Discouraged ...

Sad to see when so many people are having a rough time. The latest news (January 23) from Statistics Canada shows the number of people in debt and the money they owe is now beyond the amount of cash savings people have. And yes it is also true that the wealthiest Canadians have seen their incomes rise while the lowest-income Canadians have seen their household incomes drained by the cost of living. I am not sure where I am. I am not poor and I don't have any debt. But I am not wealthy. I am also at an age where my income-earning days are numbered. I have a few monthly bills I can handle, but I don't like to see so much poverty. This past Christmas I think I donated more to local charities that ever before. Not that I am that generous, it's just that more people, more organizations had their hands out asking for help. There was a time that loonies, twoonies and $5 bills went into the charity jar. Now it's all $10 and $20 bills. I don't know what the solutions are, but I am thinking that big business and the corporations need to be a bit more generous to their workers.

Getting up to speed again

So I found a bit of time today to write about new things. What am I saying? I always have time, I guess I just get lazy. I am a happy guy for many reasons. The company gave us a very nice Christmas bonus this year ... $500 in gift cards!! That is crazy. Crazy nice and Crazy welcome. I signed in to the company website to look at what gift cards to choose from. I figured for sure I will get one of the LCBO cards. But I didn't. One of the first cards I saw was a gift card from The Bay, also known as the Hudson Bay Company. That sealed it. I chose gift cards from The Bay, went online and purchased a genuine six-point Hudson Bay blanket. It arrived today. I love it. I have purchased one of these before as a gift, but now I have my own. It came in a special garment bag complete with a sewn-in seal of quality. I am pleased.

Also Christmas-related was a gift calender I received for Christmas. I love stuff like this. It's on my desk and yes I check it every day because it has all sorts of interesting stuff to learn. Christmas was another very nice gathering at Jenn and Scott's place.

I woke up at 7 a.m. and sat in the living room enjoying coffee and Bailey's before anyone else was up. It was nice and dark and quiet and I was pleased to reflect on how good life is. Around 8 a.m. the rest of the gang was up and it was time to share gifts, more coffee and Christmas cocktails. Some people like champagne and orange juice. I like whisky and egg nog. I think the best part of Christmas is seeing children being overwhelmed with everything. Young Ace seemed to get a kick out of having so many gifts. His parents -- Dara and Nathan -- were barely able to keep up with his excitement.

Christmas Day was perfect. The food was outstanding of course, but it was nice to head out to the garage to relax and play some games. Scott even managed to get a bonfire going out in the back, despite the drizzle. By the way, we had a green Christmas this year in Sudbury. Thanks to technology and cellphones, we were able to have a live face to face chat with Don and Denise in Florida. We missed seeing them at Christmas dinner, but it was so nice to have that chat. Jennifer and I did the same thing in a phone call with Neil on Christmas Day. It was so nice to connect with him as he and some friends did a Christmas dinner at the pub. I stayed over for Christmas night and took a leisurely drive home on Boxing Day. I mentioned to Jennifer that I sure don't miss those days when I had to drive the 300 kilometre trip from Timmins. Oh yeah, my car is still in the shop. They're working to fix an electrical problem but the good news is that this is covered by warrantly and they gave me and new 2023 Jeep as a loaner vehicle. Life is good or what eh? Finally I am trying to figure out what is going on with Blogspot, the company that sponsore my blog. Apparently Google has sold this to a company in India, yet they are still publishing. Hope to have more information soon.