 17.6%
Belgium -- 16.2 (that surprised me)
Norway --  13
Finland --   12
France --    12.3

Canada stands at 10.3%, which is shameful, but the US -- which everyone condemns as money-grubbing -- has the smallest underground economy of any OECD country.  A paltry 5.9%.  Good on them!

In my own anecdotal experience, three of the most enthusiastic demanders of cash we hired as tradesmen in Ottawa were Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.  In fact, CRA actually put two of them in jail.  Just sayin.....

I am always on about the evils of the underground economy and the reason is very simple.  The larger the underground economy, the higher the taxes have to be to ensure a functioning society.  Harper is right to lower taxes because lower taxes discourage illegal cash business.  And he's right about the new NDP Alberta premier.  She will be a disaster.

So woe to anyone who votes for that other NDPer Mulcair.  He has absolutely no idea about how a national economy must function.  Not a clue. 

Three weeks

That's how long I was without a computer.  Hence, no blogs.  DON'T EVER USE THE GEEK SQUAD, is all I can say.  They didn't even start trying to find out what was wrong until a week after I had lugged and schlepped it in!  "Well, it's the hard drive, it's fried," they finally told me.  "I knew that," I practically screamed into the effing phone! 

Where to begin?  So much has happened, but I forget most of it.  A few thoughts do hit me, however.  The first is that the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Perry Bellgarde, wants Canada to declare all 600-ish native dialects "official languages" because "they are dying out".    Now, wouldn't that work well!  We have enough trouble with two.  What Bellegarde fails to mention are the millions Canada spends on preserving such languages through grants, schools and other educational means -- probably spoken by about 200 people in the country.  And by the way, why would Canada declare these languages "official" when natives do not identify as "Canadian" in the first place? 

It's ludicrous.

In reality, Bellegarde is a paid lobbyist funded by....you guessed it.....all Canadians.  His latest move is to slap the gift horse in the mouth by telling natives not to vote for Harper.  Makes me crazy.

After buying a new car, a Honda HRV, we went to a local pub for dinner to toast our brilliance.  Two young men sitting at a table next to us proceeded to bless themselves and pray before tucking into their food.  I nearly fell off my chair!  "I'm going to go and speak to them," I said to B.  "I have to say, I was very impressed to see you say grace before eating," I told them.  "Well, we have to grow the Kingdom," said one of them with a huge smile.  Chatting, I learned he was a dentist with five kids and his recently-laid-off friend had been a computer guy in a large oil company (lots of recently laid offs here).  We shared our faith and stories and it was such a treat to see a couple of western boys observing their beliefs.  "He's my brother in Christ," said the dentist.  You never know out here. 

"What's that?" I asked B, as a gorgeous convertible sped by us on Stoney Trail.  "It's a Cadillac."  I was driving and decided to follow it and speak to the owner.  We ended up outside his front door and I jumped out.  "What a beautiful car," I said to a 40-something guy.  He was only too tickled to show off his beautiful wheels.  A 2004 model, this beauty had retailed at $90,000 new, however he had managed to pick it up for $35,000 a few months ago when he spotted it at a dealership.  It was in mint condition.  "What a chick magnet," I said as I drooled over it.  "Not sure," he replied laughing.  "I'm not married."  Here it is:

Some cars are just beautiful. 





      

   

Really?!

Here I was, watching the Tour de France on TV.  What I was watching were a bunch of bums on bikes from behind.  Who effing cares?!  I had gone to a local restaurant to meet a friend for dinner, because B is away visiting his kids and grandkids in the Gatineau Hills, and that was what was on the big TV. 

Why didn't I go?  I went last year, but sadly my stepdaughter has morphed into her biological mother and my son-in-law doesn't like me.  As Carol Matthau said about her own kids, "I don't like people who don't like me."

Me neither.

So, I am on my own and not inclined to cook.  Enjoying meeting pool friends for a bite.  An observer of humanity, I was fascinated by a middle-aged woman two seats down who was tattooed to death.  What was she doing by herself in a bar?  Several men were also at the bar and paid her no attention.  It was sad.     

 

Between cruises....

...they fit in Seniors' Day at Stampede.  It kills me.  These are people with oodles of money, but go to Stampede on Seniors' Day for free.  "Geez," I said, "We must have more money than all the poor working and laid-off stiffs who have to pay full pop," I said sarcastically. 

D and C just laughed.  "We always cheat," D added.  See, this is actually the Wild, Wild West.  People think the rules are for someone else.  But having been born and raised in regulation-ridden Upper Canada, I haven't yet adjusted because I still think rules matter.

Ah well, D and C will continue on their merry three-cruises-a-year way of life and still grab freebies whenever they can.   

Annoying assumptions

I swim with some amazing women.  All excellent swimmers, they also sport some pretty neat bathing suits -- mostly lap suits, but some slightly off-the-wall.  "Where did you get that suit?" I asked one fellow swimmer, who was wearing something a little different.  "Sport Check," she told me.

Sick of all my bathing suits, I went.  "Do you work here?" I asked one young woman attempting to avoid me (thought I was in Canadian Tire!)  Told her I was looking for a bathing suit, as we headed toward them.  "These are for competitive swimmers," she sneered, "for racing."  It's OK, I told her, I swim seriously. 

But here's the deal.  She was about 12 -- OK, maybe 20 -- with an ass on her the size of next week and here she was looking down her nose at me about what suit I should buy because she simply assumed I was some kind of middle-aged aquafitter!  "I used to swim competitively," she added, hoping to give herself credibility.  Didn't work. 

Obviously, she has lost the directions to the Crowfoot Y around the corner.  I mean, if her ass is that big at her age, what shape will it be in at mine?!  Hey kid, get back in the pool. 

Ultimately, she annoyed me so much I didn't buy a suit there.  But I got a new one elsewhere, plain black, which I will wear on my third Lake Windermere open-water swim in August.  Yikes!  Only a month away!! 
__________________________________________

The Calgary Stampede is in full swing!  Watching it on TV over many years from Ottawa, I never dreamt in a million years I would be living here.  But here we are and I have to confess, I have been to Stampede only once because the parking and crowds deter me.  However, I wear a cowboy hat and boots everywhere I go during Stampede, so that counts.  Lots of folks are into it, but lots aren't and that's too bad.

True to Calgary weather, we had hail this afternoon.  My poor flowers!  I rushed out with an old sheet to cover them.  Living in a mountain basin has its drawbacks.                

What a great country!

For the second time in as many days, I actually cheer Globe and Mail columnist Jeffery Simpson's thoughts on our great country.  "No country has handled continuing mass immigration with as little social and political disruption as Canada," he writes.  "There are no backlash parties here -- no National Front, no UKIP, no anti-immigrant parties, no battles about immigration as in the United States. 

"Canada accepts more legal immigrants per capita than any other country," Simpson states.  He goes on to say that we are an experiment, where people of different backgrounds and languages can live together in harmony -- not perfect harmony, but remarkable harmony nonetheless.  He's right.  But one ethnic group that's not buying in is the aboriginal community.  Why?  Because they don't identify as "Canadian" (my words, not Simpson's). 

"Scarcely a week goes by without some non-aboriginal leader apologizing for past practices toward aboriginals.  What good all these apologies will do remains to be seen," he says.  In my view, apologies are not going to accomplish anything, save more digging on the part of aboriginal leaders. 

"One secret of pluralism's Canadian success is that no group that has arrived here during the past century or more has demanded, and received, special treatment.  So that whereas we place multiculturalism on the high altar of national symbolism (and allow people to self-identify, as individuals and collectivities, as being from there or there), within a remarkably short period of time, by world standards, people integrate."

This is why people who integrate cannot understand why first peoples claim special privileges, based solely on longevity of occupation.  It just doesn't make sense to integrated Canadians?  The reality is that it is the French- and English-speaking citizens who are by far the largest two groups -- the founding peoples of Canada.  And yet, any differences between the two have not been enough to split Canada.  Two referenda, constitutional battles, political fights, linguistic psychodrama, demands and backlashes have not managed to break this wonderful country up.  And they never will.

"Canada has flourished by any reasonable measure, offering its people an enviable standard of living, social peace, respect for law, robust public institutions and a sense of civility for which we should be grateful and that we must never take for granted."

It's a beauty way to go, say true-blue Canadians Bob and Doug McKenzie.  Amen.