Oregano has been busy!

But first (Caitlin looked it up), our oak tree still has leaves on the trees, as always. It's called Marcescence, where the oak leaves hang on until winter. Beech trees do this, as well. Neato! She is such a good scientist (M.Sc.)!

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💰And, secondly, I spent an hour on the phone, waiting for help from the government. I was supposed to get Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) in January. My pension is reduced in anticipation of this, whether I get CPP or not. I received the paperwork for it a year ago, Feb., 2021. Sending it off, we were reviewing our income to determine whether we will gain or lose. The OAS was deposited in my account, but the CPP was not. The woman I finally spoke to helped me check into it,     "Thank you for your patience," she said. 

            "Oh, that ship's sailed," I replied with a snort. I was getting more and more upset and frustrated. I ended up registering to receive it online, but it could take at least a month, I was told. Between that, and our tax woes [Canada Revenue Agency😓], it just haunts me. OK, enough venting! Thanks for listening.  

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Thirdly, I've been having fun escaping it all with Angry Birds! Popeye, the sailor man has been featured. Do you remember him? When I was a kid, I called him POP-EYE-A! I must have read comics and didn't know how to pronounce it. I feel fondness when I see his weird image!

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 😼Oregano (yes, finally!)

It was a massive fail Monday on the trailcams. I'm trying to laugh about it. It takes time to curate the videos, so these date prior to that (Jan. 6th). My new super duper camera, I finally figured out, defaults to factory settings when I take out the memory card and/or turn it off. That has been a lesson. One I keep forgetting, too! 😣 

He is a busy boy, Oregano. Not fixed (his boy bits hang low😛), he is on the move. I call him feral, he knows he shouldn't be here, but he is looking well-fed. Mind you, the coyotes survive on mice friends, I suppose he can, too. I tried to find an owner during our last snowfall in 2021. [Monday, Mar. 1st; during a storm. I tracked him the next day.] I tracked him, contacted the owner of that house, but it wasn't his!

I pieced it together, I think, since I can never get the trailcam times to be accurate. I think he began at the front, and went around to the back, hoofing it over the knee-deep snow, but I will never know! 

Oregano on the front deck:

    

This is the new camera, and the power didn't kick in in the dark. Really disappointing. This is Oregano on the driveway:

And out the back door. He leaped up onto the snow bank:

Tax his work/Tax his pay/He works for peanuts anyway!

Is this not the dumbest thing you've read? The full poem is below.

Many, many people talk about the 'good old days'. Yikes. I think not.
This poem (below) was sent to me by a man in his later years. If you Google it, you'll find many iterations. Methinks he sees the world through rose-coloured bifocals. Gotta be that American Tea Party. Perhaps it is Hudak's Conservatives, who really don't have a viable platform.

Pre-taxes we also had poverty, low wages, no health benefits, average age of death one hundred years ago was age 40 or so.

White people murdered Native Peoples; we had many who had experienced slavery, many more who were feared because their skin didn't match the ruling classes, or they'd brought with them that European class system.

Small Pox, plague, bacterial infection, non-pasteurized milk, polio, killed many. There was no such thing as antibiotics.

Only the rich were able to be educated, brothers were sent off farms unable to sustain them. Farmers paid money to keep rural roads going, had to resurface them to help the community.
Girls were 'married off'. Women didn't have the vote; many died in childbirth. Women had no choices, nor did many men. Being homosexual was not only a sin, but against the law in man places. People were persecuted for being different.

Political corruption existed. Candidates bought votes with rum.

They weren't the good old days!
I'm glad my Canadian taxes help those who cannot help themselves. I'm glad for universal healthcare, women's shelters, food banks, police, firefighters and all those who ensure that our communities take care of its people!

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table,
At which he's fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for
peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid...

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
'Taxes drove me
to my doom...'

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.    Attributed to James Jaeger, 2008

death and taxes

I was trying to wax poetic this week. After taking more than 1000 photos on a -day trip...I am overwhelmed. Then I opened a newspaper.

Lots of deaths this week:

• Michael Jackson
• Farrah Fawcett
• Romeo LeBlanc, former Governor General of Canada

Home again, though -
We still have 4 goslings and 5 ducklings, 3 happy cats, and our bear. We made it back safely from Lake Superior. What a relief to both leave and return. Crazy drivers out there and crazy tourist. They trap the bears.

Lots of taxes:
- filed my late father's estate bill today (he died in 2007). While death and taxes are both certain, death with taxes is the BIG certainty. We paid a tax to have me named beneficiary, rather than the original person who declined to be involved. For a piece of paper we paid a 5-digit amount (a percentage of the estate value, including the value of the house...)
We had to file a personal tax for dad in 2007, then file for his estate for the same year. Then, since we declared him disabled (with a brain tumour, physically and cognitively incapaciated) we got back a refund (with interest) for 2008. Then we had to pay taxes this month - on the interest of the refund interest($35). We put the balance of the estate in a non-tax bearing account in order both to NOT earn interest, and not to have to pay taxes on it. But all this had to filed finally for 2008 - for now. Long story, thank goodness for our accountant...

And our final property tax bill came, too. Almost as much as one semester's tuition. Glad the kids are through university and gainfully employed!
And despite having irregular garbage pick-up in winter, and no street plowing, we are happy to live here.

death and taxes

Two sure bets: death and taxes - except if you are special.

What is amusing is listening to the enquiry into Brian Mulroney's diddlings with Karlheinz Schreiber. Originally, Schreiber said he gave $300,000 IN CASH to this former Prime Minister in 1993 and 1994 for special favours. CITY News provides a nice Case Chronology, highlighting the details. What about this smells really awful? Don't you think that a politician has a higher standard than a citizen in this respect? Don't you think that a former Prime Minister (from 1984 - 1993) has an even higher standard?

Wikipedia says, "After retiring from politics, Mulroney resumed his earlier career as a lawyer and business consultant. He is currently testifying before the Oliphant Commission called to investigate cash bribes from Airbus and Karlheinz Schreiber."

Who would hire him?

The CBC & Fifth Estate talk about a sweet deal whereby Mulroney declares it late in a voluntary tax disclosure, "an option that the Canada Revenue Agency offers for people who have previously filed inaccurate returns and subsequently decide to correct the record".

He didn't have to pay taxes on his $225,000 until he spent it? Who knew? We've been fooled all these years. I thought all the rest of us chumps were required to disclose our meager incomes when we received them. What a shock. This is an excellent lesson for us all!

The rest of us are sweating over our recent tax returns, stuffing money into RRSPs, if we can, with papers and receipts in envelopes crammed into shoe boxes. Mulroney puts his $225,000 into the bank and lets it sit there. Do you think no one would notice?

He says he 'delayed' in paying his taxes because a letter was sent from the RCMP to the government of Switzerland in late 1995. There's a good story. He hung onto the money from 1994, and taxes are due in April. My mom died in 2006, pretty stressful; I moved, changed cities, gave her palliative care and I still had to pay taxes. Surely, that qualifies as a “cataclysmic event”? I think not. I think I missed something in my tax return that year (or the year after -when my dad died). I forgot to file some piece of paper - even had to pay interest on the small amount owed.

Schreiber, on the other hand, fearing extradition to Germany, continues to tell tall tales like Shahrazade. I hope he's paid HIS taxes! Oh, no. I see he has not: he is wanted on charges of bribery, fraud and tax evasion. What a pair. They deserve each other!

Mulroney wanted Schreiber payments kept private‎ - Former prime minister Brian Mulroney reviews a document as he is questioned ... (May 19, 2009)

~~~~~~~~~~~ Brian Mulroney tells Peter Newman to "Go **** Yourself...

alumni demands

In my 30s and 40s I went back to school for an M. Ed., and this means I am officially an alumni of 3 universities: Ryerson, OttawaU, OISE/uToronto. I am forever impressed by those in their senior years earning degrees. In the last few years I took 8/10 on-line courses for an M. A. in counselling. It kept me interested, researching, and aware. Why not keep learning? I have decided to drop the M.A. to pursue my own research - why do I need another degree?! But that is another story.

This is a fun time in my life. My 3 adult children have gone to, and finished, university. am a grandma who Skypes with her kids. They are all, thankfully, gainfully employed. The joy never ends, mind you. This is the time of year they all call the alumni and parents of same, to see if, having already contributed thousands of dollars to their coffers, you want to provide a donation to keep the lamp of learning burning. As if! I am sure they need help, but I truthfully believe that if you want a degree you should jolly well pay for it yourself! In this economic climate, with the job market the way it is, perhaps college is a better choice. (My plumber earns $65/hour!)

But I digress. On the phone, I am afraid I am curt: we're retired, broke and my own alumni associations are begging for dollars! I tell the lovely young people that, yes, my contact information is the same (you reached me by phone, didn't you?) and NO, we would not move without telling you so that you could phone me 2 -3 times a year and beg for my hard-earned pension dollars! (Severely curtailed by greedy investors who have brought the market down. Taxpayers who demand lower taxes and better services. Budgets that do not help those without means. Yes, another blog post!)

Then, in the mail, I received another offer: two a credit card offers to help support these groups. 'As if' x's 2! Two of my higher learning institutions want a percentage of my pension and spending, to help them prop up universities supported by my tax dollars. Does this make sense? They ended up in my fireplace. How is it that the credit card companies continues to bleed us dry with high interest rates for people who cannot afford nor use credit cards?