Happy birthday Monica. All the best!
----------------------------------
Our guests enjoyed the Lazy River today.
You know, I've been thinking about the Trump situation. I'll be 91 when his term is up, which is a reasonable life expectation number for me (the great uncle that I'm named after lived to 92, my mom died at 91, paternal male relatives in their 80's). So, I'll experience the "Trump Effect" for most of, or perhaps the rest of, my remaining life.
And I quickly came to the conclusion that the rest of my life is going to be really interesting! And I'm going to make the most of it. Trump be damned!
--------------------------------------------
Speaking of Trump, I'll share an email I got from my friend Wayne.
An open letter written by a Florida judge about the CANADA/USA relationships & history.
By Robert Meadows (Circuit Court Judge, Florida).
Here is one American’s take on the growing trade war with the US and Canada.
"Have you ever stopped to consider how lucky we Americans are to have the neighbors we have? Look around the globe at who some folks have been stuck sharing a border with over the past half century:
North Korea / South Korea
Greece / Turkey
Iran / Iraq
Israel / Palestine
India / Pakistan
China / Russia
"We’ve got Canada! Canada. About as inoffensive a neighbor as you could ever hope for. In spite of all our boasts of “American exceptionalism” and chants of “America first,” they just smile, do their thing and go about their business. They are on average more educated, have a higher standard of living, free health care, and almost no gun problems. They treat immigrants respectfully and already took in over 35,000 Syrians in the last two years.
"They’re with us in NATO, they fought alongside us in World War I, World War II, Korea, the Gulf War, the Bosnian War, Afghanistan, the Kosovo War and came to our defense after 9/11. There was that one time when Canada took a pass on one of our wars: Vietnam. Turned out to be a good call.
"They’ve been steady consumers of American imports, reliable exporters of metals and petroleum products (they are the biggest importer of U.S. products from 37 states), and partnered with NASA in our space missions.
"During 9/11 many aircraft were diverted to Newfoundland, an island province off Canada's east coast where Americans were housed in people's homes for two weeks and treated like royalty. In return for their hospitality, this administration slapped a 20% tariff on the products of Newfoundland's only paper mill, thereby threatening it's survival.
"And what do Canadians expect of us in return? To be respected for who and what they are: Canadians. That’s what I call a good neighbor.
"But the King of Chaos couldn’t leave well enough alone. Based on his delusions of perpetual victimhood, out of the clear blue, he’s declared economic war on Canada. On CANADA! And he did it based on Canada being a national security risk to the US! For no good reason, other than the voices in his head that told him it was a war he could win. So why not do it, then?
"Again, we’re talking about Canada. Our closest ally, friend and neighbor.
"On behalf of an embarrassed nation, people of Canada, I apologize for this idiotic and wholly unnecessary attack. Please leave the back channels open. We the People of progressive persuasion stand with you."
--------------------------------
Back to the fun stuff. We welcomed Pat and Carol to our Florida home this afternoon and started our adventure at Miller's for dinner.
Stay well.
Yesterday we played nine holes of golf at Crane's Bend in windy conditions (that's my excuse). Then we played cards while waiting for a thunderstorm that had been forecast, but didn't quite materialize.
But the conditions here didn't seem so bad when Maureen shared a picture of the nasty wave conditions and snow and ice at their place.
So far I've tried to straighten out two of them. I don't think that I changed their minds - both of them couldn't understand why we wouldn't leap at the chance to be a part of the U.S. They do tend to be smug don't they? Of course we're somewhat self righteous too.
In any event, I just have 77,303,566 Trump voters left to talk to.
------------------------------------
In an email conversation with John Buckley yesterday I suggested that we may have to consider stepping away from NATO and the Commonwealth when this is over, because I sincerely doubt that any of those countries would live up to their commitment to come to our aid when we are under threat. We've sent billions of dollars and sacrificed thousands of our troops for Europe's benefit. It's been a one way street for over a hundred years. It's time to protect ourselves!
And, if we are totally honest, that thought process is probably what is driving Trump currently regarding the Ukraine peace he is pursuing. How many of the U.S.'s trillions of dollars of debt has gone toward fighting Europe's and the Middle East's wars for them?
------------------------------------
Now for some more positive news.
Our walk today took us to the North Village. Along the way I was struck by the beauty of this place......
It leads you to this conclusion.
Today was a pool day. Nothing exciting. Just two old folks having a good day.
----------------------------------------
Generally, we avoid conversations regarding Trump or the 51st state topic. But, when our U.S. friends start the conversation I do participate - a couple of times so far.
Yesterday it was with a fellow from Illinois. We talked about winter weather and I pointed out that his area probably had harsher weather than we do in Canada's wine country.
Then he said that the U.S. has better health care (do you suppose he's a Republican?). I responded that the American wealthy have better health care, but in Canada we all have decent health care. That's why we live, on average, four years longer than they do.
Surprisingly, both countries spend about the same amount per capita on health care. But a good portion of their spending stays with the insurance companies and with the bloated U.S. drug and health care system.
That's about where he seemed to lose interest in the conversation.
If it had continued, I would have pointed out that during Covid that age expectancy number widened to five years because President Trump didn't take it seriously and Americans were more complacent. The U.S. has about ten times the population of Canada. If you take the Canadian Covid death count and multiply it by ten you are still short more than a million people of their death toll.
The Republicans are castigating Dr. Fauci, but if they had listened to him those million people didn't have to die.
Second topic: The U.S. has regular mass school shootings (defined as four or more people - only the big ones make the news). That alone is enough reason to avoid becoming the 51st state!
Third topic: President Trump talks about their trade deficit with Canada, but he doesn't mention the billions of dollars that we spend on our visits to his country.
If they don't want the money that Mardi and I spend down here we can certainly go elsewhere. Mexico, Portugal, the Mediterranean coast, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand all have warm weather during our winters. Florida is convenient, but we do have other options.
If that happened, we would still book our timeshare at Orange Lake, but rent it out, probably to Americans, and pocket a decent profit that would come back to Canada and help finance our trip elsewhere.
Take a deep breath. End of sermon.
---------------------------------------
Stay well my friends.
I didn't post last night because it would have come across as a lot of whining.
We hadn't played Willowbrook Golf Course for a few years because it was in such a state of disrepair. But we had a voucher for a car wash near the course so decided to give it another try. Big mistake!
The only grass that gets cut is on the greens and tees (but not all tees). And there are large areas without grass.
Add in 33C temperatures and high humidity and it was a tough day.
Even Chip had problems with the grass.
Normally, we would see lots of alligators at Willowbrook, but a housing development being created over what was a swamp next to the course seems to have eliminated them.
Altogether we were totally spent by the time the game was over.
Willowbrook is a municipal golf course which probably explains the lack of money spent to keep it in good shape. But conversely, the golf club employees are all friendly and wanting to help - a totally diffeent experience from the more arrogant, uncaring folks who work at Hamilton's municipal courses.
Turns out that the car wash was the highlight of the day!
-------------------------------------------
But, today was much better. A bit cooler, and colourful......
.jpg)
Today was a pool day, and I decided to check out the giant slide while I was there.
So, I decided to try it out.
Yesterday we headed to Port Richey (actually to Bayonet Point) for a game of golf at Beacon Woods Golf Club.
Unfortunately, Ed's talking golf bag, Bogey Boy, tagged along......
Bogey Boy will feel the pain as our vacation progresses. Mark my words - I don't think we've heard the last of him!
Afterward, we all headed to the Overtime Bar, where a game of musical bingo was taking up the attention of our friends.
After dinner it was back to their place where a game of Skip-Bo was the highlight. Ron and I are not talking about that, nor about the golf game. Sore losers? Perhaps.
But, we did have a good time with Jill and Ron, and the boys will get even, some day.
----------------------------------------------
Back to the vacation grind tomorrow.
Stay well.
